Gearbox grumble

You have the front bearing in the gearbox on its way out and probably the rest may be not far behind as depending on how bad it is the metal flaking of that front one may have gone through the rest of the box. When you depress the clutch you are disengageing the drive from the motor to the gearbox, thus the noise stops. there is no easy fix, just a gearbox overhaul.

Thanks Nav 80,
Yes I know the scenario you describe because I've been through it with an old Nissan Ute recently. What gets me is the Mitsi dealer service managers saying that the noise is normal and if they fixed it it would return in a short time anyway.

Hi Camper , I too have the same problem with my 85 Pajero , so thinking it was the bearings "as the car had done 300,000 kms" i had the gearbox and transfer rebuild but even after having all new bearings put in it still has that rumble .So i then spoke to a few mechanics and they all said the same thing you were told , its not real loud but you know its there hey?

Camper,

Don't stress! It sounds like the typical Mr Bitchy thrust bearing noise. I've never heard a Triton which doesn't have it. Both of our Tritons had it from new. Jonnyknowalittlebit's Triton has it. My next door neighbour's new Pajero has it. And the Challenger I get given as a loan car when mine's in for service has it. It won't go away, but from what I can gather it's not causing any damage. I've not heard of a Mitsubishi 4WD gearbox imploding - unlike some other makes. Hmmmm, then again it's not often that I've heard the words "Mitsubishi" and "broken" in the same sentence."Live today as if there may be no tomorrow"

Wombat

Camper,
For what it's worth I wouldn't start filling the box up with additives, they will quiten the box down being more viscous but with the viscosity comes the oils ability to hold onto metal particles and in turn accelerate the wear, if you ever take the additives out you will notice a considerable difference. Two things you can do is to change the oil and get rid of any particles that are being moved around the boxnow and do more oil changes, this is never going to hurt, oils cheap, if you really want to get excited you could get an oil sample analysed to see exactly what wear particles you have in the oil, you also may consider a synthetic oil, putting this in could have eithe good or bad results there isn't much in the middle. In two cases I've had good results and in one a bad result where the box deteriorated. When gearboxes go wrong they don't fix themselves, a noisey box may last for a long long time but it will always crap out just when you don't want it to. Hope some of this helps. Keep the shiny side up

My challenger did this since new. I did some research via the Pajero club of Aus and the majority of Pajeros with the same setup as the challenger have the same problem. Doesnt seem to be anything to worry about, and Mitsubishi say it is normal. Considering they fixed 8 things under warranty over the 3yrs when they said this was normal i somewhat believed them.

Cheers,

Glenno

Thank you to everone who has shown interest.
I guess I am most pleased to hear that other Mitsi's have the same problem (that's if it is a problem) The way people are talking it seems as if it might just be cluster rollover as the dealer suggested.
The lil truck is out of warranty, Truckster, as we bought it third hand with too many k's up other wise I'd be making a lot of noise!
The dealer pointed out, just as you said, Dixie that if they repaired it the sound may soon return.
I might just let sleeping dogs lie, but if I let out the oil any run it over a magnet, Martyn will I see any bits attatched to the magnet if the box is shedding metal?

Thanks again everyone.

Wombats right i had it then blew a rear main seal which filled my clutch up with oil so after a new clutch kit was put in (including thrust bearing) it made the exact same noise.
So yeah i wouldnt stress too much about it.
Guy