Pajero SWB NS - issues with older cars

[Dicko1]

I find this amusing, for the average Joe, who just wants a 4x4 that works and is reliable, the NS is absolutely not that vehicle in my books.
No offense to yourself here kiwi, but the mere fact that you deleted the DPF goes to show that it was a big enough worry for you to spend cash to get rid of it.

The other issues that people are not mentioning is the EGR and intake manifold clogging issues.
The people that say they never had these issues again already know and probably have performed the resister mod to the maf sensor to trick the EGR.

Literally you will see these reoccurring issues on this forum, the only reason i came to this forum in the first place was because of issues.

But yer i agree to a degree with the people that say go for it, if you find a NS that has never been firmware updated by MM, has a DPF delete and either had the EGR removed from the ECU or resister mod to close it, the NT intake manifold replacement, and the chain tensioner replaced and only has 50k kilometers on the clock, i would totally buy it.

Those are the main concerning items with this car for me, I could think of nothing worse then being in the W.A goldfields 100+km from the nearest town in harsh terrain with a vehicle stuck in limp mode because the intake manifold was clogged or my DPF decided that it needed to do a regen and i wasn't able to do the specific speed to clear the issue.

This is just of course my opinion, and i might be somewhat biased, i love my Paj, i just absolutely hate the issues i have had that's forced me to the conclusion of not trusting the vehicle, Nor recommending it.

The EGR and manifold issues you speak of are not confined to the Ns or even Mitsubishi. Many diesel motors are affected. No need to single out the Ns.

[BruceandBobbi]

The EGR and manifold issues you speak of are not confined to the Ns or even Mitsubishi. Many diesel motors are affected. No need to single out the Ns.

100% right Dicko. Couriers in their diesel vans of varies brands that do short runs in the cities are having problems.

It isn't just MM it's every brand.

Maybe people should check out other brands problems on the internet like Colorado's not going into or coming out of 4WD. One apparently went into 4WD on it's own at 100k. Imagine the damage.

My father had a Mercedes 240D. 100% serviced by the dealer. At 50,000k the motor crapped itself. happens regardless what brand you buy. Yes, some are worse than others.

[kiwi1973]

I find this amusing, for the average Joe, who just wants a 4x4 that works and is reliable, the NS is absolutely not that vehicle in my books.
No offense to yourself here kiwi, but the mere fact that you deleted the DPF goes to show that it was a big enough worry for you to spend cash to get rid of it.

The other issues that people are not mentioning is the EGR and intake manifold clogging issues.
The people that say they never had these issues again already know and probably have performed the resister mod to the maf sensor to trick the EGR.

Literally you will see these reoccurring issues on this forum, the only reason i came to this forum in the first place was because of issues.

But yer i agree to a degree with the people that say go for it, if you find a NS that has never been firmware updated by MM, has a DPF delete and either had the EGR removed from the ECU or resister mod to close it, the NT intake manifold replacement, and the chain tensioner replaced and only has 50k kilometers on the clock, i would totally buy it.

Those are the main concerning items with this car for me, I could think of nothing worse then being in the W.A goldfields 100+km from the nearest town in harsh terrain with a vehicle stuck in limp mode because the intake manifold was clogged or my DPF decided that it needed to do a regen and i wasn't able to do the specific speed to clear the issue.

This is just of course my opinion, and i might be somewhat biased, i love my Paj, i just absolutely hate the issues i have had that's forced me to the conclusion of not trusting the vehicle, Nor recommending it.

As Dicko has already pointed out, you are attributing many issues as being NS specific that simply aren't. The only issue that is NS specific is the DPF. EGR and clogging inlet manifolds are equal issues across NS, NT onwards and pretty much any other make/model of modern diesel. Where people get confused on the forums is with a number of references being made to the later style NT manifold being a solution to a clogged NS manifold. This is totally misunderstood. Changing to the NT style manifold will do nothing to address a slowly clogging up inlet manifold whatsoever - it will just delay some of the symptoms from presenting by keeping the MAP tube clear for longer (the difference between the manifolds is the map tube pickup location). There is nothing magical about the NT style manifold that prevents it from clogging. All these manifolds will have to be cleaned at some point and then steps taken to keep them clean. For me with my NS after I removed and cleaned it I made my own EGR style resistor mod to keep the manifold clean (and this has worked well for years now). Absolutely no benefit is available to me by changing to the NT onwards style manifold.

Back to the DPF - it cost $250 to have it replaced with a straight through resonator. I was also after some additional power/economy by having my DPF removed and considered that the $250 would probably recover itself. Admittedly 'yes', there was an element of seeing no point in not eliminating a potential issue that could be eliminated so easily/cheaply.

Of all the modern electronically controlled vehicles surely the Pajero has to be one of the better ones out there for dependability. They're pretty easy to fix mechanically, and whilst admittedly there are ecu's all over the place, how often do you ever hear of a Mitsubishi ecu failing? If your out bush and suddenly your modern 4wd is having issues due to a clogged inlet manifold - that didn't just suddenly get clogged - it was probably already mostly clogged 50,000km ago and there was ample opportunity for any reasonably astute 4wd motorist to have attended to it before it ever had opportunity to present an issue. I'm not going to pretend that I was that astute when I first got my Pajero - it has been a learning curve that any average Joe 4wd'er will sooner or later have to follow, because taking any 4wd to remote offroad locations and having little to no mechanical knowledge isn't a good mix.

But if we're now on the same page then we should be able to agree that the only NS specific issue is the dpf.

[Ian Sharpe]

You cant sugarcoat the NS dpf problem, its an abomination. One shouldnt have to spend $250 to take out the pos thing anyway. And AFAIK removing dpf is illegal. So you are driving an illegal vehicle.

This dpf & adblue crap is going to be the death of the diesel , pity but its the true. You just cant get the economy & torque out of a petrol motor. The only thing that compares is electric but mainstream 4wd electric vehicles are a way off yet. , aNd countries in Europe have or will be banning diesel vehicles so the writing is on the wall.

[aussieintas]

So wwwboy back to your original post/question.

Yes an NS may have some problems but may not, as with many other vehicles on the market. As you can see we all have a differing opinion which hopefully will help you to choose or not choose an NS model.

Like purchasing any second hand vehicle, looking for one with a good service history is top of my decision making, easy to check if recalls have been done via Mitsubishi Motors and if not could be possibly negotiated in the price as an inconvenience to you.

On the whole the NS Pajero is a good choice and i suspect it will come down to your budget and what you need.

Other issues to consider with any 200000km vehicle, including NS, is it may be needing a bit of TLC with suspension components as it may be starting to get worn a bit or sagging, on a test drive engage 4wd including low range to make sure all works with no noises, check all electrics etc work.

Good luck choosing.

[RaRe]

I understand what you guys are saying, though i still feel that the points i make are valid, would we agree that the NS intake manifold is different than the NT manifold ?

If this is not the case, why do people suggest replacing the NS with the NT intake manifold ? in fact MM replaced my NS manifold with the NT and threw the old manifold in the bin.

Whilst you guys make the point that the EGR/intake issue affects other vehicles why single out the NS, this is true for sure, but it also affects the Pajero and we are specifically talking about what problems could arise with this vehicle are we not ?

Many other vehicles also have DPF's with DPF issues, but we still identify that this is a trouble spot for the NS.
MY personal opinion is obviously caked in biased for sure, but that doesn't negate that the issues i have had with this vehicle are not real issues that are a potential down fall for a person considering on buying said vehicle.

On a side note, if anyone knows of a mechanic in Perth that owns a Mut3 diag tool and knows the Pajero NS, It would be much appreciated, as I was quoted $2950 for my 250k service from MM, may as well just buy a new motor for that price , PM me though, as i don't want to highjack this thread.

Cheers

[BruceandBobbi]

https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=50828

https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=34054

[JoshF]

I understand what you guys are saying, though i still feel that the points i make are valid, would we agree that the NS intake manifold is different than the NT manifold ?

If this is not the case, why do people suggest replacing the NS with the NT intake manifold ? in fact MM replaced my NS manifold with the NT and threw the old manifold in the bin.

To quote the Nundah dealer who replaced mine. They tapped the sensor hole in a different location on the NT to the NS which was the main difference. The hole moved higher and therefore less likely to clog.

My mechanic used to retap the hole as part of rectification if you were having the issue and MM didn't want to resolve it.

[kiwi1973]

To quote the Nundah dealer who replaced mine. They tapped the sensor hole in a different location on the NT to the NS which was the main difference. The hole moved higher and therefore less likely to clog.

My mechanic used to retap the hole as part of rectification if you were having the issue and MM didn't want to resolve it.

Yeah I've heard of this being done in some cases, and I think it illustrates what I was trying to say quite well. An NS manifold with the MAP tube pickup moved to a new location (same location as NT onwards) is still an NS manifold, but doesn't present the same issues (or at least not as soon) because the map pickup is kept clear longer. But you can bet that the manifold, regardless whether NS type or NT onwards type, is still slowly getting choked inside and the need to do something about it hasn't changed at all. An NT style manifold on its own simply masks the issue rather than resolves it.

Also keep in mind that a Mitsubishi dealer has different objectives and is subject to different restrictions than we owners. They surely cannot install any kind of EGR mod, so if changing the map sensor pickup or fitting an NT style manifold makes the problem go away for longer, despite not truly resolving the underlying issue, then that is just fine from their perspective.

In NZ it's not illegal to remove the DPF - or at least it wasn't on my 2007 NS anyway. But I do appreciate this is something to consider for others, depending where you reside.

My main point would be that if anyone is going to judge the NS for its faults, then be sure to have a clear understanding of issues that are actually specific to the NS, else you may start to judge it against a longer list of assumed specific faults than is accurate.