2001 Diesel Pajero Starter and Fire Up Speed (3.2 DiD 3200)

[nonoctane]

Does the starter sound slow, or does the amount of cranking need to start sound abnormal?

The battery is new and charged. The engine has 520,000km on it. Does the starter sound weak? Maybe the engine needs new glow plugs? This Pajero is new to me, and it's warm outside right now. I'm concerned that in the chilly winter this thing will run down the battery in attempts to get it started. The other diesels I have seem to crank faster and start faster. I am just hearing labored sluggishness in this starter....or is it just my wrong perception?

See my video, the first 12 seconds of the 1 minute video is sufficient: https://streamable.com/1v6paf

[Cats]

It is a 4pot large capacity diesel and usually runs through 3 and start at the 4th one every time in my experience. You can hear yours going 1,2,3 and start on 4.

To me that sounds like my normal start up on my Pajeros as I remember them for all those years.

CATS
PS - man I miss that Pajero 3.2 diesel engine.

[Diversions]

Hi Nonoctane,

Your video could have been taken of my Pajero 3.2 starting on any morning. Sure sound normal to me.

[ChasingSunsets]

I'd say it is slightly slow, sounds like one extra swing in there so yes the starter may be a bit lazy, but I agree I don't think its an issue. I will also say that the motor sounds fantastic for 520k. It "krrrssss" just like new.

[eugenej]

With those kilos, have you ever serviced the starter motor? never owned one like yours but it doesn't sound too bad

Some years ago my sister's diesel ford focus 2.5 (I think) was having great difficulty starting. replaced battery, twice if I recall and only got worse over a few months. Cold start was near impossible.
So after some days googling and find all sorts of interesting theories (even replaced glow plugs - damn expensive) I finally found the definitive answer. The starter motor was "bad". The info I saw was of a guy that put an oscilloscope on the starter to look at the current drawn and the cam sensor. Literally zooming into the cam sensor graph and you could see the timings (of by miliseconds) of the pulses were not "crips and consistent".
Long story short, the starter was not able to turn the crank fast enough for the ECU to get the correct pulse and thus never "allowed" all the bits and pieces to make it start (very crude way of describing how the ecu makes things work, I know).

Anyway, whilst it might not be the same symptoms, the point is the starter motor has a big role to play in getting the motor to turn sufficiently fast enough in order for the ecu to do what it needs to do. Very likely that I'm way off, but worth considering for a few seconds.

[Johan Engelbrecht]

Wow inspiration for us 3.2 owners, at 520k km that is epic! Sounds similar to my engine at half the kilo's, yours seems fine. Various threads on the forum that points to the 3.2 needing extra omph when replacing the cranking battery.
https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum...64#post4450164
I recently replaced my battery from Dixon factory (outlet) in Parow and asked the person to squeez in the strongest he could fit into the place reserved for battery - he could get an 668 battery in - R1 980 incl.

[domkiki]

Would be very interesting to be able to measure the current drawn by a new starter and one that has seen 500 000km of use. This obviously has to be done with a healthy battery. The current drawn is directly proportional to the torque supplied by the starter.

[nonoctane]

Wow inspiration for us 3.2 owners, at 520k km that is epic! Sounds similar to my engine at half the kilo's, yours seems fine. Various threads on the forum that points to the 3.2 needing extra omph when replacing the cranking battery.
https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum...64#post4450164
I recently replaced my battery from Dixon factory (outlet) in Parow and asked the person to squeez in the strongest he could fit into the place reserved for battery - he could get an 668 battery in - R1 980 incl.

Thanks!!!! Of note, it looks like there's plenty of space diagonally opposite from the battery, for an extra battery, against the firewall, with nothing in the way. It's almost like Mitsubishi engineers planned it that way. It's a thing that makes you go hmm, like the song says.