Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hi, first post on this website so please go easy. Also I know there are plenty of discussions on IP issue but haven't found answers to my questions below. Sorry if it should be somewhere else!

I have just bought a 1997 Mitsubishi Delica L400, about 120k on the clock. I'm planning to drive it down to Argentina from the top of Alaska, just got it to Banff in Canada. As we are doing a big trip there is quiet a lot of stuff in the car with a particularly un-aerodynamic roof top box.

So the other day whilst in Alaska we were camping on a glacial river bed (the dry part), for those that don't know cold winds can blow down these rivers but otherwise it wasn't so cold there was a frost or anything.

As we were on a river bed we had the car in 4wd (just the H4 without the differential lock).

Woke up in the morning, started the car, idled fine (we have been in the habit of letting it warm up by idling) but then started shuddering. I stupidly turned it off rather than giving it some gas. Went to start it again it took a while to start then shuddered I put my foot on the gas and it stalled.

Third time started after the starter motor turned it over a couple of times, we started moving straight away and fine. Drove where we wanted and fine rest of the day. Since then (4 days ago) it has started fine every morning, and I'm hoping that will carry on. Now after talking to a mechanic we give it a few revs (1,200 rather than where it normally idles at around 800) when we start it.

So as I'm travelling to Argentina I have been looking over problems with the l400 and one of them is the failure of the injection pump seal which has similar symptoms to what happened but will cost around CAD$1,300 to fix which when not working and on a budget is manageable but quite a lot.

NB - a small amount of white smoke comes out when you start the car but goes away after two seconds.

Once in a car park while messing about with the 4wd functions the car stuttered and stalled because 4wd wasn't properly engaged (I didn't know its best to engage while moving) and the A/T light came on. 5 mins later it was fine.

So my questions are:
1. Could this be linked to keeping it in 4wd over night? I don't know if starting it in 4wd stresses the engine?
2. do you think this one issue is IP seal failure?
3. Are there any other symptoms to IP seal failure that I can keep an eye out for to confirm prior to forking out the cash to fix?
4. Could the small amount of white smoke when starting be due to oil in the fuel from the IP issue?

I also read that fuel consumption can be way off when an IP seal becomes an issue. Checked kms done per tank and it ranges between low 450km to 650km. Lot of hills and roadworks in northern Canada!

Thanks, James

1. Your drive train and IP are not connected, so there is no way being in 4wd will effect how the vehicle starts.

4. Your IP has no engine oil in it, only fuel. Engine oil can leak past the rings causing BLUE smoke.

Sounds like an air leak to me. Check your filter and fuel lines and try bleeding it. Search under won't start or idling rough. Eliminate the easiest things before you go to the expensive difficult things.

Excuse my presumption but you don't seem very mechanically experienced, start reading a lot or take a course BEFORE driving a 20 year old vehicle to Argentina.

Ralph, thank you for your reply, it is appreciated. And yes you are right I am not a mechanic. I have done a general car course but not specifically on the Delica or maybe I'm just not that mechanically minded! So my questions while maybe sounding a tad stupid were to just rule out other things that I have noticed were common to a couple of situations.

I thought I had done quite a lot of reading and I had read that low IP pressure (and hence IP seals starting to fail??) or incorrect IP timing could be causing white smoke I just understood generally that was black with diesels but maybe it can be both. I know IP seal failure the more expensive thing but seems a very common point of failure for the L400.

One of my resources was here as well as a couple of other places:

http://manualov.net/Mitsubishi/Mitsubishi105.pdf

Which btw is a great resource for the Delica but no doubt it has been up on the forums before so you are all aware of it.

They also suggest the same thing you do in a possible air leak so that gives me another thing to check. I have blanked off the EGR just in case too (although from my reading this divides opinion quite a lot).

Thanks again and if you have any other thoughts I will be happy to hear them.