What's that worst thing that happened to you when you got your DSM?

[afieclipse5124]

Worst that happened with my car was when it wouldn't start after I washed the engine. We tried testing the distributor, sparkplugs, then, after about a year of the car not running, my dads friend comes to find its one of the fuel relays, that it was upside-down, allowing water to get in and ruin it.

 

[Caithness]

WARNING-EXCESSIVELY LONG AND NO CLIFF NOTES

The Laser-
Bought it the summer before last. I didn't know anything about cars, paid too much to a shady used-car lot, 2900, after a 5 month search. I had a bad feeling about the car, but I'd been looking for 5 months without luck. Test drive and checkout in pouring rain, the streets flooded three inches, and I didn't know what to look for, anyway. The car had a few mods, base model steelies, and bare wires where there should have been a stereo. On the way home it blew a little bit of smoke, died out once, and overheated in traffic because the radiator fan died. There was a weird vibration on the interstate, the tires that had perfect tread were also five years old and dry rotted.

I took it into the shop that had worked on my Honda, paid them over 1k for new tires, radiator fan, timing belt, water pump, alignment, etc, and for them to fix the headlights. They couldn't fix the headlights, as I discovered later when I was working on stuff myself, the wiring harness was screwed, melted together throughout the engine bay. At that later date, I eventually just ran my own wiring outside the harness for everything messed up by the shorts and cut the oem wiring because it was sparking and smoking as if ready to start a fire.

The fuel pump died, and I did my first mod and first real working on the car replacing the fuel pump with a Walbro 255. Then I drove it for a while with intermittent starting problems, eventually discovering it was just a broken wing nut on the battery that kept loosening- after several tows. Started working on car a lot more, learning about it. Finally figured out what the "compression test" people had said I should do before buying it was, ran a compression test and cyl 1 was down to 110, explaining the occasional smoke from the time I bought it. The clutch slave cylinder went out and it took me three weeks to get a rebuild kit through a dumbass local dealer. The alternator went out while I was out and about, locked up and shredded the belt. It got towed to the shop, so I had to pay to have them fix it against my wishes.

Bought a datalogger and turned up the boost, didn't log any knock so I kept turning it up until I hit 18 psi. As I found just six months ago, the last owner had replaced the ecu with a nonturbo ecu, so there was no knock board. It was probably knocking terribly the whole time. Drove it like this until the clutch started slipping, did my first major work on the car replacing the clutch with a 2600, really gained a lot of confidence and knowledge with that. By then it was Christmas 03. Got the car back on the road with a new clutch only to have it blow cylinder one even more, probably because of running 18 psi. Now down to 80 psi compression in cylinder one, continue to drive car with high oil consumption and blowing smoke constantly, until it starts bucking and generally being undrivable randomly, and always in boost. Shut it down for three months.

Found a used block, tore the car down inside and out, cleaned everything, put together my head and the used block along with arp head studs, balance shaft elimination, evo manifold and o2 housing, new gaskets throughout, and a ton of general maintenance all over. By this point I had learned a lot about the car and was pretty good with working on it. I got it back on the road and driving fairly reliably, but it was still bucking and misfiring in boost, and sometimes at low rpm making the car undrivable. I drove it for three months this way, inspecting, testing, and replacing nearly everything in the ignition and fuel system without fixing it. I took it to the track and ran a 13.2 at 102 with a crappy 1.9 sixty by pushing it to the line and running it in the first thirty seconds after startup where it would boost properly. After two runs I checked the coolant and oil and they had mixed, indicating a blown head gasket or bad oil/water cooler. I said "screw it" and ran it twice more, but my BISS popped out and I ran slower on more boost leaking most of it through the 1/4" hole in the throttle body. Limped it home, and instead of blocking off the oil/water cooler first, pulled the head only to find that the head gasket was perfectly fine. The car was down for two months as I worked on it in my limited spare time, ported the head, turbo, manifold, and o2 housing, and discovered that the cause of all my misfiring problems had been that the car was on a nonturbo ECU.

I bought a turbo eprom ECU, socketed it, and bought an EPROM burner. I got a nonturbo fpr and burned a custom chip compensating for the higher fuel pressure, along with stutterbox, higher rev limit, fuel cut elimination, and a few other goodies. I found a guy parting his 11 second gsx, selling 3rd generation rx-7 rims with spacers, lugs, and "65 percent tread" tires and threw those on. The tires were more like 20-30 percent, actually quite bald, but I figured as long as I was careful I'd be fine until I could buy new tires. I got a good price even without the tires, so what harm could it be?

I got the car back on the road and it was running beautifully. I drove it on a 250 mile road trip, I drove it around town for a month, nothing went wrong with it. It was fast as hell and for the first time in its life, fun to drive. The rx-7 rims and wider tires made a huge difference in handling over base model steelies and the crap tires I had bought. I did the final acid test of reliability and took it to the track, and in two runs with the new stutterbox had my sixty foot down to 1.7 and hit my goal of 12's on pumpgas, a 12.9 at 104. I didn't even run again, though I felt I could've launched even harder and gotten a 1.6 and maybe a 12.7 or 12.8. I drove the car home and had no problems, making it a two month stretch of perfect reliability, the longest I ever had.

I messed around with my eprom image a bit and turned the two-step stutterbox into a three-step no-lift-to-shift. With the NLTS the car flew, I'm guessing it would have hit a 12.6 at around 106 on pump just from the seat of the pants difference. I signed up for a local club's track day to find out Jan 8th what it would do, and then throw some race gas into it to go for low-mid 12's.

Right before Christmas 04 the alternator I'd had the shop replace a year before went out, but they gave me a new one for free and I threw it on the car, 20 minutes of work. I drove it over to my family's annual christmas gathering to prove I'd gotten it running right, and my extended family- people who hated the car because it was unreliable- actually liked it. On the way back I topped the car out on an 11 mile bridge, it took it without complaint. Christmas day we stayed home, it was a terrible grey and rainy day. I got bored, and before we had dinner I decided to go out for a short drive. I drove around aimlessly, coming across an industrial access road, a road leading to a factory.

The road had a 90 degree sweeping bend in it. I was doing about 30 mph going around it when suddenly the front end completely lost traction. In a second I had slid sideways into the curb. I had time to think "this is going to suck" and time to shout "FUUUHHHH---" before it hit, and suddenly the car was sitting in the middle of the street and my head was throbbing painfully. I drove it to a lit parking lot with the wheel cocked over halfway to the left and a disturbing pull and vibration. I got out and it was bad, front left wheel bent inward, rx7 rims on the left scraped to hell, and as I was checking out the damage I reached up to rub my head and my hand came away with blood on it.

I limped it home doing 25 and had my parents check out my head. Fortunately I'd just split it open in two small spots hitting it on the metal of the doorframe and I didn't have to go to the hospital. I went to check out my car the next day and it seemed bad, but not too bad. It looked like the front rx7 rim was bent, and the front hub was leaning outward a bit, but I thought it would be a few hundred at most to fix. I even lined up lowering springs and shocks on tire rack to put on before I had a shop align it to make the most of the situation. I took off the front wheel and couldn't see any obvious damage to suspension stuff, so I thought I got off lucky.

I took it to the shop and had them check it out, hoping it was just an alignment and tweaking the hub a bit. They called back with a quote and said "we haven't even finished checking it out, but so far both rims on the left side are bent, control arms are bent, struts are bent, mounting points are bent, basically, everything on the left side of the car is bent. We don't think it's worth repairing." The quote was over 1500 dollars and they hadn't even given the car a thorough inspection, that was just the initial checkout. I went and picked the car up from them, and I've been driving it like that since then because I need a way to get to school. I'm currently looking for a 240sx daily driver, and I'm actually going to go look at a 91 Talon shell this Thursday. Basically, if the shell is nice enough I'm going to swap my engine and tranny over and keep going, if not, I'll swap the entire left suspension to my car.

I'm still in shock that after a year and a half of struggle, I finally got my car running right, finally beat the DSM unreliability bug, then a mere two months later killed the car with my own stupidity, crashing into a curb. I was driving in the dark, in the rain, on bald tires, going too fast around a corner. In my defense, I went back the next day and found that one of the trucks that frequented the industrial access road had left a huge oil slick on the road. My tire tracks went right through it and then straight sideways out of it, right into the impact marks on the curb. Still, I was going too fast in bad conditions, it was entirely my fault. I just hope that I'll be able to bounce back, putting this next DSM together even better and faster than my poor walking-dead Laser. In the mean time, she's still running great, but scary to drive. The front wheel wobbles as it rolls, when I hit the gas the car skates around like it's going to fly off the road. I'm doing my best to find a 240 quickly so I can put the car to sleep once and for all, so I can transplant its heart and revive another car.

 

[Thomas91169]

^^^dayum. thats insane.

ok heres my story.

got the car jan 04. put some basic bolt ons(intake, exhaust, BOV, boost guage, a/f gauge). loved the car. then april of 04 got rearended by some 16year old chick, total n00b at driving, 100% her fault. ok so her insurance(farmers) fixes it(8000 in damage, luckily not totaled out) but i have major whiplash. not to mention my neck was shot before that. so i go to my chiro for 3 times a week for the next month or two, ring up a nice 2600$ bill. filed a injury claim with her insurance, wanted at least double that number for pain and suffering.

go to pick up the car and it was dead. weird, so me and the guy jump it and its fine. go home and park it, that night we left for vegas. come back and the car is dead again. so get a new battery. i drive the car everyday for the next week, fine. we go camping for 3 days, get back, dead. theorize that either the undercars or system are shorting, remove both, but to no avail it still dies. i then make a theory that its something they did when they fixed it. i tear apart the whole rear end down to metal to find one of the rear harness grounds were on a ground post with paint all over it. so i make my own super ground and guess what, months later car hasnt had trouble once.

second problem, if the battery is unplugged and the ecu resets, the car will idle, but as soon as put it in gear to get down the driveway, it dies. my solution? dont unplug the battery for more than 1 minute, or if i need to get it out of my way, hook up a charger directly to the car to keep power going to the ecu. macguyver status.

 

[JwUoNoG]

On saturday, when I was leaving the guy's house, I bumped into his lexus SC! I wasn't and still am not quite used to driving DSMs, as I've been driving nothing but 4 door economy cars prior to this.

Luckily, the dent i made in his rear bumper came right out, with no visible damage. I felt bad so I gave him 100 bucks.

Then, on the way out, my rear license plate fell off. So we had to go back to the guy's house, and ziptie it on.

On the drive home, my friend Bun(hewhoisknot) ran a red light and almost got killed! I saw his car do a 180, and his tires smoke in an effort to try to avoid it.

About 10 minutes later, there was a cop behind him, and I was next to him. I was so scared that the cop was gonna run my plates and find that they were incorrect... but I was lucky.

 

[JiveMasterT]

My GSX i bought with 75,000 miles for 14k, so i totally over paid, but i got a 2000 mile complete drivetrain warranty along with it, so that was really good, and besides, it was my first dsm. i originally wanted a black wrx cause it was turbo, awd, and 5 speed but my friend said "i know the owner of a mitsubishi dealer and hes got a really clean black gsx for sale and he's giving me first dibs."

so i go over, check it out, its got a k&n filter, turbo xs bov, blue spark plug wires, and a 2.5inch downpipe to full straight through 3 inch exhaust. it also had a heavier clutch on it, but i dont know what kind. its not as heavy as my friend's 2600, but its heavier than stock. i test drive it, driving stick horribly, but i like it and i like the feel of turbo. i go home, think about it, my parents get a loan for me, i give them all my money, and we go pick up the car. my dad drives it home cause i cant drive stick. i practice driving the car in a parking lot all week before actually taking it out on the road. at the end of the week it got really cold thats when problems began with me and my car...

my dad comes in early in the morning and he goes "you got two flats." i was like "wtf?!" i go out and look at the car. one tired is like almost completely down and the other is sagging a bit. i limp it down the road to the gas station because there is one like 30 feet down the road and i try to put air in them to take it further to get some new tires. both stems are frozen solid and wont let me put any air into the tires. i throw on the spare to on one side because it is sitting on the rim.... which was not easy. i had to jump on the tire iron to get the lug nuts off. i call the dealership where i got the car and tell them my problem as im driving there. tom was kind enough to give me two new yokohama avids for the rear and since the fronts had like 90% tread on them it wouldnt be bad. i explained to him i had barely driven the car all week so i had no clue what happened. he gives me the tires for free, no charge on install, i go home and im happy.

about a month goes by and my idle starts to get really rough. im like "wtf? this thing sounds like its got cams." i take it back over once again and leave it there. its determined that it was bad spark plug wires. my dad ok's the charge and has them replace the spark plug wires and he pays for it after i yell at him for paying so much for stock plug wires when i coulda gotten after market ones for much cheaper.

the semester goes by without much of a problem. summer time comes, i take it to the track and my first time i get a 15.6. ouch. following that was a 14.9. ill take that. my car was running like crap, and i later discovered that my spark plugs were like toast. i changed them out and took it back again. this time i pulled a 14.6, 14.5, and a 14.6 again.

a little over a month ago i was driving to school, kinda fast, and now at this point my tires are kinda bald cause i put some hurting on them during the summer since i was driving like a jackass and stuff... which is to be expected. i was 18, just got a fast car (used to drive an astro van) and i wanted to use it. anyhow, im doing like 70, in the exit lane on the highway because i wanted to stop at a deli before my class. all the sudden a big utility truck comes flying across all 3 lanes and almost sideswipes me. instead of hitting the brakes and the horn i panicked and cut the wheel to the right, my tires caught gravel on the shoulder, i started to get sideways, which is really scarey at 70, and i cut the other way, hard, and it sends me into a spin across all 3 lanes of the taconic state parkway. i land in a ditch. no damage, but i did have a $40 tow to get it out. the jackass in the utility truck split before the tow truck finished. the cop that checked things out had the camaro to. he let me look under the hood (im still a chevy guy, i had to ask) and he did a burn out before he left.

since then ive been driving really slow, im really cautious, and my car hasnt really given me too much trouble, except for the other day when it got a bunch of snow in the back rims and started vibrating really bad on the highway to the point where one of my hood pins pretty much rattled loose.

ive thought about selling my car because i just broke 91k miles, but i think im just going to take it to the track again to see if i can get low 14s and then take it to pruven in ct for a new motor and install a fp green and all that stuff. i got the funds, so why not?

all in all my car and i have been through a lot. everything hasnt been so bad... more like a learning experience. oh well.

btw, it likes me now cause we got a trophy at a car show... 3rd place mitsu 2 door at ImportGen in westchester... been running like a champ since "we" got that.

 

[Dtab123]

gotta love the car in the grass looks like somthing i would do on saturday night. anyway
bought my car in missouri about 600 miles from home got almost home and snaped a cv joint witch punched a hole in my oil pan and spun the bearings in the tranny
ok new pan and new tranny about 3 weeks to get back on the road. between the shop and my house my water pump started nocking pretty bad so i ordered another one and took it back to the shop to get the timming belt done when they took it apart the dampener fell apart and as of right now i got another cv axle poping and tranny whines a little freak'in chrysler tranny

 

[Jay D]

right after i bought my talon i was able to put about 100 miles on it before the tranny said enough is enough and started making very loud noises and i took it to a tranny shop and after they test drove it and took a look at it they said they could not fix the problem. so on my way home it started jerking very hard and the just would not move and to make a long story short the tranny had ripped up 7 of the 11 gears and the shop that i had to take it to next sucked

 

[SOURCE1064]

Mine got broken into. I decided to get everything re-done and it's been off the road for 4 years now and my mechanice is still jerking my chain. No progress in over 2 years. Some people know my story.

 

[mitsuclipsegsx]

Mine got broken into. I decided to get everything re-done and it's been off the road for 4 years now and my mechanice is still jerking my chain. No progress in over 2 years. Some people know my story.

whats wrong w/ it, when do u think it will be done. maybe u should sell it

 

[SOURCE1064]

I just have a lazy mechanic who has almost no time to rebuild my car. Since I always had a second car it hasn't been a priority. He has taken a new job where he works 9-5 and my car is he says he'll work on weekends but hasn't in over a year. I don't want to sell it because I dumped too much money into this project. I might have to take RDRKT up on his offer and have his buddy finish my car because I want to race it at the next shootout. The thing that sucks is I paid for the whole car to be finished.

 

[JiveMasterT]

I just have a lazy mechanic who has almost no time to rebuild my car. Since I always had a second car it hasn't been a priority. He has taken a new job where he works 9-5 and my car is he says he'll work on weekends but hasn't in over a year. I don't want to sell it because I dumped too much money into this project. I might have to take RDRKT up on his offer and have his buddy finish my car because I want to race it at the next shootout. The thing that sucks is I paid for the whole car to be finished.

get your money back and do it yourself!!! sheesh, part of owning a dsm is getting in there and doing the work yourself

oh and i dont want this to make me sound like im being an asshole, cause im really not trying to be one... seriously, if you want something done you gotta do it yourself.

 

[SOURCE1064]

The building where my car is at is on a old military base so I can't just go and pick it up unfortunately.

 

[JessesTalon]

it doesnt run, cams arn't bolted down, had to buy 100$ more in parts then I thought I would... taking longer then i thought it would to put a timing belt on...

dammit i have no tools either so i have to wait for my friends to come bring some, dammit!

 

[george5366]

Damn gotta love dsm realiability

Ok i have barely sold my GS and got my spyder. 2 days later i freak out, it didnt want to go into gear, and the clutch was to the floor!!!! i tried putting it in gear but couldnt so just had it in 2nd untill i got to my work (i was delivering an order)

well i had to call up my insurance and get it towed, the funny part was some guy in his midtwenties picked me up and said my car is ####ed and stuff and it would cost me 2,000 dollars to fix( he started speaking gibberish) so i just told him to tow me to my friends house. well the next mornin, me and my friend bled the clutch and i was on my way (bad master cylinder) that tow truck guy was crazy $2,000 i got the fluid for 1.49 on sale

 

[1320i]

A true DSM'er never sells. You fix it and take it for a drive and understand why you love these cars.

If you total it, you replace it and start over.

 

[johnalomu#11]

i was just crusin (not to fast) went to take a corner the damn thing wouldn't turn,ended up hitting the curb and bent the rim in dodge wanted 700$ for 1 stock rim....found on at the autowreckers for $200....no way in hell iwas going to pay $700 for a stock rim i only n the winter....

 

[xcelr8n]

you paid 200usd for 1 stock 1gb rim?
you would be well advised to check youre local dsm boards, for that price you can usually get all 4 and some decent tires.

 

[johnalomu#11]

you paid 200usd for 1 stock 1gb rim?
you would be well advised to check youre local dsm boards, for that price you can usually get all 4 and some decent tires.

i live in this tiny little town and my options are limited....at the time i bought the rim i didn't know about this site now when i buy somthing i'll defantily be lookin here

 

[SLEEPING1G]

I bought a 90 talon TSI AWD 5-speed with 169k and it came with a MBC, cat back 3in RNR exuast, and boost gauge. Iess than a week after I got it I was at the track racing a 96 Eclipse GST I hit 4th gear and heard a loud pop than a clanking, Immeadiatly thought I just threw a rod through the block. I lost all power the motor shut down, when i got it stopped and popped the hood I found that the clutch blew through the scatter shield and in the process of that took out my upper and lower coolant hoses. The top hose was fine, it was the thermostat housing that completly ripped apart and left a big dent in my hood through the heat padding. Now the tricky part is trying to find out if i seized my motor in the process. If anyone has any of the parts i might need and is in washington state, just let me know because the car has to be running in less than a month.

 

[stubbbs21]

worst experience was last night. look!

 

[JiveMasterT]

worst experience was last night. look!

whoa, looks like that might come in handy for parallel parking?

jkng. wtf happened? sorry to see you busted your stuff... any estimate on the damage?

 

[SOURCE1064]

worst experience was last night. look!

Did you have the control arm recall done? Sucks bro.

 

[95tsiawdgst]

I had 1 ball joint changed at the dealer(I told them to do both ) and I look at them as often as I can and took one side apart to do an axle. The ball joints worry me alot more than CW although I'm sure that sucks too.
The only 2 things I worry about when driving are the timing belt and the ball joints.

 

[JiveMasterT]

Did you have the control arm recall done? Sucks bro.

that looks like he hit something. look at the front bumper, something went through that first.

 

[nuggets]

After I pull out of the used dealership we go to teh gas station for the hour ride trip home. Open the passenger door too far and somehow collapse my fender (never realizing it till we were back in town) Immediatly take off the stupid bra to find the entire front end ####ed up. 2 months in, blown head gasket, followed by a second head rebuild (due to a shop setting timing belt incorrectly which they refused to fix or admit too), Followed by engine knock within 1 month of the 2nd head rebuild to be replaced by an entire engine.


To sum it up
2 head rebuilds
2 engines
2 turbos
starter
front brake rotors
clutch
2 alternators
brake master cylinder
about 45 quarts of mobil 1 synthetic oil (due to so many rebuilds/leaks)
and other little bullshit that popped up.

I am now on my 5th month of ownership and my CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WENT ON YESTERDAY.... (egr code thank god #43)

Thats my story thus far... hope it stays that way.