Hi all,

Well my car's on-going problem. ive been instructed by the Mrs that the car must now go if I can't get it fixed in the next couple of days.

Basically it intermitently stops firing on all four.

So far the ECU went away for testing and came back fine, plugs were changed, injector connectors changes, all connectors cleaned and re-fitted, fuel filter changed.

I had injector connector number 3 changed first and car seemed fine for 5 days and went off-road, the day after we left home and broke down just yards from home. Problem now seems to be getting worse again.

The auto electricians say they swapped over the coils and still got 1 and 4 not firing so made the assumption it couldnt be the coil.

Any idea's please, I really don't want to have trade this car in and also Ive been made redundant so cash flow is not great at the moment.

Many thanks,
Neil. :crying:

I have sent you a PM with my suggestions. The more I think about it, it does sound like an intermittant electrical problem probaly with the coil housing or leads. I had a Bronco which had a carbon track fault on the coil and when it was hot or under load it missed quite bad. To find the problem I wiped some white grease on the housing and it stopped the fault. Ended up installing a new coil but it was very difficult to see the problem area.

Another thought after reading again that you sent the ECU away for testing is electrical connectors. I did find with my Pajero after having several strange faults that didn't add up (ie tranny shifts, high idle, & poor starting). In the end my mechanic removed each of the engine bay connectors, cleaned with some emery cloth and sprayed with electrical cleaner. This solved it all my problems. I think that the connectors are prone to a little corrosion and probaly don't fit very tight. This increases the electrical resitance and you get any number of faults.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Jim

Thanks Jim,

The car seems a little better of late, though not fixed. Ive changed the Plug leads and cleaned the connectors. Its seems after cleaning the connectors the car is fine for a day and then the trouble re-starts.
At the moment it only seems to be playing up when we turn the air-con on, before it would do it just driving up a hill.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

Onwards and sideways!

Neil. :liebe011:

Wehhheeeeeeyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Finally, sorted!

Apparently these cars re-calibrate the settings on the car. This should involve the disconnection of the battery, then re-connect and then start the engine and leave to tick over undisturbed for a full 15 minutes (found this on the manual via the link from this website).

After doing this the car no longer plays up. It seems the computer just needed to re-calibrate its settings.

Makes me wonder when the first car will be made to run on Windows and the RACV will be dealing with viruses!


Thanks Jim for all your help, much appreciated! :beer: :amen: ;)

Well the saga continues...

After two weeks of behaving perfectly its played up again!

A friend suggested changing the Oxygen sensor as the car is 7 years old and apparently they can wear out at around 4-5 years old.

Image attached of sooted up sensor, maybe this could be it???

:57: :57: :57:

Doesn't sound like the O2 snsor to me unless it has an intermittant connection. Best thing to do is test this in place as it should produce a certain resitance (15 ohms ?) dependent on engine RPM. You should be able to find the specs in the manual for this. By the way I think you have two sensors so make sure you check both.

You problem still appears to be an intermiottant electrical fault either to or from a sensor. This is indicated by the use of your AC and load this takes to engage and the resetting of the ECU. I would carefully inspect the connectors you cleaned and make sure each pin is making good contact. You make have to adjust a couple of pins a little to get good point contact.

Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks, your quite right. Still playing up. My wife's screaming at me to rid it now.

Do you have any opinion(s) on the correct Learning mode for the car ( My Pajero IO) when the battery is re-connected.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ive just read on another forum for GDI engines they recommend the following...

Idle Learning Procedure

1. Start the engine and warm the engine until the coolant temperature reaches 85c or higher.
When the coolant temperature is 85c or higher, you only have to switch the ignition to the ON position.

2. Turn the Ignition to the LOCK position to stop the engine.

3. After 10 or more seconds, restart the engine.

4. Run the engine at idle for 10 minutes with Transmission in nuetral (P for Auto), air con and heater off.

5. Stop the engine.

6. Restart the engine and run it at idle for 10 minutes with Transmission in neutral (P for Auto), air con on at max cool, fan high speed and windows open.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6.

Note:
1. When ambient temp is 20c or higher and the air con has been continually operated, step 7 may be omitted.

2. During idle in steps 4 & 6, when engine operation switches from lean operation to stoichiometric operation, engine stall can occur. In this case, clean the throttle body (throttle valve) thoroughly and repeat step 1 and the subsequent steps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:wacko:

Sorry I don't know anything about the ECU 'learny modes' and if your prescribed method is right or wrong.

I really don't think that your problem is IT connected. There must be a more basic problem like an intermittant electrical connection and/or sensor fault to give you the sympoms you describe.

Sorry, helping with problems like this from afar are not all that easy plus I'm also not up to speed with your model either. Even if your wife wins and you have to sell the vehicle you will still need to get the problem sorted or else someone is going to walk away with an exceptional deal.

My advise is to try and find a competant auto electrician who knows Mitsi's to help sort it out. Do a bit of homework on the phone and call around. I think that your getting nowhere fast and will only become frustrated with the problem.

Jim

Hi Jim,

Recently I was recommended to take the car to Chadstone Mitsubishi, a much bigger dealership nearer Melbourne city. They called me to say the timing was out!(by one tooth) and this could be the cause of my problem. They said it would take around four hours at $99 per hour! to do. As I'm out of work at the moment this seemed a little expensive, then I remembered.... Mornington Mitsu fitted the timing belt, I'll take the car to them and get them to re-set the timing free of charge!
Mornington look at it a couple of days later and the reply was:

"Timing was set correctly, there is slight wear in balancer woodruf key locating slot that may have given the impression of timing belt being 1 tooth out if checking was done via balancer without removing lower covers".

I belive Mornington as the car is now more responsive since Ive changed so many items on it and surely a timing issue would affect the car all the time.

It hasnt faulted in the last couple of days, but can go with or without the aircon on. What I have found though is that when the car is not running well and the air con is turned on the clicking noise is far louder than when the car is behaving itself and the aircon turned on (whilst stationary).
Would you say the connector connecting the coil which services cylinders1 & 4 would be the most suspect item? Also the fact that after once re-setting the computer it behaved itself for two weeks also makes me still suspect the ECU? I will have a last checking of all the connectors tomorrow, I just prey I can find this annoying but small fault.

Thanks,
Neil.
:rolleyes:

I can understand your frustration Neil, especially when you are strapped for casah and you are dependent in incompetant mechanics who lead you astray. I can't belive someone with even a half of brain would suggest that your intermittant problem is due to a slipped timing belt. It is intresting to note the comment about the balancer and the woodruf key. I'm a bit suspecious about this as there shouldn't be any significant movement in this, certainly not enough to even look like a one notch timing belt problem.

I wish I had some more suggestions for you at this point in time but I don't. All your symptoms don't logically appear to be related but from your description they are. It still seems to be an electrical fault to me and by running accessories, such as the AC, it drws more current and you don't have enough power for the ignition. Ussually if this happens your headlights are the first to show an electrical power fault. If I were you I would measure the battery voltage during different modes (engine off, engine running, AC on, AC off, lights on, etc, etc). Even better if you had a clip on meter to for DC current draw you could measure what each system uses and if it changes. This is a bit more difficult though as most people do not have a meter capable of doing this and I would not recommend using a standard VOM and disconnecting the battery leads to do.

What I am thinking is that you may be chasing a voltage regulator or alternator/ battery fault. Maybe, just maybe your system has enough grunt to start and run the engine but if the power suddenly spikes to essential components (like your ignition) your engine misfires and the ECU throws a tantrum. Once it comes back everthing is fine and the ECU is reset forgetting what ever happened to it. This could occur because of a failing diode or capacitator in the system that is shorted to ground. It may only become evident during high loading and electrical demand. It could also vary with temperature. Possible??

Jim

Hi Jim and thanks again for your feedback. I really do appreciate all your help.

I recently had a new battery fitted and the battery and alternator has been tested and are operating fine.

Today however I decided to have one more clean of the connectors. I decided to take apart the connector which attaches to the coil which serves cylinders 1 and 4 as the error codes point out.
After taking apart I did find a very small amount of debris wedged inside one of the connector clips. It looks like sparying them with the connector casing on from the outside could not clean it properly. I cleaned it up, reassembled it and has been fine so far today. I drove up a steep hill with CD player on, air-con on full, cigarette lighter on and window demister on. It sored up the hill without any hesitation! You just never know that little bit of grit may have been it??? I'll keep you posted. :57:

Thanks,
Neil.

I hope you finally found it! This was a suggestion from the start as I know personally about the connector problems. Can't understand how some grit got into it as water is the usual cuplprit.

The other possibility is poor pin connection between the male and female ends. Might pay if you still have problems to bend the male pin ends slightly with a screw driver so they make better contact when inserted into the female end (sounds kinda kinky). Make sure you do this with the battery lead off in case you short a live terminal onto something else or just use a non-conducting lever like a plastic knife.

Keep us posted on the results.

Jim

Hi Jim,

Well the saga continues. Unfortunately it wasnt the muck found on the connector. As a last ditched effort Ive sent an email to Mitsubishi head office, but I suppose I'm wasting my time.

my wife's now dragging me round garages looking at Toyota corolla's ...boo hooo. :(

Well Ive still got my Paj,


Its not faulting that often at the moment for some reason?(about once every three days at the moment) The last couple of times it has failed have been within 30 seconds of ignition which is strange. One the one occasion I actually heard some kind of clunk noise come from iunder the bonnet and within 30 seconds the engine lingt came on and began to misfire. Today again within 30 seconds it failed again.
Any more ideas????

Thanks,
Neil.

Neil,

Sorry, I'm not sure what's wrong with your Io. Did you hear any word back from Mitsu's HQ?