Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

At what point do you decide it's too fu*%ing cold to start your Delica?? Today my friends..... Today!!

I went outside. It was -25 here in Peterborough, Ontario this morning. I had my van plugged in and I went to give her a crank. It cranked all right but didn't start. Eventually it fired but died. Then the batteries started to lose thier power as I continued to crank.

I hit the neighbour up for a boost to which he happily replied, no problem!! And that, my friends did it!! She fired, reluctantly. But she fired!!

And what have I learned from all of this?? I HATE WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I hope everyone else is having a better day than I am. Stay warm folks. Aparently global warming has been cancelled for the next few days. At least in southern Ontario:)

Bummer...
You likely know, but others might not, soooo - I learned this back in the day from Green1, whom some of you will remember. Anyway, his tip for cold starts was to get all set - cycle the glow plugs a couple of times and then crank the key. Here's the part I didn't know - DON'T STOP! Keep that starter cranking until the motor starts or the battery dies. If you stop, the heat generated by the cranking immediately begins to dissipate and you're quickly back to square one but with less battery juice. Never had to start my bus in lower than -15, but that was before I got a block heater
Good luck Philmeup - hope the cold front retreats north soon...

-15 in the peninsula this morning, started up great, idled fine for ~30 seconds, then developed a bit of a miss for 30 seconds, then was fine.

Check into new glowplugs.

Feds wrote:-15 in the peninsula this morning, started up great, idled fine for ~30 seconds, then developed a bit of a miss for 30 seconds, then was fine.

Check into new glowplugs.

If she starts right away but then hesitates/sputters after a while, glow plugs are probably OK but there is likely air getting into the fuel system somewhere when it sits for a while.

The van starts up fine with the fuel leftover in the injector lines, but then has to purge the air that has gotten into the pump body from a leaky connection and/or seal, causing it to miss or even stall shortly after takeoff.

Seems to be the case with mine; I'm having the pump overhauled in a week or so, and hopefully that'll cure me.

-40 in thunder bay on tuesday. the truck did not like that one bit...

running 5w40 semi-syn this winter and can see a difference between that and 0w40 synthetic.

block heater for 1-1.5hrs did the trick, but it never would have fired up on its own, battery just would have died on me.

Your vans are just old and tired. Mine fired up without a hitch this morning, even though it was raining out.

strada-caster wrote:-40 in thunder bay on tuesday. the truck did not like that one bit...

running 5w40 semi-syn this winter and can see a difference between that and 0w40 synthetic.

block heater for 1-1.5hrs did the trick, but it never would have fired up on its own, battery just would have died on me.

Cripes! Even at the top of the Rocky Mountains it was a relatively balmy -15°C

-39 is about the coldest ive started it in. It will go, it idles at about 250, and i have to hold the starter an extra second or two, but thats not bad for not cycling the plugs twice or anything. Block heater plugged in with two new batteries and a battery heater. it shakes like a paint shaker but i let it idle low for a min or two then bump it up to 1000 or 1100 with the hand throttle and let it warm up some more. The transmission is rock solid though so its like you are towing a house when you finally start going. Tanis heater on the transmission pan is next

I know what you mean - it was like minus 1 here in Victoria the other morning.

Seriously! That's cold for around these parts. Laugh all you like, it freaks out the locals.

-28'C yesterday...and today -24...
Yesterday morning,no problem,it start and run,rough,but good.
But yesterday evening at job....enough is enough.Start but don't run.Battery went down.Boost it with the help of
two other workmates trucks and it finally run.

I hate cold...

Yeah, what I didn't know was to keep the engine cranking with the starter even if the engin is starting to fire. My VW mechanic friend gave me that little tip and its the only way I could get it to start and stay running. That's a good tip to put on here for sure.

This morning I got a ride to work and didn't even bother trying to get it going. Luckily we don't see too many nights here in southern Ontario where it dips down to -25 or lower. But I'll tell you this, Vancouver is looking pretty sweet right now......

The cold spell is supposed to break over this weekend. Here's hoping:)

Stay thirsty my friends...,, ummm i mean stay warm everybody

philmeup1 wrote: But I'll tell you this, Vancouver is looking pretty sweet right now......

Just finished reading your post and then I saw this:

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insig ... 42460.html

I too am looking forward to the warming trend this weekend. Getting tired of the -25 to -30 mark.

Craig

Yeah, can't see that working out too well. Unless I lived out of my vehicle like Ricky from The Trailer Park Boys. And that's not going to happen!!!

C'umon global warming......

I would drive there just to will help you roller paint your vehicle while holding a glass of crown and coke. Sounds like a good time.

Craig

Hey fellas

I wonder if you can help me re: cold starting my Delica (L300).

I recently went skiing up at Big White, B.C. My van was parked outside in no more than about -10, with a bit of snow for four days. When I went to leave, the battery was pretty weak and after a few good tries it was dead. BCAA came & it took two sets of leads to the dual battery for about 20 mins to get her started again. I had anti-gelling agent in the deisel & heated up the glow plugs twice first.

Basically, I was wondering what you guys would do to avoid this? I'm in Vancouver so really didn't want a block heater or battery heater for the odd ski trip. I'm not from Canada originally so all this cold-start business is very unfamiliar territory...

Could it be as simple as getting a new battery?

Also has anyone installed a glow plug control unit like this? What's the deal with these? http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/bnc/p ... 41434.html

Much appreciated!