Are DSM's REALLY that unreliable? or do I only read about the problems...

[mokkema]

So...most people know I'm new to the DSM community...and when my car runs good...its the best!

However, lately I've had a few weeks of problems. Let me go through them...

Put new turbo back exhaust on - great modification

Then my cerpintine belt broke...coincidence? Eh...shit happens...

Next we tightened up/adjusted my clutch pedal on my stock clutch...after an hour of good clutch, it completely goes. Install a new ACT 2100 clutch + stock flywheel...

After installing the clutch, we go for a drive...and my rear motor mount comes loose...and the bolt falls out...probably install error, just another coicidence?

Ok we get that back in, finally the car is going again. Last night, my clutch pedal begins to get tighter as I drive, and then the clutch starts slipping hard. I get worried its cuz i did a few high revs on the new clutch, nothing extreme...I park it in my drive way. This morning the car drives fine, and I'm told to "lift up" on the clutch pedal, releasing whatever pressure is built up causing the clutch to slip, instantly the clutch is back to stock pressure, and feels great.


Anyways, that may not seem like a lot, it just seems like a lot of shit going wrong in a short period of time. Do they really break worse than any other car? I don't mind fixing the things that are OBVIOUSLY going to break, but after I fix them...whatver they may be...I want that to be it (for the most part, replace weak parts, no problems )


I want to have a daily driven 300hp car...is that unrealistic? Just want some HONEST advice...i thought ### cars were at least SEMI reliable!




and a side note...I'm going on a trip from chicago to upper michigan in 3 days...I'm so afraid I won't make it. Someone reassure me, I had terrible thoughts of selling the car last night, and I definatly don't wanna do that if its just minor problems.

 

[styx]

since you live in mokena (where i still have a place) on the sout side i would say not to much goes wrong, but since you are reading in a forum about trouble shooting problems with cars, thats all you are going to read here, if you go to a forum about any other car you will see the same thing if it is a problem diagnosis forum

i wonder if you bought my friends dark purple 99gst with all the ground effects, and if you got a camber kit to correct the camber yet

some of the mods sounds similar but to bad you recommend ams. becareful what you get done there, talk around to local dsm people they will tell you what to watch out for

 

[DSM MAN]

Try not to stress about the trip too much. Ive gone on a few 600 mile one way trips through California in the summer, which means going kinda fast and through desert and everything else and she made it fine. As for stuff breaking when you fix something, I have that curse too. After trying to find the correct axles for three days I got the right ones, get the car together park it in my spot look under the car, what happens? Radiator is cracked down the middle. Replaced my clutch, first test drive get stuck because my alternator died. You might have this curse too . Fix what needs to be fixed, don't drive like an idiot all the time, do all the maintenance and thats all you can do. Good Luck!

 

[BlackbirdOfPrey]

Cheap speed has a cost. And a car is only as reliable as the maintenance done to it. Most people complain about stuff breaking, but they are taking 6+ year old cars and running the piss out of them, and they wonder why stuff breaks. As the old saying goes, Cheap,Fast Reliable, pick any two. BTW DSM's dont have serpentine belts.

 

[housegsx]

Just because a belt broke, I wouldn't call the call unreliable.
The motor mount and clutch pressure are just your own installation/adjustment errors.

Search for "clutch pedal pump up" and that'll help you out with your adjustment issues.

 

[funniegus]

As long as you maintain it properly and not beat on it it will be reliable just as any other car would be. My car only let me down once. It was earlier in the year. My starter died, I replaced it and it was the original. I have a 90GST with 150,000 miles on it.

 

[Quicklynx]

I have 126,000 miles on my talon. I replaced the engine with a JDM one and havnt had any problems with it. Only brakes and thats it. Just don't drive it hard every chance you get.

 

[mokkema]

Ok, thanks for the kick of concidence guys. I think im just going through the regular maintinence right now, fixing what was going to go wrong...after thats all found and figured out, I should be better. I hope this trip goes fine.

 

[dave99gst]

any car becomes less reliable when ya mess with it .

 

[92awddsm]

Next we tightened up/adjusted my clutch pedal on my stock clutch...after an hour of good clutch, it completely goes. Install a new ACT 2100 clutch + stock flywheel...



Ok we get that back in, finally the car is going again. Last night, my clutch pedal begins to get tighter as I drive, and then the clutch starts slipping hard. I get worried its cuz i did a few high revs on the new clutch, nothing extreme...I park it in my drive way. This morning the car drives fine, and I'm told to "lift up" on the clutch pedal, releasing whatever pressure is built up causing the clutch to slip, instantly the clutch is back to stock pressure, and feels great.

Scroll down to 2g pedal pump up on this link and it will tell you how to remedy the problem you have now. I might have also been the cause of the stock clutch slipping or failing. As far as the rest of the problems, I would say they are coincidence

EDIT: I forgot the link. http://www.roadraceengineering.com/clutchandflywheeltech

 

[Ferox]

I'm going on a trip from chicago to upper michigan in 3 days...I'm so afraid I won't make it. Someone reassure me, I had terrible thoughts of selling the car last night, and I definatly don't wanna do that if its just minor problems.

Where at in upper michigan? You may be headed up my way.

 

[deusxmachina]

Used cars break.

DSM's laugh at 300hp. My car was a 300+hp true daily-driver for soooo many years, and I can't think of many, if any, things that broke that can't be attributed to simple routine maintenance. I rarely beat the snot out of it though, either. Mainly just floored it a lot.

And as far as maintenance goes on making used cars run well, the main reason I bought an air compressor was to check for boost leaks. These cars run like crap with boost leaks.

Lots of guys break timing belts or blow coolant hoses and then say the car is unreliable. Replace that shit. Replace that radiator before it pops a leak. Once a car hits 100k miles, you pretty much owe it one of everything.

 

[quicksilver]

They all break and have problems no question about it, but the most important thing when working on them is to check and recheck what you have done and actually look around and carefully visually inspect everything you can while your underneath it and clean it up. It really help to have a factory service manual around to get the proper torque specs and assembly procedures too. The manuals may be a little pricey but well worth it and has a vast amount of info from those who designed and manufactured the car to begin with...just my 2 cents worth. a good dose of patience also goes a long way when working on cars!

 

[Nanan]

I spend more time working on my 97 Chevy 1500 then my Eclipse and I daily drive the eclipse and only sometimes drive the truck.

Really it all comes down to how well you take care of the car, if you change belts, oil, plugs etc regularly then your car will be good to you. If you neglect it then yea its gona break.

 

[SteveODSM]

DSM's get a bad rap for breaking because they are driven hard. How many people actually sit in their car and let it idle for 2 mins after driving if the dont have a turbo timer? How often is it that before people start modding do they spend a grand or two and get it running like new? Doesn't really help that a lot of the cars have 120000+ miles on them. How long do you think a honda would last with 20psi and 7k rpms? A friend of mine just got 272/272's. He said he didn't really notice much in low rpms, but the power above 6krpms was fantastic.
enough said.

lims

 

[pimpingixxer]

With the mods in my mod list i drove from Lowell, MA to Las Vegas, NV in 3 days. Not one tear from the DSM . Its all in how you take care of the car, i wouldnt be worried taking mine anywhere.

 

[DROOPY209]

I always hear people saying "dont buy a mitsubishi because they break down too much"

when i tell people that i have 3 mitsubishi's, they say "Dayuum all ur money must go to those cars."

Not really........I daily drive 2 of my dsm's. my white awd. i drove it from chicago to Galt, CA...........and also commuted 5 hours a day to the bay area for school on a daily basis for a year. Only thing that I did was change the oil.

My red awd, the day i bought it in Los Angeles, I drove it home....about a 7 hour drive.

If you ask me, dsm's are extremely reliable, if you treat em nice and check ur fluids every now and then, give em a bath, spank em in the butt when the're bad............

A common Joe Schmoe that doesnt know anything about cars is gunna beat on his dsm hard, put cheap gasoline in his tank, never change his spark plugs, let his oil in his engine for over 5K miles, never turbo time his engine...... and then run out and tell everyone that his mitsubishi's blew up and that mitsubishi sucks, and dont buy one.

It all depends how well a car is taken care of.........

Would you rather buy a DSM off of a young joe schmoe that beat the car up daily, or a older person with maintenance records and a light foot?

pretty easy answer.

 

[1993eclipseGS]

" Are DSM's REALLY that unreliable? or do I only read about the problems... " ?

No. You most likly only read about the problems from people that beat their cars, Or they do not properly maintain them. A dsm is just as reliable as a ''honda'' or any other car. If you take care of your vehicle, It will not break down. I'm so sick of everyone and their mother, Saying how unreliable these cars are. It's a myth.

 

[AMS Eric #2]

but to bad you recommend ams. becareful what you get done there, talk around to local dsm people they will tell you what to watch out for

 

[TDX]

Hrmm, This is what I like to call the start of the learning process - Like all of us in the community its when stuff breaks that we learn about our cars. Its cool in retrospec but annoying when it happens. Cya around.


- Patrick

PS: - that AMS guy ^ does not look too happy *shrug*

 

[N-lezz]

Well, besides from the engine and trans stuff. My ride's radio antenna gone out at about 35k and the windshield wiper pump just took a crap at 57K. I just notice the that my moonroof interior side began to rust. btw, mines is a 97 so given the years...my DSM is one the most reliable beater I owned...

 

[Fusion1984]

I know i have personally experienced the tightening of the clutch pedal as I drove, but only once. This was after driving from Hartford, CT all the way down to Miami, and it only started in Jacksonville and stopped by the time I reached Miami. My car has never really given me any major problems, YET. I bought it with 62k and have abused it until 96k. The only major thing that I ever had happen was having to replace the tranny, but that was my fault for messing up 1st gear. Good luck and hope yur car stays running well.

 

[projctWraith]

Just stay as far ahead as you can on the maitainance schedule. Especially with the cheap parts like belts and fluids.

 

[Turbo Talon DL]

I had a 4g37 in my DSM before my turboing project...never any serious problems, that car was so damn reliable. It started when it needed to, got decent gas mileage. I beat that car too ! I just did regular maintenance, tune-ups, filters, fluids, oil changes, and it was fine. I did warp the brake rotors, but thats what I get for speeding... I didnt have any problems with the car that I myself DID NOT induce or cause...Im breaking in my new turbo engine now, and I just took my time putting everything together, and not taking any short cuts. Its a lot harder to do it 100% and be a Nazi, but its better than being stuck on the side of the road waiting for AAA to rescue your dumb-a*& because of something you didnt do.