The 95-96 cars are not as desirable because they have a less “iconic JDM” appearance. They also did not have any black interior options

The 95-96 cars suffered from crank thrust bearing failure at a higher rate, in 97-99 cars the cranks had a split thrust bearing for the crank which were known to be less prone to crank walk

Transmissions stronger? Not that I’ve heard of, I’ve destroyed both at an eerily similar pace.

For the computer aspect, the 95-96 lacked dedicated internal memory. My 96 was nearly impossible to pass emissions because every time you turned the car off the ecu would reset into “not ready” status. It was so bad back in the day that I had to file for an exemption with the state to put the car back into obd1 emissions test protocols, or make sure to drive the car for half an hour and have the inspector not turn the vehicle off during the obd2 testing

Technically the 97-99 computers are vastly better and can be tuned using open source software, but yes the early 95 computer is desirable because it can be modified to have a custom chip set. However the 95-96 ecu’s fail at a high rate due to capacitors leaking, where as I have yet to find a black box 97-99 ecu fail for any reason. Having your 95 ecu modified to take a dsmlink chip will save you $200 up front, but it may require repair to even be functional for the chip.

To me the 99 models were the vastly more desirable cars. You can get them with a black leather interior, white face gauges from the factory, big hoop tail spoiler.

95 to 97 motors have the single piece thrust bearing. 98 and 99 are 3 piece. I dont know that it matters. I have 2 esrly cars above 130k on stock motors.

i have a 98, the 98-99 had the split thrust bearing design factory on their engines which would be found with block codes x,y, and z. they also came with a black dash top, blackbox tunable ECUs and much more benefits. a 1995 did have some rare options of a brown interior AND a blue interior. i have seen both in person and they are quite cool if you like that kind of stuff. But if you were talking about bare shells i would say the 1995 was built the best, it still fell under the true DSM catagory not the Mitsubishi motors of America. They spent more time fitting everything better and having more seam sealer in ideal places. The quality control was waay better. If youre ever looking in a 95 engine bay comparing to the 96-99 you will notice the seam sealer around the upper control arm bolt holes on the strut towers and DSM on the firewall over Mitsubishi.

Pjj said:

i have a 98, the 98-99 had the split thrust bearing design factory on their engines which would be found with block codes x,y, and z. they also came with a black dash top, blackbox tunable ECUs and much more benefits. a 1995 did have some rare options of a brown interior AND a blue interior. i have seen both in person and they are quite cool if you like that kind of stuff. But if you were talking about bare shells i would say the 1995 was built the best, it still fell under the true DSM catagory not the Mitsubishi motors of America. They spent more time fitting everything better and having more seam sealer in ideal places. The quality control was waay better. If youre ever looking in a 95 engine bay comparing to the 96-99 you will notice the seam sealer around the upper control arm bolt holes on the strut towers and DSM on the firewall over Mitsubishi.

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I don't think some of those are indicative of 98 99. My 97 has a black top dash. Very interesting comparison of 95 vs 96 up. First ive heard about the seam sealer and ive been here since before the 2g existed. To be fair I wasn't a 2g guy until 2011.

chrysler kid said:

The 95-96 cars are not as desirable because they have a less “iconic JDM” appearance. They also did not have any black interior options

The 95-96 cars suffered from crank thrust bearing failure at a higher rate, in 97-99 cars the cranks had a split thrust bearing for the crank which were known to be less prone to crank walk

Transmissions stronger? Not that I’ve heard of, I’ve destroyed both at an eerily similar pace.

For the computer aspect, the 95-96 lacked dedicated internal memory. My 96 was nearly impossible to pass emissions because every time you turned the car off the ecu would reset into “not ready” status. It was so bad back in the day that I had to file for an exemption with the state to put the car back into obd1 emissions test protocols, or make sure to drive the car for half an hour and have the inspector not turn the vehicle off during the obd2 testing

Technically the 97-99 computers are vastly better and can be tuned using open source software, but yes the early 95 computer is desirable because it can be modified to have a custom chip set. However the 95-96 ecu’s fail at a high rate due to capacitors leaking, where as I have yet to find a black box 97-99 ecu fail for any reason. Having your 95 ecu modified to take a dsmlink chip will save you $200 up front, but it may require repair to even be functional for the chip.

To me the 99 models were the vastly more desirable cars. You can get them with a black leather interior, white face gauges from the factory, big hoop tail spoiler.

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I was only asking about smog because they can't check for ECU tunes on a 95 in California. My 95 gsx passes smog like a new car. Also appearance wise you can make a 95 look exactly like a 97-99 I have a black dash, black leather seats, and exterior is all 2gb. I believe it was TMZ performance who told me the 2ga transmissions are stronger because I was thinking of buying a 97 gsx but it needed a transmission rebuild. I haven't cared too much about changing the faces on the cluster to white though. My last smog values.

HC at Idle​

• Limit: 100 ppm
• You: 19 ppm
• Margin: 81 ppm below limit

HC at 2500 RPM​

• Limit: 130 ppm
• You: 13 ppm
• Margin: 117 ppm below limit

CO at Idle​

• Limit: 1.00%
• You: 0.01%
• Margin: 0.99% below limit

CO at 2500 RPM​

• Limit: 1.00%
• You: 0.01%
• Margin: 0.99% below limit

randizzle420 said:

I was only asking about smog because they can't check for ECU tunes on a 95 in California. My 95 gsx passes smog like a new car. Also appearance wise you can make a 95 look exactly like a 97-99 I have a black dash, black leather seats, and exterior is all 2gb. I believe it was TMZ performance who told me the 2ga transmissions are stronger because I was thinking of buying a 97 gsx but it needed a transmission rebuild. I haven't cared too much about changing the faces on the cluster to white though. My last smog values.

​

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I’m not sure how they would check for a tune in any Dsm to be honest. The basic language in the early obd2 cars limits what can be sent and the state inspector would need to have the connector for the Mitsubishi interface next to the obd2 port

I have had a 96 Gst as my secondary vehicle for about 15 years now with only common car issues for a 30 year old car

Downsides:
1. the door side skirts will just crack apart on their own. They are extremely brittle and impossible to find. No one makes replacements

2. Early 95 cars have a unique timing belt tensioner. Can be hard to find now, may be impossible in ten years

3. There are no easy aero kits or front lips for the smiley bumper. Adding a front mount intercooler is like adding braces to your teeth for your high school photo. No matter how “tough” you think you look, you still have braces on your teeth

pauleyman said:

I don't think some of those are indicative of 98 99. My 97 has a black top dash. Very interesting comparison of 95 vs 96 up. First ive heard about the seam sealer and ive been here since before the 2g existed. To be fair I wasn't a 2g guy until 2011.

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I’ve never heard of the seam sealer

If you really want to get specific; Mitsubishi and Eagle changed interior designs and fabric options EVERY YEAR for every model. If you have a 95 Gst with grey fabric interior it’s a completely different design than a 96gst grey cloth interior. If you had a 96 eclipse GS it had a completely different fabric design in the grey cloth seat than the Gst grey fabric. If you got a 96RS it has a completely different fabric with no fabric insert for designs in it, and it received completely different one piece door panels. And then you had a completely different door panel with a car for manual windows. MIND you I’m only talking about Mitsubishi for 1996, the eagle talon in 1996 had its own completely different interior colors and patterns. I have a 1996 eclipse sales catalogue and the interior options and fabric choices and fabric patterns were a full page

There is a super specific reason the third gen eclipse is a completely different car than the second gen, it’s because Mitsubishi literally couldn’t control costs with anything in the eclipse. There was no way the platform put up profit margins like it could have if they would have just set one cloth fabric pattern across all base trim packages. And I haven’t even mentioned them putting circle trim pieces with lights around them for the cigarette lighter and the key hole in the ignition

Oh and completely random that in 1999 Mitsubishi decided the scroll vent wheel (next to the ac vents in the center console) was not needed anymore. I live in Texas and still can’t comprehend what the scroll wheel even does. It’s a separate recirculate vent from the main recirculate mode under the ac panel? What was that approval process, I’ve never even seen another car with this option but every 95-98 dsm has it, but in 1999 they said nah let’s cut back on that

You can use the newer tensioner on a 95. Just need to modify cover or use a later cover also. I did it to my 95

pauleyman said:

You can use the newer tensioner on a 95. Just need to modify cover or use a later cover also. I did it to my 95

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Nice to know. Are tensioners harder to find on 6 bolts? I'm thinking of buying a 1990 gs-t to swap it's 6 bolt into my 2g. I know you can get a lower timing cover for them unlike 2gs cuz some Kia timing cover works on the 6 bolt

randizzle420 said:

I own a 95 gsx and apparently California can't check for ECU tunes on my car. Does that make it less a pain in the ass when you go to smog legitimately? Mine was built in early 94 so might have eprom as well. Besides cosmetics is there really anything that 97-99s have that are better for the 95s other than cosmetics and it's ABS system? Also was told the transmissions on the 2ga are stronger than the 2gb by one of the main transmission builders that still work on these cars.

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That whole “checking for tunes” is more for modern cars like 350z’s ,370’s, subies and so on and cars as early as 2003 like the evo’s who's ecu get flashed. And it also depends on the smog shop/tech

randizzle420 said:

I was only asking about smog because they can't check for ECU tunes on a 95 in California. My 95 gsx passes smog like a new car. Also appearance wise you can make a 95 look exactly like a 97-99 I have a black dash, black leather seats, and exterior is all 2gb. I believe it was TMZ performance who told me the 2ga transmissions are stronger because I was thinking of buying a 97 gsx but it needed a transmission rebuild. I haven't cared too much about changing the faces on the cluster to white though. My last smog values.

HC at Idle​

• Limit: 100 ppm
• You: 19 ppm
• Margin: 81 ppm below limit

HC at 2500 RPM​

• Limit: 130 ppm
• You: 13 ppm
• Margin: 117 ppm below limit

CO at Idle​

• Limit: 1.00%
• You: 0.01%
• Margin: 0.99% below limit

CO at 2500 RPM​

• Limit: 1.00%
• You: 0.01%
• Margin: 0.99% below limit

Click to expand...

It's due to '95 being the first year with the OBD2 port on a DSM, and CA doesn't do a OBD port check for 1995 and earlier, only a tailpipe check. That's what he means by "they can't check for tunes". It's essentially tested the same as a 1g (I actually didn't realize that was the case for 95). Testing for tunes is something they check for on later cars that get flashed. So long as you can pass the visual check under the hood, which in some cases is way tougher than the tailpipe test, you're good.

What's a little confusing is, you're asking if it's tough to pass the test, but you said it passes smog like it's new - it sounds like you already got it tested, so wouldn't you already know how difficult it is?