The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[Ali - G]

My 1996 2.8 TD LWB has served me well over the past 4 years, however lately I have been losing power when towing my horse trailer with two horses in it.
When driving normally without towing the Pajero pulls without any problems, no smoke or anything untoward.
When towing with a load she is not pulling like she used to do. Infact she is struggling!, but again no smoke.
I have pulled the same trailer and horses many times without any problems until recently. The trailer is well serviced so no brake binding.
This has been a gradual decline over the last few months and I have just had all the injectors removed and sent to a specialist for refurbishment (120,000kms).
On refitment of the injectors there is no improvement to the towing, although top end on the motorway, without towing, is now slightly better, but that was never a problem anyway.
There never has been any starting problems but the injectors were the first port of call for a possible solution.
The Pajero is reguarly serviced, new filters every time. The EGR blanking plate is fitted.
The Autobox is behaving as it should with the Power mode used when towing. The turbo functions normally, replacement 2 yrs ago.
Is the engine starting to show its age or is there something else I should be looking at.
If the engine is starting to wear, what parts should/ought be changed?
I would be grateful for all suggestions on where to look now.

P.S The horses have not put on weight.

[Google]

[BIG RED]

take a sample of fuel out of the tank see if its coloured with dirty fuel.if it is its the dreaded fuel pump seal.

[Richie]

[aries]

ali g

         have a look at the wastegate,it may be sticking,on the 2.8 the actuator arm is in a hard place to see,tin of wd 40 keep spaying down the far end of the arm thats where the hinge for the wastegate is located, you may free it by this method, if not,undo the two bolts holding the wastegate,move the wastegateof it's mount, you will feel a slight pressure thats the spring in the wastegate,now push the arm forward only a bit,it may be stiff spray wd40 towards the end of the arm now pull it back untill it's nice and loose.use as much wd40 as you like,once it's moving freely reconect the wastegate and take her for a test drive,hope this helps.

                                         aries 2.8 auto swb jobby.

[El Ricko]

It may well be worth getting the boost checked at some point, my 2.8 was down to 6 kg/cm2 instead of 8 at 65k-kms due to the wastegate actuator springs getting old

I have a 2mm washer under side of the actuator to put a bit more tension on the springs and im getting 8.5 kg/cm2 at 3000rpm with a flat foot rising to 9  at 4000k and it goes very well now

Also get for any odd wooshing noises as the overboost valves have been known to leak ( a good blast of carb / brake cleaner) and a wiggle got mine sorted.


As Richie says check for leaks in all the turbo hoses and loose clips

[Ali - G]

Gentlemen, thank you for your replies so far.

"Big Red"
Intresting thought on dirty diesel, however new fuel filters at every service and no other symptoms of starting or fuel cut-outs tend to rule this out, nevertheless I will double check this.

"Richie"
Now this may cause a debate!
I thought the overall consensis on this was the EGR is better blanked of, however I will be willing to remove the EGR plate and try without it if it was better for towing (There never has been any excess smoke from this engine). How would I go about reseting it to work again properly?
Has anyone else had success / improvement taking off the blanking plate?

"Austinsevenuk"
You mention to getting the "boost checked" are you refering to the turbo boost pressure? How do I measure this? Is it simple to do and with what tool?
This could be a good diagnoisis but how do I go about this, please advise?

"Aries"
Wastegate actuator springs, yeah we could be on to something here. This will now be checked as a potential fault / cure.

To all who have replied so far a very big thank you for sharing your thoughts and potential remedies. They will all be looked at in depth and I look forward to your futher input guys.

Has anyone else got a potential remedy or indeed has any of you come across this before???????????????????

[BIG RED]

i tow a boat most weekends and my 2.8 was *beep* going up hillls but alot better now ive done the dreaded fuel pump seal.

[Ali - G]

"Big Red"
Could it be that the fuel pump needs adjusting?
The fuel pump seals were changed 4 years ago just before I bought the Pajero and it has towed perfectly well since then. There is no other starting or fuel cut out issues at all that other people tend to have to indicate the seals, however you did get a difference after replacement of your fuel seals.
Were there any other issues relating to fuel cut outs or poor starting that caused you to change the seals or was it simply the same loss of power when towing that caused you to change the seals?


Ali - G

[BIG RED]

i changed my seal cos it did start cutting out. if you havent messed with the pump it shouldent need calibrating tbh.there is a way on the back theres a screw with a 12 mm lock nut but most guys just adjust that to stop em smokin.it should have a metal shroud over it youll have to remove it.

[El Ricko]

I would say the egr is probably a red herring, have phyically removed my valve and never looked back.... every paj i have driven has more go with it removed or blanked

If you are loosing power there can only be a few issues, not enough fuel, not enough boost, or something slowing you down this has been my check list :-

Start of by checking if one of your wheels is hotter than the others after a drive, you may have a sticking brake caliper..... ( been there and lost 10mph top speed)

Wipp off your egr valve and check that it is shut and that the plate has not burnt through.

Borrow a turbo gauge with 1.5 bar or 15psi ish scale and a length of wind screen washer tube + t-peice from halfords and connect it to the pipe going from the turbo to the top of the injector pump, tape the guage somewhere safe and bring the pipe through the passengers windows, go for a blast up a hill and not the presure at about 3000 rpm with your foot flat , if you can drive for about 20 mins after first reading and take another reading.

Get a new fuel filter, fill it with a decent injector cleaner and fit it to the car and drive it like you stole it for 15mins.

Fit a new air filter if you have not recently

Remove the fuel tank inspection plate under the rear boot carpet and get the mesh filter out of the tank and give it a clean

If it's and auto change the fluid, you wont belive the difference in how the car drives and how much easier it pulls off the mark


If you have allready had the fuel pump seals done they should be ok as long as you have used decent fuel and not done another 100k!

Have you ever used Bio-Diesel / WVO / Rape?

Pop down to your MOT station and have and emisions test done, the particlits reading can show if you are under or over fueling

After that you need a diesel specialist to set the fueling , pump timing and boost enrichment

[pajowner]

I had a similar problem. my 2.8 drove fine till i towed a large trailer. Then then after a a few miles it would get worse and worse till it was embarresing doing 20 mph on a motorway flat out up hills with us getting  more than enough rude gestures and toots.

Weird how it would never actually stop just go slow I had a mechanic look at it he swapped out the turbo and waistgate but it made no differance.
Turned out the diesel in the tank was  black or very dark blue. It had been contaminated with dirty engine oil from the fuel pump. the seal had gone and someone had put an electrical pump and a one way valve.
I emptied and cleaned out the tank and got a chap on e b a y   moc-tod-yabe to sort out the seal. Seems to know his stuff. pretty cheap too considering I was about to scrap the old girl cos I lost all confidence in her.

[BIG RED]

say no more then

[sudza]

Where would one find the location of the dreaded overboost valve ?

[m3crj]

big hexagon looking thing near the bulkhead on the inlet manifold screws off and you can check the spring for pressure only opens when turbo creates too much boost this in turn stops the compression ratio reaching a dangerous level

[El Ricko]

grab a tin of carb or break cleaner and attach the blow of valve untill it looks spotless, then give the loose bit a wiggle and then another attach of cleaner.

That solved mine when it started blowing



If it still leaks then you need a new one