2002 Mitsubishi Lancer problems
NHTSA has received 194 complaints about the 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer, and 14% of them involve wipers, windshield & visibility. After that come air bags (13%) and brakes (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 194 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Wipers, windshield & visibility 14% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 47 and 1
- Injuries and deaths
- 30 and 3
- Typical mileage
- 64,000 miles 119 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 | 18 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 18 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 21 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 7 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 15 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 8 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 8 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 6 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 2 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 14 |
What the data shows
Among the 119 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 64,000 miles. For wipers, windshield & visibility specifically, the median reported mileage is about 90,000 miles (17 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 47 complaints mention a crash; 1 complaint mentions a fire; 30 injuries reported; 3 deaths reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 94% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2002 ranks 2nd most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Mitsubishi Lancer with enough data (115 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.
Car was hit on side. Airbags did not deploy and passenger seat belt malfunctioned resulting in death of passenger. *nlm
Car accelerated to full throttle and took off while transmission was in park. Local dealership mitsubishi of orange park jacksonville fla kept car for from 3/11/03 until 3/25/03 to try to make car duplicate situation but to no avail. They kept in touch with mitsubishi tech support but nothing could be determined to why car did such a strange thing. This has been known to happen on cars while in motion, especially on older models.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 mitsubishi lancer. The contact stated that she can fill up her gas tank one day and, before the week is out, the vehicle needs to be refueled. Periodically, the contact smells gasoline in her vehicle. The powertrain was unknown. The current mileage was 40,000 and failure mileage was 17.
I own a 2002 mitsubishi lancer (oz rally) that was purchased in 2002. During the last few months of 2009, I noticed my temperature control knob was becoming harder and harder to turn. On monday, march 1, 2010 it broke completely off, leaving a partial stub of plastic in the console and the remaining plastic inside the knob. I first went to two auto parts stores to see if they carried this replacement piece, and their personnel informed me I needed to have it repaired a mitsubishi dealership.