Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Bud, I think you should slow down.
The Pajero is nothing like the Audi.

Here is my take on road holding and drive wheels:

When you apply power to the drive wheels a RWD will over steer and a FWD will under steer. When you back off with the right foot the opposite happens.

It is very easy to test, find a long sweeping curve and go into rather quickly. When the car starts to lean, play a little with the right foot. Feel how the steering responds to acceleration and deceleration respectively.

In rally terms a RWD is fast in and slow out of a corner and a FWD is slow in and fast out. The main reason for rally cars to go AWD, is the better acceleration out of corners from powerfull motors.

In the old days could a RWD Nissan Skyline and a FWD Golf go neck and neck for a whole weekend. Some conditions will benefit RWD and others FWD.

Very few drivers are likely to have the correct skill and experience to use his right foot correctly in a cornering emegency. Lets say you go into that long sweeping corner too fast and your RWD car is starting to drift to the outside. What should you do? ACCELERATE - the tail will come out slightely and you will get the nose pointing into the corner again. Once you have achieved this, you can back off a little to try and bleed some speed off. This process could be required quite a few times durimng a single corner. Schumi could do this so fast that the Benelton F1 telemetri (on the accelerator) failed to pick it up.

The beauty of FWD in the same corner, is when your car starts to drift all you have to do (and this comes instinctively) is to back off a little on the throttle. This will get the nose pointing back into the corner AND scrub off some speed all at the same time. A rally driver will give his Golf's steering a good old yank (in the opposite direction) at the entrance to a sharp corner, this would unsettle the tail and produce an oversteer situation as he enters the corner. Now he can make some noise with his right foot to get extra speed and to correct the oversteer.

Now to get to our beloved Pajeros and this thread: If you have a newer Pajero with traction control (T/C) everything I said above makes no real difference. As soon as the sensors spot oversteer, they react dramatically by applying brake force to the required wheel and the power from the motor is reduced. So even if you are an experienced, spirited driver and want to use your right foot correctly, the T/C system does the opposite and saves the day (and your bacon). I am prepared to take a big wager that a T/C Pajero, on a dry tar road, will have zero handling benefit by going 4H. On a dirt road the only benefit is that you would be faster and deeper into the corner before the T/C has to save your day (and I imagine even more dramatically so).

I still maintain the following:
If I think there is a possibilty that the rear wheels will scrub for traction every now and then, 4H is my option of choice.
If I know the rear wheels will spin every now and then, 4HLc is my choice. I NEVER lock the centre diff on a dirt road. I have no doubt that if you need to lock the centre diff (which produces massive under steer) to make your car stable, then you either drive like a maniac or you have a rubbish suspension (either by design - no names here - or through wear and tear). If you need to corner quickly in 4HLC, you are going to go off on the outside of the corner - another wager I'm prepared to undertake.

As a matter of fact I only run in 2H on all "high speed" dirt roads.

I believe it to be the appropriate time to use the expression:

"nuff said"

The sensation of leaning into a corner when in 2WD is caused by the ASC system in the Pajero.

Let me explain:

When you enter a corner at high speed you need to accelerate towards the exit of the corner to prevent nose dive. For most experienced drivers this is a "natural" reaction and most don't even think about it.

Now when you drive a heavy vehicle like the Pajero with a softish suspension built for on and off road use and it is only pulling in the back wheels things get more interesting. Going into the corner the nose will start diving. The driver corrects this by applying more power and since the opposite rear wheel is now unloaded it will experience some slip. This is not a problem and barely noticeable to the driver, but the ASC system will "see" this and "correct" the problem by cutting power to the engine and traction control will also kick in. Now you have two systems fighting the drivers inputs. The driver will get the sensation of excessive body roll as these systems decelerates the vehicle to bring it down to a "safe speed".

In 4WD you have more traction and the ASC will kick in later, so this is why it feels more stable.

On the Gen 4 Pajero the amount of airflow over the front diff is limited. When engaged on tar roads at speeds in excess of100km/h the oil in this diff can overheat causing oil leaks and in some cases component failures. Thus the reasoning behind the inclusion of a 2WD option on this vehicle. It's called a fuel saving option for obvious reasons, but it is much more than that. Test it if you will and you will find oil leaks at around 20000km intervals on the front diff.

Tried it but sensed some resistence going around traffic cirles (obviously without diff lock engaged) which I did not like. So back to 4x2 in normal weather conditions going 4x4 in wet conditions. Must say the SWB version I have does feel a bit dicey when cornering in 4x2, therefore I am taking it much easier than in my X3.

thanks Karl for your input,

I value same

I have just returned from a trip from durban to stillbaai and back and drove in 4x4 mode there and 2x4 mode half way back

Then it rained and I thought it safer in 4 wheel drive.

I had no problems in either and have re thought my previous problem of vehicle feeling loose and it is just at tight corners and above 140 kms

Anyway I reduced my speed to true gps speed of 118 for most of the way and found this to be a good speed to travel at

Strangely the fuel consumption varied but then I have a roof top tent and an awning on the roof rack

had some most pleasant camping experiences at stormsriver mouth and also at Natures Valley Rest Camp def to be recommended

The meat is absolutely fantastic at the local butchery at Albertinia close to still baai and worthy of a visit. The dry wors some of the best I have tasted for a long time and not to mention the lamb!

The fuel consumption averaged out at about 12.5 which I thought was good enough

I tried the 2x4 to see if I could get the consumption down but it did not seem to make much difference

The wind however seem to make a difference of about 32 litres per 100 km mainly between PE and East London

Chat again