1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Shade Tree, DIYer Disaster

This 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse came in with a complaint that the 30 amp engine fuse would blow.  The customer stated that a friend of his that claimed to work on cars put a transmission in for him. Now there was smoke coming from the engine compartment and the 30 amp engine fuse in the underhood fuse box would blow. I racked the car up and looked at it from the underside. What was this guy thinking? I was surprised that it had not caught on fire.  Both of the inner cv joint boots were torn and it looked like they were recently ripped by hand and not from normal wear. Also most of the time the outer boots are the ones that split open. One of them had the clamp missing.

There was a substantial amount of transmission fluid leaking as evidenced from the red beads of fluid.

Transmission fluid and cv axle grease on the exhaust. Wonder why it is smoking under the hood?

Fluid on the catalytic converter.

Lower mount with the wrong bolt and nut. Not even tight.

Oh boy, all kinds of extra wire wrapped up in tape.

Cooling fan not bolted down properly.

If the car will run any length of time the radiator will have a hole or two worn into it.

I was wondering why the power steering was stiff? Worn out belt just hanging around.

All of the splash panels and inner fender panels are missing.

To me this has to be the most ridiculous part of the work that had been done on this car. More money and time were wasted on installing the wrong battery for this car than ever could have been spent to install the correct battery. You gotta love the greasy rag, as a positive battery post insulator. Let’s see, a fragile, combustible material between two metal objects, that create heat and sparks if they touch. I am not much of a cook but I know that is a recipe for disaster.

Don’t you like the way that the radiator hose it touching the exhaust heat shield?

Aluminum fence wire holding a harness connection together.

Sorry, I stuck a fuse in it and told the customer good luck with this. No diagnosis, No repair for the 30 amp engine fuse short.

I still cannot believe the battery installation.  Do not become this guy.  If you look under a hood and see anything like this, find out who did it and stay far, far away.

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