This is the Build Thread for My first - very imperfect - car.

Damage assessment:

The good news is, this car has been pretty loved mechanically. There have been numerous repairs done, brakes replaced, maintenance, etc. etc., but there is also the bad news: Whoever owned this car for the many many years it's been driving - did not care about electronics. So, as is expected of any car from 1996, this treasure has some issues, some of which pressing, some of which not so much. I'll separate them into two categories: 1- That will make me fail the yearly car inspection, and 2 - ones that won't (but I still want to fix them) and 3 - things I will fix when I eventually get to it.

1 - Things that will make me fail the test:

1. SRS light is on - To pass the test, my airbags have to actually work. Right now, I am hoping that some wires aren't connected right, but that is also a rather faint hope. The last owner said that the owner before him tried to remove the airbag system entirely, but only got as far as removing the wires. The last owner reconnected the wire in the steering wheel, but guesses that the wire in the passenger side air bag is also not connected. If that doesn't work, I've read that I probably need to get a new airbag ECU, luckily there are still a few used ones on eBay... UPDATE: Fixed in #12!
2. Front lights are very dim - I think they will be a lot better when the headlights are cleaned, they are super fogged up, but if not, I might need to replace the bulbs there too. UPDATE: Fixed in #12!
3. Rear right brake light doesn't work well - In jiggling the cables, this goes away temporarily, so I think I'll just replace the cables as a first step. Hopefully it's just a bad connection.

2 - Things that will not make me fail the test:
1. It doesn't have a radio. Criminal, and the first thing I will fix tomorrow! Fixed in #5!
2. A/C nonfunctional - Luckily, the compressor turns over and seems fine, I think that this is just a leak somewhere and an empty system, so I will need this to be checked out by the shop.
3. OBD scanner will not return any codes - This one is a doozy, but there are so many reasons, it seems, for European Eclipses to have this issue, that I'm just not going to worry about it for now. First, I should make this thing 100% perfect for the road again. UPDATE: Because I've found someone who can scan the car for me now, it really isn't a problem. Thank god for no CEL!
4. The little clock under the radio seems to be unplugged, or at least, it doesn't work. Fixed in #3!
5. ABS light comes on after a bit of driving - I assume this means one of the sensors doesn't work properly. Sadly, I can't scan any of the codes, so god knows which sensor it is. I'll be taking it in to a garage to ask if they can scan it for me, and otherwise, I will try the dealer, but I highly doubt they have been hanging on to MUT-II scanners... UPDATE: Pump ECU is broke, need to get a new one, if I can find it.

3 - Stuff I will get around to eventually:
1. Rear window sprayer is half-missing, but the wiper is there. Should probably fix that. Installed the nozzle, but now to connect the piping... how the hell do I do that?
2. Rust in the trunk
3. Rust in the wheel wells... Will get it fixed after the inspection.
4. Only the door and front speakers work, no sound from the rear FIXED in #7 and #8
5. Power antenna will not raise UPDATE: Probably abad relay.
6. I have a mystery cable behind my radio that might be related to not having sound from the rear speakers / it connects to the seat ejectors / FIXED - It's a cable for headlamp washers... No idea where they are though!
7. In trying to get my seat more comfortable, I figured out none of the adjustment options work. I took the whole chair out and found out that it does move, when you apply insane amounts of force. I'll clean and regrease it soon.

4 - Cosmetics:
1. The trunk has rust and in general just looks really bad. I got a replacement one with my car, but it's in the wrong color, so I will have to respray it.
2. The spoiler is... very dead, needs to be replaced.
3. Dents near the fuel door, fuel door itself is also dented.
4. Interior needs to be deep cleaned.

Planned upgrades:
1. New rims! These are just, well, ugly. I'm still looking into what rims would suit her best, but it's definitely not this. I like the idea of something where you can easily see the beautiful red calipers, maybe like a not too shiny silver?
2. Turbo!

I'm planning on mostly keeping this car stock, (apart from eventually putting a turbo on it, it's a 4g63 after all) and just improving the exterior and putting in a lot of love and maintenance into it. I'm not into new tech a lot, so I'll be trying to keep it as early 2000's as possible. So far I've been doing a great job at burning CDs, I just have to find a satnav that will still work in 2025!

Some things I think you guys might find interesting:

Just like @Dihtung Glava , I have the german immobilizer installed, but mine seems to be working properly still. At least, if it isn't responsible for making my OBD reader malfunction. I do sometimes have issues with starting the car, but I think it might be because of the clutch sensor going bad, as sometimes I can start it without pressing the clutch anyways...
Also, the car came with a little clock unit with fitting cigarrete pack holder (or so I assume), that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere on the forum, but maybe I'm just blind. I found the wire and connected it again, and I'm counting this as my first personal victory with the car, because I haven't had much luck with all the other stuff I've been trying, so there's that.
And last but not least, it has the European mirrors, which I have also been told people like!

Putting in a radio
So as promised, one of the first things I needed to do was put in a radio, because I couldn't stand not listening to tunes when driving this beauty.

I got an old radio/cd player off of marketplace for €10 and then spent another €20 on the cables I needed to plug it in , but it works! Or well, halfway. Sadly this revealed four more issues with the car:

1. Only the door and front speakers work, no sound from the rear
2. Power antenna will not raise
3. I have a mystery cable behind my radio that might be related to not having sound from the rear speakers / it connects to the seat ejectors
4. In trying to get my seat more comfortable, I figured out none of the adjustment options work. I guess I'll have to take the whole chair out to see what's wrong with it.

This weekend me and my buddy will work on fixing the ABS, SRS, and speakers. The first two using some kind of obscure trick I learnt from German forums, which taught me you can short the first pin on the OBD sensor, and like Christmas the dash lights spell out the error codes in morse. I'm looking forward to it!

Get a Pioneer with the dolphins on the screen

@LostInColorado I looked for something like that but it was all about 100 EUR which is too much for what will end up being a CD player, at least right now... I might still win the lottery though, so fingers crossed.

Big day of doing a whole bunch of stuff / I found out why there is no sound from the rear speakers...
Today me and a buddy took to doing a whole bunch of stuff to see if we could put her in a little bit of a better condition, and to see if we could diag some of the issues. We ripped the airbags out, but they seem to be just fine, so probably the ECU has to be reset / replaced, but at least that sounds like an easy fix.
The power antenna doesn't work, and the trunk is filled with more loose wires than connected ones, so I will have to take a deep hard look at where they should be going. For example, it looks like my antenna should be plugged in to something, but I could not find any logical place to do so, so it's just floating around right now.
We didn't get around to checking the ABS codes, (if it is even possible), so that will have to come later.
We also ripped out the driver's side seat so we could take a look at fixing the seat adjustment knobs, but they seem rusted to shit, and we only could get them to move with a ton of force. Another thing that will have to be finished later.

Now - for the rear speakers, apparently, the reason as to why I didn't have any sound, is because I DON'T HAVE REAR SPEAKERS. I guess the last owner took them out because they were really nice, or something? Either way, that it luckily too an easy fix, just gotta replace them. Feel free to recommend some nice ones that don't break the bank!

As for actual progress: We replaced the dead battery (ourselves, real mechanic shit), and topped off the windshield wiper fluid. Realistically, we needed this day to get a feel for what is wrong with the car, so I'm still more than satisfied with our progress. It'll be more than a couple months before I can really drive her a lot, anyways!

Oh and finally, from looking around in the trunk as to why the power antenna isn't working, I accidentally knocked a cable a bit loose making my brake lights not work too well no more. whoops.

Just a tiny little update: I have rear speakers now! I'm making a list of parts that I still need, and I found a dealer that will actually be able to read my ABS / SRS codes and hopefully clear them, so we're making good progress! I also met a community of people with DSM's in my country, and they've been real nice and helpful. Someone says they might have a rear spoiler for me that isn't f***ed up, and otherwise, I'll spray mine along with the replacement rear trunk that I have, and she will look a whole lot better. Also been eyeing about 30 different rims, now I just have to select a set.

I've been on holiday for a bit, but the work continues; I managed to find a new spoiler to replace my absolutely horrible one from my local DSM community (great guys!), and I will pick it up sometime next week. Tomorrow is also my birthday, and my old man got me another old car radio that I think looks absolutely sick, a JVC KD-SC601 with customizable face.



You can print your own faces, too, so I had some nice ideas of maybe making a DSMTuners face just for when I take pictures of the car for you guys. I'll keep the spoiler under wraps (literally) for now, until I also picked up my new trunk. repainted it, and installed it. That way, you can really see the difference! If you want to see how bad it looks now, I uploaded some new pics on the car page of the side and rear.

Another short little update before I figure out what the ABS / SRS issues will be tomorrow, here is the new radio! I think it looks pretty cool, and realistically, that's all that matters, no? Sadly still no working power antenna.

Happy birthday. Here in argentina owners usually remove the whole sound system. The stereo looks awesome! Congrats

A very productive weekend

Last weekend was great, I went to the dealership to reset my SRS codes, and lo and behold, no more light! I'm glad that I can now somewhat more safely go 200kph on the Autobahn. Dealer also said that the ABS 'stuurapparaat' was broken, which is dutch for either pump or ECU... The dealer said I need a new pump, anyways. I found some for roughly 70 EUR, so I will order a new one and try to put it in myself.

I also picked up my new spoiler, the guy who gave it to me is cool and owns two dsm's of his own. We drove around a bit, took some pictures that are much better, than what I had, and then cleaned up the headlights so that they actually show something now.

Now on to the bad news - I have strut tower rust, I've had it for a while, but it didn't look godawful so I was blissfully ignoring it. It still feels very solid and the previous owner obviously did something to repair it, but it still needs work. I'm taking it to a body shop this friday to a get a quote and to see if they can fix it. I'm not expecting it to be cheap, but that's OK. I have about a 8K budget for the whole car, and we barely went over 4K so far, so I just have to make sure that it's done very well, and then I'll be a very happy DSM owner.

Oh, and I was also thinking of changing my rims, but they have kind of grown on me. I'm going to see if I can replace the center cap with a Mitsu logo that is actually red, and try my damned best to restore the wheels to a better condition.

And @cracovia, thank you very much!

you can check on (its IN or ON the correct tense? im from argentina) rockauto or maybe in amayama, they ship worldwide, you can find oem and alternative parts.

about the wheels you can sand them and then paint them with a removable spray paint, and take your time to find the best fit for you, no hurry.

the strut tower is the first thing you should repair (as you said) and it may use most part of your budget.

cracovia said:

you can check on (its IN or ON the correct tense? im from argentina) rockauto or maybe in amayama, they ship worldwide, you can find oem and alternative parts.

about the wheels you can sand them and then paint them with a removable spray paint, and take your time to find the best fit for you, no hurry.

the strut tower is the first thing you should repair (as you said) and it may use most part of your budget.

Click to expand...

Local repairman quoted me 2.5K for the strut tower + wheel well repairs, so not too bad actually. Either way, I'm content. Beginning of October it will go through testing, so let's see if the government thinks it's safe to drive on the road (spoiler alert, it is). Also got a new rear wiper fluid tank, fog lights, and all the parts needed to get my power antenna working again! I know most people really don't care about that kind of stuff, but I love all the tiny features on cars like this.

Some new parts came in from my eastern neighbors (guten tag), which allowed me to finally put the teeth back on to this ride. I also put the rear windshield wiper fluid tank back in, but I think I did something wrong because the plastic trim panel won't fit normally anymore. I have no idea how I can fix it, so I'm just going to leave it for now and let future me figure that out. I also fixed my rear fog lights, rear brake light, and had hopes of fixing my power antenna by replacing the relay, but I could only find a relay for a Spyder, which didn't end up working, sadly. Slowly but surely though, I almost have him restored to original condition, minus the ABS which I may or may not fix. After the MOT inspection next week I will start worrying about the rust repair, and the less important things like paint, fixing up the rims, and y'know, getting my driver's license.

f***ing MOT
Got the MOT check today, it passed, but not after paying ±700 EUR for rust repairs, etc. Definitely not the cheapest car I could've bought, but that's life. Got a new power antenna relay too, and will install that along with the spoiler this weekend or coming monday.

Lots of progress!
Spent the last saturday working on the car with 2 of my friends basically the whole day, which made the car a whole lot better. It was one hell of a day though...

Things done:
- New spoiler!
- Installed the working power antenna
- Replaced shifter bushings with nice polyurethane ones
- Installed the rear window spray nozzle (haven't been a
- Deep cleaned the interior
- New front speakers (they had blown up)
- Installed the front fender liners

Things we didn't get to
1. Other fender liners: I got some clips to install the fender liners, but we also figured out that there's a few screws you have to use here to reattach them, which I couldn't find anywhere. If anyone knows where I can get the right screws for cheap, let me know.
2. Connecting the rear window sprayer nozzle: Where does this rubber tube??? I didn't have a nozzle before, which I put in, but then the pipe just kind of disappeared into the body, and I haven' t found it since
3. Select Lever Shoe: I ordered this part because I have a lot of side-to-side play with my shifter, but I have no idea how to install it. Again, help is appreciated.

NOW ABOUT THE SPOILER...
Whoever did this to my car, I really want to shoot them. For some reason, the previous owner used some kind of rubber glue to entirely glue the spoiler to the car, I'll dig a picture out of my phone in a while. I had to use a screwdriver and knife to get it out, and it took about 1.5 hours just to get it out. Sadly the body didn't get out unscathed either, but most of the damage to the paint is under the spoilers. I really do need to now think about repairing and repainting some stuff, to prevent more rust to come on to the car.

New list of To-do items;

1. Grease seats
2. Install fender liners
3. Repaint small damage across the car
4. Get floor mats
5. Polish off stuff that can be polished
6. Install new (painted) hatch, rear nozzle, etc. etc.
7. Fix dorpel rust
8. Fix front rust
9. Gear select lever shoe



Paint
- Left door handle
- Gas cap
- New hatch

It's been a long while I have posted here, but I have done a bunch of work on the car - and a bunch more has broken. I came back from a holiday to find that I can't shift into gear anymore - one of the clutch cylinders has gone and there is 0 fluid, so at least I know why it didn't work. In the mean time, I bought a bunch of stuff:

Original GS-T rims! I always loved seeing these rims but never thought I'd be able to buy any as the only ones available online go for ridiculous prices, and DSM parts are very scarce here. Once I clean them up I'll put some new tires on there and swap them out.


Evo steering wheel with bracket and airbag adapter;


A new non-dented gas cap, wheel liners, and some funky speakers for the inside of the mirrors that I want to use for an electronics project later;



Of course I also bought clutch cylinders - but they're not nearly as fun to talk about. I'm going to try to replace them and have my car driving again in about two weeks, while I wait for my friends to be available to help.

I did some other small things I talked about in the last post, but right now I'm focused on saving up so I can get all the rust removed, as I really think the rest of the car is in great shape, so wish me luck with that! After that I'll get ready to remove the whole ABS system and replace it with the non-ABS proportioning valve. I'd show some more recent pictures of the car but all I have is pictures of rust