Catastrophic water leak on the way to Kamcha-I

At Workshop

The excitement of the high speed (and probably gearbox-destroying) tow ended at the mechanic’s workshop where they immediately started pulling down the engine.

: Deflate front towers to lower vehicle.

: Provides easier acess to engine bay.

Cause of the Problem

It didn’t take long to ascertain why the cooling system required regular top ups and why it suddenly let go. A water pipe had been corroding and leaking for some time (months?), staining the engine block and eventually releasing most of the water from the cooling system.

The cessation of the aircon was an early warning sign – heeded – that not all was right. When we resumed our journey – after the temp gauge returned to normal operating temperature – it was clearly (with the benefit of hindsight) not reading correctly or reading air rather than water. I will be installing an Engine Guard on my Nissan Patrol touring 4WD in Australia and will consider retrofitting one to the Pajero. Cheap early warning protection.

Broken Timing Belt

The timing belt was old and extremely worn (no ridges left) – clearly the original item. It had snapped. Whether that was what caused the engine to stop or whether the seizing of the engine caused the belt to break is difficult to ascertain although I suspect the latter.

Strip Down

With two mechanics working on the engine strip down it did not take long.

Tentative rough estimate to rebuild – ฿50-60,000. A replacement engine might be a better option.

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