Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you all had a splendid holiday season. I did, although the Paj did come out of it unscathed - dune-side farm roads are apparently quite unstable in rainy weather! TuffStuff will be receiving a claim form today!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could advise me about some weird fuel meter readings i experienced last week on my Gen4 3.2 LWB.

on the 27th, my battery died for the 3rd time in 2 months, so i decided to just have a new one fitted while on vacation. This was done and the whole thing took less than 5 minutes - old one out, new one in, started and out the shop back to our family on the beach!

anyway, I filled up on diesel the next morning even though there was still half a tank. 4 days later, my wife and I are cruising through the lovely forest roads around P.E. and the car just dies... comes to a halt on the side and that's it! I checked all the electronics, everything working, fuel tank just above empty, no yellow light for low-diesel level, range computer says 60km till refilling... I opened the fuel filler cap, shook the car to hear for diesel sloshing, pushed the handpump and the evidence was clear - the tank was empty! I got towed to the a garage nearby, and the car took 89 liters. So it was bone dry.

Why did the car's brain think it still had enough fuel?

Your inputs will be most appreciated!

btw, the chap who was on vacation with us drives an Isuzu SC 300 4X4 and was unashamedly over the moon that he had a Pajero attached to his revovery points twice in a matter of days. Did i say Chap? i meant CHOP!

Cheers.
G

no one yet? bummer - i was hoping to avoid trip to the stealers. Maybe I'll call Freek.

Happy Trailing y'all!
G

I have found that after a battery replacement it takes a while for everything to sort itself out. I would give the car a while before asking other people to scratch around in the electronics.

I hope you didn't tow it far, those auto boxes don't enjoy it at all.

I was hoping someone would say that about the battery change.

now about the towing - it was in neutral, towed about 2-3kms ... should i be worried?! I am now!

I'm not even going to pretend that I understand the workings of an auto box, but you shouldn't tow it. It has to do with certain parts not getting lubricated.

I'm sure if all is OK still, then the short haul didn't do damage.

The 'box' was being used for an hour before so was 'lubed' and it was just up the road so I hope it fine! It has done another 1500km since and is performing as per normal, so I hope its fine! don't want any nasty surprises! I'll do some reading about this, let you know what i find...

Thanks for your reply btw.

Happy new year!

Ok, so it seems towing it, at slow speed over a short distance is fine. We did no fast than 30kph, for about 3km.

I feel better

Redcat, sorry to hear about your troubles. I didn't realise the battery could give such issues... Best watch the km on this tank to see if it does the same. If again, maybe disconnect the battery for a few minutes (I think 15?), and then reconnect and try again.

Thanks also for the info about towing the auto box... Good to know should it ever be needed.

Also, Reading your 89l, I was shocked since I've filled 88l before - admittedly driving about a 100km on the highway from when the light came on. I though there was a bit in the fuel line... Definitely won't push it so far again.

Redcat

Keep an eye out for the next few tanks and see how it goes, but I think that you might have the dreaded dented fuel tank problem. Especially since you mention some dune damage in your first post.

This is quit common on vehicles used off-road a bit too fast and happens when you bang the fuel tank on a large object like a rock or even sand harder than the plastic tank cover is designed to endure. The plastic tank cover will pop back into shape but unfortunately the metal tank behind it will not. The dent will keep the fuel meter level up making it think that there is enough fuel while the fuel would be used up. Your comment on only putting in 89l when it was all out of fuel also strengthen my suspicion.

The tanks are not repairable and most second hand ones you get are also dented. Take your own vaseline and chair when going to the agents to get pricing. Around R4500 when I had to do mine many years ago due to inexperienced overeager driving. I have yet to find a proper tank protector readily available in SA unfortunately. Never had a problem since but now drive a bit more carefully and am aware of where my tank is in relation to obstacles.

Cheers

CATS

Well that's definitely something to think about! Thanks GT and CATS. I should have the panel beaters revisit their quotes then for the fuel tank and cover. The cover has a nice big tear in it, probably from one of the rocks i packed under the wheels. I did this initially to stop the car from sliding any further down the dune, and then added more to help me drive out of that really unfortunate situation! Was most perplexing. I wasn't even driving and the road side just gave way. Must have been all the rain. Oh well. S**T happens.

As for the fuel tank protectors. I've only ever found one for the CK and BK models, some Aussie company. have written to them twice with no feedback - so maybe a bit of a project we can look at? simple design really.