This seems to happen to Mitsubishi's more than other brands.I was wondering if it's simply a design fault and is guaranteed to happen or if it's a result of poor servicing!
I have my eye on some early-mid 90s V3000 / Diamante to use as a cheap runabout (cheap to buy, obviously not cheap to run).
intrade,
Aug 19, 9:35pm
poor design and then lack of maintainance eccelerates the problem. You better give me your money so i can blow it for you , Its called a diamante because you better own a dimond mine to repair it
bellky,
Aug 19, 9:36pm
We have a '94 v3000 288,xxx that doesn't smoke.
There are a lot of mitsis that do though.
robotnik,
Aug 19, 9:39pm
Oh come on, Mitsi's don't go no loving do they! Surely anything 20 years old with high mileage like that will be burning oil from from worn valve guides, piston rings, etc and will be in need of an overhall.
3tomany,
Aug 19, 9:43pm
we did a little survey on a long trip and every time we saw a smokey car we had to guess what bit was and to our surprise after 9 hours on the road they were all mitsis bar 1 and there were so many we lost count, should have written them all down
curlcrown,
Aug 19, 9:46pm
How cheap is cheap!
sifty,
Aug 19, 10:00pm
yet my inlaws have an old chariot they use for thier business that has just clocked up half a million kms.
phillip.weston,
Aug 19, 10:29pm
Yes the older Mitsubishi engines do tend to omit blue smoke when clocking up the miles, but there are many other engines from other makers which do the same - Toyota's E series is one that comes to mind.
Mitsubishi opted to use really hard bores and comparably soft rings on many of their engine families to aid bedding in and rings and ensure a quick run-in period. The downside is the softer rings wear out prematurely - yet the bores are almost certainly always still round and will not require a re-bore any time soon. Most of the time fitting new rings is all it takes to sort it out.
Bear in mind this problem is engine family specific and you can't tar the whole range with the same brush. A 2011 L300 van with the 2.4 4G64 Sirius will probably smoke when getting older however a 1991 Lancer or a Mirage with the 1.6 4G92 will no doubt be smoke free for as long as any other engine.
Ones to watch out for are the 4G1, 4G3, 4G5, 4G6, 6G7, 4D5 engines while the 4G9, 4A3, 6A1, 6B3, 4B1, 4N1 engines will be absolutely fine.
robotnik,
Aug 19, 10:35pm
Is a 6A13TT likely to be a smoker when older!
robotnik,
Aug 20, 12:04am
The maroon one looks nice. Those NZ new cars were basic though - no climate controlled air conditioning for example. At least it has aircon though. One of the last of the assembled in NZ examples I guess.
horsygirl,
Aug 20, 12:11am
Mitsi's need a public health warning.
phillip.weston,
Aug 20, 12:11am
Not from worn piston rings or leaking valve stem seals, but the turbos will probably still produce smoke when wearing out.
phillip.weston,
Aug 20, 12:14am
None were assembled in NZ full stop, either Australian assembled for the domestic models for Aus/NZ/US (ie Magna, Verada, V3000, non-Jap Diamante) or Japan for the JDM or European Diamante or Sigma (as they were called in Europe, not to be confused with the Galant based Sigma from the 80s).
phillip.weston,
Aug 20, 12:18am
I would also choose the '97 Diamante over the '96 Verada - it's a much newer car in terms of design/ergonomics and safety. The 24V 3.0 is also miles better than the 12V 3.0. Better yet would be the 24V 3.5 engine. I have too been looking at Magnas and Veradas while here in Australia because they are absolutely everywhere and can be picked up cheaply, however I refuse to look at the poverty spec models and would only look at an upper spec Verada or Magna VR-X etc.
petal_91,
Aug 20, 12:32am
Do these cars sound like tractors! My V6 Legnum sounds so bad now. It needs new lash adjusters with wider oil galleries or something.
NZTools,
Aug 20, 12:49am
. Give it an oil change and a shot of ProMa MBL8 and your noisy lash adjusters will cure themselves
stevexc,
Aug 20, 12:53am
I don't mind having a poverty spec daily driver, working air con and a smooth quiet car are my main requirements.But I'm disappionted to learn that the earlier model has a 12 valve engine.You would think they would leave that stuff in the 1980s where it belongs.
I was avoiding that newer shape mostly because some come with GDI and tiptronic gearboxes, which I've heard can be problematic.Is there any truth to this!The one I linked appears to be a low tech one anyway.
phillip.weston,
Aug 20, 2:04am
Yes any car with hydraulic lifters can start to sound rattly if they have been neglected with less frequent oil changes. It just happens to be that Mitsubishi heavily utilised hydraulic lifters on their 80s and 90s engines whereas other manufacturers were using other methods.
phillip.weston,
Aug 20, 2:08am
The 12V engine did come from the 1980s, it was just the Australian built Magnas which used it. The Japanese built counterpart had the DOHC 24V engines (along with 4WD variants too).
Only a few select Jap import models had GDI, and the tiptronics are OK so long as you service them like you should. The actual transmission itself between the non-tiptronic and the tiptronic is basically the same, it's just the shifter gate and control module which is different.
splinter67,
Aug 20, 6:36am
Id say that a mitsi a xr8 a landy disco a brap brap how many more have you got dud
sandndude,
Aug 20, 8:06am
I thought they were just two stroke !
hendos,
Aug 20, 9:33am
Don't buy an early v3000. I had one with only 180k on the clock and it loved the blue smoke. Stick with Toyota.
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