ok, well first off, yes this is my first post here in evolution. However i am not new to evo's or dsm in that matter. I just would like to share my opinion, and gather some other opinions on drivetrain problems that evo owners are experiencing.
For the past year or so, ive been seeing soooo many posts about people blowing up trans, t-cases, diffs, and rear ends. Alot of owners believe that the 03 is the biggest culprit as far as problems go in the drivetrain. Heres my opinion you guys can take it for what its worth, or feel free to add in your own. Just dont start the massive flamming of comments, because i would say that 80% of the people on this site dont know squat. So as stated before drivetrain problems. I can narrow down most of problems in the evo drivetrain to dirver error. Now i know this is not the case for ALL problems but i believe that it offers a considerable ammount of problems for the average joe driving a evo. Ok, people AWD. Soo many people have yet to understand the concept of awd. There are soo many factual websites on this its sick. So i would say if your in the market for a new evo..go look up all the facts about having a car with awd. Ok, driver error. Everything from daily driving to launching,people still do not have the concept down. When at the track people are too timmid to really launch there car. So many people are like...well you can slip the clutch...or start toasting T-cases and diffs if you want to drop it. WRONG. I can assure you that if you luanch your car correctally at arround 6 grand that you will have the correct ammount of wheel spin, to not do soo much dammage to the diffs and rest of the drivetrain. There is no reason what so ever that i can have over 100 drag passes on my 1st gen with over 130K on the clock, and sill yet to blow up a diff or t-case or rear end. Peopel I will tell you that this isnt magic...or luck...they didnt make my trans any stronger then someone elses. Same goes with the evo, do you really think that mitsu made the trans any weeker then a trans from a 92 1g with over 100k on the clock. I doubt it, so for all those of you that are experiencing problems with your drivetrain, go back and talk with someone who has experience with driving awd. Because there is no reason why a car with 15k on the clock should be experiencing blown diffs...t-cases,,,ect. And for those of you who had parts break with out even launching it, again go back to your driving style. Do you feather the clutch in between shifts, or do you just let it out letting the motor rock back and fourth making drivetrain slop. All of this makes a huge difference. It not like driving fwd or rwd...you have 4 wheels to keep in sinc with the speed of the motor, and the road. As i said before this does not apply to everyone...so dont start posting threads about you breaking parts with 500 + hp, that is a completly different ball game. I do not have the end all be all answers to all drivetrain issues, But i think people should really look at their driving style before giving the heat to mitsu for making bad drivetrain parts.

 

My main disagreement with you is about comparing a 1G to an EVO. The gear ratios are way different. Starting off in 1st gear in an EVO is damn near like starting off in 2nd gear in a DSM. You need to either abuse the clutch a bit more, or if you are going the wheel spin method, you need to be much more agressive to get wheel spin than you would in a DSM running the same amount of HP. Being that much more agressive can be harder on the drivetrain.

I do agree that many of the problems are driver error though. I abuse the crap out of my clutch and have never had a drive train issue. It drives me nuts to see people complaining and blameing the car becaue it makes it harder for me to get a fair price selling my 03. Identical drivetrain to the 04, but somehow the 04 is magically stronger and better? I don't think so!

Keith

PS: The enter key is your friend! Paragraphs make something this long much easier to read.

 

I agree with your completly - except for the 1g=EVO transmission deal .. just like the guy above. As far as driver error for AWD - I agree with you 110% .. I hop in people's cars to observe how they drive and you can instantly see where they have problems in there driving style/launching ...

It pains me to see "friends" complain about there car breaking in less then 5k/15k ... =T and blame it on the car or mitsu ..Though luck I guess ....

 

This is my first AWD car. I've had it over a year now and it has almost 11k miles on it. It had over 300 AWHP before it had 2000 miles on it. I toasted the clutch trying to launch it once. My clutch seems to chatter a lot in reverse and some when taking off in first, especially when cold. These are my only problems. I think it is due to the clutch getting pretty close to the end of it's life. I do feel concerned when reading about all the tranny problems Evo's have. I love AWD but I think it is hard to get the car moving easily and it is hell on the clutch. You come across as a bit offensive. As you state that noone made your transmission stronger, I would state that I don't think you're the only one that can drive a car on the forum. Anyways, I would like to know if my chatter problem seems in line with a wearing clutch and that it is not some sort of transfer case slop or whatever.

Sigfrid, no paragraphs either

 

I've only heard of TCs on the 03s and front axles break on EVOs. I've only heard of one case where the tranny broke but that was because the car was making insane amounts of power ... I haven't heard of one single case where the gears were stripped or the rear diff has broken or the front diff has broken. The EVO trannys have always been strong .... most US drivers drive ham fisted and thus tend to wear out their synchros quickly ... For some of the drivers this is their 1st manual tranny car ever!!!

rusz: Clutch shudder/chatter happens on high performance clutches ...

 

i destroyed and stripped teeth off of two front diffs in a week (stock) and now i am going to use a front lsd ralliart unit that is way stronger. I also cracked my ring and pinion in my Tcase . All was completely my racing it so much and the power....not the car. Here are pics if you want to see them.

http://public.fotki.com/evodave/tran..._22_05022.html

http://public.fotki.com/evodave/tran..._22_05024.html

http://public.fotki.com/evodave/tran..._22_05015.html

http://public.fotki.com/evodave/tran..._22_05014.html

that being said and shown....still MOST cases of issues are from people that dont' know what they are doing. Besides my front diff/ tcase issues my car has been great with over 20000 miles and 560 awhp everyday.

 

What kind of noises or problems did you notice when you cracked your ring and pinion?

 

well okay.. is there a point to your tyraid..

 

it starts to whine loud when the ring and pinion is off and going to wear wrong. Mine is from horrible abuse...but still needed work before i broke it. Once i broke the diff i had to end the use of the Tcase for that time cause if i cut the wheel hard and went forward it would almost lock the outer wheel and clunk so bad. It was the teeth that broke off. The car also became almost rwd.

 

Alright, my bad on the whole paragraph thing sorry..but back to comaring dsm trannys to evo. The gearing is NOT that much different. In no where is it even close to starting in 2nd gear in a evo. Sorry if i came off as being offensive, im just tired of mitsu having the bad rap for drivetrain problems.
But for real, my last dsm had over 500 hp, i had 130k on the car at the time. For the whole entire summer i drag raced my car at the track, every weekend, not one problem. It just kills me when i see a evo at the track, and watch them bog. I dont think alot of people know that when you bog off the line and get a little wheel hop, that is prob the worst thing you possible could do in a awd car. I say if your going to luanch it launch it.....rev that thing up to atleast 5500, and side step the clutch....This is the method that i used, i riped a 1.48 in my talon. I think most of the power is being absorbded through that split second of wheel spin, rahter then having your whole drivetrain absorb all that power with no wheel spin.

 

It may not be like starting in 2nd, but it is very noticable. At 7500 RPM in 1st in a DSM you are running 36.7 mph. An EVO at the same RPM is running 42.9 mph. A 6.2 mph difference is huge, and it makes a large difference in launching.

Keith

 

Also 1st and 2nd gen awd were both open diffs. More forgiving on wheelspin. They also came with less aggressive tires.
These factors also explain why Evo drivetrains are " fragile " as they say to some compare to 1st/2nd gen's

 

For sure...your facts are correct, however since the evo has a longer or taller first gear it would mean that it would take more power and torque to break the tires free. This still does not answer all the people blowing up diffs, rear ends, and t-cases.

 

ok what i do in my evo is i launch it at 7500rpm and i just drop the clutch and all hell brakes loose i have done more then 20 drag passes and my car is still holding strong by the way i do this cause if you see an instrucional video from best motoring japan thats how japanese do it they rev it all the way uo and they just drop the clutch it seems to work fine for me i always make a 4.7sec to 60mph and a trap speed of 101mph!!! so i think the evo is a well built car!!!!

 

I read your comment about "dumping" the clutch...being bad. Whats the difference between dumping the clutch and your comment about side stepping the clutch?