What did you do to your Mirage today?

[Eggman]

Scratching may end up being unavoidable.

Next time instead of Plasti-Dip try Fluid Film and replenish the coating as necessary. It won't cause your hitch to bind up in your receiver, that's for sure.

[7milesout]

PityonU - Your red Mirage shore is purdy...

[Dirk Diggler]

Finally got around to assembling and installing the OEM roof rack this weekend. Apparently, it's made by Thule with just the Mitsubishi logo slapped on it, so the $200-something Mitsubishi is asking for it actually isn't that bad.

Attachment 20029

The installation instructions it comes with are pretty crap, though. The standard Mitsubishi "no words, only pictures" deal. Need to play "Where's Waldo?" in each comic panel in order to find all the information you need.

Tips for anyone following me:

1. Positioning the rack bars on the car is actually super easy - open the doors and look at the inside of the door sill. There are small indents marking the mount points. I only realized this after sliding the two rack bars back and forth on the roof for about half an hour. (It doesn't mention this in the instructions.)
2. Pay attention to the part numbers and their locations in the comic panel showing the clamps and rubber feet - each specific corner needs a specific part.
3. The instructions have you put what is essentially a phone screen protector on the roof and doors of your car where the clamps would otherwise rub and scratch. These end up looking terrible, so don't do that. Instead, take your time, cut the plastic pieces to size, and then wrap them around the clamp itself. Then your car is protected, no longer where you mount the bars. It also won't looks like crap when you don't have them attached.

I also got to try out my Curt hitch with a fancy bike rack I got over Black Friday.

Attachment 20030

Held the bike well, but I am concerned about scratching the hell out of my hitch and then having it look rusty and terrible. I know the truck boys out there will say "Duh, it's a hitch, it's supposed to be scratched and rusty. It means you're a man with hairy chest that actually uses it." Well, Piddles is not a 1993 Chevy Silverado, I actually put a lot of effort into keeping it clean and shiny, and I don't really want it looking like it's been beat to hell on a farm for the past 25 years.

I ended up coating the bike rack "tube" with a layer of Plasti-Dip to try and stop scratching. Did the same with the locking pin. Both of those coatings only ended up lasting one use, however, and the bike rack is pretty wobbly without one of those stabilizer clamps. Recoated with two layers of Plasti-Dip and will keep an eye on it next time I go out. Scratching may end up being unavoidable.

Man I wish all the other prices on OEM Mitsu parts "weren't bad" lol.

[PityOnU]

Next time instead of Plasti-Dip try Fluid Film and replenish the coating as necessary. It won't cause your hitch to bind up in your receiver, that's for sure.

Thanks for the tip! Had never heard of this stuff before - seems like it is exactly what I would be looking for!

PityonU - Your red Mirage shore is purdy...

TYVM! He's papa's #1 most handsome boy.

Man I wish all the other prices on OEM Mitsu parts "weren't bad" lol.

Yeah, tell me about it... Was recently looking to try and get the "piano black" trim set for the interior. Just some bits of plastic with (I'm sure) double-sided tape on the back. Behold! Mitsubishi OEM prices:

[Mechanic]

Hello all,
. . . . I went on my longest drive yet. I left 3 weeks ago this coming up Monday and I was gone for 15 days. I drove 14K miles in that time. I would have been back sooner or have driven further except for two problems. The right front tire blew out at 80 MPH about 25 miles East of Lordsburg, NM. Not fun but controllable. I spent two days in Lordsburg waiting for Tire Rack to send me a new tire.
. . . . The other thing is that the engine went South on me at 72.5K miles. I was about 100 miles South of Tulsa, OK when it started acting up. I noticed a vibration in 4th and 5th gear on full throttle acceleration. The next time that I stopped it was idling rough and it was hard to start. About 20 miles down the road it popped the SES light. It was a P0301, miss on cylinder Number 1 possible bad plug. I replaced the plugs in Tulsa. It helped but it didn't fix it.
. . . . When I stopped in Des Moines I ran a compression check. 180, 10, 60. Not good. I thought that I had burnt the valves. It is now at WB Mitsu. They say the cylinders are scored. Of course they ran a compression check. 130, 10, 30. Even worst and I expected that with the way it was running. I nursed it 1.5K miles to my friends home in Luck, WI. It wouldn't restart in the morning and we used a dolly to get it to WB. The fuel mileage crashed from 40 to 25. Of course power was way down. The worst was it kept going in to limp in mode. I am very bummed out over this. I have never had an engine go bad and I ran a really good oil in it.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

[Fummins]

Hello all,
. . . . I went on my longest drive yet. I left 3 weeks ago this coming up Monday and I was gone for 15 days. I drove 14K miles in that time. I would have been back sooner or have driven further except for two problems. The right front tire blew out at 80 MPH about 25 miles East of Lordsburg, NM. Not fun but controllable. I spent two days in Lordsburg waiting for Tire Rack to send me a new tire.
. . . . The other thing is that the engine went South on me at 72.5K miles. I was about 100 miles South of Tulsa, OK when it started acting up. I noticed a vibration in 4th and 5th gear on full throttle acceleration. The next time that I stopped it was idling rough and it was hard to start. About 20 miles down the road it popped the SES light. It was a P0301, miss on cylinder Number 1 possible bad plug. I replaced the plugs in Tulsa. It helped but it didn't fix it.
. . . . When I stopped in Des Moines I ran a compression check. 180, 10, 60. Not good. I thought that I had burnt the valves. It is now at WB Mitsu. They say the cylinders are scored. Of course they ran a compression check. 130, 10, 30. Even worst and I expected that with the way it was running. I nursed it 1.5K miles to my friends home in Luck, WI. It wouldn't restart in the morning and we used a dolly to get it to WB. The fuel mileage crashed from 40 to 25. Of course power was way down. The worst was it kept going in to limp in mode. I am very bummed out over this. I have never had an engine go bad and I ran a really good oil in it.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

That sucks. You sure covered a lot of country with your cars!

Are you getting the engine covered under warranty er no???

What were you doing for maintenance, I recall some earlier post's you talked about running 5w50 castrol at 8000 mile intervals.

[Mechanic]

Fummins,
. . . . The engine is covered under the Mitsu power train warranty. I have been doing the oil changes at 7.5K intervals. The oil was just starting to darken at that interval. I am going to go to 5K oil changes after this. A long block has been ordered and it is expected to be in on Wednesday. I might get my car back on Friday or Saturday of next week. I would have like to have seen the engine for myself but it is a 500 mile round trip drive for me.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm convinced these lil cars just aren't meant for massive road trips. There was a guy on reddit who admitted he was high on meth and drove from Des Moines, Iowa to Los Angeles non stop except for fuel and had cvt failure on his way back. He was only in LA for 5 hours too.

[Mechanic]

Dirk,
. . . . I disagree with you. There was no reason that I know of for this this engine to go away. The highest coolant temperature that I ever saw was 215F while pulling the Grapevine in 90 degree weather. I ran Castrol Edge 5-50 that was changed at least every 7.5K miles. The engine was never over revved but it was run a lot at 6.5K RPMs. I hope the the person that uses meth goes to prison for a very long time. No one that is high on drugs deserves to be behind the wheel of a car.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

[Top_Fuel]

...I was gone for 15 days...I drove 14K miles in that time.

Yowza... You must have been driving 70-80 mph for 14+ hours a day...for 15 straight days?!? If there's a torture test for a Mirage, that's a pretty good start. I'm not sure anyone on this forum has ever driven their car that much in such a short period of time.

...the engine went South on me at 72.5K miles
...compression check. 130, 10, 30
...I nursed it 1.5K miles to my friends home

Sounds like you had a 1 cylinder engine at that point.

Hopefully your old engine will get some sort of a teardown before they toss it in the dumpster. It would be nice to know what happened. The good news is you're still alive and it's covered under warranty! Keep us posted!

The engine was never over revved but it was run a lot at 6.5K RPMs.

Were you climbing mountains at 80mph or something?!? I'm just trying to picture what driving conditions would require 6500 RPMs for an extended period.