Strange behavior

[etsinko]

Hello,
My wife and I took our 91 Pajero on a road trip today. We were planning to drive from Vancouver to Calgary for Christmas with my family.
As we were approaching Kamloops the car started coughing and puffing out white clouds of smoke. The engine almost lost the power and finally died. Fortunately, we were able to coast into Kamloops in neutral. We were able coast to the Shell gas station at Hwy 1.
There we were able to restart the engine. It stuttered and died again. After several attempts we were finally able to start it and to keep it running. After that we topped the gas tank with fuel and drove around the city for about an hour to see if the symptoms reappear.
Fortunately the car was running without any problems. We decided not to push our luck today and stay in Kamloops for a night. Hopefully it will start tomorrow.
Does anyone have an idea what could have happened? Our guess is that there was some problem with fuel.
In case it doesn't start tomorrow, does anyone know a mechanic in Kamloops who works on Delicas/Pajeros?

Thank you,
Egor

[lrp374]

I might suggest the following: Franco's Auto Service Ltd. - Kamloops (Jay) www.francosauto.com 1427 Lorne St., 250-374-1923
I have not used their services before but they have a good reputation and have worked on Delica's before.

If that doesn't work Sportsman Light Truck have good people that work on my Delica and other vehicles. They are very busy and may have trouble getting a guy to look @ your problem as they are a small shop. 250-374-7175 and ask for Brady.

I know another guy in town works on these little diesels but I'd need to drive by his shop to remember the name. If you still need some help send me a PM.

Larry

[FalcoColumbarius]

This topic has been moved from General Discussion to Mitsubishi Pajero.

Falco.

[Pajerist]

Hi Egor,

did you figure out what the cause of such strange behavior?

[fmande]

It sounds like water contamination in your fuel.

regards David

[Pajerist]

Should water filter takes care of water?

[Bluebear]

That sounds like the exact symptoms I had when a gas attendant filled half my tank with GAS and not diesel. I drove it for like 20-30kms, then when I needed to go up a hill and required power, it started to smoke white exaust like crazy then sputtered and died. It was like it wasnt getting fuel and the only way to restart it was to mash the gas pedal to the floor, or manually prime fuel back into the pump.

I thought I had a cracked head and had visions of $$$ in my head but I finally smelled from the DIESEL ONLY cap, and yes it was gasoline. Drained it, filled with fresh diesel, and voila it started and has been running better ever since.

My old username was pajerry and you can probably find my thread with the story and details, title went something like 'dont let others pump your fuel'...


(btw, I only changed user names because the site was no longer letting me log in, and nobody from the admin has responded to my request for a password reset etc.)

Notice: This post was posted by Pajerry under his nom-de-plume Bluebear, due to being locked out. Bluebear is gone now and Pajerry is back. ~ FC