Wife's G4 just had the battery light come on again after 2 years.

[Christopher_B]

Update:

They replaced the bent pulley on the alternator and put on a new belt free of charge. However Fummy, as usual, you were right, there's a leak in the AC lines so I'm looking at another $450 to fix and that's them not charging me labor for the earlier screw up price too.

Man I really need Napa or AutoZone to start stocking parts this is getting ridiculous. There's over 200k Mirages sold since 2014 and I bet most of them not totaled out are still running. I'm writing NAPA a lamentation of an email goddammit lol.

I thought they might go that route. Did they use the pulley off the original alternator?

[Dirk Diggler]

I thought they might go that route. Did they use the pulley off the original alternator?

I imagine so but didn't confirm.

All told were $2500 into repairs. That's a big chuck off the $9800 I was offered. We're going to try and keep her for another 50k miles.

[Christopher_B]

I would like an old alternator to work on.
Does anyone have an old one preferably not broken but not charging?
If I can put together a rebuild kit or start rebuilding them it would sure beat $1000 for a new one.

[Fummins]

Update:

They replaced the bent pulley on the alternator and put on a new belt free of charge. However Fummy, as usual, you were right, there's a leak in the AC lines so I'm looking at another $450 to fix and that's them not charging me labor for the earlier screw up price too.

Man I really need Napa or AutoZone to start stocking parts this is getting ridiculous. There's over 200k Mirages sold since 2014 and I bet most of them not totaled out are still running. I'm writing NAPA a lamentation of an email goddammit lol.

Which line exactly? If it's the one with a rubber section that runs near the ac compressor? If it got snagged by the belt and pulled into the ac compressor then the installer/shop should eat the cost to fix everything that got damaged because of their neglect in the first place.

There isn't much for aftermarket parts cause there isn't a BIG market for it. Ferd sells over 700,000 f150's a year. They break all the time so there's gonna be lots of aftermarket parts. There's barely any Mirage's in comparison and in the 5 or so years I've been on this forum I can only remember maybe a handful of alternator failures. I'm sure if there were more people with alternator problems they'd be on this forum like white on rice complaining about it.

In your case it sounds like you paid to replace almost every single possible cause of a charging problem except the most common one I always run into. I assume this was the case mainly because you needed your car to be working in a hurry and didn't want it to crap out. Hopefully you find a shop that doesn't leave you with a sore bum.

[Mark]

Update:

They replaced the bent pulley on the alternator and put on a new belt free of charge. However Fummy, as usual, you were right, there's a leak in the AC lines so I'm looking at another $450 to fix and that's them not charging me labor for the earlier screw up price too.

Man I really need Napa or AutoZone to start stocking parts this is getting ridiculous. There's over 200k Mirages sold since 2014 and I bet most of them not totaled out are still running. I'm writing NAPA a lamentation of an email goddammit lol.

Several Mitsubishi OEM alternators from low mile Mirages can be found on eBay for under $100 with free shipping. I don't think adding a new OEM alternator adds any extra value to your G4. It may give you some piece of mind, but someone selling your Mirage could care less. A working alternator is all you really need. When a slightly used one is about 7-8% the cost of a new one, I would take that gamble. Heck, I would buy a couple used ones at that price and feel OK if only one works. In your case, you were on a time crunch & wanted it fixed. That usually comes at an extra cost.

I can't imagine anyone paying $1,300 for an alternator, but some do apparently. An alternator is something you have rebuilt for a couple hundred bucks at most, or you buy a rebuilt one for about the same price. If a Chevy Spark needs a new alternator, most of the best options will be a rebuilt one. This is true of most vehicles.

I have zero concerns about finding affordable parts for my aging Mirage. I was even a bit surprised when my local Auto Zone had Mirage front brake pads in stock this past spring. The rotors were out-of-stock. AZ would have got me a new pair of rotors later that same day, but I already knew O'Reilly's had rotors in stock for the same price/warranty. These are auto parts stores serving a town of 5,000 people in a county with no other towns of any size over a couple hundred people nearby. I live in a world surrounded by pickup trucks not Mirages, & I am not concerned about getting parts for my Mirage. Some items may require a more creative approach (like used or rebuilt parts), however.

[7milesout]

I believe it was this thread that we discussed someone procuring a vent thermometer to judge the performance of their A/C system. The below picture is with my vent thermometer placed inside the center vent of my Lexus LS 460L.

The point of this reply is: A) The LS blows ice, ... EVEN IF it is not quite down into the green zone on the thermometer, and B) Perhaps the thermometer is not quite calibrated correctly. The point is, if you get one of these gauges, don't think your system must be in the green or the system has a problem. I think I had been driving the LS for ~20 minutes. Perhaps if I did a long 30 minute cruise on the interstate, it may be able to work its way lower ... but even where the gauge is as shown (~44°), it was absolutely frigid in the car.

Read these gauges with a grain of salt.

[Basic]

That Lexus cabin is able to hold that "not quite in the green" temp much better than the Mirage. It can perform at a much lower efficiency than the Mirage and still come out ahead. That is why small changes in the Mirage system is easily noticed. One price to pay for frugality...

[7milesout]

That Lexus cabin is able to hold that "not quite in the green" temp much better than the Mirage. It can perform at a much lower efficiency than the Mirage and still come out ahead. That is why small changes in the Mirage system is easily noticed. One price to pay for frugality...

True. My Lexus refrigerant capacity is 750 ± 50 grams. The Mirage refrigerant is 270 grams. So, roughly the Lexus has 3X the capacity. And it means exactly as you say, small changes will effect the Mirage system ... 3X as much.

Last summer I evacuated my Lexus system and refilled it. I sweated it a bit, because I didn't really want to disturb the system (it had NEVER been touched). It was working ok, seemed just a tidge weak. When I was refilling it, I kept my eye on the dryer window (I don't believe the Mirage has a dryer window). And the window stayed all foggy / bubbly ... and the compressor continued to cycle, until about the time I hit 700 grams.

Finally the window cleared up and the compressor quit cycling and I let out a sigh of relief. I do know what I'm doing, but I always doubt myself. I was doing it sort of old school, manifold gauges and setting the refrigerant cans on a small digital scale (and writing sh1t down to be precise). I filled it to about 780 grams (from memory). So even if it leaks a bit, it will perform well for quite a while. I should recheck the window, just to make sure it is still running clear.

Now get this! My truck's refrigerant capacity is 904 grams ... and it probably has less interior volume than the Mirage. Well, it's probably on par. A little more height based volume in the cab, and more width, but the Mirage has the hatch area. So, they're probably close. But 3.3 times as much refrigerant capacity.

All this long winded reply to say, the Mirage system needs to be serviced correctly in order to maintain effectiveness. Does this make me like the Mirage less? Nope. I think it might make me like it even more. It is costs roughly a third of what the Lexus would cost for me to recharge it!

[mohammad]

Now get this! My truck's refrigerant capacity is 904 grams ... and it probably has less interior volume than the Mirage. Well, it's probably on par. A little more height based volume in the cab, and more width, but the Mirage has the hatch area. So, they're probably close. But 3.3 times as much refrigerant capacity.

i think the point of the parcel shelf in the mirage is to isolate the rear hatch area from the rest of the cabin so there is less air to heat/cool.

[7milesout]

i think the point of the parcel shelf in the mirage is to isolate the rear hatch area from the rest of the cabin so there is less air to heat/cool.

Naaaaah. It's to cover what may be laying on the floor below, in an attempt to prevent theft. Because thieves look for opportunities...

If it helps with the cooling somewhat (meh maybe), that's just a side benefit.