My 1999 Civic had oem lower ball joints, it never had the transmission removed, there was no rattles even after rear ending someone twice, the car felt solid with the exception of loose tie rod ends (original), the engine never consumed coolant, no alignment issues.
The car was purchased by my friends girlfriend who put 150k trouble free miles, she got it as a early graduation gift when she was 17, she then gave it to her boyfriend (my friend) Will Parsons.. a pro drift driver who is currently in Japan drifting after winning a championship. He drove the car hard, I even raced him regularly with my 1994 Acura integra from our shop daily. I have the complete history of the car, which I acquired in 2013 at 215k miles.
It had timing belt replaced at 100k with waster pump
A few transmission services
New condensed and drier from the second accident (both accidents was his girlfriend driving)
Junkyard front bumper
Heater hose under distributor
Distributor o ring
He had a tiny 250cca Brail race battery in the trunk (have no idea how he didn't fry the starter)
Had no power steering fluid (he drove it like that)
Ignition control module
Plugs were copper ngk worn to the nub when I got the car history shows they were last changed around 120k (close to 100k on them)
This Honda had full maintence records, everything done after the records I did with the exception of the icm (I told will it's best to replace the entire distributor, he was too cheap and just did the mucks to save $20). It was driven by a girl that wasn't "easy" on it since new, then driven by two people that were hard on it. My main concern was it being a coupe with my newly born daughter, the timing belt had over 125k with a badly leaking crank seal. I couldn't pay a shop $600-700 to replace it knowing I could do, but I didn't even have a driveway to work on it myself. I was also worried about the automatic transmission, 229k miles and all original I figured it was on borrowed time.
This Honda isn't anything special, infact it's what some Honda people refer to as lower quality because it was assembled in America .
It made 229k miles without any of the issues my mirage has at 100k, saying every car has been rebuilt at 100, 150k, 200k is just speculation, for myself I have seen 100s of cars make it past 200k with any of these faults.
Im not saying the mirage is a terrible car, I'm just saying my mirage is falling apart, I don't recommend it for commercial use from my own personal experiences. Never the less they already hve lower control arms with bushings available on eBay, .so this could be a common issue for mirages, just like starter grinds and bent axles.
2014 ES F5MBD aka 5MT. I am a full time Uber driver, if you want to drive for uber DO not sign up without my referral code for a bonus .
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)
What does alex towing a car have to do with any of his issues? I've bumper to bumper pushed multiple cars already. Should my car suddenly fall apart too?
These aren't cracker jack toys, its a machine With 74 horses toting it down the road.
The only "reasonably could say" is a bad head gasket but to be honest anyone involved in the purchase of a Chevette this late in the game probably knows all about them pesky headgaskets and isn't foolish enough to massively overheat the car...
Soooo...towing with a very lightly-built car that wasn't designed to tow and is normally used as a taxi can't be the cause of a chattering clutch or a head gasket leak at 106,000 miles? It's all due to sucky design and poor quality? Funny that few others have had these kinds of problems, isn't it? Bumper-pushing a car is different than towing a car hundreds...thousands...of miles.
Blown head gaskets don't just follow from overheating. You can blow one by overloading the engine as well, and overheating becomes the symptom. I had a '94 Mazda B4000 4WD that I used to tow a 4,000 pound diesel Mercedes across the state, including some steep hills. The result? A blown head gasket. How did I know it was blown? Overheating. And I certainly didn't blame THE TRUCK!
Alex16, your listing of all of the maintenance and repairs this Honda had over the course of 229k sorta proves my point. And nobody is going to argue about Hondas being good cars.
I guess my main point here is that blown shocks, worn clutches, some wear in a window regulator, and a possible pinhole leak in a head gasket are not really all that serious things to encounter at 100,000 miles. Especially with hard use.
I know it's tempting to think that, since we have all driven 15-year-old cars with no problems, a car which is only three years old should be flawless no matter how it is used or how many miles it has. But let's be honest...we didn't buy Sherman tanks at the Mitsubishi dealership.
Last edited by Cobrajet; 05-05-2017 at 12:11 PM.
Pryme (05-05-2017)
I'm not disagreeing that touring the country with an extra ton behind you is a bad idea....
The window regulator is simply a terrible design. If you don't think so, take your door card off and roll the window up and down and watch the door flex around. EVERY TIME you roll the window all the way down you literally strain the motor until it stops. Same with going up.
I disagree, you cannot just "load an engine down and have a head gasket go bad" unless there's some sort of pre-existing condition, like a poorly sealed gasket, stretched head studs, carbon buildup (hot spots causing warpage) or something of the sort. A gasket has 1 job and its to seal. It's already been designed to handle the max load it should take.
My point being, All the problems could be 100% Alex' fault but to just assume he's an idiot that can't drive stick and doesn't maintain his junk is quite a stretch to make because he helped some chick score an old chevette. I didn't mean to jump down anyone throat.
A mirage was never built to tow a car lol. And it was certainly not designed to tow it 1500mi, and absolutely not designed and built to tow through the mountains haha. I'm actually surprised it made it up any decently steep grades.
That can absolutely contribute to a head gasket issue.
I would never tow with the mirage. Buy the right tool for the job. I have a 2016 Tundra for that kind of stuff. It's built for that with 5.7L 381hp 401tq. 4.30 gears, trans and oil coolers full frame etc.
Just as I know the Tundra will never get mirage gas mileage I know the mirage is not built to do any real work. Buy the right tool for the job. Or rent a truck for the one time you need to do truck stuff.
Last edited by Pryme; 05-05-2017 at 02:00 PM.
There's not a clutch chatter. The rattles are coming from other things and the poor take off is from lack of power/1st gear too high. Also I noticed coolant consumption before towing the chevette, I thought it was normal evaporation at first. I noticed no difference in how my mirage drove after towing the chevette, the issues I've experienced happened over time.
I maintain my mirage very well, 7k oil changes with synthetic eneos sustina oil, from ultra synthetic filter, redline mtf, always driven very gently when cold, when towing always at operating temperature before driving, etc.
The Civic was used to pull a 1991 suburban from Belleville to Houston with a chain, it was close to 5,000lvs and the Civic had no issue doing it, it also carried 1,000lbs of sprinkler pipe about 50-60 trips like that suspension fully collapsed, (my friend Will did these things before I bought it)
I also thought back to my 1982 Toyota Corolla sr5 hatchback. My friend built me a custom hitch and I used it to drive to Texarkana to buy a 82 starlet on a u haul tow dolly. 280k miles and a timing chain rattle it made the trip with no issues. Never had a blown head gasket either.
I just think back to all these vehicles I've abused with no issues, abuse the mirage 1500 miles and suddenly I'm responsible for a head gasket failure, no one really can prove the trip caused this, and like I said I noticed coolant consumption before I made that trip.
Still besides a head gasket, which is all speculation on if it's a Mitsubishi fault or an Alex fault...
Poor quality trim, poor steering wheel leather, blown suspension, worn ball joints, squeaks and rattles, bent rear axle, blower motor whine, starter grinding, window regulator has excessive play (makes a clunk sound going up and down),
like I said I'm not trying to bash the mirage just sharing my experience.
2014 ES F5MBD aka 5MT. I am a full time Uber driver, if you want to drive for uber DO not sign up without my referral code for a bonus .
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)
I only have 26,000 miles on my car now but I can understand where you are coming from. I had a 2008 Kia Rio and it had issues from day one with the suspension and it was very frustrating. I had stabilizer links replaced at least 4 times, wheel bearings 2 times, ball joints one time and the struts/shocks one time and it was still not right. It always made odd noises on anything other than perfectly smooth roads. I traded it in for this car and it only had 74,000 miles. It looked perfect in and out and the Mitsubishi dealer was so impressed with the condition of it considering it's age and the fact that most people do not take care of Kia's. At this point I am not experiencing any issues with my Mirage, but with larger wheels and lowering springs I am totally expecting to replace suspension components sooner than the average person. My main issue is that there is not any aftermarket shocks available and I will not replace them with the original equipment. It is a cheap, lightweight car and it has cheap lightweight shocks, springs, struts and so on and I never expected those things to last anyway. I will just use it as it is this year and get coilovers next spring.
Last edited by Gnarles2; 05-05-2017 at 08:13 PM.
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 automatic: 42.5 mpg (US) ... 18.1 km/L ... 5.5 L/100 km ... 51.1 mpg (Imp)
THIS is my point. What if you exceed that 'max load' by towing 2000 pounds 1500 miles?? Head gaskets don't just blow out of the clear blue sky, but that wasn't my suggestion. Try to pull 4000 pounds with a Mirage and see how long it takes the head gasket to fail.
Actually head gaskets on many engines have gotten the repretation to blow head gaskets. Toyota 7mge, 3.0 v6, 3.4 v6.
It's ironic you mentioned the ford 4.0 as it had numerous head gasket issues. North Star Cadillac / Oldsmobile had numerous head gasket failures , also modular 97-03 ford 4.6 v8s have frequent head gasket issues. One of the most highly praised engine Toyota 22r has a very weak head gasket. Where as some vehicles such as my 1991 Cherokee I drove with no temperature gauge (idiot light didn't work either it turns out) and I didn't realize it was overheating until it stopped running. I let it cool and over heated it a few more times, off roaded it often (high rpm and oil starvation often) and never had any issues with a head gasket. Yet if you look at a 00-01 xj 4.0 they are notorious for heads cracking.
So yes in some vehicles head gaskets do just blow, from poor design, improper torquing, head bolts stretching, gasket flaw. ive read manufacturer tsb service bullitens that stated head gasket failure is common.
2014 ES F5MBD aka 5MT. I am a full time Uber driver, if you want to drive for uber DO not sign up without my referral code for a bonus .
__________________________________________
View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)