Hello!

[GarbageRaccoon]

Hello!! I have joined this forum as I am the owner of a 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage as of January. I love this car dearly so far but I’ve run into some issues that I’m not sure are worth keeping the car around as I have seemingly needed to sink a ton of money into this thing!

I guess I’m just curious as to how concerned I need to be that I have had to replace the starter, the belt, and the ECM within the first 4 months of owning this car. :/ I’m 9k miles over warranty as I am the 3rd owner of this beauty.

Is she worth keeping around or am I better off trying to sell her as I don’t want to keep sinking money into her!

[klroger]

Well, some thoughts from me... The belt I would just say it's regular maintenance, so it really wouldn't count. The starter seems kinda early, but could also be required if the car was used for delivery in it's past ownership with lots of stop & starts. The ECM seems kinda strange tho. Do you know any of the cars past history??? Was it boosted backwards?? Is there signs the car was in a flood?? Let us know the back history of the car if you know it,, or even what it was doing that lead to the ECM replacement. Stay tuned & others will soon be here to help out as well!!! Oh, & Welcome

[Fummins]

Hello!! I have joined this forum as I am the owner of a 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage as of January. I love this car dearly so far but I’ve run into some issues that I’m not sure are worth keeping the car around as I have seemingly needed to sink a ton of money into this thing!

I guess I’m just curious as to how concerned I need to be that I have had to replace the starter, the belt, and the ECM within the first 4 months of owning this car. :/ I’m 9k miles over warranty as I am the 3rd owner of this beauty.

Is she worth keeping around or am I better off trying to sell her as I don’t want to keep sinking money into her!

Welcome. Was your car flood damaged or something? If so, I'd get rid of it asap.
Is it safe to say your car has 69k miles or??? That's not much for these. Having an ecu fail is not a normal thing. Did you happen to see or get an explanation as to why you needed yours replaced?

The only thing I wouldn't be worried about is the belt replacement. They're small and they wear out.

(I typed this out hours ago, and klroger beat me to most of this stuff already)

[GarbageRaccoon]

It just recently hit the 69k mile mark!! No previous water damage that I am aware of (or that the carfax has showed!!) The first owner leased it for a year, the second owner leased it for 11 days. The dealership I bought it from got it from an auction in my state (Michigan) so there is a slim chance that it’s a flood car!!

The issues began when I took it on a short road trip (about 2 hours away from home) when the starter died. From what I was told by the mechanic, the starter went out and took a fuse with it. They installed a new starter and THEN found that the ECM was damaged. When the starter first went out I had no idea and just assumed I needed a jump and had a friend come and try to help me jump the car, they mistakenly rolled the drivers window down, and since the fuse had blown we were unable to roll the window back up. The mechanic believes that in the time with the window rolled down it might have been possible there was slight water damage from rain? But they’re also not sure if the ECM going out was what caused the starter to go out in the first place. Of course this occurred on a Saturday so I had to wait until Monday to be able to tow the vehicle.

I’m hoping that if I eat the cost of replacing the ECM that will be the end of my worries with this car, but I wasn’t sure so I figured I would reach out to y’all to see if I’ve just hit a weird patch of really bad luck or if I should look at ditching it ASAP :/

[Fummins]

None of that sounds normal. Sounds like someone hooked the booster cables up backward or your starter failed in a bizarre way and shorted out internally. I thought the fuse for the starter is a big chungus integral part of the battery terminal that doesn't look like a cheap item.

It'd be pretty hard to get water in the ecu or any other module even if you left all the doors open while it was raining.
Maybe you've been kinda hornswoggled, have horrible luck, or just need to find someone else to help boost your car next time.

For the most part, these things are pretty trouble-free. I'd hang onto it and next time you have a problem post it here and hopefully save yourself a small fortune.

[GarbageRaccoon]

Yeah I’m not super sure what happened. The mechanic said their best guess is that the fuse blowing caused the starter to go out or when we tried to jump the car we blew the fuse. But he said the starter was toast when it was towed into the shop. He said that if the ECU was going bad I would have noticed some kind of signs or it would have gone out before now, which the only issue I had prior to this (if you can call it one) is that one of the headlights needed to be replaced.

It makes me feel better knowing that water damage to the ECU is very minimal. That was a big concern I felt when he gave me that theory.

Before I purchased this car I tried to do as much research as I could because I wanted something reliable and with minimal issues, so it feels kinda frustrating now having all of these problems! But it‘s also a coin flip knowing that the issues I’m having are not very normal. My plan right now is to have them repair the ECU and cross my fingers that this is the end of the bad luck, as I really do like this car a lot and my experience before this debacle was very positive!

[7milesout]

GarbageRaccoon - Welcome! And sorry to hear about your bad luck. Man, all these things do sound weird. I have a 2020 as well.

Fummins made a good suggestion. When you have a problem, come post it here first. He's right, we could save you a small fortune.

In any event, it sounds like your vehicle might have been used hard, and not properly maintained in the process. As far as the fuse goes, I'm guessing that was caused by the jump start. Or some action to the car after the starter died.

Because when a starter goes bad, there is some chance it could pull more amperage to run the no-good starter and blow a fuse. But I doubt that starter related fuse would stop the window motors from being powered. So, I doubt the blown fuse the mechanic is talking about is related to the starter. However, if a jump starter was put on a battery backward, heck I don't know what all could go wrong. Perhaps that could fry an ECU. And if an ECU gets fried, then yes, that would likely stop a window motor from being powered.

I don't know this, but I would have to guess that the electrical engineers realize that a jump starter could be placed on a battery backward, and make some sort of electrical protection to prevent that from frying an ECU. But I only speculate on that.

[Wallythacker]

GarbageRaccoon - Welcome! And sorry to hear about your bad luck. Man, all these things do sound weird. I have a 2020 as well.

Fummins made a good suggestion. When you have a problem, come post it here first. He's right, we could save you a small fortune.

In any event, it sounds like your vehicle might have been used hard, and not properly maintained in the process. As far as the fuse goes, I'm guessing that was caused by the jump start. Or some action to the car after the starter died.

Because when a starter goes bad, there is some chance it could pull more amperage to run the no-good starter and blow a fuse. But I doubt that starter related fuse would stop the window motors from being powered. So, I doubt the blown fuse the mechanic is talking about is related to the starter. However, if a jump starter was put on a battery backward, heck I don't know what all could go wrong. Perhaps that could fry an ECU. And if an ECU gets fried, then yes, that would likely stop a window motor from being powered.

I don't know this, but I would have to guess that the electrical engineers realize that a jump starter could be placed on a battery backward, and make some sort of electrical protection to prevent that from frying an ECU. But I only speculate on that.

Always come here first. Always.

[7milesout]

I don't know this, but I would have to guess that the electrical engineers realize that a jump starter could be placed on a battery backward, and make some sort of electrical protection to prevent that from frying an ECU. But I only speculate on that.

Just FYI - I speculated on that, because even in the segment I'm now involved, I have to consider and design for, "unintended abuse." It is very easy to image jumper cables put on bassackwards. Toyota engineers would do something about that foreseeable problem. Hyundai-Kia engineers would copy what Toyota did even though they may have no clue as to why Toyota did it. European engineers are too uppity to copy Toyota, and they're busy having holiday or eating tea and drinking crumpers (or sauerkraut). It's no wonder H-K cars are better than Euro-turds.

[Wallythacker]

Just FYI - I speculated on that, because even in the segment I'm now involved, I have to consider and design for, "unintended abuse." It is very easy to image jumper cables put on bassackwards. Toyota engineers would do something about that foreseeable problem. Hyundai-Kia engineers would copy what Toyota did even though they may have no clue as to why Toyota did it. European engineers are too uppity to copy Toyota, and they're busy having holiday or eating tea and drinking crumpers (or sauerkraut). It's no wonder H-K cars are better than Euro-turds.

And during my tenure every day was the pull it out and measure it contest, longest guy gets his engineering variance signed off.