Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi Everybody.

I'm new on the forum and hope someone have some useful information.
I own a 2003 SWB 3.2 DiD manual Pajero and have been having a terrible missing problem almost since I bought it 5 years ago.
At first it wasn't as bad and only manifested itself once in a while, but lately its been getting really bad to the point that I want to put a match to the vehicle.

If I start the car when its cold it runs just fine.
It has a lot of power and runs really smooth.
When it warms up after I have driven it for a couple of km's it will develop a slight roughness in the engine.
Almost like it's firing random cylinders.
When this happens it makes a lot of black smoke and it will start jerking.
It just keeps getting worse till the car becomes undrivable and sometimes the engine light will come on and the car goes into limp mode.
Then the only cure is to switch it of and let it stand for 15 to 30 min.
When I start it will be better or even 100% again for a while.
I have noticed something over time.
It seems to be much worse on hot days. 15 degree days or colder and sometimes no problem at all.
25 degree days or warmer and it will happen a lot sooner. sometimes within 5 min driving.
Also making it work harder like towing or driving up a pass for example seems to aggravate the problem, which makes me think its somehow related to a sensor that deals with temperature or something.
Another peculiar thing that I've noticed is that the rev counter starts acting up when the miss presents itself.
It will read lower and lower till its indicating 1000rpm at 120km in top gear. when the engine light then comes on the rev counter jumps back to the correct reading, but then the car is in limp mode and I have to stop and switch off in any case.

I have disconnected the boost air temp sensor and driven it without any change.
What is the purpose of this sensor if unplugging it has no effect?

One of the specialists wanted to rebuild my injectors that's has only done 30 000km's.
I think if was an injector problem, the car would smoke and miss all the time and not only when its hot.
Any thoughts someone?
Has anybody come across this before?
I love this car but its driving me nuts.

Regards

Estienne

Hi Estienne,

Sorry to hear of your problems.

1. What fault codes are showing when you connect a Mitsubishi diagnostic tester?
2. When this happens do you notice anything strange with the display of the outside air temperature?

remove the engine cover and look at the throttle body.

There will be a vacuum diaphragm on top and one on the bottom.

Pull both their vacuum pipes off and block with a golf tee or screw or bolt.

Drive it around and see if the problem returns. The engine will shut down with more of a shudder and the Check Engine light will come on as soon as the car is up to temperature and idling. Don't worry about that.


Just drive a couple of days like that and report back.

Hi Andrew.

I just had a diagnostic machine on and it gave 3 fault codes.
1: Fault code 16 Air temp Sensor.
2: Fault code 18 NE Sensor.
3: ECU Fail.

Any ideas?

To 4ePikanini
Hi.

Thanks for your advice.
I followed your advice, but it still did the same thing.
However I found that once it went into limp mode I could drive the car as it would rev higher with the vacuum pipes disconnected, albeit at a great loss of power.
Probably only about 30%.
The roughness goes away though and the rev counter starts functioning properly when it goes into limp mode.

Any thoughts?

Perhaps the instrument cluster board is failing.

Try to find someone with which you can swap the board to confirm.


Sent from my iPad 2

Estienne wrote: One of the specialists wanted to rebuild my injectors that's has only done 30 000km's.
I think if was an injector problem, the car would smoke and miss all the time and not only when its hot.

Hi Estienne,

1. Who did the injectors?
2. Were they refurbished or replaced with new ones?
3. I have read that poor injectors operate worse when the engine is hot than when cold. So with poor injectors the car will start cold, but may battle to start hot.

Estienne wrote:Hi Andrew.

I just had a diagnostic machine on and it gave 3 fault codes.
1: Fault code 16 Air temp Sensor.
2: Fault code 18 NE Sensor.
3: ECU Fail.

Any ideas?

1. Code 16 is boost air temperature sensor (see workshop manual 13C page 11 and follow the diagnostic suggestions re which connectors to check etc.)
2. AFAIK code 18 is actually Engine speed sensor (backup) system (see manual 13C p13 and follow the diagnostic suggestions re which connectors to check etc.).

ECU fail sounds a bit drastic!

Any chance that this engine has been submerged in some water crossings and that maybe some of the connectors have high resistance? If so you might want to get some contact cleaner and open the connectors - especially those indicated in the above diagnostic procedures.

perhaps remove the little piece on the intake manifold with the pipe and it's sensor that sits next to the diesel filter and soak in alcohol.

Then push a wire gently through the hole in the intake manifold to make sure it's not blocked with carbon buildup.

Hi there
With no intention to hijack your thread, I have a similar problem, except, when my 3.2 is cold, it OCCASIONALLY runs very rough when idling and feels as if it is missing, but, when I put my foot down, all seems ok and she runs fine.
This occasionally happens when she is hot, and I am unable to pin it down to a specific set of circumstances.

The idling occasionally feels like it goes very low and the car wants to stall, but, does not. This happens particularly when the car is hot and I come to a stop and press the foot brake. If I release the brake and push it again, it sometimes idles normally.

Any input is welcome.

Bernard wrote:Hi there
With no intention to hijack your thread, I have a similar problem, except, when my 3.2 is cold, it OCCASIONALLY runs very rough when idling and feels as if it is missing, but, when I put my foot down, all seems ok and she runs fine.
This occasionally happens when she is hot, and I am unable to pin it down to a specific set of circumstances.

The idling occasionally feels like it goes very low and the car wants to stall, but, does not. This happens particularly when the car is hot and I come to a stop and press the foot brake. If I release the brake and push it again, it sometimes idles normally.

Any input is welcome.

work through this thread of mine and see if you can catch anything out of line in terms of the throttle flap behaviour.

https://www.pajeroclub.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3035

Well, I felt that my 2002 3.2 Pajero was down on power so I thought I might have the injectors seen to, also considering that I am a couple of hundred km short of 300 000 and would prefer preventative maintenance than breaking down and having costly repairs.
I took my car to a very reputable diesel specialist. They listened to my car and said that it sounds fine and suggested that I leave the injectors alone (don't fix what ain't broken). They also suggested removing the catalytic thingy and blanking off the EGR. I confirmed this with another respected workshop (on the forum) and they concurred, so, the cat comes out and the EGR gets blanked off at a cost of R855.00.

I also went to Mitsubishi service division in Paarden Eiland and asked about servicing the injectors, and was advised that this does not get done unless there is an actual problem ie: smoking etc.

Any thoughts and opinions on this are welcome !!