2017 Mitsubishi Triton Pricing and Specs

Squeaking when a car’s suspension moves up and down is usually down to a couple of things. Either there’s wear in a ball-joint or suspension bush, or the bushes and joints are full of dry dust. Have you driven the Triton off-road in sand or dust recently? You might find that some dust has managed to work its way into the rubber bushings and is causing the noise.

At worst, you may have damage to something in the suspension that is placing a load where it shouldn’t or perhaps even rubbing where it shouldn’t. With the vehicle securely parked, you can climb underneath and have a friend use their body weight to bounce the vehicle on the spot. If you’re lucky, you might be able to pin-point the source of the squeak.

This could be a differential problem or even something like a collapsed wheel bearing. But it’s most likely to be a seized brake or parking brake that is causing this problem. Has the vehicle been sitting around for a long time without moving? That’s a common way for brakes to seize and lock the wheel, preventing it from turning.

You might be able to knock the park brake free with a bit of persuasion, or maybe crack the bleed nipple on the brake itself to let the pressure off the brake and free it. But if the brake is rusted on, then you’ll need to disassemble it to bring it back to a condition where the vehicle is safe to drive again. Even if you get it moving again, a thorough disassembly and inspection is warranted to make sure it’s 100 per cent safe to go back on the road.

The D-Max is pretty well regarded in the trade for its ability to go the distance, but modern, common-rail diesel technology has shown that a vehicle with fewer kilometres is usually a better bet than one with more. Although they do an amazing job in terms of power, torque, towing and fuel economy, today’s turbo-diesels are pretty highly strung in some ways and really need their maintenance. And the older they get, the more attention they seem to need in terms of new injectors, filters and pumps.

A D-Max with those kilometres might be ready for a pretty big (and expensive) service, too, so make sure your first trip in it isn’t going to be to a workshop. Ultimately, price, condition and service history should steer your decision as they should in any second-hand vehicle purchase. I’d take a vehicle with 150,000km with a full service history over a 60,000km one with no service records.