General Buying advice please

[P1NKY]

I am a long term fan of 4X4 Panda's and have some practical experience (regularly) fixing my brother in law's Panda 1000, but I could do with some tips from you about what to look for when buying a Mk2 4X4 specifically.

Any guidance is much appreciated.

 

[Dragon Man]

its simple things really.. typical "old car" problems like rust and just making sure all things work.

common rust places to check are the sills, bottom boot lip and wheel arches. if you decide to wait around for a completely rust free panda, you may have to wait some time or be willing to pay big bucks.
best thing to do is have a look at some pictures from a 4x4 restoration thread. (like my "Fallout" panda photo album)

common faults with things with the 4x4 panda i have found are:
corroded brake lines
electronics not working right. mostly down to simple earthing faults
CV boots perished so all the gearbox oil has leaked out
the central prop shaft can come loose from the mounts and CV boots be perished
shock absorbers leaking
damaged rear leaf springs (sometimes missing half of one of the 3 leafs)
door locks can fail if they are old

if the car has been standing for a long time, be sure to give the brakes a really good looking at. both of my 4x4s had to have a lot of the brake components replaced.

engine-wise they are pretty bomb proof
be sure to check for signs of head gasket failure also the condition of the cam belt. not that it is a hard job to replace yourself. these engines also suffer no damage when the cam belt snaps which is very nice.
you can sometimes get rough idle but that is often down to the vacuum servo on the distributor failed causing an air leak and incorrect ignition timing.
(no matter how bad the electrics seem to be with earthing issues, the engine always seems to run - maybe thats just me though)

oh.. a crunch when shifting to 3rd gear is not uncommon. mine does it as it does with other forum members panda 4x4s.

i think i covered just about everything.. if i remember anything else i will reply back with it.

hope this helps!

 

[P1NKY]

Thanks Dragon Man I really appreciate the advice.

I've read the whole of your own Post and found it so useful

 

[Palio]

Yes as John said above.

Rust really - anywhere & everywhere. Rust is expensive to fix and is usually what kills them.

Don't worry too much about the mechanicals - they are pretty bullet proof & some have done 300k miles! Crunching into 3rd is quite common, and maybe into 4th - mine has crunched in 3rd since I got it (can usually avoid it by being careful changing gear) but has got no worse (it's at 130k miles), and sometimes into 4th.

Brakes etc are easy to fix. All the points above are valid, but really it's RUST......

 

[Dragon Man]

oh balls.. or should i say ball joints!

there's two in particular, one under each front wheel hub.
if the little rubber dust cover boot thingy gets holes in, all the grease can come out and water + road salt can get in and eat it away all year.

they are a pain to replace, you need to strip the whole front hub down, a vice and multiple sockets of different sizes to do it.. but thankfully you can buy complete hub carriers with the ball joint already in.

i have had to replace all of the ones on my 2 pandas. as well as on a few forum members cars.

if you take a panda on a test drive and hear knocking this can be one of the causes.
a loose or incorrect hanging exhaust can be another cause,
and suspension bushes can be another.

this should be labelled the common panda faults thread!

:idea: in fact i may pinch some of this content and stick it in the panda classic FAQs section :idea: :slayer:

 

[panda1408]

As Gavin says, it's all about rust, the main bits being the back end of the sills, boot floor, front inner arches aswell as everywhere else! The sills usually get patched up for an MOT, but they can hide pretty horiffic rot whilst not looking too bad. Access is tricky and the only way to sort them properly is to remove the outer sill/lower quarter panel which ofcourse makes it a big job.

Mechincal bits are mostly easy and inexpensive to sort, especially when doing the work yourself, a gearbox rebuild might cost a bit, but they don't tend to fail completely, just the syncromesh issues John mentioned. Some 4x4 specific bits can be trickier to find and some are impossible to get hold of, fuel tanks and filler pipes spring to mind.

 

[pandamaniac]

Cor, I must be lucky then.
I have an as new 4x4 tank and a spare fuel filler pipe.
Only ruddy problem is as has been said in the other posts, I HAVE A RUSTY 4 x 4.
Mechanically sound as gearbox rebuilt, but rust in usual places.
Dave

 

[Liquid Knight]

From my personal experience look out for old bodges. Especially silicone'd bodywork, silicone head gaskets, silicone'd in bolts, silicone'd on wheels and silicone.

 

[Liquid Knight]

Oh and head bolts held in with body filler.


If anyone has very rusty 4x4 let me know, I still want to make a Moke.

 

[P1NKY]

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful.

I'm off now to see it, so I'll check all of those points and update you later.