Cautionary Tale 2002 Montero Limited HBB

[earljuic3]

I wanted to share my painful experience with you guys in regards to my Montero's Hydraulic Brake Boosting System. (Please feel free to correct me on anything I was misinformed on by the dealer.) As these trucks approach the 130k mile mark it becomes increasingly important to do regular brake fluid purging/replacing. I went wheeling and had some ABS issues recently in Georgia. The problem seemed to have gone away but after a few weeks of driving around at home I started to have intermittent issues with my abs (tone going off in truck, would intermittently come and go) until eventually I was driving and lost all braking ability and had a constant ABS tone in the truck. I let the truck sit for about a week and when I went to have it towed to the dealer it was completely dead. What I discovered is the ABS relay was trying to kick the motor over and but the motor was seized and unable to turn. This in turn killed the battery. What the dealer informed me is if you have "debris" in your brake fluid or reservoir and you do heavy braking the fluid will become super heated and debris will get pulled into the system. Long story short I had to replace the whole system. (Painfully expensive, around $2000 USD) If I wasn't so financially committed to the truck with all the work I've done to it in repairs/upgrades/maintenance I would have let the old girl go. However, I love the truck and plan to keep it for many years so I went ahead and had the work done. I was told less than 1% of these trucks have this issue but that it is a known issue by Mitsubishi. I was also informed that if my truck had been 10 years old or less they would have been able to repair it free under recall? I was aware of the Accumulator recall which I had done in 2013 free of charge but have yet to find any definitive information online that supports Mitsubishi would have taken care of it...

I hope no one else on the board has to deal with this! If anyone has dealt with this issue on a 2000-2006 Montero/Pajero please feel free to share your insight on how / if you corrected the issue.

 

[raysobi]

Thanks for the information, it is certainly tragic story. That's a lot of $$$!

 

[nckwltn]

I was at the pick a parts place in the last year, and someone was pulling the brake booster from an 02.... He said that it was a common issue, and an easy way to tell if the booster failed was if the damage to the car was in the front (indicating the brakes went out)

 

[Sabre]

Damn, very sorry to hear this! Thanks for sharing this warning, though, and best wishes keeping the old girl in top shape!

 

[magoh76]

I had this problem on my 01 and when researching into it, it seemed like it was a much greater percent than 1% have this problem and was part of my decision to go with an older model for my next Montero. On mine, it would have cost more to have it fixed than my truck was worth. Even buying the part used from fleabay was $800.

 

[earljuic3]

Thanks for the replies, I got the truck back a few days ago. Everything seems to be working as it should. The mechanic explained that the system was redesigned starting in 03 with the 3.8l models, which is what they installed (looks a bit different). Either way happy to be back on the road and not driving the little cr-z we have as a spare car.


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[earljuic3]

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[The Viper]

The mechanic explained that the system was redesigned starting in 03 with the 3.8l models, which is what they installed (looks a bit different).

man, thanks for posting this...you had me pretty nervous...thank god they fixed this in the 03 and up.

 

[earljuic3]

I cannot confirm or deny that the issue was "fixed" in the 03 models, simply that they redesigned it, I would make the same assumption that the issue is rectified but I truly do not know.