1995 Mitsubish Bravo _ U44V_ 4A30 Motor AKA The Roo'

It seems to be in good shape overall. I've taken it on a few short drives and its done well. Mine is missing a stereo entirely so I'll be adding one. As the gets warmer here, I plan to do all the basic maintenance to make sure everything's been refreshed.

 

The roo' has been doing bike duty latley. Pulled the back seats out and it fits two bikes standing upright with ease. pretty cool


*** I'm starting to test the waters on a possible sale of this vehicle. On the flipside, I may never let this thing go because I get happy every time I drive it. What do this vehicles go for nowadays? 5k ish?

 

FYI for another Oil Filter option that fits the U44V

Mobil1 m1-108A


I listed the vehicle for like 8 grand then down to 7 to see if anyone was interested but I got no bites. Then I thought I should probably never sell this it's just too damn fun to drive.

Knocked out gearbox service today on the transfer and rear diff. Replaced plugs and gaskets. Transfer case fluid was pretty clean but rear was definitely ready for a change.

 

You may not get any locally. but I bought mine on Bring-a-trailer and in good condition you'd likely have no problem getting that for it. The last few that sold went for more than 8K I believe. I'm taking mine to a car show in about a month just for fun. I use it around town and get all kinds of looks.

 

Have the same van as you, and my letters light up green!! so cool - will have to find a picture..

Still no luck on a reader though, having issues and thinking its the ECU at this point.

 

No way ! Super aero lights up!? I saw rumor of it being like some kinda charged by the sun glow type decal cuz I see no power going to that area

Well now Im jealous


As for the reader, im not too sure either

 

Anyone have information on what top secret info is needed to fully roll down the rear windows ?

When holding the down button, the windows stop about 2/3 of the way down and I assumed that was that

However today I looked backed and noticed the window was fully down , interesting .rolled it up,and then it never went fully down again

 

There is a small plug that pulls out to allow you to roll them all the way down. One of mine on side of my doors is broken.

 

ah-ha! So that's what the mystery handle thingy is on the door ? My dog must have bumped it since this happened when he was riding around with me

Looking forward to testing this .thanks

 

Thats a Mad paint job for that ROO! dont sell her just you will regret!

I just customized a sporty 15 inch steering wheel from a Datsun 910 by welding
the centre to a mitsu compatible boss kit. As I have no power steering this works
well now very easy to steer.
I was thinking of the suzuki K15 engine and saw a U41T fitted with a k3-VE
and also a HIJET with an FJ1200 on Youtube. I liked the k3-ve engine as it
is from a Daihatsu and the 1.5 is also available which are cast iron blocks
very quiet and very economical but K15 from China a re cheap ex-freight.

After looking around everywhere a local U43V with only 8000kms was
at a wrecking yard which was a deceased estate car. I tried to buy the whole
thing but had not title and wrecker wouldnt budget selling the lot.
So got the engine, 5 sp all complete for 300 clams so not too bad.

Locally these vans are very scarce now and prices are going straight up
since Mitsu since 2003 or so only uses Suzuki Carry Vans rebadged.

They are rare and with the coke bottle shape will just keep rising.
I would raise the ride height and source another bottom end or just
get a 1.5 suzuki or changhe whatever they are called in Manchuria
if you are keeping her and keep original engine lubed and stored.

 

Indeed it is quite a ridiculous looking van with the creepy kangaroo decals lol. Luckily it's just a wrap and can be removed if I ever wanted to but why the hell would I ? I might paint the silver something funky but for now I like the look....

Cool to hear you know about different engine options, that's my biggest concern. I'd hate to blow this motor and I lack the skill of proper rebuilds. I hope there will be more "drop it right in " engine replacement options as these vehicles become more popular. That being said this motor hasn't let me down yet. It's slow to start after sitting a while ( IDK maybe fuel pressure ) but it just goes and goes without any issues.

I've been driving the heck out of the Roo the past two weeks. I've used it to load several piles of gravel, haul lumber, make runs to the dump to ditch scrap metal and old fencing, and of course just to cruise around in and enjoy. I do believe buying a van version of these Kei vehicles is a better choice as a lot of the work truck style vehicles seem to have been a bit more used and worked out compared to the vans which were just people movers.

 

Yeah my van has child proof locks that can be enabled on the door handles and also the windows have a child lock thing where you have to hold a button while rolling them down to get them down all the way. When I first got my Joypop 3 years ago I had 2 different offers of 10K to buy at different C&C events. I paid 6700 for it. No intention to sell and don't sell yours you will regret it. I also agree the vans get less abuse and possibly better maintenance that the trucks. I think this is because a lot of vans do delivery duty in the cities or suburbs and not many are used on farms.

 

Awesome. I haven't tested it yet but that would indeed explain the mystery little knob/ handle I see on the back doors. My dog must have been stepping on it while hanging out the window. I'm never riding around back there so I'm excited to verify next time I'm in the van.


Wow, I can't believe folks are offering that much. Yeah I have no desire to sell it anymore. I felt like I was at the point where I did a bunch of maintenance and the vehicle was in it's prime, so it was worth thinking about cashing out. But I'd much rather just drive it as much as possible and have fun. I hope no major engine problems happen but I've pushed the motor pretty hard and it's passed all my testing lol.


I suspect there will be more parts support and all around knowledge as these vehicles become more popular.


It's been dry so far here in my area but I'm going to slap the studded snow tires on the Roo soon and get ready for some fun snow drifting

 

The roo has been doing great, just installed studded snow tires and shes ready to rally all winter long.

** Every now and then I have a bit of uneven idle. I wouldn't call it a rough idle by any means but it's just not steady. It usually goes away if I put the engine under load ( Turn on AC ) It usually happens during the warm up period but I noticed recently once warm it was doing it as well.

What would cause a bit of a rough idle? I don't think I have a MAP of MAF sensor on the 4A30 motor ? Throttle body and air filter should be clean... Vac lines are OK. What else should I think about?

 

Flaky fuel pressure? Or since its EFI maybe the injectors are getting irregular pressure fed to them from the fuel rail (does it have one?) I get the allure of EFI but sometimes its so much easier to deal with carbs.

Sounds like you are ready for fun in the snow!

 

Winter has arrived. Some feedback after a bit of winter driving

- In fresh snow, this thing is pretty rock solid. As long as the snow isn't up to the frame it seems to have enough power to push through it all but not enough power to slip and slide so it just farts along
- I went out on the roads with some hard pack icy conditions and the back end would slide around when you least expect it and it was quite sketchy. I added (3) 80lb sand bags to the rear end and that makes it much more grounded but either way the short and narrow wheel base make for some slippery times at full speeds , with limited traction
- At some point, this front bumper is going to get torn off lol it's really not helping me when I want to crash into steep hills .

All around some serious fun to be had

 

I'm getting tired, and sore, from smashing my head into the tailgate that doesn't want to stay up. Until now, a stick or whatever I can find within reach propped up against the tailgate was good enough but I wanted to see what it takes to replace the struts.

Amayama claims they can still source the item but cost is about $150 for the set + shipping. Time to see if I can find any local replacements but I think they are mounted sort of weird compared to the press-on ball style struts we have on our US vehicles but I need to look closer.

I will remove and post more details soon


Left - MR121077
Right - MR121078

 

Looking forward to it. I bet we can find replacements and make em fit. Might require drilling or something. I have the same issue but even if its up all the way I still hit my head so its a losing proposition for me to fix it better.

 

For sure, I suppose I need to stop being lazy and go remove one to get a closer look. Hard to stomach the OEM price for these, a stick is way cheaper =] Luckily I'm short enough to be able to make it work, if it would stay all the way open. I shovel in a lot of gravel and other various crap into the vehicle so having the hatch open fully does help

 

After a bit of snow wheeling , the roo isnt starting .

I went in recently to fire everything up and it just cranks and cranks and cranks .

After 10-15 attempts I heard it coming alive and then many attempts later ot was running again , semi normally


I ran it a while and then shut it all down .I assumed something was wet/frozen up after wheeling .

I went out again today and it wont even come alive . Im hoping once it warms up outside my problems will melt away and fix itself. I dont really have time to diagnose further but it sounded and felt like it was starved for fuel

 

Maybe the dist. cap? - could've gotten wet?

 

Yean hopefully you're right . I was definitely pushing some snow .

The Bravo has a little access hatch under the rear carpet to check the distributor

So what should I do , remove the wires , dry it out , apply a little dielectric ?

I dont work with distributors often

 

Yeah, first of all check to see if it's wet, yes - yes dry it out. See if it is corroded at all, or if you see any "arc" lines. If too corroded, you can try rough sanding/cleaning off and see if that gets you a spark.

 

@Okiphrog I couldn't figure out how to get an image into our PM . The diagram below should be correct.
** Anyone out there with a 4A30 motor can confirm the location of plug wires on the distributor cap? Mine is all wrapped up so can't be seen to easily

This is not the firing order, at least I don't think it is. I just labeled 1-4 starting at the front of motor

 

Good info, thanks for posting. Yeah I guess at this point it's not worth it. I thought it'd be cool to monitor some stuff like charge voltage and coolant temps and of course to help diagnose any problems but its not worth it....It'd be easier to just install a temp sensor on upper radiator hose and just hope nothing major fails that requires a scanner

 

This is the fallacy of EFI. When it works, it works really well. When it breaks, you have to have the readers and/or computers to fix the issues. Where as with the 9th gens using carbs, it's all so analog. You can still swap carbs and tune with fairly basic tools. Don't get me wrong, if I were buying a truck today I would definitely go with the 10th gen EFI versions but I would probably also try to find used parts for computers and logic circuits for repairs down the road. Don't even get me started on turbos.

 

Yeah I hate to admit it but you're totally right on fuel injection.....Great when it works really sums it up right, whereas a carb can get pulled, cleaned, or replaced pretty easily when needed. Also a lot less electronics needed to make it all go bang

 

did you get the roo going again?

 

Yeah for sure , but I'll admit it was a band-aid fix.....Long story short one of the spark plug wires, where it connects to the distributor cap, was grounding out on the engine / not making a good connection to the distributor ....

It would only happen now and then. When it was dark, I could open the hatch over the transmission and get my eyes on the distributor. I was able to watch a little blue spark going rouge and grounding out at the nearest place it could find

Electrical tape around the boot has solved the problem for now...It's weird because there was no cracking or issues with the cables. In fact they were new NGK ( allegedly ) purchased from Amayama

I had an issue like this a long time ago on like the first Honda I ever owned. Had no spark, installed new cables, and it still ran rough. Cheap spark tester showed spark.....More expensive tester that creates a gap that the spark needs to jump , showed no spark. Those cheapy testers can really throw off diagnosing sometimes