Hey, all.

I seriously need some knowledgeable advice regarding my '03 evo. It's almost completely stock, just Gates coolant hoses, k&n air filter. I have 80k on the car & it's always been awesome. But since I did my (late) 60k maintenance, there are now problems. (Save the hate replies, I did what I could of the 60k maintenance myself, but couldn't do the belts/pulleys/tesioner/water pump, and there's NOONE around here that works on evos. The nearest place is 2 hours away, and I have no idea how good they are.)

OK, back to the issue: since the belts, etc have been put on, the engine is loud. Not squealing, belt-too-tight loud, but a low almost rumble. It actually sounds pretty cool at idle. But when I get into turbo territory (above 3000 rpm) it's REALLY loud, and the turbo kicks in for a bit but seems to be choked off around 5000, I can't get anywhere near redline anymore. I've only pushed that hard once, since I'm afraid of breaking something.

I took the car back to the guy, and he checked the tensioner, since I thought that may be the problem, but he said that wasn't it.

So, please help! I need some ideas before I blow my engine or whatever. Sorry so long, I'm really tired...

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/so...tennessee.html


there is talk of some shops in Tennessee in this thread

 

Yeah, the places they mention in that post as being good are more than 2 hours away. Since I've already paid $300 to this guy, if I can figure this out without having to pay another shop another $300, that would be great.

 

Have him check to see if the balance shaft is out of phase that will cause alot of vibration and noise. Also double check timing marks and i would print out a how-to for timing belt just in case.

 

timing belt out of phase.

 

or both... I drive 5 hours to my shop. 2 hours is cake work. prob not very expensive to uhaul the car there. I have done that about 5 times in the bast 3 years.

Mikey

 

If down on power then belt is probably off a tooth at the cam sprockets or maybe at the crank. If belt timing was correct it would drive exactly as before.

The old paint trick (it is in the service manual) should always be used when replacing the timing belts. You paint marks on the sprockets and onto the old belt. Pull the old belt and transfer the paint marks to the new belt. Now, when the new belt is installed and all the paint marks line up, timing is correct - no worry or problems like this.

 

Too much tension on the rear balancer belt!
squealing noise when cold, rattling when warmed up.
ATTENTION: instant front bearing failure happen at the rear Balancer!
Did you changed that small belt ?
If so, maybe the Sensor blade reversed ?
Loss of power would be normal then, since ignition timing will be off, and noise from Timing belt rubbing againstit.
Easy check: The front side is marked with white color at the notch corners .

 

Thanks, all, I really appreciate all the replies.

So, here's the update:

Took the car to OTT Motorsports in Clinton, TN. (Really great, knowledgeable guy owns & works on the cars. He's really ****, which I consider a GOOD thing when he's working on my car. Definitely worth the drive. He works on all kinds of fun cars, doesn't specialize in evos, but has worked on a bunch of them, including building a 500+ hp evo, so he knows his stuff.)

Belts were all on correctly, timing's correct, balance shafts weren't checked, but he didn't think that was the problem, since everything else was good. The noise and change of feel is coming from the Gates belt, apparently. Even though I looked and looked on the forum and kept coming up with a bunch of people saying that they didn't notice any noise from the belt change from the OEM belt, the opinion of the guys in the garage was that some folks notice every little change about their cars and some people don't. I'm considering getting another OEM belt and getting rid of the Gates, since I just find it annoying at speed.

I'm not getting a cold/hot differential of noise. It's more of a rpm thing.

barney: good paint trick. I'll have to remember that to tell the shop next time.

 

I can tell this is going to be an ongoing problem.

First, an update: a couple days after I got back from OTT, the weather finally cleared up enough for me to really drive the car. Engine started missing and check engine light came on. I know what a missing engine is like, so I checked my plugs which they gapped. Turns out, not only are they not gapped the same, they're over-gapped. So I fixed that and the car started running better. Still annoyingly loud over 3k rpm and still feels like it's working really hard.

Last week on the highway, I take it from 70 to 85-ish quickly, and the car suddenly feels like it's driving through jello walls. It'll drive ok, then bog down. Check engine light again, engine is missing.

Been a week now, engine light is still on, it's not missing at the moment, but it feels like I have no turbo. wtf? I absolutely love my car, and it's NEVER given me problems, but since the 60k maintenance, it's been a nightmare. If I can't get this fixed, I'll sell the damn car.

 

Your situation is actually pretty simple. Take it to someone that has Mitsubishi experience. Our timing belts are setup differently than other Asian imports.

You MUST take the inspection plug out from the front of the block and be able to insert a long, (about pencil thick) phillips screwdriver into the hole about 3" deep with ALL the timing marks lined up. If this procedure is bypassed you are doing yourself a disservice.

If everything mentioned above is ok, then have the previous technician retrace his steps, because he may have accidently damaged or moved something.

I know this gets into the "It was not like this when I brought it in" argument with the shop, but it needs to be addressed.

Don't sell your car over something simple like this.

 

I would love to take it someplace with GOOD mitsu experience. The problem is finding a place. Dealerships don't necessarily know what they're doing (in my experience, they often have no clue what to do with an evo), and the only place I found that has the evo experience didn't even gap my plugs right. If you know of anyplace in the mid-TN area, that would be REALLY helpful.

I can't seem to get the guys at the shop to take me seriously at all. They all figure it's in my head, and I'm just some ditz. I'm fairly sure I'm doing more damage by driving it around the way it is now, I can feel the grinding, but I can't get anyone to fix it. The place that supposedly knows evos said that the car felt like every other evo to them, except for the grinding, which they thought was a tranny issue, and I should send that to ams. I tried to explain that everything was perfect before, no grinding, and that the tranny isn't going to suddenly start having problems like that, to which they cleaned my air filter (which was, admittedly, disgusting), gapped the plugs wrong, and disconnected the battery so the computer would reboot.

I DESPERATELY need to find a decent evo guy, but can't find one.

If anyone knows where to take it around here, PLEASE let me know.

 

holy ****, i just got my gates timing and serp. belt install yesterday and i've notice the same problem. i havent pushed the car hard yet but i do notice at around 3,000 rpm it gets really loud. like it almost drown out the sound of my BOV. i thought maybe i would have to break it in or something. i dont feel the lost of powers yet.