Electrical, Help!

[naossoan]

Hi all,

I recently had my Pajero at the shop to have a frost plug block heater installed, as well as the oil changed.

I could have sworn I was not having issues before I took it to the shop, but the shop said they didn't touch anything electrical so I don't know what the hell.

Basically what's happening is I have no power to any of my accessories.

Interior light, electric door locks, dash clock, stereo, etc.

Even in the "ON" position on the ignition, none of these accessories work. However after the truck is running for a bit, maybe 30 seconds to a minute, the accessories start working. Perhaps a loose connection somewhere? The odd thing was that when it is working, it seemed kind of weird. Like how the door locks work is if I lock the driver door, it locks all the other doors. I'd lock/unlock the door and the other ones would lock but not right away with that one, it was delayed a bit, and jittery kind of. It's hard to explain. Its actually very weird. When I turn the car to "ON" I hear some buzzing under the hood somewhere then it stops. I can't remember if that was always there. I hear the "click" telling me the glow plugs should be ready so I start it up, and it starts up fine ok. Still no power to the door locks, clock, heater fan, etc. until 30 seconds to a minute later.

Where is a good place for me to look that may be causing this issue? I have some lights up front that were connected in with the battery and into the dash with a push button switch but I disconnected all that shit because it was just a mess of wires and the lights didn't work anyway. Just to clean it up a bit. It didn't make any difference.

[LeeHammy]

Depending on how you "disconnected all of that shit" you may have a wire from your main 12v that powered the relay for your lights flopping around and if it were to short out you will blow a fuse. Have you checked any of your fuses? Under the steering wheel there is a fuse compartment as well as a fuse compartment in a fuse box beside your battery under the hood. Take an electrical meter set on ohms and check for continuity between each fuse. There are some big funky looking fuses in the box under the hood. You could have had one fail but not completely so that sometimes it provides power causing this confusion so who knows but you should start by checking your fuses.

[naossoan]

There isn't an wires like that flopping about. All the wires from the lights I spooled them up and tucked them around the overfill container for the coolant.

I don't have an electric tester (multi meter?) so I'll have to go pick one up I guess. What do I look for? Just a large number for resistance right?

[jessef]

sounds like your batteries are dead or the connection is loose
whatever you disconnected may have been one of the accessory plugin's.

you need a voltmeter and a place to start. the electrical gremlin what you are describing can surface in a hundred different electrical points in your Pajero.

Start with the batteries and work from there.

[thedjjack]

X2 on Battery....check the connections first any decent shop SHOULD HAVE disconnected the batteries prior to starting work on truck...coneection might just not be good....

[psilosin]

Sounds like a bad connection. Do Pajeros have dual batteries?...if so maybe connection loose at one of the batteries? Or maybe by accident while reaching around installing teh block heater they damaged a power/ground wire leading to the fuse panel?...that would give intermittent issues to everything on the panel fed/grounded by that wire. Or maybe they removed a ground wire on the engine/trans/chassis while installing the block heater?...making a number of circuits perhaps use a ground path that isn't very good.

[TardisDeli]

I need to look at a Pajero to confirm ,but on a Deli mounted at the positive battery post is a box that has four fusable links and one of them supplies power to all those items you described. From that box the four wires split to two sepearate plugs which are know to burn out.Falco can tell you all about that. So thats were i would start . Mind you thats for a Deli but it probally has a similer system .Cheers Jay Tardis Deli.

[FalcoColumbarius]

I need to look at a Pajero to confirm ,but on a Deli mounted at the positive battery post is a box that has four fusable links and one of them supplies power to all those items you described. From that box the four wires split to two sepearate plugs which are know to burn out.Falco can tell you all about that. So thats were i would start . Mind you thats for a Deli but it probally has a similer system .Cheers Jay Tardis Deli.

Si.

A little plastic connector that fried over time, what you might call "electrical cholesterol". Thanks again for that, Jay.

[naossoan]

I think my Alternator may be dead actually.

I recently replaced the batteries because the ones that came in it were done. around 100 cranking amps each only.

I threw in the new ones and the truck ran and started great. I went to use it the other day and it started fine and everything. I drove about 40 minutes to my destination, all the while noticing how the instrument lights seemed to be getting dimmer, along with the headlights. Upon arriving at destination, the panel was almost completely out. When I got back in the truck to leave, it wouldn't stat. Completely wouldn't turn over at all.

I had to get my friend to drive out and boost me, and again had just enough power after being boosted and charges up for a bit by my friend to make it back home, where I thought it was going to stall for sure because the instrument panels were almost COMPLETELY out, headlights extremely dim. Windshield wipers wouldn't go quickly, etc.

So i think it's the alternator, or a connection to the alternator.

How can I test if the alternator is dead? Someone told me if you boost the truck, then pull the + leads off both batteries that the truck should stay running if the alternator is working....but I'm not sure I trust that.

Is there a more reliable method, or is it pretty clear from what I've said that there is an issue with the alternator or the wiring to/from the alternator?

[92pajero]

Actually that is the easiest and fastest way to see if your alternator is working. But do not pull positive, pull the negatives this way if you drop either end it will not arc against the engine compartment at all. Been doing that way for over 20 years and it hasnt failed me yet.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Before you pull the alternator out: There have been a few threads that refer to a number of the idiot lights coming on in the instrument cluster when the alternator gives up. Are you experiencing this?

• http://www.delica.ca/forum/alternator-2944.html
  http://www.delica.ca/forum/lights-light ... -8329.html

I have said this before (ad nauseum) ~ clean the battery terminals and cable ends (emery cloth, wire brush, &c.) to make sure you are getting a clean connexion. This time of year is classic for corrosion build up and it is not necessarily noticeable ~ they may look fine but there could be a barrier retarding the charge. I would do that before tearing the motor apart. Make it a habit to start with the simple things first.

Falco.

[naossoan]

the batteries are brand new and the terminals have no corrosion, and i put some corrosion resistant grease stuff on the terminals.

But I did have similar issues to that.

I had the battery light turning on, as well as one that looked kind of like an oil pan or something. They would go away after the engine was running for a short time.

I'll get a volt meter somewhere and test the volts at the terminals to see what they are...I read online if they're less than 14 volts with all the accessories turned on then there is a problem with the alternator. if they're less than 12 with nothing turned on there's a problem as well.

so I'll have to do that soon!!


The only thing I'm thinking is maybe there's some other issue with the wiring on my battery? This is how it's set up right now. You'll see a bunch of small wires coming from the battery terminals as well those are for the lights on the bumper, which I have since removed the wiring for to avoid any complications.

Here some pictures of my batteries. The rear one was fine for hooking up front one I had to change the wiring.
http://i.imgur.com/XLJBY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aGhYm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/f4pgx.jpg

The blue cable you see is one of these: http://tinyurl.com/7mt9gwd. The electrical tape I circled there used to be a battery terminal connector there that went straight onto the battery, but with the pole on the other side I had to use a cable to re-route it. The cable is bolted on to the existing 2 pieces of metal/cables that lead somewhere.

[FalcoColumbarius]

the batteries are brand new and the terminals have no corrosion, and i put some corrosion resistant grease stuff on the terminals......

By "corrosion resistant grease stuff" you mean petroleum jelly? If you have used dielectric grease this could be your problem as it is an insulator and due to its viscosity and reactionary properties it has been known to permeate the connexion, thereby creating an obstacle to the charge.

I'm not saying this is the case but should not be overlooked. I had a similar issue one time and I looked at the terminals of my new batteries and they looked fine but I cleaned them off with a wire brush in a cup ($5 at Lordco) just the same ~ problem solved.

From what I have read in the case of the warning lights and the alternator it's usually three or more.

Good luck with the volt meter and keep us updated.

Falco.

[naossoan]

No petroleom jelly it was something I bought from Canadian Tire to prevent corrosion. I'm not sure if I put it on the terminals themselves, or just on the outside. You can see it in the picture it is a red tinge.

Anyway I picked up a volt meter and boosted my pajero with my car, let it charge a little bit then disconnected the booster cables and checked the voltage at the battery.

With no accessories turned on...like the heater fan, headlights, etc it was like 11v. with headlights turned on it was just slightly above 10v.

I checked the belt going to the alternator and it was spinning and didn't appear loose or anything, so there must be some issue with the alternator...

I've got to go to work here in a few, but tomorrow I'll clean off all the grease stuff from the terminals and check the voltage again. The batteries are right low on charge so I could see them not being at 12v without the car running, but if the alternator is working I should see at least 14v no?

Thanks,

[FalcoColumbarius]

I would think so.