4 Repair Shops, No Answers!

[MirageHelp2023]

I've gone to 4 different repairs shops over the past few months and every place has told me they don't see anything wrong with my '22 Mirage G4.

The vehicle has been pulling to the right since December. I'm constantly having to hold the steering wheel to the right to keep the vehicle straight. Steering wheel often shakes/vibrates. Mostly highway driving. If I'm in the left lane and let go of the wheel, I change lanes automatically. If I'm in the right lane and let go of the wheel, I'd be in the guardrail within 5 seconds.

I've replaced front and rear rotors and pads, front right wheel bearing, all 4 tires, and just replaced the front left tire again as the outside tread was wearing unevenly. Now it appears the outside tread of the front right tire is wearing unevenly.

Mitsubishi dealership specifically stated they don't see anything wrong, but something could be bent. They recommended replacing the front right knuckle, bearing (which I did previously), and the strut.

Here is most recent alignment numbers (front right camber is red, everything else is green):

Front left camber: -0.6 Front right: -0.9
Front left caster: 4.4 Front right: 3.8
Front left toe: -0.09 Front right: -0.10

Left rear camber: -1.1 Right rear: -1.4
Left rear toe: 0.29 Right rear: 0.07

Any advice? I'm currently schedule to replace the front right strut next week with an alignment.

Tnx in advance

[klroger]

The vehicle has been pulling to the right since December. Steering wheel often shakes/vibrates. Mostly highway driving. If I'm in the right lane and let go of the wheel, I'd be in the guardrail within 5 seconds.

Pulling since December... When did you buy it??? Is it even a year old??? How many miles??? Have you hit any thing??? Steering wheel shaking & vibrating & 4 shops tell you all is OK??? Pulls to the right but You have to hold the steering wheel to the right to keep it straight but if your in the right lane & let go of the wheel, you go to the guard rail??? You replaced the rear rotors??? Nice!!! Was the wheel bearing replaced under warranty?? How many miles??? I'm not trying to sound condescending, but it sounds like you need a different shop & / or give us a little more info... If it's a 2022, you should have warranty & make the dealer get it fixed, or if you hit something, it may be a body / frame shop repair... Sorry... Just thoughts

[mohammad]

If your alignment is good have you checked that rims aren't bent? maybe you can rotate your tires around and see if anything changes?

[foama]

Did you buy it new or used? Do you know the history? Struts and rims can be bent easily without really looking crooked.


For a quick check, jack it up and rotate a front wheel, then the other side also. Are the wheels properly round or are the rims buckled or warped?

Then park it on a level and straight surface. Take a spirit level about 30cm (1 foot) in length and check camber by placing it on the (not warped or bent) rims. Camber is the verticalness of the wheel on the road.
Question:Are both sides practically identical? If not, thats your problem.


Just for info, have a look at this thread:

https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...ure-and-adjust

[Fummins]

The less info the better. I'll just assume a curb jumped out of nowhere and bent something in December. Most shops with an alignment rack should be able to tell a strut is bent. The control arm and strut are far weaker than a spindle and will bend first in most cases.
I don't know where in NY you are but there's a forum member that's a shop foreman or something at a Mitsu dealer somewhere in NY that you may want to reach out to if you're not far away. He seems like one of the good ones. But Mark pissed him off(offensive use of exclamation marks) so you may have to do some interweb google stalking to find out which dealer he's at.

In the last 3 weeks I know of 3 people that have gotten some pretty insane quotes from dealers. One took a 2018 Escape in for a recall and the dealer recommended they have $2500 in "recommended maintenance" done.The thing had under 40k miles. Another had a 14' Murano overheat, towed to a dealer and they got a quote of $1400 to replace a thermostat, rad cap and do an oil change for $120(non synthetic). And the latest was someone with a 2012 Avalanche got quoted over $6000 to replace 2 ball joints(over $1000 labor to replace 2 upper ball joints!), a front hub, a cv boot, 2 reverse lights($200 labor) and 2 drl bulbs.

[7milesout]

Is your car running Koe-Rean tires?

[Mark]

Is your car running Koe-Rean tires?

Goodyear & Cooper were the last remaining American tire companies, & Goodyear bought out Cooper not all that long ago.

Even large tire companies like Firestone have been bought out by companies like Bridgestone.

Tires are made all over the world. My Nokian tires (Finnish company) were made in Russia. Tires are a global market these days!

[7milesout]

I think you'd laugh out loud if you ever went to a Toyota automotive plant in Japan, and then went to the equivalent Korean automotive plant in South Korea. This is if you could be a fly on the wall, at least in the Korean plant. Because when it is determined that visitors are coming to a Korean automotive location, there are a big announcements made down through the chain of command, and everyone is told to stay in their areas, stay at your desk if you have one, hide vehicle carnage, clear the repair center, don't stop the line for problems, and to not look at the man behind the curtain. It would be a laughable joke if it wasn't serious. And it gets worse down the line to the tier 1, 2, 3 vendors.

At a Toyota plant, you can walk through and see the real goings on. You might see some problems, you might see some arguments, but you won't see fake crap. Been both places. Done that as a design engineer, so I got to see all the nitty gritty. The Japanese engineers are the Navy Seals of automotive. The Korean engineers are the ones that couldn't cut it in the Coast Guard. The difference was astounding.

I'll take the lowest rated Sumitomo over the highest rated Kumho, simply due to the bad taste left in my mouth having worked for Hyundai-Kia. Course I'd take a Michelin over either, as far as tires go.

[CROSSBOLT]

Do the tops of the struts rotate with steering inputs? Check for "spring back" with both front wheels off the ground, turn steering wheel full left and let go....

[foama]

Do the tops of the struts rotate with steering inputs? Check for "spring back" with both front wheels off the ground, turn steering wheel full left and let go....

As with all cars this size made in the last decades ever seen, yes. Yes the top of the struts does rotate with steering input. The center shaft does not. Its a bit difficult to explain, but a look at the pix and wording in the FSM explains it better!
The top rests on a bearing which also rests on the cup shaped part inside the motor compartment above the strut. That bearing carries the weight of that wheel and eases turning. If you took off the little nuts, the strut including bearing and also the spring under tension could be pulled out from below with the lower two bolts holding strut to knuckle already off.

NB: The centre nut of the strut should only be loosened with the spring securely compressed by special clamps. To do it without would be extremely dangerous.