myAE86turbo

yeah starters on dsms suck *****.

buddy would come over to get stoned, and i always had to help him start his car when he left my pad. it sucked cuz i'd be pushing an eclipse all faded and ----. so i finally offered to change his starter out for him.

J-SMITH69

they arnet that unreliable. there are hudnreds of thousands out there that still run and have ran forever.

when you get kids ------- with everything on it, then yea its unreliable

ososlohatch

lol been there and they arent light either ... and feel twice as heavy when your baked .. as far as reliabillity, every car you tinker with is going to have little problems dsm's just need alot of maintaining and if your lazy they will take a ---- on you .. p.s. they feel faster than they are dont be suprised when you get beat by na crx's and hatches

jecu

DSM's can be very reliable, my girlfriend has a 95 Galant and it has never let us down (knock on wood), granted it has problems, but what car doesnt.

90dx

I owned a 91 FWD turbo DSM.It was very reliable no problems with it at all.I bought it from a original or second owner who was a adult,serviced it at Dodge only and was bone stock.I really like it for what it was.The only issue I had was that the tranny started to grind second but Redline MTF fixed that for the most part.If you want a DSM get a stock adult driven one that is well maintaned.As much as people make fun of them they can be pretty quick for dirt cheap,handle good and are a comfortable car.I did the free mods,3" downpipe,3" catback and turned the boost up a bit and it was probably a high 13 second car with a good launch.The 4G63 is a stout motor and other then trannies they really are fairly reliable.Get a built aftermarket tranny[$$] when the original goes and you should be fine.

ju-on

To answer the question on what doesn't brake on DSM's, well, the shortblock. Mines been through hell and back, and the 15 year old shortblock was still at damn near perfect compression. But ya I've broken just about everything else that's attached to it though. I had a 2g as a daily driver once. It was very reliable when it was just at 16g power levels. Once I threw the 50 trim on there, reliability ---- the bed. On my 1g now, ya anyone who knows me knows how reliable it is. I'd never own one as a daily driver. They just don't age well I dont think. They leak, hoses break, gaskets go bad, it's a constant battle I swear. I think mine is finally to the point now where it will start to being reliable (ya i hope). They are fun as heck, can be made fast so easily, but never again will I own one as a daily driver.

For things to check
-when was the timing belt done. If it's been awhile, then you will want to give that whole area some attention (t-belt, tensioner pulley, hydraulic tensioner, balance shaft belts)
-put it in 5th and punch it, make sure the clutch isn't slipping.
-look at the cv boots on the axles, see if they are ripped to ----.
-see if the xfer case is leaking (if it is, you should be able to bring it to any dealer, and get it fixed for free since it's a safety recall. People have had their ---- just lock up on them while driving, and mitsu is required to fix leaking xfr cases)
-check shaft play on the turbo
-lowered 2", how's the rear camber?
-like you said, those shocks are dead due to it being lowered. If you're going to be that low, stock replacements will blow out quickly. You'll need some better shocks, or raise the thing back up closer to stock.
-wouldn't hurt if you could find a logger and check and make sure there are no thrown engine codes(i've had that bulb removed on me before, so there was an engine light code, but no indicator light)

Other than that, just you're basic ----. But again, DSM's are questionable daily drivers. Some work just fine, others seem like a nightmare sometimes.

G2turbo_terror

I couldn't break 19mpg on my awd and I did almost all hwy

RotaryGeek

well i still couldn't find this guy to talk to him about trading. he has the old beat up fwd laser still in the driveway. its for sale, but as hard as it is to get ahold of him, i doubt it will actually sell. and anybody looking at actually buying the car is nuts, cuz its got horrible paint, the front bumper is chopped up for the fmic, and the wheels look like some caddy wheels. so if i get the chance i will talk to him about all the above mentioned stuff and see whats the deal with it, and hopefully make the trade. i guess that means im going to have to cover the honda tattoo on my arm