Hey guys.. So i posted a couple months ago regarding my oil cooler line popping and my engine blew. While having the mechanic remove the head he notices a decent amount of rust on the car and made me second guess putting more money into the car. The problem is I really dont want to get rid of the car as ive had it since new and really dont like any other cars on the current market. I also know that these cars are getting more and more rare. My question is, based on the attached pictures do you think the rust makes it not work repairing? If i move forward i would probably have a shop go over the underside of the car and weld/repair any holes and resecure anything structural. The main issue they called out was that there is a lot of rust on the rear cradle mounts and it might not be worth saving. Could these be easily cleaned up and welded? Nothing is broken on the body. I would also have the underside costed to prevent any other rust. I dont want to bring the car to have engine work done if the body is shot

 

If you haven’t done the recall for the front crossmember that would help. No cost to you as well.

The rust is definitely going to need some work before it gets worse.

it may look bad. But once you get the rust off you will see what you are working with.

there are quite a few threads here and lancer registry.com with people restoring rusted evolutions.

 

That's not so bad. We've seen worse. Those are the two most common spots. That being said, this needs to be addressed much sooner rather than later. Proper addressing of the rear subframe rust will require everything, including the fuel tank, dropped from the chassis. Removing, treating and painting is the way to go. Undercoating causes chassis to trap moisture and rust faster than anything else so if you're following through I'd recommend keeping the surface painted metal. I've seen CT9A chassis with less rust go to the crusher because rust terrifies people in the US. Start with finding out if the front subframe recall has been performed or not and go from there.

 

Yep people strip and trash evolutions more often than not.

these cars getting rarer by the day lol

 

Sad but true. I've seen repair orders in the ~$2-3k for this type of repair for reference depending on where you live.

 

better start working on it

 

I'm really slutty with Fluid Film on my underside and into frame holes and everywhere, not perfect but slows the decay consideraly and cheap first move in a rust war.

 

I like CRC Rust Inhibitor not for my evo but my 1997 Astro Van

 

It's funny how I see this thread being I just had my car fixed for similar rust in just about all those spots. That stuff is no joke thumbs up it works awesome. Id buy a bunch of that stuff and wire wheel away all the rust you can and cover what is left with this stuff and call it a day.

Thankfully I'm on my car there was no soft metal and was just bad surface rust and was fixable

 

Thank you so much for sharing the link.


 

wasn't aware of the front crossmember recall. Thanks!

 

Yep.

If the cross member is too rusty and unsafe. They will change the entire thing including the control arms. So totally worth it to have the dealership take a look for this recall.

 

is there a way to check if its been done thru running a VIN somewhere? do they only do it if its rusty or its done regardless?

 

Call the dealership close to you and give them your vin number. They can see if recall was done.


if you pull the carfax report too it will show you if the recall was done or still open.

 

Nightmare fuel: Dealer is unaware of front subframe bolt particulars and they break or spin captive bolts/nuts. How would the dealer even fix this? Cut your car up? Airbags recalls are one thing but I wonder what info Mitsu North America dealers have on such commonly dreadful scenarios..