'99 MR Lancer.

D

dysolve

New Member
Hi all,
My wife has been driving around in an 99 MR lancer for about 5 years. she complained a few times that the Dash would either not work at all or would just stop working after a while, it issue was random. I have been driving the car full time for the last two months and the dash hardly ever works now. It appears to be heat related, as the interor of the car gets warmer the dash stops working. I pulled the dash out and could not see any cracks etc. does any one have any ideas?

A second issue I have is the headlights seem rather dull and sometimes get brighter when I let off the accelerator but once I hit the gas again they dull down again.

regards

D
 
for your dash do you mean just the lights or the gauges in the cluster, if its the cluster then the is more then likely a broken track on the back the seperates when it gets hot.

for you headlights maybe your battery or altenator is on its way out.
 
The cluster stops working, Mitsu wants some stupid money and I just want to make sure its a known issue befor eforking out the money!
 
buy new cluster, or get a friends cluster to test out?
clusters are <150 for a ce cluster, but the problem may be in the wiring not the cluster

check that there is no cracks in the circuit board on the back of the cluster
 
this has happened to both my mums 2000 CE GLXi sedan, and my gf's 2000 Mirage VRX. seems to be common i guess.
to fix it we took it to an auto electrician who said that the cluster was not getting power sometimes which is why it doesnt switch on. he hardwired a new power line i think and that seems to have fixed it.
be careful though because the first time he did it he had it so the cluster always had power which drained the battery, so we took it back and he rewired it to switch on with the car. im assuming a 12v accessory wire from the ignition would do the trick.
 
Thats the first time I heard the power being bad, I have heard of the circuit board on the back being stuffed. at least no power can be tested, I might pull the cluster off tonight and test for power
 
Res said:
buy new cluster, or get a friends cluster to test out?
clusters are <150 for a ce cluster, but the problem may be in the wiring not the cluster

check that there is no cracks in the circuit board on the back of the cluster
Click to expand...

Mitsu told me its $700 for the circuit board alone, where can I get one for <150?
 
buy a whole cluster :roll: replace whole lot, $150-$200 max
 
gee whiz - $700 man that is ripping you a new one... I have been selling them second hand for like $80 on average but the MR ones I like to see a little more :) which is why Mitsubishi is after so much for one... what I would suggest is to get your self a new/secondhand one that works and swap out your old gauge faces into the new housing that way you retain your klms and your white faces.

the clusters failing is a very very common problem...
 
You dont need a new cluster, its just a broken track on the back of the cluster, happens to almost every lancer lol.... Look in the diy threads, ive posted how to fix it, im 100% positive it will fix it. Ive fixed a zillion of them.
 
Weird I never had this problem. Mirage, Lancer and now a second Lancer with more km on it than both my Mirage and Lancer combined... no problems.

All three of them had the same headlight thing though and I never worried about it - never had any problems with alternators on my Mitsu's.
 
I found the crack and I soldered some bridge wires across it. I will see how it goes and post a photo if it works.

the head lights are driving me made, they are so dull. some thing must be wrong with the alternator
 
what exactly happens with the headlights? they go dull when you accelerate? check the h4 plug isnt burnt. they do quite often melt, and create massive resistance.
 
How old are the accessory belts on the engine? The more RPM the engine does the more power an alternator 'can' produce, to do this it puts more load on the belt.
At Idle it may have enough grip and charge fine, then start to slip as you speed up.

Start with the basics, leave it as is, measure voltage across the battery terminals & see what is going on, test it with the lights on & lights off and give the engine a rev up to see what what is happening.
 
The lights are always duller then they use to be, but when I am on the highway and I back off they get a fair bit brighter, still not as bright as I expect them to be.
 
dysolve it sounds like a problem with the alternator or something, as you accelerate does the light become more dull?
 
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