Mitsubishi Problems

The cable that drives the speedometer is a likely candidate for this in some cars, Aaron, but mainly older ones than your Triton. The cable will eventually run out of lubricant, at which point it can bind up and won’t turn smoothly (the cause of the hyperactive needle) while also making a dry squawking noise (the budgies). But, from memory, your car has an electronically-driven speedo, so the cause is more likely that the speedometer itself is worn out and causing internal friction (for the same set of symptoms).

Your Lancer uses a timing belt which is made from a rubber compound and drives the camshaft. This makes for a cheaper engine to build and potentially quieter running, but it also means that the belt has to be changed periodically to prevent it snapping in service.

Mitsubishi recommends a belt-change interval of 100,000km. The advice of most mechanics it to replace the water pump at the same time since this part of the engine will be apart to change the belt anyway. It’s a lot cheaper to do both things at once, rather than open the engine a second time to change a water pump at a later date.

This type of problem can have any number of causes. The best option is to have the car scanned electronically to see what fault codes have been logged by the on-board computer.

You could be looking at a fuel issue, something purely mechanical (like the idle-speed set too low) a blocked air-filter, a computer issue or any number of sensors that are not playing ball. But until you interpret the fault codes, you’ll be flying blind and potentially replacing things that aren’t the cause of the stalling problem.

I’d certainly be taking the vehicle back to the workshop that serviced it and pointing out that the problem only occurred after they'd 'fixed' it.

I’ve certainly heard of metallic paint on Mitsubishi Lancers peeling from the clear coat before, but it’s hardly a Mitsubishi-specific problem. Many car-makers had trouble (and some of them still struggle) to get clear-over-base paint finishes to work with Australian levels of UV radiation. Strangely enough, Australian car-makers have been some of the worst offenders over the years. The problem is that once the top, clear coat has begun to discolour and peel, the lower, colour cat is usually compromised beyond salvation as well. Repainting either the entire car or the horizontal surfaces (which cop the most UV grief) is the only real long-term solution.

I’d be very surprised if any car-maker came to the rescue with a paint-finish warranty claim after a decade, but it certainly can’t hurt to ask Mitsubishi Australia’s customer service department at head office. In any case, getting any sort of help with this will depend on how the vehicle has been maintained, where it’s been parked and whether any aftermarket paint treatments were ever applied. Largely, however, this type of paint degradation is regarded as normal wear and tear.

You can pay a lot for an aftermarket bull-bar and you can choose features such as winch-compatibility and tow-points so it pays to know exactly what you’re looking for in a bull-bar. The other thing to ensure is that the bar you choose is compatible with the air-bags on your vehicle. That’s one thing you can be assured of with the Mitsubishi factory bar, but it’s not a given with some aftermarket units. Proper air-bag deployment is something you can’t gamble with, so that would be the first question to ask of any aftermarket bull-bar supplier.

The 4B11 (official code-name) engine in your ASX used a timing chain rather than a toothed, rubber timing belt. That means the chain should be good for the life of the engine, rather than requiring periodic replacement as a timing belt does. While the timing chain in this engine seems to be of a good design and hasn’t caused widespread problems, the accessory drive belt (which drives the water pump and power-steering pump, has been known to jump off its pulleys, leaving the car with no power-steering and no pump to operate the cooling system. At least it’s obvious when it happens (so the car can be shut down with no further damage) and the fix is an easy one.

According to my specifications, the MK Triton, depending on its specification (engine type, body layout and drive system) has a towing capacity (of a braked trailer) of between 1500kg and 2200kg. At the lower end of that, your caravan when fully loaded would exceed that limit. Older utes like the MK Triton also – generally – have smaller payload and towing ratings than their newer relatives, but it’s also important to take into account the Gross Combination Mass limit which amounts to the total weight of the vehicle and whatever it’s towing. Again, in some cases, the Triton has a low GVM limit of just 4010kg which, even with your caravan at its lightest (unladen) would take your combination very close to that limit. At that point you also need to consider what you carry, including all your gear and even the weight of passengers on board. Fill the fuel tank or the van’s water tank and you could be in legal trouble if anything goes wrong. A visit to a weighbridge (some council tips have them) might be a good idea to see how close to the edge you really are.

Mitsubishi quotes a power output of 110kW at 3500rpm and torque of 360Nm at 1500rpm for that vehicle. All these figures – and plenty more - can be found within the Carsguide website by clicking on the prices and specs tab and entering the make, model and year.

You really have two ways to go here. The fact that you want to go off-road in the best/worst conditions this country has to offer means an SUV or cross-over just isn’t going to cut it. With that in mind, you’re looking at either a dual-cab ute or a conventional four-wheel-drive wagon.

In the ute world, there’s plenty of choice within your budget, but you need to be careful that the vehicle in question hasn’t been worked to death by a tradie towing a bobcat Monday to Friday. The popularity of these vehicles, meanwhile, means that there’s lots of choice when it comes to aftermarket bits and pieces to complete your dream vehicle.

The other route – a conventional wagon-style 4X4 – also places a lot of choice within your budget. The Toyota LandCruiser Prado would be a good choice, as would something like a Mitsubishi Pajero which has always represented good value for money both brand-new and second-hand. You could also look at Nissan Patrols which also give you plenty of car for the money and, if you shop carefully, you could find a really nice LandCruiser 80 Series, reckoned by some to be the absolute pinnacle of off-road wagons, even though they’re getting on a bit now. There’s great aftermarket and service support for all these options, so it will come down to your personal preferences.

It doesn’t take much to throw a modern engine off its game when it comes to fuel consumption. Modern electronics control just about every function of today’s engines and a single sensor that is giving the on-board computer incorrect information can throw the tune way out of whack without affecting the way the vehicle feels to drive.

The best advice is to have the car scanned by a workshop with the appropriate equipment to see if the car’s computer has detected any faults or glitches (which it will have logged). This is a vastly better approach than simply replacing parts at random and hoping that the problem will go away.

I agree that 14.5 litres per 100km is too much fuel for this car, so something is definitely wrong, especially if the consumption has suddenly increased without any change in your driving habits.