Car Review : Mitsubishi Galant V6 24v 2001 ~ Cars and Bikes
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Sunday, 7 October 2007

Car Review : Mitsubishi Galant V6 24v 2001

Car Review : Mitsubishi Galant V6 24v, 2.5 2001

Bought this pre-owned car at 2004 with 58.000 km on the odometer. Manual transmission and 2500 cc engine capacity. This is one of my dream car, I was very impress with its stylish exterior shape and also have quite strong engine. The bonnet remind me of shark shape, that why some Indonesian called this car "shark looking galant" (galant hiu), there is also "catfish looking galant" (galant lele) for the previous version of Mitsubishi Galant. Mitsubishi brand was identic with fast car image, and this car can proved that image. The brief specification of this car as follow:
Engine 2500cc, V-6 cylinders, 24 valves
power 167 hp
manual transmission
abs, air bag
front wheel drive

When I purchased the car, the condition generally good, ready for daily use. A month later I found a water pool in driver side floor. I brought the car to the ac workshop and found a clogging water pipe in the evaporator outlet. And the evaporator itself was very dirty. After clean-up the evaporator and the circulation pipe, the ac working perfect. According to some reference, mitsubishi galant ac is one of the most strongest/heavy duty ac, both evaporator and compressor made by Denso. The next upgrade was the sound system, completely changed the EOM product with Alpine head unit and speaker, add one JBL subwoofer and rockford fosgate 4 channel power amp.
Driving Experience
Mitsubishi Galant handling is average, with medium-large body and front wheel drive, oversteer occur during hard cornering. The acceleration was impressing, especially in third and fourth gear. Normally, I used to drive at 140-160 km/h at toll road. The top speed I'd tried is 220 km/hr, according to the factory manual book, this type of Galant can reach 235 km/hr. Breaking is superb, and the abs work perfectly. Slightly body roll occur when cornering, however an additional strut bar will give better improvement in car handling.

Fuel consumption around 1:5 to 1:6 (1 liter for 6 km) for city driving and 1:8 for extra urban. I installed two "fuel max", a magnetic ring installed at fuel line. This magnetic rings gave better fuel consumption 1:7 for city driving and 1:9-1:10 for extra urban, the acceleration also improving.

Problems

  1. erratic engine at lower rpm, its look likes the engine will cut out. Initially I suspect the poor/dirty fuel system cause this problem. Then I cleaned up the tank, sender, changed the fuel filter, however the problems still occur. After a few months, the Mitshubishi person told me to check the back pressure valve sensor, the tiny sensor on the top of the engine, replaced this sensor (cost me rp.125 rb/ US$ 14) and the problem gone, engine run smoothly.
  2. Ticking noise from the top of the engine, especially at morning time. This sound came from engine tapped. Mitsubishi Galant used Hydraulic Lash Adjuster (HLA), this part can produced ticking noise if the oil not well circulated or if broken. After reads some reference, particularly from Indonesian Mitsubishi Owner Club ("idmoc") forum, I've add Wynns Tune Up Concentrate oil additive, and the noise slightly reduced and almost gone after few weeks.
  3. Sound proofing was not really good, road and engine noise was high during high speed driving.

The rest is no problem, I'm very confidence to drive this Galant for long distance trip, however with a quite big and fast engine tends to push the throttle deeper and caused a higher fuel consumption.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You joke?