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New Tyres, Painted Wheels
Finally got myself round to buying some mud tyres for the Pajero. Could have done it months ago, but I’ve always wanted 33 inch tyres and you can’t make these fit a standard Paj. The question is, how much modification do you need to do to make them fit?
Well a typical rule of thumb to be totally safe is to have a 2 inch body lift and a 2 inch suspension lift. But I know that some people have managed to get away with just the body lift to make them fit. My Pajero has what’s known as the Winter Pack, which amongst other things means it’s got a body lift of 40mm (about 1 1/2″).
MOT Time
Well it was that time of the year for me last week - the dreaded MOT test! It’s a few years since I’d had to put a car through the MOT as I’d either had a newish car that didn’t need it or had simply sold the car before needing one. As my Pajero is now 13 years old I was a little bit worried. But on the other hand she’s in great condition so I was also quietly confident she wouldn’t let me down.
Dropped her off at the garage in the morning and kept the mobile phone close to me all day. By the time it got late in the afternoon and I’d not heard anything I started to fear the worst.
Green Laning in North Yorkshire
On the Sunday of my recent Big Pajero Meet a gang of us set off for a day’s green laning on the North Yorkshire Moors.
Routes had already been mapped about by the team leaders and I simply tagged along. Once we got to the action we split up into three groups with ours bringing up the rear. Our group numbered just three; Steve with wife Fran in their white 2.8, Lee with son in his blue over silver 2.5 and me.
You really couldn’t wish for a more glorious day in terms of getting the best weather England is capable of. Couple this with North Yorkshire’s outstanding beauty and we had a day to remember.
Big Pajero Meet
On the 10th of May I made my way over to the Blue Dolphin holiday park near Filey for the Pajero Owners Club UK’s annual Mega-Meet. The club has many meets all over the country throughout the year, but this is the main one that attracts members from all over the country.
I decided to camp out for the first time in about 20 years, so was happy that the weather was absolutely fantastic. I stayed Saturday afternoon through to late Sunday afternoon and enjoyed every minute of it. Met lots of new faces as well as some I already knew and got thoroughly immersed in the crazy world of the Pajero. Also enjoyed an excellent barbeque on the Saturday night.
Off-roading - Solomon Islands Style
Matt’s been in contact again and wanted to let us know about a recent day out in his Pajero. This is what he had to say:
“It had been raining for about two months straight and some of the roads were about a foot and a half deep with mud.
Heaps of fun!!!! Hit a lot of them hard trying to get as dirty as possible but then we would do a river crossing and clean it all off.
All up it was around 140kms of hard mud driving and it was only when we were close to home I noticed the temp going up a bit. Fearing the worst I nursed it home….
Heated Fuel Filter Head
After listening to various threads of discussion over on the POCUK forums it now seems that my Pajero has a heated fuel filter head unit rather than the standard non-heated version. I had wondered about my filter head when I changed the filter as neither the Haynes or Russek manuals had any reference to how mine looks.
Cold Starting
As the mornings get colder I’ve noticed the Pajero isn’t enjoying getting going so much. This has previously just been a problem with getting away from a standing start. The first couple of yards from where I park is a very slight incline and it’s coughed a little and lacked power until on the flat where it’s fine.
This morning my outside thermometer read 6 degrees and it felt pretty cold. For the first time since I’ve had her she actually coughed a little on starting the engine - before even setting off. I could imagine that if we were down near 0 degrees she might be struggling to start at all, though I’m only guessing of course.
Pajero Insurance
I’ve had several emails from people asking me who I got Pajero insurance from. Well, there’s a quick and easy answer obviously but I thought it would be good to discuss the options and the peculiar nature of insuring a Pajero.
So what do you do when you’re first considering buying a model of car that you’ve not had before and you’re not sure of the insurance costs? A sensible person gets a few quotes first to see how much the insurance will be before looking for the car to buy. I’ve never been especially sensible so I usually buy the car first and worry about the insurance after, which is exactly what I did with the Pajero.
Pajero Pitman Arm Recall
Since I’ve had the Pajero I’ve known that there was a manufacturer recall on Pajeros/Shoguns/Monteros for the replacement of the Pitman arm. Briefly, Mitsubishi realised at some point that this model had a defect with its Pitman arm that could lead to steering failure. Obviously they had to recall all vehicles involved to replace them. So a couple of weeks ago I thought I’d better look into this and find out what it’s all about and whether my Pajero need sorting out.
She Got Mucky
Went on my first ever off-roading day on Sunday (August 5th). It was arranged by Andy (ukrabbiter) through the POCUK forums and took place at Briercliffe quarry near Burnley. Just the four of us involved: Andy, Gareth (LFM), Dennis (denjo) and of course me.
I’d known about it for a few weeks and so I couldn’t wait to get started when the day finally came. And what a day! Following the lousy summer we’ve had this had to be one of the warmest, most beautiful days of the year. It’s about half an hour’s drive from my house through some lovely scenery and the site itself is in the middle of nowhere. Really nice location.