MetalRob

Hello, The time has come and I must part ways with my Red 1988 Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R that I picked up in December 2010 for $2k. I haven't had the time to keep up with this project so it has been replaced and is currently taking up space in my driveway. It is currently running/driving/registered/insured/inspected and was planning on selling it in the spring until I found its replacement sooner than anticipated. A brief history. I found this car in NH in the White Mountains area. The previous owner was a younger guy who's parents purchased it from him as a graduation gift. They had purchased it from the original owner's daughter who had passed in 2002 IIRC. The car came with all records from the original owner, right down to the window sticker. The car was never modified and was well cared for by the original owner. The guy I purchased it from was having financial issues and was not familiar with Starquests and had to sell it. Since I've owned the car I have done the following: OE plugs NGK Wires Rebuilt the throttle body Replaced the fuel injectors due to the secondary leaking Replaced the distributor with an OE part Rear brakes/pads/calipers/stainless hoses Rear parking brake cables Installed a *DM 4 row aluminum heater 160 degree thermostat Primary cooling fan sensor Transmission Mount Haven't got around to, but have the parts: Front pads/rotor/calipers/stainless hoses Carrier Bearing & U-joints (car has a slight vibration above 30mph) New header panel (old one has some dings) 4 Patch panels for the rear (rockers rotted in front of rear wheels) *DM large FMIC 1G DSM MAF The good: Box Flare awesomeness, what more can you ask. Car has never let me down or overheated on me. Engine runs smooth and has 82,378 miles. Transmission & clutch feel great, doesn't pop or grind. The cloth interior is in great shape with only a small nick in the driver's door panel and the top of the rear seats have been discolored from the sun. The not-so-good: Starting to rot. The patch panels will take care of the rockers but underneath is beginning to get worse & what is behind the rockers is unknown. However when installing the brake cables there was no signs of rot coming through the floors. The original owner had a rust preventive treatment done on the car in the early 90's but now New England is trying to reclaim it. It should be no big problem for someone who has the skills to repair. The front air dam has a crack in it, which happens as soon as you leave the showroom. Headlamp motor does not work off the switch anymore. I had taken apart all the switches, cleaned & lubed them and they worked fine for a few days. Put a new switch in & they worked again recently. They can be cranked manually. Front wiper motor stopped working recently & rear wiper motor never worked as long as I have owned the car. Some panels in front have been repainted. Some scrapes and bruises but nothing major. Fuel filler neck may need replacing, when completely full a bit of fuel drips out. Took about 5 gallons out after it was full & it stopped dripping. I may be forgetting some things but this is what comes to mind. I refuse to sell this car to anyone who is not an enthusiast or familiar with these so I'm avoiding Craigslist idiots. I paid $2,000 and I will sell it for $2,000. If I had a garage I would store it until I could fix it. Even though it's a bit rough, the chances of finding a nicer one in New England are getting harder. Once the car is unburied from the latest snowstorm I can take more pictures, I don't know why I never bothered taken many pictures before so here's a few, including the rot underneath. Car is in Quincy, MA PM me for contact information or email preferably since this site appears to be down every now and then. robmsantos@gmail.com pics - http://88starion.shutterfly.com/ Tried to post images but kept getting image extension not allowed in this community?

Cleaned it up and it worked for a while, checked fuse/relays all seem fine. Looking for a working pop-up switch, pics & cost shipped to 02169. PM me.

It would be nice if it were the neck but it's about 2-3 inches from there unless it's dripped down & followed a path towards the back. Being a New England car it's also highly likely that rot got to the tank. I'll find out after I get back from running the BABE Rally.

So a great start to a beautiful weekend. Hadn't driven the Starion in a few weeks so Saturday morning I spent a couple hours cleaning her inside & out took her out for a drive. Stopped for gas & cried a little when 17.5 gallons cost me $70. Drove it to my second job to get my schedule a few miles away came out & noticed a nice steady drip at the back of the car. Knew from across the lot that it was fuel, gave her a sniff & sure enough it was. Well now once I get back from vacation in two weeks it's time to drain the rest (got 5 out to stop the drip) & drop the tank & see what I'm working with. From what it looks like so far is that the seams are pretty corroded & that is where the leak is coming from. Will likely look into replacing the tank with a good used one, but would like to know what else people have used in it's place.

Looking for a good passing relay, also looking for a set of good CV axles for my 88 Starion. Shipping to 02169 or pickup if close by.

So in the cold weather (50 or below) the headlamps were taking a couple of minutes to open till eventually one night they took 20 minutes to open up and remained in the open position over the next few days. I checked the fusible link, gets warm but the lights still come on, cleaned that up. I then disassemble the pop up switch & headlight switch cleaned that all up & re-applied some dielectric grease. I think the previous owner had been in there some time ago. Once I put everything back together they worked fine. They opened with no delay, it looked like the right motor was just a tad slower than the left, not enough to be concerned. Fast forward to one week later when I got in & pushed the buttons & nothing. What should be my next step, passing relay or something else? Also, can these be manually opened? I'm used to the motors being beside the lights up top & see this underneath.

Picked up a distributor, vacuum advance, cap & rotor bundle off him. Everything worked perfectly & fixed the odd miss that I'd been chasing. Ten thumbs up!

Sorry for posting this because it's probably been asked numerous times but searching for 2 or 3 letter queries doesn't work & I don't see any stickies. I got a 1G MAS off of my friend & need to know what is needed to do the conversion on my 88. If someone could send me a link or pictures of what needs to be done I'd appreciate so I can decide if I want to do the mod. Thanks

I'd be down to meet up. Depending on the condition of everyone's cars there are some roads that we could drive (Kanc. or Mohawk Trail). Should people just rather gather in a parking lot with no hassle (so long as people behave) I can secure an AutoZone lot that can hold 50+ cars.

Driver's side shaft on the 88 Starion is clinking with every bit of movement now & it looks like the boots probably been off before. Looking for a very good condition part but would prefer to find someone that remans them. I work in parts & have no leads in my area (Boston). Thanks

Hey guys thought I'd follow up with the findings. I haven't had much time to get to the car but I've been taking advantage of my 3 day weekend. I ended up picking up a new distributor cap & rotor since there was a bit of oil residue around the cap. The contact on the rotor wasn't in too bad of shape & seemed to be working fine but I ended up replacing them anyhow. Well, when I removed the #4 wire I found that the connector was pushed back into the boot & I had to tweak it with some pliers to get it back where it should have been. I took it out for a quick run & no more miss in the high rpm range & it idles much better now as well. I ordered a set of NGK wires to replace the Beldens that are on there now & that should smooth things out some more.

I was shocked at how slow these cars & the G35s were in stock form when I ran a few of them with my old Mazdaspeed 3 with only a Cobb AP stock 93 tune. I gave two of them a one car lead & still put about 3 car lengths on them. My car wasn't the quickest but I figured it would be at least a dead even run.

Me, hence the name. Not a fan of Chimaira though.

Purchased a very clean header panel from him. Nice honest seller, would buy from again.

Too tempting to come pick up stuff I don't need since I'm in the area as well.