New project - Mitsubishi Mirage Asti ZR
Discussion
Well...The Asti suffered her first "breakdown" today.
Wound down the passenger leccy window to reverse off the drive, as it was totally iced up...went to wind it up, and nothing. Drove to work in -4c bloody freezing, and just finished stripping down the door in the work car park.
The regulator was working away, trying to raise the window, but it was going up fractionally, then down again, so I was getting no where.
I ended up holding the underside of the window in the door, and gently pushing as i repeatedly hit the window switch, raising it about 5mm at a time...once the window was a third of the way up, it raised normally.
I'm not exactly au fait with power windows, but i guess a portion of the cable could be frayed and sticking?
Wound down the passenger leccy window to reverse off the drive, as it was totally iced up...went to wind it up, and nothing. Drove to work in -4c bloody freezing, and just finished stripping down the door in the work car park.
The regulator was working away, trying to raise the window, but it was going up fractionally, then down again, so I was getting no where.
I ended up holding the underside of the window in the door, and gently pushing as i repeatedly hit the window switch, raising it about 5mm at a time...once the window was a third of the way up, it raised normally.
I'm not exactly au fait with power windows, but i guess a portion of the cable could be frayed and sticking?
Bit of an Asti update-
I've decided to solve the electric window issue by ignoring it, i will maybe get round to sorting it out in the summer, when i'll be more inclined to stand on the driveway with the door in bits, scratching my head.
I was mildly concerned about the tappety top end, so had the car taken in for a bit of an engine health check...the results of which were fairly promising-
Good compression on all cylinders, no vac leaks, very slight misfire at idle (garage opines that iridium plugs may be causing this)...they're not too concerned about the valve train noise, so i'll probably leave that there, rather than throwing money at a problem that isn't a problem.
Money that can be better spent on bigger issues! The car goes into the bodyshop on saturday to have that rusty rear arch cut out, and new panel welded in...i'm pretty excited about it, as that has blighted the car for me everytime i've looked at it.
Bit of a milestone reached this week too-
Pics to follow after I get it back from the bodyshop a week saturday, fingers crossed.
I've decided to solve the electric window issue by ignoring it, i will maybe get round to sorting it out in the summer, when i'll be more inclined to stand on the driveway with the door in bits, scratching my head.
I was mildly concerned about the tappety top end, so had the car taken in for a bit of an engine health check...the results of which were fairly promising-
Good compression on all cylinders, no vac leaks, very slight misfire at idle (garage opines that iridium plugs may be causing this)...they're not too concerned about the valve train noise, so i'll probably leave that there, rather than throwing money at a problem that isn't a problem.
Money that can be better spent on bigger issues! The car goes into the bodyshop on saturday to have that rusty rear arch cut out, and new panel welded in...i'm pretty excited about it, as that has blighted the car for me everytime i've looked at it.
Bit of a milestone reached this week too-
Pics to follow after I get it back from the bodyshop a week saturday, fingers crossed.
yah seen this one doing the rounds...all the body panels are pretty much a direct bolt on fit! i've heard the evo engine more or less just drops straight in too.
As far as mine goes- Dropped it off at the bodyshop on saturday for another round of fix-the-rust, rear arch this time. Really missing the car, having to tool around in the work Mercedes Citan for the week...worlds apart.
if any of you are instagram users, the asti now has it's own account- mirageastizr. feel free to give me a follow if you want.
As far as mine goes- Dropped it off at the bodyshop on saturday for another round of fix-the-rust, rear arch this time. Really missing the car, having to tool around in the work Mercedes Citan for the week...worlds apart.
if any of you are instagram users, the asti now has it's own account- mirageastizr. feel free to give me a follow if you want.
Saturday was a good day.
Walked three miles to my local bodyshop to collect the Asti. I've had mixed experiences with car bodywork endeavors over the years, so was much relieved to find that the garage have done a lovely job on what was a fairly labour intensive and fiddly repair.
Rear arch cut out around that horrible rusty area, and a donor panel stitched in. This was a fuel tank and rear interior out jobbie, so took some doing. But they still turned it around in a week. Also got them to blow over the big scrape on the front bumper while it was in.
The overall effect is great, car looks so much better (i think).
Before-
After-
Walked three miles to my local bodyshop to collect the Asti. I've had mixed experiences with car bodywork endeavors over the years, so was much relieved to find that the garage have done a lovely job on what was a fairly labour intensive and fiddly repair.
Rear arch cut out around that horrible rusty area, and a donor panel stitched in. This was a fuel tank and rear interior out jobbie, so took some doing. But they still turned it around in a week. Also got them to blow over the big scrape on the front bumper while it was in.
The overall effect is great, car looks so much better (i think).
Before-
After-
Edited by designforlife on Tuesday 1st March 15:03
In a turn of unexpected restraint, i'm going to be keeping the car relatively standard. As much as I like the Evo bootlid and spoiler, I think the car is rare enough to justify not messing with it too much, also,looks wise, to pull the bootlid off I would have to source a colt front bumper with the more aggressive OEM front lip.
I do however want to source some nice genuine JDM wheels,and tein coilovers but I suspect this will be a little while off yet.
I do however want to source some nice genuine JDM wheels,and tein coilovers but I suspect this will be a little while off yet.
just had a little peek. Same body and chassis, doesn't look like the MIVEC block though, so could be the 1.8 non-mivec, that's then been turbo'd. Those rear lights are hideous!
As far as i know there's a 1.5l lancer coupe, a 1.8l, and my 1.6l mivec (ZR and a lighter weight RS).
Looks like a good show, i'll check it out tonight
As far as i know there's a 1.5l lancer coupe, a 1.8l, and my 1.6l mivec (ZR and a lighter weight RS).
Looks like a good show, i'll check it out tonight
Dug up this rather brilliant bit of copy about the Asti, taken from the PAL version of Gran Turismo 2-
"No, it's not some dodgy sparkling wine from Italy, but something even more bubbly and fizzy from Japan. The 1995 model Mirage Asti comes in various forms: four-door saloon, three-door hatchback, or the zany two-door RX coupe. What makes it so good is its clever engine. A 1.6-litre straight four DOHC may seem pretty tame, but this one has a MIVEC system, a form of variable valve timing that results in the impressive engineering feat of obtaining over 100 bhp per litre.
The Mirage Asti thrives on high revs and sports 173 bhp and 123 lb/ft of torque. Pack that powerplant into a small, light body with handling set up to be on the stiff, sporty side and you've got one entertaining machine. Being front-wheel-drive, the RX will understeer for the sake of safety, but the steering is communicative enough to tell you what the front wheels are doing. Feather the throttle through the corners, feeling for the moment the tyres grip, using the responsiveness of the engine to get the power down at the earliest possible opportunity and you'll be rewarded with a fun, satisfying drive.
Allowing you to buzz through the gears is a five-speed manual transmission or the INVECS-2 four-speed automatic option. The auto 'box has an extra sports mode. Push the lever over and you can sequentially move through the ratios, though four doesn't seem quite enough for an engine this willing to be revved. Fast and light on its feet, the highly manoeuverable Mirage Asti can compete with cars more powerful, there may even come a time when its your turn to spray the bubbly stuff everywhere. Just make sure it's not that dodgy Italian fizz. "
"No, it's not some dodgy sparkling wine from Italy, but something even more bubbly and fizzy from Japan. The 1995 model Mirage Asti comes in various forms: four-door saloon, three-door hatchback, or the zany two-door RX coupe. What makes it so good is its clever engine. A 1.6-litre straight four DOHC may seem pretty tame, but this one has a MIVEC system, a form of variable valve timing that results in the impressive engineering feat of obtaining over 100 bhp per litre.
The Mirage Asti thrives on high revs and sports 173 bhp and 123 lb/ft of torque. Pack that powerplant into a small, light body with handling set up to be on the stiff, sporty side and you've got one entertaining machine. Being front-wheel-drive, the RX will understeer for the sake of safety, but the steering is communicative enough to tell you what the front wheels are doing. Feather the throttle through the corners, feeling for the moment the tyres grip, using the responsiveness of the engine to get the power down at the earliest possible opportunity and you'll be rewarded with a fun, satisfying drive.
Allowing you to buzz through the gears is a five-speed manual transmission or the INVECS-2 four-speed automatic option. The auto 'box has an extra sports mode. Push the lever over and you can sequentially move through the ratios, though four doesn't seem quite enough for an engine this willing to be revved. Fast and light on its feet, the highly manoeuverable Mirage Asti can compete with cars more powerful, there may even come a time when its your turn to spray the bubbly stuff everywhere. Just make sure it's not that dodgy Italian fizz. "
Sunny weekend means car stuff, managed to do a couple of small jobs.
Finally dusted off the "ding king" DIY dent pulling kit i bought a couple of years ago...I have to say, for £25 i'm pretty impressed, managed to pull out a number of small dents, and it was dead easy to use.
Also started polishing the OEM shotgun exhaust tips, not quite finished, but look miles better than they did.
Just booked my Japfest 2016 ticket, so keep an eye out for the Asti if you're gonna be there.
Finally dusted off the "ding king" DIY dent pulling kit i bought a couple of years ago...I have to say, for £25 i'm pretty impressed, managed to pull out a number of small dents, and it was dead easy to use.
Also started polishing the OEM shotgun exhaust tips, not quite finished, but look miles better than they did.
Just booked my Japfest 2016 ticket, so keep an eye out for the Asti if you're gonna be there.
I arrived home from a week in Austria last week, to be greeted by two very stuck front calipers.
What with the crap weather, and knowing the car has had caliper issues in the past, I wasn't surprised.
Managed to source a pair of NK calipers from germany for £70 each, which isn't too bad all things considered.
It's now a race to get them fitted before a rolling road day on saturday, I'm pretty intrigued to see what the car ends up putting down, power wise.
In other bargain hunting, I've pre-emptively picked up a clutch kit for the bargain price of £26 off amazon.
This car is fast turning into trigger's broom, but at least the parts themselves aren't bank breakingly expensive.
if you have any predictions for the RR, whack them down. I'm hoping for somewhere in the 150-160bhp range at the fly, given the age of the car.
What with the crap weather, and knowing the car has had caliper issues in the past, I wasn't surprised.
Managed to source a pair of NK calipers from germany for £70 each, which isn't too bad all things considered.
It's now a race to get them fitted before a rolling road day on saturday, I'm pretty intrigued to see what the car ends up putting down, power wise.
In other bargain hunting, I've pre-emptively picked up a clutch kit for the bargain price of £26 off amazon.
This car is fast turning into trigger's broom, but at least the parts themselves aren't bank breakingly expensive.
if you have any predictions for the RR, whack them down. I'm hoping for somewhere in the 150-160bhp range at the fly, given the age of the car.
Well the RR never happened...the garage weren't happy for it to go on the rollers with a suspect engine tap and misfire/rough idle, so attention turned to sorting those out.
Happily enough both issues were solved at once, turns out the valve clearances were set too tight, now they are properly to spec and all adjusted (garage had to fabricate a tool to get to a couple of the tricky ones) the car runs like a dream, idles and pulls much much more smoothly.
Will get it back and onto the dyno eventually, but i'm in no great rush.
I went to Japfest on the weekend, the car was pretty tucked away and I was away from it most of the day, but I like to hope someone found it vaguely interesting.
on the way out of Silverstone I stopped for a quick photo op.
Happily enough both issues were solved at once, turns out the valve clearances were set too tight, now they are properly to spec and all adjusted (garage had to fabricate a tool to get to a couple of the tricky ones) the car runs like a dream, idles and pulls much much more smoothly.
Will get it back and onto the dyno eventually, but i'm in no great rush.
I went to Japfest on the weekend, the car was pretty tucked away and I was away from it most of the day, but I like to hope someone found it vaguely interesting.
on the way out of Silverstone I stopped for a quick photo op.
Not convinced anyone is that interested... but a little update.
I've owned the Asti for 8 months now, done just over 6000 miles in it, and am starting to really bed in with the car. It's had numerous trips to the garage and bodyshops...gradually chipping away at 20 years worth of wear and tear.
Overall I'm really happy with it, and it's still fun darting through the gears and making full use of MIVEC.
So a little (!) list of what i've done to the car since ownership.
-Full service inc cambelt and waterpump
-New discs, pads and calipers all round
-Proper wheel alignment at WIM
-Valve clearance adjustment, compression and leakdown tests.
-Front and rear ARB bushes, front droplinks, rear lower arm bushings.
-New rear hub assembly
-New rear quarter replacing horrifically rusty one.
-Rear chassis legs stripped, plated and sealed.
And still to do
-Replace worn rear trailing arm bushes
-Another bodyshop trip to cut and replace lower sills, and tidy up some other panels.
-Get around to fixing knackered passenger side electric window.
-eventual clutch replacement (kit in hand).
Total spend since ownership (parts and labour) - £4922. Cost of car - £850.
Would I buy another project car as a daily? Probably not, this has certainly been a bit of a steeper slope than I first thought...mostly due to the rust issues. All told, the resto portion of ownership is going to run at about £6k.
On the up side, mitsi parts for this are cheap and plentiful, the car generally hasn't missed a beat, and has happily soldiered on despite being fairly creaky round the edges at times. The compression and leakdown test confirmed that at its heart, the car is running well, and it pulls nicely for it's age and 137k miles.
I'm slowly starting to entertain the idea of a few sensible "fun" bits for the car, such as lightweight wheels and a free-er flowing exhaust...but time will tell as to how many more wear and tear issues i'll have to deal with first!
I've owned the Asti for 8 months now, done just over 6000 miles in it, and am starting to really bed in with the car. It's had numerous trips to the garage and bodyshops...gradually chipping away at 20 years worth of wear and tear.
Overall I'm really happy with it, and it's still fun darting through the gears and making full use of MIVEC.
So a little (!) list of what i've done to the car since ownership.
-Full service inc cambelt and waterpump
-New discs, pads and calipers all round
-Proper wheel alignment at WIM
-Valve clearance adjustment, compression and leakdown tests.
-Front and rear ARB bushes, front droplinks, rear lower arm bushings.
-New rear hub assembly
-New rear quarter replacing horrifically rusty one.
-Rear chassis legs stripped, plated and sealed.
And still to do
-Replace worn rear trailing arm bushes
-Another bodyshop trip to cut and replace lower sills, and tidy up some other panels.
-Get around to fixing knackered passenger side electric window.
-eventual clutch replacement (kit in hand).
Total spend since ownership (parts and labour) - £4922. Cost of car - £850.
Would I buy another project car as a daily? Probably not, this has certainly been a bit of a steeper slope than I first thought...mostly due to the rust issues. All told, the resto portion of ownership is going to run at about £6k.
On the up side, mitsi parts for this are cheap and plentiful, the car generally hasn't missed a beat, and has happily soldiered on despite being fairly creaky round the edges at times. The compression and leakdown test confirmed that at its heart, the car is running well, and it pulls nicely for it's age and 137k miles.
I'm slowly starting to entertain the idea of a few sensible "fun" bits for the car, such as lightweight wheels and a free-er flowing exhaust...but time will tell as to how many more wear and tear issues i'll have to deal with first!
Shadow R1 said:
Im reading the updates.
Please keep them coming.
No plans to get rid of it, so i'll be soldiering on!Please keep them coming.
Oh and most satisfying wear-and-tear-repair so far?
Easily the front ARB bushes, they were so perished that you could rattle the front ARB with your hand, and the car clunked and knocked over literally any undulation or bump. It would also snake around all over the place under hard acceleration in 1st and 2nd gear.
New bushes and its like a totally different car, kind of annoyed at myself that I didn't get around to sorting them for so long!
Parts are pleasantly cheap in the UK already tbh, a few examples-
Rear discs - £20 for pair
Rear caliper - £70 each
Clutch kit - £26 (bargain of the century, thanks amazon).
Timing belt and waterpump kit - £110
Tbh a good chunk of that money (£2000ish) has gone on bodywork/rust, and I did get £1000 with the car (swapped it plush the cash for my mx5). So it's not quite as mental as it first sounds.
If it was any other old car i would have walked away a long time ago, but this is pretty rare and special (as far as i'm concerned), and I plan on keeping it for a good few years...so I've very much taken the stance that its worth spending the money now, and hopefully having a good few years of much lower maintenance motoring.
Rear discs - £20 for pair
Rear caliper - £70 each
Clutch kit - £26 (bargain of the century, thanks amazon).
Timing belt and waterpump kit - £110
Tbh a good chunk of that money (£2000ish) has gone on bodywork/rust, and I did get £1000 with the car (swapped it plush the cash for my mx5). So it's not quite as mental as it first sounds.
If it was any other old car i would have walked away a long time ago, but this is pretty rare and special (as far as i'm concerned), and I plan on keeping it for a good few years...so I've very much taken the stance that its worth spending the money now, and hopefully having a good few years of much lower maintenance motoring.
Edited by designforlife on Thursday 19th May 09:39
Edited by designforlife on Thursday 19th May 09:42
4star said:
Brilliant little car, love Japanese cars oso it's great to see you looking after one of the rare ones. I've got a much less rare car, a Suzuki Ignis Sport, though in a few years I can see them pretty much disappearing, so I wouldn't mind doing something similar if I do keep it.
Keep up the great thread.
aw cheers.Keep up the great thread.
Next Job- Rear trailing arm bushings...not getting much in the way of noticeable issues when driving, but visually they are definitely past it. That trashed sill is getting sorted next month also.
New pair ready to go on, were £15 each, not too bad.
So, after many months of fixing/servicing/refurbing, i've bought the first "fun thing for the car.
A set of wheels, Ultralight D1s...nice and light at 6kg each (2kg lighter than OEM). Japanese reps of Buddy club p1/Kosei K1s
As much as I would love to run Buddyclub P1s or Desmond Regamasters, i just can't justify running wheels that are worth more than I paid for the car...primary goal was to go a couple kg lighter than OEM, in a car this light I should feel a difference on the butt dyno.
They will be going on in a month or two, once I've got the Asti back from the bodyshop at the end of June.
A set of wheels, Ultralight D1s...nice and light at 6kg each (2kg lighter than OEM). Japanese reps of Buddy club p1/Kosei K1s
As much as I would love to run Buddyclub P1s or Desmond Regamasters, i just can't justify running wheels that are worth more than I paid for the car...primary goal was to go a couple kg lighter than OEM, in a car this light I should feel a difference on the butt dyno.
They will be going on in a month or two, once I've got the Asti back from the bodyshop at the end of June.
Edited by designforlife on Monday 11th July 09:47
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff