ClubCJ - The CJ Lancer Club

Hey everyone, long time member here. I joined back in 2010 after purchasing my CJ ( VR) lancer brand new. My car is now on 407,000 kms and still going strong. I used to attend many cruises over the years up here in QLD and when i used to live in Sydney. Sadly it seems the QLD section of this forum is quite dead as it looks like they havent had a cruise or meet in a few years. However there are a few lancer FB groups who regularly hold meets and cruises for CJ lancers.

The only major things that needed replacing in the 10 years is.

Valve body of the CVT was replaced at 200,000 kms (CVT itself is still original )
Radiator was only replaced for the first time late last year.
Rocker cover gasket was replaced a few years ago.
The usual suspension wear and tear, struts etc needed replacing over time.
Still the original fuel pump, alternator and starter motor.
All 3 engine mounts have been replaced .
Even the indicator globes are still original and have never needed replacing.

The only thiing giving me a bit of ongoing grief is the sway bar end links keeping failing since replacing the OEM ones 5 or so years ago. I have a whiteline sway bar thats nearly 10 years old now (24mm) and for some reason the links dont seem to last long,though the last set that was fitted seem to be holding up ok.

The exhaust is axelback just for noise , but to be honest, im thinking of going back to a standard setup , i feel it's simply not worth doing the hi flow cat and all that just for minimal horsepower.

Doing a lot of highway driving and doing regular servicing is the reason this car has been so reliable.

I am curious though are the CF's made in japan? I few people i know have had issues with them and the car is failry new.

Hope everyone is doing well .

Glen

Well done!

Glen
Thanks for letting us know how solid and reliable the Lancer is, yours has to be the one with the most kays on the clock I have come across.
The exhaust you speak of is just a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle to get the car over the deliberately detuned items that Mitsubishi have installed.
One.of the biggest things in the NA, RA, Evo that needs a good kick up the backside is the ECU. Mitsubishi have a lot of hidden gems in there waiting to be cracked open to release some decent power and fuel economy.

And my 09 VRX has just over 160k, well done on 400k.

lancerdarryl wrote:Well done!

Thanks mate, im pretty sure ive seen you at a few meets back in the day

bumblebee wrote:Glen
Thanks for letting us know how solid and reliable the Lancer is, yours has to be the one with the most kays on the clock I have come across.
The exhaust you speak of is just a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle to get the car over the deliberately detuned items that Mitsubishi have installed.
One.of the biggest things in the NA, RA, Evo that needs a good kick up the backside is the ECU. Mitsubishi have a lot of hidden gems in there waiting to be cracked open to release some decent power and fuel economy.

Thankyou !!! yes i have never had to call for road service since owning the car. When the valve body failed, it went into limp home mode which got me to my local mitsubishi dealer. Yes i have been reading the forums here recently about members wanting to try and get extra performance etc. The axel back gives a nice tone, but probably i tad too loud for my liking , im thinking of going back to oem axelback, then my thinking changes and maybe i should go hi flow cat etc, but i haven heard differant reviews from people doing differant things for performance, so im no completly sold whether it's worth the extra $$$ for snorkel, filter headers and the list goes on.

Lancer1993 wrote:And my 09 VRX has just over 160k, well done on 400k.

Thankyou !! yes a lot of driving from the Gold Coast to Sydney over the years helped rack up the kms

407,000 klicks is an amazing feat , well done mate.
Still original pistons and rings is astounding!
My 80 odd K looks like a walk in the park.
Fairly sure even the CF's are made in Japan.

Far out, that's a lotta k's. Good work!
How is the upholstery holding up?

Gleno wrote:

bumblebee wrote:Glen
Thanks for letting us know how solid and reliable the Lancer is, yours has to be the one with the most kays on the clock I have come across.
The exhaust you speak of is just a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle to get the car over the deliberately detuned items that Mitsubishi have installed.
One.of the biggest things in the NA, RA, Evo that needs a good kick up the backside is the ECU. Mitsubishi have a lot of hidden gems in there waiting to be cracked open to release some decent power and fuel economy.

Thankyou !!! yes i have never had to call for road service since owning the car. When the valve body failed, it went into limp home mode which got me to my local mitsubishi dealer. Yes i have been reading the forums here recently about members wanting to try and get extra performance etc. The axel back gives a nice tone, but probably i tad too loud for my liking , im thinking of going back to oem axelback, then my thinking changes and maybe i should go hi flow cat etc, but i haven heard differant reviews from people doing differant things for performance, so im no completly sold whether it's worth the extra $$$ for snorkel, filter headers and the list goes on.

Depending how far you wish to go and if you have the 4b11 or 4b12
Both have restricted exhaust in particular the OEM catalytic converter

http://imgur.com/a/EMOiL1d
The 4b12 OEM headers are quite good, sadly the same can't be said about the 4b11

http://imgur.com/a/Vq5NxC3

The 4b11 header sucks
The 4b12 header is a direct bolt up to the 4b11 for the header and is an inexpensive upgrade.
The other thing to do in Australia in the NA , RA, Evo to get more out of it is to bypass the coolant lines to the throttle body.
They raised the temp in the TB to stop it from freezing over if you live in Canada etc when it hits -20°
This unnecessary is Australia and can be bypassed and the ECU won't crack a sad about it.
The reason you do this is to reduce the temperature of the TB
By doing that you reduce the air temperature going into the engine
Heat under the bonnet is your enemy regardless of NA, RA, Evo
By keeping the air temp down you increase performance.
The biggest thing to get modified is the ECU, there is a truckload of gear in it Mitsubishi detuned deliberately . One of the biggest reason they did this was to increase reliability and they did it on the NA,RA,Evo.
If you do just those basics and an RA snorkel you will be rewarded nicely.

If that's not enough for you then perhaps you could do an engine swap and shove in a 2.2L turbo motor

http://imgur.com/gallery/beCEvmi

Gleno wrote:[Thankyou !! yes a lot of driving from the Gold Coast to Sydney over the years helped rack up the kms

Since I got mine used I've done 3 interstate trips racking up over 25k km in total.
Can't wait for Covid to be over and we can go for a trip to Adelaide again without fear of being locked out of QLD.

Mars1811 wrote:Far out, that's a lotta k's. Good work!
How is the upholstery holding up?

Thankyou !! upholstery holding up ok, i had to get the seat fixed on the drivers side (new padding ) and changed the brake pedal pad only once. The rear seats rarely get used and nothing has ever been in the cupholders. Some carpet wear on the drivers side floor. And the leather on the steering wheel wore away so i tore it off and ill just get a sterring wheel cover for it.

Very tidy indeed

I just got the same genuine seat covers over Christmas, nice change hey!

bumblebee wrote:Very tidy indeed

Thankyou and also thanks for the advice re the exhaust etc.