Could it be a vacuum problem??????

[Toorbul10]

Hi, first time user of this forum. A bit of background for this vehicle. I bought this vehicle recently for a couple of reasons. The car had 150,000 on it, motor ran like a dream, auto was changing great with no issues and the panel work was pristine. This car had been sitting in a shed for 4 years and ran so quite for a rather large old 4wd. I though how can I go wrong. I had no intention to buy a car that day but did.

I did prior to purchase checked the 4wd side of things to ensure it was changed etc. the lights stayed on (flickering) on the dash, i was told they would go off and sometimes it takes a run to get them to go off. (on my other 4wd I have a button to ensure it is disengaged)

I got 15 mintues down the road to home and all went pear shaped.
1. buzzing, whirring noise,not exactly a rattling noise coming from the passengers side door underneath the car.
2. could not go forwards or backwards. (pushed it into the drive way)
3. car running rough as.
4. had a slight bit of smoke coming from exhaust. (Wife followed me home and said it had cleared by the time i got 2 mintues down the road).
5. Lights on dash to show 4wd are flashing continuously. (Top two wheels)

I gave it a rest for a few hours and went back to have a look at. Acutally have been looking at the forums and trying to sort it for the last week. How good a car can be and then in 15 minutes how bad.

This is how far I have got and what the car is still doing.
1. buzzing is still there. Doesnt do it in Park or Neutral (Is like a noise that resembles it isnt quite in gear???) ALSO - auto fluid is overfull.
2. I have worked out it is loosing vacuum. When it is started, I have D and R for about 2 minutes, I then have nothing. Turn car off and vacuum builds and I can move it but looses vaccum. I have tried starting it in all gears of 4wd to see if there is any difference, 2H, 4H and the other two as well. No difference.
3. Car runing rough was due to petrol lines leaking. Fixed this and doesnt seem to run rough at all, very quite.
4. After continually trying to test this car it started to get low on fuel. Put 20 litres in it of Premium 98. Tried starting the car and the amount of smoke coming out of it after the fuel was put in was unbelievable on the first few starts and revs. This settled and has a small amount just puffing hear and there.
Seems to have chewed up that fuel and I dont want it to run dry. Put another 20 litres in it yesterday and hear we go again. Another huge amount of smoke belllowing out again. Though havent gone and seen if it has settled. (just about over it at the moment).
5. Bought two new solenoids for the those that are under the hood (yelow and Blue) lights are now off though still loosing vaccum as in No 2. above. (so basically fixed the light issue).

Does anyone have any ideas. No 3 and No 5 seem to be fixed though it could be contributing to one of the other issues and though I would note everything that has gone on with it.

I intend to change and replace all oils on the week end. Does anyone have any other suggestins for me. Do I need to check the other solenoids??

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[nj swb]

Welcome to the forum, and I'm sorry your first post wasn't a happier experience for you.

I can't provide too much help, other than to note you haven't told us precisely which Gen 2 model you have.

I figured out that it's petrol, and you have an auto. But there were actually four different petrol engines in Gen 2 Pajeros (although I'm not sure they sold the 4 cylinder with an auto), two different auto transmissions and two different transfer cases.

More info may help us help you better.

[Toorbul10]

Sorry, yeah that might help. Ok it is a 1997 V6 3.5 DOHC Auto Petrol.

thanks

[disco stu]

Overfull transmissions can cause issues. I know on some you can get foaming which then contributes to pressure loss and drive loss

What type of smoke are you getting-white/blue oil smoke or black fuel related smoke?

If you need to order a heap of spares it might be worth doing a rockauto order-some stuff is stupid cheap from there. Just add multiples of each part that is in your price range to cart, then sort through to try and get everything from the same/ as little warehouses as possible. Without doing that you can end up with 10 different postage costs

[Toorbul10]

Hi, thanks for the reply. It is white/blue smoke ? It is not black. It also seems to smell, rich if i could explain it that way. Seems strange that it has the occassional light puff here and there but when you put new fuel in it (20 litres -twice like we have), you cant see anything for the smoke screen for the first couple of starts? Could this be due to sitting for a few years and whatever fuel was in it is no longer any good and it is mixing with the new. You would think after the first 20 litres it would have calmed down a bit.

[Alex86]

My guess for the smoke is leaky valve stem seals. Blowing smoke after start, and after idling for a bit, is a common thing with these cars.

You could try draining the petrol tank completely just to try rule that out.

Losing vacuum could be a dodgy hose. Or the vacuum canister, which is on the right side of cross member, could be leaking. Stick your head under the car from behind the front right wheel. You’ll see a cylindrical thing about the size of a can of baked beans, maybe a little bigger. Start easy- check all the lines. Buy or borrow a vacuum tester and start looking around with that.

[disco stu]

Might be worth checking PCV valve. I had one car where it would cause issues intermittently. At one stage driving to work I thought something major had happened as there was a plume of smoke behind the car. I was pleased when it turned out to be so simple

Would valve stem seals give a puff every once in a while? I thought if it was them it would be fairly constant, with changes according to engine temp being all.

[Toorbul10]

Thanks for your suggestions. It seems I am heading in the right direction. I think by a change of all oils, checking the vacuum hoses with a vacuum tester, looking at the vacuum canister and looking at the PCV valve would be a good start using the process of elimination.

I used 98 premium fuel, the guy said 95, though on the petrol flap it says premium. Though back in 1997, 95 was probably premium. Though I used 98. ??

Might I also add this vehicle is also on GAS, though I have not operaed it on gas. Apparently the Gas has no problems but the tank is out of date and dont want to start it on gas, incase K-boom.

None of this was happening until just before I handed over the money I wanted to check and see what all the 4wd gearing was like, thats when it seems to me it went pear shaped. Also he did flick it to gas once but turned it back over to petrol straight away. Took it for two test drives before that and I just couldnt get over how good the motor and auto was?? Maybe not. Bought it for a cheap 4wd expecting not to much to get registered.

Most importantly is to get the motor running well and the auto & 4 wd is operating as it should. The rest is cosmetic, air cond not working, power aerial for radio not working, sunroof not working, gas needs certification and check is running as well, and for the life of me I cannot fold the 3rd row of seats up as they seem to be jammed.

Thx

[disco stu]

If there is gas in the tank, then there isn't any stress about trying to run it on gas even though the tank is out of date. The pressure will already be in there, and your taking fuel out rather than putting it in.

Is it vapour mixer on the intake, or injected gas? I've found the vapour mixer set ups to be very easy to work on if there ever are dramas. The longgas AE40 converters (common) seem to have a bit of a corrosion issue-I now own 3 and they have all shown similar issues. But really easy to sort out if you're handy with that sort of thing. The screws seem to have a habit of stripping thread also. Rebuild kits available for those on ebay quite cheap also. Let me know if you have issues with the converter and can't work out how to fix it as I've done a few now

I'm putting LPG injection on an NL currently, while pulling engine apart for a whole heap of other things. I bought the same as you-unregistered and trying to get a cheap 4wd. If yours is LPG injected I would like to pick your brain on the setup you have.

Funny what you say about octane-mine doesn't have that sticker. I do recall reading something about only after a certain year were the engines suited for LPG-might be worth checking on that in case you need valve lube

[Toorbul10]

If there is gas in the tank, then there isn't any stress about trying to run it on gas even though the tank is out of date. The pressure will already be in there, and your taking fuel out rather than putting it in.

Is it vapour mixer on the intake, or injected gas? I've found the vapour mixer set ups to be very easy to work on if there ever are dramas. The longgas AE40 converters (common) seem to have a bit of a corrosion issue-I now own 3 and they have all shown similar issues. But really easy to sort out if you're handy with that sort of thing. The screws seem to have a habit of stripping thread also. Rebuild kits available for those on ebay quite cheap also. Let me know if you have issues with the converter and can't work out how to fix it as I've done a few now

I'm putting LPG injection on an NL currently, while pulling engine apart for a whole heap of other things. I bought the same as you-unregistered and trying to get a cheap 4wd. If yours is LPG injected I would like to pick your brain on the setup you have.

Funny what you say about octane-mine doesn't have that sticker. I do recall reading something about only after a certain year were the engines suited for LPG-might be worth checking on that in case you need valve lube

Hi, to the members that replied to our problems above. I just though I would give a heads up in relation to the problems that we have experienced and appreciate you help.

So, the car is running again like a dream. I thought I would note the fixes that we done to the car.

We changed the solenoids (Blue & Yellow) under the hood - this fixed the flashing lights for the 4wd on the dash.

Smoking from the exhaust. This was fixed by removing the air filter - absolutely full to the brim with rubbish to the extent it looks like rats have been eating it. Not smoking like it was and not bellowing like it was, though we are yet to put more fuel in it as this happened twice after each lot of fuel was put in. Fingers crossed.

We still had 'what we thought' was a vacuum issue in the car. After 2 minutes of running the car it would not go forwards or backwards, though it was going into D and R without a problem. When we turned it off, it seemed to build 'vacuum/pressure' ??? and we could acheive forward and back for about 2 minutes and then have to go through the whole thing again.

Buzzing noise from under the car around near the front passenger side area.

We did not check any vacuum hoses for leaks at all. We looked underneath after getting it up on ramps and then onto car stands. We checked the vacuum canister and actuator (think this is what it is called) to check the car was changing into all gears as well as 4WD, this all looked OK. The over full transmission fluid had us a bit worried and decided that we may have been looking in the wrong area, it may not be a vacuum issue at all, may be a pressure issue in the transmission. With it not going forwards or backwards we though maybe a hydraulic issue within the transmission. We drained the transmission to find it actually looked like sump oil rather than transmission fluid and the filter was absolutely blocked to the max. Cleaned everything up and replaced the filter, as well as cleaned out as much old transmission oil as possible.

Put it all back together and hey presto, running like a dream, changing in all gearing including 4wd and also no noise and not loosing the "so called vaccum" I thought was the problem. The buzzing noise was the transmission pump not working as it was starving for oil or had very bad oil and clogged causing it to loose forward and reverse. The transmission was starving for oil as it was so clogged it upset the hydraulics.

After it sitting for 4 years it is probably expected. Next will be to change diff oil & filters, trans oil and filters and petrol filter. That should take care of all the oils and filters.

I can now get the gas looked at, as it is running fine and do the cosmetics as I said above.

So the list is cleared and a new list is being started now that I know the transmission and engine are ok.

Thanks for your help.

Ps: Am I correct is saying it would have a timing belt rather than a timing chain.

[nj swb]

Thanks for posting the update - it's nice to learn the outcomes of experiences like this. It reinforces the idea of starting with the basics - new fluids & filters, proceed from there.

I'm not 100% sure, but I expect you're right about having a timing belt. Your engine is an "interference" design - if you lose the timing belt, valves will hit pistons.

[erad]

If it is the 3.5 DOHC engine , it is for sure a timing belt. Replace this ASAP, because the belt life is affected not only by distance travelled (wear and fatigue on the belt), but also by ageing of the belt. Failure of the belt WILL result in valves hitting pistons - bent valve stems and/or broken pistons.

[disco stu]

Good to hear you got things going alright. I'm a bit shocked to hear the transmission was like that inside, makes me wonder how it gets to that stage, but sorted now