Pajero Manual or Auto

Hi JeffnMel,
As with all 4wd autos towing larger caravans, the tranny oil will heat up very quickly when towing in top gear. I tow a 19'6" semi off road van with my 3.2L DiD Pajero Auto and have done approximately 41,000 klm towing the van and over some very rough corrugated roads. I tow in 4th gear selecting other gears manually with the easy gear selection that the Pajero provides. I have fitted the pajero with a transmission temp gauge which can be easily fitted by a hands on person. This is located on the rhs side of the dash and tells me what the tranny oil temp is doing under all conditions. It costs around $250. The place I bought mine from was www.automatictransmission.com.au

I believe it was a very good investment considering the cost of repairing or replacing a transmission. Of course replace the tranny oil every 20,000klm as per the service manual instructions when towing.

The Pajero is a very underated towing vehicle and I am very happy with my choice. The rear suspension is a bit soft and I fitted mine with Polyair bags when I first towed and at 50K fitted King springs and Bilstrien shockies. This gave the Pajero better towing capabilities and gave me the added bonus of being able to fully open up the rear door due to the 40mm lift.
Hope this info helps,
Happy travelling,
Bill

eing a Mitsi owner with an Auto and having friends with both Autos and Manuals, I guess the main thing I can say is each of the Manual owners wishes they had bought an Auto. Mitsi has one of the best selectable gear shifters on the market for an auto, so you can drive it as a manual if you are in hilly country and so desire, but having said that, I fitted a extra Transmission Cooler to mine as is suggested by most Auto manufacturers and I also put a Trans temp guage on, which to be honest is mainly for off road driving, especially in sand so I can keep an eye on the oil temp, but with the cooler fitted when I'm towing so far I have never got anywhere near boiling the oil and no where near as hot as it does in sand without the van and my vehicle has very bad gearing with the larger tyres and only the 4 speed Auto, so go the Auto and enjoy your driving.

did i read somewhere the fuel economy between the manual and the auto is about the same?? ... unless a auto diff is fitted to the manual