Warning Keep your floor dry! (recall: potential electrical short circuits/corrosion)

[motormontreal]

Hello everyone, It has come to my attention that the wiring inside the Mirage may be prone to short circuiting and worse corrosion of the wire terminals. This is much more a factor in winter conditions. There is no rubber under the carpet of the Mirage as there is in many other cars. As such, water sits under the carpet making it difficult to dry even in a heated garage. The problem is compounded in winter as the water freezes, it builds up to a terminal box located just beside the panel where you rest your left foot. Our dealer has seen four Mirages, which all belong to a restaurant chain come in on a tow truck, they were all 2015's with no more than 4000km (All lights lit on the dashboard, and a loss of power. Had an effect on the CVT.) The fact that the cars are used for delivery means the drivers are bringing in snow more often than most of us will during a day. All of these cars had the same problem. The bare ends of the wires leading into the terminal were green from corrosion and shorting. I Brought my car into Mitsubishi because ice had gotten under the lever for the fuel door and I couldn't get it open. At the same time they wanted to check my wires too. I have winter mats in my car and I always kick the snow off my boots when getting into the car, and yet there was ice even behind my seat and I haven't had any passengers ride in the back yet.


I took this picture while at the dealer. Mechanic is inspecting the wires.

The fact that the carpet has no rubber backing also means water (and salt) sits directly on the metal floor, a recipe for rust. No rubber backing also means you can't spray the floor with anti rust or oil, as I've done with some of my other cars, because any oil, grease, or anti rust will soak into the carpet as will the odour. So this spring I will replace my original carpet with a new one.

[MetroMPG]

Merci for sharing this.

I think it's the same thing that happened to DirectNova, a Quebec City member who is also a delivery driver. Let me see if I can find his post...

EDIT: here it is.

http://mirageforum.com/forum/showthr...ll=1#post21488

He had all the dash lights come on, but they said they fixed it by replacing relays. HOWEVER, I notice further down in that thread he also mentions having water on his floor too.

[Messy Mitsu]

I would look into waterproof marine grade carpet, it holds up against snow and water pretty good. I had it in my project car for a while.

[strawboss]

Many Canadian members from Clubsmartcar had similar issues with electronic modules/harnesses. One was addressed by the dealer, another was dealt with by a number of members. I might look into moving the module higher come spring.

[debburyl]

Thanks, for that post!!!!! I will be more careful. We get a lot of rain up here

[R01k]

That's why I put plastic mats and drain the melted snow off them every day. I'm also very careful not to led the water overflow the mat and get to the carpet.

[Teasmade]

Oooo 'eck!

Sounds like pulling back the carpet and giving the terminal block a blast with WD-40 would be a good preventative measure too - that way if you do get excessive ingress the WD will at least stave off corrosion for some short while.

[ahintofpepperjack]

Oooo 'eck!

Sounds like pulling back the carpet and giving the terminal block a blast with WD-40 would be a good preventative measure too - that way if you do get excessive ingress the WD will at least stave off corrosion for some short while.

Dielectric grease would work much better for corrosion resistance on electrical contacts.

[debburyl]

That's a great idea!!! Thanks

[debburyl]

That's real smart! It sounds like the people who had that problem got a lot of snow in the car. If it was company cars those drivers are careless. Sad to say and the car gets s Real work out