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!

 

Hey man good luck sorry to hear.

 

I have an 06 Evo MR with 1720 miles. When I changed the oil at 1152 miles noticed that there was slight oil to the right of the filter looked like on one of the oil cooling lines. Took the car in; they said they ran it on the lift for 1.5 hours and the oil is a spill. My wife came home today pulled into the garage and I smelled oil burning. Opened the hood and by looking directly down on the left side of the radiator on the bottom there a flat surface with oil on it. I looked under neath and I see oil. Of course cannot tell where it is coming from. Well I guess it goes back next week for try #2 by Shelton Mitsubishi of CT. BTW our law states that they have four attempts to fix the problem before they have to give my money back according to the lemon law.

 

scary....glad it was caught early and everything is working ok...

 

well don't get too exited yet.

Same thing happened to mine.
Bought it (EVO) from my lexus dealer ship (traded in) had it checked and foud it had a T-Case leak...cool no prob..Warranty will cover this.

take it to mitsu and they have to get it ok'd...so they replace the T-Case and 3 days after getting it back.....theres another leak and it was missing a Seal on the other side..so I have to take it back and they end up Stripping the tie rod (pulling the T-case so many times) so they replace that too. Try to blame it on my Springs that wee on the car (even though you don't have to remove the Tie rod to put Springs on) but all in all its now Not leaking.
Though since day 1 wen I got it,it has been whinning.

I'm sending it to SHep for a Rebuild soon thoug.Done w/ Mitsu parts.Its obvioulsy a Assy problem if its still whining.

good luck though.

 

I will keep this thread updated. Taking her in the week of 3/13/06.

 

Just got an update on the phone - 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...

 

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...

 

man sorry to hear about your t-case, you would think mitsubishi would have learned to solve and fix these problems already

 

So yesterday they put the new transfer case and went for a test drive. It seems there was still some oil leak and the new transfer case did not solve the problem. So they started messing with the transmission today. I wish they were more competant I am sick of calling them to get updates everyday... For the past 10 days, they are trying to locate the cause of the oil leak.

Will update if there are any developments tomorrow

 

Unless the CEL comes on directing them to the problem those guys have no clue what to look for.

Service, quality, along with many other things is why this is my first and last MIT. Good luck on yours.

 

Yeah I'll never buy another Mitsu... Luckily my '03 has had zero problems, but I feel for everyone as I've had other cars that were just "buggy" from the factory ('02 SE-R SpecV). I can't think of another Mitsu I'd own besides an Evo anyways...

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. I piggy backed on your thread regarding my oil leak probably should have started anohter. But the harm is done. Good luck.

My oil leack after taking it to Key Mitsibishi in Wallingford turned out to be a need to tighten an oil cooler line fitting. They tightened it and cleaned it up. I have about 200 miles since the repair and it looks good.

So I black ball Shelton Mitsubishi for not finding it the first time I took it there. BTW they are out of business and opened up as Crabree Auto Group. I assume still scum, they are probably just getting out of debt with this action and screwing people they owe money to.

 

Thanks for the updates, I haven't heard much about TCs leaking here in the US ... in the US we had issues with the spider gears (open diff) breaking in the 03-04 TCs as some of them were incorrectly shimmed from the factory. This has been fixed from the 05 models on ...

 

Yea, I swear that I'll never freaking buy another mitsubi**** again!!!