A friend of mine just purchased an 05 Evo with about 16,000 miles. The car appears to be stock other than a eBay type exhaust manifold. He test drove the car and he thought the throttle response was strange, however, the dealer assured him "it is supposed to be like that." Well he has had the car for a couple days and finally brought it over last night for me to drive and give my opinion as to whether or not the car drives properly (I have an 03). I drove the car and something is definitely wrong. Here is the gist of what the car does:

- When you give it gas the rpms kind of go crazy with no response from the engine. I mean the engine gets loud as though it is reving, however, there is no power. Once it hits about 4k rpms there is some turbo whine, but it is nothing like it should be based on how my car drives, as well as how the other EVO I have driven drives. I was afraid to really stomp on the gas pedal for fear of hurting his engine, but when I gave it the amount of gas it takes to accelerate hard in my car his car doesn't go anywhere. The rpms go up and there is some turbo spool, and there is really no torque.

I am thinking that it may be a loose intercooler pipe, or maybe a clutch, but I am not sure. The clutch engages (differently than my car, but it still engages), but there is a FAINT smell of burning clutch when you pop the hood.

Please help me diagnose this problem. Any suggestions would be very helpful.

If I was not clear on my description please let me know and I will try to be more clear.

The dealer he bought the car from claimed it is still under warranty, but it has the header/manifold, so that may void the warranty. The dealer also told him the header was stock.

**Please dont say your friend should have done more research or anything like that. The car is his now, and I want to help him get it running properly. Only constructive comments please!!**

 

Engine speed increase + car speed the same = dead clutch.

Edit: This will be especially noticeable in higher gears, moreso than 1st/2nd.

 

 

I would agree. How long ago did he purchase this car?

Check into you local lemon laws on used cars or whatever you can find out.

Dealer shouldn't have sold your friend a car with a clutch that is slipping that badly.

 

Thanks for the replies. He took it into a Mitsu dealer and they said the clutch is 90% gone. The other dealer from which he purchased the car is going to take a look at it tomorrow. Hopefully they will help him out a little, but I doubt it.

 

Glad the problem has been found. Watch your friends face when a new clutch is installed lol. Like he just bought it for the second time only this time - POWER. haha.

 

even if he bought it used he should have gotten either a 30 ,60, or 90 day
warr.read the paper workfrom the used car dealer.Hopefully he did not buy
it as is.

 

There should deff. be a short warranty period. I'm pretty sure it is law, at least New York law that any auto dealer must issue a warranty for I believe 90 days...

 

Some states have a "cooling off" period where you can return a car for any reason. I'm not sure if this applies to this situation but it may be worth looking into.

 

just curious, did the dealer give him a new clutch? since most dealer deny prblem with clutch, IMO, in this case, they are obviously at fault for lying to him about the clutch.