hey i've been having a odd issue with the magna yet again but auto related.

start the car. reverse out of the driveway then put it in drive.. no forward movement (but will roll like its in neutral)

it has also happened in the shopping centre carpark too, even to drive forward out of the driveway or a carpark spot.

it seems to be intermittent issue but it does it more often on hot days than not
select 3rd instead it will pickup gear and if i wait a minute slip it into drive whilst moving it will then happily keep going.

just needing a few ideas on what i need to adjust or get replaced on it if it isnt major..
if its major. well i'll have to weigh up the options then

i serviced the auto back in october, and isnt leaking or turned funny colours yet.
is still full, and shifts beutifully

car itself has done 355600, appears to be the original auto and motor
i bought it with 318000 and i had a bit of diff slop then, but hasnt gotten any worse

thanks for looking
matt

There is nothing to adjust in these cars, to me sounds like an ECU issue, this is a problem only in the TE series, next time it happens see if you manually select back to 1st if you pick up gears

There is nothing to adjust in these cars, to me sounds like an ECU issue, this is a problem only in the TE series, next time it happens see if you manually select back to 1st if you pick up gears

bugger.. well if i pull back to 1st it will move on its own steam.

but i probably found the cause on the way to work anyways. heatercore let go in peakhour traffic which has in turn stuffed the ecu anyways, as its gone into lhm often and slamming into gears and such.
carpet is soaked and green now. and i have a lovely coolant air freshener smell in the car

i'm having a closer look tomorrow with a clear head to assess the amount of damage it did. as you could imagine i was pretty pissed off when it blew!
i had the radiator joint next to work bypass the heater for me today, so i could get it back home at least.


so what are heatercores worth? and i'd imagine its a dash off job and getting the a\c degassed
i was doing a traineeship years ago in car a\c refrigeration but never did any magnas.. lots of commodores and ef el falcons though
so i have a fair idea on what i need to do etc, just unfamiliar on the dash removal on a magna

From what I've read on here, it probably is the seals rather than the core itself.. You still have to take apart the whole dash though. Very time consuming job from what I understand (write off at least a day).

From what I've read on here, it probably is the seals rather than the core itself.. You still have to take apart the whole dash though. Very time consuming job from what I understand (write off at least a day).

had a look... not liking on how much of a pig of a job its going to be.
part of the dash has been off before to fix a broken cable by the looks of it as i have a extra hole that looks to have been made with a stanley knife :( and they damaged a few screw heads which means getting anything out with dash mostly in isnt going to be fun.

carpet is stuffed.

ecu is stuffed. coolant marks over the main connector and the base of it. (was spotless a couple of months ago)

i had coolant leaking out of the drain aswell so i think i might have more than a dead seal, and seriously what sadist at mitsubishi thought it was a good idea to make the pipes out of plastic? my lower broke off at the firewall when the hoses were removed to bypass the heater

...and seriously what sadist at mitsubishi thought it was a good idea to make the pipes out of plastic? my lower broke off at the firewall when the hoses were removed to bypass the heater

Mine snapped off last year too when I was replacing the hoses (sometimes preventative maintenance gets you into shit), ended up getting the pipes, core and seals replaced at the same time. At 200,000km it wasn't a job I wanted to pay for twice when the core eventually failed.

lol @ snapping plastic pipes when removing the hoses.

The rubber heat welds onto the plastic and the plastic goes brittle with age. The plastic will snap if you just twist and pull.
Trick is to use a sharp stanley knife to slice along and through the hose where it sits on the plastic pipe, then peel it off gently. If the plastic shows cracks it needs to be replaced anyway. If good, a new hose can be put on but it needs to be lubricated (spit, coolant, a bit of vaseline, whatever) and pushed straight on without twisting.

Use this hint in future anywhere there is a rubber hose that needs to come off a plastic pipe. (a bit late, I know)

Mine snapped off last year too when I was replacing the hoses (sometimes preventative maintenance gets you into shit), ended up getting the pipes, core and seals replaced at the same time. At 200,000km it wasn't a job I wanted to pay for twice when the core eventually failed.

can you remember what it cost in parts to repair yours?

The core was about $80, the pipes were $46 and the seals were $3 for the pair. I got them through a mate on the cheap though.

lol @ snapping plastic pipes when removing the hoses.

The rubber heat welds onto the plastic and the plastic goes brittle with age. The plastic will snap if you just twist and pull.
Trick is to use a sharp stanley knife to slice along and through the hose where it sits on the plastic pipe, then peel it off gently. If the plastic shows cracks it needs to be replaced anyway. If good, a new hose can be put on but it needs to be lubricated (spit, coolant, a bit of vaseline, whatever) and pushed straight on without twisting.

Use this hint in future anywhere there is a rubber hose that needs to come off a plastic pipe. (a bit late, I know)
yeah.. i found it funny, but at the time i just left it at the radiator place next door with a request to bypass the heater. dont care how, and just fill it up with water.

yeah good point, i didnt know their condition till yesterday as i was yet to actually change the two heater hoses.

i would of done it that way too, but i had no tools in the car, and i really didnt feel like getting behind there with all the lpg crap in the way on a hot motor
dishwashing detergent works well for fitting rubber hoses onto plastic pipes aswell

The core was about $100, the pipes were $46 and the seals were under $10 for the pair. I got them through a mate on the cheap though.
ahhh well i tend to get trade near work and i have a mate that is able to get near cost price too.


adding up the sums so far..
core 100ish
pipes 50ish
heater hoses.. ??
carpet 35
ecu 53
whatever it costs to get the a\c degassed and regassed ??

so i'll likeley be drilling a hole in the base of the heater box to make sure i have no more coolant in there. and fixing it when it gets cold enough to need the heater or when i'm in a better position financially, as my insurance renewal is due for the te aswell

but i'll be replacing the carpet and ecu first so it can be driven though. as i am borrowing a car till payday.

With core and seals I charge a flat $450 to do this job

You dont need to degas and regas aircon, who ever told you that should not be allowed near the car

It is a dash out job, when done a few times is no big deal

With core and seals I charge a flat $450 to do this job

You dont need to degas and regas aircon, who ever told you that should not be allowed near the car

It is a dash out job, when done a few times is no big deal
ah ok.. i'll keep it in mind if i decide to pay for it to be done for me

i was going from experience from other makes.. that i have done heatercore's in
i'm the first to admit i am flying blind when it comes to this 3rd gen. my first gen was easier than this to work on.. thats for sure

ahh so they are easy enough to remove?
i have no experience with mitsubishi's heater systems. i think it might be worth experimenting on how to rnr at the wreckers when i'm there for a new ecu and carpet

as i know what to do if it was a vs to vz holden, or a ea to ba ford. or even lastly toyota landcruisers, trucks..
essentually i'll need to fix it eventually. considering it will need to pass a rwc to put into mums name when she takes over ownership of it

With core and seals I charge a flat $450 to do this job

You dont need to degas and regas aircon, who ever told you that should not be allowed near the car

It is a dash out job, when done a few times is no big deal

Silver_TE, if you do end up getting someone to fix it, get Mal to do it. I was charged more than that in labour alone to do mine

I have some pretty clean carpet AND ecu if you want them cheap. Plus a heater core that is top notch.
Plus, if you're close to Melbourne, I don't even mind giving you a hand to do the job.

Dishwashing liquid works well when putting hoses back on, but I avoid it as I don't know what it will do to the rubber/plastic joint or if it gets into the coolant. lol

Learnt my lesson about this slice and peel method early in life, even with the old copper and solder jointed radiators, it was easy to just pull and twist a rubber hose and have things separate at the solder joint . . . a definite "oops" moment!

Anyhow - good luck sorting it.

want to p'm me some pictures? as i'm interested. as the thought has crossed my mind to go to jollyrodgers

heatercore i'm only going to go new..
as mum wants to buy this off me eventually so i might aswell do it once and make it near bulletproof

i live in frankston.. car is at home luckily as it wasnt happy doing the drive home on friday
i took it for a spin after drying the ecu out.. i've confirmed i murdered the ecu

i'm currently using my sisters nf fairlane to get to work etc.
only thing i miss is the lpg and the leg room around the column.. goes alot better than the te does with the lpg mixer removed

Dishwashing liquid works well when putting hoses back on, but I avoid it as I don't know what it will do to the rubber/plastic joint or if it gets into the coolant. lol

Learnt my lesson about this slice and peel method early in life, even with the old copper and solder jointed radiators, it was easy to just pull and twist a rubber hose and have things separate at the solder joint . . . a definite "oops" moment!

Anyhow - good luck sorting it.
it just makes bubbles but i never run coolant straight away as i have had too many leaks arise after

same here. luckily it was on just a old shitter i didnt care about or was easily fixed

thanks.. its going to be fun doing some of it in my driveway to make it mobile again as its got a decent enough slope to make the job hard..
or get it to start and limp it to a mates place and pull it apart over a weekend to fix it

the heatercore will not be replaced till after the eb is registered. so it will be put into the list of to do's after may..

I'll fire off some pictures for you tomorrow, if you like. Need an ECU as well?

Silver_TE, if you do end up getting someone to fix it, get Mal to do it. I was charged more than that in labour alone to do mine

yeah? i know what it can be worth for the same job on a falcon and it averaged 800+

but i'll speak to mal if i decide its time better spent to drop it off.
but i have a few mates that have sheds and owe me a favour for when i bailed them out of a sticky situation with cars too.
so what goes around comes around i suppose :)


but ecu wise..
do i need to make sure it comes out of a te? or will any exectutive computer work?
as i was running a ecu from a 3.0 v6 altera in my te with no issues.

i was thinking one out of a newer model might be a good idea? or a bad one as i dont have the 3.5 v6

I'll fire off some pictures for you tomorrow, if you like. Need an ECU as well?

what would you be asking??

yeah mine is fried. it runs but it isnt happy about it or changes gears properly..

I'll p.m. details tomorrow. Won't be much, though. Loose change.

I'll p.m. details tomorrow. Won't be much, though. Loose change.

ah ok.. look forward to chatting to you tomorrow then!

I did one of these recently, it took quite some time, but wasn't too difficult.
I found a few different sets of instructions, and fairly much ignored them all (Except for the location of screws/nuts)
Quite a few said the front seats should be taken out - no, I did not do this.
Some said you need to drop the steering column - no, I did not do this - removing the steering wheel and associated bits of plastic was enough.

I got some video (only after mostly removing things, and I was tired and annoyed, so I complain a lot...) that may be of use to you - although on looking at it again it's not terribly good, none of the actual dash removal/refitting, but a bit around the heater core itself.

a update on this..

a big thanks to NicoXY for dropping the ecu and carpet off to me. greatly appreciated. was a pity i was made to do o\t that night
got it all in etc. all works.

but i still have trans issues.. but its looking like its actually the gearbox itself. as it has done its weird shift thing across 3 ecu's
oil is full and fine as i didnt do a service that long ago

On another note.. whilst i took it for a drive. i lost it on a quite a slippery round a bout and gutter slapped it. it is quite slippery moreso when wet.
as the auto was playing up slipping in gear. in any gear i was stressing out and trying to limp it home.. it went neutral mid intersection and slammed back into gear and it just simply torque steered..
odd camber of road. and the road itself is quite smooth

it is just a case of driver error.. (ME) that was a contributing factor, along with a mechanical issue
4 other cars lost it on the same intersection whilst i was waitng on a mate to come and get me so i could go hire a trailer to move mine off the nature strip

i have bent the lower control arm. and associated suspension geometry. i'm not too sure which way i'm going yet in the way of repairs..
at the moment the thought of cashing the rego on the te and getting my eb registered is a better idea as there is less to do to get a rwc on it. and it doesnt require a possible gearbox swap to make it driveable