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front diff grinding sound can be caused by half-locked solenoid... so he's onto something. Nonetheless the leak is also something to address (and fast) regardless of the root cause of the problem there...

Good find, finally. However front diff grinding due to low oil will be constant and not intermittent. Still double check the wheel bearing, as wheel bearing noise starts with intermittent behaviour then become all time feature if you ignore.

and THAT is something they were not able to identify at al habtoor? I mean - have they even looked under the car? does every driver in this country need to be a mechanic in order to have a reliable car?

This would have caused the engine to overheat instantly, as water and pressure constantly leak. That's the last stage. My views: 6 liter depletion isn't normal and you would have felt it much earlier before this car switching-off episode. Something is leaking through the radiator or its hoses for sure. Car switched off is the last stage and Im afraid and sorry to say that most likely 9 out 10 times with full engine overheat, the head gasket goes instantly. Probably you might be lucky as you were at slow-moving speed and not on highway or off-road. Don't drive the car until you can get hold of a good mechanic available to minimize the extent of damage (if it's done). Get the coolant pressure check. Get compression test of all cyl, that can 100% tell the engine health. If variance of more than 10-15% in any cyl. surely head gasket is gone. All cyl should read above 120 PSI or Google Patrol compression number to cross-check.

Nice helper feature @Gaurav., but nothing beats just practising doing it manually 😅👍 Some offroad modes don't lock the rear diff in 4H. Sand mode does. But then rear diff can be configured 3 ways in offroad mode in 4H, Locked at all speeds. Locked at < 40, then automatically unlock above 40kph, relock when speed drops. Unlocked at all speeds. And then save that as the new default for your custom off road mode.

@Luke K P I got a chance to see a 2km cruise mimicking our blip blip skill in Ranger Raptor, today. It's a pretty impressive feature for self-recovery without stressing to dig more. Although I am not sure why Ford decided to engage the rear diff-lock in 4H, by default. Is that kind of LSD, which activates under low speed only and becomes open diff at higher speed like in old Chevys?

So I visited Al Habtoor today, explained the situation to them. They did a complete inspection (test drive, OBD, etc.) and suggested that the differential is the root cause. They also ruled out wheel bearings as a cause and told me that those would make a consistent noise. Suggested repairs by them includes replacement of solenoid valve, free wheel switch and hoses. If that does not fix the problem then the actuator and all 4x4 switches need replacement. The leak in differential was a false alarm, it was some leftover WD40 from the timing belt replacement job 😅. My personal experience with Al Habtoor was a good one. They were professional and quite helpful. Have to give credit where it's due. My Pajero is still under Al Futtaim warranty (Automall purchase), so I will be visiting them to get the fixes done. I have already visited Al Futtaim Auto Care Centre twice in the past for this particular issue, both times they said "we cannot fix what we cannot observe". So I am under immense pressure of recreating the noise during test drive when I will visit them again. If the noise does not occur during test drive then I will insist on the video being proof of the problem (already tried in the past) and of course diagnosis from the official Mitsubishi Service Center Al Habtoor. @Marek @Frederic I found a post on an off-roading forum about this exact issue where people have (over) analysed this issue. I am pasting the technical explanation from that post to shed some more light on this issue: BTW while driving today I was able to turn off the noise again by switching from 2H to 4H. I will do some more research as well as tinkering and hopefully get the car to make the noise on command. That would make my life much easier when trying to explain this fault at the service centre. Would appreciate any tips to recreate this sound when I want for demonstration purposes. I will keep you guys updated. Thank you!

I hope its just a minor fix. see you on the next one

I was thinking the same about the half-locked solenoid or actuator, but in that case it would keep showing the blinking 4x4 lights on the dash i presume ? Another thing that's bugging me is that in 2H the freewheeling clutch disconnects the front drive shaft, so the diff should not be rotating or causing noises in 2H, or am i also wrong here and there is still some kind of connection on one wheel ?

Hi @rroker..that is good progress. If there is oil leak in the front diff why they didn’t check the oil levels across all transmission system.. must be low and could be also overdue for change which can cause such noise. I would do that before jumping to parts replacement

Sorry guys, my car is not ready i need to withdraw. Enjoy it.