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Colorado Performance

Peartreetim

New Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2013
Messages
3
Hi All, i am the proud owner of a Colorado VX p reg land cruiser. Bought with 70000 miles on the clock and now twice that. My question is one of performance, the car runs fine on the road and will bowl along at 70 as long as you like, however as soon as you get to any sort of incline or when i tow my boat it seems to have no power at all. Is this just age, can you pressure test a diesel like i would a marine outboard or where should i be looking? Tim
 
They don't have great performance to begin with - more than many others in it's class, it certainly outperforms my friends trooper or any of the mitsubishi shoguns I test drove with the 2.8 TD. So long as the temps are all good, then maybe you have a turbo issue. I found with mine that towing a 1.5tonne car on a half tonne trailer up a relatively steep incline (1 in 20?), 60mph was all it would do - I thought that was pretty good going considering.

Are you running an auto? In which case are you getting torque converter lockup? (it should happen and gives you direct power transfer to the transmission without the usual torque converter losses) Have you checked the boost level? With no boost, power will drop off and could indicate a turbo problem or potentially a leak. What maintenance has been done? I serviced mine recently (new fluids throughout) and have noticed a small improvement.
 
Hi Majic thanks for the reply. Yes to an Auto. Not sure what torque converter lockup is or how you tell or how i test for boost level. Vehicle is serviced regularly but i have never done anything to the transmission except checked levels.
 
you should feel the torque converter "lock in" at around 54mph, once the engine is up to temperature. I'll be cruising along a mile or two up the road with the temperature slowly climbing to normal levels, 60mph with revs around 2400rpm, then once the temp hits the critical mark, you feel the "lock in" through the seat of your pants and the revs drop (to around 2000rpm) and the car tries to accelerate unless I back off the throttle a bit

If the engine's running cool (below mid mark on the gauge) or hot (above mid mark, close to red mark) then there's a problem that will affect power. Any whistling may indicate vac or boost leaks (again, affecting power) and if there's a problem with the cooling system, it can affect the transmission and engine performance
 
I think you are possibly struggling due to fuel starvation, probably not terribly bad but bad enough for the engine to strain a bit. At around these ages, the tank filter, as well as actual injector pump filter tend to get clogged up with fuel rubbish. Considering yours is a low milleage it may not be too bad.

On a slight incline at 70, with no peddle movement she will pull back down gradually depending on the hill, but with a slight push on the peddle she will strongly remain/increase speed
 
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I'm currently looking for more power to tow my camper trailer around Australia. I already have a free flowing air filter, Tunit chip, and water injection system. Next up is a bigger dump pipe off the turbo and a boost controller with boost gauge. It seems the 1KZ-TE responds well to having the boost increased by a couple of psi. Sometime in the future I will also add an intercooler.
 
Colorado VX p reg land cruiser is really comfortable vehicle for travelling
 
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