Top 10 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Questions & Answers

i had the same problem on my g/f's 2000 lancer GLXi, (with tacho),
i fixed the problem by putting a jump wire on the back of the instrument cluster,
the fault was in the wiring to the tacho part & i drew up my own wiring diagrams for the cluster unit,
then traced the fault,
looking @ the back of the cluster unit, the top right hand screw for the speedometer,,, follow the track on the circuit-board, there is a link wire UNDER the board (there is a dotted line on top where it goes, i think its the left 1,,, there is 2) this track then goes to the bottom left screw on the tacho,,,
i soldered a small gauge wire from the bottom of the link solder joint (MAKE SURE ITS THE CORRECT LINK, THERE IS 2 SIDE BY SIDE) to the bottom right track on the vertical plug socket (its common pos for the warning lights) this is where the "MIRAGE" & other "CE LANCER" (without tacho) gets its speedometer & gauges power from,

kind regards waz
if anyone needs a photo i will pull out the dash again lol its only 6 screws

contrary to what the dealership tells you you don't have to take out the entire dash to fix the heater switch, all you have to do is first locate a heater switch which I thought was imposible to find too, but I found one online for 165 bucks from a used autoparts store, then all you do is take off the molding that surrounds your stereo, then take out your stereo, then you will see a blue cable on the right side and a black one on the left carefully disconnect those and the two wireing harnesses in the back the upper one is white the lower is black, then pull the unit out and put the other back in the same way, now it's still going to stick cause of those moron engineers so if you kneel on the ground and look next to your gas pedal you will see to pieces of white plastic that is why you can't switch to heat that flimsy cabel has to push that gear forward, that gear is sticky so it won't go forward, there is a replacement gear to fix that problem that should be about 18.00 from the dealership. it took me about an hour or less to do the whole operation. I just literally finished it 20 minutes ago in my wifes lancer which i broke that knob off of. Good luck if you havent figured it out yet.

Allen

Shortly after replacing the serpentine belt in my lancer, the same thing happened. It is NOT the timing belt. Belts squeal when they slip. If your timing belt slipped it would cause your car to run funny.

have somebody check the belt for wear (or do it yourself), replace if necessary. If it doesn't need replacement, just tighten it.

If you have the 4cyl engine that I have, the tightening is kind of a pain in the ****. Not a great design by mitsubishi. There's a pulley near the front right corner of the engine in front of the alternator. the belt should be running around this pulley GROOVE SIDE OUT. This is the tension pulley.

To tighten:
1) Lightly loosen the bolt in the center of the pulley (slightly loosen, DO NOT REMOVE).
2) Under that pulley there's another bolt. You can see that the bolt goes through a piece of metal
attached to the back of the pulley. Figure out which way you need to turn the bolt to move the
pulley toward the front of the car. (i don't remember if it's right hand thread, or left hand) This
puts extra tension on the belt. You probably don't need much. Over tensioning the belt can
cause pulley bearing failure. If you haven't done this work before, ask someone for
help. It's better to tighten a little bit, a few times rather than overtighten once.
3) Don't forget to ReTighten the bolt in the center of the pulley.

If there's lots of cracks and pieces missing on the ribs or grooves of the belt you should replace it first.

Happy repairing,
Cliff

Change fuel filter.

It has to do with your airbags. Supplemental Restraint System. This light can be caused by a lot of things including any of the following:

• Letting battery drain too low
• Bad Sensor
• Blown fuse
• Unplugging the car’s battery
• Removing the gauge cluster/installing aftermarket gauges
• G-Force sensors that are under each of the front fenders ($250.00 each)
• Bad clockspring (located inside your steering wheel)
• Bad ECU
• Bad reverse light switch on transmission
• Car was in an accident
• Airbag defective/unplugged

P0421 is Warm Up Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)
Basically this means that the oxygen sensor downstream of the catalytic converter on bank 1 is detecting that the converter is not working as efficiently as it should be (according to specs). It is part of the vehicle emissions system.

Causes:
A code P0421 may mean that one or more of the following has happened:

• The catalytic converter is no longer functioning properly
• An oxygen sensor is not reading (functioning) properly
• A sparkplug is fouled up

Possible Solutions:
Measure the voltage at the oxygen sensor on Bank 1 (the rear sensor, or the sensor after the converter). In fact, it would be a good idea to test each oxygen O2 sensor while you're at it.

One thing to note is that many vehicle manufacturers
offer a longer warranty on emissions-related parts. So if you have a newer car but it's out of it's bumper-to-bumper warranty, there still may be warranty on this type of problem. Many manufacturers give a five year, unlimited mileage warranty on these items. It's worth checking into

it's in the fuel tank, you really don't have to replace it unless you have problem with fuel pump.


to acess the fuel pump you need to take the rear seat off

The error code p0301 ,This code is related to misfire.The cylinder is misfiring. p0301 this is the indication of cylinder number 1 ,that is misfiring.If the code comes up as p0300 this is the indication of random misfire from all the cylinders.But in your case its indicating p0301 this is indication of cylinder 1 misfire.Check cylinder 1 and replace the faulty cylinder 1 to clear the fault.The spark plugs and the wires connecting to spark plugs also needs to be checked. Keep updated with any more query.Thanks.

HI. This vehicle should be equipped with a 4 cylinder power plant, which only will need one catalytic converter unit. It is connected to the main exhaust pipe, after the exhaust manifold.

If you want this fixed seriously because mine was doing the same thing and people kept getting me to buy all this **** i didnt need for my 03 lancer es and all i did was unplugged the MAF (mass air flow sensor) and it was perfect all over again. I was pretty upset figering this out yesterday. Just unplug it and turn your car over and let it idle a min. If all symptoms go away buy a new MAF sensor from a parts dealer for like a buck eighty.