Hell with that, we want to see the pictures 90GSX-03EVO has.
What else do you take pictures of in the back seat of a car.

 

Here's a hint......


This picture was taken a few days before that clutch was found. It was also taken a few hours before more pictures were taken in the back seat.

Has anyone sat in the rear seats of their Evo? I was used to the rigidness of the front ones and I expected the rear to be about as firm. When we got in the back, I thought I was going to fall right in (to the seat, that is). If you haven't sat in the rear yet (or laid down in it) then go check it out. It is really a change from the front seats.

That's as far off-topic as I am going to take this one.

Josh

 

OK Josh, There are a "few" people that might not know how to drive an AWD car, but many of us do. If there were only a handfull of these cases I might even agree, but many of us own multiple AWD/Turbo DSMs and are having the same problem. Also note that Mitsu has gone to great efforts to deny thier problem -

Mitsu has:
tightly scripted the district reps
spent significant money on travel to deny these claims
sent bulletins to all Mitsu shops requiring signoff on all clutch warantee work
limited the "wear" conversation to disk and pressure plate only

At 10K miles, you will be as rabid as we are.... Until then, enjoy driving your evo like a new civic...

 

In the first place, you should have picked up on my sarcasam in that post. What was it I said? Something about, it seems like operator error...at least until mine fails..then it will be a design flaw....Wasn't that it? If you have read this thread from the start, then you will remember Timcatz post about "It's going to be funny to watch people put 'my clutch is fine now' and then 5000 miles down the road want to change their vote."

Second, drive it like a new Civic? Well, here is my method of clutch engagement on any car, FWD, RWD, AWD, new or old.

Full clutch engagement before full throttle.

I also posted on here about how I have never even gotten the car over 1500 rpm before full clutch release, never ground gears, and always speed matched between down and up shifts. In my GSX that was used primarily for track use, you could get away with the high rev launches much like you can in your GVR-4 (by the way, did you disable your rear wheel steering on yours? That seemed to always leak over time on all the ones I have ever seen).

Anyway, I don't want this to turn in to a pissing contest or anything. Oh, and the guy who had that clutch that I posted pictures of, Hall Mitsu over in Virginia Beach said that he wanted to file a warranty claim at first on it. Then when they got it out and showed him how it had been abused, he said "yeah, well I had it at the track last night doing some 5000 rpm launches, but it shouldn't have worn out THIS quick (2400 miles).

Anyway, enjoy the conversation and let's keep it informative.

Josh

 

2001 Evo VII GSR

Changed the clutch at 29,372km

it first slipped at 28,783km but that was at 6500rpm - it just got worst until it was slipping at any attempt of acceleration above 2500rpm

Installed a RMR 6puck replacement and I don't like the harshness - should have gone back stock

 

The tech who works on my car at the dealership I go to said they had an EVO come back with 700 miles on the odometer with a grenaded clutch.

 

Anyone on the forum try out our clutch yet? For now you can get them at Road Race Eng if anyone is interested. We are trying some of our friction material on some cars to see how it compares but nothing is released yet. Same stuff that John Shepherd uses on his low 9 sec. DSM. We are also trying some modifications to see if we can improve on the gear grinding complaints on the stock EVO. On the first test vehicle, the results were really promising. I will keep everyone posted.

 

Can I be test vehicle number two? Even though my clutch is fine with 6,000 miles on the odometer, I figure this might be a good time and start whoring my car out as a test bed for companies. Right now, it is bone stock except for the Buschur Racing hard compressor intake pipe and conical air filter. This will all change soon. I will probably be looking at Buschur's entire line of products and getting the car to about 500 HP at the wheels. Wanna build a clutch for that?

The only reason I haven't really started any true modifications yet is because I am moving from state to state right now (settling in MS by mid October....military). Well, what do you say, ACT? Here is a picture of my car, you can also see it on the Mach V website.

Josh

 

Cockpit problems (5k launches and the lack of proper clutch technique) aside, is it the consensus then that Mistsu intentionally designed an hydraulic system to let us burn clutches before the car is one year old, rather than just deny warranty coverage on blown trannys? If so I'd say they did not screw up but rather, they screwed us.

 

Tell you what, I will save you the trouble of testing the parts. Just let me have your car for about 6..., make that 16 months and I will test them for you.
BTW - Please clean the back seat before delivering the car.

 

O.K.

I've been following this thread since day one. I hear a lot of people saying "they can't legaly void your whole powertrain warranty" and I agree with that point.

We know mitsu is going to great lengths to deny warranty claims on clutches. We also know some should be denied and some are legit.

Anyone remember the guy that was in one lap of america?? He had his entire warranty voided. Was it legal, no, did it happen, yes.

So, if they do void your warranty you then have to go to court or arbitration, which takes months and costs money, in the mean time you either fix the car out of pocket or it sits there for months on end.

I guess my point is when is someone going to raise the visibility on mitsubishi treating it's "halo vehicle" customers like total ****.

They can't legally do what they are doing in many of these cases, yet they are still doing it and the consumer gets screwed as a result. So who do we complain to about this?? What legal body has the ability to help the consumer here?? What magazine do we need to contact?? How do we get the real numbers from mitsubishi (oh I forgot they have a history of hidding warranty claim issues, NOT!)??

*****ing amongst our selves sure isn't gonna solve anything.

 

I was hoping for something more like "we'll refer you to a shop in your area that we deal with and send them the prototype parts and have them install. You test it, tell us all about it and log everything. after a month of hard driving, disassemble and inspect, ship parts for inspection by ACT, replace with your OEM stuff until inspection is complete." or something to that effect. Oh well.

PS, the back seat is clean. I won't tell you why it didn't get dirty, but the girl was a real trooper....hint, hint. No mess to clean up after I was done making the face.

hehehe

Josh

 

I want the ACT clutch! What are you doing to minimize the grinding, Dirk?

 

http://www.sema.org/

http://www.enjoythedrive.com/content/?id=9159

http://www.bbb.org/

http://www.mitsucars.com/company/cus...relations.html

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...aintsearch.cfm

So far, only 3 people have submitted a complaint to NHTSA, which is a huge entity that deals with recall issues. Right now, my clutch is fine, but who really knows how long it will last for me. I know how I drive my car and I know that if it does fail, there is no way they can say it was from abuse or aftermarket modifications. If it stays together up until the point where I start building more horsepower, I will change it out before it fails because I know that it will only be a short matter of time then.

All I say is be careful what you wish for. We are all car enthusiasts and I am sure that we don't want to give this car tons of bad press when it is not truely needed. What if it was a good car, but so many people complained over little stuff that Mitsu stopped bringing it to the US. You have to pic your battles and I think if you are driving a modified Evo or abusing the clutch, you should not expect Mitsu to give you any type of support on this one.

If you guys all have a legitimate claim and you can't get anywhere with Mitsu, I would suggest going to NHTSA and filing a complaint.

Hope this helps.

Josh

 

Josh,

Sorry... Joking here too. No pissin' contest wanted... We are all in the same boat. We love our cars, but hate the problem many of us are facing.

It is just crazy that the company that we support so passionately would go to such lengths to avoid dealing with this. They have:
Scripted disctrict reps very tightly
Limited the conversation to the clutch and pressure plate only
Instructed dealers that all clutch warantee work must be preapproved
spent alomst as much on travel expenses for reps just to deny our claims as it would cost to cover them

This has been a great forum. If I had found it a week earlier, I would have sent my car to a speed shop for the clutch and not avoided dealing with Mitsu's ****... Hopefully, other owners will realize that some Mitsu dealers are telling Evo owners that they probably will get the clutch done under warantee, and then end up charging them between $1500 - $3400 for the job. Note: My Mitsu District Manager told me that, of the several clutches he has been asked to cover, he has denied ever one....

Mad VIII is right, we need to start *****ing as loud as possible. People with clutch problems need to go to the NHTSA web site at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ to file a complaint. (it only takes 5 minutes) Call Mistu, write a letter to the editor of Autoweek or Sports Compact, fill out your customer satisfaction forms for Mitsu and JD Powers... I am about to file in small claims court. We need to take this public.


The good new is:
I get my car back tomorrow morning. It has been at the dealer for almost 3 weeks, but it will "only" cost $1053.

Happy driving... Fast.