Interested to hear from anyone who's owned one of these, or has experience working on them.I've avoided Mitsubishis religiously as I've heard nothing but horror stories about GDI motors, crappy electrics and weak drive trains.Saying that, they seem to be a lot of car for the money now, and 2.5 V6 twin turbo rolls off the tongue quite nicely.
vr4_legnum,
Feb 7, 7:57pm
Sign up to clubvr4.com heaps and heaps of info on here about them.
I bought one about 4 months. bought legnum vr4 manual with few mod done to it and was hell alot of car for $3600 i paid for it. not the nicest car on fuel tho. Haven't done anythink to mine yet but don't looking forward to when i do. but they are nice looking and not bad car to drive.
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 8:20pm
they are a 15 year old performance car. you are going to have some kind of problems be it big or small at some stage. My '96 Legnum VR-4 tiptronic at 206,000kms had a noisy AYC pump on hard cornering and some paint defects but that was about it.
Other than the AYC pump check out the front lower ball joints in the control arms - there are two each side which wear out and require the entire control arm to be replaced (about $100 each aftermarket, or $250 genuine). With the tiptronic models pay attention to the fluid condition and check for shuddering when the torque converter lock up clutch engages in 4th or 5th gear at 50-80km/h. Manual models use the same drivetrain as the Evo4/5/6 which is fairly robust.
hpaul,
Feb 7, 8:22pm
That force fed 2.5 V6 lump is a lovely unit, so torque rich and full of creamy muscle.
You won't get laid by reciting the stats to loose women and reliability on an older one would frighten me but, hey, live a little.
200sx,
Feb 7, 8:23pm
Phil Weston will have some good input, but from my own experience I'd suggest taking the time to find a good one that has been meticulously serviced and looked after. I brought a 2002 nz new one with 107km on the clock. One previous owner, full mitsi dealer service history. Serviced every 5000km including key items like ayc diff and trans when due etc Was bulletproof and went like new. Ran on 98 - not surprisingly wasn't half the car on 95. Find a good one with history and you will be happy. Nz new ones get the leather and have come down in price now in the last 18 months.
lugee,
Feb 7, 9:04pm
Pretty sure the 6A13TT isn't GDI so at least thats on your side.
phillip.weston,
Feb 8, 2:28pm
Is yours tiptronic!
sakofan,
Feb 8, 2:45pm
Owned a '97 VR4 Sedan. Turbos, tiptronic xmission, 4x4 and AYC all went well. Only real problems were things like bad soldering on the dashboard clock and the front control arms wearing out with milage. Never had anything go wrong with mine, might have been lucky, I dunno. Just made sure I got the servicing done on time.
phillip.weston,
Feb 8, 2:55pm
Seems to be the general consensus. They get their bad rep from the problematic GDI models. The VR-4 turbo tiptronic transmission is not the same unit fitted to the non-turbo 4WD 2.5 V6 Legnum which often strips the torque converter splines.
lazzo,
Feb 8, 5:41pm
I've had a lot of experience with VR4's, my favourite was my 1997 Legnum VR4 Tiptronic, that was about 11 years ago and ive had many cars since, after alll these years it still remains to be one of my most memorable cars. Drove like it was on rails, HEAPS of power, beautiful engine. I've seen them cheap on Trademe in recent years and have been tempted for nostalgias sake!
200sx,
Feb 8, 5:48pm
Yeah it was - sold it a while ago though. Occasional regret at having gotten rid of it though.
stevexc,
Feb 8, 7:33pm
Had a 1997 Legnum VR4 many years ago and loved it.Just a tiptronic but still seemed to have bucket loads of effortless power.
I wouldn't buy another one but that's because my tastes have changed over the years.There was nothing wrong with it.
phillip.weston,
Feb 8, 8:44pm
Yeah the NZ-new tiptronics were Type S models so had the leather, wheel arch flares, wider and lower offset alloy wheels with wider tyres while the 5spd manuals were Type V and had cloth and narrower wheels/tyres.
heavydee,
Feb 9, 9:14pm
Thanks for the input. Tempting.
flybye_in_a_rx7,
Feb 9, 9:36pm
i had a 96 vr4 which was really nice to drive with plenty of power. i had it about 6 years ago and i see its now for sale on trademe atm with some ricey mods (which dont do it any justice). a great car apart from the heavy fuel usage, apparently a manual is a lot more economical though. i've been tempted to get another one through the years, i have a galant still just not turbo.
flockton55,
Feb 10, 6:46am
I had a 97 Legnum VR-4 with auto trans for several years. No real problems, the same as mentioned above, lower ball joints etc wear out.Hydraulic tappets needed a dose of freeing-up stuff occasionally to stop them ticking. It was sold eventually because it was getting a bit smoky at the high Kms, and the fuel consumption was a bit high. Had to resolder connections for the dashboard clock too. A real fun car, untouchable for curves and roundabouts, great power for overtaking, happy memories.
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