Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi,

I am new to the brand, having driven another popular 4x4 for most of my life but recently bought what looked like a very good used 3.2 DiD at what I thought was a bargain price ...

Without going into other details - the long and the short of it is that I am not sitting with a troublesome automatic transmission. One fine morning it just refused to shift and when it did it would stay in a one gear and not shift over making loud noises. Opening it up found that the plates were badly damaged. The whole transmission was overhauled by a friend who works for a transmission reconditioning firm (I cannot afford what the OEM and other companies charged for this job!) with a new kit purchased from the OEM. The torque convertor was sent to a reputable refurbishing company. Afterwards the car was never like I would have liked it, it drove fine but shifts under power were rough and it sounded like it could not make up its mind as to which gear to select. About a week ago it again refused to go into gear and when it was finally selected it would stay in that gear. I drove it home slowly (about 4 blocks) and by the time I got there there was smoke coming out of what looked like the torque convertor. I took the whole lot out again and noticed that there was only about 3 liters of oil that drained out and that the torque convertor smells like it burned. Some questions:
1) Does anyone have a torque convertor available for this model or can point me in the right direction?
2) Has anyone had this problem before and can you offer some advice?
Thank you,

Thinus Strydom

Thinus,

Sorry to hear that your first venture into the Pajero world hasn't been the perfect trip.

The "bargain price" could have been an early warning

What is the kilo reading on the car?
Did you use the correct transmission oil from the OEM (Mitsu Dealer)?

I hope you get it sorted out!

Roelf

Thinus,

Firstly, I am sorry to hear of your troubles.

Don't you think that perhaps the box was underfilled after the service?

The reason that I ask this is that I underfilled mine last year when doing a drain, flush and replace - but picked it up within probably 5km and rectified it.

I drained and flushed the autobox, filled it to the cold mark (or so I believed). Started the engine, selected each gear a few times, checked again and the level still seemed OK. Went for drive to warm up the oil. When I got back the autobox oil level was not even to the bottom of the dip stick and it took a few more litres. It gave me quite a skrik thinking what damage might have occurred, but fortunately it seems to be OK - have done thousands of km since without any problem.

Thanks Roelf and Andrew for your replies!

To answer, yes, I bought the correct transmission fluid from the dealer.

Yes, I checked the transmission fluid level after the service and it was fine.

After reading Andrew's post I went back and inspected the transmission. I found that the area around the rear seal seems wet and it is possible the transmission fluid leaked out of this - leading to a low fluid level as described by Andrew. The car is a weekend toy and has not seen much use lately, so it is possible that it leaked out slowly over time and it wasn't noticed.

I am now looking around for a torque convertor as I am sure this one has had its chips ...

next dumb question: is it possible that it is only the TC that has fried or am I in for another nasty box overhaul?