Owners have filed 264 complaints on the Mitsubishi Montero Sport, covering 1997–2004. The system named most often is Engine And Engine Cooling (45 reports). Worst years by volume: 2000, 2001, 2002; cleanest: 2004, 1997, 1998. 42 reports describe a crash, 11 a fire, 3 a death. On average the car was 6.4 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Mitsubishi Montero Sport
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 264 Montero Sport complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Engine And Engine Cooling 45 Read
Vehicle was idling in a restaurant drive thru lane. Without warning, the engine suddenly accelerated causing consumer to rear-end the vehicle in front
While pulling into a parking lot the engine started racing and the vehicle crashed
While driving 45-55 mph vehicle stalled, consumer hit another vehicle
Service Brakes 34 Read
While driving 45mph and without warning, applied brakes; however, brakes were inoperable, resulting in an accident. Consumer had taken vehicle to dealer and mechanic indicated problem was the master cylinder, which could cause another accident
The front brake lines failed upon frontal impact. I am a police officer/accident investigator and I investigated an accident involving a 2002 mitsubishi montero sport. The driver of the montero impacted the rear of a vehicle ahead of her. The impact damaged the left front of the montero enough to deploy the air bags,…
The contact owns a 2001 mitsubishi montero sport. Shortly after purchasing the vehicle in may of 2004, the brakes began failing. While driving approximately 55 mph, the contact depressed the brake pedal and the vehicle began sliding. After this incident, the vehicle began making noises continuously. While driving…
Power Train 25 Read
The contact owns a 2003 mitsubishi montero sport. While driving over 30 mph, the vehicle would jerk backwards and hesitate. Whether the vehicle was idling or in park, the contact smelled a strong odor of burning oil. The dealer stated that the failure may be minor and could not assist because the vehicle was not…
While driving 50-55 mph noticed smoke coming from under the hood. Consumer pulled over, opened the hood, and saw the transmission on fire. Fire quickly spread to engine. $ amount of damage unknown at this time
In december 2002 I purchased my car (2001 mitsubishi montero sport xls 4x4) from a local private seller. The car had about 38,000 at the time and was still under the 60,000 mile manufacturers warranty. The seller insisted he did not have the records of the repairs, but did give me a spreadsheet of routine maintenance…
Electrical System 24 Read
The contact owned a 1997 mitsubishi montero sport. The contact started the vehicle so it could warm up before driving and went back into the house. While in the house, she heard a loud boom similar to an explosion. She found the vehicle completely engulfed in flames. The police and fire departments were called to…
The license plate lights went out. The bulbs were good therefore it's probable that the failure was due to a relay defect. The horn was also defective. The horn would blow but wouldn't stop. The driver had to pull the fuse in order to get the horn to stop blowing. Provide further ant additional information
The contact owns a 2003 mitsubishi montero sport. The contact stated that the horn worked sporadically. In addition, the horn would continue to sound unless the fuse was disconnected. The contact replaced the fuse; however, the failure continued to occur. As of january 3, 2008, the dealer or manufacturer had not…
Air Bags 23 Read
The contact stated while driving on slippery roads the consumer hit a puddle and rolled over a fence into a water reserve. Upon impact, both frontal airbags failed to deploy and the driver's seat belt failed. The seat belt came unlatched while the vehicle rolled over the fence. The seat belt was able to latch after…
The contact stated while driving 55mph on rough slippery roads the vehicle slid off the road. After pulling back on the road, the vehicle started fish tailing and went over a twenty foot embankment. The vehicle uprooted a tree. During this time the frontal airbags failed to deploy. Moderate head injuries were…
I rear-ended an SUV going about 30-35 mph and my airbags failed to deploy and my seatbelt failed to catch, throwing my upper body forward into the steering wheel. The police at the scene of the accident said they could not believe my airbags did not deploy with the amount of damage to the front end of my vehicle
Structure 20 Read
The vehicle started to slide while merging and rolled over hitting the center wall of the road and stopped in the other direction. *tc the consumer experienced a roll over. The road conditions were dry, the consumer was not in a seat belt, the air bags did in fact deploy, but the consumer was shifted to the…
Consumer states bolt sheared off of the caliper housing, causing vehicle to be undriveable, consumer was asked by the dealer to drive the vehicle in but she cannot drive, without causing an accident
The contact owns a 2002 mitsubishi montero sport. The contact stated that during a routine inspection, the contact was advised that the frame was rotting and there were twenty two inch-long fractures found in the frame. A dealer was notified but offered no assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and…
Steering 20 Read
Make: mitsubishi model: montero sport xls year: 1998 SUV was total loss due to out of control and rolled over. *n lm
During my drive to work at esm marketing, I was driving on i95 in broward county florida, and got off on cypress creek road and I was attempting to make a left hand turn and when I turned my steering wheel, the wheels did not move. The front end of the steering left me unble to control or manipulate my vehicle. I…
While driving, brakes will lock up, and then steering locks up. This can happen at any time. Contacted dealer, and the dealer cannot find the cause. *ak consumer states brakes and steering locked on highway two times in five months
Suspension 17 Read
While applying the brake or at a complete stop the vehicle would accelerate suddenly. Consumer was able to maintain control of the vehicle, and drove it to the dealer for inspection. Mechanic informed consumer that the problem could not be duplicated. *ak the vehicle also had vibration problems
2003 mitsubishi montero sport experiencing problems with the steering as well as the vehicle bottoming out while driving.*mr while driving the vehicle would wander all over the road and bounces when driven over small bumps in the road. The steering was very loose with 1/8 to 1/4 inches of play. There was also a…
Rear suspension vibrates when traveling 55mph or above. Dealer has replaced brakes. Dealer also did an alignment, and balanced/ rotated the tires. Please provide further details
Montero Sport years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Air Bags,seat Belts | 1 | — | |
| 2003 | Air Bags | 6 | 2 | |
| 2002 | Air Bags | 12 | — | |
| 2001 | Air Bags | 3 | 3 | |
| 2000 | Air Bags | 12 | 1 | |
| 1999 | Air Bags | 4 | 3 | |
| 1998 | Air Bags | 3 | 1 | |
| 1997 | Electrical System | 1 | 1 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 191 |
| Average complaints per series | 1.4 |
| Worst single series | 6 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 6.4 years |
A model average of 1.4 hides a worst series at 6. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Montero Sport?
By complaint volume, 2000, 2001, 2002 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Montero Sport years are the cleanest?
2004, 1997, 1998 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Mitsubishi Montero Sport have?
264 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 1997–2004. Of those, 42 describe a crash and 11 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.