Mitsubishi ASX Problems

The ASX was launched in Australia in 2010 and from the very start was offered with a CVT transmission, as well as a conventional manual transmission, depending on what specification you chose. The ASX’s CVT differs from some by having six fixed steps which makes the car feel and sound a little less alien to drive, but also potentially sacrifices a small degree of efficiency. That’s because the CVT is most efficient when allowed to use an infinite range of just-so ratios, rather than the six fixed ones Mitsubishi specified.

First things first. Your daughter’s car came with a five-year warranty. That warranty will have started when the car was first registered. So job one is to see if it’s still within that five-year/100,000km window and, if it is, make this Mitsubishi’s problem. Even if the car is slightly out of warranty, if it’s been serviced properly, you might find Mitsubishi will meet you part-way with the cost of repairs.

Beyond that, the touch-screen function has either failed or the unit has experienced a moment of electronic confusion. See if there’s a reset function for the head unit and if there is, perform the reset and see if it comes back to life. The other thing to try would be to disconnect the car’s battery for at least ten minutes and see if the screen recovers when you reconnect the battery.

This is a very common problem for owners of modern turbo-diesel cars who only do short, stop-start runs in city or suburban traffic. When the engine and exhaust can’t get hot enough for a DPF burn-off, the computer dumps extra fuel into the engine to get everything hot. If some of this excess fuel gets into the engine’s sump, it can force the level of the sump to rise, leading to the warning light you’ve just seen.

In the worst-case scenario, this fuel in the sump will dilute the lubricating oil and that can lead to a damaged engine. But as you’ve found, even if that isn’t the case, there’s still a price to pay to manually force the DPF to burn off as well as change the oil for fresh, undiluted stuff.

The solution is to make sure you drive the car for at least half an hour at freeway speeds once or twice a month. That will get things hot enough for a complete DPF burn and will keep you out of the workshop. Mind you, making this sort of effort might cost you more than the fuel savings you gain from owning a diesel car. This is just one reason a modern turbo-diesel is not ideal for every consumer.

Mechanically, there’s virtually nothing to separate these two versions of what is essentially the same car. Both have the same power and torque and the transmission is the same CVT. The only real difference that could make the GSR feel a bit frisker than your Exceed is that the former is about 40kg lighter.

Perhaps it’s your perception that is the difference here. The Exceed is the more expensive variant so perhaps it has a little more sound deadening on board. That would help explain the extra mass but could also be making the vehicle sound a little more muted and, therefore, less perky. Don’t rule out the spectre of manufacturing tolerances, either. It’s far less common (and marked) these days, but it remains that some cars are just a bit more powerful than the car that came down the same production line either side of them.

Ultimately, even higher tyre pressures can have an effect on acceleration, but if you can detect these small differences, you are indeed a very sensitive driver.

It all depends on what you call bouncing and how you define bumpy country roads. But one thing’s for sure, if the car really is leaping about more than it should, it has nothing to do with the fact that the engine is in the front. Don’t accept that sort of nonsense from anybody; a modern car should be balanced to drive and that’s that.

There has to be a degree of movement over bumps – that’s why cars have suspension in the first place - otherwise, they’d be very uncomfortable to ride in. But excess movement means there’s either a problem with the suspension itself (bushes, ball-joints or maybe even the springs themselves) or the shock absorbers aren’t doing their job by controlling and arresting the normal movement over bumps.

Again, though, it’s important to set parameters for what’s normal and what’s not. The parlous state of this nation’s country roads at the moment means it’s possible to encounter some truly momentous bumps and potholes, many of which are enough to damage a car’s suspension, not just test its limits. Meantime, start with a check of the shock absorbers and work from there. If they’re worn out or tired, they can certainly allow more movement than there should be.

Intermittent problems like this one can be very annoying as they rarely emerge when a mechanic is looking at them. However, you need to have the Mitsubishi dealership mechanic with you for a test drive as you try to make the problem occur, however long that takes. Perhaps you could video the car's behaviour next time it happens and show the workshop that way.

Common causes for a manual car to refuse to select a gear are usually down to a worn, maladjusted or damaged clutch or a poorly adjusted gear linkage. If there's a horrible graunching noise when this happens, I'd suspect the clutch, if not, it could easily be a simple matter of adjusting the selectors. Either way, this shouldn't amount to rocket science in 2024.

Just be sure not to take no for an answer; if the car has a problem, it's under warranty and it's Mitsubishi's problem, not yours. 

This is a pretty common type of question these days. Once cars are out of warranty (and often before that time) many owners elect to use an independent workshop for their servicing rather than a dealership. But some non-dealership workshops don’t always know the little tips and tricks including how to switch off the service reminder after the scheduled service has been performed.

But here’s something you can try at home which should cancel the service light on your ASX. Turn the car’s ignition off. Now press the info button (down low on the dashboard near the steering column) until you see a small spanner icon appear in the info panel on the dashboard. Now hold down the info button until the little spanner symbol starts flashing. Once it’s flashing, release the info button again and the word `clear’ should pop up next to the spanner icon. With `clear’ displayed, press the info button one more time and you should be done. Now start the engine to make sure the service reminder light has gone out. If none of that works, a Mitsubishi dealership should be able to switch off the light for you.

Both the petrol and diesel versions of the 2018 ASX used a timing chain rather than a toother rubber timing belt. That means both engines’ timing chains should be good for the life of the engine, although in practice that hasn’t always been the case and some engines do, in fact, need new timing chains if wear develops in the chain or its tensioners. Neither Mitsubishi engine has thus far demonstrated that trait, however, and it’s far less common if the engine has been serviced correctly.

The task of the timing chain or timing belt is exactly the same: They take drive from the engine’s crankshaft to the camshaft and, in the process, keep all the moving parts in harmony. Many car makers moved away from a timing chain to the rubber, toothed drive belt as a way of simplifying engine design and driving down the cost of each engine. The rubber timing belt is also quieter in its operation and is also less prone to stretching (as a timing chain can) so the camshaft stays in perfect synch with the rest of the engine’s rotating parts. It’s a simpler design because it doesn’t need to be tensioned via oil pressure from the engine as many timing chain systems are.

The timing chain, meanwhile, is preferred by some manufacturers because it should last the lifetime of the engine and never need replacement. This isn’t always the case, however, and some engine designs from a variety of manufacturers suffer problems in this regard. But, in a properly maintained engine of sound design, the timing chain should never need attention, while the rubber timing belt generally requires periodic replacement, typically between 60,000 and 120,000km depending on the manufacturer.

For the record, there really is a global shortage of semi-conductors; a shortage that has already seen some big car-makers trim production and even close some plants. As the electric car phenomenon grows, and the average conventional car has anything up to 100 micro-processors, the shortage will only become more critical, so the next few months will be very interesting.

However, I spoke to Mitsubishi Australia about this and it seems your dealer might not be telling you everything. For a start, to even offer you an ASX LS without the safety gear it comes standard with is, according to head office, an impossibility. Why? Because Mitsubishi claims it has never built such a car. The spokesperson I talked to said that, had the correct semi-conductor (or any other part) not been available for that car in that specification, the car would not have been built. Simple as that. I’m not sure what Mitsubishi dealers are saying, but that’s head office’s view.

Which brings us to the question of your contract. Put simply, if the vehicle you’re being offered does not match the vehicle as described in the contract of sale, then you can call the deal off with no ramifications. And since this is major safety gear we’re talking about being AWOL, the car on offer most certainly does not match what you signed up for. So you can stop worrying on that front.

Then we move on to what the dealer is really trying to sell you. There’s a feeling within Mitsubishi that the dealer probably has stocks of a particular variant of the ASX, but one which doesn’t have the LS model’s standard safety kit. And that’s what they’re trying to unload on to you. So don’t have it.

If you go through with the deal, you’ll inevitably be buying a car that doesn’t live up to the safety levels you wanted when you originally ordered the LS model. It will be worth less as a trade-in in a few years, too, as used-car buyers (like everybody else) are increasingly interested in safety. As it stands, being offered a $300 discount on a car that doesn’t exist smells very odd to me. I’d be talking to Mitsubishi Australia’s customer service department and explaining your case. Sometimes you need to go to a higher court than the dealership itself.

Mitsubishi quotes a power output of 110kW at 3500rpm and torque of 360Nm at 1500rpm for that vehicle. All these figures – and plenty more - can be found within the Carsguide website by clicking on the prices and specs tab and entering the make, model and year.