Cooling problems with 89 TD Pajero

53000km for a 15 year old vehicle = 3500km per year - your doubts are seriously justified

No , it doesn't sound right.

AFAIK , but happy to be corrected , the Pajeros have timing belts not chains (My NG V6 certainly does). The actual belts cost stuff all , fitting them is the expensive bit.

In all honesty , if you had said $900 for parts and labour , I would have said fair enough . . . for parts alone ? . . . I cant see it.

As for checking approx K's . . . no hope. A decent Diesel mechanic may be able to give some sort of indication , but no one will get near the actual K's driven.

Oh yeah , by the way . . . Being imported , Its not really the amount of K's that is the problem , its the number of hours on an engine (bit like tractors, industrial machines etc), they tend to sit a lot in traffic , rather then actually driving.

That believe model TD has a timing belt - cetainly the early Australian 2.5 litre TD Tritons which I think have the same engine do - routine change is 100,000km - how would a mechanic know if the timing belt needed changing without inspecting it - he would need to remove the cover at the front of the engine - but to do that a whole lot of other stuff needs to come off - I think there is a bit of pulling on the chain so to speak from the mechanic - however having said that if the mileage and service history is dodgy then I would definintely be changing the timing belt - I assume a failure will most likely result in valve/pisron crash - big $$$. It is not technically difficult just a pain in the arse pulling every thing off to get at it.

I think this is separate to the cooling problem though - that vintage mitsubishi TD vehicles have marginal cooling systems - the radiator and volume of coolant is a bit light on and needs to be in top condition - I would be looking at replacing the pump if it is leaking and getting a standard coolant system clean, desacale, flush etc and then see what happens.

I would also be thinking about the timing belt and a routine manintenance issue

Cheers

89 with 53000 km’s, unlikely but not unheard of, It this is in fact the true mileage then the lack of driving is your biggest enemy. For it to of only done that many
A. It has only been used for very short trip’s (To the shop and back)
B. It has spent a lot of time in traffic doing very short trips
Both A,B are bad as engines do not handle short trips well (No time for them to warm up) and idling in traffic requires more frequent servicing.
C. Has been in storage for the last 10 years, which if not done properly will case big problems as well.

Water pump.> If it has not been used much and the cooling system not maintained properly then the water pump could indeed have some problems (15 years on a water pump isn’t bad), to change the water pump the timing should not have to be touched.

Timing chain> Generally do not require changing unless there is a fault with them, you will no about it. When you start the car there will be a rattle in the engine, the performance of the engine may also change movement in the power band.

Timing belt> require changing every 100,000 km’s or every 5 to 10 years depending on manufacturer. So if it is still on the original belt it needs changing.