Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

My friends car is currently at Alan Black for reconditioning of the injection pump after the error code 43 episode at a kilo distance of 135,000. Whilst we were there I requested AB to run my car on the Dyno just for interest. At that stage I was quite happy with my car's performance and did not think that there was anything wrong with it. It never logged any error codes and only did 127,000 km.

Needless to say my car's power graphs turned out quite disappointing. KW at the wheels came out at 65.7 (acceptable range 74 to 79 KW. Torque came in at 220 (acceptable range 270 to 285). To address this the pump must come out and go onto the test bench and injectors will probably need new tips. Minimum cost expected if pump is not too bad around R10,000.

We are planning a Namabia trip via Botswana and Caprivi for July with both my car and the friends car currently being repaired. We will both tow campers.

What do you think I should do considering that I,like many others, also have to count my cents?

Bigwill wrote: Needless to say my car's power graphs turned out quite disappointing. KW at the wheels came out at 65.7 (acceptable range 74 to 79 KW. Torque came in at 220 (acceptable range 270 to 285). To address this the pump must come out and go onto the test bench and injectors will probably need new tips. Minimum cost expected if pump is not too bad around R10,000.

My 2cw.

I think that 10% down on power translates to at least that amount up on fuel consumption.
You are towing to Namibia and don't want to get caught there with problems - it will cost that R10k and then some to get rescued from the wilderness.
Get the pump done and refurbished injectors before you go. You will be more relaxed and will be maintaining the vehicle's reliability.

Thanks Andrew for your logical reply. It really is the answer I was hoping to get just to help me over the decision making hurdle of having to spend what could be more than R10K. Difficult to accept that there is a need to spend so much when the car appears to be running so well.

Bigwill wrote: Difficult to accept that there is a need to spend so much when the car appears to be running so well.

You are so right - I also did the Alan Black thing just before going to Kgalagadi early April. In my case the dyno reading was not quite so low and so they recommended refurbished injectors only, which I did.

My concern was that the car had never had injectors changed (2002 model 235k km on the clock at that stage) and smoked at idle (e.g. game viewing type speeds). If the injectors or pump were to result in overfuelling damage, the R7k - R10k spent at AB would quickly appear insignificant. Especially if damage were to occur in the middle of nowhere.