I am writing this post in response to the massive amount of posts asking about realibility with the car. Please take what I say with a grain of salt because it represents my experience, and only my experience. Nonetheless, it's still relevant and I feel it would help some of you make a more informed decision.

I've had my Evo for a month and a half now, putting on well over 6,000 miles in that span of time. The car is 100% stock, barring for RedLine synthetic oil and K&N oil filter. As you may have noticed, that's some serious driving, and most people who complain of problems would have done so by this many miles.

But first off, my background. The Evo is my 9th car. I have owned predominantly low displacement sport compacts in the past, most notably Civic, Integra, S12, S13, and the like. I have about 7 years worth of driving experience with about 2000,000 street miles. I have limited track exposure, but I do live in a mountainous area and I drive the roads every day. I do minor in motorsports engineering, and I am a certified maintenance and light repair technician so I think I am able to view the issue with a little more depth than most, but I'm still learning so please bear with me


Moving on to the car. I have a 2004 RS, as you can tell from my sig. Out of all the Evos available in the '03 through '05 model years, I chose this particular model because I think it would be the most reliable.

First off, there is no power option on this car. There would be less electrical gremlins I would have to track down later on. There also isn't the active diff like the '05, some more stuff to break that are extremely difficult to repair. There is no wing - less weight on the trunk springs and less spots for it to rust. There is also less weight for the car to carry in general so it's a little easier on all the mechanical parts.

That said, it's still an Evo, and there are minor issues that do come up now and then. But I'd call them build quality issues more than reliability issues. Yes, there may be a creak here and a groan there. The brakes make a little bit of noise for stock compound, but nothing too bad as I've seen. The driveline emits a horrible grinding noise under deceleration. You can hear the diff whine and the turbo spool up. The exhaust rumbles even at idle.

But even with all that, I still have not encountered a major catastrophic failure, the like many of my less fortunate comrades have *hat off to show respect*. That said, I do treat my car with all the TLC it needs: I warm the car up properly and let the turbo cool down properly, I don't overrev, I broke the motor in properly, I change the oil every 3,000 miles with synthetic, I double clutch, I revmatch, I don't grind gears, I don't stall, I don't slip the clutch unnecessarily, I don't launch like a bat out of hell, I let my brake heat cycle and cool down properly, I read the Owner's Manual cover to cover, etc.

So in general, I try not to do any of the things that would cause a car, any car, to experience catastrophic failure. But that's not to say I drive like grandma. Well, depends on how you grandma drives I use the car pretty close to the potential it has to offer.

So far *knocks on wood*, I haven't had a single mechanical problem with this car. It went in for its 5,000 mile service, and came out pristine with no problem.


I have to be careful what I say next, but generally people who have bad experience with this car either do not know how to take care of it, or were just unlucky and ended up with a bad car. The motor is rock solid, provided you don't tweak with it, or if you do tweak, know what you're doing. The drivetrain is rock solid for the power level that it puts out stock. You won't fry diffs or clutches if you know how to drive the car and if you don't abuse it, ie. high-RPM clutch dump.

So that's my little soapbox. Please feel free to contribute any comment that you feel would be positive.

 

Props to being so loyal. I too broke my baby in right. I do drive her hard, but nothing to the point of carelessness. I do put her thru the paces from time to time, but also spend hours making her look and sound as new as she came from the factory.

However, we ALL should be aware that this is a high maintinence intensive vehicle. Brakes, no matter how good you broke them in, WILL wear out. Tires...gone about 10k-12k.

I look at wearable parts as an opportunity to upgrade. Not some straight race parts, but parts that compliment and even further improve this marvel of engineering.

I do NOT wish to compromise my drivability or reliability for the sake of being the fastest or best looking. The EVO is a strong, beautiful, and purpose built machine that makes us all feel like race-car drivers on the way to work.

If you take care of your EVO, she will take care of you. Just be aware of how picky she can be when you pick up a wrench.

Props to you, g6civcx for your words.

 

Amennnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

I've got approx 17,500 miles of perfect mechanical order... No, I am not stock... Much like many of our EVO brothers here, I have an extensive list of mods.. The power is wonderful.. New tires are coming in next week.. That's right, 17,000 miles of stock Advans!! Rotations and alignments are frequent.. (Dad owns a shop)... I am not nice to my workhorse, but I am not abusive either.. Stock clutch holdin all the power just fine, probably due to only launching it twice since I bought her... The ONLY problem I've ever had with my car is that I don't have cruise control... But that can be fixed!! Later!!

 

Thanks for the words, fellas.

You're absolutely right. The car is expensive to fix, and it needs frequent maintenance. The brakes are very expensive. I believe OEM parts are about $900 for pads and discs all around.

The tyres are also very expensive: $250 apiece from tirerack.com. They usually last around 10,000 miles. I have seen folks with 20,000 miles on the stock tyres because they take it easy on them. I expect mine to be worn out within the next couple of months or so

Oil is also expensive. You have to use the good stuff which is $5 to $7.85 per quart, depending on what you like.

But other than that, it shouldn't need any additional work as the reliability has proven to be there if you know how to rub it just right.

Just compare this to the maintenance cost of a 911 Carrera 4. That's the kind of performance you're getting for your money in this car.

So all the folks who are screaming that Evos are unreliable piles of junk, I don't know what to say. Maybe they just had some bad luck, or maybe they just didn't take care of the car right?

 

Nice summary. Be happy you did not get a lemon. If you have a lemon it will break no matter if you follow the rules or baby it I luv the car but there are plenty of small things that MIT could have done to make this car better and have less compliants.

 

I know. I'm extremely happy that I got a good car.

There are bad cars in every batch. It just depends on how many slip by.

 

Considering you guys have found the Evo reliable, I am going to ask you what is your recommendation on breaking them in?

Is Australia we about to receive our first bath of Evos and I am sure the dealers will not really know the break-in proceedure.

Thanks guys and good luck keeping the cars happy.

THX1138

 

There are generally 2 methods to break in motor: the fast breakin and the slow breakin.

Do the fast break-in if you don't have a lot of time, as in before a race. What you do is let the car come up to temperature. Then you do a few 1/4 mile passes at 1/4 - 1/2 throttle. Let it cool. Then you do a few passes at 1/2-2/3 throttle. Let it cool. Then do a few WOT passes. Let it cool. Go change your oil, and you're done.

Barring that, a safer way is the slow method, which all the manufacturers recommend. Read your owner's manual for the specific instructions, but you generally don't rev pass a certain RPM, don't hold a particular speed for too long, don't drive for too long, don't use too much throttle, etc.

For the Evo, Mitsubishi recommends that we don't accelerate too rapidly, and keep the revs under 5,000 RPM for the first 600 miles.

After that, I recommend you change your oil even though you're not due for it. It's a good way to keep your oil fresh and clean.

Good luck~

 

I broke my baby in like a saint. I did not exceed 3500rpm for the first 600 miles, I used only partial throttle and drove like a grandma for and aganizing 3 weeks!

The first time I really heard my turbo was at 601 on the odometer.

The brakes are the good news. You have to take it slow and careful so as not to glaze the rotors and to let the pads set into place. At 201 on the odo I started breaking normal; before that I drove like I was on ice with L O N G stopping distances.

The best news? Since you can't jam on the brakes for 200 miles and you can't floor it for the first 600 miles, you only have one option. I started cornering hard from day one. The tires require no breakin in period, so lateral g's here I come.

I changed my oil at 1000 miles and 3000 after that.

 

One more thing to note.

I read somewhere that if you take two identical new cars, break in one the right way by taking it easy and break in the other one by beating the **** out of it and then do a comparo at 10000 miles. The one that was broken in the right way will out accelerate up to 3/10ths faster in the 1/4mi that the beaten one. Not to mention the longevity of the car from a mexhanical standpoint.

Cars operate under such strict tolerences that you want to seat every mechanical componant properly like it was designed to . Proper break-in ensures the vehicle will preform like it was designed to.

 

I'll nitpick some points with you.

1. The fast break-in is really only done for racing. If you rebuild your motor tonight, and race day is tomorrow, do you have time to put on 600 miles?

2. You're supposed to break-in your brake and parking brake. Go 25-30 mph, and do a relaxed stop. Repeat 10 times. Then drive 15 minutes at freeway speed w/o using the brakes. This will seat the pads and break in the brakes.

Same thing with the parking brake. Do 10 of those slow stops using only the handbrake with progressive and moderate pressure. Then drive and cool off.

3. The tyres do in fact have a break-in period. They come from the factory coated with protectant on the tread to preserve it during shipping. So for the first 100 miles, you will have to take it very easy or risk losing traction very quickly.

Or you could just do burnout and burn off that protectant. Your choice.

4. Some have claimed that the "abused" break-in actually turn up more power and burn less oil. So I have no idea. I recommend following the manufacturer for best result.

Just FYI.

Cheers!

 

I thought the protectant coating on the tires was removed by the dealer before delivery. I don't think my car handles any different now than it did on day one, but I could be wrong.

 

I agree with the tire coating comment. I slid sideways with 4 miles on the odometer. I was going pretty fast on an on-ramp but I have not had the back end come out on me since. Be careful when you roll out of the dealership.

 

i did not break my car in very nicely..... wide open from 200 miles on..... i now have almost 12k miles and not a single problem with it.... i did have some hose pop off under the hood...cleaned it and clamped it back on and everything was fine.

i am stock, but i have dropped the clutch more than a few times and have had no ill effects.. my clutch still feels strong and the car is great!