From what I understand it's hard coded in the ROM. It's been that way for a while now, even my Evo has it; but they only really seem to care on the cars with SST as it's a 10k transmission replacement.

 

just dropped the car off at the dealerrship today..guys said theres a p180c clutch pressure spool stuck also says malfunction of the sst ecu

 

Solenoid?

 

Will AccessPort be noticed as a flash on the ecu?

 

Yes. Accessport is still a flash.

 

Mitsu will always come up with any excuse they can to not warranty your car. Just a base flash should not hurt the trans and even if they detect a flash they would have to prove it was the cause of your trans failure. And if a tune on the stock baby turbo on these cars hurts the trans then that is just sad! Now i can understand if u roll in with a larger aftermarket turbo on the car with a built engine etc and ur trans is slipping your warranty being denied.

Best thing to do is flash it back to stock and remove ALL aftermarket parts even cat backs and filter etc before u take it in. If they give you a hassle just call ur lawyer and have him give them a call. I had a friend have to do this about 6 months ago for his EVO 9 grinding 5th gear on a STOCK car. They tried to deny him warranty and he had to call his lawyer. After the lawyer was involved the car was fixed ASAP. Funny how that works isn't it....

Although i have been messing with mitsu for years and love the cars there warranty and customer service at MOST dealerships is a TOTAL JOKE!! They wont recall things that should be recalled etc.. They will just put a TSB on it and hope u never come in to have it fixed... and when u do they will hassle you about it.

Now with all this being said i don't condone people trying to get away with getting warranty when they have obviously been the cause of the failure. But a simple flash on a RA shouldn't hurt the trans. The stock turbo doesn't make enough power to hurt it nore should a stock OEM X turbo IMHO. They should have just put a better trans in the RAs and they wouldn't be having all these warranty issues with stock cars.

 

I hope I never have any issues after reading this. I didn't know they could tell the ECU has already been flashed even after going back to stock.
Your friend that called the lawyer did he have a flash or was that something else?

 

This was to be expected. But as it's been mentionned, without major modification to the engine to increase power, the transmission should not break so quick.

It's undeniable that any modification we do has an impact on the reliability of the cars. In this case, the extra stress on the transmission could lead to some long term reliability issues.

But in most of the case I've seen, the transmission broke very early, so someone should be able to get Mitsubishi to cover part or all of the costs related to replacing the transmission.

I am not a lawyer, but I suspect Mitsubishi has to justify it's decision of denying warranty work if it's brought to court.

 

you modified the ecu=you drove it aggressively=abuse/neglect combined with flash broke the trans

that's the proof they choose to use when "proving" that it was the cause. unfortunately because the pcm is directly linked to the trans and there was evidence of performance modifications, the automatic assumption made by mitsubishi is "its been raced", which is normally the case to some extent but unfair nontheless. with the known problems these transmissions face, it is an unfortunate but true scenario, we all who have modded, have the potential to face and thats where knowledge is power since we know damn well that there have been completely stock cars with similar problems having transmissions replaced.

i also agree that a flash should never be enough of a difference that the transmission couldnt handle, but toss in a boost-modifying device and you're on another level. add to that all of the bolt-on parts you may or may not have had installed that you've taken off, like everyone here is recommending. thats why they have to be so suspicious about every car because everyone's first idea is: put it back to stock and bring it in for warranty. the lightly modded cars are condemned to the same fate as the fully-built simply by brand/model association

getting an attorney involved will definitely help your odds, but depending on what they find may still not be enough.

 

To everyone having tranny issues: Send a letter to the NHTSA detailing the issues. If enough people complain about the same issue, the NHTSA may force Mitsubishi to perform a recall on the transmission. Its a long shot, but its worth a try. Also since it would be a recall and not a warranty issue, modifications to the engine wouldn't matter.

 

You should start with having topless dancers bring in free pizza and soda at lunchtime before calling the lawyer. Make sure the shop techs know you provided the "entertainment" and that they will be back when your car is finished.

 

ok i remember reading that if you do flash the car back to stock and cycle the ignition 50 times that it will erase the history on the rom enough that mitsu wont see it...unless they look further back...worth a try?

 

When you say "boost modifying device" are you referring to a boost pill?? If so, I'm not sure why you would single this one item out as putting the car "on another level", as if it was the major cause of SST failures compared to other modifications like aftermarket Intakes, FMIC's, Exhausts, etc. etc. However, if I remember right, you work for a Mitsubishi dealership so I guess you would know better than others. Either way, if all of this stuff about Mitsubishi being able to detect ECU flashes is true, it looks like about 95% of the Ralliart owners on this website are pretty much SCREWED if we ever get a broken transmission.

 

I had flashed his car but we put the stock rom back in. It was stock other then a simple flash.... guess i should have added that Which still doesn't have anything to do with a 5th gear sychro issue. They didn't question anything about flashing etc. They just didn't want to fix the problem on there dime although it was 100% under warranty. This guy does NOT drive his car hard and the 5th gear sychro has been a known issue with the 9s according to a friend of mine that is a tech at that dealership. Even so they were still ****** about it.... Well until the lawyer came into play.

All i know for sure is if the RA ever has tranny issues i will call my lawyer 1st and then go to the dealer. The dealership around here is totally ridiculous about warranty. And the RAs are known to have some tranny issues so when a car comes in with stock turbo etc it shouldn't even be questioned. Heck u can't make enough power to hurt the trans on this tiny little thing they call a turbo that Mitsu put on these cars anyway IMHO lol.

 

That would be worth a shot i agree. But mitsu is pretty much the worst car company about recalls or warranty in general so i wouldn't hold ur breath.