New to forum, looking for a Jimny buyers guide?

Hi all, looking for a Jimny auto for the better half but after a buyers guide before I go to view one I've seen. Is there one tucked away on here anywhere? (guide not car :huh: )

Cheers Spud.

Welcome to the forum.. Yeah there's a thread on buying a jimny and what to look out for... Try the search tab someone was asking recently about what to look for good luck and I vet you will be driving it more than the other half

Hi Spud
You have arrived at the right place full of Jimny enthusiasts- some of the reviews in the press aren't worth the paper they are printed on and you have to wonder if they have tried the car in all conditions.
Find a decent car drive it then make your own mind up!

On the home page there use to be a write up, in the information tab called frequently asked questions. But for some reason when I click on it the link does not work.

But the main things on Jimny to look for is rust (Mainly around the body mounts, in the boot where jack is, and around the headlights) if it is clear of rust I would buy it and spray some sort of rust protector in those areas (thats if you are in the UK where they salt the roads, most other places Jimnys wont develop a hell of alot of rust),
and that there is no 'wobble' in the steering when driving around.
Other than that its like most cars, service history, gear changes are smooth, etc

Take one for a spin and no doubt you will love it, Good luck!

Yeah there does seem to be conflicting opinions about them, especially in press reviews. The prices in reality don't seem to match the cheaper guide prices either. (especially as they appear to be more expensive).
Shame they suffer from rust, it's almost back to the eighties with that issue. I'll keep looking unless something else crops up in the meantime.
Cheers Spud.

i'm one my second jimny. had a 2005 1.5ddis for 3 years that met an untimely demise, and now i've had a 2000 m13a for 4 months now and none of them had a rust issues...well, aside from those tiny tiny spots on the welds on those 2 vertical bists of metal on front of the radiator. but i'm from portugal and it doesnt snow where i live. i do live near the sea, and between the salty breeze and the ocasional wave in the road, it hasn't been an issue.

apart from that, i would advise loking inside the front wheel wells...the jimny is not a very fixable car in case of a crash, with the front arches being the most easily mendable part of the car i think. just check if everything's straight there.
look at the suspension arms mounts on the chassis..they are vulnerable to damage, if they're damaged the car has done some offroad and damaging them can sometimes lead to a rust problem on the mount.

check if the gears work nicely and if everything is ok with the transfer box.

try to give it a good warm up. jimnys don´t usually have overheating problems, but having the car as hot as possible is one way to check if the crank or camshaft position sensor is ok. it's an easy and cheap fix, like 50 quid or so, but if the engine custs out at high-ish revs when hot, or if it runs irregularly, you can act scared and probably drive the price down.

drive it up to 60mph and see if there is some steering wobble...if so, have a look at the ball joints (i dont know it that's the term in english...the think that looks like a big sphere behind the disc brakes) and see if they are oily ner the hub. is so, the seal has failed and the wooble is most likely due to a bad kingpin bearing. if they're fine then the wobble is probably the tires fault (if they're old or if the the wheels are not well balanced.)

during braking try to see if there is a vibration on the brake pedal, or a variation in the braking effect. stock discs are kinda crappy, they are prone to warp, and that can also cause steering wobble.

see if the check engine light is on. might be a cam or crank position sensor, or a lamba or even one of the catalictic converters (they might be a bit expensive, like 300 upwards depending if they try to force you to buy the manifold).

this things however dont happen very often and are fairly cheap to fix.also, the car has a lot of space under the skin, so labor costs wont go thru the roof.

apart from that, engine wise i would say the m13a non vvti is the most economic and reliable of the 3 engines. the g13b still has a timming belt that needs to be replaced and spends a bit more fuel, the m13a uses a timming chain that does not, and i have seen some reports of problems with the vvti part, so i think the non vvti is the most reliable and economic.

i bought my current jimny...was the first and only one i went to try before buying..was 15 years old, had near 60k miles on it and very low maintenance, the diffs and boxes oils hadn´t been changed in years, the spark plugs and cables as well, the gearbox cable was done for and the gears where very hard to engage, but it still ran sweet as a nut.
had a serious case of the death wobble...lucky for me it was just the tires, they where very old and dry.
put a new set of tires on it, changed every fluid, spark plugs and cables, sorted out the clutch cable and it's perfect. it's my daily driver, i beat on it every day and i've had no issues with it whatsoever