What did you do to your Mirage today?

[Dookaughs]

Clay and Wax to get fresh protection and shine for the winter months

[klroger]

I had to replace the Battery in the Pumpkin the other day. It sat for 5 days & was dead. I charged it & it went dead after 2 days. It failed a load test, so I used my Canadian Tire "money" & got the one with 640 cca. So far, so good but I was really saving my CTC money for something fun... Oh well...

[george]

I did take my SpaceStar on the road with the goal to find out exactly was the fuel economy on it. Filled it up to the top, arrived at the destination with 85km on the dashboard, the pump onyl registered 3.6l. So I'd reckon it gets around 4l/100km. Which is excellent, considering that I was driving mostly uphill and that my dashboard was showing me around ~6l/100km. Not too bad.

[MetroMPG]

Sprayed 2.5 cans of this gunk into all the nooks, crannies & drain holes on the underside.



Also drilled a dozen holes in the sills & dog legs to soak the insides of the rockers.



Now gotta find some plastic plugs to seal the holes.



Success = a messy driveway.

[klroger]

Nice, Good Job!!! If the holes are 1/2" you may be able to order some from your FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store) or stop in @ the local undercoating place & trade a couple Timmies for a handful of plugs. That's how I got mine

[El Kapitan]

Singed up and delivered some groceries for Instacart. Not the greatest car for such a task but still the fuel milage is so much more easy to handle than using a larger gas guzzler that can fit more groceries.

[El Kapitan]

Sprayed 2.5 cans of this gunk into all the nooks, crannies & drain holes on the underside.



Also drilled a dozen holes in the sills & dog legs to soak the insides of the rockers.



Now gotta find some plastic plugs to seal the holes.



Success = a messy driveway.

You ended up finally getting a Mirage? Nice! I am out of touch with the forum!

[Cobrajet]

Replaced my water pump at 211k miles. A month or so ago I parked my Mirage in my garage for a few days. When I took it out of the garage again I noticed a small puddle of blue coolant near the belt end of the engine. I looked for a bit to find the leak, but couldn't.

A couple days ago I went to move the car again. As it was idling, the belt suddenly started squealing like hell. All on it's own. Whisper quiet one second, screaming like a banshee the next. I suspected some of the same coolant I saw on my garage floor had leaked onto the belt while the car was running and had caused it to slip and squeal. I got the car back into the garage and stuck my hand under the water pump to find it wet with coolant. My suspicions about coolant dripping onto the belt were correct. The weep hole will dump coolant directly onto the belt if the pump decides to spring a large leak.

I decided that it was time for a new water pump. The old water pump was not making any noise...as they typically do when the go out. There was no wobble in the bearing. It was just leaking. I spent $70 at AutoZone and had a new Duralast pump on my porch two days later.



The new pump seems to be of good quality and it fit just fine.



The water pumps in these cars are so easy to change it is almost not worth doing a write-up. This is very unlike the water pump I did in my buddy's Suzuki Aerio a few weeks ago. That took about three hours.

Drain the coolant using the petcock on the lower driver's side of the radiator. Use a 10mm box wrench to loosen the four bolts that hold the water pump pulley to the water pump (easier to do this when the pulley is being held by the belt). Remove the drive belt by loosening the alternator adjuster bolt (12mm). Remove the alternator by removing the adjuster bolt, pinch bolt, and pivot bolt (12mm, 12mm, 14mm). There are two electrical connectors as well...one unplugs and the other is a 10mm nut under a snap-on cover. Finish removing the water pump pulley bolts and the pulley. There are four 10mm bolts holding the water pump to the block.



That's it. Might take you an hour if you are unfamiliar with wrenches, 20 minutes if you are. My 'weep hole' had definitely been weeping for a while. I refilled and re-pressurized the system and noted no leaks. This is really the first major repair the engine has required, and it really wasn't all that major.

[Mark]

Replaced my water pump at 211k miles. A month or so ago I parked my Mirage in my garage for a few days. When I took it out of the garage again I noticed a small puddle of blue coolant near the belt end of the engine. I looked for a bit to find the leak, but couldn't.

A couple days ago I went to move the car again. As it was idling, the belt suddenly started squealing like hell. All on it's own. Whisper quiet one second, screaming like a banshee the next. I suspected some of the same coolant I saw on my garage floor had leaked onto the belt while the car was running and had caused it to slip and squeal. I got the car back into the garage and stuck my hand under the water pump to find it wet with coolant. My suspicions about coolant dripping onto the belt were correct. The weep hole will dump coolant directly onto the belt if the pump decides to spring a large leak.

I decided that it was time for a new water pump. The old water pump was not making any noise...as they typically do when the go out. There was no wobble in the bearing. It was just leaking. I spent $70 at AutoZone and had a new Duralast pump on my porch two days later.

I really appreciate it when members share their experiences like this. Your Mirage has been serving you quite well, too!

I know some like to complain about Mitsubishi OEM parts being so expensive (which is true), but aftermarket parts are quite reasonable. I looked up the price of a 2014 Yaris water pump from Auto Zone, and they had two at $52 & $57. Thus, a Mirage water pump is not all that different in price.

Rockauto.com has water pumps starting at $25.79 for my 2017 Mirage. They also have 5 different water pumps, & 4 of those are in stock.

Bottom line - If you keep a Mirage for a long time, things like the water pump are going to last long beyond the warranty period. When items like a water pump do need to be replaced, a person does have affordable part options.

[BigMW]

This Mirage thing needs to become reality soon, so that I have a place to put these winter tires and the console