The throttle body on the Mitsubishi Pinin has been a problem area and a common fault especially on the earlier models. Amongst the symptoms are the vehicle losing power especially when climbing uphill. The throttle body starts to gather dust and restricts air flow through it causing the vehicle to judder and stall and generally lose power whilst driving which becomes worse when the vehicle has to exert more power whilst driving uphill.
Amongst the cures, you could try removing and cleaning the throttle body properly to remove all the sediment and dust gathered up over time and see if that makes a difference. If a general clean up of the throttle body doesn't seem to make a difference, there could be an electrical fault with the electrical components attached with the throttle body in which case, you can either get an electrician to check the components or purchase a reconditioned throttle body which normally comes with a 2 year warranty.
This guide should go some way in helping you remove and replace the throttle body on your pinin and hopefully save some money in the process.
The top engine cover is held in place by 4 bolts which need removing.
The throttle body can bee seen on the driver side under the engine cover.
The Air Flow system is held in place by some bolts with one end connected to the throttle body top and the other side conencted to the air flow pipe leading towards the air filter box.
The top air flow system can be removed completely by loosening the screws on both sides. Removing the box makes it easier to work on the throttle body.
The throttle body is held in place by 6 big bolts, 4 of which hold the throttle body down and 2 bolts are connected to a bracket. There are 2 electrical plug connections and 2 rubber hoses connecting to the throttle all of which need to be disconnected.
The electrical connection on the right hand side is a bit tricky to remove and requires you to insert a thin straight headed screw driver into the metal clip as shown in the pic. The metal clip should be gently pushed outwards making sure it doesn't flick off. Once the metal clip has moved about a cm. away from the plug, you can grab it with your fingers and remove it completely. The electrical connector should now lift up.
The 2 hoses connected to the throttle body need disconnecting using a pair of pliers to squeeze the metal pipe holders and slowly shaking them up and down and moving them backwards at the same time.
Once all the connections and bolts holding the throttle body have been removed, it can be lifted upwards slowly to remove it. There is a gasket just below the throttle body and the base it sits on. It best to grab the gasket as soon as it becomes visible to it doesnt drop down whilst the throttle body is being removed.
If your S Class has suddenly dropped itself on to all 4 wheels where the inner wheel arches are almost resting on the tyres and your dashboard is displaying a warning related to the Air Matic system and asking you to visit the workshop, then the most likely cause of this problem is the air matic pump failure.
The Air Matic system is located on the driver's side ( UK RHD Models ) under the wheel arch mud guard. The mud guard is held in place by quite a few plastic nuts as shown in the pic. After disconecting the negative terminal on your cars battery, you can start removing the mud guard.
Removing the mud guard reveals the Air Matic Pump which is held in place by 3 nuts which go on to spikes protruding downwards. There is a single nylon pipe which connects to the air matic pump, a single black hose and two electrical plug connections which need to be disconnected to remove the air matic pump.
We had problems removing one of the electric plug connectors as it would not move at all from its position so we decided to cut the wires as shown in the pic. Once the pump had been taken off, it took the use of a pair of pliers and a straight head screw driver to get the plug to come off.
Once the new Air Matic pump had been sourced from Mercedes Dealership, we realized that the design for the new pump was slightly modified. The hose connection for a rubber pipe had been moved from its original position to the other end. We decided to improvise and use a slighly longer hose to get the job done making sure the new pipe had no kinks which would hinder the flow of air to the pump.