Howdy yall, Just bought an 05 lancer ES with 90K miles on it. Little dinged up but in pretty good condition overall, couple things i've noticed were just PM stuff. I'm no mechanic i've just barely started learning about cars so bare with me, as i'm a huge fan of DIY so i'll be on here a ton.

Put a new battery in it
oil was dirty(changed yesterday)
replaced one of the dirtiest clogged air filters i've ever seen.
Front rotors underspec..im assuming they were turned one too many times so I'll replace those when the pads go.
Rear shoes 90% worn(replaced yesterday)
Front motor mount cracked(replaced yesterday)
Transmission fluid was black(flushed yesterday using a great writeup I found here)
Replaced the stock cd player with clarion with usb/ipod input

Since the car had no maintenance records, I bought a new water pump/timing belt/plugs/wires/pcv valve. Now when I went to do the plugs yesterday the plugs I pulled out were iridium ngks and looked pretty darn good and the wires/boots seemed to be in good shape(except there was 1 screw missing from the top of each coil pack(i think thats what they are called) that hold it down onto the valve cover/plug ...Can this affect spark? I'm getting some intermittent hestitation at take off, so I was hoping spark would be the culprit. Now i'm thinking vacuum leak? No CEL, and I don't have a code puller anyways. As far as the timing belt goes, I pulled the cover and looked at the belt, its not dryed, no missing teeth no cracks looks pretty new to be honest so i'm not sure if i'm gonna replace it. I may just recheck it in another 10k to be safe tho. So I think i'm gonna return the plugs/wires/pump/timing belt to autozone today.

Also I have a question on the motor mount, is there any way to mess up putting a motor mount on? I put the new mount on and when I had my cousin sit in it with the brake on going through D and R the engine moved like mad, and sometimes it felt like slammed onto the axles almost(i could feel it in the steering wheel). I can see the new mount moving alot(where the center bolt goes) is that normal? or did i install it wrong? or is it cause its a cheapo duralast autozone mount?

Also, I bought 7 quarts of castrol multi-vehicle import atf to flush the tranny, i used 3 to flush and 4 to fill it up. My problem is I cannot for the life of me get a solid reading on the dipstick. I drive it around get the engine warmed up, I pull the dipstick while in Neutral and running and it the fluid is sitting at the TOP of HOT. I then wipe it off stick it back in and pull it back out and the fluid reading is below cold. If I wipe it off and drive it around the block a few times when I first pull it out the fluid is sitting at the top of hot again BUT if I wipe it and stick it back in..its below cold.. So my question is, which reading is accurate? It used to sit about half inch above hot but I removed almost a quart since and now it's at the TOP of hot.

What is the ATF capacity on my 05 es?

 

I dont know the answer to your tranny question, but I can help with the other two. As far as hesitation goes, this seems to be a common problem with the lancers and I believe had something to do with the fuel map. I dont know about auto trannys as much, but I know mine had quite a bit of hesitation when starting off from a dead stop. I ended up tuning it out, but as far as I know, thats the only way to get rid of it. I had a screw missing on one of my coil packs for awhile and it didnt do anything to affect spark but that doesnt mean you shouldnt try and get some new screws and slap down in there.
Yes the motor mount can go on backwards, there should be a little square cut into the sides of the mounts. That little square, when the mount is installed, should be on the side of the mount closest to the engine. The lancers engine will move quite a bit with the stock mounts so dont worry too much. This may be a sign however that your rear mount is toast as well. Might check it. If you have a bad mount, rather than replace it as they can get spendy, why not just do the window weld mod on them and rebuild them? One tube of window weld can do two mounts and they will be alot stiffer so you virtually eliminate engine movement. Just my $0.02.

 

Also, it would be greatly beneficial to do a full timing belt change and use those plugs and wires since you bought them. A tune up is a great thing to do especially at 90k. Even if your plug wires look good, they are probably way past their prime, same with the plugs. You would do well to change them. And as far as timing belts go, I changed mine at 140k and it looked brand spankin new too, secretly though I was the only one who knew what that belt had been through. So the moral of the story is, you just never know and its better to be safe than sorry.

 

Generally in my experiences if your getting off the wall tranny fluid readings it is due to too little fluid in there and so it is splashing around causing nothing one time and overfull another. Although I would think 4 quarts would be plenty for it. If it turns out you have too much its not gonna hurt it if your just driving around the block and not layin into it you can just dump some out. I hate it when you get those kinda readings though I just changed 2 trannies and both gave me that crap, I just had to add more then got consistent readings

edit:
Didnt noticed you stated you dumped some out. My guessis you dumped too much out.

 

imalancerman, thanks for your input I appreciate it, the window weld mod sounds awesome..I might give it a try. I'll get under there and check to see if the mount is on backwards(knowing my luck it will be). Also with the hesitation I found that on cold starts or if I stab the gas and drive just after starting it the engine will bog out all through the rpms untill it shifts. Then everytime like clockwork the the service engine soon light comes on. I just pulled the code and its P0302 Cylinder #2 misfire. Funny thing is, if I baby the car and just drive it normally, the hesitation is RARE and the SES light will never illuminate.

Does our car use NGK Iridiums? because I bought a ALLDATADIY account for this car and it reccommended BKR5E-11 which are NOT iridiums, however I bought those ones anyways because alldata reccommended them. So.. stick with the BKR5E-11 or should i go with the BKR5EIX-11? I think will go ahead and do the tune up as its part of the misfire troubleshoot.

Plugs if ok then
Wires if ok then
Boots if ok then
Coil packs if ok then ??? injector? ecm? pcm?

That's my thinking in this any suggestions on the p0302?

Thanks for the response, I was getting those wonky readings before i drained the fluid out..argh! so frustrating. Because I don't wanna ruin this tranny, and I know too much creates a bubbling/frothing affect and does not lubricate properly.

 

OOOH. Ya thats not what I was talking about. Thats a whole other beast. First thing Id do is change out your plugs and see if that fixes it. I had done the plugs on my GPs mercury and cracked one and it did the same thing. However, if they're fouled they will do it too. I had a problem with my head burning oil and it fouled my plugs up real good. If you give it gas really slow, its fine. But if you stomp on it, it misfires. I believe cylinder 2 on our cars has a coil pack, so try swapping the packs back and forth after you change the plugs. After you try this, we'll go from there. Also make sure all your injectors are all the way plugged in. Make sure you check the entire coil pack for anywhere that it could be sparking through, should appear as white scorch marks on the tube somewhere. And make sure you get those bolts to hold down the coil packs. Lastly, make sure your running the correct weight of oil. I ran 10-40 once and it was not good for me. Also, if you add any oil stabilizers like lucas, make sure you do so in moderation. 5-30 is the reccommended oil.

 

When you purchased the parts to fix the car did you say you got them at autozone? If you did you might want to look into gates racing they sell a timing belt for our car's that you could look into. I am not a big fan of auto zone, advanced, napa, carquest, KOI, and so on. they have the cheapest place build the parts. and if it is a part that takes my engine out when it goes i get factory or heavy duty, but that’s just my .02

 

Hey guys just a quick update, sorry for the delay but it's been pretty hectic. I first tried seafoam, down the gas tank then through the brake booster. Lots of smoke but did not fix the hestitation or cel. So I bought one NGK iridium plug and replaced the spark plug on cylinder 2. Unplugged the neg cable to clear the codes, put it all back together and she roared to life. I took off pedal to the ground without a stutter or hesitation and no cel. It seems the spark plug was the culprit..MAYBE. Here is why I say maybe, even though the sputtering and misfire appears to be gone, I noticed that on the inside of the boot on cylinder #2 there was a scorch mark about 1/16th" in width traveling all the way up the boot to the metal ring with a little white mark at either end. What's up with that? it seems to be not affecting my car? or is it? none of my part stores seem to carry the boot and the price quote i got for ordering it was $39 for one! All other boots wires appear to be ok.

 

Ok guys you all have been a great help, just one more question for now.

I'm going to stiffen up this motor mount by doing the window weld mod I've been reading about, two questions before I begin;

1) Does the stiffness actually increase idle vibration? I have minimal vibration while in Drive with the brake depressed..will stiffening them up make it worse or better?
2) What do these numbers 80A 60A etc.. mean? is that some type of rating system for stiffness? Anyone have a link that explains said rating system?

 

Ill just explain it to you. First off, yes window weld will make your mounts stiff and increase engine vibration. Doing only my front mount when I had window weld, it was only noticeable upon startup. Now as far as the shores go, those dont apply to window weld, thats only for if you are wanting to get some liquid urethane to fill your mounts with. A higher shore is a stiffer shore. Example, most aftermarket mounts are somewhere around 60A. Thats actually pretty soft for a better vibration transfer. My mounts are 80A meaning my car rattles the hell out of itself. 94A is as stiff as you can get I believe.

 

Ok cool, thanks for the info.

One problem now; the MISFIRE IS BACK! Along with the CEL. So I went ahead and replaced both coil boots and reset the code. So far so good, but we will see. Also I can see and get a strong oil smell from the cylinders i place the plugs in, is this normal?

 

Um i wouldnt think it would be normal no. Are the plugs your pulling out and replacing fouled? Also, does your car use alot of oil?

 

No it does not seem to be using oil, and no the old plugs did not appear to be fouled, they looked quite good actually, but were replaced as a precaution. I was talking to some friends and they suggested a valve cover gasket, so ill look into that.

 

I know pretty much all mitsu's in general have a problem with eventually burning oil after X amount of miles maybe your valve seals are starting to leak?

 

But then his plugs would show signs of oil burning. Can you take a picture of the plug tip and post it so we can see it? Just as a precaution? Also, I want you to try swapping the coil packs back and forth because i have a sinking suspicion about it.