Hey all,

My van is pretty damn uneconomical.. and I'm trying to figure out if its meant to be as bad as it is. I doubt it a bit.. It seems im averaging around 230-260kms a tank around the city. Seems waaaayy worse than it should be.

2L 1990 L400 4wd.

What do you guys get on a tank, both city and open road?

Cheers,

Caleb

The L300 will chew up a lot more fuel if the valve clearances are poor. Get that checked with your next tune. Apart from that, be prepared for the fuel economy to be lousy.
Unfortunately the L300 has the aerodynamics of a shipping container. Surprisingly, fuel economy on freeway travel is nearly as bad as when driving on bush tracks simply because of low wind loading at low speeds

Yeah, Im getting the water pump changed on friday, and getting them to check the valve clearances then.. so we'll see how that goes.

Im hoping that on the motorway long distance ill at least be able to hit 400kms, otherwise its really going to be an expensive way to travel around the country!

Cheers,

Caleb

Stupid bloody mechanics! They had told me my water pump needed replacing, hence me taking it in in the first place. Then they found it was fine, and didnt check my valve clearances like I asked them to. However, they've figured out another problem I was having which was the van dying at idle for the first 5 or so minutes after startup from cold. The autochoke is screwed, so its not flicking over when (if it even is) detecting the temperature as cold in the mornings.

Since they are so damn slack, is checking those valve clearances something I can do myself? Or is the access a bit of a problem?

Everyone I know is giving me that "I told you so.." look for buying an L300 4wd, but I'm not going to give in dammit! I know once this thing is working as it should it'll beat all those looks of theirs back into submission.

Ive just done a fill up and worked out that around the city with one small bigger trip i've been getting around 16.7MPG (using an american gallon). (Litres used/3.57(us gallon) to get gallons, then kilometers done/gallons used).

How badly does that measure up to expectations? I've seen a few varying numbers, some people saying they are getting up to 30mpg, some as low as 13.5, but the higher ones are probably from manufacturers who want to sell their vans..

and it took me until 12:30am, when I was lying in bed, that I forgot quite an important step.. kilomters into miles before working out mpg. Haha.. ****..

So, its actually 10.4mpg Im getting, which is a lot worse.

Can only find the original Mitsubishi specs for the 2.0 petrol engine in 2wd version:

90 km/h : 8,5 litres / 100 kilometres

120 km/h : 13,2 litres / 100 kilometres

city traffic : 11,0litres / 100 kilometres

For my 2,5 turbodiesel it's between 10-20 litres / 100 kilometres (10 ltrs doing 90 km/h and 20 ltrs driving offroad or doing 100 km/h with strong headwind.

Niek

the auto choke could make it use extra fuel as for the valve clearance .
now with 340k on the clock never had to touch any thing

Well, I've just gone on a reasonably long trip (300kms) and went through 33ish litres, driving at an average of 90kms/hr.

Looking at the numbers you provided Niek, I'm wondering if the 4wd version (added weight) + lift kit (added weight) has just hiked them up a bit from 8.5litres to 10.somethinglitres and I should stop worrying about whether something is wrong.

However there is a rhythmic knocking sound coming from the engine too, reasonably deep, and a much faster rhythmic sound, quite a bit higher in pitch, almost like the sound of someone blowing over the edge of a piece of paper, mainly happening when putting my foot down. That latter may be one of the belts? But the former one is a mystery.

Anyway, I'm happy that it seems to be running a bit better than I expected it to, was a bit strange.. on the way up to Ohakune the van was having a hard time going up hills in anything above 3rd, however a couple of days later on the way back, 4th and 5th seemed to be working fine. Havent quite figured that one out.. wondering if maybe the fact the van may not have gone on a decent trip for a while could have led to a build up of something in the system somewhere, and the drive cleared it out.

Regardless, this is way off thread!

Just to confuse you even more, I get around 27mpg from a 2.5td L300 4wd or around 530km per tank...Just a shame diesel is so expensive over here!!

nope here in the philippines deisel are much cheaper my 2.5 dsl L300 2 wd goes for around 600K per tank at ave. speed of 90kmh

but i just know that i can still do something to make it economical since i have modify any part my van's engien :57:


anyway trylooking up if theres anyway u can find khaos gas saver it really works it'll save 20-30% fuel bad thing its not made for dsl dammn anyway good luck for your quest to save fuel also try to check your fuel line and carburator if any hope these can help :thumbsup:
:beer:

Fuji here, sorry to hear about the stirring that you have recieved about buying a L300 4x4. Here in northern NSW Australia there seems to be several vans in use by contractors of the telephone service, everyone I"ve spoken to seem happy with their choice. Anyway back to the fuel issue. I have a 1990 starwagon, 8 seats, Air con front & back, free wheel hubs fitted, 2.4 fuel injected motor, lift kit ( 50mm higher that standard). On a recent trip interstate best I got was 9.5 L to 100 ks (29mpg) Worst I got was 14 L per 100 ks ( 21 mpg)
This was at average speed 85 - 90 Kph with 5 adults on board with all their gear for 4 days, some heavy hill work & highway cruising was the routine, all on sealed roads. A friend has a Delica diesel, he says he can only get max 24 mph with wife & 5 kids on board, seems each vehicle has its own perculiar performance pattern. Others I have spoken to said ave MPG is about 25. Unfortunately I don't have any answers for you as i have only hav this vehicle 3 months & yes, people have said to me "Why this vehicle"? I've said "WhY Not". They have been generally traditional 4x4 owners anyway. If I find out anything about fuel use I'll let you know.

Hi all,

I have a 1994 starwagon 2.4 EFI petrol auto 2wd and around town the milage is a shocker! Topped it up today with 33 litres for 130 km! It's only done 204000km The most I have ever had from a tank of 45 litres was 265km. I have replaced the oxygen sensor and it has extractors, due to the cracked factory exhaust manifold. Any suggestions?

I have a 1993 Express 4WD 2.4i and get about 22 mpg commuting in what I could call open city traffic (lots of 90km zones without too many lights, and some congested spots). But if I were to sit on a totally constant 80kmph, flat, calm etc, I'd only get about 25 mpg. Sounds like that's close to what I should expect, though I thought I'd do a bit better considering my old L300 1.8 4WD got 24 mpg in the country and 23 commuting as above.

I am running the same bus 2L petrol 4x4 1988 and get an astoundingly consistent 360km when the fuel light comes on. (Did manage 400+ once when touring). Funnily enough this figure dropped to 260km this week but the 2000rpm idle betrayed a faulty auto choke, have "adjusted" the grub screw so as to make it inoperative. All seems well and she´s running sweeter than ever. Nice and hot all year round here (Lanzarote) so the lack of choke shouldn't present a problem.

Hey Guys

I'm one of very few Canadian Delica owners. I just bought a 1991 Delica Super Exceed Starwagon, 2.5TD with 66,000 kms. I picked it up in Caglary, Alberta and drove 1150 km toVictoria on my return trip the following day. I used 125 litres of Diesel Driving over the Canadian Rockies and other mountain ranges at an average speed of 100 km/h. My highway cruising speed was about 120 km/h. My consumption was 10.87 ltrs./100km . That's 21.6 mpg. If I had driven the speed limit , I'm sure the consumption would have been a tad less ... I may even have cracked the 22mpg barrier!

Here's a photo of my new beast. :57:

Digitalart

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Digitalart, you must be using U.S. gallons. In British gallons, which most (all?) of the other posters are using, I think you're getting 25.94mpg :)

The EPA mpg's on an 2.5 turbodiesel L300 Delica is 15/19, so it's pretty bad....

My 2.4i returned 400kms per tank on the freeway easily. Around town that drops off hard to about 250-300kms per tank. Now with 225bhp at the rear wheels its 350kms per tank on the freeway and 200 around town (driving like a manic)

my l200 on a full tank gets me about 198 miles thats at 70mph