My teenage son’s car fell apart back in February. Thank goodness he was not on the expressway when the cross member caved in.

After googling and reading all the horror stories regarding this issue, I immediately called the 800 number. The reps at the time did not have an answer for me which was quite upsetting. This is a VERY popular car amongst the teenage driver category.

To my dismay, I had the car towed and repaired at my mechanic’s shop.

The total cost was $1400.

Get this part recalled ASAP and let people know. Teenager's lives are at stake here!

My 2008 Lancer had a catastrophic failure of the sub-frame, which holds the engine and both front wheels on the car. In this case the front left wheel came out of alignment, but did remain on the car. Looking at the sub-frame where the control arm connects the sub-frame it is tissue paper. It's not just covered in surface rust. It is disintegrating with 1/2 inch cracks and large irregular holes. In my estimation the wheel could easily have detached if we were on the highway.

I called the dealer and they happen to have sub-frames in stock (this is a known problem on the Outlander which has the exact same sub-frame) but since it's "not included in the Lancer years of the recall (2002 - 2007)" they will not cover the replacement ($2000). This is only a 10 year old car. I would think in the next few years, thousands of 2008 Lancers will start showing up at dealerships with this same problem. I live in Pittsburgh, pa so we share salt issues with all the north east. Car only has 70K miles and I have searched and found other 2008 Lancer owners with this exact same problem. It is not going away. I told them one way or another my car would be added to the recall and would they reimburse me and they said yes.

Fine if you want to avoid all the cost of covering these costs fine, but not notifying me is negligent. I could have been having my mechanic keep a close eye on the sub-frame for me (he did not notice and I would not expect him to hit my sub-frame with a hammer every time I had it inspected). Its simply rare to have a sub-frame rot on a 10 year old car.

Update from Aug 2, 2018: Note: In Canada they recalled the Lancers from 2008 to 2013 also. Not in America yet. The cars are built at the same place in Japan.

" Transport Canada recall 2016317, which was issued on June 21, 2016. The recall involves 64,305 Mitsubishi Outlander and Lancer models manufactured between 2003 and 2013.

“On certain vehicles, road salt can corrode the front cross member assembly, which may ultimately lead to separation of the control arm at the mounting point. This would allow the wheel to rotate off its designed axis, and could result in a loss of vehicle control and a crash causing property damage and/or personal injury. Correction: Dealers will inspect the cross member and apply an anti-corrosion treatment or replace the assembly, as required,” a summary of the recall read.

This is exactly what happened to my 2008 "separation of the control arm at the mounting point". This is an extremely rare event for a 10 year old car and a major safety issue where customers need to be made aware.

WHEN I WAS ON MY WAY HOME FROM WORK, I STOPPED AT THE STORE TO GRAB A FEW THINGS. WHEN I WAS DONE, I GOT IN MY CAR AND STARTED TO BACK OUT OF THE PARKING SPOT. I THEN HEARD A CLUNK NOISE, BUT DISMISSED IT BECAUSE I WASN'T SURE WHAT IT WAS. I THEN PULLED OUT OF THE PARKING LOT AND STARTED TO DRIVE ROUGHLY 5-10MPH, WHEN MORE CLUNKS HAPPENED AND THE STEERING WHEEL WENT ALL OVER AND I LOST CONTROL AND WAS FORCED TO STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.

I GET OUT OF SEE WHAT HAPPENED, AND I CAN SEE THAT THE WHOLE SUBFRAME CROSS-MEMBER WAS COMPLETELY ROTTED THROUGH, AND THE LOWER CONTROL ARM HAD BROKEN FROM ALL THE ROT AND WAS LOOSE. THIS ALSO CAUSED MY CV AXLE/DRIVESHAFT TO SNAP AS WELL. THERE WAS NO INDICATION THAT ANYTHING WAS WRONG UP TO THIS POINT, AND I WAS COMPLETELY UNAWARE THAT THIS COULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN. HAD THIS HAPPENED 10 MINUTES EARLIER WHEN I WAS DRIVING ON A HIGHWAY AND I LOST CONTROL, I MIGHT NOT BE HERE TYPING THIS MESSAGE.

IT IS ALSO ONLY ON THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE CROSS-MEMBER THAT HAS ALL THE ROT. THE PASSENGER SIDE LOOKS FAIRLY NORMAL, WHICH I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY. SOMETHING WITH THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE WAS CLEARLY IGNORED IF IT IS ONLY AFFECTED ON THAT SIDE. THERE IS ALSO COMPLAINTS AND POSTS ONLINE ABOUT THE SAME ISSUE, SO IT IS NOT JUST AFFECTING ME.

THERE IS ALSO A RECALL FOR THE SAME EXACT ISSUE, SUBFRAME CROSS-MEMBER ROT, FOR THE 2002-2007 LANCER, BUT THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TO 2008 OR HIGHER BECAUSE THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE AND PEOPLE COULD LOSE THEIR LIVES OVER THIS. ALSO, MY CAR WAS BUILT IN 3/2007, SO IT'S POSSIBLE THAT I MAY BE AFFECTED IN THE RECALL FOR THE 2002-2007 GROUP, BUT MY CAR IS CLASSIFIED AS A 2008. IT ALSO ONLY HAS JUST OVER 32,000 MILES, THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED.

front left wheel rotate off axis because rotten crossmember

With my lancer 2008, we were on the way to the Mauricie National Park north Shawinigan (Canada) for camping where when running around 50 km/h, I was turning my steering wheel to the right at 90 degree and my car was still going straight forward. I was also feeling some weird front left wheel rotation. At some point when turning back to search for a repair shop, I was hearing my front left wheel touching my car body frame and making some tire-metal sounds.

I stopped and saw my front left wheel being off axis. With someone outside we saw the wheel was not rotating correctly and being dangerous. We decide to call a towing and we got drop at the Shawinigan Canadian Tire where they told me the cross member/cradle/sub frame was so rotten it was dangerous on the road and the repair was mandatory before returning back home. The repair was a 6.5h job which took one complete day!

The mechanic technician told me that other lancer had the problem even a 2009 lancer. There refer me to the Transport Canada Recall # 2016317, however this one is only for lancer 2003 to 2006 (and also outlanders). They also mentioned that Dodge Caliber has the same car part in problem with extended warranty. I found this article related to this https://chrysler.oemdtc.com/457/front-and-rear-crossmember-corrosion-x69-warranty-extension-2008-2012-dodge-caliber-jeep-compasspatriot/2

I'm wondering how different the cross member/sub frame of the Lancer 2008 is different than the one of 2003-2006. I asked my car dealer and the car parts number was different however this could only mean that the shape is different! Does anyone knows if we could have fact that the cross member part is actually the same as older model with only shape changes? This way we could probably have the recall extended to our year’s model!