The Pajero Rear Air Conditioner is positioned at the rear on the right hand side of the vehicle . It has a plastic cover to provide some protection to the air con unit which is okay for small stones being flicked up when driving on gravel roads but more substantial protection would be better if taking your Pajero further off road.

The Pajero’s front and rear air conditioners are linked so damage to either one could stop both from working. In Australia’s climate especially during the warmer months air conditioning is necessary. Hence the need to provide better protection to the rear air con unit to ensure that the air con unit can not be damaged. This is where the Asfir 4×4 MTM48 Air condition skid plate comes into the picture.

We purchased the Asfir 4×4 MTM48 Air condition skid plate direct from the manufacturer in Israel for about $130.00 AU and $70.00 AU for postage. We received the Asfir plate about 10 days later.

The Asfir Air con skid plate is made of 6mm thick 5052 aluminum and is designed to be fitted using existing bolt holes on the Pajero and comes supplied with 2 brackets and longer replacement bolts.

Aluminum Grade 5052: This is the highest strength alloy of the more non heat-treatable grades. Its fatigue strength is higher than most other aluminum grades and good resistance to marine atmosphere and salt water corrosion.

I painted the Asfir plate with anti chip black paint. While I do have a 180 LPM air compressor suitable for spray painting I was feeling a bit lazy and painted the Asfir air con skid plate by brush, hence the poor quality paint job 🙂

The Asfir Rear Air con plate is very easy to fit. The OEM plastic air con cover can be left in place as there is enough room for the Asfir skid plate to fit over the OEM cover. There are only two bolts that need to be replaced on the Pajero. So, the first thing to do is to locate those bolts and remove them.

These following photos are of the front bolt to be removed, taken from different angles .

These following photos are of the rear bolt to be removed, taken from different angles .

 

There are two brackets required for the Asfir 4×4 air con skid plate to be fitted. The brackets are of different sizes, the largest of the Asfir brackets goes to the front and the smaller Asfir bracket goes to the back. The Asfir plate has a kink in it so it makes it easy to see which way the Asfir air con plate goes.

Supplied with the Asfir 4×4 air con skid plate are 6 bolts. Two bolts replace the bolts from the Pajero and four bolts are for bolting the brackets to the Asfir skid plate.

Next, bolt in the larger Asfir bracket to the front using the replacement bolt then do the same for the smaller Asfir bracket to the rear of the Pajero.

The last stage is to actually bolt the skid plate into the four holes on the brackets using the four bolts supplied.

The fitting of the Asfir 4×4 Rear Air Con Skid Plate is very easy and takes no time at all, but I have an issue with the plate. We have a factory fitted towbar. The rear bolt to the Asfir Bracket replaces a bolt that holds the tow bar on. The towbar adds 5 or so millimetres to the height of where the Asfir Air con skid plate rear bracket would go if the there was no towbar. This appears to have pushed the skid plate a little lower than the designer planned. This causes the plate to rub on the lower Pajero body panel.

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