Mitsubishi Problems

Even when it’s completely empty, your caravan is still likely to weigh a couple of tonnes (give or take). At which point, you’re using a fair chunk of the Pajero’s towing capacity of 2500kg. What’s happening is that the transmission of the car is choosing to shift down a gear or two to bring the engine up to a speed where it’s making enough power and torque to haul the rig along at the speed you’ve chosen to travel at. Maximum torque in the Pajero’s 3.5-litre V6 occurs at 3500rpm, so that’s what the transmission will aim for when you need maximum thrust.

The process also takes some of the load off the transmission, helping it live longer and avoid damage and overheating. There’s a general rule that says you shouldn’t really tow anything remotely heavy with the transmission in overdrive. Experienced towers physically lock the gearbox out of overdrive, and this, essentially, is what the car is doing for you by shifting down gears when a hill or headwind increases the load on the driveline.

The petrol V6 in the Pajero was never a fuel sipper, and I’m not surprised you’re seeing higher fuel consumption in this scenario. This is also the reason many people who regularly tow choose a turbo-diesel to do so.

A leaking rocker cover gasket won’t cause the engine to stop unless it somehow manages to allow too much lubricating oil to escape the engine (which, it potentially could over time). But it still needs to be fixed, because technically the car is unroadworthy with an oil leak and various bits of the car will be getting coated with the oil as it leaks out. Rubber suspension bushes, in particular, are intolerant of contact with oil and will degrade as a result. You might also find the leak is dumping oil on your tyres or the ground in front of them. So it needs to be fixed sooner rather than later.

As for the original diagnosis of your car needing a new engine, I’d be giving that workshop a wide berth as the mechanic in question might be either incompetent or attempting to rip you off. Or both. Your decision to seek a second opinion was a good one and should be standard practice.

Like anything mechanical, the gear-shifting mechanism in a car can become slack, or sloppy, over time and kilometres. Play can develop in the linkages and levers that select each gear, or in the part where the gear-shift itself is joined to those selectors. Also, the actual selectors that disappear into the gearbox and physically shift the gears can also develop excess movement or play.

You can probably remove the shifter boot and centre console inside the cabin and check for looseness in the upper part of the shifter mechanism, but to check the whole thing, you’ll need to climb under the car and feel for play and look for broken clips, missing springs and worn out bushes. The good news is that it’s probably an external wear issue and not something inside the gearbox itself.

This sounds like a classic case of a vehicle with a fuel pump that has died. Electric fuel pumps have a very finite lifespan and, when they stop, they do so suddenly, for no apparent reason and with the result that the engine will simply not start or run at all. By spraying starting fluid into the engine, you’re giving it a sniff of fuel; enough to make it fire, but not run for long.

You’re probably looking at a new fuel pump, but don’t forget to check fuses and relays, the lines for leaks and the various fuel filters for cleanliness.

This could be a differential problem or even something like a collapsed wheel bearing. But it’s most likely to be a seized brake or parking brake that is causing this problem. Has the vehicle been sitting around for a long time without moving? That’s a common way for brakes to seize and lock the wheel, preventing it from turning.

You might be able to knock the park brake free with a bit of persuasion, or maybe crack the bleed nipple on the brake itself to let the pressure off the brake and free it. But if the brake is rusted on, then you’ll need to disassemble it to bring it back to a condition where the vehicle is safe to drive again. Even if you get it moving again, a thorough disassembly and inspection is warranted to make sure it’s 100 per cent safe to go back on the road.

A typical air-conditioning system in a car uses an engine-driven pump (compressor), heat exchangers and lots of ducting as well as a decent volume of compressed refrigerant gas to make it all work. If any of these things is out of kilter, the air-con may stop working.

Low gas levels, a worn out compressor, compressor clutch, or an electrical problem could be the cause here. The system is also full of interlocks to ensure that it can’t be damaged, for instance, by operating with insufficient gas or if the temperature of the system becomes too hot. At the other extreme, you might simply have a blown fuse that controls the fan circuit, at which point the system will not work either.

The best solution is to take the car to an air-conditioning specialist. The first thing they’ll do is test to see whether the system is holding pressure. If it is, the fix may be a simple re-gas of the system, at which point, chilled air may be miraculously restored. But you may find you need to replace some parts as well. But a pressure test will often be the first thing tried as the typical car air-con system loses gas over time, and that’s just a fact of life. Eventually, it may get so low the system can’t operate and there’s no more cold air.

This is why it’s important to run the air-con (even in winter) for a minute or so every week. This will help keep the seals lubricated and prevent loss of gas in the long term.

This sounds like a fairly serious failure somewhere in the engine that is pressurising the cooling system (and the coolant overflow bottle) and draining the engine of the coolant it needs (which is why the overheating light is on). This can be due to a blown cylinder head gasket or some other failure within the engine that is allowing combustion pressure into the cooling system.

The best advice is to not drive the vehicle any farther and get it to a workshop who can diagnose the problem properly, rather than just guessing about the cause. Don’t forget, though, that your Triton, provided it’s been serviced properly, should still be covered by Mitsubishi’s factory warranty.

The last decade of dual-cab four-wheel-drive utes have emerged as the tow-vehicles of choice, and you see them everywhere filling roles exactly like the one you have planned. Popular models include the Ford Ranger you’ve nominated, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT-50, VW Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max. But there are also cheaper alternatives including makes like the South-Korean made Ssangyong and various Chinese brands like LDV and Great Wall.

Just make sure you know exactly how much you need to tow before making a decision as some of the cheaper models don’t have the same outright towing capacity and even if they do, some of them don’t have the engine performance to make towing as easy as it should be. For parts availability, the Toyota would be king in really remote areas, but any of the major brands are pretty well covered in Australia.

Meantime, don’t rule out ute-based wagons such as the Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuna. These offer better ride comfort when unladen thanks to more sophisticated rear suspensions and most have as much or almost as much towing capacity as their ute brethren.

It could be dozens of things, but a transmission specialist should be able to diagnose it quickly. This is an older, well-known car and there’s not much a good Mitsubishi mechanic won’t be able to assess accurately.

But before you call a tow-truck, check the level of fluid in the transmission via the dipstick. If there’s no – or low – oil, you might have figured out why the vehicle won’t move. The job then becomes one of working out where the transmission fluid went, because these are sealed systems and shouldn’t need topping up between transmission services.

Broadly speaking, the law in WA states that you can’t increase the width of a car’s tyre more than 30 per cent over the standard fitment tyre. But since you’re only going 20mm wider, that’s not an issue and shouldn’t present any legal problems. However, it would still be wise to let your insurance company know about the increase as insurers often have different standards to the actual law-makers.

The only other hitch might be that the new tyre is physically too wide for the rim it’s being fitted to. Again, though, this is not a huge increase and should be viable. A good tyre shop will be able to check your rim size and let you know one way or the other.