2wd eagle tsi talon

[brownsfan]

Hi guy's I'm a new member but have lurking this board for about 3 years,
I have an 87 gn w/130,000 miles on it. I've done the vacuum conversion,the
tranny rebuild (not by me $$), the coolant line block-off, the red armstrong
chip etc. I love these cars !!. I'm thinking about getting another car that
gets better mileage.( I only drive the gn during spring and summer ) My only
other vehicles are a dodge minivan (that the wife drives ), or a 92 dodge
1/2 ton 4wd pickup I got from my dad when he went into a nursing home.
I don't wan't to get rid of the pickup because dad loved the truck and
I would feel guilty selling it. Plus it is handy having a pickup for haulin stuff.
But damn this thing only gets 11 mpg, and it's a v6 !!. and with gas prices
as high as they are I can't afford to drive this truck after I put the buick away for winter. So anyway ,there is a 96 eagle talon for sale just down the street from me, It's a 96 turbo 2wd (BLACK ),a beautiful looking car, don't get me wrong, I'm not a ricer or a ricer wanna-be but this car seems pretty quick and is actually pleasing to the eye. Does anyone on this board have any insight on these cars ? Are they a pos or are they mechanically sound?
Any input would be welcome. thanks

 

[Randy Greenoe]

96 Talon is a second gen and they had some issues with crank walk. My son's have hab very good luck with the first gen Talons. If it has over 60k on it ask if the timing belts have been changed. other than that they pretty good cars. You can get them to run pretty good for very little money.The front drivers have traction issues as compared to the A.W.D.s. Check out
www.buschurracing.com they have a forum on there and see what you think. I like the Talons and we have had good luck with them.

 

[brownsfan]

Thanks, Randy for your input, The clutch and timing belt have ~ 10k mi. on
them. I checked out the link you provided and it was informative. The guys
on that message board seem pretty level-headed and non ricer types with
a passion for their cars. Hey, how about this weather in n.e Ohio this
summer? We haven't had this nice a summer in a long time.
Thanks again.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

I have a 95 TSI turbo FWD. Another thing to look at that nobody mentions is the crank pully that drives the cams has a rubber isolator between the balancer and the pully. The rubber isolator gave out on my car, allowing the crank to spin faster than the cams. I bent all the valves, scratched up the cams etc. Its not something that you would normally think of to look at. Its about an 1/8" thick rubber isolator. Other than the $2k for that and windows that rattle, its been a pretty good car.

There are sites like this one, but its been a while. something like www.dsmtalk.com and others.

 

[kenny]

Buy an AWD, you'll love it in the winter.

I have a 91 Talon TSi. 188k+ miles on it, and it has been the most reliable car I've ever owned. Has a 2.5" turbo back, fuel pump and a manual boost controller. Keeps me mildly amused during boring daily driving. It is a blast in the winter.

Just keep in mind when buying a DSM, they required upkeep like a TR. Other than that, they'll be fine.

www.vfaq.com
www.dsmtalk.com
www.dsmtuners.com (don't really like this place)
www.columbusdsm.com (local board to me, your user name makes me think you're in Ohio?)

 

[fitz3820]

Like the others said Talons, Lasers and Eclipses are good little cars. I have had a 90 AWD Eclipse and now have a 93 Talon TSi AWD for the winter.

as said before Crankwalk is a big problem for 95+ cars, have to watch the timing belt, watch the crank pulley (should be replaced after 5 years or so, easy to change and only about $90.

Gas mileage is between 24 and 26 MPG for my AWD, that is about what most guys get with light mods.

 

[savage6]

I have never been a fan of 4cyls, but the tsi/gsx/gst's are very respectable. Good choice.

BTW your GN only gets 11 MPG?! What mods do you have? Mine runs mid 12's and still gets 18 city and 25 hwy. I would look for other problems as far as that goes. Besides a turbo buck is a helluva car to get rid of!

 

[85 TR]

definitley get an awd or you will regrete it .

 

[BLACK6PACK]

I looked for an AWD but they were averaging about $2000-2500 more at the time I bought mine. I wish it was AWD, but I don't really need it since it doesn't snow down here. From what I've seen, the FWD a usually faster in the 1/4 due to driveline loss of the awd. All in all I wish it were an awd though.

 

[85 TR]

never seen a fwd run as fast as a awd but htey do almost always run higher mph just a slower et a friend had a little more done to his car then mine his car was fwd and he went 14.6-14,5 at 96-98mph but never ran as fast as me , may have been the driver he never got better than a 2.1 60'.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

I took mine to the track twice. Its not easy to launch these cars. Best I could get was a 2.5 60'. It was either bog or spin. Never did quite get the launch down, but when you're lucky to get in 3 runs in a night, you don't get much time to practice. Bone stock mine ran 15.1 at around 94 mph with that 2.5 60'.

 

[brownsfan]

Hey guys, Thanks for the input. I bought the car yesterday. Man it is
fun to drive. It's totally stock and in really good shape. The jury is still out
on the gas mileage, hopefully it's respectful. I do wish it was AWD but as
mentioned earlier, but the price was more than what I wanted to pay. Only
problem so far is a botched window tint job on the back window ( bubbles
and just plain hard to see out of ), anyone know how to get this crap off?
By the way, I'm keeping the buick, I put it away every winter. It's the
4wd dodge pickup with the 3.9 liter v6 that gets 11mpg. And I
got a bad feeling that these gas prices are here to stay, so I really needed
a cheaper everyday ride. Thanks again, I have really learned alot from this board.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

I get about 20mpg in my eagle. This is probably 90% city driving, meaning a lot of stop and go. I also tend to dip into the turbo quite a bit. It is a fun car to drive and as small as it is it's pretty easy to whip in and out of traffic, down side streets, etc. I got about 28mpg on the highway once, but I had the windows down the entire trip. I later found out you get better mpg with the windows up and ac on. Probably could have easily hit 30+.

The bad part about the little 4 banger is it requires the good gas. Sucks putting $30 worth of gas in a 4 cyl car.

 

[85 TR]

black6pack thats is what i was talking about my car went 14.8 with just a k&n but only 90mph i believe the gearing is al ot diff to my car in 3rd is done at 7 grand 90 mph i have been told a fwd will go like 98 or 99 in thirdand also just to ask you guys were your 14b cars stop making power cause mine feels done at 6,000?

 

[BLACK6PACK]

The turbo dies pretty early on in the rpm range. Its odd, it doesn't really spool up until just past 3000 rpm and is pretty much dead about 5700 rpm. I need to get a bigger turbo, I just hate seeing the prices they charge for the parts on these cars. Its about twice what you would pay for a similar part on a GN. For some reason my car burns up a set of plug wires about ever year. Good thing is that it takes about 10 minutes to change plugs and wires!

The good thing about these cars, and all the little fart can cars, is that you can race stoplight to stoplight and never go above the speed limit!!

 

[willsdsm]

For some reason my car burns up a set of plug wires about ever year. Good thing is that it takes about 10 minutes to change plugs and wires!

your luck I have to change the plugs in my 92 every time I change the oil, but I have mine tuned to run pig rich. I love my awd and DSMs are great cars if you keep up withthe mantance, alot of people bad mouth them because they buy them and they break down , but what do you expect from cars that have been getting dogged out for 12 years.

 

[kenny]

brownsfan, you may want to look into a scantool for your new car. You can buy a cheap used Palm off eBay and get software for it for pretty much nothing.

You end up with pretty much everything Direct Scan shows, except it's on a Palm. Very handly.

Also, do all the free mods and the car will be a hell of a lot more fun to drive.

Post pics of it if you have any.

 

[85 TR]

a good dsm turbo is much cheaper than a gn one got my evo 3 16 g for 575.00 suposed to be good to 400hp with supporting mods , not that i have any plans to ever see that in my daily driver but was only 50.00 dollars more than a small 16g, it's the inj, and safc that get expensive still havnt done these mods to my carand it runs like crap with the bigger turbo think im running real lean?

 

[BLACK6PACK]

my pte 54 was only $575 brand new. Its all the little stuff that seems more expensive than the buick stuff, but the buick stuff ain't cheap either!

 

[cwelk87gn]

Another issue very common on Mitsubishi products is ECM failure. I've seen a lot of those cars have wierd problems pop up around 80k and more often than not, it's a bad ECM. If you do run into this, see about finding a rebuilt one. The dealer will want around a grand for one.