Bosshog

So today I take my car to get the engine oil changed. The car is almost brand new with 2500 miles on it. I was going to modify the car next week, so I wanted to get everything checked out before just to make sure all is mechanically sound, fluids are OK and the engine has fresh oil before the boost is turned up. I also wanted Mitsubishi to see the car prior to mods.

When they lifted the car up, we see that there is some oil leak coming out of the engine. After further investigation, they figure out that it is the transfer case oil. The service guys tell me that they will have to call someone from the main dealer for technical advice and in case there is major warranty work to be done on the car. They tell me to leave the car as they will have to drop the transfer case on Monday to make sure the leak is fixed and there is no mechanical damage. I leave my car and take a cab.

Two hours later, I call and find out that they replaced the transfer + transmission oil; test drove the car. They think that mechanically, the transfer case and transmission is sound. They will take the transfer case out on Monday and see what is causing the oil leak.

The only thing that I noticed to date was a slight click and jerk (only in gravel mode) during the winter after being parked in the garage for 10+ hrs. It only happened when the car was cold in the first move of the car. As I would start driving the car - when the tires ‘just’ started to move - it felt like they were stuck on the pavement due to ice. There was also a small click like sound just like some ice was holding metal parts and it broke when I started moving the car. This only happened in gravel mode, which I use in cold weather. This is my first Evo and I though this might be normal. The car drove perfect on tarmac mode – no noise etc.

I will find out more on Monday. For now, they have told me that the transfer case oil was almost half gone and after the test drive, the mechanical parts seemed to work fine. They believe that it is one of the seals...

I will no doubt wait a bit longer now before I touch the car to make sure this issue will be resolved under warranty. However, it bothers me that I used my car without full level of oil in the transfer case. If anyone has similar experience or knows these issues, I would like to know the following:

1 - How can I be sure that there are no mechanical problems in the transfer case or transmission?
2 – Are the transmission and transfer case oil lines connected? Will there be damage in my transmission if my transfer case is damaged?
3 - Did anyone here have similar problem, what was the cause and outcome?

I will know more on Monday and will give an update on the cause and the outcome. In the mean time, I want to better understand the cause and possible outcomes to ask them the right questions, so any feedback will be much appreciated.

TIA!

superman83199

bump,,, i wana know whats going on??

4g63_24

iTrader: (3)

get back to us okay, after reading your post I think i'll arrange an appointment with my local dealership to check out my IX. Just want to be safe with it.

Bosshog

I will keep you guys updated once I find out more tomorrow

NoLuck4MR

only 2500 miles...wow.

Bosshog

They said that mechanically the car sounded/felt fine and that I was luck to bring it in before the regular service time. They believe that it was one of the seals in the transfer case causing the leak. There were no metal residue/pieces in what oil was left. They will have a guy from the main dealership come to check it tomorrow and if he is OK with it, I can pick it up later tomorrow.

On a seperate nore, there was also a minor leak from the turbo return oil line. This does not concern me as much as the engine oil level was normal (full) and the leak is fixed. I will try to learn more romorrow, but the whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth about modifying the car. If this happened a month later, I would have I modded the car, and the oil would have been completely gone... I wonder if Mitsubishi would cover it under warranty then

I will try to give another update tomorrow - work permitting - as I have been workin my butt off lately...

TTP Engineering

iTrader: (465)

It is the brakes sticking to the rotors when you first move. Same thing happens after you wash your car, rust builds on the rotors in just a few seconds.

Bosshog

That makes sense and I sure hope so - but like I said, it only happened in gravel mode so it might be from the transfer case???

I guess only time will tell, but do you think that using the car with transfer case oil half way gone for a couple hundred miles would leave permanent damage? The service guys took the transfer case apart today and told me it looked OK with no metal residue in oil. I would hate to modify the car and the transfer case / transmission go belly up one week after... Got full exhaust, test pipe, o2 housing, LICP, 3xdefi gauges waiting to be installed

gunnar

Make sure you get the paper work for the work performed!

Bosshog

After one week of trying various remedies, the service guys figured out that it might be a hairline crack causing oil leak in my transfer case (last friday). In order to get everything covered under warranty, they have to get the importer (also the distributor / main dealer in the country) to approve. On top of it, they do not have any spares in my city, so we had to wait (both) for the main service rep and the part until monday (they brought an EVO IX test car and swapped my transfer case with that of the test cars as they did not have a transfer case lying around). After test driving the car, they were convinced that solved the problem. A new transfer case is put on order and assuming that solves the problem, I should have my car back later this week. Although it was frustrating, if this solves the problem, I will be happy with the service provided.

On a side note - the transfer case costs over $10k in my country. If I had modified my car, they could have denied warranty...

So be aware and be ready to pay the price if you want to modify I already have a bunch of parts waiting to be installed, but I will wait for a bit longer to make sure the car is sound before doing anything. Although it was smart to get the car checked before modding it and I was also extremely lucky that the problem happened/was taken care of before I modified the car...

Bosshog

Well, actually my car was fixed almost two weeks ago, but I wanted to wait and make sure that it would not leak oil again before posting one final time (crossing fingers).

According to mitsu, the problem was actually in a sensor connector going in to the transmission. After two weeks of working on the car, they told me I could pick it on friday. After a sprited drive on sunday, I see smoke coming out of the bottom of the car as oil was dripping on the hot exhaust. I get pissed and call the warranty guy from the main shop raising hell. He was very nice and told me that he would look in to it himself personally.

After a few more phone calls he and a service guy come to my house to get the car. They called me back after 5 hrs to let me know that this time it was a pinch in one of the seals in the transfer case. They did not install it carefully and pinched a seal that started leaking. This time, they deliver the car the same day (on sunday evening).

I had been waiting for the past two weeks to see if it would leak again but they seem to have gotten it right this time.

Finally, I feel comfortable with the car once again. It was depressing not being able to drive my belowed car and being worried about this problem coming back later to haunt me.

Finally, the car will be going in to the shop next week to get some hardware in and dyno/road mapped

ksuchewie

Glad to hear your got your car back in and in fixed condition. Must have been really frustrating at 2500 miles.