My Pajero Mini Restored

[arzaam.bhatti]

AOA guys, would like to you to meet my 1996 Pajero Mini which i bought back in February, i love tinkering and resorting cars t factory specs and this vehicle was only intended to used for my knowledge and learning purposes, i learnt so much while fixing it myself, car never ever went to a single workshop all work was done at home and mechanics help was enlisted at home, the car turned out to be so good we kept it and now use it within city, its the perfect cheerful vehicle for city.

DSC02137 by Arzaam Bhatti, on Flickr

suggestions comments welcome/ do say Masha ALLAH

btw it may be dry and i don't intend to make it interesting but its a useful guide for a person who wishes to buy this model or a enthusiast who can relate to the pains of doing it right on a old car and just trying to share some knowledge that i learnt in the process as this was the whole point of buying this car in first place:P

[arzaam.bhatti]

DSC01634 by Arzaam Bhatti, on Flickr

DSC02128 by Arzaam Bhatti, on Flickr

[arzaam.bhatti]

ill soon be updating the thread with the history of the car and all the work i did on getting in right, though when i bough it aesthetically it was nearly perfect had original paint etc, and its XR-II model instead of VR-II so its full option has chrome side mirrors airbag and abs breaks, abs and airbag are not standard in mini pajero of this model year, plus it had compass altimeter etc not all models have that. it also had lifetime token paid.

[mfdarvesh]

Good Work
How much is engine power, is it 660cc version ??

Subscribed ..

[muradi]

Nice Ride, My uncle also had one and it was love, but this car drinks fuel like hell
lemme see if i can dig out a picture

[muradi]

Here is our Ex Mini Skipper

It was my crush

[arzaam.bhatti]

Good Work
How much is engine power, is it 660cc version ??

Subscribed ..

its 660cc non intercooler version, when i got it was dog slow, but now performance has improved a lot its pretty zippy around city

[arzaam.bhatti]

Nice Ride, My uncle also had one and it was love, but this car drinks fuel like hell
lemme see if i can dig out a picture

haha when i first got it it was doing 6km/l! but now after iridium plugs liqui moly mos2 semi synthetic engine oil and injector cleaner/fuel system treatment from liqui moly later, it does 12km/l in city if you drive carefully and thats with very wide 205 tyres, however thats no fun i mostly go flat out of every signal rear wheel drive push feels so good and redline it at 7000rpm often so my avg fuel consumptions comes down to 8.5km/l so i think its pretty good, no cng

[arzaam.bhatti]

Here is our Ex Mini Skipper

It was my crush

haha thats one clean car, and its the duke limited edition version looks great, its intercooler model thats why high due consumption, and nice name too i like it, any idea where i can find wooden trim like this one for mine?

[arzaam.bhatti]

self edit duplicate post

[muradi]

haha thats one clean car, and its the duke limited edition version looks great, its intercooler model thats why high due consumption, and nice name too i like it, any idea where i can find wooden trim like this one for mine?

Yes it is a turbo intercooler version but the pick and drive was awesome, u can get the wooden trim done from carbographics, this one had it done before we bought it,
Would u believe that a guy got so crazy for this ride that he bought sent a guy to KHI to buy this who then took it to peshawar, and paid 200k extra for this ride

[suzukialtomehran]

Here is our Ex Mini Skipper







It was my crush

Awesome

[arzaam.bhatti]

so now continuing with some background, like i said before the car was meant to be a educational tool and a city runabout and not a investment or anything, it had two problems while at buying, one was transmission and other was a leaking rear differential, the first day we took it out to ascertain the work that needed to be done it gave up on us:P, some wiring was loose and it was shorting on body thus causing very little current to spark plugs and misfire we hardly got it back home and the journey of restoration began. as i would be doing most thing by myself with assistance of others we called a electrician at home and together we sorted out all the loose wiring checked the sensors cleaned the throttle body and fixed some of th exterior lights that were not working , the fog lights were also creating a issue, the bulbs were okay first connections seemed bad then it was traced to bad foglight switch, ordered a replacement one even that didn't work and finally third time lucky, this was only first in the line of repairs but it was a start and now car was drivable around town

[arzaam.bhatti]

meanwhile back then when the restoration was going on also got it some new things, it had a 4 speaker cassette player which had to go so updated the sound system
the head unit i got was Pioneer fh_p80
with aux and iPhone connectivity

and for fornt i got Kenwood component speakers can't remember model no,

the rear speakers stayed original

i would later go on to upgrade this further but for now it was a start

[arzaam.bhatti]

so continuing the restoration story the next thing i did was to enlist the help of some mechanics at home and try to sort out ht transmission issue, and we also changed the timing belt, tensioner pulley and all auxiliary belts at the same time as well, the transmission issue still was beyond understanding, all the solenoids were working fine individually and the gearbox ecu a common fault in these cars was also not the culprit as we grid three different ecus but none made a difference, however the timing belt change timing was spot on, the car odometer read 55000km but there was a sticker on the door in japanese that read 70000km an then said 73000km which iwas guessing is the oil change sticker form japan, and looking at the state of the belt its safe to assume car was driven around 80-85k, the timing belt had never been changed for sure as the original factory seal with date stamped was intact.

also changed the engine oil to halvoline at home,

[arzaam.bhatti]

then we again set to fixing the transmission, the tranny oil was recently changed and ZIC oil was used so at first we didn't suspect something wrong with it, it was so frustrating nothing would work mechanic even brought a spare transmission and said he would change the transmission all together, but i never let him, i was going to get to the bottom of this transmission and changing one to a kabli transmission didn't seem wise at all,

the transmission issue was more or less eventually solved later, more on that later in the tread

[arzaam.bhatti]

meanwhile also upgrade its tyres, oem size is 175/80r15 which is extinct nowadays, car already had 195/80 r15 which i thought were too high a profile form oem specs, after much searching in the market for 195/70 tr 205/70 or cam across light truck tyres form michillen and even they were smuggled so went for very fresh and matching manufacturing dates of dunlop lm702 205/65 r15, only slighty lower than oem specs, and instantly the drive improved, it felt so much more sure footed while cornering and acceleration improved noticeably due to dramatically lower profile meaning more revolutions of wheel, total cost of tyres were 32k minus 8000 for existing tyres, they were in really good nick but i thought they were wrong profile

[arzaam.bhatti]

continuing the story, btw it may be dry and i don't intend to make it interesting but its a useful guide for a person who wishes to buy this model or a enthusiast who can relate to the pains of doing it right on a old car and just trying to share some knowledge that i learnt in the process as this was the whole point of buying this car in first place:P

so now concentrated on the transmission, i decided to change its oil as although it was new it was wrong spec that is ZIC, the car actually requires Mitsubihsi SPII/III spec, which i could find no where so used a alternative which was Liqui Moly Top Tech 1200 Fully synthetic ATF and it had mitsubihsi SP II/III approval, mind you it was very expensive:P 1600rs a litre and car took 2.8 litres tiny transmission:P, i also changed the transfer case oil while at this and used toyota gl4 75W-90 manual transmission gear oil,

the oils

the centre differential oil was in terrible condition when drained out looked like it had never been changed, after changing ATF took a test-drive and success! almost that is now it would most of the time shift properly and only few times go into limp mode before it was always stuck in top gear,

i would later go on to solve it almosts fully, but back then it had been worth changing both oils

[arzaam.bhatti]

then we set to ac work, it was a new experience for me so i first just watched the guy do his job, it didn't have ac gas, the person simply checked for leaks , vacuumed for 5 min then charges r134a KLEA by pressure not by weight and said done, i knew it was totally wrong but i wanted to see results and then compare it when i would later do the work my way:P, needless to say this way ac performance was poor and later the ac tech cleaned the evaporator, then condenser form outside recharged gas but it would remain poor and even water stopped dripping underneath to which he was stumped

[arzaam.bhatti]

i after reading of lot posts on this forum and else where set about the work, i also showed it to i think eastern ac in rawalpindi its called a very old workshop, he gave a bill of 30k according to what he diagnosed, i then did the job my self and better and it costed less than 10k,

i first set to replace the ac drier bottle as before car had no ac gas and i was sure it would need to be replaced and simply filling the bass wont work, eastern ac even refused to acknowledge that i can find a new drier bottle for my car and was admant it could not be found, however my condenser has a separate drier bottle not integrated in condenser, i found a new receiver drier bottle after a bit of searching and while replacing it noticed that the ac pipes were severely bent and contorted at one end, had those pipes welded straight and checked for leaks, also the expansion valve was checked and serviced it was fine anyways, after that cleaned the condenser well with steam from outside then gave it good 45min vacuum, the ac wala that brought home and whose tools i used though i was mad vacuuming for so long even said at the end machine but garam ho gaye hai:P, then i used Honeywell american refrigerant r134a and made sure it was authentic and used digital thermometer to measure vent temperature and by looking at high side and low side readings and matching them with readings on a pressure temp chart mated to fill gas quantiy correctly i hope, as i coudnt find how much by weight this car takes refrigerant, needless to say ac performance improved a lot though now another problem developed that it would heat up if ac on and idling for more than 30min which outside school it often did so that was next target