I recently purchased a TL LS that had done 17ks and is only 12 months old. After 3 months this is what is happening.

The auto gearbox holds on badly changing from 3-4. Sometimes for over 20 secs. When I decelerate there is a stuttering feeling coming from the gearbox and then if I accelerate again it abruptly drops down a gear and gives you like a whip lash type feeling. The gearbox also bounces when going around a corner and then accelerating. I took it to mitsubishi and they reckon I should be letting of the pedal when I want to change to 4th. Bring down the revs to let it change. WTF. It should just change not get stuck in between.

The radio goes all distorted when I go near power lines. I have to drive in the right lane to get good radio reception.

The weather stripping is starting to come away from around the top of the doors. They wont fix that.

When it is idling you can feel it through the car. Not just a little bit but quite badly. When I purchased it it wasnt doing that. Now the fuel consumption has gone from 600km per tank to around 520km per tank. I drive in the city and just go with the flow type driving.

The paint is peeling off around the rear window surround. Surely that would come under the warranty of the paint etc. But nooo it doesnt. It is just wear and tear. The god damn car is only 15 months old. What is it gonna be like in 3 years.

I had a gen II 3.0l which was awesome which i had to sell to move interstate. That was a vast difference to this peice of crap. Mitsubishi market their car as a performance vehicle etc etc and the people at the dealership say I should drive the auto like a nana.

I'd threaten them with action from Fair Trading or Consumer Affairs, for a 12 month old car to be in such condition is a sign of poor workmanship, and for the record, the weather stripping and paint on my 1992 KR are still in mint condition.

Take it to a mechanic, get a full list of what's defective, and then take it to a different dealership and get them to check it out. If they still refuse to do anything, write to MMAL.

Take the car back tell them to fix it or you will ring mmal itself and things do get done

u could do what they said or you could do it my way..

take the manager of the dealership that refused to correct the probelem for a drive to show him the 'dodgy auto'...drive him a long way away from the dealer ship making sure ur out of mobile reception then tell him to either fix the probelem or get the f out of ur car...

then ur problem should be fixed..
lol

Try a different dealer for warranty work. My rear window surround was replaced with no problems. Gearbox, get it flushed. Good luck!

15 months old... abt the time last year when mitsu AU didn't know whether they were going out of business? i've said it before i'll say it again... DO NOT get any cars built by them during that entire year. you could imagine if you were an assembly line worker then who was unsure abt the future.. you wouldn't give a cow's hoof whether that bolt went in correctly would you?

Paint peeling, clunks in autos, weather stripping coming away. That isn't the work of disgruntled employees. I'd say it would be true if theres trim falling off the car and bits generally falling off, but that isnt the case.

That's one mindset you have. I have a different mindset. If my job security depends on me making a quality product, I'd rather do my job properly than shoot myself in the foot and be looking for a ****tier job.

Unfortunately paint is one of those crappy things and generally isnt covered by warranties. But paint peeling? It shouldn't do that. Check that it hasn't been resprayed first. If they're nice they should fix it for you. There was a post recently about someone whose paint was peeling and they got that section resprayed.

A ECU reset may go some way to fixing the idling and trans problem (but i think the trans problem is a bit more terminal.

What kind of dealer are you going to?
I recommand try another dealer, if not take it to the fair trade.

The TL is a BIG dissapointment......When I purchased it it wasnt doing that.......

Hate to sound cheeky, but the TL was a BIG dissapointment before you bought it :doubt:

On the constructive side, I would be tackling your local Mitsubishi dealership first, but if necessary you should try and go to as many other ones in your area. What you should be doing is telling them of the problem, and if they try and shake it off, take them for a drive in your car and literally show them what the problem is. If they refuse to come in the car with you, kindly remind them that they are required to assistant you in any warranty problems for 5 years / 130,000kms from the date they sold the car brand new, and that they are legally bound by this from the contract they entered into when they sold the car brand new.

u got a friday car mate

Hi bandit71

The auto gearbox holds on badly changing from 3-4. Sometimes for over 20 secs. When I decelerate there is a stuttering feeling coming from the gearbox and then if I accelerate again it abruptly drops down a gear and gives you like a whip lash type feeling. The gearbox also bounces when going around a corner and then accelerating. I took it to mitsubishi and they reckon I should be letting of the pedal when I want to change to 4th. Bring down the revs to let it change. WTF. It should just change not get stuck in between.

I would use a good quality additive (like eg. Nulon ) and then consider a flush.


The radio goes all distorted when I go near power lines. I have to drive in the right lane to get good radio reception.

I had a similar problem in my TJ caused by antenna not earthing to the underside of the boot.
Get access to antenna, drop the whole thing down enough so that you can scrape it back to clean, bare metal where it touches.

all these peeps having problems with there tl's i have none, well apart from the usual drivers seat and passanger air bag, other then that its fine. Oh mine was 2003 built if that matters, but seriously i am very happy with my car, would not trade it for a TJ or any early magna ( Besides a Ralli Art ).

I read all these negative coments towards th TL's and do not understand where people are coming from.

Can somone tell me what the passanger airbag problem is or show me a picture. I have no idea what to look for. PLZ

I have had issues with my car too, some perhaps because i'm pedantic more then others. But otherwise it's a good car, certainly more so then a commy or a ford.

im not having any of these problems with my TL and its done 35k so far. i do notice that the gearbox likes holding 3rd a bit longer then i like before changing into fourth tho, this isnt a fault however, this is intentional, let me explain.

When the car is under a bit of load and you are still accelerating slightly, it will not change into 4th till around 80-90km/h, this is to keep the engine in its torque curve and therefore imrpove the responsiveness of the engine. As the dealer said, if you ease off the throttle at this time, it will change into 4th straight away, however if you are still on the throttle, the computer will assume you are still trying to accelerate and it will not change into 4th as that will put the engine out of its torque curve. Hope this helps explain it to you.

As for jerky downchanges, mine only does that when i suddenly give it more trottle while the engine is under load, otherwise the downchange in my car is quite good. However in saying this, your car may have these things exagerated due to some kind of problem. So basically, the problem is either a) your driving style and as such you need to become more smooth with your throttle applications or b) there is some mecanical problem and you could take it to a specialist auto transmition place and get them to have a look at it and report and problems back to your mitsubishi dealer for them to fix

As for paint pealing, well i dont know you so i will avoid making assumptions, but this would only happen if you a) dont wash and polish your car enough or b) maybe something highly acidic was on that bit of paint which you didnt wash off quick enough and therefore the paint got stuffed in that spot, bird sh!t for example will destroy paint quick smart if you dont wash it off immediately

Can somone tell me what the passanger airbag problem is or show me a picture. I have no idea what to look for. PLZ

they are simply talking about the passenger airbag cover not fitting properly

Yeah on mine the top right was liftedout of the assembly.

15 months old... abt the time last year when mitsu AU didn't know whether they were going out of business? i've said it before i'll say it again... DO NOT get any cars built by them during that entire year. you could imagine if you were an assembly line worker then who was unsure abt the future.. you wouldn't give a cow's hoof whether that bolt went in correctly would you?

what a load of rubbish, does that mean that holden workers are unsure about there job every model they bring out???

I think is just quality control. I have seen good TLs etc...and I still like them even in terms of their design. Wasnt waxing required to protect the paint job? I know polishing may cause damage especially if its metallic paint. Maybe is also due to our driving habbits whether you drive the car hard and fast or use it normally. Everything adds up I guess.