How I revived a Mitsubishi Outlander & gave it a new lease of life

About 2 weeks after the service, the car suffered catastrophic engine failure when the car was being used by one of my friend's relatives who'd come visiting from overseas.

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Introduction:

This is the story of how a Mitsubishi Outlander lit up the home of a friend, how the car went into coma earlier this year, before being revived and coming back on road on its own steam.

Background:

This story dates back to end-2017 when my friend wanted a high seater car different from what was seen around. Options examined were:

• 2008 Honda CR-V with a dealer that was listed at approx. 7 lakhs.
• 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander in blue that was listed at approx. 6.5 lakhs; this was an individual second owner listed car.
• 2009 Outlander in the black shade with a dealer which had done a mere 30,000km.

The first edition of the Outlander came in black interiors; from what I remember of the first edition, only the black exterior came with beige interiors. Also, the Outlander is perhaps the only car that sported silver painted door handles.

The 2009 example that we looked at was in good shape per se, but there were a few elements like

1. a touched up front right fender
2. a badly touched up bonnet that showed fish eyes
3. partly corroded strut bolt
4. corroded brake discs
5. darkened engine oil that would definitely need a change in 2000 km

that needed some "Sherlock Holming". I advised my friend to reach out to the Mitsubishi dealership in Chennai, verify the service history of this car, before moving ahead.

Service history verified and deal sealed:

Service history checked out clean for no flood damage, and post that my friend negotiated and got the car for INR 7.25 lacs plus commission plus ownership transfer. It was a neat car, with all the goodies like two keys and owner manual thrown in, plus tyres that had just been installed. The reason the car had picked up a lot of corrosion at some spots like the discs and the strut top was because it was lying idle at a property on ECR for an extended period of time. Even at the dealership, it was tucked away right inside and so the dealer wanted the deal to be sealed before they even moved the car out for a test drive. The understanding here was - seal the deal, they move the car out for a test drive, and should the car not check out well during the drive, the deal would be nullified; no payments until the car was cleared for purchase. Fortunately, the car checked out well during the TD except for an ABS warning that would pop up every now and then. This was diagnosed to be due to one of the sensors and that was summarily replaced.

Delivery happened a couple of days later and it seemed like a fairy tale. The car was super clean on the inside, with everything working perfect - paddle shifters, the MID, ventilated seats, a pedigree Rockford Fosgate sound system. The only feature it didn't sport for its time and class was an Auto-Dimming IRVM.

Fuss free ownership - end-2017 to Nov-2022:

Many things happened with this car in this period:

• I left Chennai and so the onus was on the friend to look after the car without my physical presence.
• His usage of cars was anyways low and he ended up doing a mere 1000-1500km a year.
• All of 2020 - the car had barely moved from the parking, must have moved for a few kms every 3 months.

During all my visits to his place, I'd find the car lying unused, with the same engine oil still inside. I'd insist that he get the oil changed, and he'd agree, but once I left, it would remain status quo. Yes, the car would get cleaned for sure, but that was about it.

Dec-2022:

My friend finally decided to have the engine oil replaced, and got the oil changed with Castrol Magnatec 5W30 Fully Synthetic at a reputed aftermarket service chain in Chennai. The service point was trying to upsell in asking him to replace the discs and pads too, but he stuck with just the service and got the car back.

After getting the car back, he called a known technician who fixed new tailgate dampers and a new set of brake pads. Neither the dampers nor the pads were OE but it was good enough.

Old brake pads - still some juice left in them:

New front brake pads in the pack:

Tailgate dampers:

Catastrophic engine failure at Kathipara Grade Separator Chennai - Jan-2023:

About 2 weeks after the service, the car suffered catastrophic engine failure when the car was being used by one of his relatives who'd come visiting from overseas. (In fact, had the relative not come, the engine oil would probably not have been changed.). The driver reported smoke out of the engine bay accompanied by loud noise, he pulled over, and it was all over. My friend had a mechanic closeby go examine the car, and preliminary observations pointed to engine failure and oil leaking out in full. The car was towed to the workshop.

The long wait in coma starts.

What is surprising here is that the mechanic never informed him of the nature of failure. All he said was that my friend will need to get a new engine and that would be transplanted. He wasn't keen on re-building the engine.

Engine-ek-khoj (searching for an engine):

We had two options:

Source an old engine.

Rebuild the existing engine (preferred).

I wasn't around in Chennai but managed to find some leads via our own bhpian @prateekswarup, who had got his Outlander's engine rebuilt. He gave us a good lead for spare parts from Delhi. Thank You Prateek for all your help and leads. However, we hit a road block there as my Chennai technician was down with shoulder and back pain and was convalescing. There was no way he was going to be back in action before Mar-2023.

That left us with option#1. We surveyed the All India scene and located three engines - one rather nice looking one in Central/Western India, one in Punjab and one in Chennai. The issue with all three was none of them seemed confidence inspiring - nobody to inspect and certify as usable. What if the engine didn't perform well after fitment? This stalemate continued way into Mar-2023 until when the car was lying abandoned on the roadside, picking up dust.

Engine no.1 in Chennai - inspected physically but not turning. This seemed like a water impacted one:

Engine no.2 in North India. No one to go and inspect:

Engine no.3 in Central/West India - the best looking of the three but again nobody to inspect:

Enter the saviour - Apr-2023:

While the whole saga seemed to never end, here came the saviour, in the form of a 2008/09 Mitsubishi Outlander that had a proper operational "untouched" engine. The engine was inspected to be purring well, and after a long and arduous wait, there finally seemed to be hope. My friend negotiated hard and the final agreement was that this parts dealer who had bought that car would sell him the engine but in exchange of the failed engine.

Project Transplant:

Another road block here was where this job could be performed. The parts dealer had no mechanics, and while my technician was getting better from his pain, he did not have the necessary chain-pulley block to lift the engine out. A place was finally fixed and once the donor engine was out, the dead car would be brought to the OT (Operation Theater) on a flatbed so that the transplant could happen.

The donor car:

Donor engine removed and waiting for the transplant:

Donor engine - note the coolant elbows in bad shape:

Pandemonium unfurled - my technican was stuck with a family festival at his native, while the donor engine had already been taken off the car. The friend was getting restless, and here I was caught between the dead and the alive! Weather was unforgiving with the Chennai region seeing the worst of weather in recent years. This only added to my technician's woes.

Day-1:

Finally, the storm settled down and things got into place. My technician started working on the dead car at approx 3 pm and got the engine out. Only that day, it was discovered that this engine's block couldn't have been salvaged. Why? Connecting Rod no.4 had smashed through the block. Here is all that was planned:

• All good parts from the dead engine viz. pulleys, idlers, tensioner, serpentine belt, Power Steering Pump, AC Compressor, spark plugs, thermostat, water elbows will make its way into the donor engine. This was a very good move as the donor engine water elbows, hoses and thermostat were all reported in bad shape.
• My friend will bring along CVT fluid, 5w30 engine oil, an oil filter and an air filter, besides coolant concentrate and distilled water.

Had I not stepped in, Type A Suffix A ATF would have found its way into the car and that would have been curtains for the CVT. I'd asked my technician to salvage all the CVT fluid which I knew would be in top shape, and it was.

Long story short, the dead engine was out, and the donor engine was in place at approx. 9 pm. Someone in the garage was there to help my technician and hence things got easy.

Day-2:

My technician started work at approx. 10 am. After all the hard work that took almost 6 pm to complete, the engine would not turn. Reason: there was some issue with the key not getting detected. The blade was put into the key fobs, taken into the car and presto - engine fired! The black Outlander comes out of coma after four months!! The car needed to be jumpstarted as the dead car's battery had also gone dead. A test drive revealed no issues, and the engine was reported purring away happily.

The fluids that were used:

Outlander back to life:

What went wrong?

Looking at the amount of sludge/gum on the engine, it appears that the oil change in Dec-2022 was a case of too much too late. Someone remarked," What is the point of performing suryanamaskars when one has lost one's eyes". My technician's take on this was that the crankshaft was running oil starved, and not much oil made its way up to the camshafts too.

Although the car had done under 5,000km in six years, the engine oil was already on its way out in 2017. It should have been changed within a few months of getting the car.

Damaged block - note the con-rod inside:

The camshaft area all gooey:

Sump opened - oil pump strainer intact:

Chain driven oil pump removed:

Key takeaways:

• I am myself an advocate of condition-based engine oil replacement, and had advised a quick term oil change on this car knowing that the condition of the engine oil was tending to bad. However, this was a classic case of the oil being stretched too far.
• I've seen sludging/gumming in cars of the 90s and 2000s when oil grades would be API SF/SG at best, but to see this on a modern day car with better grade oils is strange.
• Coolant and engine oil - keep a watch on their condition and have them changed at periodic intervals. Else be prepared to face the music.
• One doesn't get to see a donor Outlander every day . So, rarer the car, more careful one needs to be.

• Acknowledgements:

I'd like to thank:

• Almighty for having opened a window via a donor car.
• BHPians @Prateekswarup, @Sandy Damodaran, @CAPTAIN REX for all their help with parts suppliers - the power of Team BHP on show yet again!
• My technician Senthil , who, despite his physical condition, managed to execute this project all by himself with very little assistance. Although a sensitive guy, he is passionate about his work, never looks at the clock, and seldom looks at his wallet.
• My technician up west, Sanju, who always pitched in with his suggestions and actually offered to come down and build this engine, if all other options were exhausted.

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