Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hello friends,
I need some assistance with a recurring serious problem with my 2002 Pajero SWB 3.2 did A/T.
I bought the vehicle second hand in February 2016 from a dealer. The vehicle had 200,850 km on the clock, but I was told by the dealer that the engine had been completely overhauled.
All went well until March 2017 when while travelling from where I live on the Wild Coast to East London, the engine suddenly lost power, started juddering and clouds of white/blue smoke belched out from the exhaust. When idling it was clear it was only running on 3 cylinders.
Fortunately my insurer provides roadside assistance and sent a flatbed to collect the vehicle free of charge and take it to East London.
At the workshop it was found that one of the pistons had a hole burned in it. The engine was overhauled with 4 new pistons and new injectors installed. Almost R40,000 later I had the vehicle back and thought that I wouldn't need to worry about the engine for the rest of the life of the vehicle – and probably my life too!
Then last November after only about 4,000 km travelled since the engine repair, once again while travelling to East London – same thing - the engine suddenly lost power, started juddering and clouds of white/blue smoke belched out from the exhaust.
Once again, the vehicle was taken to East London and once again it was found to be a hole burned in the piston - and the same piston as the first time. This time only the burned piston was replaced and the injectors all cleaned, tested and refitted.
I got the vehicle back in March this year and drove it with much trepidation. Then during this past week on a return trip from Mthatha, after only having done no more than 2,000 km it all happened again.
I don't know whether this is a Pajero problem, an injector problem or perhaps an ECU problem. Whatever it is, is costing me a lot of money!
Has anyone else had the same experience, or can someone please make some suggestions as to what the problem might be?
I look forward to some feedback.
Thanks - Roger
Wildcoast

That sounds like a terrible experience but I'm almost sure this type of thing is caused by a faulty/broken injector. The guys on this forum have tons of experience and will be around to help soon I'm sure. Speak to the guys at mitsitech and they might be able to confirm. There are a few threads on here talking about similar issues. You might get asked for symptoms but I suspect there weren't any? Goodluck

Hi,
Sorry to hear that about your paj. I had a similar experience with mine though in my case the pistons were cracking at the top but it happened on 3 occasions.
I did quite a bit of searching and found the attached document. Hope it helps.

On those year Pajero, 2000 to 2007, the 3.2 Did Pajero engine is equiped with a fancy dieselpump which accurately measures the injection and then feeds it to 'dumb" injectors and do their work as fed by the pump. Thus clever pump but dumb injectors. Injectors are 'relatively' cheap to replace but pump is VERY expensive.

Later Pajero 3.2 from 2007 to present have a different system where the pump just keep up the pressure on the rail and the injectors are clever to work out how much and when to inject. Pump 'relatively' cheap to replace but injectors more expensive.

The pump in your model Pajero is a mechanical pump with very fine tolerances and unfortunately wear over time due to dirty diesel and particles that pass through the filter system over years. If worn it can cause havoc to the injection system. I think this is what is causing your problems. Unfortunately there are only a select few people in SA that can service the complicatef Zexel pump and it is expensive. Second hand pump might be option.

The above is from my understanding of the system after much reading up and some personal experience. I am not a guru by any means so keep that in mind, but I believe this might be your problem. Either that or you have extreme bad luck and the injector that they replaced was faulty as well by chance.

Good luck

CATS

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk

Thanks Sparticus. I don't believe it can be the injector though, because after the first occurrence all of the injectors were replaced. I've had a look on the forum for anyone whose reported the same experience but there was nothing definite.

Thanks Limuman. That PDF does have some useful info and any info helps in giving clues as to what the problem might be. Thanks for the suggestion

Thanks a lot CATS. It's very helpful to get first hand advice and I didn't even think of the diesel pump being the problem Anyway - now another avenue to have a look at.

Hi. Had the same problem. Check at the rear of the fuel pump where the return pipe to the tank is connected. You will see the pipe is pushed over what looks like a banjo bolt. That banjo is actually a valve that if blown by air should open at around 2 bar. Mine was stuck. Cost a hell of a lot to find out what was the cause. I came a across 3 others that did the same. Good luck

Are you able to post pics of the piston with it's damaged area from different angles. My immediate reaction was a damaged/dirty injector, but 3 times on the same cylinder with new injectors. Are you sure the injectors were replaced ?

4000km is a very rapid failure, 2000km is alarmingly rapid, indicating a significant fault rather than say a small issue leading to eventual failure. Pump failure was mentioned, perhaps excess pressure generated by the pump on one injector fuel line only ?

I feel for you.
dave