Looking for L300 Advice

[mbergerooo]

Hi,
I have been reading a lot of information about Delicas on this forum. It looks really great around here and has inspired me with confidence. The confidence needed to take on ownership of a L300. I am looking at a 1993 L300 Delica. I took it for a pre-purchase inspection. Everything looks good except 1) the tires are at 10%. 2) the timing belt is up in 30,000kms and 3) They suspect transmission problems. That is the big one. They looked at the vehicle history which showed 8 Transmission flushes in 6 yrs. The most recent 3 months ago and said the fluid was off colour. They recommended I take it to there transmission guy. He drove it around and had a feeling that the transmission was fine. So I don't know what to think about it.
Everything else has been changed over the last 6 years at CVI in Richmond. Ball joints, Brakes, Tie Rod, etc. The inspection showed that it was well cared for despite the transmission mystery.
They want 5,800$. Is that a good price despite the problems?
Thanks for any advice you may have to offer,
michael

[Growlerbearnz]

The frequent fluid changes are a puzzle, it all comes down to why the previous owner changed it so often. There are a few reasons why an owner might change fluid:

High mileage: How many miles did the van do during those 6 years?

Towing/heavy haulage: Is there evidence of hard use- a well worn trailer hitch, worn brake disks, dents on the inside, larger than standard tyres?

Owner was a paranoid maintenance freak: Is the rest of the engine in a condition consistent with frequent maintenance? Clean, tidy, well presented?

Owner's mechanic wasn't very good: transmisssion fluid naturally gets darker with age, it's possible the owner's mechanic overreacted, or saw this as an opportunity to make a little extra cash.

Impending transmission failure: The fluid may be very dark and smell burnt, and the transmission might slip or shift sloppily- but you might not notice that unless you were familiar with the transmission.

Dirty fluid when imported from Japan: some Japanese Delicas are poorly maintained, and it can take a number of transmission fluid changes to flush all the old gunk out. Eight flushes might be a bit many though.

If I were in your situation I would look at the distance travelled in those 6 years. I wouldn't expect a failing transmission to last 40,000km even with frequent fluid changes, but if it's only travelled 10,000km and needed 8 fluid changes then something isn't right.

[mbergerooo]

Hi Growlerbearnz,
Thank you for your thoughts. I read online somewhere that if you are running non-mitsubishi brand transmission fluid that you should change it every 10,000kms. What do you think about that? The garage that did all the work charged very little for that actual flush of the transmission which leads me to believe that they were using cheap stuff and changing often because of it.
m

[Growlerbearnz]

Almost, but not quite right. The V4AW2 transmission fitted to later Pajeros is rumoured to fail if anything other than genuine Mitsubishi fluid is used, but it has different internals than our V4AW2 boxes and has to deal with much more power and weight- almost like Mitsubishi was too cheap to fit an adequately strong transmission, and chose to shore up their old one with fancy fluid. It doesn't help that Mitsubishi group their transmissions under broad categories even though the internal configurations may be quite different. Not all V4AW2 transmissions are the same.

Our L300s are neither heavy nor powerful, and our V4AW2 transmissions are about as standard as it gets. They require Dexron 2 fluid. I change mine every 50,000km and haven't had a problem yet.

[mbergerooo]

Ok. Thanks for the Transmission info Growlerbearnz.
I have been very busy because I went ahead and bought the Delica.
So far so good. I cleaned it out and took it in for new tires and now
it is looking pretty good.
m