Hey everyone,

first off this forum has some good info and this is my first post. Have done plenty of research already looking through previous questions. Woohoo, newb that can search. Anywho, I bought this from my neighbor about a week ago for almost nothing. Decided I would work on it a bit to save it from the scrapper. It has a few issues but from what I am seeing, nothing too major that I can't address. I have a solid mechanical background and this isn't my main car so down time won't be an issue. Here it is....

Now this car was trashed....hard. The original owner took it "camping" a lot, apparently his idea of camping is dumping bags of mulch all over the interior and sleeping in it while smoking cigarettes with a bunch of towels and newspapers. Smelled completely awful, unfortunately I forgot to take a trunk pre first sweep cleaning, but you literally couldn't see the carpet. He hauled wood back there apparently and the particle board is crushed and you couldn't even see the carpet it was so dirty.







Engine shot, eh needs work.



The exterior is actually in decent shape, minus the driver's side skirt starting to fall off. Looked like it was just missing a couple of the clips. Some paint damage, but no actual body damage. Should give me a chance to improve my painting skills and try out a new spray gun.







First wave of cleaning







Need to take some more exterior shots but I actually found a clip when cleaning and repaired the sagging side skirt.

Now onto the mechanical issues that I can stand to sit in it for more than 2 seconds.

Here are the codes I pulled so far

P0421-Powertrain
Warm Up Catalyst Efficienly Below Threshold (Bank 1)

P0134-Powertrain
02 Sensor Circuit No Activity Detected (Bank 1 Sensor 1)

P0401-Powertrain
Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Insufficient Detected

P0403-Powertrain
Exhaust Gas Recirculation Control Circuit

P0743-Powertrain
Torque Converter Clutch Circuit Electrical

So the first four codes I believe I can account to the exhaust header catalytic converter. I know these cars have issues with that front cat, but I think I will try to replace the o2 sensor first to see if that fixes those codes. If not, it needs a new cat which was about 200 bucks it seemed. So if that is the issue, I am just going to make a spacer for the o2 sensor and trick the computer since IL doesn't have smog emissions testing. Smoggy mcsmog maker

The P0743 code could be a multitude of things. The transmission seems to shift decently (it is an auto if I didn't already mention that), but a hard shift can occur sometimes and will trip the service engine soon light along with that code. Now I see this can be a multitude of things, cheapest being the input/output sensor which would be my first course of action. If not I will explore more options such as the transmission end plate or just a new trans, possibly a 5 speed swap if I feel inclined. Already replaced the oil obviously and fixed a break in the exhaust with some clamps to get rid of a leak. Replaced the trans fluid too and it seemed to help with some slipping just a tard.

That is all for now, will update later. Next I am going to pull the seats and some interior out for a good shampooing since it still has a foul odor in it. Then off to the races sorting the codes.

Cheers

 

Seems like you have a good handle on it.

Mitsubishi had a recall on the the front cat. If the recall is still active and he never got it done, you will get a whole new cat and a new 02 sensor. They then reflash the ECU and you are good to go. The car ran a bit too rich from factory and ruined the cat. Worth a shot.

I bought my 03 OZ new and it still gets driven to and from work every single day. Hasn't let me down yet. They are great cars when taken care of even a little.

The Lancer side of EVOM is a bit slow nowadays but as you found, there is a wealth of knowledge available in the search bar.

 

I read into that but it seems that recall was only active for 8 years I believe? Will do more searching on it though. I did notice a bit of slowness in here but plenty to be read and look over for sure.

 

You could get an aftermarket header and put a cel eliminator on the downstream o2 sensor as well.

 

I saw that too, thought about just making a spacer for it and that should do the trick. Can get the factory one for about 200 it looks like or get one from RRM I believe it was. Depends on what way I want to go with the car, just fixing issues right now and haven't decided yet. 230k miles is quite a few so I am sure everything mechanical is pretty tired. Also, any input on the torque converter solenoid? Doesn't seem to be a huge issue but is probably the cause of my hard shift every once in a while.

 

I know the input speed sensor can cause issues with hard shifting. That's a common problem. Yeah a spacer out of 2 antifoulers when I was having issues with p0420