The_Ginger_Stig

I just got under there and it looks like what I thought was a bushing was just a dust boot. This leaves me thinking maybe there's just play in the steering gearbox??? i get pretty decent vibrations in my steering wheel at like 38 - 46 mph and it goes away at lower, higher, and way higher speeds. The car only has 45k so I wouldn't think the box would be worn out but maybe there's a dead old bushing hiding somewhere? I'll investigate and update as I go.

I got the mks steering coupler replacement in a while back ago and while it did help with a little bit of slop I felt, but I still get vibrations in my wheel. Diagnosis lead to me discovering a torn idler arm bushing which brings us to the question: Can I get the idler bushing mount out by itself or do I have to pull the entire drag link out? Last time I was under the car I remember it looked like I might be able to just undo the idler arm and its mount but I was asking here to see if anyone has any experience in that area before I go gung-ho and find out I don't have a ride to work As a side note, I have tie rods and ball joints ready to go so would pulling out the idler arm change the alignment enough to warrant doing the rest of the suspension "items"

I thought a heavier oil would fair better in the Arizona 110+ heat and the oil pressure didn't change a whole lot just maybe an 1/8th more on the gauge at idle and under boost. I did end up putting it in because I had some free time to change the oil which I won't get more of for a bit, but would you recommend switching it out immediately or just at the next oil change interval?

I've seen all the posts that mention running 20w-50 in passing but there seems to be some people that caution against it. I was pleased to find that my local parts chain sells vr1 because I know the added ZDDP is supposed to be good for older heads and valve trains, but I also know that the FSM doesn't have 20w-50 listed as a possibility. Does anyone have any experience running a 20w-50 or even vr1 specifically?

I ended up just needing to rotate them while pressing with the little piston cube you can find at parts stores. Brakes feeling nice and my handbrake is nice and good again 😎 thanks Texas

I started a brake change yesterday and got one side of the rear done nice, but when I got to the second side the piston was juuust out enough that I couldn't fit the new pads in. I tried compressing the piston with a standard tool but it didn't want to go in at all and knowing how hard finding some common parts are I wasn't about to embark on a caliper rebuild the day before I needed to get to work Is there anything specific about our brake systems that needs to be done to allow the piston to compress? I've seen some pistons where they need to be rotated but the FSM specifically states to not rotate pistons when installing into the caliper so I figured that was out of the question. If anyone answers today you're an absolute lifesaver

Funnily enough that's the exact price I was quoted, hope all goes well.

Yeah just my local firestone, I have a pretty decent vibration in my wheel that makes it shake and it's a cyclical vibration that goes away at some speeds so I have a decent assortment of reasons to believe them. I just got a local wheel shop from them and I'm going to try that route because it seems a lot cheaper than buying a new set.

Those look really good on our cars, wish they weren't on back order 😕 Seems like anything around our size is either crazy expensive or steelies haha

I just got the unfortunate news that one of my front wheels is bent ;/ Currently I have the SHP wheels on front and rear ( 8j and 9j ) and I've been looking around for a new set and seems like they're all wayyy out of my price range, which is a shame because our wheels are some of the coolest factory wheels ever made imo. The main question I'm asking is: I'm looking at a set of 4 16x8's and wanted to know if I would run into any problems running a slightly less wide wheel on the rear considering the car was originally staggered with 16x8 in the front and 16x9 in the back. The new set linked above does have a +20mm offset and I know the rears have a -10mm offset, so would I run into any problems there if anyone has experience with different offsets? Finally, does that wheel fit the image of the car? I love the look of mesh wheels, especially the SSR Formula mesh, but I don't want to disservice the look or break necks in the wrong way. Ideally I've been trying to find a set of 1 piece wheels because I really don't like the look of the nuts of the lip but there doesn't seem to be many options that don't fetch used car money anymore, so if anyone has any wheel recommendations feel free to let me know.

Thanks Texas, I just ordered this thermosensor because it looks like it has the on off temp inscribed on the outside and has MB007639 in its description so maybe it'll actually work. I also ordered the one from CoolCat to keep as a spare or use if the other one doesn't work. Drove a decent bit today and the car seemed to be doing really good on temps (under the halfway mark), but it was still only around 75 this morning so we'll see how it holds up after the heat hits. The bearings in the secondary fan seem to be crying for help so I'll probably end up using a "slim" ebay fan that uses the same amperage or less eventually.

The problem has been found! When I bought a new primary thermosensor to replace the secondary, I made the mistake of trusting a cheap ebay listing that had the right part number. The reason the secondary and ac fan are always on is the sensor is always grounded. As I understand from the FSM, the sensors should only ground when they're at a specific temperature. My next adventure is finding a real primary sensor and probably a replacement secondary fan because mine sounds pretty unhealthy but I'm pretty sure the issues have been found and can be resolved. As for the reason my links were smoking... oh man I feel pretty bad for this one but I had the primary link going off the battery probably 2.5 X the length of the original one 😕 After it's been replaced with a fresh one and cut to the appropriate length it still gets hot-ish but normal link hot-ish. If anyone has a known good primary sensor or a good secondary fan I'll take both. Thank you to everyone that helped me 👍

Oh boy. So I pulled out the 2nd rad fan relay (the relay on the right from the group of two relays with rubber shielding behind the horn) as indicated by the FSM here, and none of my fans ever turned on. I got a used but good fusible links box for the head, tails, eci, etc and have all new links in it. The links didn't smoke or even get too hot so that solves the original problem I guess, but now I don't know why the primary fan and AC fan won't turn on. I did discover a massive new exhaust leak though . Did I end up pulling out the wrong relay? I currently have the AC fan plugged in but I had the 2nd rad fan unplugged to avoid running power through it because if it's shorted then it'll probably just burn up the new links right? Looking at the wiring diagram on pg 90 of the FSM it looks like the only way that the "Radiator fan air condition relay (1)" can get power is through the 2nd fan motors connector but some of the other relays should have closed right? To restate: Primary fan and AC fan never came on even after the car was fully warmed up and a bit past half way on the coolant temp on the dash. My primary has never failed to come on at exactly halfway on that gauge so I'm completely stumped. edit: I retried getting the fans to work at all with the secondary fan plugged in this time and without the secondary fan relay and still no dice. Fuse links didn't get too hot with the secondary fan plugged in though. Side note for anyone that needs some NLA fusible links, I actually found some wire on the jungle site. The oem Mitsubishi quick connect terminals are a little bigger than standard sizes so I just ordered a pack of standard size terminals and opened them up and adjusted them. This wire can be used for "green" fusible links, .5mm^2 This wire can be used for "red" fusible links, .85 mm^2

@psu_CrashStill haven't found the issue , just responding to TexasQuest. I'll check the secondary fan as soon as I can. If I'm reading the wiring diagram on page 90 right, it looks like pulling out the secondary fan relay would bypass any power going to the secondary rad fan until the pressure switch, dual pressure switch, or the engine coolant temperature switch closes right? So if I pull the secondary rad fan relay out and the AC fan comes on immediately when the ign swt is turned on it suggests that 1 or more of the 3 previously mentioned sensors might be faulty? However, if I pull out the secondary rad fan relay out and the AC fan doesn't immediately turn on and instead it turns on around the time that the Primary fan turns on, it suggests that there might be a fault in the secondary rad fan relay correct? I'll be checking the resistance of the fan and will update within the hour. I'm terribly sorry if that was too many questions or worded too poorly, I'm battling against time in college right now and I didn't get much time to read through the diagram. I'll drag this car kicking and screaming to a daily driver status but it might take awhile

Good to know. My car never overheated when it was in Washington state but as soon as the Arizona weather hit it's been a constant struggle. Even with that giant aluminum radiator CXRacing makes it still gets hot sitting in traffic. The car only has around 45k miles so I hope it's not losing its head or head gasket, but I've started to doubt anything on these old cars will last another 3 years haha.