Some Mitsubishi stuff to look out for

I work in NY and some of these problems are not as common outside the salt belt.

The Endeavor and 3rd gen Eclipse 200-2005,especially with alloy wheels, are notorious for having the front axles seized into the hubs. You run into this when they have noisy wheels bearings you’re trying to change. We’ve had many that end up needing new knuckles, but many times you can get the axle out by putting a large 3 jaw puller like a Posi-Lock on it and applying heat with a Oxy/Acetylene torch. Beware of this possibility going in. I always take the time to get the axle loose from the hub first before I say it needs a bearing so I don’t have to deal with a time-losing surprise.

EGR:
2.4L Galant and Eclipse, the EGR valve goes bad.
3.0L eclipse, it’s the solenoid assembly on the end of the intake manifold. Usually the little plastic vacuum cannister that’s part of it leaks internally and that is available separate on some models.

Fuel filler necks on older Eclipse, Galant, and Endeavor tend to rust out. Sometimes it’s a leaks when filling, mostly makes evap codes first. Endeavor has a open recall on it.

Oxygen sensor codes, just replace the sensor the code is for whether for heater/range/high/low/whatever.

Valve cover gaskets fail rampantly on older 4 and 6 cyl. They will leak externally and into the spark plug bores and cause misfire codes. Sometimes original gaskets are really stuck in there and take forever to remover. In that case, burn them a bit with a torch all the way around and they’ll come out alot easier.

04-06 lancer Cats go like crazy making P0420 codes. Dealer sells a manifold/cat kit with all the gaskets and fasteners for half the price of only the manifold/cat from the parts catalog. The kit part numbers are listed in a lancer TSB for the problem, which also states the car should get a ECM reprogram that will prevent the new cat from going bad prematurely.

Older Galants that the heat stops working often have a faulty water shutoff valve causing it.

Current gen Lancer Evolution and Ralliart Service all wheel drive warning on instrument cluster almost always means the AWC/4WD control pump, which is guaranteed to fail eventually. It is prone to problems with corrosion and mounted behind the R/R wheel with no environmental protection.

Current gen lancer outlander has a ceramic donut-type gasket between the downpipe and manifold that routinely causes exhaust leak concern, or they complain the car is just loud. The other loud complaint that is also very common is that the air box is not assembled correctly after the filter is checked or replaced. The hinge tabs on the bottom won’t be engaged and it will be open there allowing unfiltered air in and sounding like it has a aftermarket intake on it.

All The 2.4 mivec engines in galant/eclipse/old outlander have weak balancer belts. The timing belt lasts well beyond the 60k interval, but the balancer belt is a gamble. Doing a timing belt and leaving the balancer belt is like having surgery to remove cancer and leaving most of it in there, but people seem to be doing it all over the place. Maybe they think the small belt doesn’t matter as much as the big one. All the timing belt problems are either cause of a broken balancer belt jamming up the timing belt or a aftermarket one breaking.

Old Outlanders and Endeavors have bad lower control arm bushings in the rear that cause really choppy rear tires and clunking. The Outlanders end up needing all 3 arms on each side eventually and the bolts will be seized in the bushings and need to be cut out and replaced. The outlanders also get loose rear sway bar bushings and differential mounts that clunk and slap around.

Older 4 cyl galants and eclipses have radiators that leak when the top tank cracks near the radiator cap and starts spraying.

Newer Galants have special $800 radiators with a DOR coating. If it has a electrical connector to the radiator between the two coolant fans, aftermarket does not make a correct radiator at this time. The sensor cannot be removed without breaking it and it will cause a CEL.

On 2006+ 3.8L Eclipse, Galant, and Endeavor, the cat on the firewall side goes bad alot and expect this to be a PITA if you get one. Take everything out of the way, even the heat shields around the steering rack, and you can dance it out of there. It’s really shitty on Endeavor because you have to remove the transfer case too which has coolant lines to it.

Lancer Ralliart and Evo with twin clutch tranny and poor oil maintenance get stretched timing chain causing related codes and sometimes no-start.

The Getrag TC-SST twin clutch trans in current Lancer Ralliart and Evo MR is problematic in general and astronomically expensive to service and repair. They produce alot of internal metallic dust which causes problems with the clutch set and valve body, but offers higher performance that the manual.

Older cars tend to have the radiator hoses on the engine side leak due to corroded aluminum hose nipples. We replace the radiator hoses and clean up the corrosion with emery paper.

May update with more things. I’m trying to just think of older stuff out of warranty.