Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Well the time has finally come for me to sell the fez and buy something else. Ive been thinking of getting a triton but I havent heard much about them. Its going to be a work vehicle so it needs to be dual cab with a steel tray. It wont see much heavy 4wding but it will see the occasional dirt road and will be needed for quite a few kms on the tar. I was orginally going for a hilux but after seeing and driving a few tritons Im slowly changing my mind. Im looking at something around the 2000 year model. Will also be a diesel. Just wondering what sort or rep the tritons have and any inherent problems that I should look out for? Or, any other brands that I might have overlooked???

they are ok cars. just watch for lemons. problems i kno of is transfer mounts are week as piss ............ break on bitumen, gear box dont like being flogged ........... mines fine but driven a few that are terrible to shift. auto hub solinoids are good for round 100000kms and are bout 200 to replace. they may be rated at 1 tonne but dont expect to carry 400 without it sagging with standard springs.

if i were to buy again id go diesel not petrol but good truck if you dont wanna go hardcore.

My dad just bought a 2003 Triton. He really likes it.

Not much wrong with them, comfy and nice to drive.

Its the petrol v6 too, so yeah, should go get one.

Better than the Hilux I reckon

well i've known an entire fleet of diesel mitsi's that blew every motor.


the petrols aren't to bad, however mitsi as a general rule do tend to be built very light. when looked after well they perform and last well. however if not looked after perfectly (properly why they blew all the wagons, tradman with lead feet !) they don't really last.

a couple of mechanic comments i've picked up...
auto gear boxs, they need the really good oil, not the cheap stuff garages normally use, get the proper mitsi stuff.

they had a mitsi diesel in that had a loose main pulley bolt (not an uncommon problem with diesels). toyotas normally have 25-30mm overhang on the pulley, mitsi was around 5mm. naturally the pulley cam off and did some serious damage. a toyota doing the same thing (which i've had) stays on.

guess i'm not a mitsi fan

4M40 Diesel is slow and incredibly thirsty, it uses more fuel than my 4.2TD Troopy. I fitted an aftermarket turbo, power is good now but economy still shite.
The gearbox is an old Sigma unit, Mine went at 170,000km.
it's crap off road due to IFS but otherwise I'm really happy with mine, I was gonna sell it when I bought the Troopy but it's too handy as a spare car.
Stu

I owned a 2000 Triton GLS and it was great to drive on the black stuff but not that crash offroad.

One point to take note of is the SH*T turning circle they have.. When you take one for a test drive try and do a U-Turn and expect to take up 4 lanes

Funny how you can get so much variation with comments on one vehicle. We used the diesels and petrols as work cars (as employees) and drove them hard. The diesel lasted quite well and was flogged coz it was so slow, carried chemicals upto 700kg periodically and towed a 2t trailer (slowly), but got the job done.

Petrol had more get up and go and thirsty to boot. I went through three of them. 1st one was great and a local guy bought it off the company and it is still going. The next one was a complete lemon and I out drove it , so it spent a lot of time in the workshop - poor workmanship in the shop did not help. Petrols hauled in the sand dunes and jumped quite well

Overall quite impressed (knowing how hard they were driven) for a light work ute I would consider one.

tweak'e wrote:well i've known an entire fleet of diesel mitsi's that blew every motor.


the petrols aren't to bad, however mitsi as a general rule do tend to be built very light. when looked after well they perform and last well. however if not looked after perfectly (properly why they blew all the wagons, tradman with lead feet !) they don't really last.

a couple of mechanic comments i've picked up...
auto gear boxs, they need the really good oil, not the cheap stuff garages normally use, get the proper mitsi stuff.

they had a mitsi diesel in that had a loose main pulley bolt (not an uncommon problem with diesels). toyotas normally have 25-30mm overhang on the pulley, mitsi was around 5mm. naturally the pulley cam off and did some serious damage. a toyota doing the same thing (which i've had) stays on.

guess i'm not a mitsi fan

Hi tweak'e

Interesting experience you've had with the Triton. We get a few queries in the Mitsubishi section, but we don't get a lot of feedback - can you tell us more about your experiences?

The blown diesels - how did they fail? Did they all die the same way, or were they all different problems? 2.5 or 2.8 litre motors?

We don't get auto gearboxes behind the diesels here - or do you have petrol motors in your fleet too? The manuals here do seem very sensitive to oil, and even Mitsubishi dealerships don't use the recommended oil.

Interesting that you perceive them to be built light - later model Gen 2 Pajeros (solid rear axle) tend to be built pretty solid. I'm surprised the Triton's don't rate as well.

I look forward to hearing more,

Scott

What about the rodao or bravo?

Nic

If you want to spend 40K plus the new Triton should be better than previous.
You can actually lean the rear seats back quite a bit in the dual cabs due to their new lean back cab design.
The 3.2 ic T/D should push it along very swiftly and they now have the spring over rear axle and coils up front for more ground clearance and a better ride

whiteknight wrote:I owned a 2000 Triton GLS and it was great to drive on the black stuff but not that crash offroad.

One point to take note of is the SH*T turning circle they have.. When you take one for a test drive try and do a U-Turn and expect to take up 4 lanes

If you turn the steering stops in until only 3 threads are exposed, the turning circle suddenly resembles that of other utes of this class...

-Scott- wrote:

tweak'e wrote:well i've known an entire fleet of diesel mitsi's that blew every motor.


the petrols aren't to bad, however mitsi as a general rule do tend to be built very light. when looked after well they perform and last well. however if not looked after perfectly (properly why they blew all the wagons, tradman with lead feet !) they don't really last.

a couple of mechanic comments i've picked up...
auto gear boxs, they need the really good oil, not the cheap stuff garages normally use, get the proper mitsi stuff.

they had a mitsi diesel in that had a loose main pulley bolt (not an uncommon problem with diesels). toyotas normally have 25-30mm overhang on the pulley, mitsi was around 5mm. naturally the pulley cam off and did some serious damage. a toyota doing the same thing (which i've had) stays on.

guess i'm not a mitsi fan

Hi tweak'e

Interesting experience you've had with the Triton. We get a few queries in the Mitsubishi section, but we don't get a lot of feedback - can you tell us more about your experiences?

The blown diesels - how did they fail? Did they all die the same way, or were they all different problems? 2.5 or 2.8 litre motors?

We don't get auto gearboxes behind the diesels here - or do you have petrol motors in your fleet too? The manuals here do seem very sensitive to oil, and even Mitsubishi dealerships don't use the recommended oil.

Interesting that you perceive them to be built light - later model Gen 2 Pajeros (solid rear axle) tend to be built pretty solid. I'm surprised the Triton's don't rate as well.

I look forward to hearing more,

Scott

Yeah the light built thing gets me too... Mates with both Rodeo and Navara DC utes have permanent score marks on the back of their cabs where the canopy has rubbed while the chassis is moving around off road. Mine(Triton '03) has none of this, would possibly suggest a heavier build on the chassis at least...

-Scott- wrote:
Hi tweak'e

Interesting experience you've had with the Triton. We get a few queries in the Mitsubishi section, but we don't get a lot of feedback - can you tell us more about your experiences?

The blown diesels - how did they fail? Did they all die the same way, or were they all different problems? 2.5 or 2.8 litre motors?

We don't get auto gearboxes behind the diesels here - or do you have petrol motors in your fleet too? The manuals here do seem very sensitive to oil, and even Mitsubishi dealerships don't use the recommended oil.

Interesting that you perceive them to be built light - later model Gen 2 Pajeros (solid rear axle) tend to be built pretty solid. I'm surprised the Triton's don't rate as well.

I look forward to hearing more,

Scott

the fleet was a company i contracted to. 2.5 litre motors, not sure what year but i think they blew the heads. this was a while ago.

mate has a pajero, v6 auto, which he uses now and then for minor off road use. he had to put manual hubs in after a lot of trouble with the auto hub setup. the last owner had never used it in 4x4 (and yes it did come from remuwera! lol). the bit about the oil was from the local transmission shop. same goes with cars, they get a LOT of mitsi auto's in for repair.

as far as lightly built goes, thats mitsi in general, a few different mechcanics have said the same thing.

mitsi's here are basicly the cheapest 4x4 you can get, you get what you pay for in my book.

anyone who says a triton is poor ofroad should perhapse look at there driving not the car. sure they r not patrols, hence why mine is for sale. but for the market segment they are in nothing and i mean NOTHING comes close and yes ive driven navara hilux bravo and rodeo in the same conditions with same mods

more front end travel, more useable power, better handleing ,a lsd that last past the first service, huge ground clearance for ifs..... even better than a lux

id pick one again

but yes watch the lemons n treat the box nice

ps never heard of a diesel dieing like that perhapse excessive over revving to blame

while we are on the subject of tritons i have one as a work car 2wd 2.4 16v with 207000 klms on it great ute petrol and lpg but what i am after is if any one has done a timing belt( belts ) mine is due to be done. and dose anyone have a work shop manual or know where i can download a bit just for the timing belt.i took it to a mechanic and he rekons it has a tricky two belts to replace. and take a bolt out of the side of the block to hold the oil pump in possition and line up the pullys including the balance pully i have seen his manual on the computer in his shop but dont want to ask for a copy as mechanics get stroppy about this. i have done a few timing belts before but none this tricky any help would be great just pm me if you have something

Well I have had mine for 1 week and 1 day now !

I got the GLX-R 2.8L TD, with intercooler, gotta love the bonnet scoop :-) The TD is VERY zippy compared to other diesels I have driven in the past.

I was aware the new model would be released in a matter of days after getting mine but I would not have been able to afford the new one so it actually worked in my favour. I got the GLX-R with ARB bull bar, tow bar with rear step (park by feel ) and safari snorkel for $36,700.

I was also looking at the Navara but it does not have ABS, not even as an option, standard on the triton. That along with the Mitsubishi warranty did it for me. And the 10 year drivetrain warranty (for original owner only( covers all the bits that make it go, engine, turbo, intercooler, all drivetrain... Sure it's no Honda but I didn't pay Honda price...

Other than a small oversight in the predelivery check that was fixed without question I am happy so far.

I drove it straight from the dealer to the tyre shop and traded the tyres in for cooper ATR. the wheel size limits tyre choice.

Correct they are not a cruiser, patrol or pajero and I don't expect it to be. Having driven 4x4 and 6x6 rovers and Unimogs with the Army, I am going to have to remember it is a triton not a mog :-)

I read the bit about the additional clearance in the new model with the different suspension but the ML has 205mm and my MK has 235mm so am not sure where that crap has come from.

Obviously the new engine is a lot better than the one I have but not worth it for an extra $10k.. not for me anyway.. The guccci interior of the new one is not my idea of an off road vehicle but apparently there is extra room up front which would be good. If I see one of the new ones at a dealer I will check it out.

I will be taking it off road last weekend on this month, as long as I have bought all my recovery gear by then.. So I will let you know if there are any dramas. I have of course taken out RACQ Ultra care to get extra towing allowances etc, just in case!

I saw a couple of MK in the Toowong dealer today so I reckon they would be doing some good prices to get rid of them.....

For those looking to buy new, the new Triton (due soon) appears to have SOA rear - like the Hilux.

Engines should match Hilux too, although neither appear state of the art.

Mitsubishi still have an aversion to the diesel/auto combo...

Scott