Got off the phone with MMSA, heres what they told me -

"Im sorry but theres nothing we can do right now. Techline is aware of the problem but I can't do anything to help you. Even sending someone out to look at your vehicle wont do any good either."

Im pissed, I want some progress.

Btw my Case # = 329101

 

PM me or shoot me an email when you get done and let me know how it goes. You should have a new pm with my email addy in it.

Best of Luck!

 

I just got off the phone with them. They had me verify the last 8 digits of my VIN. The lady on the phone just basically logged some notes against my VIN I guess? She recommended taking it to the dealer. I mentioned this place and all the other owners experiencing the same thing. She didn't seem to care though...and just kept recommending to take it to the dealer.

I really dont want to take it in if their not going to know what it is. I dont want my car to start getting ripped apart for nothing.

 

As of now the dealer does not know a thing. The best thing you can have the dealer do at this moment is check the tranny and transfer case for metal shavings/chunks. The dealer that looked at mine who works on DSM's wanted to replaced it, but doesn't believe that is where the problem actually lies.

The dealers are waiting to hear from MMSA about a TSB. Thanks for calling in though, the more complaints they get the faster will get off their ****!

 

I called and got a case as well. I wonder has anyone got an aftermarket clutch kit and ask if they still has the same sound.

 

Hanzo, send you info to Mad VIII he is keeping track of this for us!

 

I am sorry you guys are having problems. It sucks to buy any car and have it break on you. I know I would feel terrible if my STi showed up screwed up too. Good luck guys and hope it all works out.

 

man it sux hearing about peoples quite trannys.... must be nice on a $30k car..

It also sucks having people drive with you and freak out when you downshift. They go, "WTF is up with your drivetrain?"

 

The Evo I drove had over 5,000 miles on it. Some of the miles were on different race tracks around the country. When the tranny oil was changed, by a service rep, there was a small amount of metal on the drain plug. It did not look like excessive wear though.

If you try to hurry the upshifts the car will crunch its gears a little bit. Going into fifth was the worst. I did not hear any noises from the tranny that made me feel a tranny failure was in the immediate future.

I know they've had some problems with the center diffs in the past, but haven't really heard of any with the tranny. I don't really anticipate any tranny problems either.

All you can do is keep informed of your problems. Document everything you can and keep driving. If the trannies start failing and losing gears (without abuse), then there is a real problem. has a lot riding on this car. They need to determine if there is a real problem and rectify it.

I wonder, does anyone know of the huge problems had in Japan? They were hiding warranty claims, refusing to fix problems, and generally lying out of their asses. They were faced with huge fines when the government found filing cabinets filled with denied warranty claims. They would hide the claims so as to avoid recalls, etc.

It was a huge scandal in Japan. I hope that type of history doesn't follow to America.

 

WERD. I get that same look of why the hell didn't you return this thing already.

I have already done the initial filing under the lemon law, and I called a lemon law attorney today to go ahead and figure out my options. I don't want it to come down to this... but if they don't give me something to work with damn soon.....

 

Wheres everyone else at from this thread? We need to each have OPEN cases at and not just call in to report stuff.

I think Mitsu gave my dealer the go ahead to start changing parts heh.. I'll hear from them in a day or two they say. First thing I'm asking for is a new clutch setup, i don't believe the bearing is in the tranny itself...

 

AN engineer is supposed to be checking out JTurbo's car today so I hope he has some feedback in a bit.... of the positive kind

 

My appt. is tomorrow morning. Theyr'e gonna send the good ol' regional service rep out, so we'll see what they say. I do tend to agree with you all when you say the problem is probably not in the tranny itself. My tranny FEELS super slick, in fact I love it, it just sounds like absolute ****!! I agree that it's probably bearings. Shifting is starting to feel a lot less consistent now too. No doubt they will claim abuse!! I'll post as soon as I have news.

 

While they went through their share of troubles, they have pretty much resolved most of it here in Japan. I don't recall anything that pertained to Evo's, which is no surprise - they were pretty much Ralliart vehicles, not MMC, and Ralliart is quite good about things. However, the Evo 8 was more of an MMC vehicle than ever before, so maybe some corners got cut.

I doubt it, though. The Evo faces the same problems the STi/WRX does. Getting a compact enough transmission in a small car that can handle the forces acting upon it from a rather powerful engine while routing power to 4 wheels instead of 2 (or even 1). Despite it being better than the WRX tranny, it's not perfect, and tolerances must be rather tight, I imagine. And it's no drag-race special, it's an AWD rally-ish tranny, albeit a relatively strong one. I'm sure they'll get everything worked out smoothly soon enough.

Cheers,

Paul Hansen

 

Engineer drove my car today and compared it to their regional one .. they said it sounded the same and yes it did make noise. There was a small amount of shavings in the tranny fluid, but no more so than expected. My thoughts? Im gonna forget about it. I have 5year/60k mile warranty on it, so if something breaks, they can fix it. I have the receipt from it, with the tech saying its normal, so i have any proof i need showing that the car was checked.