God i'm really starting to hate this car. My g/f's 03 lancer owned brand new never needed anything till it hit 40k. she bend the tie rod driver side due to curb and snow. replaced. car overheated, replaced the t-stat @ 50. did the 60k t-belt. 61k heater knob broken, and 62k right now pass side noise happens.


GF explains this to me. I drove it shortly before i had work and same issues. Noise is 100% passenger side. Its more a KLUNK KLUNK then anything. happens as very low speeds and ONLY at low speeds. IE slowing down at lights, STOP signs mainly. Or going down the block slowly. Mainly @ 10mph-20mph. Faster i go it seems to go away. it doesn't happen like a always. At first i thought its the brakes since it happens when slowing down but happens if the brakes are not applied as well.

I was leaning towards loose ball joint but there isn't much play at the wheel. She doesn't want to drive it, thinking wheels are going to fall off. I quickly reached to see if the CV was torn and it wasn't. I cant say it happens over bumps. I did sway bar endlinks when they broke at 30k. It doesn't sound like creaking or rubbing so i didn't think SWAY bushings.

Just want a check list of possibles for when i crawl under this weekend before it gets REALLY cold.

 

I know you said you changed the sway bar links, but have you checked them to make sure they were still intact?

 

i did confirm that they were intacted on the pass side.

I grabbed a firm grip and it was still there and bolted in, grabed the CV to see if it busted and still good (amazingly)

From what i can tell, the noise isn't present while turning slow motion. So the first thing on my list once i lift the wheel off is to check for play in the wheel. I hope that will just wobble and then i know its something like, wheel bearing, tie rod or ball joint right off the bat.

A part of me thinks its the brake pad on the inner side, gf is a heavy/panic braking type of person. I've done front brakes either yearly or bi-yearly on the car. But didn't do it this year. The outer pad looks like its about 30-50% didn't get a good look with the wheel on. I feel there is a small chance that it is the brakes, but once the noise happen without the brakes being applied i put that to the end of the list.

 

You could jack up the car and then run the car in first gear idle and then you can inspect the wheel while its turning for the noise.

 

I finally got around to looking at the car. It wasn't used much to begin with.


Well i jacked up the car wobbled the driver side and everything was solid. I roll over to pass side to find lug nuts missing and not fully tighten.

There goes the problem. I figured someone did this during the night or something like that. There is no wheel locks on the car. One lug front the front and one lug from the rear is missing. Not sure WTF is going on. i know all 4 were put back on in the front when i did the t belt 5-6k miles ago. AFAIK no one touched the wheels. Car is street parked in the city nightly.

I'm pretty mad at the idea that some retard would do such a thing. I'm looking to buy a set of wheel locks for car. Can any damage occur from this? i didn't drive the car but the GF state its a MUCH better drive now but there is some braking noises.

 

I hate cars, WTF you have to tighten things after you loosen them.

Let's see 62K miles and you had to do regular maintenance; timing belt, heater knob, thermostat, plus tie rod bent in accident and now this? I would write Mitsubishi a nasty letter. Next you may have to put gas in it.

 

The thought of the noise made me angry. But now i'm more angry at the person who took the lug.

Yea most others are normal maintenance items I've done to me other cars but i've done them at 100k on 3 of my Nissan and 2 of the Toyota in the family. With this lancer its just giving small problems one after the other.

I do however think that the heater knob is NOT a regular maintenance period.

 

Are you trying to be a smart ***? or is this a serious post. You ARE aware that this man just stated that the lugs were stolen. He doesn't seem like a moron who would leave lug nuts off of his car. So don't be an *** jack.

 

Point is what he's had go wrong and had to fix is no reason to "God i'm really starting to hate this car." as he said in the first sentence of this post. For the miles on the car he's been pretty lucky I'd say, and it's probably not the cars fault that someone took the lug nuts if that's what happened.