Pajero Gen 4 3,2 Did - Slow acceleration then suddenly picks up speed.
Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2025 3:45 pm
Back in March I was parked around 30 Km or so from home. When I started the engine, all seemed normal but pulling into traffic the Pajero was very sluggish to accelerate and if pushed, suddenly the engine would surge and it would change into the next higher gear. There was no CEL, so I crawled towards home. On going round a circle very close to home the Pajero suddenly reverted to normal. So I put it to the back of my mind.
Yesterday I did a long round trip of around 600 Km. I filled up before leaving and had an uneventful trip.
This morning as I drove the Pajero, the same thing happened again except this time it doesn't seem to want to 'correct' itself and is still crawling at low speeds but once it gets going seems (almost) normal but somewhat sluggish. As I've kept close to my house in suburbia I haven't attempted any speeds faster then 60 Km/hr, but in traffic it's normally lower than that.
I had used my 'handy dandy' Bluetooth dongle and the Torque Pro app and it said there was a warning about the ECR system. After driving it again, the warning was no longer there.
I've purchased a new oil filter hopping that might do the trick. It's the Fram equivalent of the GUD Z188. The current filter is a GUD Z188 and is 15KKm and 30 months old. Unfortunately the Fram was the only one available close to home. If it improves matters then I'll change it to an OEM one at some stage. My immediate concern is getting the Pajero back running.
So I just went out to the car and checked the acceleration in neutral and the vehicles 'revved right up'. Hmm. Tries it on the road and bingo. It's back to normal again
I had 'fiddled' with the connectors to the ECR (wiggled them a bit) prior to the last 'test'. Maybe there's a loose connection? Would that account for the crawling and very poor acceleration?
I'd hate for the same thing to happen if I'm miles away from home and these 'spurious' problems are the worst ones to correct.
Any thoughts on the matter would be gratefully accepted.
Best,
Tony
Yesterday I did a long round trip of around 600 Km. I filled up before leaving and had an uneventful trip.
This morning as I drove the Pajero, the same thing happened again except this time it doesn't seem to want to 'correct' itself and is still crawling at low speeds but once it gets going seems (almost) normal but somewhat sluggish. As I've kept close to my house in suburbia I haven't attempted any speeds faster then 60 Km/hr, but in traffic it's normally lower than that.
I had used my 'handy dandy' Bluetooth dongle and the Torque Pro app and it said there was a warning about the ECR system. After driving it again, the warning was no longer there.
I've purchased a new oil filter hopping that might do the trick. It's the Fram equivalent of the GUD Z188. The current filter is a GUD Z188 and is 15KKm and 30 months old. Unfortunately the Fram was the only one available close to home. If it improves matters then I'll change it to an OEM one at some stage. My immediate concern is getting the Pajero back running.
So I just went out to the car and checked the acceleration in neutral and the vehicles 'revved right up'. Hmm. Tries it on the road and bingo. It's back to normal again
I had 'fiddled' with the connectors to the ECR (wiggled them a bit) prior to the last 'test'. Maybe there's a loose connection? Would that account for the crawling and very poor acceleration?
I'd hate for the same thing to happen if I'm miles away from home and these 'spurious' problems are the worst ones to correct.
Any thoughts on the matter would be gratefully accepted.
Best,
Tony