Hello all,

I'm gearing up and planning out a major and probably well overdue maintenance marathon on my 03 Lancer ES. I'm a student (Mechanical Engineering) so almost all of my time is taken up with homework, studying, internships, etc. Because of this I've been neglecting my car and letting a lot of maintenance build up that I'm planning on spending a few days over spring break to do all at once!

I'm looking for some guidance, general advice, help finding videos or more obscure information. I'll put in links to what I've found so far and update on my progress if anyone is interested.

Heres what I'm looking at accomplishing:

• Replace all mounts (Front, Side, Rear, Tranny).
• Replace Timing belt (maybe water pump and tensioner pulley?).
• Replace alternator belt.
• Replace ac/power steering belt.
• Change spark plugs.
• Replace the clutch.
• Change transmission fluid.
• Replace the valve cover and valve cover gasket.
• Do an oil and filter change.

The car is a manual 5 speed at about 140,000 miles. I've been told on a few occasions that it feels like the engine mounts are going (steering wheel vibration at lower engine rpms). Am I going overboard replacing all four? I probably won't get back under the car for months after this so I figured I would just do them all. I'm doing a lot of my shopping on rockauto.com, where they have Westar, DEA, Beck/Arnley, and Anchor mounts. Does anyone have any suggestions around those brands? The Beck/Arnley ones are the most expensive at $30-60 a mount, I also understand the OEM mounts could be north of $100, and through a dealership its closer to $200.

The valve cover always leaked oil (even after changing the gasket), and the last time I changed the gasket one of the bolts got over-tensioned, deforming the cover. I could just leave it as is (its not a big enough leak to change oil levels noticeably, but it does collect lots of dirt at the leak), but the leak has always bugged me and changing the cover might fix that.

The clutch had a noticeable change in grip a couple years after I got the car (probably at 90,000 miles), I thought it was about to go and ordered a replacement kit and then never got around to it. It still engages now 50,000 miles later and I'm starting to wonder if it will ever actually go? Maybe I just rev match perfectly for every shift (haha not likely). I could keep putting it off... but if I'm changing mounts it seems like a good time to do the clutch too.

The transmission probably has some metal in it from me grinding the gears every once in a while, and I wanted to switch to something a little higher quality. After some research I got 4 quarts of Red-Line synthetic MT-90 (75W90 GL-4) which is supposed to be compatible with the soft metal in my transmission (Brass I think? it was a while ago that I did that research).

I think the timing belt is just overdue. Looking in the maintenance manual, Mitsubishi says to remove the camshaft sprocket and clean the mating faces, which requires a special tool. Is this a necessary step? Maybe I can rent the tool from Oreilly, but I don't want to purchase a tool I will only use once. What about the water pump and tensioner pulley? There's kits that come with the pump, but the tensioner pulley is separate.

Do I need a special tool for the other belts?

Heres what I have so far in terms of tools (Among a lot of other random crap):

• Combination box/crescent wrenches in standard and metric
• 1/4, 3/8 sockets and drivers in standard and metric.
• 1/2 driver with standard sockets and a breaker bar.
• 3/8 spark plug socket.
• Stands and a jack.
• A Chain fall.
• Drip tray.

I've never tried to lift my engine before, do I need special brackets to bolt on somewhere? Should I consider one of those balancing bars so you can shift the weight back and forth?

I'm thinking of buying a 3/8 breaker bar, a transmission oil pump kit, renting a torque wrench. I also recently ran into the Fumoto engine oil drain valve (F-106N). Should I pick up one of those?

Heres some information I've found so far:

PDF copy of the Mitsubishi maintenance manual (Its around, but if anyone needs a copy hit me up).

Timing belt links:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ere-s-how.html
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/la...placement.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBaV...ature=youtu.be

Some mount information:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/la...or-mounts.html
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/la...s-upgrade.html

Is there anything else I should consider doing while I'm under there?

Does anyone have advice on the order I should tackle these repairs?

Help/advice/criticism/telling me I'm crazy all greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I'm thinking of doing a huge overhaul on my 02 lancer. I'll definitely follow your progress.