Mitsubishi L200 Turbo Repair and Rebuild — 2.5 DI-D and 2.4 DI-D

This page is about the turbocharger on the diesel Mitsubishi L200 pick-up: which engine and turbo your truck carries, whether that turbo controls boost with vanes or a wastegate, what the common symptoms point to, and how we rebuild it. The Mitsubishi turbocharger families themselves, and the 49-number format on their labels, are covered on our Mitsubishi MHI turbo repair page.

Which L200 Engine and Turbo Do You Have?

A diesel L200 carries one of two engine families. The 2.5, coded 4D56, runs from the turbo-diesel trucks of the 1990s to the DI-D listed up to 2015. The 2.4 DI-D, coded 4N15, is listed from 2014. The cylinder capacity in section P.1 of your V5C separates them: 2477 cc for the 2.5 and 2442 cc for the 2.4.

Use the capacity rather than the heading of a parts listing. Some sellers file the 2.4’s turbo under a 2.5 title, so the number in a listing name is not a reliable guide to the engine.

Treat the table as a map of what has been sold for the L200, not as a parts choice. Where listings overlap, the label on your own turbo decides.

The 2.5: one engine code, several turbos

The three listings that give an engine code for the 2.5 all say 4D56, yet they describe three different turbochargers: 49135-02110 on a 114 bhp truck from 1996, 49135-02650 on 100 to 136 hp versions between 1999 and 2007, and a VT16 or VT17 on the DI-D between 2007 and 2015. Two more 2.5 listings, 49135-02652 and the VT10, cover the same years without giving a code at all.

So on a 2.5 the engine code confirms the engine and stops there. The year narrows the field, the power output narrows it further, and the label finishes the job. Your V5C gives power in kilowatts in section P.2; the VT16/VT17 listing quotes 66 to 123 kW across its three outputs, which makes a useful cross-check against the horsepower figures sellers use.

The 2.4 DI-D and the Fiat Fullback

The 2.4 is a tidier picture. Its listings centre on references beginning 49335: the 49335-01700 group for the L200 and Triton at 152 or 178 hp, and 49335-01410 for 150 to 181 hp. A third reference, 49335-02100, is listed across 2.2 and 2.4 versions. Mitsubishi’s own part numbers, such as 1515A322 and 1515A381, appear on the same listings.

The Fiat Fullback shares the 49335-01700 listing with the L200, so a Fullback owner reading this page is reading about the right turbo. The trap runs the other way: because one seller titles that unit a 2.5, a search for a 2.5 L200 turbo turns up 2.4 parts. If your V5C says 2442 cc, you have the 2.4, whatever a listing calls it.

Reading the label

The reference is on a label or plate on the turbo’s housing. A number made of 49, three digits, a dash and five digits is a Mitsubishi turbocharger reference, and the MHI page linked above explains how those numbers are built. A VT reference, such as VT10 or VT16, is a different format. Photograph the whole label rather than copying one number from it, because the vehicle maker’s own part number often sits beside the turbo reference. Our guide to finding the number on your turbo covers the other label formats.

If the label has burnt or peeled off, send the turbo anyway. It is identified on the bench before any work starts, and the registration on the Repair Form lets us check it against the truck it came from.

Newer L200s and anything not in the table

Mitsubishi Motors UK lists the all-new L200 Series 7 with a 2.4 bi-turbo diesel. None of the listings this page is built on covers that truck. If yours is one, or if your L200 is not in the table, put the registration and a photograph of the label on the Repair Form and we will confirm the unit with you before you post anything.

We also cover other working pick-ups and 4x4s, such as the Isuzu D-Max, the Toyota Hilux, the Ford Ranger, the Nissan Navara D40 and the Land Rover Defender, with the rest of the range on our Land Rover page. Each of those pages is about its own vehicle, and none of them suggests a part that fits an L200.

Fixed-Geometry or Variable-Vane: Why It Changes the Fault

Every turbocharger needs a way to stop making boost once the engine has enough, and there are two. A fixed-geometry turbo lets surplus exhaust bypass the turbine wheel through a wastegate, a small flap worked by an actuator. A variable-geometry turbo has a ring of movable vanes around the turbine wheel instead, which close to raise boost at low engine speed and open as speed rises.

The rotating parts, meaning the shaft, bearings, seals and wheels, wear the same way in both. What differs is the boost-control mechanism, and with it the list of faults that are even possible. A wastegate turbo cannot have sticky vanes, and a vane turbo has no wastegate flap to seize.

What the listings say about the L200

Of the L200 listings we have read, only one, 49135-02652 for the 2.5, is described as variable geometry. The rest do not say either way. We do not assign a type to the others from the year alone, because a wrong assumption sends the whole diagnosis down the wrong path.

How to check yours

Both designs have an actuator rod working a lever on the turbine housing, so the rod on its own does not settle it. The label does, checked against the turbo maker’s data, and so does the unit on our bench. Photograph the turbo from both sides with the label and the actuator in shot, add the photographs to the Repair Form, and we will tell you what we can from them before anything comes off the truck.

The same photographs show what drives the mechanism. An actuator with a wiring plug is electronic; one with only a vacuum hose is pneumatic. That tells you the actuator type rather than the turbo type, because either kind can work vanes or a wastegate, and we have no source that settles which kind your L200 carries, so check yours. An electronic actuator can be repaired on its own from £100 + VAT through our electronic turbo actuator repairs. We do not repair pneumatic actuators: one stays attached to the turbo, is checked as part of the rebuild, and if the can itself has failed we tell you before the work goes ahead.

Sticky Vanes on the VGT Engines

Sticky vanes are a fault of variable-geometry turbos only. If your L200’s turbo has vanes, they are the first boost fault to rule out. If it has a wastegate, the same symptoms point at the flap, its pivot or the actuator instead, and the symptom table in the next section covers both.

Why the vanes stick

The vanes pivot in a ring that sits in the exhaust flow with small running clearances. Soot and oil residue build up on the vane faces and around their pivots, and they build fastest when the turbine housing never gets hot enough to burn them off: short journeys, long idling and slow work around a site or a farm.

A pick-up that spends its week at low load and its weekend towing gives the deposits time to form, then asks the mechanism for its full travel. Wear adds to it, because the pivots and the ring that moves them wear with use, and a worn mechanism catches where a clean one would slide.

What sticky vanes feel like

• Stuck towards closed: strong boost early, then an overboost fault under load and a sudden drop into limp mode, often logged as P0234.
• Stuck towards open: slow to pull at low revs, more smoke than usual, and an underboost fault such as P0299.
• Intermittent: the fault clears after the engine is switched off and restarted, then returns on the next hard pull or the next tow.

Neither code names a part. Each says only that boost came out higher or lower than the engine management wanted, and a split hose or a faulty pressure sensor can set them just as easily as a stuck vane ring. Our guide to overboost and underboost faults takes the possible causes one at a time.

Freeing the vanes or rebuilding them

A stuck mechanism can sometimes be freed with the turbo on the truck, and a long hard run can loosen it for a while. Neither removes the deposits from the vane faces and pivots, and neither touches the wear, so the fault tends to return. Our guide to how variable-vane turbos work and why they stick explains why a fault that clears itself is still a fault.

In a rebuild the vane assembly comes out of the turbine housing. The vanes, their pivots and the ring that moves them are cleaned, inspected and measured, worn parts are renewed, and the mechanism is reassembled and checked to sweep its full travel without binding.

What Fails, and What Each Symptom Points To

Most L200 turbo faults fall into two groups: the rotating assembly wearing out, and boost control misbehaving. They feel different from the driver’s seat, and they call for different checks before anything is unbolted.

The causes stay on the truck

A turbo rarely fails on its own account. Its shaft spins on a film of engine oil, so a restricted oil feed, oil run past its change interval or debris carried in the oil wears the bearings. Anything drawn into the intake damages the compressor wheel, and a boost leak makes the turbo spin harder to reach the pressure the engine management asks for.

Working pick-ups add heat. Switching off straight after towing or a long climb stops the oil flow while the bearing housing is at its hottest, and the oil left inside it cooks. Letting the engine idle for a minute or two before switching off lets the oil carry that heat away.

Whatever caused the failure has to be put right before a rebuilt or new turbo goes on, or the replacement starts the same clock. Our guide to replacing a turbocharger covers the causes to check while the unit is off, and our guide to common turbocharger problems sorts symptoms by the part of the turbo they start in.

If the evidence points at the turbo, keep the truck to gentle, essential journeys and leave the trailer behind. A worn turbo can pass oil into the intake and the exhaust, and a failing wheel can shed pieces downstream into the intercooler or the engine itself.

Our L200 Turbo Rebuild

You get your own turbocharger back, not an exchange unit from a shelf. On an L200 that matters more than usual: with several turbos listed for the 2.5, the unit that goes back on your engine is the one that came off it, so the identification question answers itself.

What happens on the bench

• Checked on arrival. Before it is opened, the turbo is examined as it came off your truck, which keeps the repair aimed at the fault it really has.
• Stripped and measured. It is stripped to component level, and the shaft, wheels, bearing surfaces and housings are cleaned and measured against original tolerances.
• Renewed where worn. Bearings, seals and thrust parts are renewed with genuine OE or OEM-grade components that meet or exceed the original, a part with a known design weakness is uprated rather than reinstated, and a damaged wheel, shaft or housing is replaced.
• Boost control put right. On a vane turbo the vane assembly is cleaned or renewed until it sweeps its full travel; on a wastegate turbo the flap and its pivot are checked for wear and the actuator is set to the turbo’s specification.
• Balanced and run. The rotating assembly is balanced, the turbo is rebuilt and it is run on the bench before it is boxed.

Expect the turbo to spend one to three working days with us once it has arrived, plus the post in each direction. Every rebuild is covered by a lifetime warranty with unlimited mileage.

Rebuild, replacement or a used turbo?

Three routes put a working turbo back on an L200: your own unit rebuilt, from £185 + VAT; a replacement turbo from us, from £450 + VAT; or a used turbo from a breaker. The work on the truck, meaning removal, refit, gaskets, oil and filter, is the same whichever you choose, so the choice only moves the price of the turbo itself.

A replacement has to match your engine’s reference, and on the 2.5 that means picking the right one of several. A used turbo carries wear that nobody has measured. A rebuild measures your own unit and renews what has worn, so you know what was replaced and why.

Sometimes replacement is the right answer. If a turbo has broken up badly enough to damage its housings, we tell you once it has been measured, and we recommend replacement rather than a rebuild that would not be good value. Our turbo repair price guide explains what moves the figure.

Sending your turbo in

1. Fill in the details. Complete the online Repair Form with the registration, the cylinder capacity and power output from the V5C, the mileage, the symptoms, any fault codes and photographs of the label and the actuator.
2. Remove the turbo complete. Leave the actuator attached.
3. Pack and post it. Cap or tape over every oil and air port, box the turbo so it cannot move in transit and post it to Unit 102 Reaver House, 12 East Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT17 1HX, United Kingdom. Our FAQs cover packing and postage.
4. Findings before work. Once the turbo is stripped we report what we found and wait for your go-ahead; the rebuilt unit then comes back bench-tested and ready to refit.

Before the rebuilt turbo goes back on, renew the oil and filter and put right whatever caused the failure. On refit, prime the oil feed first: crank the engine for 10 to 15 seconds without letting it fire, as our refitting guide describes. Garages and dealers send L200 turbos to us in exactly the same way owners do.

Mitsubishi L200 Turbo Repair FAQ

Final Thoughts

An L200 turbo is identified in three steps. The capacity on the V5C tells you whether the truck has the 2.5 or the 2.4, the year and power output narrow the 2.5’s several turbos, and the label settles it. On a 2.5, the engine code alone settles nothing.

Find out whether your turbo has vanes before going looking for sticky ones, because a wastegate turbo shows the same symptoms for different reasons. When the evidence does point at the turbo, take it off while the wear is still in the bearings and seals rather than the wheels, and fix what caused it before the rebuilt unit goes back on.