New RVR Owner - Final Drive Ratio - Changing the interior light - and heater doesn't produce... heat

[CPDST]

Hi Guys,

A week ago, I purchased my first Mitsubishi RVR, a 1994 Sports Gear, 4G63, manual. My first car, actually, as I'm still learning how to drive. I was really pleased to find one at a price I could afford, as the RVR has for me always been somewhat of a "Dream Car".

I've got a couple questions that I hope some of you at least may be able to answer:
1. One of the interior lights on the ceiling, the type where the whole lens moves as the switch for on-door-off, isn't going, I suspect a lamp has fused. How do you open it up to replace it, and what sort of lamp does it take?

2. Though the heater works, in order to get heat to come out of the vents, I have to push the temp right up - on a cold day, right up to 32 degrees to get any minimal amount of heat. Having looked through these forums, it looks like the issue could either be a clogged heater core, or a faulty thermostat. I suspect it is the heater core as the liquid in the radiator top tank is a brown, muddy fluid. Though there is a previous thread with written instructions showing how to flush the radiator and heater core, I really don't want to stuff up the car, could someone point me towards an English service manual that shows me how to do this, or perhaps post a pictorial guide on how to flush the radiator and the heater core - my worst fear would be disconnecting the wrong hose, and overheating the engine through water loss, thus ruining my engine.

Also, this is just an out of interest question, is the final drive ratio different for RVR Sports Gear (Manual), compared to the 7 passenger Chariot wagon - our family used to own a 1992 Chariot MX 4WD wagon, with manual gearbox and 4G63 engine - and I can always remember on the motorway it would cruise at 100KMH at around 2400-2500RPM, while my RVR cruises at the same speed at 2800-3000RPM? I'm just curious to know whether my memory is wrong, or if (and why) Mitsubishi changed the final drive ratio.

If it helps with any of these questions, my RVR is an E-N23WG-SNXM (At least, that's the writing on the vehicle makers plate just under the bonnet)

I do hope somebody around here can answer my questions, thanks in advance for those who are able to!
Regards,
Craig.

 

[evo-gsr]

Mate to change the interior light just use a very small flatblade screwdriver to prise the lens cover off and change the globe..easy as.

With the radiator...just buy some radiator flush and pour it into the radiator while the car is cold.
Take it for a drive to get it up to temp with heater and fan on flat out. Read the instructions on the stuff and follow them.
Once you have done that undo the lower hose on the radiator with the car off and drop the contents of the radiator.
You might have to do that a few times each time just replace with water and do it until no more brown **** comes out.
Once you have clear water coming out fill it with coolant instead and see what happens.
Dont fill a hot engine with cold water but...either wait till it cools down or use hot water to refill it...you need to get rid of that brown **** from the system.

 

[4piknup]

Take it to the local radiator shop and get a reverse flush. They will blast all out with water and air pressure.

As above for the light.

 

[Django]

What evo_gsr has said about the interior light is right, you will see a little space on one end of the lens cap that you can fit a small screwdriver into to twist the screwdriver and pop it off.

With the radiator mate, there is a much quicker/simpler way.

If you want to run the flush **** through by all means go for it, probably best if you're trying to clean crap out of the core and you've got muddy coolant. Run the car for a while with the heater on as said (drive to the shops, whatever). Wait till it cools down and follow these steps.

1. Pull top hose off and block the radiators top tank hose hole (the top part of the radiator that the top hose connects to) with a cloth rag and make sure the rag or hose is secure and won't hit the cooling fan when it kicks in.

2. Get a garden hose turned on and top up the radiator and keep it topped up whilst doing the flush.

3. Run the motor with the heater up high and fan on (whatever speed, so long as it's on) and when it warms up the thermostat will give way and gush water out every now and then.

4. Keep going till the water comes out as clear as it goes in, position the hose so it's not going into the fan of course and make sure the radiator is kept full at all times.

5. Once it's all clear water coming out, your good to whack some coolant in there. Go out and get some glycol cause these things have alloy heads, you can get the mixed crap that's fine, it's got glycol anyway just get enough to mix with the total system capacity which is **** knows, usually about 7 liters. Or you can buy a pure glycol in a small bottle and put the whole bottle of that in the reservoir or the radiator and it is perfect for all cars with alloy heads.

6. Bleed the system. Once you've added the coolant and the system is full, leave the cap off and there is a 12mm nut on top of the thermostat housing, there should be a sticker next to it saying never open when hot so be sure to let it cool down enough to touch. Undo the nut and make sure not to undo fully and drop it... just enough so that it starts bleeding coolant and not air. This will expel the air pockets in the system that you do not want in there!

7. Done. Have a beer and watch some TV

You are fine if you are on a drive to top up the system with cold water, so long as you haven't lost so much water that the reservoir is completely empty cause this might crack the solders on the radiator, but you HAVE to have the motor running. Either way it's a really bad idea to try and open the radiator cap when the system is hot, a fkn really bad idea.

Your final drive ratio I have no idea about, do you have standard wheels and tyres on the car? Check the wheel placard if your not sure, can't remember where it is off the top of my head.

Any questions feel free to ask.

 

[Django]

The reverse flush is worth a shot too, Natrad or whoever will do a reverse flush to the heater core and top it all up fairly cheap. Depends on money all this i spose. You would just have to tell them to reverse flush the heater core, they might just do the radiator.

 

[4piknup]

Reverse flush is the way to get the most crud out. Other than removing engine parts.

 

[Mr Gears]

I think all the manual non-turbo AWD cars and wagons like your Chariot got a 2.85 final drive.The manual turbo AWD cars got 3.5 or 3.9 final drive. Your RVR got 3.9.
If you fit bigger wheels you will increase your speed. However, your speedo will then read slow, so check your speed with gps.

 

[CPDST]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

When Dad, the mechanically minded one, is back from overseas, I'll begin the radiator flush process - thanks all of you for confirming I do need to get it done, and how to do it. Our mechanic said we could just leave it, it wouldn't cause any issues, but I don't like the idea of brown crap flowing through the radiator, and the fact my heater doesn't work well seems to confirm this. So I intend to sort this out as soon as possible.

@Mr Gears: Ok then, so my RVR has a higher final drive than the Chariot - but my RVR is a non-turbo 4WD car - so surely it gets 2.85? Or did all 4WD RVR's and 4WD Turbo Chariot's get 3.9/3.5? Also, as a rule, does a higher final drive mean mean a higher RPM for a given speed?

I have suspicions that another why my cruising rev's are so high is because the engine is out of tune/needs a tune up. In our family we have an 2001 N84W Chariot, and a 96 Honda Odyssey (We're a people moving family..), both of which have engines producing somewhere in the region of 150HP. According to the specs, so should this car. But having driven all three, mine, the RVR feels the least powerful (To a large noticeable extent, a member of the family who never comments on cars commenting that it felt much less powerful than the Odyssey, even though that's an auto as well as a large MPV) , though it weighs a little less than both those cars. I never purchased this car for it's power (As a learner driver that's not my main need) , but it does seem a little unusual that the lightest car, with the manual gearbox should feel the least powerful.

Craig.

 

[Rockabilly]

Chariot n/a man 2.846 rear = 3.89 final drive ratio
3.545 rear = 4.93 final drive ratio
3.909 rear = 5.44 final drive ratio
Yes the taller the (final drive ratio) the more the revs for speed
Cheers