Keeping you on the straight and level

Three months ago, much to my horror because I thought my Pajero was indestructible, a small bubble developed in the fluid of the altimeter of my car.  To those of you who do not know the altimeter is the gauge on the dash board of the Pajero that tells you what angle your car is leaning at when you go up, down or at an angle to hills.  Over the next 3 weeks this bubble grew till the point where there was no longer any fluid left in the gauge.  For some time I accepted the fate of this instrument and ignored it.  In actual fact the gauge still worked without the fluid but not as well.  Eventually the frustration of something on my car not working properly was too much and I set about finding out how to fix it.

Of course the cost of a new gauge was over the top so surgery on the broken one was my only option.

A number of people that I spoke to on the matter questioned why I would even want it in the car as it severed little purpose (in their opinion).  However I consider it the most important gauge in the car when I travel off road.  When I’m travelling broadside to an embankment at an angle of 42⁰ and Rachel is sitting in the passenger seat alongside me with white knuckles from hanging onto the seat whilst glaring at me in a manner that suggests I’m going to be in a lot of trouble as soon as we are back on the level, I can point to the gauge and calmly say “Relax Dear, we still have another 3⁰ to go before it starts to get serious.”  Everybody else sees this useless trinket as just an altimeter but to me it is the only scientific thing I have at my disposal in the bush to justify the fact that the car can climb the side of that sand hill.  Just remember fellas that this usually only works the first time.  After this you have to allow for the fact that the thick ear on the left side of your head will cause the car to over balance a little earlier so this needs to be compensated for.

Anyway my research lead me to discover that broken altimeter gauges are very common in Pajeros so I thought I’d let others out there know how to fix them. Why do they brake?  Well being up on the dash next to the windscreen these gauges get very hot and as their temperature increases the fluid inside them expands.  This expansion cause great pressure inside the gauge which can cause the plastic backing plate to crack thus the fluid leaks out.  The plastic backing plate is actually quite flexible to allow for this expansion of fluid however I guess it can only handle so much punishment over the years and eventually fatigue sets in causing it to crack.

The moment we have all been waiting for.  How do we fix it?

Equipment required:

Paraffin liquid

(can be purchased from Supermarkets “Woollies is where I got mine” or

chemists for around $3 for a 250ml bottle.)

Good quality araldite

(I used Sealy’s and so far it is still holding)

Pair of old safety goggles

The best ones are the one piece goggles that have the side protection on them as well.  They are a bit softer than the sunglasses style safety goggles so will allow a bit of flex as the fluid heats and expands on hot days.

Step 1:         Remove the gauge from the dash.  It only has a few screws to hold it in so with a bit of effort this should be easily achieved.

Step 2:        Brake the old plastic backing plate off the back of the gauge and drain out any remaining fluid.  Then carefully clean with a rag.

Step 3:        Make up a new backing plate out of a pair of old safety goggles. These are resistant to chemicals, quite flexible and fairly easy to cut and shape. 

Step 4:        Fill the gauge up with the Paraffin liquid but not so full that it flows

onto the lip where you will be gluing.  Your glue won’t stick very well if it is covered in Paraffin.  The Paraffin is not quite the same as what was originally in the gauge but seems to work fine anyway.

Step 5:        Glue into place your backing plate.  Use good quality glue for this.  I used Sealy’s Epoxy resign (Araldite).  So far this glue has worked well.  I have heard of others using locktite superglue but I can’t vouch for this as I have not tried it.  Be careful not to put too much glue like I did or it will drip down onto the inside face of the gauge and make a mess.  It took me a further hour to clean this up and was very difficult to do.  If this does happen contact me and I’ll explain the best way to clean it.

Step 6:        Allow drying for 24hrs.

Step 7:        This should now be fixed and ready to put back into the car.  If the

fluid level is not high enough (like mine) you will need to drill out the plastic plug on top of the gauge, and pour a little more Paraffin in (use a syringe if you have one) then seal up the hole with glue. 

Mine has now been repaired for the last 6 weeks and seems to be working well.

Best of Luck.

Trevor