This is untrue, the one thing you can absolutely tell was done at or even before the manufacturer specified intervals was the oil, every component was shiny silver with next to no wear, do your oil, do it early, and do it with proper quality oil and filters, and your car will also look like this after 150,000 miles
The little cars are also designed to be absurdly easy to maintain and repair. Pretty sure I could get the engine and transmission out in less than an hour.
I have a 2015 Mirage Hatchback. I have had it for about 9 years or so and have driven it from Fort Worth Texas to San Francisco California and back on two different occasions with no problems at all. Over 112,000 miles on it and she’s still kicking ass. Out of all the cars I’ve owned my favorites are the 1982 Chevy Impala Station Wagon and ( the one I currently own ) a 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage Hatchback.
They are tough little cars! I maintain 30+ of them at work that really rack up the miles and hold up great. There. 2015 at work with over 550k km on the same engine. There’s supposed to a 2014 at a dealer in the US(white bear) that was traded in with 414k miles on it.
@@turdpailsandtrails I had a Yamaha motorcycle with the same valve adjustment when you were saying you’re not sure what you called them. They called them buckets and they called the valve operation shim under bucket valve clearance
Thanks for the excellent video Fummins. The Mirage engines seem to be a quality piece, without the weak spots/problem areas of any other manufacturers! 152,000 miles on my 2018, and I'm keepin' it!
Im actually pretty impressed with the no frills simple and practical engine design. I work on european cars under warranty for a living and theres always a spot in me to own stuff thats simple.
Well, this video convinced me to buy a new 2024 Mirage. Bought two new Geo Metros back in the 1990's with 1.0L 3 cylinder Suzuki motors. Both rotted to death at 185k and 186 K miles.
Sadly they killed off the 5spd but the cvts can last if you change the fluid once in a while. I thought they’d suck when I started maintaining them in 2014. I was completely wrong.
@@turdpailsandtrails I think it's going to be difficult to find an entry level economy car that comes with a 5 speed. And probably won't exist within a year or so. Subaru sold a low teens percent and nixed the option. Nissan dealer says people don't even know how to drive them anymore. The once great General Motors does not even manufacture a 5 speed transmission even for the Corvette. What distance do you recommend for the maintenance intervals for the cvt?
If you liked the metro you’ll probably love these things. It seems to be a pretty popular choice for metro fans. I usually try to change the cvt fluid every 50k km/30k miles. I normally just do a drain and fill, about 2 1/2qts. They don’t hold a lot of fluid and don’t have an external cooler so this seems to work out well. There are a few Mirages in the fleet I maintain with over 500k kms on the original engine and cvt. I use universal cvt fluid that meets the J4 spec in all these cars.
Thank you very much for taking the time to teach and show us this! I’m actually very interested in the new 2024 Mirages. I am not mechanically inclined, but I am well equipped for general maintenance. Seeing you pull this VERY simple engine apart honestly gives me relief in knowing these tiny engines will go for MILES! We really do appreciate you. Thank you so much!
People bash these cars but man its just simple reliable engineering and even good build quality. Yeah feature wise the car fees like its from 2005 but whats wrong with that
@@Random_Car_Guy bro, 13k for a brand new car and a 100k or 10 year warranty is a steal, and if you pick a manual trans cars at the very least you will have a car that will last you 10-15 years before the motor starts presenting problems, you will get more than your money's worth.
This style of valve lifter design is called 'Shim under bucket." This is the same design used on the majority of motorcycles, but instead of the 'bucket' having different size options, a specific sized shim is placed underneath to achieve the correct clearance.
Thank you so much for doing these videos! They’ve given me confidence that my decision to purchase one of these a few years back was a safe choice from the point of reliability.
Refreshing to see craftsman tools at work (1/4” impact) I own one and hardly anyone has one. Like the deconstruction work even if it’s only a 3 cylinder engine. Moderate to good narrating. I’m planning to buy a rvr so a mirage with lots of mileage is boosting my confidence. Thank your for your video and time!
Just found this video. Thankyou for showing the tear down. It caught my eye because I bought a used mirage for my daughter as a first car and had no idea they were this reliable. I bought Japanese as I had a great time owning a Honda Legend 3.5 V6, I believe they are named Accura in the US. Strangely the Mirage is a very rare animal in the UK and because I bought with 24000 miles sight unseen and had it delivered to my daughter I was completely unaware that it was only 3 cylinders. In her 2 1/2 year ownership she has loved it she tells me and has obviously named it Mitzi, regards from across the pond
There seems to be far more options for small cars over there. The Mirage is the last of the smallest cars remaining but I hear it's going to be cancelled in North America soon. I maintain a fleet of 30-40 of these things and for the most part they're pretty reliable. They can have their issues but are cheap and easy to repair. Except for crash parts. Most of the other makes in the fleet have far more problems and are more of a pita to fix.
I had a Mitsubishi colt 2011, with this engine,,I put up 160k miles on it,,I had not one single thing break on the car,,Everything still original,,5 speed manual box,,They tend to sweat right where the head meets the block,,but never leak,,I changed the oil every 5k miles and coolent only once,,,Only reason I had to scrap it was some fool ran into the back and bent the frame,,,best car I've ever owned hands down,,,
I've worked on a few Japanese motorcycles and the engineering seems very familiar. Those lifters are normally called buckets but often have a shim either on top or inside the bucket. It sounds like in this case they vary the bucket base thickness rather than using shims.
That red stuff might be the media that the factory uses to blast parts clean. It might be intentionally large so it can be screened free from the tiny pieces removed from the castings and also so that it doesn't get into the oil passages and clog them up like and have premature engine failures like certain Korean manufacturers do.
Good catch on the wrist pin - a noise contributor for sure - but from the sound at the end of the video, it sounds like mostly cylinder head noise - prolly excessive valve clearance - you'll have to measure the next one to be sure - on the valve lifters, they are termed solid lifters - the main advantage is low cost
I appreciate the detailed engine teardown video...good job. I am amazed at the very good condition of the cylinder head, and I would not have guessed the pistons, rings, and wrist pins would be in such bad shape based upon the head condition. Would you share what oil was used and the OCI for this engine?
This one had mobil1 0w20 for the first 100k km/60k miles then went to klondike 0w20. 6000km/4000mile oil change intervals. Used Motosel 0w20 for the past 6 months or so. Engine was already noisy before switching brands.
These all appear to be very decent synthetic oils, especially Mobil 1, indicating the engine was run with good lubricants. As mentioned, the cylinder head looks very good given the high mileage. The combustion chamber components did not fair as well. But, given the mileage, I am pleasantly surprised how well the Mitsubishi 3-cylinder held up. I look forward to your future videos, especially of Mirage engines. Many thanks again.
Very cool teardown! These cars get a lot of crap for being cheap, underpowered econoboxes but I respect the simplicity that they offer, not to mention their fantastic fuel economy. How come you maintain so many of them? Fleet use?
Is it bad I love these little things? Always have, absolutely miss my 03 Mirage (Australian here, all mirages of that era were 3 door hatches). Imagine if mitsubishi revived the old Mirage Cyborg in this model and turbocharged it or something! 😍
Nice video! I own three Mirage's (15, 21, and 23) and always wondered what a teardown would look like. Looks pretty clean on top of the head! Quite a lot of carbon on top of the pistons, though. Probably normal for this mileage. I've been using a few ounces of Lucas additive at every fill up. Have you ever used a regular additive and/or do you think it works? Am I just wasting money?
no, use a good fuel injection cleaner once a month and change engine oil @ 2000 miles, not 5 or 6k, at 2k! why? skip the oil filter every other oil change since you are only buying 3 quarts of oil at a time. watch especially your tires air pressure, the dealership sets them at 35 psi to make it ride softer, but they can take all the way to 51 psi, so get best mileage by setting tire pressure to 45psi and see true 55mpg at 60mph.
I don't think it's made by Aisin. I hear the 1.2L(3a92) is a shortened version of a 4cylinder 1.6L Mitsubishi engine(4A92). I believe a similar 3 cylinder engine was used in some Smart cars too.
What oil were you using. Looks like it did a pretty good job on protecting the cam. I wonder if that scoring on the piston has to do with running the engine when it’s not warmed up enough? Is that red stuff? Some kind of Loctite off the threads maybe? Or some kind of gasket sealer they use in the corners somewhere?
Used bulk 0w20. Cold could be a factor. I believe they used different piston material in 2017 to try and prevent shrinkage in the cold. That crap in the pickup is more orange than red, all the sealants seem to be grey. I haven’t seen anything that color used anywhere on the engine. I’m stumped.
@@turdpailsandtrails you mean filtered used oil? As for the pistons a little trick that I do that all of my engines, except for the newest CNC machine, pistons is a take sandpaper, and I put a crosshatch on the piston skirts all the way up to the ring lens. That way the oil has a shelf to ride on versus just having it on the cylinder side. I wonder if that would maybe help a little bit of that scoring?
So sad that Mitsubishi discontinued the manual transmission in the US. I had been looking at these for a long while. I had the feeling that below all the plastic they were solid cars. When I was finally ready to consider buying one new I found out you cant get a manual. At least the engine will outlive the transmission. Bought a used Mazda 2 instead.
Is this from the same car but named "space star" in other markets? looked around and the only car that I could find which looked like a mirage was called "space star"
Yes, these are called space star in other markets. The sedan version is called a g4 in North America but marketed as an Attrage overseas or a Dodge Attitude in Mexico.
A lot of people seem to just hate cvt's. Some still think they have a rubber belt off a skidoo inside that'll slip and melt. This same model cvt came in the Spark and Versa. They had a fair bit more power and possibly more failures because of that? They don't always shift as nicely or predictably as a conventional automatic, so that doesn't help.
@@BillySBC Mitsubishi has different shift patterns vs the Nissan, and the less you abuse them, the longer it will last... Mirage at 78 HP will never abuse the CVT even if you floor it all the time... change the fluid out every 2 or 3 years and you won't ever have a problem under 150k... and most times 250k.
@@TheFootballDude18 Piston slap seems to be the only problem I've ran into in the fleet cars. I bought a 2014 Mirage used that spun a rod bearing at around 300k 6 months after I bought it. It looked like it missed a couple oil changes by the looks of the insides compared to the ones I maintain. I've never had one leak oil yet other than a tiny bit of sweating at the back(rh) side of the timing cover and this 524k engine looked like the front main was starting to sweat a little.
@@turdpailsandtrails It’s quite amazing to me how rugged they seem to be. Simply changing the oil goes a long way. My Colt burns around half a quart every 5k km, with only 156k km on it lol. All I want from a everyday car is reliability
Those are bucket followers and that is indeed how the valves are periodically adjusted with different shims if needed. But because it's a simple design with such low reciprocating mass, they rarely go out of spec.
That's right, these buckets come in different heights and don't use shims. I've never seen them wear out on these engines yet. I don't get out much and rarely tear engines apart.
I’ve got a seemingly never ending supply of used engines from the cars that get totaled. So far, don’t have plans to rebuild any until I run out of good used ones.
Yeah that was in 2017. I thought I included a picture of what the newer camshafts look like in one of the tear down videos but I can’t find it now. Iirc the cvt engines had rollers on both cams and the 5spd only had rollers on the intake camshaft.
Q1. Was the clanking sound coming from the wrist pin bore slop? Q2. What might have caused the wrist pin/pin bore failure? Q3. Is that a common failure ?
I think it was a combination of piston slap and the sloppy wrist pin. The other engine I tore down (with 524k km) had the same scuffed cylinders and piston skirts. It's relatively common. But there are some of these with close to 600k kms that are quiet and I had a 2014 with 36,000km(bought used) that had piston slap, and had it replaced under warranty/recall. I'm not sure if flooding them out bad enough and washing the cylinders out played a factor? That piston slap seems to be the biggest problem with these engines, otherwise they're pretty reliable.
A mechanic on another TH-cam channel called the Mirage a "throwaway car". 280k miles begs to differ. That's well into Toyota and Honda territory. So what prompted the engine tear down in this one?
Great video… thanks! So this engine will be back in another car next week then??😀 ….. my 2016 has chain rattle on cold starting at just 39000 miles 😖 … Should be fine to ignore it then….🤔
@@MrDengo999 Nice idea…. The warranty in the UK from new was 5 years and 62500 miles. Also incidentally the oil service intervals are 12500 miles. In my 3 years it’s only done 3500 per year and serviced every year. In fact when I bought it in 2021 at 29000 it had been serviced 4 or 5 times already. Mitsubishi pulled out of the UK completely a couple of years ago although the support from the ex dealers is very good, in my experience.
@@nomdeplume2724 oh damn... Well sucks to be in the UK these cars got a 10 year warranty here.. you shouldn't have changed the oil at such a high interval like they recommend, maybe your engine wouldn't be clacky, I don't think they figured these cars would be owned there that long
@@MrDengo999 My dealer says he’s never seen a timing chain fail on any Mirage he’s ever sold, and he’s sold quite a few over the years. No doubt mine will be the first 😖🤡. My commute is only 5 miles a day so I won’t have to walk far if it breaks😀. If it does fail, I’ll just have to take the Porsche… every cloud has a silver lining …😇
How come that some people can drive over 400.000 miles with this engine? Here in Germany the Mirage (named here "Space Star") has huge problems. Some of them have a dead engine after only 30.000 miles due to piston slapping. They constantly scratch on the cylinderwall. Sure this can happen to any engine, Piston Slapping is not an uncommon thing and not everytime a problem. Most Pistons have some play. But on the Mirage we have many reported dead engines after a short amount of miles. So yeah, don´t know what to think about this engine/car.
I worked as a fleet mechanic on this fleet of 30-40 Mirages(and a bunch of other vehicles) used for parts deliveries since 2014. After seeing how well they held up when driven by people who beat on them daily, I bought a used 2014 with only 37k kms. It had piston slap! I drove it for a year like that then had the engine replaced under warranty/recall at 50k kms. I sold it and bought another 2014 with 280k that had transmission problems(cvt). 6 months later it spun a rod bearing....Bought a used cvt and engine with under 6000miles and it should last until the car rusts away now. I wonder what oil they spec over there? Here they call for 0W20 in these cars. Piston slap seems to be relatively common on these cars, mostly with higher miles I find(300,000km+). I believe Mitsubishi changed the piston material or coating in 2017 to try and help prevent excessive skirt wear. One possible cause for piston slap/cylinder wear might be from washed out cylinders? These cars can flood easily if started cold and shut off before the engine is warmed up. There was a recall for 2015 and older models to try and help with that but it didn't solve the problem completely.
@@gingernutpreacher Sorry yes celerio, auto corrected me, my dad has a 1.0 Skoda Fabia, holding up well doesnt burn a drop, belt driven so tensioner is good.
@@super_slav91 my wife has a fabia 1 liter as well I think the engine of the celerio will probably not do quite so many miles (I own one (u think the oil changes 15500 miles is too far apart I know a driving instructor with 120000 miles on one though so we shall see
I know 450k ain’t no walk in the park 😅, but what would you attribute the excessive piston wear to, if anything in particular? Like Detonation from poor quality fuel, excessive idling time, Oil fuel dilution maybe? Was this engine always serviced with full synthetic 0w-20 weight oil as specified, and did it consume any oil between oil changes (if so, maybe could have benefited from higher viscosity oil?). I know, too many questions and variables at play 😂, but I feel like this engine could have lived a bit longer if not for the piston issues. I mean look at it! It looks wayyy too good and clean for a 450k engine. Impressive!
I was surprised at how clean it was too. This one used a bit of oil. The big reason I replaced it was the wrist pin noise. The rings on this engine were sludged up more than the engine I tore down with over 500k kms. It had 0w20 synthetic(I can’t find a non-synthetic 0W20)since new. Used Mobil 1 for the first year or so but hence switched to Klondike(bulk) until a year or two ago then switched to Motosel in a 55 gallon drum. These run pretty rich in the cold and often flood if not warmed up before shutting them off that might have played a factor in the skirt wear. I had another Mirage that was getting clacky. Tried some snake oils that didn’t help(not my idea)then I filled it with 15w40. It’s got quieter and has been running since May like that.
@@turdpailsandtrails what kind of temps do you see in your area? I imagine quite cold. I live in the tropics, Puerto Rico, my mirage is literally warmed up before I can hit my front gate 😂 Today we have a 127F heat index.
Hi there , we're have a problem with my wife car Mitsubishi Mirage 2014 that ran strong for 163k Km.(101k Miles) it just happen recently with engine RPM surge and then go down on it own it looping like this (like if you push to 2000RPM it for a 3sec. it surge up to 2500 RPM for 1-2sec. then go down to 2000 and repeat the same no matter you push 1000 or any ) , it only happen when hit the gas while A/C turn on if A/C off it ran really smoothly. AND on idle it smoothly for both situation i do clean MAP sensor ,Throttle Body ,change air filter still not fixed . we're already bring it to our local trusty mechanic to check it up he only replace the Spark Plug and that is he said it might be a problem with " Throttle body "replace it might cost a few hundred buck (in USD) . but i think if it problem with " Throttle body " why it only happen when A/C turn on ? or it just have to relearn Throttle Body ? Anyone suggest for fix it feel free to share it with us . thank you so much .
@@turdpailsandtrails not that i know of , it a mid-option car it doesn’t have a cruise control feature from the factory and we’re never install anything on it bone stock , no check engine light on or anything if you wanna see video clip i will uploaded and send it to you . I still don’t have OBD2 scanner i looking to buy one that can connect to my phone via WiFi or bluetooth is that a great idea ? Or i should buy a nice AIO one ? Thank you so much for your time .
@@MovieScene_recap My email is in the "about tab" can send that clip to it. I've never used a phone to scan a car so wouldn't know what to recommend there. The easiest random shot in the dark might be try fuel system cleaner but I don't know...It's hard/impossible to guess whats wrong without seeing it. These cars have very thin wiring that's prone to corrosion. It's more likely that you have a wiring issue than an actual component failure. Unless it's the ac compressor starting to pile up.
@@turdpailsandtrails i see , that quite a big job right ? lol the wiring and stuff . oh the fuel filter it that necessary to change it ? i saw on the owner manual that change every 60k km.(around 40k in miles) i thing her car never changed before , if it have to i might be clean injectors as well . thank you so much ,it really help me . i will send you a video .
@@MovieScene_recap It's really not bad. Sounds way harder than it is. The only fuel filter is a strainer that's inside the bottom of the fuel pump assembly. You have to pull the pump then take the housing apart to get to it. I've never replaced them on the fleet Mirages and some have well over 500k kms/310k miles on them.
This is what an engine that gets oil changes regularily looks like, it's almost mint for the mileage, although don't forget after around 50k miles things start getting out of factory spec. That one piston with excessive wear is a design fault, usually you can find engines where there's one cylinder that gets a different rate of flow through the intake and acts up like this happening on 4cyls, or in some 3 cyls like this i've seen it's usually the middle one that wears rod bearings like mad or scuffs the skirts due to imbalance. Piston pin is probably just normal wear or by seeing the whiteish residue on the valves could be fuel or timing problem or slight detonation at some point for prolonged periods. And man those bearing you show from the other engine are not normal, don't tell me the engine didn't overheat 😂😂😂
If people think they are buying a green, environmentally responsible car with an EV they should have just bought this Mitsubishi. It has provided adequate transport for almost half a million kilometres, sipping fuel and requiring minimum maintenance. It will also be fully recycled at end of life.
The car this engine came from is still going. I installed a used engine and it's got 480,000km now. It's hard to beat how efficient these are and they have a low cost of ownership if you avoid buying parts from a dealership.
The only sealant that I could find in this engine is grey. It's almost like red loctite but I didn't see any of that used at all. This was the first time this engine had been opened up.
@turdpailsandtrails The only other red I can think of is the intake manifold gaskets. Any flaking would obviously be evaporated in the cylinder. It's a funky conundrum.....
Ya, ini cvt aslinya. Itu mengalami masalah pada 233.000 km. Saya mengganti badan katup dengan yang bekas dan masih berfungsi dengan baik sejak saat itu. Ada cvt yang bertahan lama dan ada pula yang tidak. Kami memiliki satu Mirage 2017 di armada dengan kecepatan 540.000 km dengan mesin asli dan cvt. Saya pernah mendengar orang lain online dengan lebih dari 600.000
surprisingly little varnishing of the engine inside for 450K KM's, wow. This must have belonged to an older person or someone with common sense to drive the car properly, not like a ricer
280k original water pump..... meanwhile im on number 3 at 104k, doing thermostat housing on monday as that has decided to give up and a rad at 91k 🤣. Good old japanese engineerint here, cant fault it
Weird. There’s almost 40 of these in the fleet and I haven’t had a water pump leak. The bearing on this one was worn out but it wasn’t leaking. The rads I replaced were hit by rocks. The cvt rads stuck out past the condenser on the right side a little so are more prone to getting hit by rocks. I haven’t seen a thermostat housing fail, (it’s just a piece of plastic, like most cars have)but we don’t get very hot weather up here.
@turdpailsandtrails I should have probably specified that mine isn't a mirage 😂 these seem like genuinely well engineered cars. Meanwhile the Germans are making mistakes left right and centre
Here's one with 524,000kms: th-cam.com/video/SbEd6-AUlbs/w-d-xo.html
Awesome teardown of the 3A92! My 2017 just hit 170k miles. Love my Mirage, great little engine.
Thanks for showing us your work. The mirage is not a mechanics car, they are so low maintenance that you are never in the shop…
seems like the perfect mechanics car, never have to work on your own shit again
That means it is a mechanics car. We dont want to work on our own stuff
This is untrue, the one thing you can absolutely tell was done at or even before the manufacturer specified intervals was the oil, every component was shiny silver with next to no wear, do your oil, do it early, and do it with proper quality oil and filters, and your car will also look like this after 150,000 miles
@@lewdards1127 That's why I bought a 90´s well preserved all original Civic. 😅👌
The little cars are also designed to be absurdly easy to maintain and repair. Pretty sure I could get the engine and transmission out in less than an hour.
I have a 2015 Mirage Hatchback. I have had it for about 9 years or so and have driven it from Fort Worth Texas to San Francisco California and back on two different occasions with no problems at all. Over 112,000 miles on it and she’s still kicking ass. Out of all the cars I’ve owned my favorites are the 1982 Chevy Impala Station Wagon and ( the one I currently own ) a 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage Hatchback.
They are tough little cars! I maintain 30+ of them at work that really rack up the miles and hold up great. There. 2015 at work with over 550k km on the same engine. There’s supposed to a 2014 at a dealer in the US(white bear) that was traded in with 414k miles on it.
Mitsubishi power i have now my second Colt 1.3 95 hp almost 110.000 miles but perfect
@@turdpailsandtrails I had a Yamaha motorcycle with the same valve adjustment when you were saying you’re not sure what you called them. They called them buckets and they called the valve operation shim under bucket valve clearance
the magic of non-turbo engines coupled with good oil change intervals
These engines like a little turbo bolted to em
Thanks for the excellent video Fummins. The Mirage engines seem to be a quality piece, without the weak spots/problem areas of any other manufacturers! 152,000 miles on my 2018, and I'm keepin' it!
The timing chain looks like the one on my bike, but it lasted 450,000 km. Better than a belt in an oil bath :)
This engine clearly had been maintained very well for it to be in this condition. Well done to the owner.
And well done Mitsubishi.
i agree. that engine is CLEAN. the inside is spotless.
Im actually pretty impressed with the no frills simple and practical engine design. I work on european cars under warranty for a living and theres always a spot in me to own stuff thats simple.
Well, this video convinced me to buy a new 2024 Mirage. Bought two new Geo Metros back in the 1990's with 1.0L 3 cylinder Suzuki motors. Both rotted to death at 185k and 186 K miles.
Sadly they killed off the 5spd but the cvts can last if you change the fluid once in a while. I thought they’d suck when I started maintaining them in 2014. I was completely wrong.
@@turdpailsandtrails I think it's going to be difficult to find an entry level economy car that comes with a 5 speed. And probably won't exist within a year or so. Subaru sold a low teens percent and nixed the option. Nissan dealer says people don't even know how to drive them anymore. The once great General Motors does not even manufacture a 5 speed transmission even for the Corvette. What distance do you recommend for the maintenance intervals for the cvt?
If you liked the metro you’ll probably love these things. It seems to be a pretty popular choice for metro fans.
I usually try to change the cvt fluid every 50k km/30k miles. I normally just do a drain and fill, about 2 1/2qts. They don’t hold a lot of fluid and don’t have an external cooler so this seems to work out well. There are a few Mirages in the fleet I maintain with over 500k kms on the original engine and cvt. I use universal cvt fluid that meets the J4 spec in all these cars.
@@turdpailsandtrailsThey are still 5spd in Europe. Bought one last week.
@@eurasianlynxNice. Last year for the 5spd was 2022 in the US and 2023 in Canada.
Thank you. I own a 2015 Mirage with 106k miles. I finished paying it off a month ago. And I look forward to a few more years with it
Thank you very much for taking the time to teach and show us this! I’m actually very interested in the new 2024 Mirages. I am not mechanically inclined, but I am well equipped for general maintenance. Seeing you pull this VERY simple engine apart honestly gives me relief in knowing these tiny engines will go for MILES! We really do appreciate you. Thank you so much!
People bash these cars but man its just simple reliable engineering and even good build quality. Yeah feature wise the car fees like its from 2005 but whats wrong with that
The price they ask
@@Random_Car_Guy bro, 13k for a brand new car and a 100k or 10 year warranty is a steal, and if you pick a manual trans cars at the very least you will have a car that will last you 10-15 years before the motor starts presenting problems, you will get more than your money's worth.
Dont they ask like 17k for the base model now?@@redchris97
nothing. i drive an 05 Vue.
This style of valve lifter design is called 'Shim under bucket." This is the same design used on the majority of motorcycles, but instead of the 'bucket' having different size options, a specific sized shim is placed underneath to achieve the correct clearance.
Well taken care of engine.
Thank you so much for doing these videos! They’ve given me confidence that my decision to purchase one of these a few years back was a safe choice from the point of reliability.
Refreshing to see craftsman tools at work (1/4” impact) I own one and hardly anyone has one. Like the deconstruction work even if it’s only a 3 cylinder engine. Moderate to good narrating. I’m planning to buy a rvr so a mirage with lots of mileage is boosting my confidence. Thank your for your video and time!
Omg. No way!!! This is an amazing video. Thanks fummins!
Just found this video. Thankyou for showing the tear down. It caught my eye because I bought a used mirage for my daughter as a first car and had no idea they were this reliable. I bought Japanese as I had a great time owning a Honda Legend 3.5 V6, I believe they are named Accura in the US. Strangely the Mirage is a very rare animal in the UK and because I bought with 24000 miles sight unseen and had it delivered to my daughter I was completely unaware that it was only 3 cylinders. In her 2 1/2 year ownership she has loved it she tells me and has obviously named it Mitzi, regards from across the pond
There seems to be far more options for small cars over there. The Mirage is the last of the smallest cars remaining but I hear it's going to be cancelled in North America soon. I maintain a fleet of 30-40 of these things and for the most part they're pretty reliable. They can have their issues but are cheap and easy to repair. Except for crash parts.
Most of the other makes in the fleet have far more problems and are more of a pita to fix.
Nice teardown and very good closeups, thanks for sharing 👍 This is eye candy for us motorheads LOL
Those camshafts look awesome
For the price and fuel economy, this is a win for Mitsubishi.
I had a Mitsubishi colt 2011, with this engine,,I put up 160k miles on it,,I had not one single thing break on the car,,Everything still original,,5 speed manual box,,They tend to sweat right where the head meets the block,,but never leak,,I changed the oil every 5k miles and coolent only once,,,Only reason I had to scrap it was some fool ran into the back and bent the frame,,,best car I've ever owned hands down,,,
If I'm not mistaken, the hole in the tensioner is meant for a pin to prevent it from popping out when disassembling it
I've worked on a few Japanese motorcycles and the engineering seems very familiar. Those lifters are normally called buckets but often have a shim either on top or inside the bucket. It sounds like in this case they vary the bucket base thickness rather than using shims.
That red stuff might be the media that the factory uses to blast parts clean. It might be intentionally large so it can be screened free from the tiny pieces removed from the castings and also so that it doesn't get into the oil passages and clog them up like and have premature engine failures like certain Korean manufacturers do.
I was thinking that too.
Over 400k km , that's impressive for such a little motor
Japanese engineering, not flash but reliable.
Those little water pumps can raise a lot of hell
Good catch on the wrist pin - a noise contributor for sure - but from the sound at the end of the video, it sounds like mostly cylinder head noise - prolly excessive valve clearance - you'll have to measure the next one to be sure - on the valve lifters, they are termed solid lifters - the main advantage is low cost
Man that waterpump was cooked lmfao
Yeah, the waterpump on the 524k engine was in far better shape than this one.
9:46 they are called "Direct-Acting Mechanical-Buckets" (DAMB) or just 'buckets'.
I appreciate the detailed engine teardown video...good job. I am amazed at the very good condition of the cylinder head, and I would not have guessed the pistons, rings, and wrist pins would be in such bad shape based upon the head condition. Would you share what oil was used and the OCI for this engine?
This one had mobil1 0w20 for the first 100k km/60k miles then went to klondike 0w20. 6000km/4000mile oil change intervals. Used Motosel 0w20 for the past 6 months or so. Engine was already noisy before switching brands.
These all appear to be very decent synthetic oils, especially Mobil 1, indicating the engine was run with good lubricants. As mentioned, the cylinder head looks very good given the high mileage. The combustion chamber components did not fair as well. But, given the mileage, I am pleasantly surprised how well the Mitsubishi 3-cylinder held up. I look forward to your future videos, especially of Mirage engines. Many thanks again.
Very cool teardown! These cars get a lot of crap for being cheap, underpowered econoboxes but I respect the simplicity that they offer, not to mention their fantastic fuel economy. How come you maintain so many of them? Fleet use?
Yes, most are fleet/delivery cars. I have a black 2014 commuter beater that gets abused once in a while too.
Is it bad I love these little things? Always have, absolutely miss my 03 Mirage (Australian here, all mirages of that era were 3 door hatches). Imagine if mitsubishi revived the old Mirage Cyborg in this model and turbocharged it or something! 😍
Nice video! I own three Mirage's (15, 21, and 23) and always wondered what a teardown would look like. Looks pretty clean on top of the head! Quite a lot of carbon on top of the pistons, though. Probably normal for this mileage. I've been using a few ounces of Lucas additive at every fill up. Have you ever used a regular additive and/or do you think it works? Am I just wasting money?
Marvel Mystery Oil would do better I
no, use a good fuel injection cleaner once a month and change engine oil @ 2000 miles, not 5 or 6k, at 2k! why? skip the oil filter every other oil change since you are only buying 3 quarts of oil at a time. watch especially your tires air pressure, the dealership sets them at 35 psi to make it ride softer, but they can take all the way to 51 psi, so get best mileage by setting tire pressure to 45psi and see true 55mpg at 60mph.
Great cars. I have a 19 Mirage GT and would definitely buy another one again.
Great job. I saw Aisin stamped on the side of the engine. Is this engine really made by Aisin for Mitsubishi? That would be a good thing.
I don't think it's made by Aisin. I hear the 1.2L(3a92) is a shortened version of a 4cylinder 1.6L Mitsubishi engine(4A92). I believe a similar 3 cylinder engine was used in some Smart cars too.
What oil were you using. Looks like it did a pretty good job on protecting the cam.
I wonder if that scoring on the piston has to do with running the engine when it’s not warmed up enough?
Is that red stuff? Some kind of Loctite off the threads maybe? Or some kind of gasket sealer they use in the corners somewhere?
Used bulk 0w20. Cold could be a factor. I believe they used different piston material in 2017 to try and prevent shrinkage in the cold.
That crap in the pickup is more orange than red, all the sealants seem to be grey. I haven’t seen anything that color used anywhere on the engine. I’m stumped.
@@turdpailsandtrails you mean filtered used oil?
As for the pistons a little trick that I do that all of my engines, except for the newest CNC machine, pistons is a take sandpaper, and I put a crosshatch on the piston skirts all the way up to the ring lens.
That way the oil has a shelf to ride on versus just having it on the cylinder side. I wonder if that would maybe help a little bit of that scoring?
@@Indeewoods a slightly higher viscosity would help aswell, and likely with the wrist pin aswell.
So sad that Mitsubishi discontinued the manual transmission in the US. I had been looking at these for a long while. I had the feeling that below all the plastic they were solid cars. When I was finally ready to consider buying one new I found out you cant get a manual. At least the engine will outlive the transmission. Bought a used Mazda 2 instead.
Hardly any manuals left in Australia. Sad.
There are used ones around. I bought a 2019 G4 manual a year and a half ago and it only had 10,600 miles.
Is this from the same car but named "space star" in other markets? looked around and the only car that I could find which looked like a mirage was called "space star"
Yes, these are called space star in other markets. The sedan version is called a g4 in North America but marketed as an Attrage overseas or a Dodge Attitude in Mexico.
@@turdpailsandtrails Alright thx for the answer 👍
So the oil on the back of the engine on the timing cover, where does that oil even come from? I have noticed this on my car as well.
It's right at the seam where the timing cover sits against the cylinder head. I'll have to take a look and see if the 2023's are doing this too.
Really good video. The engine had 450Km miles, how many CV trans did it go through?
Thanks!
It’s still got the original transmission. I did replace the valve body a few years ago when it was acting up and it’s been good since.
@@turdpailsandtrails Why do these JATCO transmissions get such a bad rep then?
A lot of people seem to just hate cvt's. Some still think they have a rubber belt off a skidoo inside that'll slip and melt.
This same model cvt came in the Spark and Versa. They had a fair bit more power and possibly more failures because of that? They don't always shift as nicely or predictably as a conventional automatic, so that doesn't help.
@@BillySBC Mitsubishi has different shift patterns vs the Nissan, and the less you abuse them, the longer it will last... Mirage at 78 HP will never abuse the CVT even if you floor it all the time... change the fluid out every 2 or 3 years and you won't ever have a problem under 150k... and most times 250k.
Are these motors made in Japan? I noticed it says Aisin on the timing cover.
The cars are made in Thailand, I assumed the engines were as well.
@@turdpailsandtrails What are the most common problems (if any) on these 1.2’s?
@@TheFootballDude18 Piston slap seems to be the only problem I've ran into in the fleet cars.
I bought a 2014 Mirage used that spun a rod bearing at around 300k 6 months after I bought it. It looked like it missed a couple oil changes by the looks of the insides compared to the ones I maintain.
I've never had one leak oil yet other than a tiny bit of sweating at the back(rh) side of the timing cover and this 524k engine looked like the front main was starting to sweat a little.
@@turdpailsandtrails It’s quite amazing to me how rugged they seem to be. Simply changing the oil goes a long way. My Colt burns around half a quart every 5k km, with only 156k km on it lol. All I want from a everyday car is reliability
Those are bucket followers and that is indeed how the valves are periodically adjusted with different shims if needed. But because it's a simple design with such low reciprocating mass, they rarely go out of spec.
That's right, these buckets come in different heights and don't use shims. I've never seen them wear out on these engines yet. I don't get out much and rarely tear engines apart.
Are you going to do any rebuild vids on the 3 Cylinder engine? Tear down vids are cool, but I love rebuild vids.
I’ve got a seemingly never ending supply of used engines from the cars that get totaled. So far, don’t have plans to rebuild any until I run out of good used ones.
Congratulations both to mitsubishi and the owner of the car.
I'm not sure what year the change was, but newer engines have roller camshafts. The lobe of the camshafts have a roller made into them.
Yeah that was in 2017. I thought I included a picture of what the newer camshafts look like in one of the tear down videos but I can’t find it now.
Iirc the cvt engines had rollers on both cams and the 5spd only had rollers on the intake camshaft.
@@turdpailsandtrails I work at a Mitsubishi dealership. Generally, the only engine problems we have are from neglect.
io ho una Space star del 2020 ultimo modello fantastica
Q1. Was the clanking sound coming from the wrist pin bore slop?
Q2. What might have caused the wrist pin/pin bore failure?
Q3. Is that a common failure ?
I think it was a combination of piston slap and the sloppy wrist pin.
The other engine I tore down (with 524k km) had the same scuffed cylinders and piston skirts. It's relatively common. But there are some of these with close to 600k kms that are quiet and I had a 2014 with 36,000km(bought used) that had piston slap, and had it replaced under warranty/recall.
I'm not sure if flooding them out bad enough and washing the cylinders out played a factor?
That piston slap seems to be the biggest problem with these engines, otherwise they're pretty reliable.
Must have buckets to adjust the vales I assume.
Yes, they have buckets.
cylinder walls and piston is where the wear happens and power loss happens
A mechanic on another TH-cam channel called the Mirage a "throwaway car". 280k miles begs to differ. That's well into Toyota and Honda territory. So what prompted the engine tear down in this one?
It was pretty noisy and burning oil.
Great video… thanks!
So this engine will be back in another car next week then??😀
….. my 2016 has chain rattle on cold starting at just 39000 miles 😖 … Should be fine to ignore it then….🤔
Warranty?
@@MrDengo999
Nice idea….
The warranty in the UK from new was 5 years and 62500 miles.
Also incidentally the oil service intervals are 12500 miles.
In my 3 years it’s only done 3500 per year and serviced every year. In fact when I bought it in 2021 at 29000 it had been serviced 4 or 5 times already.
Mitsubishi pulled out of the UK completely a couple of years ago although the support from the ex dealers is very good, in my experience.
@@nomdeplume2724 oh damn... Well sucks to be in the UK these cars got a 10 year warranty here.. you shouldn't have changed the oil at such a high interval like they recommend, maybe your engine wouldn't be clacky, I don't think they figured these cars would be owned there that long
@@MrDengo999
My dealer says he’s never seen a timing chain fail on any Mirage he’s ever sold, and he’s sold quite a few over the years.
No doubt mine will be the first 😖🤡.
My commute is only 5 miles a day so I won’t have to walk far if it breaks😀.
If it does fail, I’ll just have to take the Porsche… every cloud has a silver lining …😇
Commonly referred to as ‘buckets’ as well
Few ecomey cars left ten years ago were good amounts now few an far between 24 I think last year in US
Please do tell us the oil change intervals and the brand / viscosity of oil that was ran in this engine !
0w20. Used mobil 1 for the first 60k-ish miles then switched to bulk klondike. Replaced oil every 4000 miles(6000km).
@@turdpailsandtrails awesome . That's good info ! . Did the motor use any oil between oil changes ?
@@EverydayJ1786 If I remember right it was using about 1/2 qt between changes.
@@turdpailsandtrails Interesting, here in EU everybody recommends ~10000 km oil change period. But US videos mention 4-5000 miles (6-8000 km)
How come that some people can drive over 400.000 miles with this engine? Here in Germany the Mirage (named here "Space Star") has huge problems. Some of them have a dead engine after only 30.000 miles due to piston slapping. They constantly scratch on the cylinderwall. Sure this can happen to any engine, Piston Slapping is not an uncommon thing and not everytime a problem. Most Pistons have some play. But on the Mirage we have many reported dead engines after a short amount of miles. So yeah, don´t know what to think about this engine/car.
I worked as a fleet mechanic on this fleet of 30-40 Mirages(and a bunch of other vehicles) used for parts deliveries since 2014. After seeing how well they held up when driven by people who beat on them daily, I bought a used 2014 with only 37k kms. It had piston slap! I drove it for a year like that then had the engine replaced under warranty/recall at 50k kms. I sold it and bought another 2014 with 280k that had transmission problems(cvt). 6 months later it spun a rod bearing....Bought a used cvt and engine with under 6000miles and it should last until the car rusts away now.
I wonder what oil they spec over there? Here they call for 0W20 in these cars.
Piston slap seems to be relatively common on these cars, mostly with higher miles I find(300,000km+). I believe Mitsubishi changed the piston material or coating in 2017 to try and help prevent excessive skirt wear.
One possible cause for piston slap/cylinder wear might be from washed out cylinders? These cars can flood easily if started cold and shut off before the engine is warmed up. There was a recall for 2015 and older models to try and help with that but it didn't solve the problem completely.
I have a Daihatsu Sirion 2009 modell and with three cylinder 1000 cc and I'm at 210000 thousand kilometers without problems
I wonder how it compares to other 3 cylinders like the Suzuki Clario's.
Do you mean celerio (I own one)
@@gingernutpreacher Sorry yes celerio, auto corrected me, my dad has a 1.0 Skoda Fabia, holding up well doesnt burn a drop, belt driven so tensioner is good.
@@super_slav91 my wife has a fabia 1 liter as well I think the engine of the celerio will probably not do quite so many miles (I own one (u think the oil changes 15500 miles is too far apart I know a driving instructor with 120000 miles on one though so we shall see
My Mirage G4 Sedan 650K odo now still kicking and my honda fit 5200k odo now still condition. I change oil every 5k odo😎
Good presentation bro,,, well done❤
Always makes me laugh when Americans say that they have big engines because our little ones in Europe and Asia can't do the mileage...
-No that red crap isn't rtv, it's more like plastic.
-The High mileage Mitsubishi Mirage knock
th-cam.com/video/kBTLDwJEB-c/w-d-xo.html
My first thought was RTV.
But the Renualt-Nissan/Infiniti-Mitsubishi VC (Variable Compression) 1.5L 3 cylinder in the Rogue is junk
Hi fummins, I want to talk to you having trouble in my Mitsubishi Mirage 2012. Need your help to diagnose.
Sure, shoot me an email turdpailsandtrails@gmail.com
I know 450k ain’t no walk in the park 😅, but what would you attribute the excessive piston wear to, if anything in particular? Like Detonation from poor quality fuel, excessive idling time, Oil fuel dilution maybe? Was this engine always serviced with full synthetic 0w-20 weight oil as specified, and did it consume any oil between oil changes (if so, maybe could have benefited from higher viscosity oil?). I know, too many questions and variables at play 😂, but I feel like this engine could have lived a bit longer if not for the piston issues. I mean look at it! It looks wayyy too good and clean for a 450k engine. Impressive!
I was surprised at how clean it was too. This one used a bit of oil. The big reason I replaced it was the wrist pin noise. The rings on this engine were sludged up more than the engine I tore down with over 500k kms.
It had 0w20 synthetic(I can’t find a non-synthetic 0W20)since new. Used Mobil 1 for the first year or so but hence switched to Klondike(bulk) until a year or two ago then switched to Motosel in a 55 gallon drum.
These run pretty rich in the cold and often flood if not warmed up before shutting them off that might have played a factor in the skirt wear.
I had another Mirage that was getting clacky. Tried some snake oils that didn’t help(not my idea)then I filled it with 15w40. It’s got quieter and has been running since May like that.
@@turdpailsandtrails what kind of temps do you see in your area? I imagine quite cold. I live in the tropics, Puerto Rico, my mirage is literally warmed up before I can hit my front gate 😂 Today we have a 127F heat index.
@elcano9l52 wow! Where we live it gets up to 97f in the summer -40f in winter.
what do you do with that engine ? are you going to repair that ? or replace ?
I replaced the engine with a used one that has low miles. The old one went into the scrap bin.
Hi there , we're have a problem with my wife car Mitsubishi Mirage 2014 that ran strong for 163k Km.(101k Miles) it just happen recently with engine RPM surge and then go down on it own it looping like this (like if you push to 2000RPM it for a 3sec. it surge up to 2500 RPM for 1-2sec. then go down to 2000 and repeat the same no matter you push 1000 or any ) , it only happen when hit the gas while A/C turn on if A/C off it ran really smoothly. AND on idle it smoothly for both situation
i do clean MAP sensor ,Throttle Body ,change air filter still not fixed .
we're already bring it to our local trusty mechanic to check it up he only replace the Spark Plug and that is he said it might be a problem with " Throttle body "replace it might cost a few hundred buck (in USD) .
but i think if it problem with " Throttle body " why it only happen when A/C turn on ? or it just have to relearn Throttle Body ?
Anyone suggest for fix it feel free to share it with us .
thank you so much .
Does it have aftermarket cruise(controls not on the steering wheel) installed by chance? Any trouble codes stored?
@@turdpailsandtrails not that i know of , it a mid-option car it doesn’t have a cruise control feature from the factory and we’re never install anything on it bone stock , no check engine light on or anything if you wanna see video clip i will uploaded and send it to you .
I still don’t have OBD2 scanner i looking to buy one that can connect to my phone via WiFi or bluetooth is that a great idea ? Or i should buy a nice AIO one ?
Thank you so much for your time .
@@MovieScene_recap My email is in the "about tab" can send that clip to it.
I've never used a phone to scan a car so wouldn't know what to recommend there. The easiest random shot in the dark might be try fuel system cleaner but I don't know...It's hard/impossible to guess whats wrong without seeing it.
These cars have very thin wiring that's prone to corrosion. It's more likely that you have a wiring issue than an actual component failure. Unless it's the ac compressor starting to pile up.
@@turdpailsandtrails i see , that quite a big job right ? lol the wiring and stuff .
oh the fuel filter it that necessary to change it ? i saw on the owner manual that change every 60k km.(around 40k in miles)
i thing her car never changed before , if it have to i might be clean injectors as well .
thank you so much ,it really help me . i will send you a video .
@@MovieScene_recap It's really not bad. Sounds way harder than it is.
The only fuel filter is a strainer that's inside the bottom of the fuel pump assembly. You have to pull the pump then take the housing apart to get to it. I've never replaced them on the fleet Mirages and some have well over 500k kms/310k miles on them.
Smaller engine than on my motorcycle but man that lasted long. I have issues in my 3.6 Pentastar at 125kkm
This is what an engine that gets oil changes regularily looks like, it's almost mint for the mileage, although don't forget after around 50k miles things start getting out of factory spec. That one piston with excessive wear is a design fault, usually you can find engines where there's one cylinder that gets a different rate of flow through the intake and acts up like this happening on 4cyls, or in some 3 cyls like this i've seen it's usually the middle one that wears rod bearings like mad or scuffs the skirts due to imbalance.
Piston pin is probably just normal wear or by seeing the whiteish residue on the valves could be fuel or timing problem or slight detonation at some point for prolonged periods.
And man those bearing you show from the other engine are not normal, don't tell me the engine didn't overheat 😂😂😂
If people think they are buying a green, environmentally responsible car with an EV they should have just bought this Mitsubishi. It has provided adequate transport for almost half a million kilometres, sipping fuel and requiring minimum maintenance. It will also be fully recycled at end of life.
The car this engine came from is still going. I installed a used engine and it's got 480,000km now. It's hard to beat how efficient these are and they have a low cost of ownership if you avoid buying parts from a dealership.
That red stuff looks like an overabundance of Erling high temperature silicone oil pan sealant.
The only sealant that I could find in this engine is grey. It's almost like red loctite but I didn't see any of that used at all. This was the first time this engine had been opened up.
@turdpailsandtrails The only other red I can think of is the intake manifold gaskets. Any flaking would obviously be evaporated in the cylinder. It's a funky conundrum.....
Found the same kind of orange/red crud on a VVT valve screen on a 2014 Buick Regal.
@@morebeer7673 Weird, I wonder if it’s
from inside the cam phaser?
I have one and the harmonic balancer pulley keeps failing. That's the only problem I ever have. It's a mystery even to the dealership mechanics
Weird, I haven’t seen one fail before.
I wonder if it just needed new buckets
How heavy do you think the engine is?
Engine (all accessories removed, no manifolds, fuel rail or coil packs) = 112 pounds
Wow! That's lighter than I was guessing. Thank you! (:@@turdpailsandtrails
Great, my mirage g4 is 2018 and still quite good, from Philippines here
Really hate this way of adjusting valve lash.
Cvtnya masih ori dari pabrik apa udah pernah ganti? Kuat ga si cvtnya?
Ya, ini cvt aslinya. Itu mengalami masalah pada 233.000 km. Saya mengganti badan katup dengan yang bekas dan masih berfungsi dengan baik sejak saat itu. Ada cvt yang bertahan lama dan ada pula yang tidak. Kami memiliki satu Mirage 2017 di armada dengan kecepatan 540.000 km dengan mesin asli dan cvt. Saya pernah mendengar orang lain online dengan lebih dari 600.000
What fuel oh I just use regular no. 2 diesel.
mine has 70k km 2014 model. ☺
very nice video here 👍
Teardown just 10 mls before the engine seized.😂 look at the pistons and the liners.
It's basically a bike engine by the valvetrain design
What kind of engine oil was used?
0w20. Ran Mobil one for the first year or two then switched to klondike bulk oil.
And in miles that is how many?
Sorry asked to soon. Thankyou.
It's doing 50,000 km per year, is it a hire car?
It's a delivery car.
If it was German plastic guides you would have found pieces in the oil pan after 100k
pelumas mesin memakai merk apa ?
Used Mobil 1 for the first 100k km them Klondike up until recently.
Why not show me milage or km
th-cam.com/video/kBTLDwJEB-c/w-d-xo.htmlsi=A8ioeJcDEp0kiNyi
Who does 50 000km per year???
Most of the mirages in these videos are delivery cars.
The black one is my personal commuter/camping trip beater.
surprisingly little varnishing of the engine inside for 450K KM's, wow. This must have belonged to an older person or someone with common sense to drive the car properly, not like a ricer
It’s actually a company delivery car. But it has had the same driver since 2014.
280k original water pump..... meanwhile im on number 3 at 104k, doing thermostat housing on monday as that has decided to give up and a rad at 91k 🤣. Good old japanese engineerint here, cant fault it
Weird. There’s almost 40 of these in the fleet and I haven’t had a water pump leak. The bearing on this one was worn out but it wasn’t leaking.
The rads I replaced were hit by rocks. The cvt rads stuck out past the condenser on the right side a little so are more prone to getting hit by rocks.
I haven’t seen a thermostat housing fail, (it’s just a piece of plastic, like most cars have)but we don’t get very hot weather up here.
@turdpailsandtrails I should have probably specified that mine isn't a mirage 😂 these seem like genuinely well engineered cars. Meanwhile the Germans are making mistakes left right and centre
japanes engines are the best
Simple servicing and most engines would do the same.