Ok. Long post warning.

Basically, Friday last week. 4:30PM. Got off work. Was about to go to the canyons (bay area) with my friend. I drove the car that day like any other work day - as a commuter in the traffic jammed bay area. Didn't really push the car either that day. Ok. So I was on the freeway. Middle Lane. Left lane clear. Sudden urge to accelerate. Go to left, downshift to 4th, pedal to the metal.

Ok. I did not feel the "godly" accel. 1, my car is warmed up. 2, as far as maintenance, the car only has 4k miles. oil changed at 2500. 3, i was like WTF? So, I looked down at my boost gauge (steering column). It read 10 PSI. I was like ok WTF???? And yes, I REALLY DID pedal it to the metal.

So I'm like, ok not good. Got off at next exit. First thing I did check my JDM MR DV for any signs of leakage. My performance mods are the jdm mr bov, ecutek, hks catback. Since my car is soooo close to stock, I thought that was the first thing I should check. So I wait for the car to cool down and eventually got to check the piping around the jdm mr dv. IT WAS FINE. It turns out I didn't screw up the install (had it since car had 2k miles). Next I went through the Upper IC piping. NOTHING. NO LEAKS.

So I called up my dealer. I'll keep that under wraps for now depending on how well this issue is resolved. However, for those of you in the Bay Area, there is ONE dealership that really stands out in terms of service/sales of Evos. If you're local, you should know who I am talking about. So I made an appointment for Monday morning. Unfortunately that dealer is 1 hour away so there is no way I can take my car to them.

I ended up calling Mitsu Corporate line customer service. I got the numbers of 3 of my closest Mitsu dealerships. Hayward, Veracom, Capitol mitsu. They are all ****. None of them even have loaner vechicles when I inquired about them.

So for the whole weekend my evo just sat there and I had to drive some crappy car which made me appreciate the evo even more.

So Monday. I took my Evo really SLOW. I kept it under 3000 rpm all the way through (longest 1 hour drive ever). If I had to go over 3000 rpm, I was very easy on the gas so I wouldn't touch the turbo very much. However, nearing my dealership, I gased it a little more than I could. And then I gased it more. I reached full boost (20.5psi). So I was like WTF. But since I was so close to the dealer I might as well go.

I pulled up to the dealer. I told him about my "problem". The guy is like "I'm afraid your car is fine." It turned out the "main" tech wasn't there yet. He gave me 2 options, wait 1 hour and 30 minutes OR I can drive home and pretend nothing happened. So I was thinking, since I already drove an hour here, why not just wait 1 hour and 30 minutes more. Ok, so I go and have breakfast at a local place. I took my time eating and read the paper. This was about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I got back into my car, waited for warm-up, and drove off back to the Mitsu dealership.

On the drive there, I could NOT reach 20 psi. I went on the freeway and tested it out. Yes, that problem came back. When I floor it in ANY gear, it's stuck at 10 psi. Went back to the dealership. The main tech guy wrote up a "repair order".

I waited for like 30 minutes. Went back to the service manager and asked him what's going on. He had one of the service guys drive my car. It was fine, boosting 20 psi. And then proceeded to having the main service guy drive my car while I was in it. The car was boosting fine too. When I went back, the service manager was like, we checked all your connections, your car is perfect. The main tech guy mentioned something about my boost gauge, and asked me where I installed it. I'll also keep this name under-wraps until I figure out what's wrong with my car. I told him the installer was ____ (a very specialized evo-only shop in the bay area, there is only one). And the main tech guy was like YEA I DONT LIKE WHERE THEY TAP THE LINE. I didn't really catch what he mentioned after because honestly I don't know my car down to that detail. And then the service manager proceeded to telling me (almost word for word quote): You know you only reach full boost when you are at the correct RPMs and you are gasing all the way right? I was stunned that he asked such a thing. I drove a fu**ken Evo. Yes I do know I only reach full boost if I floor it. Isn't that very obvious? So then he proceeds to telling me that "I am not going to charge you THIS time." Obviously he thinks I made some BS and that I'm wasting his time. YEA OK 1hour10minutes to get there, 1hour30minutes wait, another 30m wait, 1h10m drive back. Ok, if I do the math correctly, I spent 4h20 min + one weekend trying to figure out WTF is up with my car, and he didn't even spend more than 30 minutes.

Yea really, so I don't know what's wrong. A little over one week that this happened. My car was fine this week. All the way up until TONIGHT. I cannot boost over 10 psi AGAIN. This time I made a god damn video and I"m going to make the service manager watch it.

Please watch the vid and givme feedback as to what is wrong with my car.

All my mods again:
jdm mr dv
ecutek flash
hks cat-back
boost gauge

misc. exterior/interior mods.

Link to video: http://media.putfile.com/boost-cap

 

hey man! i got the same problem... my boost stays at 10psi.. im thinking its the boost gauge thats having a fault and i hear a hiss or boostleak out of the gauge... but my car seems to pull fine..

 

big boostleak. find leak from turbo to the intake Manifold.
good luck

 

bummp

 

My guess would be the Ecutek flash. It doesnt just reflash the ECU as you would think I believe it writes its own scripts for many things which I would assume has an option to set boost based upon x,z, or y. So, if it thinks your coolant temp is extremely high it may limit the boost as low as possible )I believe is right around 10psi). If it sometimes works fine and sometimes it does this and they are always precise I would think that... contact whoever tuned it and ask them if there is a variable like if coolant > 100 then boost = 10 or something like that in there... it could be coolant, intake temp, knock, etc... Im not sure as I have never seen it but thats what I think. Hope it gets you somewhere.

 

Can you here any hiss/leak. It seems like you have a boost leak. BTW where did they tap for the boost gauge?

 

Reset Your ECU if you arent using a Manual Boost Controller. Just unhook your battery for about 5mins or so and plug it back in. OR. Get your car scanned to see if its throwing some sort of code.

 

Regarding where they tapped my boost gauge. The main tech guy said something about "They tapped too close to x regulator/acutator." I couldn't remember. I can call the "evo shop" and find out though.

I'll try the battery thing and see if that works. Actually, I'm going to test the car out again today WITHOUT the battery trick to see if it's ok.

Regarding noises... it doesn't sound MUCH different from when the car is running normal. In fact, there is LESS turbo whine (compared to 20 psi) when this happens. But this is all relative I can't really say I'm right.

 

Im surpirised they took your car in with those mods and still warrantied the work. Make sure you dont tell them about your flash. Have you messsed with the turbo wastegate actutator lines? I still have this same problem you have. I bought my evo used and i would only boost to 11psi stock. Later after doing research i found out the stock lines have pills in them and mine did not have them. The previous owner probably swaped them and put in a boost controller. I never did find out if those pills would have solved the problem but i just bought a hallman MBC and turned it up to 21psi. Problem solved. I think you should get you a MBC and see if that fixes it. Around $80.00 for a good one. Also when i got my evo, It already had a boost gauge instaslled and it was connected at the wastegate actutator area. Thats not the best are to get a good reading so i reconnected it at the fuel pressure regulator line.

 

The only way to do mods right is do them yourself. take the time and go back and re-do all mods that are not the way posted in the how to section this will save your cars life down the road if they are done correctly.

 

Yeah do the mods yourself and save lots of money. You will learn alot about your car. I've done all my mods from reading the how to section.

 

First of all, my dealer has their very own performance center next door. I can mod with warranty immunity.

2nd, WORKS installed my boost gauge. They are one of the most reputable evo tuners.

 

everybody f**ks up every once and awhile but still why not save the money and hassle. Just personally if someone is going to screw up on my car i would rather it be me the Jim Bob down the street at the most reputable shop that is probably just gonna say well i did it just like the last one and it didnt have a prob. so i am not gonna fix yours, well see what happens but just my 2 cents.

 

Start looking for a boost leak. Look in the "How to" section. My boost guage line was kinked and it cause very similar problems.

 

The problem can be easily fixed and there is nothing seriously wrong with your car. However locating the malfunction may be a real problem if your not quite aquainted with pneumatical systems.