News

Life with my Mitsubishi Pajero Sport: Maintenance report of the old SUV

12th January 2024, 12:38 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I was holding a brand new set of front brake pads and found out that they were the wrong purchase.

BHPian vigsom recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Introduction

This is a report of some maintenance updates and upgrades on my 2012 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, a car that once almost brought me down to my knees, but post that has been serving us well. Surprisingly, the car is being used much more than I used between 2019 and 2022.

Episode 1 - the curious case of the radiator cap!

Post my long drive from Gujarat to Karnataka in end-2022, the car's been doing only outstation drives. Sometime in February 2023, three months after the long drive, I was a little surprised to see the coolant reservoir level steady for the most part. I opened the radiator cap and found the barrel empty. Topped up some coolant that I always carry and the car just took in some 300ml or so; this had me relieved. After a bit of investigation, I concluded that the only culprit could be the radiator cap, as I'd always find this cap tricky to fit on the radiator. After the new cap arrived, I did a comparo between the old and the new - and the pics say it all. Radiator necks (from whatever I discovered) do not have standard-sized necks. The cap I was using was a good one, set at 1.1 bar but not the exact type meant for this car.

A stitch in time saves nine

Knowing that the cap for the Pajero Sport is an ND-make cap, I just ordered an MGP radiator cap of the same make and set at 1.1 bar. On closer inspection of the radiator neck, top and cap, this is what I found

Minor abrasions courtesy of the radiator cap - radiator neck front

Neck Rear

Radiator Top - absolutely fine thankfully

New ND cap on the left vs Old cap - note the difference in the claws

New cap in position and it was a happy ending after all! The radiator is always full, and whatever negligible depletion is seen is indicated on the coolant surge tank

Episode 2 - The curious case of a brake squeal

Now, this promises to be a thriller. I was returning after an 840km drive and as I was entering my adda (den), I noticed a minor squeal from one of the brakes. It was a Sunday evening, I was scheduled to go up west the next day, and found no one who could drive the car with me observing which wheel the noise was coming from. The noise wasn't there even when I entered the city off the highway, so I was sure that it had just started. In hindsight, I should have just driven the car and asked my wife to listen to which wheel the noise was coming from, but then, brains don't work when they need to.

The next morning, I looked for my relative's driver, hoping to ask him to just drive the car in the parking, and as luck would have it, my relative and he had scooted early since there was a critical regulatory audit at their firm. That left me to do a visual inspection before leaving - inspected the rear wheels and the outer brake pads on both wheels showed good life. Fronts weren't visible and so I concluded that the front pads must have worn out. Since I was headed via my old den aka Surat, I decided to get a set of brake pads when returning. Why all this hurry?

Diwali was just around the corner
Brakes have to be done
I could bank on stuff that I source from my contacts in Surat

All done, left as planned, got a nice looking set of LPR Brake pads for the front, and on return, it was time to find someone who could do the job without any strings attached. A fellow bhpian was kind enough to lead me to a known technician, and off I went to Jakkuru with the following jobs planned:

Engine oil replacement - Castrol Magnatec SUV 5W40 - six litres plus an OE Mitsubishi oil filter sourced from the UAE
Brakes service (front and rear)

Something new unfolded there.

A thin technician under a fat car

On opening the front wheels, the brake pads were observed to have enough juice - I couldn't do my diagnosis well enough but wasn't prepared to believe even the other day that the front brake pads could have worn out, given my style of driving. Anyway, long story short, I was holding a brand new set of front brake pads and now I find that they were the wrong purchase.

Move over to the rear wheels - the right wheel was off and the pads were observed to have worn out evenly and had approx 50% juice left. These were ADVICS OE brake pads and perhaps the only ones globally to be light blue in colour.

When the left wheel was off, the culprit was found - the left inner brake pad was down to the wire while the outer pad had over 80% juice left. Another observation - the rear left pads had worn out more in the bottom half than the top half. Reason : The brake caliper top pin sleeve on the left wheel had gotten jammed and therefore the brake pads were being pushed by the piston and actuation was only via the bottom part of the rear left brake.

What do I do now?

I was in Jakkuru, far away from the city, with 3 okay brake pads and one non-usable one. Even if I put that worn out pad in, I'd have to work on the system again to change the pads. It was almost 3 pm. I'd in the meanwhile contacted a parts guy in JC Road and he confirmed that he could Dunzo the part, but I didn't want to get parts without actually seeing them. Off I went in an Ola Autorickshaw 14km to JC Road braving some crazy traffic and automotive fumes to reach my destination. I decided to head to Manu Automobiles with the hope of finding my stuff there - and they did have the stuff. Nothing high quality but at least I got a set of brake pads so that I could get my job done. These were ATX make (Autonex). I'd call these Bosch quality. Refurbished pads were being marketed as OE at another place but I knew what OE was and therefore didn't fall for the bait. At least here at Manu, I knew it was average stuff but was charged also appropriately. So no regrets.

Another enthusiastic auto driver took me back to Jakkuru and I reached there around 5:45pm. Meanwhile, the jammed sleeve had been removed via a hydraulic press and the complete system was serviced and ready. All that they were waiting for were the pads and once in, I was good to go. Since I saw anti-rattle pins on the rear brakes, I just wanted to make sure they'd been installed right, but it had gotten dark, so I took a pic and left. Post new brake pads at the rear, the braking had improved substantially.

Front brake pads - OE is Tokico but ADVICS is also a good make