Hello all,

First off I need to apologize if this is in the wrong forum, I wasn't sure where you would have wanted it posted so I figured General is a good place to start. Secondly I have some high resolution pictures that follow my story, so let this be a warning and my apology as I need to have high res to show exactly what I'm talking about.

I have been doing a clutch job for the parents of one of my friends who passes away a few months back. He bought an Evo IX two months before his death and his parents took it over after his passing. The clutch went out rather quickly (~13,000 miles) and I volunteered to do the job for them since I have done several clutches before and hoped this wouldn't be a large pain like most Mitsubishi's are.

We got most of the work done within a few hours of working, then came the Throw out bearing. It was completely stuck in there and we could not figure out how to remove it. We did the screw driver thing and that didn't work at all. We tried prying it with a bigger pry bar, but it still would not budge, and there wasn't much room to work with in that service hole. So, after the car sat in my garage for 3 weeks, we decided we should have it towed down to the dealership to have them pop it out for us.

They called and told us the only way for them to get it out now, since it was so stuck, was to cut the pressure plate fingers. The successfully got that done, and removed the transmission (not what we asked them to do), and they told us that WE had broken a chunk out of the bell housing and that we needed to replace it.

Here is the best picture of the broken section (other angles available upon request):



As you can see at the top of that long straight section (to my knowledge metal will not crack perfectly straight like that), there is a groove. I can't be certain, which is why I'm asking your opinion on this, but it looks like it was cut out, and then broken.

Here is a picture of the piece that was cut out:




There are other details and speculations that I will not go into. I would just like to ask some opinions of what you think about the broken section, as well as what you think we should do next. I have not spoken with MMNA yet, and I have yet to sit down with the service manager for a play by play. I will be going there tomorrow once again to request a copy of the work order as well as any documentation regarding the work done to try to get to the bottom of this.

Thank you in advance, and sorry for the long post .

Regards,

Anub1s

 

Big mistake to use most dealerships for clutch work - way above the skill level of their personnel. Talk to Bernie Solomon at Exedy about it.

Someone cut that one side, no doubt about it. But it could have been broken, and then cut out on that last side.

 

I can see that happening, but if it was cracked, they had no reason to go in there and cut the one side and completely break it off. No reason what-so-ever and they did not let us know about it. It's going to be much harder to get it fixed this way if we do not get another bell housing. It's not a high stress bolt hole that broke off, so welding will be no biggy.

I just don't want to be lied to and have them get away with it if that is the case.