Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I noticed lately that the van was getting just a tiny bit harder to start, warm or cold. Normally it lights up right away by the last few days it needed a fraction of a sec of starter whine before it would catch. And this afternoon, I stopped the van after a fairly long trip and decided I wanted to check the air filter. It was pretty ugly so I decided to leave it out and pick up a new one.

I drove away it and soon had to stop at a light, it stalled. WTF? Started it up again, but RPMs way too low. I ended up needing to have the throttle pulled half way out to keep from stalling. For the life of me I couldn't see what that had to do with the air filter, but decided it couldn't be coincidence and stuck it back in. Turns out it was, because that made no difference.

I was able to limp home, but the van was gutless, and trying to increase RPMS for more power didn't help; it would cycle up and down. Fully floored, hardly any black smoke. Once I got it home I did a quick visual and everything seemed normal. On a hunch I pumped the primer several times and that increased the idle.

My guess is fuel filter. Any other suggestions?

I like to check the easiest stuff first.

Fuel to the filter.

Filter to the Injector pump.

Throttle arm.

Air filter.

Glow plugs.

Oil vs coolant vs oil.

Clean or foweled fuel.

Battery connections.

Theres more to this list Im missing, but others will chime in soon. This is the real easy stuff.

Nice list from White Mule, very organized.

My gutlessness was because of very dirty filters inside the IP Injector Pump. It was on my "new L300 deli" when it had just arrived from Japan last year. I didnt think the IP was the problem, and spent ages trying everything else, because I had no problem starting. But Butch at CVI was a good detective, and found the 2 filters inside were dirtier than any others he had seen. And no, the filters are not user accessible.

Christine.

Yeah, there's not much to go wrong with diesels and when they do go, at least mechanically, there's usually ample evidence through bad noises and smoke. So drivability problems tend to lead towards things like fuel supply, filters etc. The PO wasn't big on preventative maintenance, so that's why I'm tending towards fuel starvation due to clogged filter. It's probably original (plus the pumping of the primer pump smoothing it out, suggest fuel flow problem)
Interestingly, I don't recall that aspect coming up on the diesel vs gas thread: the ignition system is responsible for the vast majority of issues in a spark engine, IMO.