Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Please help

I've been a happy Pajero owner since August 2009. It has been mostly trouble free motoring except for a recurring front left wheel hub/bearing failure.

Both front hubs were replaced by the garage that I bought the car from when on 201 000km. The left unit failed only 5 000km later whilst I was at the coast on a fishing trip. This was replaced free of charge by the Walvis Bay Mitsu dealership.

This failed again on about 225 000km in my December 2011 holidays. The Walvis dealership again replaced it and I only had to pay for the part. This time the bearing play was so bad that the brake disc started rubbing to the caliper and I had to send my wife back to Windhoek and wait for the dealership to open again after New Years.

I've just returned from a trip to Kgaligadi and started to hear a familiar whining noise on my way back to Windhoek.

I spent a lot on adding extra's to the car (roof rack, awn, ironman suspension, dual bat system) etc so would really like to keep the Pajero, but am starting to considering selling due to this recurring problem.

There were no problems when doing wheel alignment about 15000km back when I fitted BFG km2 mud terrains.

The dealership is insisting that there must be something wrong with the suspension geometry, but cannot find any fault.

My regular workshop in Windhoek also double checked the torque and free play on my return to Windhoek at the last service, as I did not trust the dealership to fasten this currently to about 250nm as per my repair manual

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Weird! Had my front hubs and bearings replaced many kms ago and not a day trouble since. Have probably done about 100000km since last replacement. Do you go through water often? Other than that I can only think defective part but that would be highly unlikely 3 times in a row!

CATS

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I do a lot of gravel travel as I mostly use the Pajero for weekend trips and the occasional holiday trip. I only drive it in town once a week. No real water crossings other than the occasional stream - max 20cm deep in the rainy season.

The most water it would get would be from cleaning with a high pressure sprayer after every trip to the Namibian coast. The salt roads are notorious for causing rust. This is probably also only 4x a year.

It can therefore rather be dust getting to the bearing.

Each replacement so far has been the full original minibushi hub. As far as I know it is a sealed unit and the bearing cannot be replaced separately.

The suspension bushes have some wear, as sometimes causes a problem with the handbrake on very steep inclines, but this is more on the rear wheels

Correction. This time it is the right-hand side bearing, so it is 2x in 25000km and the left 3x.

I have slightly larger than std tyres 265/75r16 and ironman suspension on original pajero rims, but this should not place extra load on the bearings as only increases hight.

Any idea's?

I also run 265/75/16 tyres and always had lifted suspension, so cant see that this is as contributing factor. Something else must be wrong? Crappy wheel alignment toe in tgat put extra strain on bearings? How does your tyre wear look?

CATS

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Will have wheel alignment rechecked next week. Had no issues when I fitted BFG mud terrains around 15k km back.

All I can think of is that some or other dust cover must be missing as I do a lot of gravel

Alignment was checked yesterday. No issues, other than couple of rusted bolts - which are apparently common. Could still calibrate within spec.

Update - for those that maybe get the same issue. The cast iron hub carrier was slightly oval. Hub assembly was to loose and looks like caused hotspots on few contact areas, causing bearing failure. Will try to post picture and update after another 20k km.

Was left front bearing again, so replaced 4x (two of which at the stealers) in 35000km. Can really recommend Marco's auto clinic to anyone with Pajero service needs in Windhoek, whom located the problem on the left, when ask to fit on the right. Right play was due to warn ball-joint

The other day I was chatting to a guy with a Ford Bantam that was also replacing wheel bearings all the time.

Remembering this post I inquired a bit further, his problem was the CV joint shaft was slightly bent (possibly due to an accident by a previous owner). This caused the wheel bearing to blow out every few thousand kilos due to the strain it caused by not running straight.

Hope your troubles are over!