Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Eish! Maybe between the two of us we have all the Pajero bad luck out there

Maybe we must just fix one of the two from the working parts of both.

I really, and I can say this with first hand experience, feel your frustration.

CATS

Yup, sound like a plan!

I must say I am loosing some of my high regard for these motors to do high milage.
1. Cl diesel has a 4m41 Pajero from a well known rugby player from 10 years ago, they had the pump redone for him by Allan BLACK in springs and bought and fitted brand new injectors. A month later he has a cracked no. 2 piston, and he is now taking cl diesel to task....

2. At the auto electrical place(automax) there is also another 4m41 with a recently ovehaulled motor done by a different indy. The owner took it to them as they(the indy) cannot get the engine to run properly. Been standing for 3 months, dropped sleeve apparently, and, and, and more...

Eish, i need to stay positive here, but the injector and pump specialists really do not like to work on the Mitsu diesels, they ALL say they are very finicky...

Sent from somewhere in a galaxy far, far away...

Thanks for the clarification / additional info.

If they rebuild the pump, I think I recall reading on the Aussie forum that it is a good idea for the control slieve(?) and the actual high pressure piston to be replaced because they get scored from dirt in fuel etc over time.

Re this:

Nick Gibson wrote: There might be a warranty still on the work done at mitspro on the pump when skillie had the Pajero fixed, he is finding out for me if it valid before I take it to a diesel injector pump specialist and possibly lose the warranty...

What work was done on the pump by Mitspro?

andrew.ashton wrote:


What work was done on the pump by Mitspro?

Hi Andrew. Skillie had the Pajero taken to mitspro to have the car sorted out after a saga with contaminated fuel wasn't resolved by the insurance company.

They (mitspro) removed the pump and had it send to Randburg Diesel for assessment and repair and to be refitted again. Garentee for 6 months, but specifically excludes any and all electrical faults, which is what I have.

It's beginning to be a he said she said saga as there are already 4 parties involved. Cl diesel, automax Auto electrical, Randburg Diesel, and ECU technologies. Hopefully I can find the truth between all the different opinions, as there is nothing black-and-white about this issue, as there is not one company that can do all of the work above in house.

Sent from somewhere in a galaxy far, far away...

Hi Nick,

Just a random thought.

Is there any possibility that the additional pressure drop (caused by the 5micron filter on the suction side of the Injector Pump) could have caused cavitation to occur on the vane pump. Could you get some photos of the damage to the vane pump?

Could dry running of the HP side of the pump, as a result of fuel starvation, cause the actuator (control slieve) to seize and then that result in overcurrent?

andrew.ashton wrote:Hi Nick,

Just a random thought.

Is there any possibility that the additional pressure drop (caused by the 5micron filter on the suction side of the Injector Pump) could have caused cavitation to occur on the vane pump. Could you get some photos of the damage to the vane pump?

Could dry running of the HP side of the pump, as a result of fuel starvation, cause the actuator (control slieve) to seize and then that result in overcurrent?

HI Andrew, Interesting thought.

I spoke to the Tim ,technical guy at GUD, when selecting my 5 micron 'polishing' filter and he told my to use the Z314 filter which was specc'd for use in a large common rail diesel truck. He suggested I use this filter as I was worried about flow rate restriction, and as he said, the truck engine uses more fuel per hour than the pajero ever would.
See post here:
https://www.pajeroclub.co.za/forum/view ... 440#p37542

I am sure it is a possibility, but wouldn't there be more cases similar to mine when the standard single OEM diesel filter get blocked with contaminated fuel or from lack of servicing? I also was definitely not down on power due to fuel restriction/starvation, she pulled like a train right up to the end...

I am still waiting on feedback from Duane from Randburg diesel, if they send me pics I will post them... Apparently you cant see damage to the vane pump easily as it is very small tolerances they work toward. Ras from CL diesel showed me a damaged vane pump from a Bosch VP44 pump off a nissan 3.0 16v TD engine. The damage to the vane pump looks like very slight scoring around the circumference of the pump, you can't even feel it!

I doubt it is the vane pump causing all my issues, I think they just want to replace it while they are there for good measure.

Ok, more feedback.

Chassis Electrical: (Automax)
Automax could not find any fault with the wiring loom from the blown fuse via ECU to the plugs to connect to the VRZ pump. Alternator checked out to be 100% within spec. They will be on hand at CL Diesel as the Pajero is started for the first time one the pump is re-installed to check all is OK and hopefully not have a repeat performance.
Verdict - problem originated somewhere in or on the pump. (And that is where the smoke came from as well.)

ECU: (ECU technologies - Matt)
ECU checked out, they did say it got a little hot at a stage but is still functioning 100%.
Verdict: Could not accurately say what caused the problem by only looking at the ECU. Must give a thumbs up to them for very good service!!

Zexel VRZ pump: (Randburg diesel & Turbo)
I am having the pump refurbished at R25k.
Verdict: Fault on car chassis, although they now admit it could possibly be a fault on the pump causing it to have shorted/burnt out. I am having all the replaced parts of the pump sent back down to me to have a look at, what good it would do I am not sure -- I will however take some pics and post.

Hopefully she should be up and running by next week sometime!

(Hopeful) Conclusion to my saga:

I went to fetch my Pajero back on the evening of the 7th of April. There were some delays in the process once the pump had arrived back; as CL diesel picked up a permanent error code 25 once the pump was fitted when doing diagnostics prior to starting the vehicle for the first time. The Pajero had to be sent back to Automax for the wiring & ECU to be checked again – 3 days. No fault found. Car was then sent back to CL diesel. CL diesel had a look at the pump and found the “timer piston position sensor” only had 2 wires coming out of it instead of 3. See Picture.
I had a bit of a fight with Randburg diesel about where the calibration certificate was (it was not supplied) and why they fitted a second hand part to my Pajero when I paid for a new one. Eventually they decided to send down a new on which was fitted in-situ with the pump on the engine by CL diesel. They did diagnostics again and then started the engine and now she is running beautifully, only problem was the SRS light stays illuminated (error code 12 & 13) and the outside temperature sensor wasn’t working on the on-board display screen (and therefore my climate control didn’t work either).

I found a large 38 pin junction plug (D28) where all 6 sensor wires (4 for SRS airbag sensors & 2 for ambient temp) go through to the engine bay from the cabin – behind the front passenger kick-plate.
I knew that the wiring had been given a once over so I reseated the plug and the ambient temperature gauge worked again, but the SRS light remained lit. I tested the front airbag sensor pins (4, 5, 6, 7) at this junction and they came in at 0.820 kilo-Ohm or 820 Ohm – so both sensors are spot on. I need to still look at the SRS-ECU and see if that was also damaged, or if that plug was disturbed as well during fault finding.

My conclusion to what caused the issue: GE actuator - catastrophic failure of ROM module.

I asked for my old parts back from Randburg diesel; they sent back the GE actuator, a timer piston pin, and a timer piston position sensor (also a second hand unit – not mine) as quoted on invoice for replacement. I was always of the opinion that the black ROM module attached to the side of the GE actuator was at fault, as I mentioned earlier in this thread on smelling burnt wiring on my fingers after handling the unit. I removed it and decided to open it up for further inspection. The whole unit was fried – seriously burnt on the inside, even some of the wires had melted inside the lead, and one even burnt completely* off. I reckon that the GE unit itself is 100%, if you could obtain a new ROM module you could re-attach/resolder it to the pins inside the actuator and use it again.
As far as I can see the mechanical side of the GE actuator has a stepper motor of sorts inside which manually rotates a shaft. This in-turn causes more diesel to be injected into the motor to accelerate the engine. It also has a a fuel temp sensor underneath which is always bathed in diesel fuel inside the pump.


I must say I am a happy chappie right now at having my van back, Pedro is running sweetly (and not as noisy anymore) and has more mid-range grunt.

I must just add, hats off to Rassie at CL Diesel & Gerard at Automax for sorting out all the gremlins and their utter professionalism shown in sorting my strange issues with my Pajero - definitely a thumbs up for their service.[/font]

Thumbs UP to CL Diesel and Automax for stepping up to the plate and assisting you in sorting out this issue.! Hopefully it will all be a bad dream only, in the not too distant future.

Interesting that the GE Actuator turned out to be fine except for the burned wires! Which again brings us back to the question as to why the whole shebang went up in melted plastic? Why did the ROM unit decide to pack it in? Any theories?

SUPER GLAD you are on the road again!

CATS