[Jassy1313]

Hello to the members who just opened this thread.
It's weird of me to say that this thread might not interest many but for the selected few, it will be very informative.

Internet is filled with conversion videos of various cars/bikes of different variants. Mine is not unique too. But I would still like to share my car's story.

The story will Progress on daily basis.

So all this started in the year 2018.
I was offered a car by someone I know and respect a lot. Back then I wasn't looking for a car so I decided to let it pass. Later, after 2 weeks I get a call saying "the car is still available. Its a very well kept cedia and you must have a look at it once."

I don't know what came into my mind and decided to have a look at that car.
So I went with my brother and we saw the car for the very first time.
This was the time when I had no idea about the different variants of Cedia or anything in general as well as particular.

The car belonged to a renowned businessman and it was kept well.
I took a test drive of the car and enjoyed it, to be honest. That was the first time I drove a Cedia.

Now the question comes 'If I should buy it or not'. It was offered to me at a very low price compared to the market but 'Do I need another car was the real question.'

It was a Mitsubishi and we know the spare parts scenario of these cars. But still I decided to call up a friend who has a Cedia Sports and a few other models of lancers, already. I shared pictures of the car with him too.

He instantly liked the car and offered me if I am not buying it, he is ready to buy it. That triggered me to close the deal. But there was still one confusion. My friend said the car is a Type 2 (facelift) version but it looks like a mixture of Sports and Spirit variants (Just like ZXI & VXI in suzuki cars).

It had a few bits and accessories that come with sports variants but the car was missing Spoiler, Front and rear bodykit, etc.

Despite the confusion I ended up finalizing the deal.The Owner of the car was a true gentleman and a car enthusiast.
Later that evening I decided to google some details regarding Cedia and its variants. That's when I came across a thread on Teambhp regarding the launch of a Variant by Mitsubishi called SPORTS BASIC in the year 2010.

link: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...-30-000-a.html (Cedia Spirit relaunched as cedia sports basic at Rs. 9,30,000)

[Jassy1313]

So Next day I transferred the funds to the owner's account and went to pick up the car.
The owner had already gotten the car washed and refueled. Such a kind gesture.
The papers with service records were handed over to me. We completed all the formalities and I left for home with the car. I took a halt at Tardeo RTO to submit the papers for Transfer of ownership.
The car was from South Mumbai and live in the western suburbs. It was a short drive a 30 minutes but I enjoyed every bit of it.

Next day my brother and I decided to give it a good wash.

[Jassy1313]

Now that the car was already home, it was time to do some basic servicing of the car. The previous owner of the car got it serviced 6-8 months ago but the car wasn't used after that. It hardly did 100 kms in the span of 1 year. Hence, I was ready for some surprises (expected from a South Bombay Car). We will come to that in the later posts.

We performed General servicing - Changing Oil, Oil filter, cleaning of Airfilter, Wheel alignment/Balancing, Throttle Body cleaning, etc.

Even though the battery of the car wasn't old, we decided to change it.
It's better to spend on basic things after buying a pre-owned car. Not necessary in every case but I prefer to.

So the car was ready to be used as my Daily.

[Jassy1313]

One day while I was driving to My factory (Mumbai to Vasai), I suddenly noticed the car started running strange. It was't the engine, it was the brakes of the car. After driving a few meters it was clear that front wheels of the car were't free. There was a continuous pressure on the brake rotors and the Caliper pistons weren't retracting after applying the brakes.
As the rotors and the pads were continuously in contact with each other at a particular pressure/force, the system started generating heat. The brake oil started heating up. This made the peddle spongy.

So I decided to drive back home (15kms) using handbrake. After reaching home I called up my Mechanic and we decided to troubleshoot the problem the same day.

The moment we removed the brake pads, we noticed the pads were already broken into pieces. I believe it was due to the high heat generated due to continuous friction.

We all need to understand one thing here, its not that the previous owner hasn't taken good care of the car. The car was really kept well but this is one of those problems that was faced by many Cedia owners from Coastal areas (I came across later).

Please see the pictures for reference.

[Jassy1313]

It was time to open the calipers and see what the problem was.
The moment we removed the pistons from the calipers the entire scenario was clear. Now we knew the problem, so it was time to rectify it.

I tried contacting the local spare shop for the Caliper seals (thought of replacing them as we had removed the pistons, already). But then I realized its a Mitsubishi and we don't get such parts readily available everywhere. There are a few suppliers in Opera house (one of Mumbai's spare parts hubs) and that was far from home. It was already 4pm and I wasn't in a mood to go and try my luck.

Hence, we cleaned the Pistons, Calipers and seals, Applied brake grease, refitted everything and performed Brake bleeding.

We did install new brake pads as the old ones were completely gone. Luckily those were made available by the local shop within 2 hours.

The car was back on the road. Running and braking absolutely fine with no leaks from the seals.

I was still driving it very carefully for a few days and did regular checks to be sure of the work performed.

[Jassy1313]

After the brake job that was done in August 2018, I started to use the car during the weekends.
The was running perfectly.

It's November 2018 and luckily everything was running fine so it was time to change the tyres.

The previous owner had installed Michelin tyres. The car was barely used on those tyres and was parked most of the times. Hence, they had developed a few cracks on the side walls. I was already informed about this by the previous owner. The owner was quite transparent the entire time.

I wanted to go for Yokohama S-drives (205/55 R15). The stock size is 195/60 r15.
As Yoko wasn't available I was suggested to go for Maxxis Victra MA-Z1 by the Tyre shop owner. So we decided to give it a try. The pattern did look impressive but the ride quality wasn't as good as Yoko or Michelin.

And yes the size is 205/55 r15.

[Jassy1313]

One fine morning when I cranked the car, the engine started vibrating very badly. I instantly switched off the car.

After inspecting the car, I found that one of the plug wires was eaten by the rats. The missing piece of the wire was also found on the valve cover.

Please ignore the dirty valve cover. Cleaning process comes later.

[Jassy1313]

I ordered a new set of plug wires.
Mars India Automobile Private Limited had them in stock.
Next day the car was back on road.

This time I was prepared for future attacks. Some tobacco and mesh.

Its been almost 3 years since I have covered the valve cover with mesh. I didn't face any problem.

[Jassy1313]

Jumping to March 2019.

It was my Friend's wedding around the corner. Being a destination wedding we were excited. It would be my first trip to Udaipur. So to make it more memorable, my siblings and I decided to do a road trip to Udaipur from Mumbai.

Undoubtedly, Cedia was the car for the trip.

I got the car serviced and did some general check-ups. I changed air filter as the old one's plastic broke. Every thing seemed fine.

Interior cleaning of the car was done using some basic cleaning solutions.

we were all set to leave.

[Jassy1313]

The trip went well. It was a ~1600 kms trip and the car performed very well. Surprisingly we got a fuel economy of ~15kmpl as we were cruising at 90 km/hr and never exceeded 100 km/hr speed limit.

The fuel economy was calculated via Full Tank to Full tank method.
(For those who don't know this method, we fill up the tank to full and Zero the trip meter. Then at the time of next fill up we again fill it up fully and note down the amount of fuel went in. Then divide the no. of kms the car did between the two fill ups with the amount of fuel went in on the second fill up. This way you can calculate the fuel economy in basic manner).

Coming back to the trip, while we were half way to Udaipur, suddenly the car's AC vents stopped blowing air. We could hear the blower motor but there was no air coming through the vents. It was quite strange. I decided to switch off the AC. After an hour of drive without AC I decided to give a shot, so I switched ON the AC again. Now the vents were blowing air. The cooling system started working. But I was left with a thought of what would have happened.

After 2 hours it happened again; the vents stopped bowing air but the motor was working.

So we took a halt and I open the glove box to have a look at the cooling coil.
That's when I noticed, it was completely clogged.
So we decided to use the AC when its extremely needed during the trip.
Still 60% of the time we were driving with AC.

After a week long trip we reached home. The next day I took the car to my AC guy and got the system serviced. It wasn't easy to remove the cooling coil without removing the dashboard but he somehow managed it.

After it got serviced the air flow was mind-blowing.

Funny part:- Cedia has a space for Cabin filter but it never came with a Cabin filter from factory, in India. Hence, after servicing the AC system I decided to buy Polo's cabin filter and slide it through the provided space. It fits in perfectly well. We just need to slice off the excess part.

[Jassy1313]

It was already more than 1.5 yrs since I got the car. I hardly drove it for 3000 kms (including the 1600 kms of Udaipur trip).
By now the car has ~47000 kms on the ODO meter.
Since the day I got the car, I was constantly reading various threads and posts related to Cedia. I don't wish to start a debate here, but I was very much attracted to the Sports Variant (the one with complete body kit, Spoiler, Momo Steering wheel, OZ alloys, etc)

Technically my car was a sports variant and registered as one on the RC too. It was just missing few parts I mentioned above.

I knew it would not be an easy task to arrange the original parts to do the conversion.
And it won't be cheap either.

For those who don't know about the Sports Basic Variant and the difference between the Sports Basic (I already have) & Sports Advance (I wish to make mine into), I am sharing some dealership printouts below and a few pictures of the Sports Advance (Sports, in general) for reference.

[Jassy1313]

It's 2020 now. The year in which the entire world was affected by Covid-19.

If I closely remember the date, it was 14th January; I was busy browsing Olx for parts for my cedia's conversion and I suddenly came across a 2012 Cedia Sports going for a throw away price. The car was hardly 3 kms from my place. It was already 11 pm so I decided to call up the seller next day morning.

I called up the guy and he happened to be an old friend (friend's friend, to be precise).

I went there with another friend who was looking to buy a cedia. I thought this would be a good buy for him. But later he changed his mind for some reasons.

So now the buyer friend was OUT. It's just the seller friend and me in the conversation.
He was, anyway, selling the car. So I, trying my luck, asked him if he wishes to swap the Momo steering wheel and the OZ alloy wheels with mine?

Surprisingly he never liked the Momo steering wheel. That's a strange thing but good for me

He agreed. And I wasted no time in doing it. I swapped the Steering wheel on my own but we took the cars to the local tyre shop to swap the alloy wheels. We had to remove each tyre from each alloy and then swap them.

This way I got a set of 5 OZ alloys and a Momo steering wheel.

I couldn't believe my stars. I am really thankful to the guy.

Just for the info: His car got sold for the price he was asking.

[Jassy1313]

It was April 2020.
The country was under lockdown and I was busy making PS renders of the Cedia. I tried a few mismatched mods on photoshop just to see the car in different mods. Some were extremely bizarre. Don't judge me for that
I am sharing those edited pictures. Enjoy them

[Jassy1313]

I forgot to mention in the earlier posts that I am a member of a whatsapp group for Cedia owners. The group is called Cedians United. Its a Pan India group and the members of the same are very helpful and supportive. We have drives and meets on regular basis. That's a different story.

So on one morning of May 2020, I saw a message on the whatsapp group regarding the sale of Spoiler. I really got excited. I wanted that spoiler. So I messaged the seller and asked him about the price and shipping and we closed the deal.

Now I had a spoiler too.

[Jassy1313]

I just tried keeping the spoiler on the trunk lid to see how it looks on the car. I wanted to install the spoiler and the bodykit together. I managed to get the OEM Spoiler; it was time to search for the OEM front & rear skirts. The car already came fitted with the sideskirts from the factory.

I was keeping my eyes and ears open for any possible deal.

So when the good things were happening, suddenly I noticed the car's temperature guage started to rise slowly, while I was drive home from office. The moment I saw it happening, I parked the car on the side of the road and switched off the engine. I waited for 15 minutes before switching ON the car again. After inspecting the car I found that one of the fans of the radiator wasn't working.

I was hardly 10 mins away from home so I managed to reach home safely.

The next day I called up my mechanic home and we inspected the connections and relays. Everything apart from the motor was fine. So now I needed to find a new fan motor.

I called up a few suppliers for help but non of them had a ready one in stock. The OEM was expensive (close to 25-30k) if I remember correctly.

I was offered a used motor for 12k but I wasn't sure of that option.

2 weeks and lots of youtube videos later I decided to take the matter in my hands. By now I was quite comfortable working on this car.

I removed the Fan assembly and took it to a close by shop that deals in repairing and servicing of motors, Compressors, alternators, etc. They even sell new parts.

The moment he saw the motor he said Its irreparable. I was disappointed but then he gave me an alternate option. Not many people know this thing that Hyundai, Nissan and Mitsubishi cars share parts. That guy was aware of this fun fact. So he installed a motor from some Nissan car and the Fan (with extra blades) that came with the motor. He connected the old socket wires with motor wires.

I wasn't sure if it would work well with the car but I wanted to try it. I came home, refitted the entire assembly and switched ON the car. A big sign of relief. The fans were working again. The new fan was slightly louder than the old one (because of the extra fins) but then the cooling of the AC also increased (not that it was bad before).

All in all I was very happy with the change. Its been close to 2 years now and the Fan is working great.

I am sharing the Picture of Old motor, socket and new motor. The wiring was properly taped during the installation.