jremeryiii's Barcelona

[jremeryiii]

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.

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.

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.

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.



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.

[Voodoo]

Looks super clean, keep up the great work!

[mko]

paint looks amazing for the years. it reminds me of my galant when i first got it

[jremeryiii]

Thank you guys so much. Both of you have amazing cars. I some day hope to run a basic turbo setup with a DOHC head and an aggressive cam set.

I forgot to mention how I cleaned my carpet. I took everything out of the car and pulled it up. My neighbor let me use his pressure washer, and I just sprayed it until the water coming out was clear. I never used any soap at all. I think at one point in time some one did spill a lot of soap in the driver floor area though because, whenever I sprayed it, suds just flew out of the carpet. Most of the water coming out was about the color of a dark tea. It took about three days to dry and it was good as new. Shout out to Turbo Tom's Garage on Youtube for giving me the idea.

To get my car painted, I took it to a local used car dealer and for $700 it was perfect. They did a way higher quality job than any mako job I've seen. They paint cars to sell them without a buyer noticing they've been resprayed. The pealing on the bumper came from me hitting an armadillo.

Today:
I went to the parts stores and none of them carry an alternator tensioner. I figured the junkyards near me wouldn't have the piece since they take the alternators out of everything. So, I went to the dealer. The last time I went there, they said it would be $80 to tell me why my speedo didn't work and not even fix it. When I explained the piece I needed they brought out the parts catalog and asked me to identify the piece. I pointed it out and they said it would be $5 and be ready for pickup at 8:00 am. Today I got there picked up the piece and went on my way.

The tensioner:


The way I had the alternator rigged up to work without it the tensioner:


The reason this idea failed was if the bolt slipped loose at all then the belt would work its way looser until I got a horrendous squeal and I would have to tighten it again.
With the tensioner, even if that bolt comes loose at all. the belt can't loosen up over time.

P.S. If my car squeals, it's a force to be reckoned with. It's never been just a steady chirping. I seen burnouts that made less noise.

[jremeryiii]

Today, I sprung a leak on one of the coolant lines running to the throttle body. Over the past few weeks I've started suspecting my radiator fan switch isn't working. The fans only come on when I am running the AC. If I turn the AC off and leave the car idling, it will just sit there and overheat. I decided to test the theory today because I noticed when it was starting to overheat I had been leaking mad amounts of coolant from somewhere. I had suspected the reservoir. It turned out that where this coolant line come out of the head was spraying coolant everywhere. When I was pulling the hose off, I pulled hard on it, and it left the piece under the clamp on and the rest broke off. I decided the hose was not worth reusing to any degree. 9$ worth of hosing from Advance and I was good to go. I still need to figure out the fan situation. Any thoughts would be great.

[mko]

fans wont turn on if there isnt enough coolant in the system. When theres a leak, it will push coolant thru it when car is running. When you turn off the car, and the pressure drops, it will suck coolant from the overflow tank, but since theses a leak, it sucks air in instead. Repeat that cycle a few times and now you have more air in the system than you have coolant.

Now the thermostat housing has two sensors on it. A small (1 wire) sensor for the temperature gauge inside and a big (2 wire) sensor which tells the ECU what temp the engine is running and from the there the ECU turns the fans on and off.

When its low on coolant(after its been pushing it out thru the tear in the hose) the engine gets hot, but it has mostly air in it (hot air). The single wire sensor can read the hot air temp and you see the gauge overheating. The 2-wire sensor reads only the temp when coolant goes around it and since its mostly air, it doesnt have enough to tell the ecu to turn on the fans.

Check all your hoses for rips and add coolant to the system. You need to burp the system. Watch a video on youtube on how to do it. You need a big funnel that fits tight in the radiator filler neck and you need to add coolant and let it suck it in. Sometimes it will boil and will try to come out of the funnel and it is then when you have to turn off the engine and wait for a min or two. You need to do it for two heat cycles - the thermostat needs to open and close twice and the fans need to come on and off twice . Then put the cap on and fill the overflow tank more than half. Look at it every morning before you start the car if coolant has been sucked it. Eventually it will stop - if your system is leak free.

[jremeryiii]

My sensor with the two wires has been held on with zipties since I got the car. I ordered a new one of those just now. I'm also working on getting the system bled.

[jremeryiii]

Well today I fixed the broken sensor which should have been replaced years ago.

I've had that held together with zipties pretty much since I bought the car. I'm almost certain it worked most of the time until here recently. This caused the fans not to come on so the car would over heat at idle (if the AC was off) which blew the coolant line going to the throttle body. I fixed the leak that as soon as I found it, diagnosed the sensor, and was sure to drive the car accordingly knowing that it would over heat if it sat at idle with the AC off. Today I replaced the sensor, refilled the coolant and bled the system again, and now, the car doesn't seem to have an overheating problem. The fans cycle on and off once every minute of two, and the gauge hasn't gone past the middle. There's still a teensy bit of air in the system, but that should work its way out with a few heat cycles.

Now, I'm pretty sure my PCV valve is shot. Sometimes, the car leaks (more like slowly oozes) oil, and sometimes, it doesn't, and the same goes for burning oil. I'll pick one up for $2 tomorrow and see what happens.

The PCV valve is the piece right next to the oil cap.

[mko]

yes and most of them are defective from the get go. Go on ebay and get a check valve (it s either 1/4'' or 3/8'' I cant remember) and plumb it in series with the pcv valve. If you want to have a clean intake manifold then get a catch can as well

Good job on the sensor and bleeding the system.

[jremeryiii]

Well, I swapped my PCV valve today. So if I never post again regarding a belt squeal, over heating, or burning and leaking oil at the same time, just assume that I've fixed those issues. I hate issues that happen only part of the time because I never know if I absolutely fixed them or if they just haven't happened for while and will return later on.

[BAZ RAX]

Nice to see another 7g here

[jremeryiii]

Well this happened.

That's the copy I had made the day after I bought the car. I went to Walmart and used the one that came with the car when I bought it to have another copy made. I don't like the idea of using a key till it's almost worn out and then using a copy of a worn out key so I always try to use a copy and save whatever key is closest to the original if that makes sense.

Today:
I noticed my car is smoking a little again. It only seems to smoke if I let it idle for a few minutes and then rev it to 2k+. It typically stops within ten or so seconds or whenever I let off. If I go through that process, I have to wait at idle for another few minutes before it will smoke again. If I rev it under the hood, I'm pretty sure I can see what looks like oil flowing through my week old PCV valve. I almost want to suspect piston rings, valve seals & guides, etc., but typically, when any of those are failing, the motor will smoke pretty consistently. I'll probably go by where I got the valve and ask them what they think. Most of the guys at my local O'reilly are pretty knowledgeable. I think the part also came with a warranty so I should be able to swap it anyway.

If I find I do need a top end, I'm definitely going to go DOHC. I can find the stuff I need for fairly cheap. The junkyard guys around here don't really seem to care too much about their Mitsubishis.

[mko]

if its blueish smoke then it burns oil. Dont ever use seafoam in these engines, Im just saying. Or you could be seeing the vapors in the cold air outside.

AS I explained it above You should never trust a PCV valve. Always use a check valve with it. And to keep the intake manifold clean from oil, put a catch can in line. You know what, get a brake booster hose from any mitsubishi at the junk yard. They have a built in check valve in it. You just cut it to length and be done.

[jremeryiii]

It's definitely oil. I wonder they can't manage to make decent pcv valves. I would never use seafoam. If I wanted to clean my injectors I would take them out to do it. It doesn't feel like it has a miss or compression problem. I did clean and gap the plugs the other day and that helped the idle out. It had a little more carbon on the cylinders closer to the pcv inlet. I expected this since I knew it had burned oil. I'll try my luck with one more valve and then I'll try the brake booster hose idea. That's a really creative idea but I don't see why it wouldn't work for me.

[jremeryiii]

Few weeks since an update.
I went and got the replacement PCV valve and I've had way less issues with smoke. I think my valve seals are probably coming close to being replaced. Not really looking forward to that since I've made up my mind that I'll replace those and lifters at the same time whenever one of them finally convinces me its time.

A few days ago I noticed a couple of coolant drops. They came from the bottom of where the oil filter attaches and out of the timing cover. I'm pretty convinced it was caused by the alternator bracket being stripped out. I dumped some of the two part Bar's Leak in the cold radiator, filled the system as well as I could, and let it idle through warmup and two fan cycles. I then went on little 40 minute drive through the country and carved some roads. When I got back, I let it idle for two fan cycles again. End result: No leaks! As a precaution, I let the engine cool with cap off. That night I filled it again and put the cap on. In the morning I took another twenty minute drive with no leaks after returning. I let it cool again with the cap off. Today, I got the last little bubble of air I knew was going to be there out. I'll update if the leak returns and how I go about fixing it (probably a helacoil).

On a side note, I fully trust Bar's Leak products at this point.
Story:
My Ram 50's 4g63 with 250k miles starting blowing steam out of the exhaust due to some sort of head issue after replacing the first burnt valve. I took a regular bottle of their head gasket fix and just followed the instructions. I had no issues for close to a year before I got the next burnt valve (vacuum leak). That motor did burn oil badly due to probably bad valve seals and guides combined with bad rings and low oil pressure. When were fixing the second valve (it was burnt on three sides. I keep it in my car at all times reminding me to check for vacuum leaks.), we took the head to a machine shop to get their opinion. They said the head was cracked in three places. That head gasket fix "fixed" three head cracks! I'll recommend the stuff to anyone before telling them to change head gaskets (at least on a well treated daily). I ended up buying a "new" motor with 150k miles in a junkyard for $225. I had to use my intake, exhaust, and distributor since those were essentially garbage. That was when we found a vacuum leak at a broken vacuum line T. That fall, I got my G. The motor has gone around ten thousand miles of trouble free running ever since. The only work has been two oil changes.

I also put white underglow on the front and back. It looks super clean. I personally feel like underglow is really cool, but at the same time, I feel like red, green, blue, purple, and orange look dated and trashy. I'll post picks if it'll quit raining down here.

[jremeryiii]

I know I said I was going to post pics of the underglow, but I decided to wait until I'd done the sides.


I also got a hold of a short throw shifter from Ralco RZ. I didn't encounter any major issues with installing it. The biggest issue was that when I shifted to first or second it was rubbing hard on the bezel. I ended up taking the bezel and cutting a big piece of plastic out from underneath the rubber boot. I feel like this shifter is one of the best things I've done to this car.

It looks like my next project on the car is motor mounts. I replaced them two years ago for some OEM style mounts, but now they've cracked and split again. They're not 100% shot just yet, but under hard acceleration, the car just has insane vibration that wasn't there when they were new. Also, my motor sort of flops around when I step on the gas. I'm seriously considering not buying new mounts, and I'll just fill these in with liquid urethane rubber or liquid polyurethane. If I do the poly, I'll leave the current rubber in and just fill the gaps. If I do the rubber, I'll take all of the old rubber out and fill the whole mount with new rubber. If whatever I do is too stiff, I'll just pull it out and drill a few holes. All I want is a little extra performance from the mounts and a lot more durability. Some advice from people who have done this would be greatly appreciated.

[jremeryiii]

I did this a few months ago and never posted.
I just popped the needles off with a flathead screwdriver and colored the clear plastic in and under the needle with a sharpie. This made it so the blue light looks really natural and the needles are still white during the day. I also did the little plastic pieces in the climate control knobs the same way.
It took a lot of resetting to get the guages reading accurately.
I also have an extra cluster that I used for testing. I didn't want to try this and break my good cluster.

As far as I can tell, I think I'm the only one on here who ad tried this method. The only draw back is that the odometer shines on the back of the speedo needle sometimes and it shows up a little white.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Techn0Nut1996]

It's the small things that can add the most, nice job!

[Blue3000GTguy]

I like the car! Really nice. The needle idea is pretty clever, it looks really cool.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[jremeryiii]

New tires!
Speedo has read high ever since I got the car. I went from 185 70 14s to 205 70 14s. Now the speedometer is dead on, the wheel gap looks way better, and sadly it sits a half inch higher. I also don't feel like stock power can break these loose.

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