'Dirty diesel'?
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 6:49 pm
Hi,
After returning from our annual December holiday from Strandfontein (West-coast close to Vredendal) to Johannesburg we had the following problem.
Our Pajero is much loved by all members of the family and we travelled with 4 people in the car, plus a dog (Rottweiler in the back) and a full trailer, thus a full load. The Pajero has done 240'000km (automatic, 2003 GLS lwb DID).
We try and avoid the main routes as far as possible and every year travelling to the West Coast we use the following route:
Johannesburg - Bloemfontein – Petrusburg - Koffiefontein – Petrusville - De Aar - Vosburg – Carnavon - Calvinia.. etc
However, this year on the way back we stopped for the night at Petrusville and also filled up with diesel. About 10 km after filling up I could feel the Pajero was struggling for power. This was a big cause of concern given that we are travelling between very small towns. The car was almost ‘stuttering’ to accelerate up a small inclined, this was followed by the two yellow warning lights of traction control and stability control coming on and staying on.
I immediately suspected the diesel quality of the recent fill-up at Petrusville and realised I needed to change the diesel filter, but had no spare. At this stage the car was losing more power and I struggled to do more than 100km/h with the aircon switched off. The next town was Koffiefontein and given it was a Saturday there was no mechanic available (and we really tried to find one).
In Koffiefontein the two warning lights disappeared when I released pressure from the accelerator and since we had no way of replacing the diesel filter we carried on looking for help 130km away in Bloemfontein.
For some reason the car pulled better, almost normal, and we were able to maintain a speed between 120-130 km/h, but if you floored the accelerator the lights would come on again, and you could feel lack of power. In Bloemfontein the Mitsubishi garage was also closed (even before 12 AM on Saturday), and we headed for Johannesburg after filling up with more diesel in an attempt to dilute the suspected bad diesel…
We arrived home without any issues.
The Pajero is scheduled for a service at Mitspro later this week and has not shown any of the symptoms again (will swop the water pump too as preventative measure given the millage)
I can also guess that the two warning lights indicated that the car was not getting the required amount of diesel from blocked filter, or, going into some kind of ‘safe mode’.
Lessons from this would be to carry a spare diesel filter and not to fill up with diesel in very small towns. At least I hope that is what caused the problem given that the previous day we travelled 740 km without a hick-up in very very warm weather from Lutzville and the problem only occurred the next day after we filled up.
I hope it is nothing more serious
Regards
Gideon
After returning from our annual December holiday from Strandfontein (West-coast close to Vredendal) to Johannesburg we had the following problem.
Our Pajero is much loved by all members of the family and we travelled with 4 people in the car, plus a dog (Rottweiler in the back) and a full trailer, thus a full load. The Pajero has done 240'000km (automatic, 2003 GLS lwb DID).
We try and avoid the main routes as far as possible and every year travelling to the West Coast we use the following route:
Johannesburg - Bloemfontein – Petrusburg - Koffiefontein – Petrusville - De Aar - Vosburg – Carnavon - Calvinia.. etc
However, this year on the way back we stopped for the night at Petrusville and also filled up with diesel. About 10 km after filling up I could feel the Pajero was struggling for power. This was a big cause of concern given that we are travelling between very small towns. The car was almost ‘stuttering’ to accelerate up a small inclined, this was followed by the two yellow warning lights of traction control and stability control coming on and staying on.
I immediately suspected the diesel quality of the recent fill-up at Petrusville and realised I needed to change the diesel filter, but had no spare. At this stage the car was losing more power and I struggled to do more than 100km/h with the aircon switched off. The next town was Koffiefontein and given it was a Saturday there was no mechanic available (and we really tried to find one).
In Koffiefontein the two warning lights disappeared when I released pressure from the accelerator and since we had no way of replacing the diesel filter we carried on looking for help 130km away in Bloemfontein.
For some reason the car pulled better, almost normal, and we were able to maintain a speed between 120-130 km/h, but if you floored the accelerator the lights would come on again, and you could feel lack of power. In Bloemfontein the Mitsubishi garage was also closed (even before 12 AM on Saturday), and we headed for Johannesburg after filling up with more diesel in an attempt to dilute the suspected bad diesel…
We arrived home without any issues.
The Pajero is scheduled for a service at Mitspro later this week and has not shown any of the symptoms again (will swop the water pump too as preventative measure given the millage)
I can also guess that the two warning lights indicated that the car was not getting the required amount of diesel from blocked filter, or, going into some kind of ‘safe mode’.
Lessons from this would be to carry a spare diesel filter and not to fill up with diesel in very small towns. At least I hope that is what caused the problem given that the previous day we travelled 740 km without a hick-up in very very warm weather from Lutzville and the problem only occurred the next day after we filled up.
I hope it is nothing more serious
Regards
Gideon
.