JohnHolmes85

So I have a serious electrical problem. I have a 2010 Lancer GTS with the F.A.S.T Key system. It started by my car intermittently not starting. The first time it happened, I brought it to a local shop and they said it was the starter. I got a new starter and that wasn't the problem. Then I thought it might be my fob because coincidentally, it died at the same time but my thoughts behind it were that I could just use the key to start it but that wasn't working so I changed the battery in the fob and it started. So I went home and the next day, went to work and after work stopped in at a store and it wouldn't start again. After a bit of time, I managed to get it started and afterwards, I was able to make the problem happen over and over again by trying to start it and stop it over and over. maybe 1 out of 10-15 times would it start. The next morning I brought it to the dealership. They said they went through the ecu and tried to reprogram it but it wouldn't stick and they apparently looked into everything. The're at the point where they believe it's a problem with a broken wire between the ETACS and the ECU. This is coming from the Engineers at the Corporate office in Toronto. I find this really hard to believe and I feel like this dealership can't figure it out and they just keep wasting time on the wrong things. They are billing me by the hour to diagnose the problem because they have no idea what it is. So far they have 16hrs on the car and thankfully I only approved 4 hours so I won't get billed for the entire 16hrs but to proceed they say it might take a couple days and that's only to find the problem. Does anybody have any experience with this or what do you guys think?

AJs09LancerGTS

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life. I'm new to this, but I have been searching everything from forum, to recalls, articles, ect. Through all of my searching, this is the only thread that I have seen with the same problem as me. Did you find out what was wrong?

Biggiesacks

Sorry to hear you are having trouble. For starting issues first thing I would do is check/clean/tighten the battery terminals. If the battery is old I would also recommend replacing it ( or at least have it tested ). Then go from there. Lots of electrical gremlins can be spawned from a weak battery or loose/corroded connections so you really want to just cross those off the list asap. Also check to see if its throwing any trouble codes with an OBD scanner.

JohnHolmes85

I figured it out alright. Mitsubishi was chasing a bone and couldn't even figure it out. Blaming it on the broken wire somewhere. Well ya no **** it was a broken wire. I went to them stating I had a new starter installed and still having issues. They didn't even look at the starter. I found it to be loose with a screwdriver from the previous garage that worked on my starter. But that wasn't the issue even though a loose starter wouldn't ground itself to the car properly and would cause a similar issue. But the real issue was found by myself and a buddy who knows a little bit of electrical. After testing the relay and knowing it was completely fine every time I turned the key ON, we tested running a new wire from the relay to the starter and GUESS WHAT, IT WORKED! Took us 30 minutes. That's Mechanics 101 crap and a local garage and the dealership couldn't figure out. Never had an issue since. And I literally have this cable jammed in the relay slot. SO I went back to them, ripped the owner a new one and told him I should be compensated for the money I wasted on labor because they couldn't figure out something so simple. He went on like a salesman "well you say we should have figured it out but that's not the case....." He did agree to put my interior dash back together. I had ordered them not to put anymore time in the car and I ended up picking up the car and getting a crash course on by passing the relay with a screw driver on the starter and told I could install a push button start in the car bypassing it. Which I was about to do but found the problem. But I was left with a computer dangling at my feet while driving and parts every where in the car. So that's really all it could be, a simple wire and start with the basics. I'm not a mechanic, I'm a computer engineer and I'm basically a jack of all trades.

lancer586

Amazing fhking job!!.. i woulda done the same and went back to that shop to give them a ear full!