Rostra Cruise Control Kit - Part # 250-9633
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)
I went outside this morning and loosened the clutch cable. The original problem of shifting into first gear still isn't fixed, but now the car stalls when trying to start in 3rd gear. For me that is good news.
When I get a chance, I guess I will visit the junk yard to see if I can find the shift linkage cables. I have a feeling it is going to be hard to find a manual transmission Mirage, but if I can find one, it will save me something like $150 for a new one. I really hate to spend $150 on an experiment.
Of course, I could also just bring the thing to the mechanic but I might end up paying him to experiment as well.
I have a hard time believing this is a clutch-related issue if all other gears are working normally and the car now passes the taking-off-in-third-gear test. This is either a shifter issue or a first gear synchro issue. You have 289k highway miles, I have 140k in-town miles. I feel like we have probably done approximately the same amount of shifting, and my car does not have this issue even though it is also on it's original clutch.
I had a 1990 Toyota Corolla with this exact problem. Bought it from an auction, drove it away, and found out on my way up the road that it would not shift into fifth gear. Well, not easily, anyway. If I slammed the shifter hard over to the right, it would slide right into fifth gear. I discovered this by being angry at it one day, lol! If I tried fifth gear normally, it was very balky and did not want to shift. What I eventually discovered was that part of the shifter assembly on the transmission was worn to the point that I could only get fifth gear with the additional inertia of slamming the shifter hard to the right.
I actually wound up replacing the entire transmission and clutch before I figured out what the problem was! Didn't look at the shifter assembly on the old transmission until I had it out of the car. Just assumed it was a problem inside the transmission. I saw the worn part almost immediately, and was kicking myself in the ass for all the wasted time, money, and labor!
Try it. When you go to grab first, try slamming the shifter hard all the way over to the left before pushing it forward into first. If this makes it shift easier, then the problem is almost certainly shifter related and not clutch related.
Shared life experiences like these are wonderful!
Personally, I don't think a worn out clutch has much to do with mileage. If a person drives mostly long distance trips, there is very little wear (practically none) happening to a clutch while going down the highway.
The deliver guy that got 801,000 miles out of his Nissan Frontier's clutch appears to do distance delivery. He's not a rural postman delivering mail to everyone on his route.
One person may have a clutch go out before 100,000 miles, & another person may get 300,000+ miles out of a clutch. Given what Steve has gotten out of his Mirage already, I suspect he isn't hard on a clutch.
Spending $150 on shifting cables you may or may not need is way better than replacing an entire transmission & clutch that didn't need replacing.
A large Mitsubishi dealership like White Bear, may have a service manager that has come across this issue with a manual Mirage. Outside of having a local mechanic look at things, a good service manager may be helpful?
Some service manager aren't much help. They schedule appointments and not much else. Some are quite good!
What would Nickels suggest?
So I noticed a week or so ago that if I shift the car into 3rd and then 2nd gear (at a stop), I am able to easily shift the car into 1st gear. Sounds like a cable issue to me.
I've been surviving with it this way but once this zombie apocalypse stuff is over, I'm just going to go ahead and order a new cable to replace the old one with.
291,741 miles I'm past due for getting my tires rotated, but there is no way I am taking my car to Walmart for a free tire rotation during the zombie apocalypse.
I tried rotating the tires myself, only to discover that I can't find my 21 mm socket. Oh well, I will order a new socket on eBay later this evening.
In the meantime, I did a Techron treatment instead.
Basic (03-19-2020)