Mitsubishi ASA Explained: Mitsubishi Parts by VIN

ASA and CAPS are two layers of one application

LexCom, the developer of ASA, calls CAPS its electronic parts catalog module. ASA also holds other aftersales functions. If an older document points you to CAPS while a colleague asks for Mitsubishi ASA, both may be describing the same route to original parts information.

Reading a Mitsubishi number

Mitsubishi numbers run four digits, a letter, then three digits, as in 4605A123. The opening digits place the part in a component group, the letter marks the series, and the closing three identify the part.

Older Mitsubishi numbers look different, and you will meet both on cars still in service. A number that does not fit this shape is not necessarily wrong; it may simply belong to an earlier era of the catalog.

What the alliance changed

Mitsubishi shares platforms and components with Nissan and Renault on newer models. A part fitted to a recent Mitsubishi can carry a number issued by one of the others, which surprises people who expect a Mitsubishi car to hold only Mitsubishi numbers.

That is worth knowing before you conclude a search has failed. The number is not wrong, it was issued by a different house in the same group.

Four-wheel drive and the variants underneath

Mitsubishi built its reputation on four-wheel-drive systems, and models like the Pajero and Outlander carry several drivetrain configurations under one name. Transfer cases, differentials and driveshafts differ accordingly.

The VIN resolves which configuration the car left the factory with. This is one of those cases where the parts look interchangeable in a photograph and are not.

Long service lives

Mitsubishi pickups and four-wheel drives stay in work for a long time, especially outside Europe, and parts for them keep moving decades after the model ended.

Numbers on those vehicles have often been superseded more than once. See what a parts supersession is for how to follow a chain to the number that ships today.