Hey everyone,

So, this is my 6 months ownership of my 05 Evo 8 MR. So, I absolutely love this car with my heart and passion. It has excellent looks, pulls hard, and makes music to my ears while making me grin cheek to cheek as I drive it. That is, when I am able to drive it. Along with the good times, there have been lots of bad ones. For the past 24 weeks of owning my car, its been in the shop or was getting repaired around 11 of those weeks. So basically, my car has been in the shop almost as much as its been sitting in my driveway. Along with that, I've put insane amounts of money into it for only owning it for 6 months (Almost $9k). And the car still doesn't have an inspection sticker. So, im not sure what I should do. I absolutely love this car and would be crushed if something were to happen to it. Basically my baby! However, I have been throwing ideas up in the air of possibly selling it because its been so much of a hassle for me. So, I was wondering if is this normal for an evo... To have this much trouble and to dump this much money into it? Or did I just buy a beaten up, crap of a car? Has anyone had similar experiences?
Let me know! Thanks!

 

I wouldn't say thats nornal at all. However, without knowing how many miles are on the car and what condition you bought it in, i can easily see it happening. Evo's (like anything else) need to be taken care of. Its not some bullet proof car. They're very reliable if you know how to drive it properly.

With that being said, because of the age of these cars now, they will usually require some TLC unless you're buying a very clean low miles car. It also helps if you do the work on the car yourself. I know up here in Canada, stealership rates are 120+ an hour. So if you're paying anywhere close to that, those bills can pile up quick. Thing is, you're already so heavily invested in it, how much more could really be needed?

 

I've spent 6 grand (maybe more - records are not my speciality) this year and that is only parts. This at the 120k service interval. I got 14 years of trouble free driving beforehand. So, if somebody has sucked all the good out of your car - normal.

 

My take on the problem is that the evo is a pretty cheap car to get into relative to its performance level. Which leads to people buying the car not really factoring the maintenance level required for that performance level. This can lead to neglect and eventually unloading the car when enough problems stack up. The problems compound when people start modding the car. Its a super popular "tuner" car in that it responds very well to even minor modification, making more power means increasing the maintenance and wear and tear accelerates. The evo is also a pretty complicated car and competent mechanics are few and far between relatively speaking.

Like most aging high performance vehicles, learning how to wrench on it yourself, as much as possible, is going to have a pretty drastic effect on the cost of ownership.

 

Thats what I was thinking. After I got it tuned, I was like, this thing better drive like a new car now since basically everything is new lol.. I drove it 50 or so miles and it ran like a dream and then the car started to act up again, so it went back to the shop.. And is still there today. The car had 112k when I bought it, now it's at 115k miles.
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I would add that the Evo isn't inherently unreliable. Its a very solid car with very few common weaknesses. The biggest I can think of is probably the balance shaft belt. The stock clutch was known to be weak (not that any CT9A's are still running a stock clutch)which was an intentional move by mitsu to help prevent people blowing up the drivetrain from launching. Mostly these cars suffer from what their owners do to them.

 

@ 140K of daily driving on the original clutch, I'd argue your point that the stock clutch is weak

I would agree that these cars are incredibly reliable if not abused and well maintained, however finding cars in this condition is getting more and more difficult.

There is no such thing as a 'cheap' Evo, in my humble opinion. Buy the best one you can afford, otherwise you'll be spending lots of $$$ after the fact.

Good luck - hope you get your issues worked out.

 

I would counter argue that yours would be an exception rather then the rule. I just meant cheap compared to other cars at its performance level for its time. My 2003 Porsche 911 C2 didn't hold a candle performance wise to the evo. Although those can be had pretty cheap now too, the parts and maintenance however are still that of a very expensive car.

 

So, the car was acting up when you got it. It got fixed and then after 50 miles it acted up again and went back to the shop. What do you mean by acting up? Does the shop know what is wrong?

 

would help to know some of the details of what has gone "wrong" with it.

 

sounds like you were dealt a bad hand. My evo has been my most reliable car ever....

 

Well, everytime I shifted the car into neutral the car would stall or drop to 100 rpms and want to stall. Then the check engine light went on, then after a few days went off.. I let the shop know and that's where the Cars at today
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Some major, some not:

• The car's oil pan had completely rotted out and needed to be replaced
• The timing belt was about to snap as it had a huge tear down the middle (which wasn't there when I bought the car)
• Needed a cat
• After buying a cat, failed emissions and inspection
• Airbags needed to be replaced
• Rear wiper stopped working
• Fuel door refused to open
• Random boost leaks keep occurring
• NEEDED a new water pump, tensioners, pulleys, and serpentine belt - corroded, rusted, and worn out
• A/C stopped working
• HVAC system is messed up and broke.. You can only blow hot air and the dial to change the temps on the dash doesn't work, you have to change it by going under the dash and by pulling the different cables
• All 3 ACD lights are on - indicating it needs a ACD pump re-build
• E-brake cable snapped
• Car NEEDED to be tuned
• The ecu and different parts of the harness needed to be replaced (some parts were torn, some were burnt, I have no idea how)
• Gauage cluster shorted out, needed to be replaced
• Car still has electrical problems
• One of the brights stopped working
• Car refuses to start sometimes -It's gonna need a new battery and alternator soon

And there's still a lot more..

 

Sounds like it had a hard life before you got it . I'm the original owner of my '05 and have taken care of it and that saved me from a lot of the drama

 

I agree this car sounds like it was a fixer upper! I hope you bought it for the right price and when you’re done investing time and money into it I’m sure you will never part with it. I know when I started looking around for an Evo, thrashed Evos were everywhere.