Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to quickly introduce myself and Sylvester, our first car, our 2008 Pajero (2.8 Diesel). Bought it second hand in the DRC and aside from having an owner who's learning on the job and some bad diesel, it has performed perfectly.

1. Name: Tobias Dekkers
2. Birthday and Age: 15-12-1985, 31.
3. Town & Country Of Residence: Born in the Netherlands, living in the DRC since 2014.
4. Home Language: Dutch
5. Occupation/Business: Finance / Renewable Energy
6. Family Status: Married
7. Membership Of Other 4X4 Clubs & Forums: No, first time
8. Current 4x4: Pajero (2008, diesel 2.8, 55.000km)
9. Current Modifications: Ironman suspension kit, self-built wooden roof rack that can hold a rooftop tent, diesel (40l) and water (40l)
10. Modifications On The Wish List: One of the questions for this forum.
11. Vehicle(s) On The Wish List: None, Sylvester is all we need
12. Previous 4x4s: No, first car
13. Last 3 Offroad Trips: Kinshasa - Inongo, Kinshasa - Caves near Mbanza Ngungu, Kinshasa-Zongo falls
14. Favourite Destination: To be discovered, but so far our camping spot near Mbanza Ngungu was pretty impressive.
15. Other Hobbies: Grappling, chess, driving
16. GPSr & Map Data Used: Other car had the GPS, will use maps.me and iOverlander for the next trip.
17. Rate Your 4X4 & Overlanding Experience: car knowledge is limited, but have done some 4x4/off-roading.
18. Photos Of Yourself & Your Vehicle:
- 1st photo shows the wooden roof rack and therefore our home away from home and the second photo is a nice example of it in action (and why we did it). We've had the wooden roof rack since 2015 and although visually it's not everyone, it's rock-solid and still won't move an inch. The car has a bit more clearance now due to the Ironman suspension kit. (choice for Ironman and wooden roof rack are also due to very limited options for modifications/quality garages in the DRC).
- Last three photos are from our Kinshasa-Inongo trip which was quite rough but an amazing adventure. Not many people take their car in-land into the DRC and now we understand why (but also not really, since it's beautiful and safe).
- The 4th photo photo is our final destination in Inongo, a perfect spot next to the enormous lake 'Lac Mai Ndombe'.
- The 5th photo looks bad, I know, but we got some bad diesel in Inongo and we had to make it back to Kinshasa still. Ultimately these guys did temporarily fix the car and we got back in one piece and it's been working great ever since (well, after we did another big session at the local official dealer in Kinshasa...)

Basically there are four reasons for me to join this forum:
1. Gaining knowledge of the vehicle I'm driving by reading up on/participating in this forum together with my newly bought Haynes Manual.

2. Preparing for our overlanding trip from Kinshasa to Uganda through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawai, and Tanzania. I know it's a South-African forum (I've been many times to your beautiful country), but googling about Mitsubishi in Africa always led me back here. Departure data is the 4th of September.

3. Share knowledge of trips to make in the DRC. I know it's not a popular country, and far away for most of you, but I can't really think of anything else I have to offer right now.

4. Obviously, get to know other proud-owners of Pajeros, since the expat-community here buys 100% Toyotas/Landrovers.

For my initial questions / spare parts / modifications / tips about Namibian garages, I'll switch to the Namibia 2015 thread, unless you guys can recommend any other threads.

Thanks for taking the time and looking forward to speaking to you guys!

Hi Tobias,
I think you are going to be a wonderful contributer to this forum.
Welcome and enjoy.
Tell us more about the 2.8 engine. Is it the one we know in SA that used to be fitted to Pajeros pre-2000 or is it a new motor unknown to the local Pajeros?

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Hi Roelf,

Thanks for the kind words! First things first though, my wife was very disappointed with me that I didn't introduce her as well, since the Pajero and this trip has been and is very much a team-effort. So let me correct that by introducing my wife, Nelleke, who's as excited as I am with the Pajero and the upcoming trip. You can see her peek out the rooftop tent in one of the pictures and she'll be reading along.

Regarding the engine, good question, because I don't know, so I hope you'll be able to tell me.

Quoting from the Haynes manual now:
"...the 2.8 model 4m40 four-cylinder diesel engine. The 2.8 litre engine is an inline vertical four, with a chain-driven overhead camshaft and a balance shaft counterbalancing system which cancels the engine's power pulses and produces relatively vibration-free operation... The engine is liquid-cooled, utilising a centrifugal impeller-type pump. ... Lubrication is handled by an oil pump mounted on the front of the engine."

And while writing this, I'm thinking you might be just looking for the following information:
Model: 4M40
Cylinders: 4
Maximum power: 92kW
Maximum torque: 294 Nm
Maximum speed: 155 km/h (never been over 110)

Now I'm assuming it's an engine that used to be fitted to Pajero pre-2000. Are there some rules of thumb I should know about such an engine?

Tobias and Nelleke

Welcome here. Love the roofrack and tent, and obviously your choice of vehicle as well.

The 2.8 4m40 engine is a robust diesel and used in many variants in different Mitsubishi aplications. Some have double timing chains and some single it seems. Here in SA it was used in the gen2 Pajero up to 2000 and also in the Colt bakkies (L200 light trucks). The Colt engine had a tendency to crack heads at around 100000kms for some reason while basically the same engine in the Pajero seemed to last forever. Parts should be readily available I would think.

Thanks for joining and looking forward to your postings.

CATS

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Hi guys, welcome to the forum,
Im highly curious about how day to day life goes in DRC.
Thats one of the countries high on my bucket list.
Hope to get plenty of informations from you.
Whats the best time to travel DRC and what areas are accessible by 4x4 ?

Hey,

Sorry about the late reply, I was away for a bit! Day to day life in the DRC is not that different than a typical day elsewhere, I think. It's just generally a bit poorer and people are surviving from day to day, trying to make money left or right. That makes Congo sometimes a bit harder than other countries, because you'll find that most Congolese will try to use you to earn a buck, especially anyone working for the government (Police, migration, etc.).

Nonetheless, Congo can also be tremendously beautiful. Don't expect wild life, but its nature can be breathtaking. The people are a lively bunch, so night life is great with lots of music and dancing. It's not an easy country, with loads of ups and downs, but it's truly an interesting experience. We're very happy that we've had the opportunity of living in the DRC for three years (and actually prolonged our stay with another year).

If you want to travel through Congo, most of the roads are terrible, but we got around fine with our Pajero. Just plan a head. There's basically one tarmac road from Matadi to Kinshasa to Kikwit. All other roads are <censored> in varying degrees.

I wish I could give you a map with 'road information', but the truth is that roads can change here within weeks and it highly depends on the season. Dry season is definitely easier in Congo (June-Aug/Sept), but also a lot less beautiful because weather is always grey/clouded, ruining all of the views. Rain season is all other months and difficult to predict.

I can really recommend the website: https://congobucketlist.wordpress.com/ for a first idea of what to do in the DRC. If you want a bit more adventure, I can recommend driving to 'Inongo' from Kinshasa (Kinshasa - Bandundu - Nioki - Selenge - Inongo). At Inongo you'll have the chance to relax next to a beautiful lake and camp right next to it. It involves terrible roads, some dangerous 'ferries', obnoxious government officials that treat every provincial border as a national border, but it's also a true adventure. Essentially nobody will have made this trip before you, making every day quite special.

Feel free to follow-up with additional questions if you have a trip in mind!