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Thread: Cheap Plastic Car :: 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage DE (Garage entry)

  1. General Information
    Cheap Plastic Car
    2014
    Mitsubishi
    Mirage DE
    Silver
    Manual

    Rostra Cruise Control Kit - Part # 250-9633

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    Details

    175/65-14 82T Falken Sincera SN250 AS All-Season (80k mile warranty - Replaced at 78k miles)

    175/65-14 Hankook Optimo H724 (70k mile warranty - Currently in use)

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    Comments: 534 / Views: 3315316
  1. #71
    Senior Member stevedmc's Avatar
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    Other than my AC compressor going out recently, I believe I am experiencing my first real problem with the car.

    Today the car started making a sort of grinding/clunking noise when turning left. As far as I can tell, it is coming from front driver side axle. There is a bit of play in it when I move it with my hand. The lower ball joint, tie rod, steering rack, shock/strut, and sway bar seem to be fine. I checked the passenger side axle for comparison and it has a tiny bit of play but not nearly as much as the driver side.

    Parts shopping for this car is super fun. There are very few aftermarket parts available for this car.

    A quick search shows this part at a discounted price of $741 plus shipping.
    https://www.mitsubishipartswarehouse...wzLWdhcw%3D%3D

    I called my local LKQ and ordered a used one for $98 including tax. It is coming from a car that had 2,000 miles and it should be here on Wednesday.

    Hopefully I am replacing the correct part, but even if I did mess up and order the wrong thing, its cheaper than paying a mechanic's labor. The strut seemed good but its the only other thing I can think of that would be causing noise.

    The symptoms I am having are what you would expect from a bad CV joint (Axle) so I think I am on the right track.



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  3. #72
    Yup, sounds like a CV going bad.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


  4. #73
    Senior Member stevedmc's Avatar
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    218,439 miles Replaced driver side axle (CV Joint) with a 2,000 mile used part from LKQ. The car no longer makes any grinding/clunking noises when I turn. I am a happy camper.

    Its been a while since I've done one of these on a modern car and I think I repeated the same mistake I made last time. To make a long story short, I tore up the lower ball joint boot when I tried separating the hub from the lower control arm. You don't need to separate it from the lower control arm. The service manual says you need to, but it is wrong. Read my notes below on how to do this job the correct way.

    Here is what you do need to disconnect to do the job. Take off the axle nut. First hit the tab inside of it with a punch. I then used my 200 pound impact wrench to remove the nut, despite the service manual saying not to use an impact.

    Next disconnect the tie rod end, disconnect the grommet that holds the brake line to the strut, unscrew the metal thing that holds the brake line to the hub, and disconnect the two bolts that hold the top of the hub to the strut. If you disconnect those two bolts holding it to the strut, you won't have to worry about messing up the boot on the lower ball joint like I did.

    With the hub still connected to the lower ball joint, you can wiggle it around enough to get the axle off the hub. Then it is just a matter of prying the axle out of the transmission. Gear oil will leak out of the transmission as soon as you remove the axle, so have the new one handy to plug the hole. I estimate that I lost about half a quart of gearbox oil. I will order some more oil and top it off sometime next week.

    I then bolted everything back up, installed a new axle nut and punched its keyed area. All is well now other thank a really torn up boot on the lower control arm ball joint.

    Fortunately, there are several aftermarket lower control arms available with the lower ball joint installed. Since I probably compromised the integrity of the lower ball joint when beating on it, I am going to go ahead and replace the control arm. They are only $58 on eBay.

    This is what I ordered:
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/142894156158


    I am going to rent this tool to separate the ball joint from the hub so I can replace the control arm.
    https://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tool...ype/787834_0_0
    Last edited by stevedmc; 10-04-2018 at 03:33 AM.

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  6. #74
    Senior Member stevedmc's Avatar
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    218,697 miles

    The noise is back. It isn't as bad as it was before though. I jacked up front wheels and turned them back and forth by hand while under the car. I don't have perfect hearing, but it seems the noise is coming from the driver side axle. The good thing about LKQ is their parts have a 6 month warranty. I will call them on Monday to see about ordering a replacement.

    While I was outside I decided to inspect the rear drum brakes. Keep in mind, this car has over 218k miles on it, and I have never even looked at the rear drum brakes. I opened them up and I was expecting the worst. To my surprise, the rear shoes have plenty of meat on them and the drums look beefy as well. I had a set of new shoes on hand just in case, but since I don't like monkeying with drum brakes, I decided to blow everything out with compressed air, put the drums back on and leave it as is. I will inspect the rear brakes again around 300k miles should the car live that long.

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    That's very odd about the CV axle...maybe it isn't seated 100% into the trans? But being a mirage, the car was probably in an accident so who knows if the axle is ok even if it has low miles.

    I'd hope at this point you make it to 300k, just for the sake of saying you did.

  9. #76
    Moderator Eggman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tytotheler92 View Post
    I'd hope at this point you make it to 300k, just for the sake of saying you did.
    Hear hear!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 49.6 mpg (US) ... 21.1 km/L ... 4.7 L/100 km ... 59.5 mpg (Imp)


  10. #77
    Senior Member stevedmc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tytotheler92 View Post
    That's very odd about the CV axle...maybe it isn't seated 100% into the trans? But being a mirage, the car was probably in an accident so who knows if the axle is ok even if it has low miles.

    I'd hope at this point you make it to 300k, just for the sake of saying you did.
    You bring up some really good points. I am starting to wonder if I maybe I didn't fully seat the axle into the transmission. I did tap it with a hammer a few times, but I feel like the original sat a little closer to the transmission that the replacement. I didn't take any before/after photos though so I have nothing to compare it to other than the passenger side. The passenger side is closer to to the transmission though.

    I ended up not reordering the part from LKQ. Tomorrow my new control arm is supposed to arrive along with some gear oil. If I have time tomorrow, I will pull the axle and reinstall it, seeing if I can push it any further into the transmission. And of course, I will replace the control arm and top off the transmission while I am in there.

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    Quote Originally Posted by stevedmc View Post
    You bring up some really good points. I am starting to wonder if I maybe I didn't fully seat the axle into the transmission. I did tap it with a hammer a few times, but I feel like the original sat a little closer to the transmission that the replacement. I didn't take any before/after photos though so I have nothing to compare it to other than the passenger side. The passenger side is closer to to the transmission though.

    I ended up not reordering the part from LKQ. Tomorrow my new control arm is supposed to arrive along with some gear oil. If I have time tomorrow, I will pull the axle and reinstall it, seeing if I can push it any further into the transmission. And of course, I will replace the control arm and top off the transmission while I am in there.
    Make sure to check the splines as well.

    I wonder if you are pulling the axle out just enough while turning and causing it to skip a bit.

    Or it could be a bum CV. I mean who knows. These cars take impacts hard, but it's the only way small cars can pass crash testing anymore.

  12. #79
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    Oh, also normally CVs has a C clip which will 'snap' when installing. You should not be able to just pull it out.

  13. #80
    Senior Member stevedmc's Avatar
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    218,940 miles

    Boy am I stupid. Never trust me to be your mechanic. I got home from work today and found that my goodies arrived. Unfortunately the dust boot on the new lower control arm had a hole in it, so I decided not to use it. I will be shipping the control arm back.

    With my fancy smancy separating tool, I went ahead and disconnected the lower ball joint from the hub, cleaned and greased the ball joint, and installed a universal dust boot on it. I then proceeded to take the axle out to inspect it. I removed the metal clip from it and pushed it into the transmission. The gap it gave me, was the exact same gap I had before taking it out. I then put the clip back on and pushed the axle back into the transmission. I must mention that yes, I did have to use a pry bar to remove the axle and it did take a few hits from the hammer to get it back in the transmission.

    Now here is the idiot part. While I was under the car prying the axle out, I noticed something didn't look right with one of the exhaust hangers. Upon further inspection, I found that one of the exhaust hooks was not connected to an exhaust hanger. The exhaust had been bouncing around the whole time! I connected the exhaust system back to its hanger and verified it couldn't bounce around and rattle anymore.

    I finished up my axle work and poured in a quart of transmission oil. To my surprise it took the whole bottle. I guess I leaked out a lot more doing the axle work than I thought. When I get around to it I will order another bottle and finish topping it off.

    Anyway, back on topic. I went for a drive and the noise is completely gone. Now the car drives just as nice as a cheap plastic car should.

    So I know for a fact that the loose exhaust was at least part of the problem. Perhaps it was the whole issue, the world may never know. I will say I noticed the sound wasn't as bad after I installed my junk yard axle. It is possible that I had two bad things going on at once and did notice it until both were making sounds. I really have no clue, but I do know that my car doesn't make strange noises anymore. I just wish I had noticed the exhaust problem sooner.



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