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Thanks for all your feedback on my 2009 NT that died in the Simpson. I have been a bit slack in answering you all but the car has actually only made it back as far as Melbourne so far, so I am no wiser what actually went wrong at this stage. I am a "Premium" NRMA member so they are paying to truck the Pajero from Alice Springs to my Mitsubishi dealer in Bega. But since she is a 'deaden' it is a lot harder to truck thru all the connections than a car that can be driven.
My name is actually Dave and I am a 65yo retired farmer, so I do know a bit about engines. The driver of the tow vehicle was my 18yo son Jasper in his 2000 NL Pajero petrol with 260,000ks. I was ment to be the one going along to pick up the pieces! My wife and 9yo daughter were our passengers.
When the car first died without any warning, it was hard to crank and I thought we had battery problems. We restarted it about six times with jumper leads but it took a while to realize the engine was close to seizing and we had BIG problems.
And I guess that brings us to the other half of the story. We were carrying just enough fuel to comfortably get us to Jervios Station where we knew we could buy more. BUT, Jasper was petrol, I was diesel........... We did not have enough petrol to tow the 400k to Jervois.
SO. Probably enough petrol for the poor old NL to MAYBE tow the 260k and hundreds of sand dunes back to Birdsville, where there was no way they could repair or replace an engine. OR, 400k up the hell of the Hay River with not enough juice, then another 360k on formed roads to a Mitsubishi Dealer in Alice Springs. We decided Alice was the better option.
We used the satellite phone to ring Peter of Desert Recovery at the Roadhouse in Birdsville. In his 20 years at Birdsville he had never done a recovery that far out on the Hay River. Still he agreed to come out in his specially equipped V8 Toyata and to bring 100l of petrol. He arrived about lunch time the next day. He assessed my Pajero and agreed the engine had had it. Even with his powerful Toyota with big sand tyres to tow with back to Birdsville, he agreed us towing it to Alice was still the best option.
I won't say what Peter charged us, but can confirm desert recovers are EXTREMELY expensive. Where Peter did 'save our bacon' thou was that he disconnected both front and back drive shafts. Apparently autos don't like being towed. I did not know this. When we finally got home, the workshop foreman at Mitsubishi in Bega confirmed that if we had towed the 760k with the drive shafts connected, we would have almost certainly stuffed the gearbox! Something to remember guys.
Onslow- No engine mods. Car is 100% stock except for ARB dif locks, bullbar & winch and duel battery.
Littleriver- All oil changes done as per the book, or say within 500k max of the book. In fact the next service was due at 90,000k. So since we were planning a 8,500k total trip I got this service done just BEFORE we left. She never made the 90,000............
Traketor- Blocked oil galleries. Extremely unlikely when every service done on time.
JoshF- Why not flatbed from Batton Hill? Answer. Money.The Northern Territory Road Service (all states honour each other) only cover, I think, 30k from the depot then it is $4 to $10 a km. Batton Hill is about 400k from Alice. Batton Hill is a small Aboriginal community but the start of a more or less formed road and fairly straight. Hence the tow from Batton Hill to Alice was a 'piece of cake' compared to the Hay River.
Peterng- No, the sump has never been taken off, unless it happened to be part of some scheduled service.
My name is actually Dave and I am a 65yo retired farmer, so I do know a bit about engines. The driver of the tow vehicle was my 18yo son Jasper in his 2000 NL Pajero petrol with 260,000ks. I was ment to be the one going along to pick up the pieces! My wife and 9yo daughter were our passengers.
When the car first died without any warning, it was hard to crank and I thought we had battery problems. We restarted it about six times with jumper leads but it took a while to realize the engine was close to seizing and we had BIG problems.
And I guess that brings us to the other half of the story. We were carrying just enough fuel to comfortably get us to Jervios Station where we knew we could buy more. BUT, Jasper was petrol, I was diesel........... We did not have enough petrol to tow the 400k to Jervois.
SO. Probably enough petrol for the poor old NL to MAYBE tow the 260k and hundreds of sand dunes back to Birdsville, where there was no way they could repair or replace an engine. OR, 400k up the hell of the Hay River with not enough juice, then another 360k on formed roads to a Mitsubishi Dealer in Alice Springs. We decided Alice was the better option.
We used the satellite phone to ring Peter of Desert Recovery at the Roadhouse in Birdsville. In his 20 years at Birdsville he had never done a recovery that far out on the Hay River. Still he agreed to come out in his specially equipped V8 Toyata and to bring 100l of petrol. He arrived about lunch time the next day. He assessed my Pajero and agreed the engine had had it. Even with his powerful Toyota with big sand tyres to tow with back to Birdsville, he agreed us towing it to Alice was still the best option.
I won't say what Peter charged us, but can confirm desert recovers are EXTREMELY expensive. Where Peter did 'save our bacon' thou was that he disconnected both front and back drive shafts. Apparently autos don't like being towed. I did not know this. When we finally got home, the workshop foreman at Mitsubishi in Bega confirmed that if we had towed the 760k with the drive shafts connected, we would have almost certainly stuffed the gearbox! Something to remember guys.
Onslow- No engine mods. Car is 100% stock except for ARB dif locks, bullbar & winch and duel battery.
Littleriver- All oil changes done as per the book, or say within 500k max of the book. In fact the next service was due at 90,000k. So since we were planning a 8,500k total trip I got this service done just BEFORE we left. She never made the 90,000............
Traketor- Blocked oil galleries. Extremely unlikely when every service done on time.
JoshF- Why not flatbed from Batton Hill? Answer. Money.The Northern Territory Road Service (all states honour each other) only cover, I think, 30k from the depot then it is $4 to $10 a km. Batton Hill is about 400k from Alice. Batton Hill is a small Aboriginal community but the start of a more or less formed road and fairly straight. Hence the tow from Batton Hill to Alice was a 'piece of cake' compared to the Hay River.
Peterng- No, the sump has never been taken off, unless it happened to be part of some scheduled service.
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