Hey everyone, this is my first post here on the forums. I currently drive a 05 S2000 and am looking to sell it for an evo 8. All day, I've been searching for problems in the car and what not i should know about before buying, and all I have come up with is that the transfer case in the 5 speed evo 8 is stronger than the 6 speed in the MR edition? And that all evo's have weak syncros?

Could someone else shed some light on common problems with eve 8's. In particular the MR editions.


On a side note...I'm also thinking about a speed3, but after some thought I don't really want to go back to FWD.

 

Its the trans in the MR the 6 speeds are weak, meaning they don't hold up to a lot of power.

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification. Is there an estimate as to how much they hold? And should I get away from 6 speed MR's because of this issue?

 

I have a GSR with the 5 speed so my knowledge comes from this forum on the 6 speed, but every trans shop sells a conversion kit, and everyone doing a decent build swaps them out or brakes them and then has to swap them so I would say it depends ok on your goals. Post up what you want out of the car and I'll step back and let the more 6 speed savvy steer you in the right direction. The problem is once the bug bites you will want more power so even if you say I want it to stay stock it won't, and then when you say I'll keep the stock turbo you won't. Then you will be doing a swap eventually.

 

Many people say the 6spd is weak, and, compared to the 5spd, it is. It can't handle as much power as the 5spd can. That being said, lots of people say the 6spd is weak, but don't have one, or have never personally dealt with one or one failing. I've seen some decent numbers being pushed through a 6spd, and as long as you're not driving the car like a idiot, it'll hold up.

If you're looking for exact numbers, it's hard to say, I'm making around 340-350 whp and 330-340 tq, the trans sounds great, shifts great, and has been holding up for around 2 years, with no issues.

I've seen 400-450 on the 6spd, and it was fine. I've seen mildly modded 6spds blow up because the driver couldn't shift for **** and liked to launch the car at every light.

Personally, I love the 6spd, the closer ratio gearing is great for autoX or when I just want to have some fun in traffic. If you plan on making more than 400-500hp, and 400+ tq however, I'd buy a 5spd, or swap to it. It's really the higher torque that kills these 6 speed transmissions.

 

450tq seems t bee the magic number as far as going the extra mile modding wise in evos. Sure you can make more on a 6spd, stock block blablabla but anything past that is on borrowed time. If you want to make big power you're better off with a 5spd, you just need to worry about the tcase if you're going to be launching the car.

 

the reason some cars are less reliable than others is amount of modification. I have a couple of bolt ons, and drive the car every day. even a couple of passes in the quarter. damn reliable. of course there are exceptions, but the evo is a very solid car, no matter what year. good luck.

 

I had a 6spd and it failed at well under any torque # listed here so far. It dies because of heat more than raw tq (although 400+ and you won't last that long). If you road race a lot you will kill the 6spd. If you drag race then you can get away with it as long as its occasional and at modest torque. There are 10second 6spd cars on this forum btw.

6spd is really ideal for DD. Thats for sure.

 

Hi Steven...

I responded to your thread on S2KI and probably guided you here. Welcome to EvoM.

5MT is superior to 6MT for holding power.

In terms of weak transfer cases... if you launch an Evo improperly repeatedly, the transfer case can/will break. It's a matter of abuse, really. As for weak synchros, I don't think so, not in my experience anyways. I'm running almost 500 whp and have no problems with the synchros in my car, and know there's many others on stock trans that don't have problems.

Also, I noticed you're in Corona. I'm in Long Beach. If you want to meet up and check out my Evo, feel free to. I can give you a walkaround of the car and you can even do a little drive down the streets and see how you like it.

 

Hello and welcome to EvoM!

Please take a moment and read some of the stickies in this and the Evo General sub-forums as they contain a WEALTH of information and will more than likely answer many of the questions you wish to ask, that have probably been asked many times before.

All the best,

EvoM Staff

 

The 4-5 gear synchro on the 5 speed will go out over time if you do any high rpm shifting in that range. Depends on the driver, but I would say you'll notice rough 4-5 shifts and potentially 3-4 (again, depends on driver) after a fair amount of miles. I bought mine with about 24k on the clock four years ago. I upgraded the synchros about 6 months ago when I hit 110k miles. I noticed drivable but roughish shifts up top. Since I was changing out the clutch though, I did the synchros as well since its fairly cheap. My old roommate tho isnt the greatest driver and he had crazy bad grinds 4-5 and minor grinds 3-4 after about 60k miles when he was about 5k rpm.

Since you are buying a used 8, keep this in mind. Check when the last clutch job was and if it needs one soon, I would look into upgrading the synchros. Depending on the mileage too, inspect the shift forks because they get a lot of wear as the miles build up, but they are super cheap to replace as well.

 

Hey! What a small world on these forums haha. I'm starting to become a little apprehensive in regards to the evo now...I cringed at having to put out a grand to replace my s2k's a/c compressor, drier, clutch, and recharge. After reading through this thread as well as others, I feel as if the evo will develop more problems than I'm willing to deal with.

Also buddy of mine might be a little pissed if I get an evo 8 right after he drove to San Francisco to pick up his 9 a week ago

 

I have 156k on my 5 speed, its the only thing still stock on the car 589whp last I checked daily driven and the only problem with the trans I have is the 4-5 at high rpm but in reality that should only happen at the track.

Evo's are reliable, but like anything if you are going to abuse it or not maintain it expect to spend some money fixing it. If you know you are going to be really hard in the car buy stronger parts if they brake.

 

Pretty dumb statement and totally false.

 

I could be wrong but isn't it just 4th gear in the 6 speeds that's weak? With a fresh rebuild and maybe some upgraded parts in it I can't see it still having any issues?