Mitsubishi V4A5 / V5A51

5-speed automatic · longitudinal · 1996–2021

Also known as: v5a51, v5afw, v4a51, v4aw3, mitsubishi rear-drive automatic

Mitsubishi's rear-drive automatic — in the Pajero and Shogun.

These are working four-wheel-drive vehicles and heat is what shortens the transmission's life. Towing and low-range use put load through the torque converter rather than the gearbox, and the fluid pays for it first — which makes an auxiliary cooler a preventative measure rather than an accessory.

Its recurring complaint is a shudder or a slip that appears hot and loaded and disappears when it is not — the lock-up clutch, and a fluid-condition symptom before it is a mechanical one.

Where genuine wear appears it is the direct clutch and the overdrive band, presenting as a flare on one change under load. Catching it early is the whole difference, because a slipping clutch fills the fluid with what it is shedding.

Fluid is Mitsubishi's Diamond SP-III and the interval is real whatever the handbook implies; on a vehicle used for towing it is shorter than the book.

Cars fitted with this gearbox

2 generations. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.

Mitsubishi

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