Hey everyone! Im new here but have been reading daily.


Ok, down to business. I just bought an 08 GTS. We've hit the 1k mile and have seen some interesting things.

First. Yes I completely drained the battery. Left something on and it was dead as a doornail the next morning. Absolutely nothing had power. I jumped it and it fired right up EXCEPT the engine light turned on, engine idled between 800 and 2500 rpms and would not accelerate above 3k rpm with no power what so ever. I let it idle for a while ( figured it needed to charge ). Turned it off and started again with no improvement. First thing I thought was " oh crap! I just blew the ECU or some other engine management electronics with the jump start" I started checking the fuses and nothing turned up blown. Five minutes later, I started the car and everything was back to normal. I drove it another 400 miles without a hitch. Then....


I filled up the tank with 93 octane on an almost completely empty tank. ( might not be a good idea in the first place since it is tuned to run on 87. ) drove about .5 miles and went to accelerate.....LIMP MODE. It instantly started acting like it did when the battery had died. Exact same symptoms. bouncing revs, no power, engine light on. I pulled over and did the same routine with the fuses ( pulled each engine fuse out, checked it and put it back in. Again the car started fine and remained completely normal until......

I was trying to get more air to the engine, let it breath with ease, so I took off the plastic trim on the engine front and removed the little crappy intake scoop forced under the nose of the hood. Basically I had no plastic piping attached to the intake filter. The intake resonator and filter were still in place but no little plastic tube attached to the front. Engine instantly felt more responsive, better low end torque, had a little more throat to it and appears to have improve highway mileage after it again crapped out on me and went into LIMP MODE!!! I drove it about three or four mile before it decided to freak out on me.

What could be the problem with this limp mode situation. Is it part of the learning ECU which can only take so much of a change without being reset? Did I really burn something up with the jump start? Has anyone who has changed to the RRM Intake experience such a problem?

Your thoughts and opinions please.

P.S. I have of course pulled the fuses again and "reset" if you will the engine and have gone 60 miles without any problems since the air box change.

 

Hmmmmm, I am not a mechanical expert but since the battery died and basically you had to recharge it which is basically the same as replacing the battery in cars ECU point of view, and since GTS is loaded with electronics of all sorts I think you'll need to get this bad boy to a dealership and they'll reset everything, I don't think there is any mechanical/electronic issue at all, it just needs a factory reset.

I know that the 2002-2006 Lancers when faced with a battery replacement, some after the replacement would go crazy too, but in the instruction manual there was a procedure to cure this reving problem. If I won't forget I'll look it up after I'll get back from work. Maybe it is the same procedure for the 2008 Lancers. Look it up in your owners manual.

 

First thing you should do is have the code pulled on that CEL. We can guess all we want, but only that code will point you in the right direction.

 

to answer your question about the rrm intake, i have not had any problem with mine... i disconnected the battery, installed the intake, reconnected the battery let it idle normally for 2-3 minutes and drove it like a bat out of hell, i didnt experience any of the problems you are talking about

 

What is the CEL code and how would I "pull it"

I assume you are referring to an event log or error code?



As for disconnecting from the battery and then changing the intake, connect the battery and let idle - that sounds like what happened the last time I pulled the fuses. When I first took off it was sluggish and not very responsive. After about 2 - 3 minutes it returned to "bat out of hell" performance.

I have to make a 20 mile trek here in the next few minutes. Ill post my findings.

 

well draining a bettery is really hard to do. The car has a built in feature to turn off your headlights after 3 minutes and internal lights dont have enough draw.

There maybe a fault in your charging system.

when something goes wrong from the jump, when you buy a car take it back, cause its a clear sign of a lemon. If the car has consistant problems and its documented by the dealer, you can request a replacement.

but it involves going above the head of the dealership on the 3rd major issue with the first month or few thousand km.

A friends RSX was a frigging lemon by nature and she got the car replaced, dealer could not find the cause of the issue.

at least in this case. when you replace a battery and its fresh, chances are the charge in it will not be high. so if your car is reallocating power to 100% charging then yes , your car will feel less responsive. thats for any car. The job of the alternator is to recharge your battery. Its like turning on 5 A/C in the car, it will put a heavy load on the car. its recommended you drive the car normal or just let it run.

if the bettery doesnt charge, get rid of it. the feed back from a bad battery across the rest of your car can mess up or fry electrnics. especially if you have things like an amp / sub combo.

You have no idea how important a charging system is for a car.


As for re setting the battery I would not bother trying to reset the ECU, its better that it adjusts over time as opossed to relearning. You should actually get a boost in performance not lack of when a intake swap. Because doing an instant swap of intake parts. will result in a unrealized efficency gain that the car will not adjust for until later on.

As opposed to a trial and error system caused by a RESET ECU.
This was realized by dyno tests conducted my other cars.

Remember the car is intellegent

 

So i tooka little drive around DC and everything performed better than average with the intake opened up. Good responsive acceleration, even power and no hickups.

Everything is under warranty and their are no modifications to the car other than haivng removed the plastic intake pipe ( which I have all the parts and original snaps for ) so if this little martha stewart gives me any flack, im gonna smack its az back to the dealer.

Now how to get 250 BHP! Thats what the whip needs!

 

Then maybe you bought the wrong car?

You're going to be waiting for a turbo kit to see that much power...

 

Heres an idea, its under warranty - take it to the dealership and have them search for the problem.

 

Not sure if you guys watch motor week(aug 18th) but they had the lancer on there doing there review and at the end it said that mitsubishi had said that there might be a GTS turbo (I'm guessing the rally art version) coming out before the EVO does. Wouldn't it be better just to buy the mitsu turbo and still have your car under warranty. I'm not to sure about everyone else but I couldn't afford to blow my car up and then fix it. As a side note what about the car having an alumium block vs a cast iron block. I've heard that is one of the biggest differences in this years model vs last year. I would think it wouldn't be able to with stand a big power increase without a lot of mods. Probably not the right post but since you were talking about turbo's.

 

Call it blind faith, but there will absolutely be a way to crank out a hella lot more power out of a GTS soon enough.

It is confirmed that the block will be used for both the Lancer and EVO. Its true that there are lots of variables but the core is the same and being that its a brand new car, with more features than anything else in its class at one of the easiest price points, everyone and their mother is going to try and hot rod the BLANK out of it.

Given time 6 - 8 mo. Im sure we are going to see some incredible gains just off of ECU programming. Adding a turbo with modest boost will significantly increase power in this 3k lb sled.

Im might be going out on the limb but I have faith. We will see wheel smoking power out of 2k - 3k dollar mods. All in good time, all in good time.

Now if anyone else has this LIMP ENGINE MODE problem, we need to hear about it.

As of right now. I believe that the quirky "learning" ECU is having a heart attack when I make a significant change to the motor.

 

i dont know maybe when you disconnect the battery did u let the car sit for 10-15minutes before pressing on the gas? especially if u left it disconnected for a long period of time. ecu needs to recalibrate itself. just a suggestion.

 

ive tried jump starting other veichles with my 08 and it dont have enough power nomatter how long i try. lancer is low on power to begin with.

 

know what I've charged my wifes car a few times with no problem.

 

It did it again this morning!!! Ive made no changes since last time it went LIMP!

I was driving through DC and just pulling away from a light and DUD! LIMP MODE!!

This is really pissing me off. I called the dealer and have an appointment for 1pm today. Ill report back what they find.

The car was driven over 60 miles yesterday with no hiccups. It ran fine for about three miles today until it went LIMP! No over revving, no trying to floor it, just working my way through DC at a relaxed pace.

If this were to happen on Interstate 95 i could get killed!

Sweet, I might have the first total Lemon!