I'm at 166,000km and gonna take it in for the regular maintenance schedule. The 160,000km schedule only shows the regular oil change and stuff. the only thing out of the ordinary is spark plug change. I have no info on when the timing belt was done or anything like that, so i'm wondering if i should get anything else checked.

When my car is cold, it idles rough if i'm off the clutch is disengaged. if i press it, the roughness goes away. when it's warm, it's not noticeable.

Basically, I wanna make the car run as smooth and as new as possible, but i don't wanna pay for unnecessary maintenance.

 

If you have no info on when/if your timing belt was done I would do that for sure, along with everything else you don't know about. You got a lot of miles on your car, and anything could go wrong - especially since you have no clue on what was done and when.

I know when I got my belts replaced, my engine ran smoother and idle wasn't nearly as rough as it was prior to - I did the whole 60k service though.

 

I was going to midas, but i was thinking of taking it to the dealership just cause there aren't a lot of mitsu cars around here, so the dealer would have more experience with them. Opinions?

 

The dealership will cost a **** load, but would obviously be the most reputable as far as knowing abotu our cars. If I were you, I would look up shops around your area, go check them out and talk to the mechanic(s) or whatever and see if you dig the place/people that are going to do major **** to your car - this is what I did. I checked out 3 places, besides the dealership and chose one. I go here for everything.

 

+1 Stealership is going to cost you big time, id do the same and talk to local places, its always nice to find a cool body/wrench guy to help you with your car and not kill you on price. the stealership will also prob charge you some ridiculous labor price along with some maintenance you didnt need in the first place.
-Flip

 

+1 for finding a local mechanic who you know won't screw you over. I found one that is friends w/ my dad and hhis shop is the only one my car ever sees for major engine work. What I would look for is seeing if they'll be honest and straight w/ you about what they believe the car needs and won't try to recommend bogus crap that your car doesn't need to get more money out of you

 

yeah i been taking it to midas, but I've had a couple problems with them misdiagnosing things, or they had the wrong bolt pattern for wheels i ordered a week in advance and stuff. I was lookin to go somewhere else. I wanted to try and change the spark plugs myself with the tutorial on here, but I've never done it and don't wanna mess it up. None of my friends are mechanically inclined when it comes to cars.

 

I was in the same situation a few weeks ago, bought the car with 106k on it without knowing what was done to the car other than new breaks and an oil change.

Just a couple of weeks ago I took my car to shop my friends recommended and had the valves adjusted, oil change, spark lugs replaced and the timing belt changed. I also had to replace the timing belt teinsioner because it was worn out. He also found a small oil leak between my valve cover and where the spark plug is.

So my point is, I would have everything serviced that you have not done yet, by a trusted or recommended mechanic just in case anything is worn out.

 

When I bought my car it had a lot of miles as well ( not as many as yours) I just started to replace everything on it like nothing was done to it. Like you, I don't know what was done to it so I am going to treat it like nothing was done to it. So far I've replaced the spark plugs, changed the oil and the serpentine belt. As soon as I'm back from vacation I will change the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, transmission oil and filter, adjust the valves and change the gaskets since when I replaced the spark plugs they had a little oil on them. Also I cleaned the fuel system and got an extra 3miles per gallon.

My point is that I would rather spend the money and have the car running for another 100k miles then later be sorry.

 

Ralliarimus and dacib.....how much did it cost you for that maintenance approximately?

 

Could you feel or hear any diff after the valve adj?

 

All in all it was $750.


Parrish, it was a completely new car. Before it had a noticeable ticking sound, but after wards, it was almost silent from the drivers seat. As for the feel of the car, I didnt really notice much of a difference.


Just to add, I did not replace my water pump as it is driven by the accessory belt, allowing me to change it at a more convenient time.

 

get the timing belt kit from RussellM it'll come with the water pump stuff iirc. all in all i believe it costed me around $700 for all of it

 

^^ Nice. I plan on getting my valve lash adj with my next oil change.

 

$64 for spark plugs $250 for timing belt, tensioner and water pump, $250 for installation, $50 for gaskets, $20 for serpentine belt, $80 for O2 sensor( i forgot to mention it earlier) plus whatever the oil, filter, etc. at the auto store is.