Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi Guys - this is my first post!

I bought my wife a 2000 Pajero 3.2 DiD GLS a couple of months ago and it has 172 000 kilometers on the clock.

Lately I found that it is loosing water - about 500ml - 1 liter a week. This past weekend we took the Pajero on its first long trip from Kempton to Kiara Lodge near Golden Gate (+/- 280km). Before we left I added about 2l of anti-freeze - it did not have any in - to see if I can find the leak. No water dripping under the Pajero. When we got to Kiara lodge I checked the water level and it needed about a liter so I added another liter of anti-freeze. Back at home it needed another liter of water. Checked for signs of a leak but could not find any!

Yesterday on the way home from work the wife phoned and told me that Pajero is making big clouds of white smoke!
The temperature spiked to 3/4 of the temp gauge and then went down to below the normal position. When I got home I check the water and it needed another liter. I then asked her which side the white smoke was and she said that it was on the righthand side - nothing is the lefthand mirror. So as the exhaust is on the lefthand side, I decided that it could not have been something from the inside of the engine. I then asked her if it was smoke or steam and she mentioned that it could be steam as her first impression was that the car behind her was cooking.

I searched the engine again for signs of a leak but could not find any. Took it for a test drive and found nothing wrong with the power.

Now I need some help!!!!

Is it possible that under a certain pressure the water leakes out somewhere till the pressure drops and if so where do I look for this place or do somebody have an idea what the problem can be?

Thanks
Kobus

It could be a welsch plug blowing onto the exhaust.

Let the car idle ( rev it a bit or it will take ages to heat up - if at all ) and let it get up to operating temp, crawl and look around for some steam coming out while your wife revs it a bit.

Something is wrong!

Take it to a good workshop for a check-up.

Stop it before it stops itself.
Problems like that do not go away by themselves.

Have confirmed that the smoke does come from the exhaust - funny this smoke thing stared after I filled up with Sasol low sulpher diesel!

Will take it to Mitsubishi East Rand on Monday.

Prepare yourself for a head gasket replacement.

Low sulphur fuel will not have any adverse effects on your engine whatsoever.

It may sound like a stupid question but where did you check and fill the coolant? In the overflow bottle or in the radiator itself via the rad cap?

Filling the bottle does not guarantee that the radiator is full - simply that the bottle is full. Having the bottle on level but the radiator level too low will spell disaster and may also not indicate overheating on the gauge... Perhaps this is what caused the overheating?

Could have been a welch plug / heater hose from the front / rear heater unit, radoator hose etc. which caused the initial leak. The latter symptoms wound like a cylinderhead gasket or mayme even a cracked head caused by severe overheating.

Took the Pajero to CRD yesterday and the phoned me this morning to tell me the head is cracked and will cost R21600-00 to replace. Found out on Friday that the previous owner replaced the waterpump December when his wife was on the way to Cape Town and the pump was found to be leaking - I suppose it overheated then and that was where the damage started.

Ouch!

Hi Kobus,

Have u tried the Pajero Scrap yard in Pretoria; might get it cheeper

Johan

They are replacing the head with a Spanish made one. Apperently they buy it from the factory that make the heads for Mitsubishi.