Pajero Junior (jr) - 1995 h57a - Help me fix this up please

[yachtielucas]

Hi ,

I found a few great threads from @chall3ng3r & @arzaam.bhatti as they fixed up their Pajero Minis.

So this seemed like the best place to come, ask for help and record my journey of trying to fix up my little Pajero Jr, hopefully through a DIY approach.

This first post may not be complete, as ill add images and videos as i collect them.

Car Stats
1995 Pajero Jr
h57a
Automatic
130,000 km
Old rental car, so a little beaten up.

History
Ive had the car for a few years now and done minimal work to it as it was a short run around to work and back. Gradually issues have developed and worsened, now its off the road and i want it back.

Im located in the Caribbean, so importing parts for this are crazy expensive, double the shipping and part cost that will be your total.

I am keen to do as much as i can as ive seen/heard too many mechanics "fix" a car for it to only fail days or weeks later. Parts are expensive also, so I've also heard of things being swapped out. So for now its a solo job with minimal tools and an ok understanding.

In the past i have taken it to a few mechanics for once over and the cost to fix came in higher than he car! They did give me a list of problems though, so this is what im working on plus more have developed.

In the past i have done the following:
- Oil & filter change
-Transmission Oil pan dropped, cleaned and oil change
-Spark plugs changed
-front controls arms changed
-New spark plug tube seals placed in (rocker valve gasket NOT replaced, but needs it as hard)

Here is a list of issues to solve and document with your help:
1. Check engine light / rough idle
2. Oil leak form engine (crank & cam shaft lip seals)
3. power steering leak - possible bad inner tie rod i suspect. (may be ATF oil also near radiator)
4. Transmission high temp comes on when climbing hills for long period
5. Tie rod ends and tie rod to inspect
6. fuel filter change (tried in past but one i purchased did not screw to seal, think i need to check / grind down)
7. new thermostat
8. remote locking - check if this is installed

[yachtielucas]

Problem 1 - Biggest issue keeping it off the road!

This started as a check engine light for 10 seconds and it would go. Also had to sometime double start to get the engine going. Today a year later its a lot worse, sounds rough takes between 10-30 minutes of sitting there before it "fixes" itself and can drive.

I thought this was a misfire due to rough engine sound, excessive shaking, the engine has no power when in this mode.

Initial Start Up - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s_kZ7vRR8v9_knIXvjLdb2lZZIhX4wmR/view?usp=sharing

After some time it revs up and this normally means its "fixed" itself - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iJZ1NqCq5tIVaC7gFnvEoRH06pq6xbIX/view?usp=sharing

So i started looking at possible reasons and this is what i have done and in the order i did it. So far nothing has fixed this issue.

1. Changed spark plug tube seals as oil was getting into 2 of the tubes (2&4 i think). Old ones were flat and hard. Did not have a new valve cover gasket so added a little RTV grey since i did not want to crank down on the bolts. This stopped oil leaking down the tubes and also minor oil leak at back of valve cover.

2. Changed spark plugs for new.

3. Suspected may be bad coil pack. also got. a little shock when passing hand near the engine block and coil.
   Taped up the wires where boots were to prevent leakage.
   Measured the resistance on the 2 coil packs i had, one gave a different value. So suspected this ay be bad. Found a new coil pack for a Mitubishi shogun i think, different part number and stem different. Used old stem and tested this in various ways by swapping parts around across different cycliders etc. No difference.

4. Thought it may be a bad Idle Air Control IAC valve. Removed throttle body to clean around butterfly as a little carbon. Removed IAC to clean with carb cleaner and also the resistor that reads the butterfly. Noticed that the IAC is always open and i can blow into butterfly for it to bypass. Not sure if this is correct?

1. Removed injectors. Checked resistance across all for anything different (all the same) and sprayed with carb cleaner. replaced back in random order.

After all of this the issue is still there, maybe sounds a little worse, but only positive is that when i switch the AC on full the engine revs go up and not down!

[yachtielucas]

I did some messing around to "test" and noticed that when the car has checked engine light. I unplug the wire to the front coil pack the engine dies. If i unplug the back coil pack then nothing changes, so these two cylinders are not firing which is the issue.

video - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hWGdSHj9-IeX38oT2C7RnaInlQlFk_oM/view?usp=sharing

Once car is running the above issue is no more - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HtgHAXrfv75RH720Qarq9kbcNrUEThIE/view?usp=sharing

BUT i have moved coil packs around so both cannot be the problem as above "test" happened the same way. I have checked for a voltage at the coil pack plug and get 14v, so it has power. The injectors were put back random so chances 2 were bad and in those 2 cylinders is unlikely.

Not sure what now, camshaft sensor, check injectors again, check spark is flying from the plug, compression issue maybe valves stuck open with dirt as these two had oil leaking in the spark plug tubes.?

[chall3ng3r]

Hi Luke,

You've diagnosed it right so far and I guess pinpointed the issue. From what I've seen in your videos, I would say that this is related to the ignition system. I'd advise to replace both ignition coils, they should be a pair. But, before that, I'd also say that you should once check the ECU of the vehicle, and precisely check for the signals going to the coils. You'd need a bit of advanced equipment for this test, maybe you can visit a acr electrician for this, and see what they have to say.

Start from the base, like cam sensor, check it, then move to ECU, then move to coils, and lastly spark plugs. My guess is coils, but it could be ECU which is not sending the signals correctly.

Here in my city, we have this used auto parts market, and there's plenty of parts available for Pajero Mini and Jr. I don't know if you've something similar in your city of residence, but you can try to look around, or find it online.

Hope it helps and gives you some ideas to work with.

[yachtielucas]

Thank you for your response. I am trying to locally source a known good set of coils.

In the mean time i have done a little more testing, maybe this will open some reasons as to why this is happening?

1. Resistance tested the coil packs, one stays high whereas the other it high on first test then drops to 33. So assume one isn't happy.

2. I mixed the coil packs up again but no matter what way i put them its always that back pack that does not fire.

3. I removed the hose from the valve cover to the intake manifold. Engine revs jump up, but i see that all 4 cyclinders are starting to fire. This doesn't fix the issue as engine light it on, but it gets the coils to work. Shortly after the engine revs itself and runs as normal.

So does this indicate that it could all be an air volume issue?

Note i have been testing with the air intake hoses off fro the air filter like a snorkel in the sky. So air filter is not the issue. Testing coil packs with the non contact voltage test of the multimeter.

Also hearing that IAC on back of the throttle body clicking after killing then engine. Not sure if this is a click for it working or its going crazy and broken.

[yachtielucas]

Doing a little research and found someone with a similar issue on a different car.

Their issue ended up being a missing tooth on the reluctor and therefore the crank sensor was not reading correctly.

They also said this is becuase their engine was pulled, so still worth looking at the igniter or ECU.

Now not really sure how to look at these things, but think im going to:

-pull the crank shaft position sensor as ive seen a little oil around that, so oring has likely gone.
-visually look at timing gears if i can, i see the belt it a bit worn
-Look into grounding of the spark plugs and coils - as the ECu tells it to ground which makes the spark. So maybe a bad ground, these two cylinders were ones that had oil in the tubes so aybe these has some ill effect.
-No idea how to mess with ECU and check wires fro there to the coils but grounding test would be good. (hope its not ECU)

[chall3ng3r]

Another thing I'd recommend is doing the ECU scan and get the error codes. This will most likely give you an idea where to start from.

Also, use your mobile phone's camera (slow motion feature) for checking teeth of the gear when you try to spin the engine with wrench to the engine fan pully. I've used my mobile in similar situations for diagnosis and to look for engine areas which are hard to get a clear look.

Keep going, you will find the exact issue and fix for it.