amen, thanks for sharing your experience.

I think there's a lot of false information out there... Some guys with a GT35 Turbo walk into the dealership for a clutch job, get denied and then come onto EvoM telling everyone how ****ty mitsubishi warranty is.

If your car is stock, it will get replaced... at least thats what I've seen so far.

 

I think that is playing a big part in how they've treated me. I know there are stories about guys claiming to be completely stock that get denied warranty work, but personally I don't think they are telling us the whole story. For you guys that are stock and legitimately do not abuse your cars and have still been denied warranty work, I feel bad for you and that just isn't right.

Again, from my experience with the service manager yesterday, when we walked back inside after looking at my wing, he said, "well, you notice I didn't bother checking out the rest of your car. So many guys come in here with evos and in the first 10 seconds you can tell they are hard on it. The rims are dirty, the shoulders are burned off the tires from driving it hard etc etc. But your car is clean, the tires were clearly in good shape etc, so I didn't see anything that made me feel like I needed to check it out in more detail. And the fact that your factory clutch has made it 50K miles speaks volumes about how your car has been treated."

I know that I am in the minority having a virtually stock evo, but that is exactly what I knew I needed to do if I wanted to be able to take advantage of the good warranty that was offered. There are just too many variables that can contribute to something going wrong on a car if it's been modified and unless Mitsubishi is able to know how the work was done, I can totally understand them playing it safe. Like someone said before, they are out to make money (remember its a business). And like it or not there are TONS of people that try to manipulate the system to have warranty work done when there are things they have done whether with mods or how they drive the car etc that contributed to the problem. Unfortunately it hurts the rest of us with legitimate claims since the manufacturer has to use more scrutiny when they look at warranty claims.

I count myself as one of the lucky ones so far. Fortunately I haven't had any major issues to deal with. In another 50K miles when my warranty is up, then the fun will begin and I'll be just like the rest of you with no warranty crutch to lean on, but until then the car will likely remain mostly stock and never see a track. But I still have a blast in the car every time I drive it.

 

You can't be serious!?! They tried to "void" your warranty because of your valve stem covers? Please tell me you're joking.

Er.... it did? That car looks heavily modified.

 

i also got a 100000 mile warranty, stock FTW! for now......

 

Mitsubishi dealers are shady. My mom's Precis, dad's eclipse GS-T and later Montero all never really quite ran right after having some sort of repair done at the dealer. I think the workmenship most do are subpar and half assed. That being said, I think you shouldn't have put mods on a car that from the offset had given you that much trouble. Its no secret that every single manufacturer in the world will void your warranty on any product you attempt to modify yourself and with good reason.

Now, one can argue that 10HP won't actually hurt anything but whose to trust your word that you didn't directly cause harm to your car while installing and or testing the modified parts? Whose to trust you when you say you've driven it carefully and 'babied' the car for fear of more breakdowns?

You have to play it political with warranty work which is why its never smart to mod your car while under warranty if you don't have the bank to front all repair costs yourself.

 

Just to clear a few things up.....

The reason I installed catback and filter after the repairs was because I couldn't get the 4th gear to pop out regularly. It would only do it maybe 1 out of ever 50 times. I thought it was just a fluke. Maybe "it just does it". Didn't think too much about it. And probably couldnt even replicate the problem at the dealership.

A lot of people are saying "it's unreal how some people mod their cars and expect to have the warranty"! I have a freaking catback, diverter valve, and k&n replacement filter! It's not like I'm pushing 350whp and trying to con the dealership! My car is new with only 3k miles on it and the mods added a mere 10~whp or so.... The point is that there is no relationship between a catback/filter and the tranny messing up. Can someone give me a technical reason how these mods caused the tranny mess up?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson-Moss_Warranty_Act


now they have to proof that ur catback was the cause b4 they can deny ur warranty. no wonder i held back on buying an evo

 

The dealer will argue that the filter, exhast, and BV added extra power that the car wasn't designed from the factory to handle. Doesn't matter if it's 1hp or 100hp. Those items change the factory power output. The extra power caused that part to fail. That's probably what they'll say. Of course this is a little extream. They're just betting that you won't make too much of an issue about it and just pay.

My guess is they're not happy that u brought the car from a different dealer or even district/region.

My guess is you shouldn't have a problem winning in court. With the help of people on this forum that had warranty with with mods similar to yours. Also Mit probaby doesn't want the negative press. Can you imagine what would happen if it got out that Mit will void your warranty if you add an exhaust and a drop in filter. Or that adding a filter and exhaust will cause your tranny to break. It also helps that you had noted Tranny issues during the first 1k.

Sorry about your luck on this but I hope this teaches us a couple of lessons.
1) Make sure your car is in good working order before modding. I'd say keep it stock for at least 2k to 3k. Believe it or not at least it did for me. It took ~3k for the tranny to loosen up.

2)If in question also take it back to stock.

 

The valvestems was a "joke" yes, but it just shows the variance in dealerships on what they consider "warrentied" work. A friend got VOIDED for having aftermarket TIRES, and not the Advans. Some cases are rediculous. My car has "some mods", they are listed in my signature. I did bring it in like is sits in the photo, and when I pulled it in the service bay, the service manager asked if I "raced" it. I said I had it up to 66 MPH ONCE, and it scared me, and I let off the gas. They never asked again. It was a ONE time visit for the tranny work, then I haven't returned.

 

Cool; thanks. Amazing they "voided" him for different tires. Puh-lease. I would be so over their shyte if they tried that with me ....

 

To me, a drop in filter and a catback are all replacement parts like brake pads and an oil fliter. Over time, you need to replace them...even a muffler. This is why I bought an sti over an evo. Don't get me wrong, I love the evo and I am not trying to turn this into a sti vs evo thing. But I have read on too many ocassions of warranties being denied for stock and nearly stock evos and this isn't nearly the case with subaru (but I am not denying that subaru dealers have voided warranties). Mitsubishi needs to realize that this is effecting their sales. They lost 30K plus with me alone, and then all of the oem parts I would have bought from them (oil filter and such). I can understand a modded car, but an air filter and catback is crazy. Good luck, I hope everything works out for you.

 

What you said. Same with tires. In fact, IIRC, the M-M Act says that a manufacturer cannot dictate what brand of replacement parts you must use (tires, etc.,) unless it offers them to you ... for free.

 

I would remove the parts and call a lemon law attorney. The lawyer will send a demand letter to Mitsubishi North America and/or Southcoast Mistubishi. In it she'll ask for probably 150% of the value of the car to be refunded and give them a deadline before a suit will be filed. At that point it's in Mitsubishi's hand and my opinion is that you'll be offered 90%-100% of the car's value.

If they choose to fight it and you've kept a record of all the repairs since the car was new it'll be pretty obvious to an objective eye (i.e. an arbitrator) that the transmission problems existed since day one and the bolt-on modifications, whatever power levels they made, were simply installed on a defective automobile. Hopefully it will be clear that the dealership used them as nothing more than an excuse for an incompetent and undertrained technician to blow off his end of the powertrain warranty.

 

Having come from the subaru world and looking to possibly get back in, it's the same **** different shovel.

 

hey whatz up
i hope this could help 03 evo with about 20k to 25k and my starter went bad.
at the same time my abs light come on my dealer was cool never had any problem with them replacing the starter and fixing my abs.
i also had the dealer do all my service oil change ect....
my car was drop,hks ssqv,sacf 2, intake,system and alarm with restart
other facts is the car was flat beded to the dealer near my house which was on the dealer i had bought it from.

so i hope this helps when it come to warranty some people are lucky some are not and if ur not u have to be an a$$hole and fight them.......


p.s on a sad note i had to sell my car cause im unemployed and i miss that car so much.......