Hello, I have a 2001 Montero/Pajero Wagon 3.5, today I was driving, and when I hit the freeway the car couldn't get over 60 kmh (approx 40 mph), as I got off the freeway after a mile, it was fine for another 5 minutes, but I noticed it was driving a bit jerky, powerwise. But as I got close to home, I lost more power, and finally it was down to 20 kmh/15 mph. Pushing the gas pedal didn't have hardly any effect at all. When I stopped I noticed a burnt smell. Now I remember reading about some gas filter that could clog up on these models. Also you should know that I have been running it on ethanol 60/40 for the last year, and I know this could hurt the fuel pump.
Any ideas, anybody who has experienced something similar? The car has gone 100 000 km/65 000 miles.

 

Hey, seems like noone else is putting ethanol (alcohol) in their Montero/Pajero. Anyways, today I was gonna start investigating what was wrong. I fired it up, and it sounded fine. I took it to the gas station (it ran a little bit jerky, but mostly fine), put more gas in it, and less ethanol. After this it ran like a rocket. I hope the problem occured because I had too much ethanol in the tank, I know I screwed up the mix a bit last time at the pump station.
The interesting thing about having a 60/40 split between Ethanol/gasoline is that it gets the same milage, but the ethanol is more eco-friendly, and a bit less taxed, at least here in Sweden.

 

How can 40% give you the same mileage as petrol? I see a hit in mileage when they increase ethanol up to 10% in the winter. I cannot confirm but Ive heard the higher % of ethanol is hard on the fuel delivery system (injectors and stufrf) since the alcohol tends to not lube as well as standard gasoline and causes excessive wear. Again, dont know if its a myth, just what Ive heard.

 

I've done it for about a year and a half, I usually put in 35 liters of gas, and about 45-48 of ethanol. The only thing is I must exchange the engine oil a bit more often, because it gets black quicker. There is a grass-roots campaign for this in Sweden, and the people who advocate it says it's hardly no risk at all, and the car companies say: Are you outta your mind? Anyways, my Montero/Pajero is a gussler, and I've compared running on gas, and the gas/ethanol mix, and get almost exactly the same mileage, which is strange since ethanol usually uses 30% more in Liter volume than gasoline.

 

Let us know how it goes. I think your blazing new territory (at least here in the US) with the high % of ethanol. Welcome to the board!