[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by Traveler

Overall I am quite satisfied though I have driven just about 20kms on the new shockers.

Thanks for the update. After having replaced the entire suspension setup on my Gypsy with OME, I can vouch for their quality and robustness. Will get the same done for my Pajero soon

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

I am still driving a 2003 GLX CBU with over 2.7L on the odo.

Man I agree that cars such as the Pajero are no longer made. Sad but true!

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

I drive a 2003 GLX which is a CBU / Import with 2.7L km on the Odo..

Have you stopped driving for the past few months or..., you appear stuck at that odo figure for quite sometime now.

If the SUV is parked, one will wax eloquent. And you have barely managed some 15,000 odd kilometers as an average annual running, its below normal for a high mileage vehicle.

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

Buddy, your post just fit the bill. And yes, I am still driving a 2003 GLX CBU with over 2.7L on the odo.

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

Thanks buddy.
Absolutely! Owning this special ride has been a defining experience. From getting through every kind of terrain & situation, and till saving my life... this vehicle has done everything in between!
A pity such cars are no longer made. And this fella here is there to stay.

It would be wonderful to read your experiences with the car. Do you have an ownership thread that I could go through. I searched a bit but could not find one. Do let us all know how your ride has been through all these years.

[Unavowed_X9]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Have you stopped driving for the past few months or..., you appear stuck at that odo figure for quite sometime now.

If the SUV is parked, one will wax eloquent. And you have barely managed some 15,000 odd kilometers as an average annual running, its below normal for a high mileage vehicle.

Yes, my work in NE has been keeping me busy since early this year. Been able to do only about 10k on the odo this year.

Originally Posted by Traveler

It would be wonderful to read your experiences with the car. Do you have an ownership thread that I could go through. I searched a bit but could not find one. Do let us all know how your ride has been through all these years.

I have been trying to compile an ownership thread since a the last couple of years despite everyone exhorting me to do so, and it is still lying in the Assembly Line!
It would run into a long one, and will certainly work on it at the earliest chance.
As far as its performance is concerned, you would surely understand when I say I cant bring myself to drive another vehicle other than this in the foreseeable future.
It is a machine that defies age, with features I keep discovering even now.

Warm regards
Unavowed_X9

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

I have been trying to compile an ownership thread since a the last couple of years despite everyone exhorting me to do so, and it is still lying in the Assembly Line

Eagerly awaiting the ownership thread. Have you owned it since 2003? If not, how many years? Also, please post some pics - I am sure Manik would not mind

[Unavowed_X9]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Eagerly awaiting the ownership thread. Have you owned it since 2003? If not, how many years? Also, please post some pics - I am sure Manik would not mind

Acquired it in 2014 (after a year of identification, had to retrace it again followed by a sequence of events for acquisition best left for discussion behind closed doors!).

A couple of pictures as desired.





Warm regards
Unavowed_X9

[indianrunner]

Been following this thread. I bought my truck in 2007 and have never regretted it. They don't make vehicle like this anymore.

[Traveler]

I recently changed all interior lights to LED bulbs. The original bulbs were the incandescent type and had lost their brightness over the last 8 years. None of them had fused so far (Japanese Bulbs). I checked for the exact sizes and apparently there are 5 bulbs in the Pajero Cabin. Two for the Map Lights next to the IRVM, to in the Center Dome light on the roof and one in the rear. All 5 bulbs are 31MM Festoon type bulbs and I ordered LED from Aliexpress. Just replaced all 5 a couple of days back and the difference is day and night. Attaching some pictures with the LED's.

I had already changed the front side lights (Parking Lmaps) to LED earlier. They are going strong and have a clear white light.

Next up is the headlamps swap, have ordered LED Headlamps also and hopefully they will be coming in next week.

With the headlamps there is a complication in the Pajero SFX. The vehicle uses a Dim Dip Relay setup that actually turns on the High Beam Filaments at a reduced intensity when only the parking lights are switched on.

This feature complicates the installation of LED's since they work from 8V to 18V typically. Now this results in the LED headlamps getting switched on even when you switch on only the parking lights. The Dim Dip feature is basically a relay and resistor setup that reduces the voltage going to the headlamp through a resistor so that the headlamps light up with dimmed intensity. So to overcome this issue I had to dig into the Electrical Wiring Schematic for the Pajero to figure out how these things are wired.

Luckily I have the original Factory Manuals for my vehicle and was able to figure out the schematic (I took me over an hour to trace the details) and fianlly locate the resistor in the Engine bay area. As it worked out, it is actually a very simple process to disable the Dim Dip feature so that the headlights do not turn on at parking position.

We just need to disconnect a two pole connector on the resistor. This stops the reduced voltage output from reaching the headlamps and they remain off. Attaching the schematic for the same in case someone wants to install LED's and is wondering how to stop them from get lit up even when only the parking lights are switched on.

The connector circled in Red Color is what needs to be disconnected. This resistor is attached along the radiator frame on the right side when you are standing in front of the car. The coupler is a two pole plastic coupler that can be pressed and pulled out to disconnect.

I love the Pajero, so simple to figure out and so simple to maintain.


Cheers.

[Traveler]

A small update. I upgraded the headlamps to H4 LED. Surprisingly the install was just a simple swap of the older Halogen's with the new LED.

The beam pattern was quite out of place after the change so I needed to realign the headlights. The official service manual details the steps clearly. You need to park the vehicle 15 ft from a straight wall and the lower beam cutoff should be 60mm lower than the center position of the headlamp. In my case the headlamp center point in 35 inches from the ground and 22.5 inches from the center of the car.

Once aligned I am getting an excellent high beam spread and a beautifully aligned lower beam. For right hand drive vehicles the driver side Low beam falls much shorter than the passenger side as per the design. This pattern is now very clearly visible with the LED lamps.

I also changed the reverse light bulbs to LED's and the difference is huge in the reverse lighting.

Now ordered all the remaining lamps and will be replacing the front indicator, rear indicator, side indicator, rear fog, rear stop and park and the High Stop Lamps all to LED's. Hopefully the upgrade to full LED setup will complete in March. Will post pictures post the full upgrade.

[Traveler]

Adding some pictures of the H4 LED's coverage on a dark road. For your viewing pleasure.

[Unavowed_X9]

Originally Posted by Traveler

I recently changed all interior lights to LED bulbs.

This is super-informative. Have been grappling with this issue over some time, and will deal with it now I hope. In case, will want to take some advice from you.
Secondly, would request some sourcing details for reliable H4 LEDs with the same color as halogens.
Thanks in advance.

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

This is super-informative. Have been grappling with this issue over some time, and will deal with it now I hope. In case, will want to take some advice from you.
Secondly, would request some sourcing details for reliable H4 LEDs with the same color as halogens.
Thanks in advance

You are welcome. I am happy that you found the information useful. I can help out wherever I can, just reach out to me.

I bought my LED's from a seller called CNSUNNYLIGHT on Aliexpress as this seller is recommended in the LED thread on Team BHP. I have 5500k color and its white.

I could not find 4300k color which is the one Halogens have. The LED I have are the CSP chip type and are supposed to be as close to Halogens as possible in terms of beam cut off.

[Traveler]

Got my Pajero serviced today. It had done only about 3k kms since last service but with nothing else to do I decided to get the service and few preemptive checks done.

Got the following replaced.
1. Engine oil and filter. Agip ENI 5w30.
2. Fuel filter
3. Differential oil. Although not required since it had run only 10k since last replacement, but still got it changed as I wanted to check the quality of the Servo 80w90 GL5 oil that I had put in last time. Surprisingly the oil drained out almost new. So with that I can now confirm that Servo 80w90 GL5 is good. Replaced with the same.
4. Rear Stabilizer D Bush Clamps. Had got the originals from Japan and had been lying with me. One of them had a slight bend due to incorrect lifting on the hydraulic lift while washing. I had thought of replacing them. Got that done today finally.
5. Propeller shaft greasing. Needed to pull out the front shaft for greasing the rear nipple and that caused the transmission oil to drain.
6. Top up transmission oil with Motul 75w90. Same as what was used earlier.
7. Air Filter cleaned.
8. Coolant replaced with Castrol Heavy Duty Radicool. 3 Litres plus 7 Liters Distilled water.
9. Full underbody check and torquing of chassis bolts.
10. Full wash.

Total damage 8595/- including parts and labour.

Set for another year now. The Pajero marches on...

[Traveler]

The rest of the LED's finally arrived and I spent the last weekend replacing all the incandescent bulbs with the LED. It is quite a handful of bulbs actually.

6 Indicators lamps
2 Rear fog lamps
2 Rear park and brake lamps
4 Rear High Mounted Stop Lamp
2 Number Plate Lamps.
2 Reverse Lamps

Took me more than an hour to replace all the bulbs, the front indicator bulbs are hard to reach. Rest everything was a straight forward affair.

Now the issues cropped up.

Issue 1. Indicators flash too fast. Also known as hyperflashing. Apparently the low wattage of the LED bulbs causes the flasher relay to believe that one of the indicators has gone kaput. This causes the hyperflash which is actually a feature by design. A quick flashing indicator usually means a blown bulb and is used to warn the driver. In my case it was a side effect of using LED's.

A fix was sought and after much effort I found that I could either use a LED load resistor to mimic an incandescent lamp to fool the flasher relay or use a flasher relay designed for LED's.

Fortunately the Pajero has a conventional flasher relay that can be easily swapped out and replaced. A new flasher relay is has been ordered and is on it's way.

Issue 2. This was a more serious one. After replacing the rear brake and parking light my ABS warning light lit up. The ABS got deactivated and although th4e brake lights were functioning the ABS was dead.

The problem was diagnosed to be the same that happened with the indicators. Apparently the ABS unit in all cars does a power in self test. During this test it sends a low voltage current into the brake light circuit to check if all bulbs and other components are ok. If everything is ok, the low voltage being sent causes the voltage to drop to under 1V and that is interpreted by the ABS as an all Ok sign.

Now with LED's there was no voltage drop as the LED,'s are very low wattage and offer very low resistance. This causes the ABS to trip with a bulb out error.

Again the solution is to put load resistors to mimic the resistance of incandescent bulbs.

Somehow I was not happy with the idea of using LED's and them loading up the circuit with resistors. For one it is a shoehorn approach and second the resistors get extremely hot and could cause a risk.

After quite a bit of research I found a solution on one the Mazda forums. Someone had designed a simple electronic circuit to mimic the resistance when the ABS does its power in self test. This was an elegant solution without any side effects and ills of the resistors.

I constructed the circuit myself and installed it in the car today and voila it fixes the issue completely. The whole thing cost me about Rs.100 to build and I must say its the most elegant solution to fix the ABS issue.

Attached is the circuit I built and enclosed in a good quality plastic case. Also used heat shrink cable to tie it the wires and finally sealed the box to make it waterproof.

Overall a good feeling to have fixed the issues in the correct manner.

The lights are now really bright and the Pajero is now 100% LED equipped.

[krdeshmukh]

Can someone please help with the link for review of the 2018 Pajero sport . Looking at select plus variant