I found the 5th gear synchro TSB.
When I first started searching for this @ http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ , I was searching by make, model...etc..
Well, when you enter "Lancer Evolution" for the model, 1 TSB pops up... It's for the heat/ac...

You have to select "Lancer" and then you get the laundry list. Look under:

Powertrain: Manual Transmission

There she sits, plain as day:
Service Bulletin Num : 0322001
NHTSA Item Number: 10005282

I have the 5th gear gremlin myself...and now I'm the proud owner of printed material directly from the NHTSA website.

 

Soooo... Does this mean mitsu is more likely to replace it under warranty?

 

It should be a no brainer for me.....8200 miles and no mods!!

 

Around what mileage does the 5th gear problems usually start for people? I have 6k miles on my EVO and no problems so far (knock on wood).

 

It varies.. my car had around 5500 or so miles on it.. Its likely pretty random and not every car is affected by it.

 

Mine happened at 15K and again 700 miles after they replaced it. I haven't shifted hard since they replaced it the second time so I am not 100% confident that it is fixed yet. I currently have about 2K on the second replacement.

 

Yeah, when they replaced mine, they also replaced the selector, and synchros for that gear.. Haven't had a problem since.. I do think that one terribly missed shift into 5th gear could damage it in one shot though..

 

Does the dealer have to remove the tranny to do the replacement? Or do they just take the end cover off the tranny and change it from there?

 

16000 miles I have no issues. smoth like butter

 

I think the entire transmission is removed from the car to be able to remove the gearset and access the part that needs repair..

I do know that while mitsubishi was working on the car, they had mentioned that my clutch was fine, which means they had to disassemble it to some point that they could see the clutch/pressure plate.. which likely meant they removed the entire tranny.

 

Coming up on 10K myself...no problems at all...

 

I just got mine replaced under warrenty and I've got a bunch of mods

 

16,000mi no problem yet (knock on wood)

 

at 6k mine went as well as my clutch around the same time they claim they can fix this without taking the tranny out...i think its bs so they can charge me for the clutch install....but im not 100% sure

 

Had it at 10k miles. The car had mods when I dropped her off at the dealership.