1993 Mitsubishi L200 Single Cab review from UK and Ireland

Broken leaf spring:

One of the rear leaf springs were broken. There must have been some abuse with previous owners. However, it should not break. It is a critical safety component.

Rear Brake:

A hole on the rear break pipe, which appears to be caused by corrosion or wear. It was lucky it only failed when I was still on the driveway of my house.

Surprised there was no fail safe device on board.

Wiring:

Unexplainable problems, with headlamp high beam fuse blowing constantly, supposedly very simple wiring.

Reverse lamp wiring failure; fuel pump shut-off valve wire required bypassing.

Gear box failure V5M21:

Occurred at around 120000 miles. Severe noise from the gear box in all gears except for the 4th gear. Very high rebuild cost hence replaced with 2002 V5MT1 with some fabrication and transmission tunnel widened.

Exceptionally rust prone:

Requires extensive reinforcement work on the chassis in order to maintain structural integrity.

Front suspension arms:

Socket for the front suspension arm has corroded away, leaving the upper joint to rock about. Making the vehicle unsafely unstable.

Leaking water pump:

Water pump started leaking at around 110000 miles. Probably a poor workmanship by a previous mechanic.

This vehicle has caused myself and my wife a lot of grief. Massive expense and hours and hours of work to keep it alive.

Loading capacity is noticeably smaller than other pick-ups from same era, and reliability seems to leave much to be desired for a working vehicle.

Spare parts are very expensive, but there are some good UK based spares supplier, so I have been lucky that way.

Fuel economy is average for a 4x4 vehicle, and performance is below average. I have heard positive comments about reliability of Mitsubishi, but this was a complete eye opener. Never again would I buy another Mitsubishi 4x4.