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Hi Folks,
I got a Mitsu Lancer 05 that has some trouble. First of all if I start the
engine
in the morning it sounds like a diesel. That goes away after a few
hundred
yards. I had at the dealer but they say that is normal. The other thing is
the
suspension. If I go thru a dip or speedbumps there is a squieking noise on
the
front. The dealer changed some bushings on the stabilizer but the noise
came
back a while later.Maybe here is a common thing.
mymitsu
The engine problem sounds a lot like a common problem area in many GM cars,
I don't know if it happens in Mitsus though. What happens is the sides of
the pistons, be it the piston rings or the sides of the skirts, wear a
little bit over time against the cylinder walls. This creates a gap
between the sides of the cylinder and the piston. The piston then bangs
around a little bit in the cylinder, making the engine sound a lot like a
diesel. The reason this goes away is because as the car warms up the metal
in the engine expands, making the piston larger and the cylinder smaller,
thus elimintating the gap between the cylinder and piston causing the
banging.
It's reffered to as piston slap. In GMs it is often considered a good
thing. When the engine is warm the piston fits in the cylinder perfectly,
meaning that there is little friction. This causes an increase in gas MPG
as well as performance. Compare this to a car without piston slap, where
the piston and cylinder fit perfectly, and when the engine warms up they
are too tight and create more friction.
I had this problem with my car, and everybody said to leave it be. Usually
it takes a long time to get worse, and is a VERY expensive fix (you need to
tear down the engine). My car however got really bad. In talking to
people, GM almost never fixed this problem, and claimed that it was normal
in these engines. Once again, my car was so bad that after talking with GM
my service rep he was able to get me a brand new (longblock) engine. Thats
how much they didn't want to deal with it, they gave me a $6000
(part+labor) engine for my $50 deductable.
If the car is under warranty, try to get it fixed now. If they tell you
that it's normal for the engine to do that, tell them that they need to fix
all the cars that don't sound like diesels, because then that itsn't
normal. This is all assuming that piston slap is indeed your problem, but
it sounds to me as this is most likely the case, between the symptoms and
your dealer saying it's normal. On the other side, cars with piston slap
have been known to go 200,000+ miles without it getting any worse.
giant016
lol morning diesel sound... very common. my talon does that all the time.
for ur sqeaking problem its very common for 05 lancers to do that.
dealerships put crappy bushings through out the suspension front and back.
if i were u id go out and buy some aftermarket bushings. they sell
aftermarket bushing kits pretty cheap now a days. good luck
DARKtEAGLE
