Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi guys,

My name is Fabien, fresh and new on this forum.
I just bought a 1997 3.0 LWB that is currently sitting at an auto electrician to get it started (luckily, the said auto electrician is my father in law ). It was a bargain and it has low mileage (170.000km). I just can't wait to have it running!

I'm originally from France, and discovered what "4x4" means here in SA. I used to own a Defender 90 bakkie, and what a joy it was to drive off the road (even on, I must admit). And no, it didn't ever let me down!

Now that's going to be a good comparison point for the Pajero.

I'll try to post a couple pictures as soon as I've got some, and also some kind of update about the electrical problems. All I know is that it shut off and couldn't start again. Apparently there's no ignition and/or fuel going to the engine, so it's probably a faulty transponder or something like that. I'll see... Also need to fix a jammed rear door lock and a few scratches. I must say I don't like a car that doesn't need any attention. Hopefully this one won't need too much!

Cheers.
Fab.

Hey Fab,

Welcome, and I hope you will soon be a mobile Pajero owner

Thanks!

In the mean time I'll read the forum to find some useful information.

Hey guys,

Just wanted to come by and give an update to those interested in my Pajero saga-story...

So, I can't believe it's been over 4 months already!
The "non-runner bargain" proved to be very time consuming, considering I'm trying to keep the $$$ bill low and not put a full time mechanic on the job. So it's pretty much been a spare time/weekend job.

First the electrics were sorted quite quickly. A burnt relay was the culprit.
And then the fun and games began. The engine had a misfire, so we took off the intake manifold, only to discover $h*t loads of silicon sealant, stripped bolts, the kind of quality workmanship that can only be found in the back of a dodgy, greedy and dark back alley of an unscrupulous person trying to very temporarily fix something in order to sell it and make some bucks, no matter if the poor buyer (me, in this case) ends up with his head in a rats nest...

This was only the beginning, because after pretty much sorting out the mess and taking out of the equation a problem from the coils and injectors, it appeared that one of the cylinders had low compression. No worries to have, the car was sent to a qualified mechanic to do the heads, and realise that the aforementioned previous owner had completely mixed up the hydraulic lifter between intake and exhaust.
Eight grand later, the car comes back and the misfire has gone worse!
Now who's fault is it? Compressions are fine, injectors and ignition are fine... What the heck is going on??? We started to look towards the ECU, maybe the burnt relay had damaged it and it was now working (well actually, NOT working) in an erratic manner. So my father in law goes to one of his connections who happened to be working on a Pajero like mine to see if he could borrow the ECU. He had a look under the bonnet at the same time, and believe me not (that's a true Sherlock Holmes moment to me!) he realised that the injector's harness had been put back the wrong way around, left to right bank, by the guys who did the head but received the car half stripped. So I can't blame them, but I mean, how's that for bad luck!?!

So here we go, almost 5 months later, the Paj is eventually running, just need some minor tweaks done before it goes to COR this week. Hoping it won't come back with a list as long as an arm...

What a relief this is going to be to finally drive this baby. My wife even jokes about it because she hasn't seen it yet!