Originally Posted by
stevedmc
Did anyone ever answer the original poster's question?
I think the maintenance manual even says you should have the valves adjusted at 60k miles. I'm not sure that is even possible on these engines.
At 243k miles on my car, I've never done a valve adjustment and am still going strong.
Regular oil changes are whats important. Along with changing spark plugs, serpentine belt, air filter, coolant, and manual transmission oil every 100k miles. I'm sure I'm missing something, but that is my basic maintenance schedule along with changing head light bulbs every five minutes.
There's an asterisk next to the "inspect/adjust valve clearances" recommendation for 60K. It only needs to be done if there is valve noise. Presumably that means valve noise during normal operation, not just a little tapping right after starting the engine which later goes completely away.
Other's--I'm not overly concerned about the oil changes, but a lot of information about that process has been volunteered by responders to this thread. Fascinating and helpful stuff.
As a point of perspective, vehicles with engine compartments in which things are crammed together very closely, don't at first strike me as being easy subjects for owner maintenance. My idea of a vehicle that's easy to maintain was my 1955 Plymouth Savoy, which had so much room in the engine compartment that four adults could have stood in there, two on each side of the engine. There might have even been room enough to play Pinochle on top of that old flathead motor. There wasn't any component that was hard to locate or to reach.
I'm not saying that the Mirage might not be surprisingly easy for some kinds of owner maintenance, of course.
Last edited by DonkeyPal; 03-25-2019 at 10:21 PM.
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 automatic: 43.0 mpg (US) ... 18.3 km/L ... 5.5 L/100 km ... 51.7 mpg (Imp)