Euro diesels versus our Tritons

[siwren]

So my Triton is my first Japanese diesel after having a few from the Volkswagen group. And after living with it for a month I've noticed the following:

1. My Triton takes a few cranks to cold start, say 2-4 seconds. My vw's started immediately. Does everyone else's take a few cranks to start? Hot starts are fine

2. once its started I get a dump of blue grey smoke which disappears almost straight away but ive not noticed any other Triton, hilux, navara do the same. Is this the norm?

3. Any time i give it a bit extra i can see quite a lot of diesel smoke behind me. My VW never blew smoke ever even if you gave it a very hard time. Is this normal?

My truck is is 1 month old with 900km on the clock. Will the first service resolve the above? I've also noticed a slight surging which I've read about on other posts which is a bit disappointing

What does the VW have that the Tritons doesn't. Sure there is probably a generation between the two breeds of engines but would still like to know whether there is some concern here. I've tried watching other Tritons and haven't noticed them displaying the same things.

Cheers

Simon

[Cowboy Dave]

1. My Triton takes a few cranks to cold start, say 2-4 seconds. My vw's started immediately. Does everyone else's take a few cranks to start? Hot starts are fine

Do you wait until the glow plug light goes out? It's a swirly looking pigtail thing, orange in colour. If you wait for it to go out it should start better. That would also explain why it starts better hot since it takes less time to go out when the engine is warm.

[NowForThe5th]

Euro diesels have a diesel particulate filter to capture the soot that makes for black smoke. Not on Tritons - yet.

[siwren]

Do you wait until the glow plug light goes out? It's a swirly looking pigtail thing, orange in colour. If you wait for it to go out it should start better. That would also explain why it starts better hot since it takes less time to go out when the engine is warm.

To be honest I've never noticed the light. Guess I just start it like my other car. Its pretty much key in and twist to start. Will check tomorrow.

[Cowboy Dave]

Yeah so turn the key just until all the lights come on and then pause til that orange light goes out then turn the key the rest of the way. Should be much less labouring and less smoke as well.

[odie602r]

that definitely helps, I still get a little bit of the same coloured smoke as you on startup - and has pretty much always done this. Mines got 20k on it currently.

[Froggy]

Never ceases to amaze how few know about preheating diesels. The guy across the road from me is the same with his patrol. Cranks it for 5 seconds + huge cloud of soot
We've had three vw caddy diesels at work. Triton is much better than those smoky rattly things!

[NowForThe5th]

Yeah, I've seen blokes flatten the battery trying to start a cold diesel. Connect the jump pack, I get in and let the glow plugs do their job and it starts first go. Sometimes I am evil - don't tell them and watch the show repeat the next morning.

[Longranger1]

If it comes down to a VW diesel vs. Mitsubishi Triton diesel then both have their good points (and bad ones).

I own both and for ease of maintenance the Triton wins by a mile. The Golf is a pain to work on for some things.

Reliability? Both have been excellent. Mitsubishi engines I think would be more robust. but the PD injection system on the Mk 5 Golf is hard to beat. Any issues I have had with the Golf have been dealer servicing related.

Efficiency? On par I reckon, notwithstanding the differences in vehicle type.

Would I change my Triton for an Amarok? No way in the world!

The VW has an instantaneous (well almost) type of glowplug system which is up to temp' in about a couple of seconds. The Triton is a bit more old school and is slower.

Both have carbon build up issues unless addressed.

[snowman]

also dont assume that a new car has a fully charged battery, it could have been sitting around for months with no charge. It might need a good charge.

get a good battery charger and make sure it gets a full charge if you only do really short trips etc.

[DocBassett]

My ML takes a few seconds to turn over in the cold, even with allowing the glow plugs enough time to warm up, and I get a cloud of smoke on start up, but it was my understanding that most diesels do this, I don't get smoke any other time, even when giving her herbs. You shouldn't be getting surging yet. VERY important to allow the glow plugs to warm up.

[Longranger1]

One thing I will comment on regarding VW vs. The Triton is that I'll bet the interior of the Triton will hold up a lot better than a VW. Whatever recycled garbage VW uses is, well, rubbish. Soft touch switches turn into a sticky, gooey mess after about 4 years in NQ...

[siwren]

The last VW was a Tiguan which had the updated diesel and it was a great engine.

So waiting for the glow plugs to heat has fixed my concern. To be honest, I actually knew this from driving older trucks in the past but had forgotten about it after driving my wifes VW for years.

And having no DPF would explain the more visable exhaust smoke.

Thanks all.

Cheers,

Simon

[Sootie]

1. yep let the glow plugs warm up
and 3. my triton was doing that for about the first 2500 ish kms but seems less smokey now if I give it the beans though I might have just stopped paying attention

[GLR2012]

1. yep let the glow plugs warm up
and 3. my triton was doing that for about the first 2500 ish kms but seems less smokey now if I give it the beans though I might have just stopped paying attention

Let the plugs warm the engine up first, i don't know why Mitsubishi doesnt tell it's new diesel customers about the glow plugs is beside me. I have heard and test driven the Amarok with the new upgraded twin turbo diesel and it does move quite nicely when it comes on boost but 500rpm either side of max boost ( 2000 ) it looses power quickly and being such a heavy car doesn't do it much good especially for a tradie. I did also notice it did blow smoke as well on start up and under heavy acceleration. The new tritons do have a big cat straight off the turbo but still as of yet do not have a secondary cat to catch the second lot or soot.

[hvac guy]

I would also add don't touch the accelerator when starting as well.

[ag9111]

Cat does not catch soot. They covert NOx emissions to less nasty compounds

[Jaymac92]

G'day all, new to this forum but I'm in the process of buying s new Triton to replace my Navara. Took a GL-R manual dual cab Diesel, brand new for a test drive yesterday and the dealer didn't let the glow plugs warm up either.... Was quite amused when I said "took a while to crank over hey?" And he said nah just because it's "really new."

[siwren]

Welcome to the forum bud. Dont forget to introduce yourself.

Do you rate the Triton over the Navara?

[Jaymac92]

Thanks mate, nice to meet you. I will as soon as I get a triton, I'll upload pictures of her. Yeah well the Triton has petty much everything better than the Navara (cabin room, power etc) but I will miss my old girl, she served me very well. Had a 2003 3.0 with all the goods you could imagine but now it's time for an upgrade and out of all the dual cabs on the market, the Triton GL-R brand new drive away wins hands down. Are the motors a good, strong reliable little donk? I've heard that Mitsubishi build good cars but I'm venturing into the unknown here haha.

[gregned]

So a euro diesel is in the process of being investigated by the ACCC for stopping suddenly and perhaps being a contributory factor in a death.

Can our tritons be thrown into the mix as well?

Towing a caravan up a hill and going into limp mode is no fun!

[Crash486]

Think that VW issue is only on flappy paddle equipped vehicles. According to the "web" those vehicles experience random slow downs.
I think the triton never suffers from "random" slow downs , it pretty consistently slow!

[Sootie]

Think that VW issue is only on flappy paddle equipped vehicles. According to the "web" those vehicles experience random slow downs.
I think the triton never suffers from "random" slow downs , it pretty consistently slow!

I really dont think they are that slow, I came from a turbo skyline and it was quicker high in the revs but if you drive the triton right on max torque theres not that much difference for moderate to firm acceleration and mine keeps trying to spin the wheels in 3rd in the dry until the fun police kicks in