1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse problems
Owners have filed 150 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Body & structure is the most reported problem area, at 16% of complaints. After that come transmission (14%) and engine (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 150 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Body & structure 16% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 10 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 5 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 72,000 miles 47 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 6 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 6 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 14 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 5 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 3 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 10 |
What the data shows
Among the 47 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 72,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 10 complaints mention a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire; 5 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 7th most-complained-about out of 18 model years of the Mitsubishi Eclipse with enough data (98 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Made normal turn, straightened wheels, steering locked up, ran off road (road veered left, car didn't) into tree. Total loss to vehicle.
Car is an automatic; parked in an "outpouching" of driveway; in park with parking brake on; car was not on!!! I was in passenger side reaching under seat; car drifted across driveway,crashed into wooden shed, was still in park with parking brake on and not turned on; my right leg was dragged, for it was out of passenger door, right passenger door was dragged against rock wall as was my leg; car is to have safety feature that it must be turned on, stepon brake pedal & disengage button on gear shift to move…
Neither air bags did not deploy in major car accident. Previously the all censors in the car needed to be replaced I wonder if this was not the cause of the airbags not deploying. Are airbags a problem on this vehicle?
I purchased car in 2003 and within 6 months certain areas on the car the paint began to diminish. Taken to mitsubishi for effected areas and they painted car on two different occasions, (the effected areas at that time) but when the rest of the car continued to diminish mitsubishi refused to paint affected areas because car was out of warranty. I have seen several mitsubishi's with the same problem, and I can't figure out why mitsubishi doesn't paint the entire car at the first sign of this problem.
Tl* the contact owns a 1999 mitsubishi eclipse. While driving 45 MPH, the steering wheel detached from the steering column. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The contact was able to pull the vehicle over and had it towed to an independent mechanic. The mechanic diagnosed that the passenger side control arm, axle, and transmission needed to be repaired. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure.