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Overheating Transmission, Pajero 2008-2020


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Recently we have seen a few very young Pajeros having the transmission overheating sign coming up, even from light duty off-roading in this time of year, which sounds suspicious as I have noticed “older” pajeros of this generation do not seem to have this issue. 
 

The aim of this topic is to collect users who are in the same situation, what you have done so far, and to see if we need to bring this up with the main UAE Distributor.
 

The first two people who I am tagging is @Tamas Hoffmann and @bassel el rafei , who both seem to face this issue on a Pajero with less than 30,000kms. Before going into the discussion if a transmission cooling fan would help i suggest to first start with the basics:

1) Pajero model (3.5 or 3.8)

2) KMs done so far 

3) Has the transmission oil already been replaced ? If so when ?

4) Do you drive in tiptronic or normal “D” ?

5) Tyre pressure when off-roading?

 

 

@asifk from what i remember you have faced the same issues. Any update ?

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Thanks @Frederic. Mine is a 3.8l LWB 2018 model year with 13k on the clock, so quite new. I did have the transmission overheat issue which was mainly when I was driving in “D”. Using tiptronic makes the situation much better. I opted not to install a fan since my car is still in warranty. At the 10k checkup with al habtoor they told me the transmission fluid is fine and doesnt need changing, which was the opposite advice to a 3rd party garage which told me the fluid seems like it should be changed. Again, i havent done it due to the warranty, and the last couple of drives including liwa the car fared much better due to the cooler weather and driving in tiptronic all the time (even on easy dunes and flat areas). My tyre pressure when off roading is normally 13 psi. 
 

would be glad to learn from other peoples experiences on this subject :-)

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I also faced same issue , transmission overheating when I was joining a fewbie drive . my Pajero is brand new 2020 model 3.8 liters . I also checked with Habtoor for the 1000 km check up and they said every thing is normal and they just updated the software . After that I joined a newbie level and i drove on manual mode and. It was fine . Last Friday I joined a fewbie drive and I faced same issue which is transmission overheating  . I can’t judge yet because I also discovered that my pressure gage is showing that my tires are on 15 where in fact my tires are on 20 . Rahimad noticed my tires after several refusals last Friday.   I was watching on YouTube about pajero and someone said that we should drive on 4HLLC mode instead of 4H as the 4 H in pajero is for short use not as same other 4x4 cars . He said that on 4HLLC we won’t face transmission fluid overheating for long drives ,

What do you Think ? Shall we drive on 4HLLC mode for long drive and keep the 4H for short time as I watched on YouTube !!

 

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Hello Friends,

I have done 5 drives with Pajero, LWB 2015 model -3.5L. Three of those drives had overheating transmission at the fad end of drives, say after 3hrs of the 4hr drives.

I have gone to a couple of decent workshops and both replied that transmission oil is in good condition. I have changed it at 70k and the car has now run 105k KMs. Both of them suggested a heavy duty fan or an extra fan to cool.

But then i have discussed the matter with a couple of offroading friends. Majority of times(95%) of time i was driving in “D” mode on all the drives. I was pointed out that this is the reason as the transmission continously looks/change to a better gear ratio because of the terrain which eventually causes the heating issue. I am told to use triptronic manual gear option and then the issue will be solved. It seems to rev up the engine a little bit is a better option than overloading the transmission.

I have tagged some of the Pajero friends and marshals i have drove with just to see if anybody else has faced this issue.

Thankyou everyone- have a great evening.


 

 

 

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44 minutes ago, bassel el rafei said:

I also faced same issue , transmission overheating when I was joining a fewbie drive . my Pajero is brand new 2020 model 3.8 liters . I also checked with Habtoor for the 1000 km check up and they said every thing is normal and they just updated the software . After that I joined a newbie level and i drove on manual mode and. It was fine . Last Friday I joined a fewbie drive and I faced same issue which is transmission overheating  . I can’t judge yet because I also discovered that my pressure gage is showing that my tires are on 15 where in fact my tires are on 20 . Rahimad noticed my tires after several refusals last Friday.   I was watching on YouTube about pajero and someone said that we should drive on 4HLLC mode instead of 4H as the 4 H in pajero is for short use not as same other 4x4 cars . He said that on 4HLLC we won’t face transmission fluid overheating for long drives ,

What do you Think ? Shall we drive on 4HLLC mode for long drive and keep the 4H for short time as I watched on YouTube !!

 

4H is totally fine, the only difference with 4hlc is that this distributes the power between front and back with 50/50 instead of the 30/70 variable ratio. I don’t believe this will make any difference with overheating. Tyre pressure however is very critical and should be kept at 14-15psi and not higher.

7 minutes ago, Abilash Madhavan said:

Hello Friends,

I have done 5 drives with Pajero, LWB 2015 model -3.5L. Three of those drives had overheating transmission at the fad end of drives, say after 3hrs of the 4hr drives.

I have gone to a couple of decent workshops and both replied that transmission oil is in good condition. I have changed it at 70k and the car has now run 105k KMs. Both of them suggested a heavy duty fan or an extra fan to cool.

But then i have discussed the matter with a couple of offroading friends. Majority of times(95%) of time i was driving in “D” mode on all the drives. I was pointed out that this is the reason as the transmission continously looks/change to a better gear ratio because of the terrain which eventually causes the heating issue. I am told to use triptronic manual gear option and then the issue will be solved. It seems to rev up the engine a little bit is a better option than overloading the transmission.

I have tagged some of the Pajero friends and marshals i have drove with just to see if anybody else has faced this issue.

Thankyou everyone- have a great evening.


 

 

 

Thanks @Abilash Madhavan I have merged your topic with this one as we are trying to bring all Pajero generation 4 owners with this issue together and see if we can find a solution.

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  • Frederic changed the title to Overheating Transmission, Pajero 2008-2020

Thank you @Frederic, nice topic to discuss.

My Pajero is 3.8L 2010 Model. it is done 147K so far.

I always drive in 4H and manual mode and not automatic transmission. during off-roading, the Tyre pressure set as folows;

      12 PSI rear tyres

      13 PSI front tyres.

I never faced transmission overheating issue with my car.

 

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Thank you for initiating this discussion @Frederic

- I installed a cooling fan with a on/off switch.

- Few weeks ago, i forgot to switch the cooling fan ON and i did get transmission overheating indicator. What was strange is that it is winter, it was a newbie drive and prior getting the warning, the car was on and idle for at least 30 minutes because i was assisting another stuck car. 

- I prefer driving on D (feel a bit lazy to shift) but when driving on tip-tronic there is no heating issue (without fan), i guess because there is less pressure on the transmission due to constant uneven nature of the terrains. To make sure, we can do some trials with some Pajeros that get this issue and see whether driving on tip tronic really helps. I can volunteer to do that because i can switch off my extra cooling fan.

Once during the drive, i tried to monitor the temperature by plugging OBD toggle but apparently Pajero does not have a sensor that gives you the actual temperature in degrees for the transmission oil like the one for engine oil.

 

1) Pajero model 3.5

2) 130,000 KMs done so far 

3) Transmission Oil changed last month

4) I drive “D” mostly

5) Tyre pressure when off-roading 12 PSI

6) Year 2012 LWB 

 

 

Edited by Anish S
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Thanks @Anish S, indeed the oil cooler needs air flow going through it to be able to cool down, so when the car is standing still there won’t be much airflow so that might explain the overheating, although it’s indeed strange during winter time.

Anyways looking at the previous replies so far it would seem that: 

1) driving in tiptronic causes less shifting, hence less work to do for the transmission and lower chance for overheating.

2) if the transmission oil is still fine and there is no obstruction in the transmission cooler, a fan might be an extra help especially during longer standstill periods. 
 

I have the impression the overheating sign is more sensitive on the recent Pajeros which makes me think maybe something was changed (different sensor, lower alarm level trigger)...

Let’s keep gathering more information the coming weeks and especially towards the summer. 

 

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Driving always on tiptronic has solved my transmission overheating problem. I'm driving on 1-2 and sometimes 3rd gear only during offroad.

I believe the problem with Pajeros is that the poor automatic gear responses on "D" mode - it is definitely switching late! During off-road, when it is finally engaged to a gear as per your speed, it is generally too late and your rpm has already changed to another. So it is struggling to comply by constantly changing the gear and simply causes overheating... 

Transmission overheating problem started during my early intermediate drives (mine is 3.5 2017 LWB) and finished when I started to use tiptronic. If it is even happening on newbie drives, sounds a bit strange and I think something is wrong with the new model pajeros. 

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