Fun Updates, Upgrades & Projects
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Lots of things have been going on here at the homestead over the last few weeks. I parked the Lancer as winter is in full force in Ohio. With the underbody rust the car has, I’ve decided we need to address the rust and apply POR15 afterwards before I expose it to salt.
In lieu of that, I’d experienced a near failure on the Mirage; the first one to arise in 70k miles. The OEM battery barely started the car, so I decided to address that on the spot.
The factory battery is 425 CCA and seemed very weak; upgrading to a 650 CCA battery immediately fixed the issue for just 160$ and I was on my way. With the car being a picture of reliability, I decided to start treating the car to some other improvements.
With an oil change coming due, I decided to switch from the synthetic Valvoline and order some Motul ester based oil and an extended life filter; Tuesday that and the infamous studded Nokians go on.
Today I decided to treat the car to an important service; painting our custom fabricated sway bars that we did last year. After much mock fitting and an Ohio winter, the spray paint hadn’t faired real well. I slathered them in some POR15 and they instantly looked ready for battle!
As I did on the Lancer, I lastly decided to upgrade the grounds on the car. When the AC compressor engages the headlights always have dimmed and the idle would dip, this is a common observation amongst Mirage owners.
I’d elected to use the OEM ground locations and stepped up the wire size immensely. The factory battery ground was rather slim, and the new ground wire was easily 3 times the size. Also the factory ground had experienced some corrosion. Score number 1.
Score number 2 came from the factory engine to chassis ground which was laughably tiny. I’d guess this was 14 gauge at best, and also corroded. Using the python sized ground wire made perfect sense and everything fit very nicely here.
Lastly the starter ground was much of the same; not great. You know the story, and it is now. Starting the car up was an immediate and noticeable improvement. The cranking speed and power was very impressive and all of the lights stayed steady with nothing dipping. With the AC compressor running it was a serious change in demeanor; I believe these mods will improve reliability and performance with zero compromises.
The fun stuff comes here, and that is our 3D printing venture. My buddy sent me a picture of the gauge cluster in my RX7 and I was super geeked to say the least. He really is a genius, and this panel replaced the idiot light cluster. I’d wanted something like this for a while and he made it real. He’s also went on to design some trick DSM interior pieces as well; I’m proud of his ingenuity and excited to see what comes of it.
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Yay for happy Mirages! 3D printing is awesome....I've not done anything quite that amazing, but the 3D printed snow brush holder I have on my parcel shelf still works perfectly to keep my brush up and out of the way when I'm not needing it
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As much guff as people give the Mirage, it really is an Oppo car. It's lightweight, has variable valve timing, and is good at what it was intended to do.
