I was driving my evo back from a swimming place and i passed 3 cars, when i put it into 5th it grinded really hard for some odd reason, never has done it before. The car only does it when its going into 5th at low to mid RPM's but at high it does it fine. No other gear has a problem at all, they all shift nice and fine except for 5th. Is this the clutch or gear box or something else? Help me please! Clutch just rebuilt only 30kmiles on it if that, twin clutch.

 

From my knowledge from my 03 viii and even my current 05, 5th gear grind is caused by synchro issues on our cars =/

 

^yup ur syncros are goin out. Mine grinds only in 5th bit when I shift slow it doesn't do it.

 

Exact same thing with mine. If I shift into 2nd or 5th really fast or at high RPM it will grind, nothing terrible. 2nd gear is much more forgiving, but with 5th I can't shift quickly at all. It has to be the weak synchros that are notoriously bad...ever since I bought my Evo I have been saving up little by little for a SHEP built tranny and T-case. It's gonna be a good $4k I'm sure, but I grandma DD this car like no other so I think I should be fine for a while! (I hope, hahaha)

 

This man has a good head on his shoulders.

To the OP...pretty sure its prolly your synchros bud. It sucks but most EVO's have this problem at some point or another. My car had 16k miles on it when mine started grinding 5th
Finally had it built by Shep at 48k miles along with a new clutch since the stock one was GONE. So I would go ahead and start saving or ship it off to Shep. Plus with 30k miles on a twin, which is amazing, it's a good time to do it!

 

Do the 9's and X's currently have the syncro issue as well? OP Sorry to hear- it plagues many cars

 

From what I can see the 8 tranny in 03 was the weakest. But the IX tranny still has a tendency to have synchro problems. My buddy's IX SE has about the same mileage as mine and shifts perfect with no grinds on the stock clutch. So I think it's kind of a hit and miss and how hard you drive it. I'm not gonna lie...I drove my car the way it was intended to be driven. Not like a crazy mad man but I went to track and messed around on the streets lol
Shep tranny fixed all that though! 25k miles on her and still going strong. And I've since driven the car harder so it has seen even more abuse than the original.

 

The 5th gear issues stem from 5th being much taller than 4th. When folks shift very fast into 5th, the synchros can't catch up as easily and wear out. I doubt Mitsu engineers figured that anyone in his right mind would be doing that, seeing how the car was "meant/supposed to be driven."

 

Thanks, I did a lot of research on these cars before buying one, and knew the t-case and trans issues before getting into it, lol. Just out of curiosity - so that we, and especially I, are aware of the $$ - how much was your transmission at Shep? My t-case is just now starting to whine slightly in 1st gear (103k miles and growing daily) and I am thinking both at the same time and draining my funds down to nothing might be my option.