I have researched this site and deduced that Mitsubishi has produced a defective product in the 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse re: Defective head gasket and which leads to worn out valve seals. On July 29th 2005 the Mitsubishi corporation sued its previous presidents and former executives for defect and recall cover ups for "64,000 complaints filed by car owners dating back to 1977." Anyone interested in a class action law suit? contact me!!

- Dallas , GA, USA

Car was idling at a very low RPM. I had the car serviced and was still idling very low. When coming to a stop, the car wanted to stall. Meaning the rpms dropped to zero and then the idle jumped extremely high for a few seconds. A few days later the car started to stall when stopping or going around turns at a very slow speed. I took the car to a dealership to have them hook the car up to a diagnostic machine. Nothing registered on the machine. Car did not stall for the dealer, but did stall for me every time after leaving the dealership or mechanics garage. I then paid more attention to when the car would stall. It would only stall or shut off during the very cold winters and every time it rained.... after two days or so after a rain, the car seemed to dry out and run fine. I later was told that the throttle bottle needs to be cleaned out. I had this done and the car improved. I have to clean the carb out of the car after we have rainy days. I was paying about $60 for a mechanic to do this for me. I would only resort to a mechanic after I canT deal with pressing the brake and gas pedal at the same time when stopping or turning at a slow rate of speed. So today 7-25-04, I went to the local auto parts store and bough carb cleaner and sprayed about 1/4 of the can and cleaned out what I could reach of the gum and build-up in the carb. At first the car does not want to start but then after pressing the gas pedal a few times, tons of white smoke poor out of the exhaust. Then the car ideals much better than before, meaning I don't have to press both the brake and gas at the same time. I was told about a year ago, that this problem is caused by something that deals with the throttle body. I do not have $300 + to fix this, but I do have 1/2 hour a couple times a month to clean the carb out of my car. This is the biggest complait besides, my rotors, that I have with my car. The car is not enjoyable anymore.

- Hummelstown, PA, USA

Maintained regular oil changes and was notified that I had an oil leak in my engine. I saved enough money to have the head gasket replaced to fix the oil leak. The head gasket was replaced (new) in March of 2000. 4 months later my car started to smoke from the exhaust when standing still in traffic. I contacted the dealership about the problem because I thought that this was due to the work that they did. I was then informed that I need my value guides replaced. I was going to have this work done until I was informed that in order to replace the value guides in the engine, I must purchase another new head gasket. I asked why this was not inspected at the time that the head gasket was replaced. My answer was that I did not ask them to check the value guides. If this would of been corrected at this time, I would not be spending tons of money on oil for my vehicle. Since 2000, I check the oil in my car every other day and add oil to the engine. This has been a major problem for me. I do not have another $1000 plus to fix this. I've spoke with other friends and people who own the same type of vehicle and they as well have problems with their leaking head gasket and value guides, making the car smoke.

- Hummelstown, PA, USA

On January 14 I took my car to punte hills Mitsubishi for a recall on the lower control arms. Since I was there I asked them to inspect my car for anything that needed to be replaced. At this point they recommended the timing and balancer belts, tensioners, left tie rod, and a broken air valve which I did at a cost of $736.52. Upon receiving my car I heard a chirping noise coming from the engine which they told me was the timing belt was new and needed to be broken in, which I took their word for. Within the following month the chirping became louder and louder to the point I called and requested they look at it again. On the way to the dealer my car just stopped in the middle of the street almost causing an accident. After lifting the hood I noticed the timing belt cover split open on the top revealing the timing belt was not on properly. After towing my car to the dealer a quick inspection concluded that my crank pulley has "walked" into the timing belt cover burning a hole through it causing the disassembling of the timing unit and major damage to the heads, pistons, etc...I asked the mechanic why when I brought my car in just a little more than a month ago they didn't let me know my crank pulley had such significant wear. His response was that there is no way to tell a crank pulley is going bad. I did research of my own and found out this is happening to most eclilpse, all years and that there is a way to tell if the crank pulley is going bad by measuring the amount of movement side to side making sure it meet the manufacturer requirements. Obviously the crank pulley had very significant wear seeing that the pulley came apart. I did research on this matter and found out Mitsubishi knows these parts are defected but covers most of them under warranty so it brings down the numbers. I feel the repairs should be covered and would like to open and investigation on "crankpulley/shaft walking" hopefully leading to a recall. Thank you.

- La Habra, CA, USA

Engine check light illuminated indicating a problem with head gaskets. Dealer replaced head gaskets. However, engine check light remained on. Cause unknown.

- Bogart, GA, USA

Oil leaking from head gasket. Oil guy told me it could be a factory defect because he has seen this problem in the same models. However, the dealer refused to fix it with no-charge claiming warranty was expired in Aug 2001. We have realized the leak in October 2001. Dealer asks $600 to fix it.

- Franklin, MA, USA

Engine head gaskets were leaking and causing vehicle to stall when driving above 15 mph. Dealer has been contacted for problem, and replaced head gaskets.

- Bogart, GA, USA

My Eclipse has been in and out of the Mitsubishi dealer seven times in a period of three years going into the fourth year for the same problem over and over again being that I would be driving and the car would shut completly down being able not to start back up again and while going over bumps on roads the car would buck and lead to also shutting off, the dealers response was that they could not figure out what the problem was until last year before that time they would asume what the problem was and fix something and then charging me for fixing something that did not even fix the problem. Finally in 2000 they replaced the crank sensor and for awhile the car did not die for awhile until a few months ago when I took my car to a garage where my car died while driving in traffic and they then also replaced the crank sensor and suggested that I check into my head gasket because he had seen many of the Eclipses having the same problem being that the head gasket was cracked.

- Peabody, MA, USA

Prior to expiration of warranty, driver side airbag was determined by dealership that airbag was defective because horn would not work. In January 2001 I had the car in for a head gasket and sked for the horn to be checked again and it was determined once again that the airbag was defective. I saw in the paper that Mitsubishi was recalling calls due to faulty airbags (2/01). I refuse to pay $600 for something that is defective a 2nd time and I feel unsafe driving the car.

- Bridgeport, CT, USA

Head gasket has blown, causing leakage of quart of oil about every thousand mile. Manufacuter has developed 13 different gaskets to prevent failure, but it does not resolve problem.

- Dryridge, KY, USA

Mitsubishi replaced the head gasket at 38,000 miles due to it leaking oil. Owner reported it leaking oil 2000 miles later. Mitsubishi denied there was a leak. I just had to replace my head gasket at 58008 miles due to it leaking oil. There is something terribly wrong with an engine that goes through 2 head gaskets at such a low mileage. I have contacted Mitsubishi and am in the process of trying to settle this matter through the dealer. This is a problem that truly needs a solution.

- Richmond, VA, USA

While having vehicle serviced technician noticed that head gasket was leaking oil. Technician stated that another engine this size has had a recall.

- Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Head gasket failed, it was made of paper, not steel. Constant leaks on gasket from where head meets engine. Dealer recognized problem, and agreed to replace free of charge if consumer was original owner, but consumer was notoriginal owner.

- Ontario, CA, USA

Driving at 40mph hydraulic timing belt tensioner failed resulting in idler pulleys to seize and catch fire. Had motor not been shut off when it was, motor would have been damaged beyond repair.

- Modesto, CA, USA