Pajeros overheating

[discodaz]

Just got this months caravan club magazine, in the back pages theres an article about Pajeros overheating when towing in warm weather or up high terrain, it says that their Red Pennant recovery service have had a notable number of call outs from Pajero owners whose cars have overheated.Also they state the case of a member whose Pajero suffered clutch failure,when it went in for repair the specialist said that the clutch & flywheel were unsuitable for towing & that they see this kind of thing day in & day out, this is NOT intended as a Mitsi V L-R thing, just something to be aware of,I would hate to see any one get stung.
Apparantly  this doesn't affect the Shogun.

[Jan]

Hmmmm I tow a trailer with 2 large horses in up and down the steepest hills in Pembs every weekend and have never had any problems ~~ Touch Wood  :(
Would that be heavier than a caravan ?

Does this say if it is the 2.5 or 2.8 Paj ?  ~~ Jan Xx

[discodaz]

No doesn't differentiate, only thing I can honestly think of is that some cars were specced differently, possibly a smaller rad or something.
I wonder if Shoguns were designed with towing in mind,& some of the ex Japan cars weren't.(money saving measures)
I would imagine that 2 horses in a horse box would weigh more than a caravan.
The article did seem to be pointing at hot continental weather & mountain passes though,not the sort of weather we get.
The main problem of course is that no one has a clue how a grey import was treated when in Japan.

[joker777]

I have towed non stop ( apart for wee and fuel) to cornwall a number of times and the old girl hasnt over heated once i also tow a swb shogun on a dolly with no problems. I think your point about japan is a very valid point and could well be the main reason for thin concern

[robbie]

It could be something simple like the heat detector for the fan coing on at the correct time, if this is causing the rad to overheat .......

just a thought

[Tiny Tim]

Dunno about the clutch and flywheel story cos mine is an auto but as to how they get treated in Japan ...

Very well - much better than in UK cos cars are so expensive and motoring laws far stricter than here.

Pajeros do however, have a habit of overheating largely due to neglect
(not watching water levels, using tap water, not replacing radiator cap, water pump failure and filling up the rad with mud  :oops:  )

I know plenty of Pajero owners that regularly tow large, twin axle caravans without problems, although (in fairness), most are autos.

[discodaz]

The main crux of the story from the Caravan Clubs point of view was that this was picked up by the Red pennant Continental breakdown Service,
& it is affecting Pajero's Towing on the continent, where higher ambient temperatures are the rule rather than the exception, combined with Longer distances being travelled, (bear in mind that 2 years ago in the Vendee area of France it was 38/40 centigrade at midnight!!) my thoughts are that perhaps in Japan they are considered as more of a luxury car,not a workhorse for towing heavy loads etc,therefore they dont need to have a heavy duty cooling system,whereas the Shogun is sold in the U.K knowing that they will be bought by Caravanners And also people who have to tow Commercially, so they have a cooling system to cope with that kind of use.

[Tiny Tim]

On a vehicle engineered for tropical off road driving, personally I think this highly unlikely but if they are talking about engine overheating, this is potentially an 'Achilles Heel' in deisel Pajeros dating from the early 90s.

Not really linked to towing or ambient temp (cos they do it over here without a load), but this influenced by longer journeys and poor maintenance.

Having had this problem myself, (due to failed water pump),  I noticed that my new head has individual coolant returns from each cylinder. This leads me to believe that the original coolant flow may have been flawed but that pump failure or coolant loss is far more likely the culprit.