1997 Mitsubishi Montero Electrical system Problems

“On 5/31/14, my 1997 Mitsubishi Montero was parked in my driveway. When I went to get into the vehicle, I noticed a large burn in the back of the driver's side seat. After calling Mitsubishi, the fire department came since it was still smoldering and disconnected the battery. They believed it to be an electrical short. After many follow-up calls to Mitsubishi, they believe it was caused by wear and tear since the car was 17 years old. All of the cost to fix the issue was on me as the owner.”

“1. Brake light came on and has stayed on for a couple of days. Car was checked out and estimated charges for repairs to front brake, including new rotor, would be $1000. I was not aware of the recall for 1997 monteros in regard to brake lines. 2. Service engine soon comes on at random and only goes off when the battery is unhooked and rehooked or replaced.”

“1 - this just started happening, no accident or misuse. 2 - vehicle will not start at times and must keep turning ignition, eventually it stats. (changed battery, terminals, wires, etc, with no affect) alarm goes off sporadically or sets on it's own. Door locks unlock, then immediately lock back. Windows are not going up correctly and are tilting slightly causing a small air leak on both front windows. All problems are annoying but I can still get from point a to point b. This happens every day.”

“While sitting in traffic, passenger (wife) moved her window visor, a flame shot out towards her face coming from upper right corner of window visor, where wire for vanity mirror had chaffed over time, due to a plastic covering edge to hide wire. Flame was 4-5 inches long, 1 inch thick and flamed for 6-8 seconds, then large amounts of thick grey smoke came from area. Wire for vanity mirror had chaffed away the wiring cover and was touching the metal rod used to hold up visor. Fuse did not blow. This could have easily caught fire inside my headliner, behind dash, etc.”

“In early 2003 I purchased a 1997 Mitsubishi Montero full SUV. In april 2003 my girl friend was driving the car one day , when it just broke down on her .hen she turned the key to start the car you could hear the engine, but the car would not start.I got it towed,and my mechanic looked at it and said one of the main fuse (mfi-multi fuel injection) had blown. He replaced the fuse and the car was fine, two weeks later it happened again , so he replaced the fuse and I took it to the dealer. …”