Approx. what does the 60,000 mile Mirage maintenance job cost at a USA Mitsu dealer.

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Originally Posted by DonkeyPal

I suppose a person could raise the front to drain the oil, and then lower the car to level again before removing and replacing the filter, if that prevented some of the filter removal oil spillage. It's good to know there is that little tray below the filter.

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You could surely do that, but I don't believe it is necessary. There is no way anyone is going to remove an oil filter off a Mirage without some oil seeping out of the filter. Doesn't matter if you are professional mechanic or a novice. It doesn't matter whether the car is flat or not. If you are removing the filter from the top, you may not even need to lift the car at all. A couple inches helps me slide underneath better to drain the oil, but I could stand to lose a few pounds. :) I am only under the car the 30 seconds. Position the oil tray, pull the lever clip, flip the lever over. While the car is draining I remove the filter. I use cheap kitty litter trays. I use a second one while I am removing the filter. I just do that to save time.

I wouldn't overthink or worry about this. The Mirage is very simple to work on. In that respect, it is well-designed. The little tray under the oil filter is just one little example of this. Most of my other vehicles in the past were way more messy than the Mirage when pulling an oil filter off.

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Originally Posted by DonkeyPal

I didn't mean: "how does one avoid a mess on the ground" when taking off a horizontal oil filter.

I should have more more explicitly made clear that I was asking * how does one avoid the mess of oil dripping down the front of the engine * when removing a horizontal oil filter?

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Oh, I see. That hasn't been a problem for me with my Mirage. I suppose one could use a filter without a oil anti-drainback valve. :)

Did anyone ever answer the original poster's question?

I think the maintenance manual even says you should have the valves adjusted at 60k miles. I'm not sure that is even possible on these engines.

At 243k miles on my car, I've never done a valve adjustment and am still going strong.

Regular oil changes are whats important. Along with changing spark plugs, serpentine belt, air filter, coolant, and manual transmission oil every 100k miles. I'm sure I'm missing something, but that is my basic maintenance schedule along with changing head light bulbs every five minutes.

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Originally Posted by stevedmc

Did anyone ever answer the original poster's question?

I think the maintenance manual even says you should have the valves adjusted at 60k miles. I'm not sure that is even possible on these engines.

At 243k miles on my car, I've never done a valve adjustment and am still going strong.

Regular oil changes are whats important. Along with changing spark plugs, serpentine belt, air filter, coolant, and manual transmission oil every 100k miles. I'm sure I'm missing something, but that is my basic maintenance schedule along with changing head light bulbs every five minutes.

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There's an asterisk next to the "inspect/adjust valve clearances" recommendation for 60K. It only needs to be done if there is valve noise. Presumably that means valve noise during normal operation, not just a little tapping right after starting the engine which later goes completely away.

Other's--I'm not overly concerned about the oil changes, but a lot of information about that process has been volunteered by responders to this thread. Fascinating and helpful stuff.

As a point of perspective, vehicles with engine compartments in which things are crammed together very closely, don't at first strike me as being easy subjects for owner maintenance. My idea of a vehicle that's easy to maintain was my 1955 Plymouth Savoy, which had so much room in the engine compartment that four adults could have stood in there, two on each side of the engine. There might have even been room enough to play Pinochle on top of that old flathead motor. There wasn't any component that was hard to locate or to reach.

I'm not saying that the Mirage might not be surprisingly easy for some kinds of owner maintenance, of course.

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Originally Posted by stevedmc

Did anyone ever answer the original poster's question?

I think the maintenance manual even says you should have the valves adjusted at 60k miles. I'm not sure that is even possible on these engines.

At 243k miles on my car, I've never done a valve adjustment and am still going strong.

Regular oil changes are whats important. Along with changing spark plugs, serpentine belt, air filter, coolant, and manual transmission oil every 100k miles. I'm sure I'm missing something, but that is my basic maintenance schedule along with changing head light bulbs every five minutes.

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I agree with Steve. Regular oil changes are important. You really need to sort through the maintenance manual, because it seems set up for all Mitsubishi vehicles in general rather than the Mirage exclusively. Thus, common sense should apply. If you don't understand cars, you give your mechanic a copy of the maintenance schedule & ask them to help you out. I've done that years ago. For example, it states checking rear axle oil @ 60,000 miles. Good luck asking a mechanic to do that on a Mirage. It will give them a chuckle at least. Thus, your original questions is legit.

I am around 22,000 miles. So far it's only been oil changes every 5,000 miles, new wiper blades this spring, & tire rotations a few times for me. Since the weather is now nicer & I have spring break this week, I changed my cabin air filter for the first time. It was dirtier than I expected, but not horrible. It's also smaller than other cabin air filters that I have done in the past. Thus, it may seem to clog up a little faster. It took more time to empty/clean out the glove box than change the cabin filter.

Personally, I think 100,000 miles is a good time to have the things done that Steve already mentioned (spark plugs, coolant, & serpentine belt). I tend to do engine air filters @ 30,000 miles, & I may do my manual transmission fluid at 60,000 miles or sooner. Not everyone is going to do things the same. I want to stay within the basic recommendations & not jeopardize the warranty.

Steve's Mirage is doing great with conventional 5W-30 oil changed every 5,000 miles. Those of us using synthetic oil and quality oil filters shouldn't have any major problems either.

I want to correct some misinformation in some of my earlier posts, when I said the 2015 schedule had the CVT auto trans fluid checked at 60,000, but not changed until 90K. I'm sure I looked at the chart carefully at least 3 times and thought I read that, but today it has a trans fluid change at 60K, both on my pdf file of the service manual and my print out of it. Cr-r-razy!

I don't know how I misread it. Do I have problems reading Xs in columns? Is that why I'm bad at playing Tic-Tac-Toe? Who knew I could learn new things about myself at my age. Anyway--There IS a 60k trans fluid change for the CVT, just like the manual trans has, with 2015 Mirages.

Now, here is where I am with respect to my original question, now that I have a copy of the used car dealer's service items (which I had only seen before). After, I replace the engine air filter and the cabin air filter myself -- I will be left with only one thing to be replaced (the CVT fluid), and then about half of the bunch of listed inspections, in order to complete the 60,000 mile service requirements. I'll go to the local Mitsubishi dealer for that stuff. Even though the CVT fluid replacement is no doubt the most expensive item. Just getting it, plus part of the inspections, will have to be a bit cheaper than having the dealer do the whole rigmarole (which in my case would involve having several things that have just been done done again).

Loving the little car, by the way!