SST won't shift out of 3rd in s-sport
 

I've had my Evo x se for almost 2 weeks now. I got it with only 37,000 miles on it, and is the cleanest used Evo x I've seen that didn't cost almost as much as a new gsr. I've only really had one issue with, and am hoping it's easily remedied. When diving hard in s-sport, it won't shift out of 3rd in auto or manual. Normal and sport haven't given me any issues. I got an obd scanner and it gave me a p1877 code which is a gear block 2nd code. I haven't received any service transmission warnings, only general maintenance required. The dealer that sold me the car said it was just something that hadn't been cleared, but would need to take it to Mitsu as its still under factory warranty before the additional 6 year 100,000 miles kicks in.

I've seen this mentioned elsewhere, but haven't seen a cause or solution yet. If the service transmission light hasn't come on, is it possible this is a dirty fluid issue? I've heard Mitsu is pretty bad with tranny warranty work, and I'm not sure if the previous owner did something to effect the warranty.

The dealership is lying to you about it just not being cleared out. The P1877 is a massive issue that Mitsubishi should be fixing if your car has very few miles like you said. The only replacement guide for that is a whole new transmission. They will most likely just try to clear the codes and/or do a teach in to see if it goes away, but if the gear block doesn't go away it's most likely a fault internally that they can't fix.

My main concern is getting denied warranty work or replacement. As I don't know what was done to it before, any advice on dealing with the dealership? I already spoke to a tuner who said he would check the map version, then contact Mitsu with the vin to see what version should be there and match it.

Well if it comes back just take it back and let them know that just clearing the code didnt fix the problem and go from there.

I'm going to end up getting bounced back and forth. I bought it from a Dodge dealership, and I've contacted them twice for service engine lights. Both times I was told I had to go to Mitsu directly until their factory warranty expires. My worst fear in this is Mitsu will deny work due to the conditions caused by the owner, then the dealership I bought it from will say it's not covered by there warranty.

As I've never had to deal with Mitsu warranty work, how tough are they? If my sst has to be replaced, will they try and find a reason to deny it? I want to do as much as I can to take away any reasons they could find to deny repairs, service, or replacement.

Well if its broken they will replace it i mean that is what a warranty is for. Do you have a whole bunch of mods done to it? I would also give them very little info, like leave out the part of when you bought the car. But if there is obvious signs of abuse of course they will deny it. I would just take it in and see what they say i mean there is really no reason to be scared unless you are hiding something which is why your scared.

The closest I've come to a mod is looking at boost gauges on Amazon. It looks completely stock and clean under the hood, almost too clean. There's a non oem connection by the turbo, so something was done to it according to the tuner. I'm just being overly cautious, prepare for the worst hope for the best. I would tend to hope Mitsu would replace it, but after seeing all of the threads about legal action against Mitsubishi corporate, it can give pause when a $10,000 transmission is a possible outcome. If the car seems taken care and in good condition are they less likely to dig deeper? I added a shot under the hood.

Looks all stock to me.

Yeah it's stock now. I ended up finding a thread from the previous owner with a list of mods and dyno results. I went to the dealer on Thursday and they said they couldn't do anything unless I could tell them how to replicate the problem. So I basically have to damage the car to figure out how to show them so they can fix it, or tell me it's damaged from abuse caused by driving it hard (figuring out how to replicate it).

I went to the shop that tuned it originally, and it was brought back by the owner before he traded it in to go back to stock. They were super cool at rre. He checked it out for a good half hour, upgraded one of the lines where the boost pill used to be to a new one, and didn't charge me a dime. Good business. He said it was flashed after they stocked it, so it was probably the dealer. He advised me to play dumb and naive as much as possible. Any advice on which socal Mitsu dealers are as lenient as possible on mods? I went to riverside on Thursday.

I would say the most mod friendly close by would be South Coast in Costa Mesa. I know they do all kinds of aftermarket installs.

I'll probably go their way then. A good point was made to me that the dealerships want to do the work because they make money on the service, and the parts and labor are paid by Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi is the one who might have someone come look for themselves to find a reason to deny the work.

So... what was the outcome on this?

I ended up going the maintenance route first. I purchased sst fluid and filter from Fredbeans, and had it switched out by an Evo shop. I've driven it hard since and the problem hasn't come back, but I haven't wailed on it either. It's been about 3 months and so far so good.

Well, good news, then!