When I first bought the car in late 2010 it had 100,000 miles on it. The car ran great and other than normal wear and tear the one issue I noticed was turning the dial between hot and cold was very hard to turn. Over the course of roughly seven months it became harder and harder. Finally I broke the knob for the hot cold dial off and it cost almost 200 dollars to fix as I couldn't find a new control box. After research and research I found others having the same issue but not many posting about it, it turned out that Mitsubishi didn't put in a cabin air filter when the car was new. All the nice small particulate dust and matter that was floating around in the cab was sucked into the suction system and then into the hot cold blend control box. Once in that box it mudds up all the nice fine toothed and greased gears that control the hot/cold door for hot and cold leading to more resistance on the dial until you break it off.
FIX- I spoke to the Stealership and they stated it would be a 12 hour job to tear the dash down to the firewall and bring the box out and clean it and then put it back together again. they quoted me at 1200.00$ for the job. This I obviously didn't do. During my research as to even find a filter, I found that you have to find a car with a filter with those exact measurements and use that with a little finesse.
Alternative fix- I disconnected the cable from the climate dial on the dash from the lever for the door under the dash next to where your right foot would be while driving. I now adjust this to the correct temperature 2x per year to fit the season and it has not been a big hassle.
Mitsubishi really dropped the ball on this one and this is one of quite a few reasons I will never own a Mitsubishi again.
When I first bought the car in late 2010 it had 100,000 miles on it. The car ran great and other than normal wear and tear the one issue I noticed was turning the dial between hot and cold was very hard to turn. Over the course of roughly seven months it became harder and harder. Finally I broke the knob for the hot cold dial off and it cost almost 200 dollars to fix as I couldn't find a new control box. After research and research I found others having the same issue but not many posting about it, it turned out that Mitsubishi didn't put in a cabin air filter when the car was new. All the nice small particulate dust and matter that was floating around in the cab was sucked into the suction system and then into the hot cold blend control box. Once in that box it mudds up all the nice fine toothed and greased gears that control the hot/cold door for hot and cold leading to more resistance on the dial until you break it off.
FIX- I spoke to the Stealership and they stated it would be a 12 hour job to tear the dash down to the firewall and bring the box out and clean it and then put it back together again. they quoted me at 1200.00$ for the job. This I obviously didn't do. During my research as to even find a filter, I found that you have to find a car with a filter with those exact measurements and use that with a little finesse.
Alternative fix- I disconnected the cable from the climate dial on the dash from the lever for the door under the dash next to where your right foot would be while driving. I now adjust this to the correct temperature 2x per year to fit the season and it has not been a big hassle.
Mitsubishi really dropped the ball on this one and this is one of quite a few reasons I will never own a Mitsubishi again.
- bam906, Hillsdale, MI, US