[Icantgolf]

Hello,
My friend's mom is selling her 2012 GS 4AT with about 40k miles. My knowledge ends with the Mitsu EVOs and have very little knowledge with the Eclipse. However this opportunity has piqued my interest. I test drove it. While it doesn't light my hair on fire, it is not bad as a runabout car and might be an eventual car to pass to my teenage daughter. I have done some research in the past few days.

My questions are:

• How is the reliability? Major issues?
• Major maintenance to watch out for?
• Parts availability?
• Are there any DIY videos/instructions?
• Is the GS worth buying or should I stick to a GT?

The specimen I am looking is mechanically sound. Although it emitted some weird metallic noise at start up. Idled quietly. Nothing out of the ordinary.
However lower body work has some scratches and dings. The car is pretty base. No sunroof, leather nor Rockford-Fosgate. She's asking $5k.

 

[Eclipsenation]

Hi there,
The reliability on the 2009-2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse are pretty great as long as you keep up with the general maintenance, oil changes and tune ups annually. I’ve had my 2012 Eclipse for about 5 years. When I bought the car (4k$$) it had a 150k miles and now it has 190k miles. Between then and now, the only major issue I had was having to replace the alternator and battery. Parts for that vehicle are very accessible and affordable! They are great cars if you are looking to add any modifications and yes, there are plenty of video tutorials that provide step by step guidance. It’s definitely a gas saver for sure. GS model is pretty basic but for a 4 cylinder, me personally I think it runs respectfully decent as for speed goes.. Of course if you want a little bit more speed and performance, GT would be the way to go.

 

[Sabertooth^2]

-Very reliable, quantifiably one of the best ranked cars ever by problem reports

-Major maintenance, yes. Timing belts are due (one for the head/crank, one for a balance shaft/crank)
Minor maintenance, most people with the auto skip the trans fluid changes. It would be good to keep that on a regular schedule. Good chance the brake fluid, power steering fluid, and coolant are original too with the low miles. Change all that. Suspension and motor mounts may have sagging bushings from sitting so much as well, so be aware. That's not Eclipse specific, just general.

-Many things are available, some niche things are not made anymore. Eg, the A pillar exterior trim can not be had, gas tanks can not be had.

-You'll find the odd videos, but it's not like a Civic or Corolla where it seems everyone's dog around the world had one. It's a fairly low volume car

-GT doesn't gain you much as a daily driven car.



I absolutely thrashed my GS (manual) at 28psi boost (built motor so ignore that) and used to track it. Everything chassis wise holds up great under those severe conditions. I've had it since 2015, tracked it 2016-2020, and it needed very little. An alternator, wheel bearing, sway bar end link, clutch master cylinder. Other than that has just been either engine issues I caused, or regular maintenance.

 

[Icantgolf]

Thank you for your responses. Am glad to read that the GS is a reliable car! I thought the 2.4l purred very well without odd squeaks or noise for its age.

The timing belts R&R seem pretty complex.
Suspension wise the car drove true and with good lateral transitions. No bumps or clunks. In manumatic mode the car moves respectably on city streets. I am not looking for a hair raising sports car. In fact I like it kinda pokey when it gets passed to my teenage daughter next year. Therefore reliability and ease of maintenance is #1.

It does feel somewhat claustrophobic due to the lack of sunroof.
Blind spots aren't the greatest. Also I nearly caught myself getting jabbed by the door's triangular window! Wow that thing looks menacing as one descents onto the bucket seats!

I believe it runs on regular gas and dino oil?

 

[Sabertooth^2]

The timing belt job isn't bad if you're used to doing timing jobs. It's one of the simpler friendlier ones I've had to do. SOHC helps with that, and it's quite a friendly tensioner setup.

Lack of sunroof is just because it wasn't spec'd with one. You could find another with it. They also have an upgraded sound system with an actual sub in a box when they have that.

The blind spots suck, but if you adjust the mirrors out more it's fine I found.

It runs on 87, and 5w30 oil. 5w20 is spec on the cap, but don't do it, it's a lie. The service manual and owners manual explain what oil is the thinnest that can be used based on different temperatures and useage. 5w20 is NOT for use over half throttle, and NOT for use over 90f. So it's not right on a hot summer day, and not right for pulling onto a highway with traffic. Synthetics are ALWAYS best, there's a ton of misunderstanding about them. But conventional oil, while hurting overall life of the engine, isn't going to cause it to die tomorrow.

 

[Waynerwats]

It may just be me but I've never heard a stock gs that didn't have that metallic sound on start up.

 

[07gtspyder]

Ha they get a bad blind spot! Good reason for a turbo! I always say if your going to cut someone off you better do it quick.

 

[Associate00]

Ha they get a bad blind spot! Good reason for a turbo! I always say if your going to cut someone off you better do it quick.

I definitely appreciate someone that pulls out in front of me, but hauls ass so I don't have to press my brakes

 

[Icantgolf]

Gonna check out the car again this weekend. Are there any specific areas I should look out for with a GS model?

 

[ItsMIVECyo]

You've probably bought the car or decided not to buy it by now, but I got my 2007 SE at 126,xxx miles, which now has over 186,000 and it's actually been a fairly reliable car. I have only had a couple major mechanical failures on it, and most of the things I have replaced have been just old car stuff. I've had to replace the CV axles, two wheel bearings, some bushings, and I did the front control arms. Normal old car stuff. I believe 06-08 cars have an issue with the A/C condenser cracking, and mine did that along with a bunch of A/C lines needing to be replaced. I would say the most major thing happening was my shift solenoid in the transmission going bad and throwing the car in limp mode, and somehow that solenoid ended up frying the ECU (the dealer even warned me that might happen but I didn't believe them.) That was by far the most expensive thing ever for the car. Other than that, I have been stranded by the ignition switch failing, but that's a 45 minute replacement. And nearly stranded by the the crankshaft position sensor failing. Went ahead and changed the timing belt since that sensor is under the timing cover. The job is not too bad if you're a little familiar with working on cars and give yourself a couple of days. It does have a weird electrical issue going on right now with the voltage dropping super low causing the radio and stuff to cut out, and I'm trying to determine if that's from the lightweight harmonic balancer I put on, or if the alternator is going bad. The starter also needs some extra encouragement to actually start the car sometimes (to be fair it was definitely submerged in water. Long story.) But that car has survived hydroplaning into a guardrail at 70mph, and even hydrolocking during a hurricane (this is part of the long story) and it still runs smooth as butter when everything is in order. So I'm invested in keeping it as a beater. Seems the facelift cars have a lot less issues than mine based on the comments here.