2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR: Swapping Spit

the bellow picture is a zoom-in of the one above it, rotated 90 degrees to the left.

threw me off at first.

"Instead, we opted to have our pals at Road Race Engineering take a look at it. They offered to handle the job for a far more reasonable price. And sadly, while they're inside mending the wound, they will also begin the de-modification process."

Wait a minute why are you guys demoding this thing? I know you have to sell it but sell it as is.

Personally the fact that the majority of parts we're installed and tune by a professional tuner shop is worth something.

This is how differentials cry

Yeah, I too am surprised this was not covered under warranty? Was it because the car was modded? I'm sure it was within the 36,000 mileage warranty. Or am I wrong here? What gives?

Oops... I just reread the post, and yeah, the car was definitely under 36K in terms of miles. So, again, what gives?

The way I understand it, most, if not all warranties are strictly there in case there's a manufacturer defect. In other words, they will only cover the cost of parts and replacement if it's the company's screw-up and not a malfunction caused by any outside reasons. If you got aftermarket parts on your vehicle and something breaks in part due to the stuff you did to it, then it's not the company's fault. In the end, you're paying for it instead.

so any insight into what caused it?

mods/hard driving?
manufacturing issue/faulty part?
design flaw?

I'm surprised many of you think this would be covered by warranty. Come in with a bigger turbo, cams, after market clutch, non OEM ECU tune, and a host of other things (any one of which would be enough).
Really, what manufacturer would cover this ? I mean bolt on stuff might be a gray area, but adding something like 100 + torque and tracking the car probably puts this into the "no chance in h3ll" category.

Is this car going to be sold, or was it on loan from Mitsubishi? Unless the mods and the car are on loan it would seem to make sense to sell it "as is". As someone pointed out the provenance of the modifications are well documented so the car might fetch a decent amount especially with newer clutch and rebuilt tranny (things you would worry about otherwise buying a modded EVO).

That. Sucks. Keep us updated. I just passed 33K with my Evo X GSR. Not as wild, but also similarly modded.

Did you ever get test results vs. the GTR? What caused the center diff failure?

t10, I believe the car is on loan from Mitsubishi. See the last line of the article hyperlinked below.

http://www.insideline.com/mitsubishi/lancer-evolution/2008/2008-mitsubishi-lancer-evolution-x-gsr-long-term-test.html

farmerbob, I think the test results are coming soon! :o)

Play if you must, pay if you bust!

You fry, you buy!

Was this test really worth all the money? Hey it is your money but seems like a big waste to me. You did not accomplish your stated goals, a major part failed and cost you even more money. I hope you include all of the costs of this mod when you do the wrap-up (unlike the Edge). Would not your money have been better spent buying something else? How many Lancers do you need to test, anyway? Three in as many years is silly. I think you have an idea how they perform (quite well it seems)....now save your loot for something else.....if you want something fun, great! But get something else besides a car from a dwindling car company. And dont freak out Mitsu lovers.....I am only speaking the truth. Mitsu is a heartbeat from leaving the American market.

I'm looking forward to some possible causes and a cost from RRE.

To be honest, I haven't been following this long-term car too closely over this past year. Was the engine modded? If so, then I can certainly see the warranty being voided. If it wasn't, then I would think it would be covered under warranty.

They are demodding it because the center diff can't handle all the power it makes. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Are there any stronger aftermarket center diffs you can put in and keep your mods?

I'm wondering why it wasn't covered also. The mechanics' notes state that the seal failed. I don't remember you guys taking that apart & that seal shouldn't wear anymore than it would if you hadn't done the mods. I know Mits has a history w/the Evo's of violating the warrantys for almost any mods. That actually got me to buy a WRX over the Evo back when they first came out.

Bob, this car has been modded to within an inch of its life--cams, intake, turbo, ECU, the lot. And there's no hiding it--you can hear the voided warranty when the car pulls into the service line. If I had a black heart and owned a car dealership, I would fire the service writer who approved this as a warranty fix.

On the topic of waste, no one mods a car like this to make any sense. People do it because they want to go fast(er), but can only afford to spend the money incrementally. They do it because its fun to tune and tweak, fun to get your hands dirty and scrape your knuckles, fun to swap success stories over a brew with like-minded people and fun to learn about how all the various mods work (or don't).

And then you put the whole mess on a track to see how much time you gained. It's called a hobby, and it's a damn good one.

I love these kind of tests. I think they are much more fun than the standard review. I've looked for new posts on this thread almost every day and read every one (though I do have this car so I'm interested). It's interesting to see the mod strategy, choices, results and even set-backs. I think it would be great if IL always had one project car going with a similar overridding challenge in the background (in this case beat the GTR). Maybe take a 135i will goal of being better than M3, or S4 with goal of being faster than R8 and with daily driving practicality. BTW, I also loved the E46 M3 threads to highlight living with a used and abused E46. New car reviews are nice, but they don't (even for a year) tend to convey the real owner experience which comes after they own it for several years or modify it (for the enthusiast). Good job IL.

@actualsize
I was typing the same comment earlier this morning, and then scrapped it because I figured no one would give a crap about my hot air.

Glad to see the LTRB understands why some things aren't about cost!!

I'm here for the hot air, man. And in a way, it is about cost. You buy a cheap car you can afford--maybe new, maybe used--then hot it up over time (and paychecks) to get where you'd like to be if you had tons of money in the first place. If you do it right, you blow the doors off the car you couldn't afford for far less money.

Good post IL. I'm still anxiously awaiting the GT-R / Evo comparison runs. Now that both are no longer in the "able to drive" category (one gone, one dead), perhaps we could have the story?

Noone should be suprised. The OEM part was simply not engineered to handle all of the extra power. One would assume that Mitsu would have equipped it with a part with a higher tolerance, but the cost would have been passed along to the car buyer and people would then bitch about the sticker being a grand higher.

Some of you might not be close enough to the Evo to know these cars. The center diff and car in general CAN handle the power as many many have. Edmunds wasn't even over 400whp and many on the streets are in the 450whp range. This problem was somewhat of an anomaly. The center diff pins are known to come lose and go through the case but that's an easy fix when doing the clutch etc which good shops are aware of. The Edmunds car does probably have more miles on it than most and I bet was abused more so than an owners car. I cant make assumptions based on your experience with other cars. Some cars handle mods better than others and it certainly depends on the mods.

My 3rd gear went out on my GSR with 5500 miles on it. I'm not saying the tranny can't handle the 400 hp and the 30 time trials I put on it. This was an anomaly as well. Yes, mods do shorten the lifespan of cars and the Edmunds car had some pretty good mods on it but in general and historically, the Evo's were overbuilt which is why they are so fun and easy to mod. This comes from a guy who's had mostly German cars and now for the first time has a mod'd Evo X.

Mitsubishi is tough on warrantees and mods and sense they aren't making money, I'm sure that won't change.

fstclyz, when you 3rd gear went out, what was the fix you had to take, and what was the parts/labor breakdown? Did Mitsu take care of replacement as a warranty item, or did you foot the whole bill - amount?

I'd actually wish that Edmunds just posted this thread AFTER getting a full diagnosis of the problem, and price to fix. If it turns out to be seal, then all this drama could be for naught. Yes, checking the EvoM webage, there are probably hundreds of modded EvoX's over 400 awhp that aren't running into this problem, so maybe it's an easy fix?

"Instead, we opted to have our pals at Road Race Engineering take a look at it. They offered to handle the job for a far more reasonable price. And sadly, while they're inside mending the wound, they will also begin the de-modification process.

We can only speculate as to the cause of the leak. But one thing is for sure. It ended any chance of extending this test. Project Evo is winding down."

Why don't you have RRE try to get an ESTIMATE for the repair, before deciding on demodding. You don't even know what the price to fix will be yet. Also, the first mechanic who looked at it and said "nonserviceable" could be wrong completely. This is why you sometimes get multiple opinions - at least most people would. You've spend over a year modding it, many hours testing it, why don't you be patient and wait for an analysis of the problem, before making a decision - that would then be considered an "informed decision".

Farmerbob,
My shift folk wasn't getting enough oil and wore out. Jacks Tranmissions rebuilt the tranny and added some additional holes for more oil. The repair was $550 for the removal of the tranny and $1,199 for the rebuild. My rear crank seal was leaking as well which was replaced at the same time. Since I have some mods on the car and went with a twin plate clutch, I paid for the repair myself.

I was just in Barnes and Noble reading a European magazine that mods GTR's and Evo X and STI's, or was showing vendors cars that were modded. Anyway, they had a Evo X with nitrous and a Forced Performance turbo upgrade, and other mods, that was at 650 awhp. What was interesting is that they specifically upgraded the CENTER DIFFERENTIAL b/c they said the pins/shims (?) are weak on the CENTER diff, vs. the other diffs, and they didn't want to take a chance. They supposedly drive the car real hard, so perhaps there will be future Evo X vendors offering a quick fix for the center diff. I know it's not uncommon in AWD cars to modify the center diff to change the front/rear bias ratio, so I wonder if this is all that was wrong with IL's Evo X? Sucks if a small change to the stock center diff would have saved the ACD system? Are you sure it's not easily fixable by RRE?