Noobie Pajero 2.8 Queries

[epicenterulez]

Hello Guys,

Greetings from India, Mandeep here.

I just picked up a 2008(India), gen 2 Pajero LWB with a 2.8 turbo diesel.

The car has done only 48000 miles on it but was obviously not kept very well, though the overall look feel was okayish.

After picking it up, I went through the regular fluids and lubricants change, replaced all the bushes on the front and rear suspension along with all the ball joints, Pittman arm, etc except for the shock absorbers.

Also needed a new clutch master cylinder, so that was replaced too.

Did a 3200 mile trip after all this was done and here is what I would request your feedback on:

1. Idles a little rough, though at around 900 rpm, once the car is up to temperature, it sounds like it is misfiring a little, no loss in power though

2. The clutch has started slipping haphazardly, once in a while after the car has traveled about 60 -70 miles, this starts up but has no fixed pattern to it. As far as I know the earlier owner had put in an Exedy stock replacement a while back, maybe about 500 miles or so. There is a constant rattle once the car warms up and is in neutral, but disappears as soon as the clutch pedal is depressed and appears once the pedal is released

3. Acceleration in any manner spewed out a lot of grey black smoke but it is under some control now after the EGR and inter-cooler were removed and cleaned, still does smoke a bit when you try to get to the 100 kph mark

4. As soon as I shift to 4 LLC, the ABS light comes on, once I shift back to 2WD, switch the ignition off and start the car again, the light goes off. The OBD scanner is unable to pick up any errors

5. In 2H, when in the 1st or 2nd gear at slow speeds or at standstill in traffic with the clutch depressed there is a whining/grinding sound every minute or so and the brake pedal seems to pulse or become a bit hard with this sound. Once the car is on the move, this disappears

6. There is a lot of body rattle and i guess it is from the deteriorating door rubber beadings. The seats of the 2nd and 3rd row squeak continuously, specifically the head rests, any work around for those, except removing them would be appreciated

7. Even with a new Pittman arm and all new suspension components, along with a fully serviced steering gearbox and adjusting the screw there is a play of around 1.5 inches in the steering wheel. It needs to be adjusted continuously to take up that slack. The steering gearbox has steel balls in it which are 25 in number. Is this correct or was this box opened earlier and a ball or two lost?

8. The car seems like a boat and the rear gives a big jerk when going over bumps or through ruts. Are the shock absorbers on their way out? I got the mechanic to check them like they all do, depressing the strut and then see it coming out, it was slow enough so i guess the the shock absorbers are good, but a second opinion would be good for some root cause analysis.

9. At some point of time, the central lock system on the ignition key broke down and it now has an independent remote controlled thing. can this be converted to factory spec?

10. The rear end is quite jittery and fidgety on the roads, the tires are at 30 PSI pressure and every time an undulation or irregularity on the tarmac comes up, the car simply loses it and is all over the road. The front camber was corrected with shims, the toe in is also within spec. Are the rear sway bar links acting up? The torsion bars have also been re indexed but the ride is still a bit choppy and as soon as the car hits a pothole it just crashes into it.

Any and all help, suggestions and everything else will be highly appreciated. Please note, it is running on factory spec tires 265/70 R15 which I replaced before taking up the road trip

A couple of pics of the car for reference

Regards,
Mandeep
2011 VW Vento 1.6 Manual|2011 VW Passat 2.0 HL DSG|1956 Royal Enfield 350|1999 Royal Enfield Lightning 535|2014 Royal Enfield Continental GT

[epicenterulez]

Any help on this please?

Hello Guys,

Greetings from India, Mandeep here.

I just picked up a 2008(India), gen 2 Pajero LWB with a 2.8 turbo diesel.

The car has done only 48000 miles on it but was obviously not kept very well, though the overall look feel was okayish.

After picking it up, I went through the regular fluids and lubricants change, replaced all the bushes on the front and rear suspension along with all the ball joints, Pittman arm, etc except for the shock absorbers.

Also needed a new clutch master cylinder, so that was replaced too.

Did a 3200 mile trip after all this was done and here is what I would request your feedback on:

1. Idles a little rough, though at around 900 rpm, once the car is up to temperature, it sounds like it is misfiring a little, no loss in power though

2. The clutch has started slipping haphazardly, once in a while after the car has traveled about 60 -70 miles, this starts up but has no fixed pattern to it. As far as I know the earlier owner had put in an Exedy stock replacement a while back, maybe about 500 miles or so. There is a constant rattle once the car warms up and is in neutral, but disappears as soon as the clutch pedal is depressed and appears once the pedal is released

3. Acceleration in any manner spewed out a lot of grey black smoke but it is under some control now after the EGR and inter-cooler were removed and cleaned, still does smoke a bit when you try to get to the 100 kph mark

4. As soon as I shift to 4 LLC, the ABS light comes on, once I shift back to 2WD, switch the ignition off and start the car again, the light goes off. The OBD scanner is unable to pick up any errors

5. In 2H, when in the 1st or 2nd gear at slow speeds or at standstill in traffic with the clutch depressed there is a whining/grinding sound every minute or so and the brake pedal seems to pulse or become a bit hard with this sound. Once the car is on the move, this disappears

6. There is a lot of body rattle and i guess it is from the deteriorating door rubber beadings. The seats of the 2nd and 3rd row squeak continuously, specifically the head rests, any work around for those, except removing them would be appreciated

7. Even with a new Pittman arm and all new suspension components, along with a fully serviced steering gearbox and adjusting the screw there is a play of around 1.5 inches in the steering wheel. It needs to be adjusted continuously to take up that slack. The steering gearbox has steel balls in it which are 25 in number. Is this correct or was this box opened earlier and a ball or two lost?

8. The car seems like a boat and the rear gives a big jerk when going over bumps or through ruts. Are the shock absorbers on their way out? I got the mechanic to check them like they all do, depressing the strut and then see it coming out, it was slow enough so i guess the the shock absorbers are good, but a second opinion would be good for some root cause analysis.

9. At some point of time, the central lock system on the ignition key broke down and it now has an independent remote controlled thing. can this be converted to factory spec?

10. The rear end is quite jittery and fidgety on the roads, the tires are at 30 PSI pressure and every time an undulation or irregularity on the tarmac comes up, the car simply loses it and is all over the road. The front camber was corrected with shims, the toe in is also within spec. Are the rear sway bar links acting up? The torsion bars have also been re indexed but the ride is still a bit choppy and as soon as the car hits a pothole it just crashes into it.

Any and all help, suggestions and everything else will be highly appreciated. Please note, it is running on factory spec tires 265/70 R15 which I replaced before taking up the road trip

A couple of pics of the car for reference

Regards,
Mandeep
2008 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 IC Super Select II|2011 VW Vento 1.6 Manual|2011 VW Passat 2.0 HL DSG|1956 Royal Enfield 350|1999 Royal Enfield Lightning 535|2014 Royal Enfield Continental GT

[Martynhpajero]

G'day. I have a1998 NL 2.8 with the same motor and yes they are rough noisy motors especially below 900 rpm. My steering box has 27 balls if I remember correctly. Something is very wrong with yours if you need to adjust all the time. Maybe find another box if you can.

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[epicenterulez]

Thank you Marty,
I will check for another steering box if I can find one, or I'll simply destroy a brand new ball bearing with the balls the size of the steering box ones.

Strangely, I drove the Paj after about a month or so yesterday and the steering seems to be all OK without much play. I had the mechanic put in brand new shock absorbers all round.
But I guess the shock absorbers and the steering box do not have much to do with each other.

Will be doing a run in the hills next weekend and hopefully will be able to atleast get to know whether the problem has actually gone away or is it a Placebo effect.

Many thanks for this.

Regards,
Mandeep

G'day. I have a1998 NL 2.8 with the same motor and yes they are rough noisy motors especially below 900 rpm. My steering box has 27 balls if I remember correctly. Something is very wrong with yours if you need to adjust all the time. Maybe find another box if you can.

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[nj swb]

Hi Mandeep, welcome to the forum.

A significant number of Australian Pajero enthusiasts rate your model (last of the Gen 2s) as the best Pajero ever made. I certainly agree it's a great model, and I personally am a fan of the "blister guards" - once upon a time I would've liked one, but things never worked out that way.

I can't help with too many of your problems, but for what it's worth:

3. Acceleration in any manner spewed out a lot of grey black smoke but it is under some control now after the EGR and inter-cooler were removed and cleaned, still does smoke a bit when you try to get to the 100 kph mark

My guess is there's a problem with your injector spray pattern.

1. Try a bottle or three of injector cleaner over a few tanks of fuel.
2. Have a specialist service the injectors.

If that doesn't fix the problem, then

3. Have a specialist overhaul the injection pump.

4. As soon as I shift to 4 LLC, the ABS light comes on, once I shift back to 2WD, switch the ignition off and start the car again, the light goes off. The OBD scanner is unable to pick up any errors

This may be completely normal. It may be the vehicle disables ABS in low range, in the same way that later models disable Stability Control (and I really don't know if they also disable ABS).

8. The car seems like a boat and the rear gives a big jerk when going over bumps or through ruts. Are the shock absorbers on their way out? I got the mechanic to check them like they all do, depressing the strut and then see it coming out, it was slow enough so i guess the the shock absorbers are good, but a second opinion would be good for some root cause analysis.

This sounds suspiciously like "rear steer", where the rear axle is "loose" in the chassis, and "steers" from side to side following lumps and bumps. I would start by checking all the bushes and mounting bolts / nuts at both ends of both arms, make sure that they're all tight / in good condition.

10. The rear end is quite jittery and fidgety on the roads, the tires are at 30 PSI pressure and every time an undulation or irregularity on the tarmac comes up, the car simply loses it and is all over the road. The front camber was corrected with shims, the toe in is also within spec. Are the rear sway bar links acting up? The torsion bars have also been re indexed but the ride is still a bit choppy and as soon as the car hits a pothole it just crashes into it.

See above re: "rear steer". Remove the rear sway bar to see if it makes a difference to this problem. The rear sway bar for my NJ Shorty was removed about 15 years ago, and I've never missed it.

Front problems could be that the torsion bars have been wound up too far, leaving insufficient droop travel for your front wheels to drop into potholes. Your front suspension should have one large lower rubber stop (the bump stop) and two smaller upper stops (the droop stops). At factory ride height, sitting on flat ground, the clearance to all stops should be the same. If the gap to the upper (droop) stops is significantly less than the gap to the bottom (bump) stop this may be your problem - if the wheel can't drop into the pothole then the car must.

If you adjust the torsion bars to change the front ride height have your wheel alignment checked afterwards.

Please note, it is running on factory spec tires 265/70 R15 which I replaced before taking up the road trip

For the record, those wheels in your photos were standard on Australia's NJ model, from 1993 to 1997. Later models with the same engine came with 16" wheels, with 265/70 R16 tyres. The "blister guards" like yours were introduced on some Australian delivered (NL) models in 1997.

In Australia, it is quite common to fit 31 x 10.5 R15 tyres to those wheels, which are (in round figures) 1" taller, and tend to make the speedometer more accurate. Much better availability of off-road oriented tyres, if that's an issue for you.

Good luck - I hope you sort out your Pajero, and enjoy your ownership experience.

[Martynhpajero]

The balls are quarter inch (6.35mm). Some of the balls in my steering box were worn down to about 6.30mm. Changing them got rid of the free play between the steering input shaft and the "nut."

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[epicenterulez]

Thank you
njswb and marty for the pointers, I will be checking them out on this weekend.
Hopeful of ironing out as many issues as possible.

Thank you so much guys, once again

cheers
mandeep

[epicenterulez]

So I asked the mechanic to open up the gearbox to get to the clutch and here is what I think I found.
The flywheel looks pretty nasty and probably that is one reason for the clutch slipping.
It has been sent for machining and will be fitted back tonight and I can take a test drive tomorrow morning once the clutch goes in.
Lets see how it works out.

Cheers
Mandeep

[epicenterulez]

Flywheel machined and clutch back in!

Hello guys,
So the clutch went in after we got the machined flywheel and we didn't have a single nut or bolt left over.
Car started up nice and idled happily.
Took a test drive and the clutch bit. No slip.
Did a slow 100 kilometers changing gears frequently and clutching it.
Then did a 500 km trip to a lovely nature park next doors with some friends coming over on the new Royal Enfield interceptors.
Car performed extremely well. While coming back the ABS light came on and is still visible.
The central lock system was also acting up and so were the combination switches so to me this looks like a wiring issue.
Next weekend, I am opening up the dashboard and having a look at the wiring loom, cleaning up all the relays, fuses and the terminal boxes and fitting them back in.
Hope to solve this one too.
The rear sway bar links will also be available by then so hopefully the twitchy rear should also be sorted out.
Only thing that I still cant get my head around is that no bump stops on the front are touching anywhere, on good roads the suspension works nicely, but as soon as I hit a pothole or a bad patch, it is crash, boom, bang.
Will need to sort this one out and then everything mechanical is complete on the car.
Just an update. Some photos from the drive for your viewing pleasure if any
Thank you for the help

Cheers
Mandeep
2011 VW Vento 1.6 Manual|2011 VW Passat 2.0 HL DSG|1956 Royal Enfield 350|1999 Royal Enfield Lightning 535|2014 Royal Enfield Continental GT|2008 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8TD SFX

[epicenterulez]

Hello guys
So the car has been behaving a little moody.
Once in a while after I have driven around 100-150 kms, the clutch starts slipping. It behaves like this for a while and then comes back to normal.
I bled the clutch last week and the oil that came out was really nasty. Have not faced that issue yet since I have not driven the requisite distance for the symptoms to appear but I am keeping a watch.
Also I switched to biodiesel about 300 liters ago and the car has been running okayish with that too. Is there something I need to monitor since I am using 100% biodiesel and not blending it with diesel?
One more thing that has been happening since a very long time, before even biodiesel is that some times the car feels very nippy and very eager to run while some times it feels like it is holding back and not putting the power to the wheels. Something like somebody holding your suspenders while you attempt to run.
Smokes a bit when cold but that is to be expected.
Any pointers to whether these are signs of an impending disaster?
Would like to be safe than sorry being stranded on the rural roads I do.

Cheers
mandeep


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