Four problems related to visibility have been reported for the 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer based on all problems reported for the 2004 Lancer.
The temperature selection knob gets stuck in the 'cold' position. The problem lies in the air box inside of the dash where the air blender door is stuck. It makes it dangerous when heat is needed to defrost the front window to see. It is always like this and has been for 2 years.
Climate control knobs are stuck in place and cannot be adjusted. This started out as an annoyance and quickly became a life-threatening defect when I was forced to drive down a windy mountain road at night in a heavy snowstorm without any ability to defrost my windows. Mitsubishi has acknowledged this problem via a TSB, and research clearly indicates that this is very common problem with 2003-2004 Lancers. My local Mitsubishi dealer knew exactly what I was talking about and quoted the fix around $1,300. I could have easily died because of this, and I am utterly amazed that there has so far been no recall for such a dangerous and widespread defect.
Heater control knob was hard to turn since purchase of vehicle and eventually broke off. Now I am forced to adjust temperature using pliers (or suffer paying $1,000 to fix problem). Not easy to adjust with pliers while driving and experiencing a change in weather conditions. Now also fearful of electrical shock when trying to adjust temperature with pliers. Known defect will not be repaired or covered by manufacturer's warranty.
Heater knob broke off due to lazy engineering on mitsu's part. Called and they wouldn't cover the costs.