Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi everyone

About a week ago my wife stopped our Pajero(3.2 DiD) at a friends house and went in for a chat.

When she wanted to leave after about an hour she got in and started the car. It started revving from 0-red line within seconds, when she switched it off. Checked that the pedal wasn't stuck and tried again. Same result. The insurance came to pick it up and dropped it at our mechanic.

When the car arrived with them they tried it and all was normal. When they put it on the computer the only fault code that showed up was the air temp sensor. This was cleared and they couldn't get the car to misbehave in about 24 hours. For the next 3 days my wife drove the car to school and around town without any problems.

Last Friday I went to fetch a new air temp sensor as I don't want to get stuck over the holidays. After it was installed I drove about 5km and stopped. When I wanted to drive again it was revving very high(up to the red line) again. I tried starting about 5 times with the same result. What we did notice when the sensor was replaced was that it was very oily. so much so that there was actually a drop of oil hanging of the old sensor after it was removed.

Is it normal to have some oil going past the turbo(apparently the sensor is mounted after the turbo)?

I would appreciate any feedback, especially on the likely hood of the turbo being on its way out...

Today the mechanic tried again to get it to misbehave, but all was fine. All excess oil was cleaned out of the pipes and it was taken for a test drive and all was good.

They suspect that there might be something wrong with the acceleration bits... Something sticky or the like...

Any ideas what could be causing this high revving?

Regards,

Willem

Sounds like a runaway diesel engine to me, diesels can run on their own engine oil under the right circumstances.

You might have leaky turbo seals allowing oil past or have excess crank case pressure from ring blowby forcing oil through the positive crankcase ventilation system into the air intake and then fueling the engine to over-rev.

Very luckily for you the 3.2 DID Pajero has a engine shutoff butterfly valve to for quicker shutdown. That probably saved your engine.

Have a macanic look as it ASAP before more engine damage. I am sure 4epikanini will be around shortly for more detailed advice.

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Thanks Nick, the car is currently at the mechanic. Hopefully they can get it sorted soon.

Willem

W.K. wrote:What we did notice when the sensor was replaced was that it was very oily. so much so that there was actually a drop of oil hanging of the old sensor after it was removed.

Is it normal to have some oil going past the turbo(apparently the sensor is mounted after the turbo)?

Hi Willem,

You should expect some oil deposits in the intake system - especially if the car has high km. The crankcase ventilation system returns to the inlet.

What km and age is your pajero?

Have you checked the crankcase oil level (that it has not been overfilled?).

Was there much smoke when the engine redlined?
If so, what colour was the smoke?

The times when you have stopped and then the engine has redlined on starting - were you parked on a steep slope (side slope or front-back slope) or anything else that you can think of as a common denominator?

Andrew

My Pajero is a 2005 with 190 000km on the clock. I baught it on 120000km when it went out of service plan and have serviced it every 7500km since.

After the airtemp sensor was fitted and the excess oil was seen, the mechanic checked the oil level and noticed it was slightly over filled. They serviced it about 2500km ago... this was drained to the correct level.

The car was more or less level every time the carr revved high. The last time the nose was slightly downhill.

Willem

I agree with Nick that it must be getting oil from somewhere into the combustion process. Probably from turbo seals.

Please keep us updated on the outcome and hope to get it sorted soon. It is scary enough redlining on startup but can you imagine that happening while you are driving! !!!!

CATS

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CATS wrote:I agree with Nick that it must be getting oil from somewhere into the combustion process.

I am not so sure that this is dieseling on crank oil - no mention of smoke, even after asking. Insufficient info - but I also look forward to hearing of a successful (and logically explained) outcome.

I experienced a runaway diesel when my Pajero blew the turbo seal.
It is scary experience, which more often than not results in a blown engine.

The symptoms are

• great plumes of white smoke[/*:m]
• the unabily to switch off via the ignition[/*:m][/list:u]
  The only way to stop the engine, is by means of the clutch. If it is an auto, you have no chance, it will self-destruct
  
  The fact that there is no report of smoke and she could stop the engine, indicates that it was something else.
  
  My guess would be some failure in the control system, most probably the "fly by wire" throttle.
  
  PS Forumrunner is useless if you want to format a post!!!
  
  Sent by 4e, from my iPad using Forum Runner

4ePajero wrote: The only way to stop the engine, is by means of the clutch. If it is an auto, you have no chance, it will self-destruct

Hi Gerhard

AFAIK the 3.2 4m41 motor has a shut-off butterfly valve in the intake tract to assist a for a quieter and quicker engine shutdown(it prevents diesel shut-down shudder), this is in conjunction with the fuel cut-off soleniod valve to the injector pump.

I am not sure if the OP's case was a runaway diesel, however if it was the case and she switched off the motor it would shutdown due to oxygen starvation quite quickly.

Check for the obvious and easy to check solutions first, like the grey connector to the drive by wire throttle pedal which Marius said to check on 4x4 community, and eliminate from there.

m2cw.

NIck

Trust me, when mine ran away, the ignition swith, cut-off whatever, made no difference.
I stuck it in 3rd, stood on the brakes and let out the clutch.
That killed it!

It you haven't seen it, you won't believe the absolute mayhem that breaks loose!

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