I just bought Canada's cheapest 3-cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage. EcoMods now in progress...
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It was inevitable, right?! But I'm honestly surprised how quickly some of the rough-around-the-edges, high-km/miles Mirages have dropped into beater price territory. The brand is somewhat tarnished. And the reviews from the mainstream outlets certainly didn't help. (Thread: The Mitsubishi Mirage is the WORST CAR you can buy! ) But the fact is these are tough, efficient, reliable little cars (with the manual transmission). https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1573775624 This one has 145k kms = 90k miles on it - high for the year. And it's really dirty inside. And there's a wee whoopsie-daisy on the left front corner, plus miscellaneous scuffs here & there. The coup-de-grace: "lot-poison" manual transmission. So the Toyota dealer that got this one on trade (for a RAV4 hybrid) threw up their hands and said, "let's get rid of this turd ASAP!" https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1573776066 I got it for $2400 plus tax. Plus bus fare to Toronto. (More typical pricing for decent ones of this year with normal mileage is around 4-5k.) It's a 1-owner with a clean Carproof, and I got a printout of the service history from a Mitsubishi dealer (showing that it wasn't completely neglected). Mechanically, the only thing it needs is brake pads. And it's loaded with all the grown-up car goodies like air and cruise and remote and power accessories, and everything works. Including the alternator!! It's SO MUCH FREAKIN NICER TO DRIVE than the Metro or Miata. It's going to spoil me. (You know you're used to inhabiting the bottom of the automotive food chain when getting a loaded Mirage makes you feel like you've finally arrived! https://mirageforum.com/forum/images...es/biggrin.png ) It showed ~60 MPG driving ~30 km from the dealer to my friends' place where I'm staying in the city, 75/25 highway/city. Uncalibrated though. Ecomods to come! ==== UPDATE, June 2020 - I've sold this Mirage and have already acquired Mirage #2: Oops, I did it again! (Bought another cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage) |
Woohoo. I'm very glad you found yourself a Mirage. I know you'll have a fun time with it. I look forward to seeing the mods.
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Nice find :thumbup:
Also, good choice to buy a 4/5 door hatchback, surprisingly handy in my experience. |
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Took the right mirror off already? I'm still driving the Insight with two outside mirrors! I'm too lazy to figure out how to fill the openings.
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Whoot whoot! Congrats on the new car! Will this be a winter beater flipper, or a keeper?
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Nice deal.
/Jealous. |
Congratulations!
I still love driving mine even after 18 months of ownership. Your trickiest upgrade will be getting hold of a European diff. |
Yup, the Euro final drive is badly needed. But I'll probably just go with larger diameter wheels/LRR tires instead (I already have some "in stock" :D ).
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Plus, I actually would prefer a base model. Less crap to go wrong down the road, and it's lighter! So I'll continue to keep me eyes open. There have been a couple of reasonably good deals on base models around here in the last 6 months or so. In another 6-12 months, there'll be even more. |
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It's legal!
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I did a few repairs since getting the car back from Toronto, and this morning dropped it off at my mechanic for the mandatory mechanical/safety inspection.
And... https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1574274572 It's legal! More or less! * I did front & rear brake pads. Front was down to about 25% remaining, but check out the rear... :D https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1574275136 Talk about stopping on a dime! How about less than half a dime? I believe they were original, too. The dust caps to get the drums off were corroded in place and had no pry marks on them. (They do now!) The other repair I did was to unblock the driver's side windshield washer nozzle. (I think the check valve was just jammed... I didn't even know those nozzles had check valves.) * My mechanic did catch one other problem that I sort of knew about, but it's worse than I thought: I knew the left headlight housing had a broken upper mounting tab -- casualty of the love tap that dented the fender and scuffed the bumper (see photo, post #1). But he discovered that ALL the mounting tabs are broken. The headlight housing is free floating, held in place by the bumper cover and the wiring harness. But he issued the paperwork knowing full well I would fix this. Besides, the headlight still works, and it's generally pointed in the right direction. Next up... Let the ecomods begin! |
Now you'll never have to change the brakes again!
Will you continue your tradition of putting a boat tail on every car you've owned with the Mirage? If I had a Mirage I would definitely get the UK-spec final drive and use it with the US-spec gears - IIRC the UK is the one with the taller final drive and the US has the shorter final drive, but a taller 5th gear? But that would probably be expensive, sooooo. I probably wouldn't go with taller tires, because RE92s. :D It would be interesting to see whether taller gearing + not as LRR tire or stock gearing + RE92s is best for FE. |
Those brake shoes should have lasted a hypermiler like you another 50K miles. I bought my '02 Ford Escort in '08 with 80K miles it currently has about 195K and still has the same pads/shoes it had when I bought it. Guess maybe I should pull a drum when spring gets here again and see how they look. It's been awhile since I checked the pads but last time I checked they still looked to have about 50% of the lining left on them.
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What if... you hold onto your lunchbox [no disrespect intended] until you find a good base model?
I liked my more recent rentals enough, but I was happy to be back in my Accord. I have not driven a Miata, though. Is it that bad? :) I would absolutely like to see a boattail, but if I ever found a Mirage that I could afford, I would loathe myself until I made one, but you already have the car, and the cheapest one that I can find is $3,900, although I saw it the last time that I looked, maybe a month or two ago. |
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Which one is the lunchbox - the Mirage or the Metro/Firefly? :D Quote:
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Ha! Probably. My biggest problem: front rotors rust from lack of use, which is typical for me. Quote:
I would at least jack up the wheels and spin 'em. The Mirage had corrosion on the edges of the braking surface that was touching the edge of what was left of the pads. The wheels were not spinning as freely as almost-perpetual-motion-drums should. Quote:
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The other problem with the Mirage is there's no easy-peasy way to lower it, like a Metro (chop a coil off the constant-diameter springs. The Mirage springs are tapered top & bottom, so no choppy choppy. |
Photo dump!
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I pulled the car apart (pretty darned easy) to fix the busted mounting tabs on the headlight housing... https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575472543 ^ All 3 mounting tabs on the housing were busted. I scabbed them back on with wee screws and bits of sheet metal, then epoxied over the works. I wasn't planning to do any cosmetic stuff to the car, but while I had the front end apart, I figured I might as well pull the quarter panel and try my hand at a bit of paintless dent repair. The metal is barely thicker than tinfoil, so I just bent the panel by hand & mostly used wooden kitchen appliances to work the creases out: https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575472711 It turned out OK. Good enough that the average person might not notice the small ripples left behind. I dabbed some touch-up silver where the factory paint cracked off from being bent too sharply. Before & after! https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1573776066 https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575472860 The bumper cover is still a bit of a mess... I'll look at that in the spring. It only takes a couple of minutes to take off the car. If the previous owner had put this through insurance, it would have been a $1500-2000 bill. |
Nice job on the light and fender!
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I started calling the Mirage a lunchbox when I first rented one. Way back when I always reserved Metro-class cars, but I never got one. For a while there wasn't anything that class. I usually got free upgrades, but occasionally was stuck with a Kia Rio or a Hyundai Accent.
Have you ever driven a manual Accord? :D |
I still think I should spray WD-40 on the rotors if I'm leaving the car parked for more than a week.
But I remember the uproar last time I posted that idea. :D So, nevermind. I didn't say that. |
I owned a manual Accord! Ancient history though. 1989 model. Pop-up headlights!
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Another photo dump: CAD & coro mods
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Now that the headlight is secured to the car again, the quarter is back on... aero mods!
Kamm & skirts... https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575481001 Coro wheel discs... https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575480675 Air dam, passenger mirror blank ... https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575484484 I wish I'd kept all the mods I made back in 2014 for the Mirage that Mitsubishi loaned me to review. Woulda saved me a bunch of time. https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1402343053 Thread: 2014 Mirage aeromods A-B test: grille block, mini-Kammback, air dam, mirrors, 1 wiper Oh, I also taped up the many panel gaps in the front of the car, between the headlights, bumper, hood, fenders. I'm going to pick up a sheet of black coroplast later this aft. |
Was that 1989 Accord the size of my 2000 Civic? :)
I do not even know when I moved my car from the garage to next to the driveway and that is all that I have driven her since I blew the head gasket last year. I never have time to work on my car! I wish that I had not broken my power steering pump and ripped off the bumper... it is bad enough that I need to fix random repairs and the crazy damage my brother does. |
Fuel economy report / underwhelming first fill-up
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Cut to the chase: 56 mpg US / 4.2 L/100 km for its first fuel log entry.
Boo. Stupid fuel hog. I want my money back! It's the 2nd best fill I've had in a Mirage. (The best was 60 MPG US for the SMCC economy run back in 2014). But it's still somewhat underwhelming, eh? The tank included 350 km of freeway driving the car back from Toronto, plus a bit of Toronto city driving, all of which dragged down the average. And mostly un-modded (PSI, partial grille block, passenger mirror delete) for much of the tank. I've had some more promising round trips lately: https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575556880 ^ That one was on a trip I do often in the summer, where I'd normally see a high-70 MPG result in the Metro or Firefly. Considering ambient temps were around freezing, not terrible! But it was a pretty hardcore drive (slow average speed, tons of EOC). Here's a more "normal" drive from last weekend: https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575557072 https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1575557096 That one was even colder: -10 C (14 F) start, -5 C by mid-day. Mostly a back road/scenic route journey with little other traffic, flat-ish terrain, 80 km/h = 50 mph limit. Dry conditions, light wind @ ~10 km/h. Driving with load was the main technique used, with an average cruising speed around the limit (OK, probably a little bit under, especially before the drivetrain warmed up) . Stupid fuel hog needs moar mods! Especially a coolant heater. |
Not bad!
Any plans to do an alternator delete eventually like Daox? With the shorter gearing do you feel much more engine drag when taking your food off the gas pedal compared to the Metros? |
I really don't do enough DFCO to know. I always need to scrub surface rust off my brake rotors, so if I need to slow down, the engine is usually off and I just hit the binders.
Alternator control would be cool to do, yes. === So, this evening I went to pull the passenger seats out of the car for temporary weight reduction... but I can't pull the front passenger one because it's got a side airbag built in, and the computer will freak out. Stupid smart car! I want my money back. |
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And the occupant sensor too? I suppose I could just look these things up on one of those online inquiry motors. |
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A lot of times it's a "seat angle sensor".
Maybe mount it on the driver's seat frame? |
The passenger airbag can be switched of.
I wonder would this help in any way with removing the passenger seat. Not sure what to do with the seat occupancy sensor. It is certainly very sensitive as I find that objects of no more than 1 kg sitting on the seat will trigger the seatbelt warnings. |
So don't mount it somewhere on the driver's seat frame where it won't be moved by someone sitting there.
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It's some kind of a weight sensor, in the foam part of the seat cushion. One of the Mirage forum members accidentally ruined his when shampooing the seat. It got a tad too damp. :D
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never-before tried mod...
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https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1576017591
I've never made or tested side skirts before. But I was emboldened by GM's 'Vette patent: Thread: GM aero patents (includes active side skirts for drag reduction) The patent describes drag reduction in terms of shielding the rear tires (which, in the case of the Vette are probably 3 or 4 times wider than the Mirage's!). The 14-15 Mirage didn't even get spats ahead of the rear tires. So hopefully this helps instead of hurting, because I won't be doing any A-B-A testing before April or May at the earliest! I also like that the rocker skirt gives me options for integrating the rear wheel skirt -- could extend the wheel skirt lower and fair them together. Also, while the middle of the Mirage underbody is relatively smooth (it has 2 OEM plastic aero panels), the rear underbody looks like a bit of a disaster. The side skirts should mean reduced flow there. Next up: re-do the Kammback & air dam in coroplast. |
Looks pretty good!
How did you attach them to the body? |
Lookin' really good!
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Yeah, lots to do on this fuel-sucking pig!
I just drove it 80 km on wet/icy/slushy roads after a blizzard. Blasted more than a few snuds with the cardboard air dam -- I was surprised it was still intact when I got to my destination! Computer said 58 mpg, which we know is probably ~5% optimistic. But that was into a quartering headwind, so not too bad. |
Based on my lazy tuft testing, the side skirts seemed to prevent some air from going under the the Nut Wagon.
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...0&d=1507263875 |
Ran out of black cable ties for the wheel covers? :D
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Tuft testing is awesome.
White zip ties - I actually did that on purpose. I thought it might look interesting. Turns out I'm not crazy about it either. |
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