Mitsubishi Reviews

Running on after the ignition is switched off is more of a problem in petrol engines than diesels. But you haven’t told me which engine your Triton has, so maybe it’s the 2.4-litre petrol we’re dealing with here. If so, you may find that the running-on is being caused by poorly timed ignition which could suggest a problem with the physical bits that make up the ignition system, or even a problem with the computer that controls it all. Worn or leaking fuel injectors could also cause this problem.

If your engine is the turbo-diesel, then another potential cause of running on is a worn or stretched timing chain (the petrol engine uses a toothed timing belt which shouldn’t stretch) that has allowed the camshaft to get slightly out of phase with the crankshaft. In both these cases, the fault could easily be enough to trigger the check-engine light and keep it on to alert you to the problem. Have the vehicle scanned to see if there’s an ignition fault or what’s called a camshaft deviation, indicating a worn timing chain.

This is a pretty well-known problem with this model. The problem seems to be caused by a gear selector problem which gets worse over time as wear occurs. Jumping out of gear is also linked to a second problem of noisy engagement (grinding) of the first three gears.

Mitsubishi has developed a transmission repair kit which includes reinforced gear selectors and synchronisers. But it’s a pretty big job to fit and requires the transmission to be removed and disassembled. You could try Mitsubishi Australia’s customer service division to see if there’s any financial assistance in either obtaining or fitting this kit.

Electronically fuel-injected engines don’t have a choke like old cars did, so the cold start process is handled by the computer. It detects the temperature of the engine (and ambient air) and then alters the fuel and air mixture going into the engine to give it the right ratio to fire up the engine. Cold starts generally require more fuel and less air than when the engine is at operating temperature.

The computer does all this via sensors so, if one sensor is not playing the game, the computer can’t alter the mixture and the car can be very difficult - if not impossible - to start. A good workshop should be able to sort this pretty quickly as the Magna’s engine is not an overly complex one and is a well-known quantity.