Mitsubishi Lancer service in Dubai, from AED 350.

No belt deadline, and that is the problem

If you own a Mitsubishi, you may have heard that the Pajero V6 needs its timing belt replaced on a schedule — a genuine deadline, an interference engine, and a serious outcome if it is missed.

Lancer owners frequently assume the same applies to them.

It does not. The Lancer engine drives its camshafts with a timing chain, not a belt. There is no scheduled replacement, no interval to meet, and no deadline to miss.

Same brand, two completely opposite arrangements. Confusing them in either direction costs money: a Pajero owner who assumes a chain skips something critical, and a Lancer owner who assumes a belt pays for work the car does not need.

So far, so reassuring. Here is the catch.

A chain has no deadline, but it does have a tensioner

The Lancer chain runs with a tensioner, and on this engine the tensioner is a recognised weak point. When one fails, the consequences are severe rather than inconvenient — this is a failure that can end an engine rather than cost a repair.

The difference from a belt matters enormously:

A belt is pre-emptible. You replace it at an interval, before it fails, and the risk goes away for another 96,000 km.

A tensioner is not. There is no interval, no calendar, and nothing to book in advance.

What you can do instead is control the thing it depends on. The tensioner is hydraulic — it needs oil pressure and oil condition to do its job. Degraded oil, low oil, or long-overdue oil makes it work harder for less result.

On this car, oil discipline is the timing protection. That is not a sales line, it is the mechanical reality of a component you cannot replace on a schedule.

Cars with no deadlines get neglected

Worth stating directly, because it explains most of the high-mileage Lancers we see.

A belt deadline forces an owner to act. A date arrives, a reminder lands, somebody books the work.

A chain just quietly continues. Nothing forces the issue, nothing appears on a schedule, and a car can drift years past sensible oil intervals with no apparent consequence. The absence of symptoms reads as the absence of a problem.

Then the protection that was never visible turns out to have been the only thing holding the arrangement together.

That is the honest argument for servicing this car on time: not because something is due, but because nothing ever will be.

The oil, specifically

Mobil fully synthetic on every service, minor or major, and the shorter end of the 5,000 to 10,000 km interval.

The interval point is sharper here than on most cars. Heat degrades oil faster at 45°C than the manual’s temperate-climate figures assume, and on an engine where oil is the timing protection, old oil is not just reduced lubrication — it is reduced protection on the one component you cannot pre-empt.

We also check the level, not just the age. Low oil on a hydraulic tensioner is worse than old oil.

Which gearbox do you have?

Not every Lancer is the same here, which is why we ask when you book.

Manual, conventional automatic, or CVT — and if it is the CVT, the fluid is worth doing before symptoms rather than after.

These transmissions are sensitive to fluid condition, and Dubai traffic is unkind to them for a specific reason: a CVT generates the most heat when working at low speed, which is exactly when it has the least airflow available to shed it. Stop-start driving is the hard case, not motorway running.

A change is AED 250, or AED 375 with the filter.

Tier 1, and the doorstep costs nothing extra

AED 350 minor, AED 775 major. Tier 1 is the cheapest band we publish on any brand, and the Lancer is one of the least expensive cars in this country to keep properly maintained.

The doorstep visit is the same price as the workshop. Our mechanic arrives at your home or office in a fully equipped van with the oil, the filter and the tools. About an hour, and the car never leaves your building.

An oil change on its own is from AED 180 if that is genuinely all you need.

A major service replaces rather than cleans: air filter, cabin filter, spark plugs and wiper blades. Better at a workshop, and we can collect.

The rest of the inspection

Battery, which Dubai heat kills faster than age does, generally without warning.

Brakes, measured in millimetres and reported as a number rather than described as needing attention.

Coolant condition, because a car idling in traffic makes heat with little airflow to clear it. A flush is AED 225.

Tyres, including the age of the rubber and not only the tread depth, because heat degrades rubber on a timescale unrelated to distance.

Cabin filter at AED 75, worth replacing rather than cleaning on a car that lives in city traffic.

Anything flagged comes with a price. If it is a repair rather than maintenance — a rattle, a steering fault, a gearbox symptom — it is quoted separately and you decide.

Lancer servicing in other emirates

• Doorstep + workshopDubaiYou are here
• WorkshopAbu DhabiBook through the booking flow
• WorkshopSharjahDrop the car at the workshop
• WorkshopAjmanDrop the car at the workshop

Other Mitsubishi models we service in Dubai

• All modelsMitsubishi
• Timing beltPajero
• SUV rateOutlander
• SUV rateASX
• Compact rateAttrage
• SUV ratePajero Sport
• SUV rateEclipse Cross
• PickupL200
• Timing beltMontero

Other brands we service

• All makes
• Toyota
• Nissan
• Honda
• Hyundai
• Kia
• Mazda
• Ford
• Chevrolet