jremeryiii
11-02-2016, 10:41 AM
Well I bought my 1996 Galant S back in 2013 for $800. Before that, I drove a 1985 Dodge Ram 50. I loved that truck when I drove it and still do now. Mitsubishi did that truck right, but it was ceasing to become practical to me. I had started driving my two sisters to school everyday and needed something bigger. I decided I wanted a manual w/OD, power steering windows and locks, a trunk, a backseat, A/C, cruise control, fuel injection, and comfortable seats all around. I wanted to get all of that for under $1000. My mom found the car I have now on Facebook with 208,000 miles. I test drove it and thought it was the fastest thing I had ever driven and definitely the most fun. We bought it that day. It was a piece though. The back left door didn't shut at all. A/C and cruise control didn't work. There was a wear hole in the driver seat and a cigarette hole in the back seat. It had never been a smoker's car, but it had obviously been smoked in. It smelled like dirt. It leaked coolant and used a little oil. It had a mean belt squeal. I am yet to have seen headlights that were cloudier. It was missing the Front badge and grille inserts. The clear coat had started peeling and it looked like someone had tried to mend that by sanding it with 40grit and then gave up. The dash was dried out, cracked, and peeling. The fuel and trunk remote releases didn't work. The trunk light didn't work. The speakers were all shot. On top of all that, it had bigger tires in the back than in the front, four different tire brands, and only three wheel covers.
I literally have one picture of the car in that shape simply because it was a turd.
http://i.imgur.com/Iy5zmDf.jpg
This has always been the good side.
In the three years since I bought it, a lot has gone down.
The first night I had it, I managed to lock my keys in the trunk (this was bad because the remote release lever didn't work. Since the car was unlocked, I was able to take the back seat out and retrieve them. I had 4 spare keys made the next day. Maybe a month or two later, I found this cover.
http://i.imgur.com/Put8PqB.jpg
Turns out that little lever was what had kept me from opening the trunk from inside the car the whole time.
Day 2:
I needed to take care of that coolant leak. The previous owner had replaced the radiator for reasons unknown to me. The leak was coming from the resevoir. Someone had attempted JB welding it together, but that doesn't work very well with plastic my dad came up with this temporary solution.
http://i.imgur.com/PLwXkbs.jpg
Mobil1 full synthetic was about $7/qt at the time. The junkyard wanted $5 for the resevoir. I kept the Mobil1 qt. I like it. Leak fixed.
I also went that day and bought a set of black wheel covers and blue valve stem caps.
I figured out that the trunk light was just unplugged.
Day 3: I learned the front bumper is to low too fit over the average curb-stop. My mom went to pull forwards and pulled the bumper a good ways off the car nothing a few zip ties couldn't fix though.
In the next few weeks I took the back left door panel off to see why the door wouldn't shut. It turned out there was a spring in the mechanism that had broken and fallen down in the door. One spare spring from the garage later and it was good as new.
December 2013:
I got a 12" enclosure (I had the sub laying around waiting for a home), a 900w Pioneer amp, and new speakers all around (except the dash speakers). The head unit was an old Sony Xplode but I no reason to believe it was in bad shape. My reasoning was correct.
http://i.imgur.com/jPUr4Y6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/bepILga.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/rEBVFcO.jpg
The sub took up some real estate in the trunk, but it was entirely worth it.
I also got a headlight restoration kit. This worked to like 65% success. I later discovered that both headlight housings were cracked and had large holes. These were causing them to oxidize on the inside as well as the outside. I didn't restore them again.
Lastly, I got seat covers and floor mats to cover up the grossness and protect the upholstery.
Spring 2014:
My radio blew my interior fuse. I swapped the fuse and went like 20 minutes and blew it again. I swapped it one more time and it did it immediately. I ready to get a new head unit when my dad decided to take it apart. Inside he found a penny! Once removed, no more fuses blew.
It was around this time I noticed that my front right door lock wasn't always working with power locks. It has since quit entirely.
Summer 2014:
The car got a much deserved paint job, and the A/C got fixed.
October 2014:
I was riding down the road, and the car shut off like it had run out of gas except it had a full tank. I rolled it to a side street and found that it had no spark and the fuel pump was working. Every sensor I could find was unplugged and plugged in again. No success. I went to the closest junkyard, and they let me borrow an ECU to see if it was the problem. It wasn't. I had to leave the car there for the night. The next day, I went to class and then went back for more diagnostics. I dismantled the distributor, tested the coil, and found it was under spec. So, I went in search of a replacement. The same junkyard didn't have a distributor and neither did the next two closest. I ended up two hours away and almost lost before I found a broken one in my third place. I took it, went back, swapped out the coils, and the car wouldn't start. That night I flat-towed it to a shop (the only time I've ever done taken it to one and ever hope to). The next day, they told me my crank position sensor was bad. I told them to replace it since I couldn't go anywhere. They figured out that my balance shaft belt had broken and taken it out. I had them go ahead and replace the timing belt and water pump at the same time. Three days and $500 later my car was re timed and running better than it ever had. I swapped the ECU out and took it back to the junkyard.
December 2014:
I bought the fog lights on the car currently from Walmart for $30. They were brighter than my fogged out headlights.
I got a security system. It was a pain to install. The wires are extremely difficult to splice into. Any one with good wiring experience can do this job. It is a great asset for my car. The alarm is super loud.
http://i.imgur.com/TVh9cTD.jpg
January 2015:
My parents ordered new headlights for my car as a gift, and I got an eagle eye (or something like that) and a depo. It was March by the time I had two that actually matched from this company. I got the ones on the car now, and they've been great. They came with Sylvania Xtravision bulbs in them.
I also learned at this time that my right rear door doesn't close below 60 degrees F. It can stay shut, but if I open it, there's no getting it closed unless I lock it and close it gently, but that only holds it shut. It doesn't actually get the door to latch.
I also replaced my motor mounts.
March 2015:
I was being an idiot and went and got two speeding tickets in two weeks.
Two weeks after that, I was doing a pull (to the speed limit) and the speedometer went bezerk. Over the next few months it ceased working entirely. I replaced the speed sensor with no luck. I went to my trusty junkyard and swapped gauge clusters with no luck so I swapped them back and they never charged me again. I deducted it was wiring and gave up since I could use gps to track the car anyway.
August 2015: I noticed some moisture in one of my headlights. I took the pack of silica beads out of a shoe box I had laying around and taped it to the inside of the low beam cap. It dried out significantly within a week and entirely within a month. I've recommended this solution to everyone I know with this problem.
December 2015: My tierod end nut came off at some point causing the car to become immobile in the driveway (thankfully). I went to the junkyard and grabbed another castle nut one off an 8g they have there (the only 7g they have didn't have the nuts). They let me have it so for the price of a cotter pin problem solved.
Spring 2016:
Over the winter, my car's A/C had been temper mental. The fans would kick on with switch in the car, but the compressor wouldn't. I narrowed it down to a wiring job I had been suspect of for a year and a half. It was the positive lead going to the A/C clutch. It had been grounding out through a cheap connector and fried the wire and the connector. I redid the job and have had no trouble at all since.
My car also got tinted windows.
Summer 2016:
My trusty 11yo headunit's faceplace stopped working. So I bought the much younger cousin of it with bluetooth, USB, etc...
I decided to finally diagnose my speedometer after getting a hold of the 1100 page service manual pdf. It turned out that the harness had shorted itself out about 4 inches from the sensor. I went to pull the connector off and the harness came with it! I soldered and taped everything. The speedo still didn't work. I pulled my cluster out and noticed that it had shorted the circuitry for the speedo too. I went back to my junkyard, got the same cluster back (it was still on the same shelf in their office from a year ago), and swapped it right there. It worked so I paid them and left. I later swapped the faceplates so It didn't look like I had an auto cluster in a manual car, and I swapped the speedos so I could roughly know the true mileage on the car.
I ended up swapping the tachs too. the one from the junkyard was sort of jittery. I think this was from lack of use.
I had a thought. the stock airbox doesn't flow too well. What if I do something about that? I took packing tape and covered the resonator and all of the structure inside. The intake is now much louder and I feel like it's a little more responsive too.
August 2016:
I backed out of a parking spot in town and the ball joint on my front lower control arm on the front left wheel separated. I sadly had to get the car towed for real for the first time. I swapped it out and no issues since.
Since I bought the car, my car had a belt squeal. It was minor when I got it, and it only got worse. I have always run Gates belts. I changed alternators and that didn't help. The alternator belt was impossible to get tight. It through belts off the car once! Sometime in 2015, I bought a shorter alternator belt. This seemed to work for a while, but one day it started up again, and I noticed the tensioner was gone. So when my alternator quit working and I had to swap it under warranty in an O'reilly parking lot I just threaded a bolt through the mounting bracket and pried it tight. That worked, except the hole where the mounting bracket bolts to the block is stripped out (probably as a result of me having to mess with it so much ( I didn't over torque it)). I got my dad to help me pry it tighter while I pushed on the bracket to get the bolt in a bind. This worked and the belt squeal was gone.
My car gave the same symptoms as it had in October 2014. This time it had spark but no fuel. I replaced the fuel pump with no success after determining the crank sensor was fine. I tested the fuel pump relay and it was fine. The injector relay wasn't getting power though. So I swapped the ECUs again (they also had this right where I had left it). It started right up. I spent nearly a week to diagnose a problem that took 20 minutes to fix. I've noticed no difference in performance or fuel economy between my manual ECU and the auto one.
My horn stopped working so I sprayed a load of WD-40 in it and it sprang to life.
October 2016:
I went out to the junkyard, bought a 1996 Accord front lip, and installed it on the car. It looks 85% great. There is a decent gap between the bumper and the lip on each side about 1/3 of the way from the edge to the center. On stock suspension it sits about 3 inches off the ground.
Belt squeal came back... I need to buy an alternator tensioner.
My car started making the same noise it made right before the ball joint fell off again. This time it was the same ball joint on the passenger side. The boot was still in good shape so I drilled a hole in it and put a grease fitting on it. The noise is now gone.
I replaced the left inner tie rod as it had too much play. I also replaced both power steering boots. This meant I had to align the car's toe in which anyone can do with the right tools (wrenches and tape measure), know how, and patience. The car doesn't pull at all and now has zero play in the steering. Before, every few seconds that left wheel would just start to veer in one direction or the other.
I went to Walmart and bought a pair of LED light bars to go inside the trunk. They aren't visible during the day, but at night, the light up the trunk really well.
http://i.imgur.com/omfixVs.jpg
I cleaned and waxed the car the other day and gave it it's first photo shoot
http://i.imgur.com/uD4mMsC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NGrZvoW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jE7jvDF.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cdPpTxP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mhjJcYG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IoPdZNp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0nXtIb9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iGh4Vf5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BJAqEYp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2fgCDgk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GOx5GUe.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JgvcucE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/tyQYLMV.jpg
I always use a driver floor mat. Therefore it looks terrible and I left it out. I have no idea when, but at some point in the first year, I bought those pedal covers, the shift boot, and the shift knob. The shift knob is terribly cheap. I like the OEM one way better but it seems to always get sticky and gross.
http://i.imgur.com/SZBkQSV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/v8KJDUA.jpg
This is my solution to the terribly designed cup holders Mitsubishi gave the 7g.
http://i.imgur.com/DZsyHcU.jpg
I typically clean the back seat lightly with a scrub brush using Gain mixed in hot water and then extract with a Shop-Vac. I've had pretty good success. It gets better every time I do it, but it takes like two hours. So I've never gotten it perfect.
http://i.imgur.com/8SBNFck.jpg
I feel like no car's story is complete without a pic of the engine bay.
Two more shots the day after I put the lip on. I found a good dip and parked the front tires in it. That's credit card fitment with the ground.
http://i.imgur.com/QRW0y6V.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iGARhdc.jpg
Thank you for reading this story. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. I know I don't have the best example, but I love my 7g and I want to own it forever. I will continue to post about anything I do on the car and try to include pictures.
I literally have one picture of the car in that shape simply because it was a turd.
http://i.imgur.com/Iy5zmDf.jpg
This has always been the good side.
In the three years since I bought it, a lot has gone down.
The first night I had it, I managed to lock my keys in the trunk (this was bad because the remote release lever didn't work. Since the car was unlocked, I was able to take the back seat out and retrieve them. I had 4 spare keys made the next day. Maybe a month or two later, I found this cover.
http://i.imgur.com/Put8PqB.jpg
Turns out that little lever was what had kept me from opening the trunk from inside the car the whole time.
Day 2:
I needed to take care of that coolant leak. The previous owner had replaced the radiator for reasons unknown to me. The leak was coming from the resevoir. Someone had attempted JB welding it together, but that doesn't work very well with plastic my dad came up with this temporary solution.
http://i.imgur.com/PLwXkbs.jpg
Mobil1 full synthetic was about $7/qt at the time. The junkyard wanted $5 for the resevoir. I kept the Mobil1 qt. I like it. Leak fixed.
I also went that day and bought a set of black wheel covers and blue valve stem caps.
I figured out that the trunk light was just unplugged.
Day 3: I learned the front bumper is to low too fit over the average curb-stop. My mom went to pull forwards and pulled the bumper a good ways off the car nothing a few zip ties couldn't fix though.
In the next few weeks I took the back left door panel off to see why the door wouldn't shut. It turned out there was a spring in the mechanism that had broken and fallen down in the door. One spare spring from the garage later and it was good as new.
December 2013:
I got a 12" enclosure (I had the sub laying around waiting for a home), a 900w Pioneer amp, and new speakers all around (except the dash speakers). The head unit was an old Sony Xplode but I no reason to believe it was in bad shape. My reasoning was correct.
http://i.imgur.com/jPUr4Y6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/bepILga.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/rEBVFcO.jpg
The sub took up some real estate in the trunk, but it was entirely worth it.
I also got a headlight restoration kit. This worked to like 65% success. I later discovered that both headlight housings were cracked and had large holes. These were causing them to oxidize on the inside as well as the outside. I didn't restore them again.
Lastly, I got seat covers and floor mats to cover up the grossness and protect the upholstery.
Spring 2014:
My radio blew my interior fuse. I swapped the fuse and went like 20 minutes and blew it again. I swapped it one more time and it did it immediately. I ready to get a new head unit when my dad decided to take it apart. Inside he found a penny! Once removed, no more fuses blew.
It was around this time I noticed that my front right door lock wasn't always working with power locks. It has since quit entirely.
Summer 2014:
The car got a much deserved paint job, and the A/C got fixed.
October 2014:
I was riding down the road, and the car shut off like it had run out of gas except it had a full tank. I rolled it to a side street and found that it had no spark and the fuel pump was working. Every sensor I could find was unplugged and plugged in again. No success. I went to the closest junkyard, and they let me borrow an ECU to see if it was the problem. It wasn't. I had to leave the car there for the night. The next day, I went to class and then went back for more diagnostics. I dismantled the distributor, tested the coil, and found it was under spec. So, I went in search of a replacement. The same junkyard didn't have a distributor and neither did the next two closest. I ended up two hours away and almost lost before I found a broken one in my third place. I took it, went back, swapped out the coils, and the car wouldn't start. That night I flat-towed it to a shop (the only time I've ever done taken it to one and ever hope to). The next day, they told me my crank position sensor was bad. I told them to replace it since I couldn't go anywhere. They figured out that my balance shaft belt had broken and taken it out. I had them go ahead and replace the timing belt and water pump at the same time. Three days and $500 later my car was re timed and running better than it ever had. I swapped the ECU out and took it back to the junkyard.
December 2014:
I bought the fog lights on the car currently from Walmart for $30. They were brighter than my fogged out headlights.
I got a security system. It was a pain to install. The wires are extremely difficult to splice into. Any one with good wiring experience can do this job. It is a great asset for my car. The alarm is super loud.
http://i.imgur.com/TVh9cTD.jpg
January 2015:
My parents ordered new headlights for my car as a gift, and I got an eagle eye (or something like that) and a depo. It was March by the time I had two that actually matched from this company. I got the ones on the car now, and they've been great. They came with Sylvania Xtravision bulbs in them.
I also learned at this time that my right rear door doesn't close below 60 degrees F. It can stay shut, but if I open it, there's no getting it closed unless I lock it and close it gently, but that only holds it shut. It doesn't actually get the door to latch.
I also replaced my motor mounts.
March 2015:
I was being an idiot and went and got two speeding tickets in two weeks.
Two weeks after that, I was doing a pull (to the speed limit) and the speedometer went bezerk. Over the next few months it ceased working entirely. I replaced the speed sensor with no luck. I went to my trusty junkyard and swapped gauge clusters with no luck so I swapped them back and they never charged me again. I deducted it was wiring and gave up since I could use gps to track the car anyway.
August 2015: I noticed some moisture in one of my headlights. I took the pack of silica beads out of a shoe box I had laying around and taped it to the inside of the low beam cap. It dried out significantly within a week and entirely within a month. I've recommended this solution to everyone I know with this problem.
December 2015: My tierod end nut came off at some point causing the car to become immobile in the driveway (thankfully). I went to the junkyard and grabbed another castle nut one off an 8g they have there (the only 7g they have didn't have the nuts). They let me have it so for the price of a cotter pin problem solved.
Spring 2016:
Over the winter, my car's A/C had been temper mental. The fans would kick on with switch in the car, but the compressor wouldn't. I narrowed it down to a wiring job I had been suspect of for a year and a half. It was the positive lead going to the A/C clutch. It had been grounding out through a cheap connector and fried the wire and the connector. I redid the job and have had no trouble at all since.
My car also got tinted windows.
Summer 2016:
My trusty 11yo headunit's faceplace stopped working. So I bought the much younger cousin of it with bluetooth, USB, etc...
I decided to finally diagnose my speedometer after getting a hold of the 1100 page service manual pdf. It turned out that the harness had shorted itself out about 4 inches from the sensor. I went to pull the connector off and the harness came with it! I soldered and taped everything. The speedo still didn't work. I pulled my cluster out and noticed that it had shorted the circuitry for the speedo too. I went back to my junkyard, got the same cluster back (it was still on the same shelf in their office from a year ago), and swapped it right there. It worked so I paid them and left. I later swapped the faceplates so It didn't look like I had an auto cluster in a manual car, and I swapped the speedos so I could roughly know the true mileage on the car.
I ended up swapping the tachs too. the one from the junkyard was sort of jittery. I think this was from lack of use.
I had a thought. the stock airbox doesn't flow too well. What if I do something about that? I took packing tape and covered the resonator and all of the structure inside. The intake is now much louder and I feel like it's a little more responsive too.
August 2016:
I backed out of a parking spot in town and the ball joint on my front lower control arm on the front left wheel separated. I sadly had to get the car towed for real for the first time. I swapped it out and no issues since.
Since I bought the car, my car had a belt squeal. It was minor when I got it, and it only got worse. I have always run Gates belts. I changed alternators and that didn't help. The alternator belt was impossible to get tight. It through belts off the car once! Sometime in 2015, I bought a shorter alternator belt. This seemed to work for a while, but one day it started up again, and I noticed the tensioner was gone. So when my alternator quit working and I had to swap it under warranty in an O'reilly parking lot I just threaded a bolt through the mounting bracket and pried it tight. That worked, except the hole where the mounting bracket bolts to the block is stripped out (probably as a result of me having to mess with it so much ( I didn't over torque it)). I got my dad to help me pry it tighter while I pushed on the bracket to get the bolt in a bind. This worked and the belt squeal was gone.
My car gave the same symptoms as it had in October 2014. This time it had spark but no fuel. I replaced the fuel pump with no success after determining the crank sensor was fine. I tested the fuel pump relay and it was fine. The injector relay wasn't getting power though. So I swapped the ECUs again (they also had this right where I had left it). It started right up. I spent nearly a week to diagnose a problem that took 20 minutes to fix. I've noticed no difference in performance or fuel economy between my manual ECU and the auto one.
My horn stopped working so I sprayed a load of WD-40 in it and it sprang to life.
October 2016:
I went out to the junkyard, bought a 1996 Accord front lip, and installed it on the car. It looks 85% great. There is a decent gap between the bumper and the lip on each side about 1/3 of the way from the edge to the center. On stock suspension it sits about 3 inches off the ground.
Belt squeal came back... I need to buy an alternator tensioner.
My car started making the same noise it made right before the ball joint fell off again. This time it was the same ball joint on the passenger side. The boot was still in good shape so I drilled a hole in it and put a grease fitting on it. The noise is now gone.
I replaced the left inner tie rod as it had too much play. I also replaced both power steering boots. This meant I had to align the car's toe in which anyone can do with the right tools (wrenches and tape measure), know how, and patience. The car doesn't pull at all and now has zero play in the steering. Before, every few seconds that left wheel would just start to veer in one direction or the other.
I went to Walmart and bought a pair of LED light bars to go inside the trunk. They aren't visible during the day, but at night, the light up the trunk really well.
http://i.imgur.com/omfixVs.jpg
I cleaned and waxed the car the other day and gave it it's first photo shoot
http://i.imgur.com/uD4mMsC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NGrZvoW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jE7jvDF.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cdPpTxP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mhjJcYG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IoPdZNp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0nXtIb9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iGh4Vf5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BJAqEYp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2fgCDgk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GOx5GUe.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JgvcucE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/tyQYLMV.jpg
I always use a driver floor mat. Therefore it looks terrible and I left it out. I have no idea when, but at some point in the first year, I bought those pedal covers, the shift boot, and the shift knob. The shift knob is terribly cheap. I like the OEM one way better but it seems to always get sticky and gross.
http://i.imgur.com/SZBkQSV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/v8KJDUA.jpg
This is my solution to the terribly designed cup holders Mitsubishi gave the 7g.
http://i.imgur.com/DZsyHcU.jpg
I typically clean the back seat lightly with a scrub brush using Gain mixed in hot water and then extract with a Shop-Vac. I've had pretty good success. It gets better every time I do it, but it takes like two hours. So I've never gotten it perfect.
http://i.imgur.com/8SBNFck.jpg
I feel like no car's story is complete without a pic of the engine bay.
Two more shots the day after I put the lip on. I found a good dip and parked the front tires in it. That's credit card fitment with the ground.
http://i.imgur.com/QRW0y6V.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iGARhdc.jpg
Thank you for reading this story. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. I know I don't have the best example, but I love my 7g and I want to own it forever. I will continue to post about anything I do on the car and try to include pictures.