i currently own a dodge stealth tt, same as 3000gt vr4. recently, due to a defect in the seals on the transfer case's on ALL 3s cars, the transfer cases have been recalled on all cars. the are subject to leaking, and will lock up. mine locked up on the highway, and at the time mitsu wouldnt pay for it. i had it rebuilt, and now they are going to refund my money. hwoever, quite alot of people on 3si.org have posted times and race results in their 3s car, and mitsu investigated the web site and took down many name,s and will not pay for the refund because they have"evidence" that the transfercase locking up was from the race, and not a bad seal. this of course being all bull****. the techs knew about this problem, but continued to make the part. im hoping mine doesnt get turned down. but just a word to the wise about mitsu, if and when we have a recall on the evo8, mitsu will try and do everything they can to not pay or fix as many people as possible. also, DO NOT POST YOUR TRACK TIMES, THAT YOU RACED, YOUR FULL NAME (or lisensplate, or anything that can trace it to you), OR YOUR PERFORMANCE PARTS ON YOUR CAR ON THIS WEB SITE, OR YOUR OWN, OR ANY OTHER PLACE ON THE WEB. i say that in caps because it is true. if you want a recall that may happen in the future, you will listen to this.

 

I have witnessed a story like this, but it had a much happier ending. A guy comes in to our shop with a '91 GSX, over 100K miles. Transfer case had locked up. It got replaced, of course, no problem no hassle. I did not get a chance to examine it to see if it had any mods.

Now that's not a fair statement. Remember, hindsight is 20/20. We have the benefit of seeing actual years and years and tens of thousands of miles piled up on thousands of AWD Mitsubishis, so we can now say, "That's a defective part. It should be replaced." But if you put yourself in the shoes of the designers of those cars 13-16 years ago when these vehicles were on the drawing board and you have to design a part to last throughout its 3/36 5/60 warranty while producing a vehicle that doesn't cost more then the proposed 22K-24K limit (for AWD DSMs) or 34-64K for AWD 3/S and Spyders then it becomes more difficult to forsee. I admit, driving down the road and having a car lock up and kill you is something no manufacturer can afford, which was why these things are being replaced for free even all these years later, but Mitsu cant afford to start subsidizing racers.

This is interesting because my service manager says the jury is still out on wether the EVO will carry the 3/36 5/60 standard warranty package that all Mitsu's enjoy now. They are claiming this to be a bonafide street legal racecar, and they want people to know that up front. I'm curious what kind of warranty does the EVO (or any Japanese sports car) carry in Europe and Japan?

 

may not be that fair of a statment, but if you understand that they kept putting this exact same transfer case in all these cars, even in the 2nd gen 3s cars over years and years, its logical that this would have shown up before now. which it has. weve been trying for this recall for 5 years now. and have documented cases dating back to 1993. it didnt start to show up over and over until about 1995-1996 and then it became an issue. this being an issue then, you wonder why mitsu kept putting the exact same seals on these transcases. many people have wrecked because of this. personaly exprience in my stealth, the wheels locked up on the interstate and i was sent into a flat spin and almost wrecked. i was lucky that car is wide and has a low center of gravity or i would have flipped. this is personal to me. i was mearly giving a warning to the people on this board that are going to buy an evo not to post up times under their real name, or it may come to haunt them.

 

You have a VERY valid point.

I have heard from other car enthusiasts who own different types of cars that "someone" is watching them.

Nissan and Subaru ARE without a doubt "stalking" owners that mod their cars... I know this for a FACT, it is not some speculation. As to other manufactuers, I don't have specific information about them, but I wouldn't discount them keeping a watchful eye.

For the sake of the parties, I am not going to go into any more detail, but let me tell you, they are watching people via the internet boards and even the dragstrips!!!!!

Cover your *** people! If you want your warranty, you really better think twice before modding/going to the dragstrip/posting up details on BBs/etc/etc.

The manufactueres are getting tired of reparing abused cars under waranty.

 

Here is a personal story that I can disclose regarding this topic.

Back in 99, several of the local DSM guys were abusing their cars and then taking them in for warranty work... the dealer(s) were covering them until several of them kept returning over and over.

Finally one of the dealerships service managers decided that he was tired of it and not only was he not going to cover any more cars that came in with ANY mods, but he went out to the dragstrip to try and "catch" anyone he could in the act... this was so he could void their waranty without giving them a chance to put the car back to stock and bring in the car for waranty work.

 

I've heard stories like this also. I knew a guy that had a Pontiac T/A that bent the shift forks street racing ( power shifting is bad ). The car was under waranty so he took it in to the dealer and the service manager took a look at the fact that his rear tires basically looked like D.O.T. slicks after about 20k miles. They did fix the trans but he then had the servce tech make a record of all the mods my friend had on the car ( intake, exhaust, gauges, shifter, etc. ) and told the guy if he came back w/ any more "perfomance related" issues he would void the warranty.

I have another friend who has a '95 5.0/GT who has actually had some of the Ford MotosSport parts installed on his car at the dealership ( intake, clutch, rear end ). The trick has always been, it seems, to find a dealership that doesn't have hard-a$$ for a service manager.

My advice would be though, if you're going to mod a car just wait 'til the basic warranty expires and save up the money to that point. On a basic 3/36 waranty I've never been able to get past 1-1/2 to 2 years before I was past the mileage limit so after that it was no holds barred. And by waiting that length of time you usually have figured out if the car is going to be a reliable platform or subject to a lot of maintenance issues. Usually most recalls are in the firt two years also.

 

Oh okay, now I understand. I do realize why it is a personal issue, since you could very well have been killed. I did not mean to sound insensitive to that issue. However, I have to ask, of these documented cases, are these modified cars or stock cars? If you increase the power in such a vehicle and a part fails because it can't handle it, is it really the manufacturers fault? There are lots of aftermarket parts designed to help such catostrophic failures, perhaps it would be good if someone were to develop an aftermarket Mitsu t-case too. V8 guys have reinforced tranny bellhousings designed to keep their toes from being cut off if their flywheels go belly up at the track, but they shouldn't/don't sue or try to force GM or Ford to recall their transmissions. However, if this were occuring on stock cars, then Mitsu should've done a recall long ago, I agree.

 

The best route to go with potentially dangerous issues on a vehicle is to contact the NHTSA. If they investigate it and find fault the recall will be issued and under new legislation, all owners will be covered.
Don't get me wrong, but is not the only automaker that hates paying for recalls or doing warrantied repairs. Mazda and Nissan were horrible to me...

 

Its basically the same thing that happens with the AWD Eclipse/Talon/Laser. And yes, this happens on stock cars as much as modified cars. The problem is the seals in the T-case leak and when the case gets low on oil it wears and eventually can lock up. Its not necessarily a bad design of the internals, its a bad design of the seals allowing all the fluid to leak out. I have had 2 1G AWD DSMs and bought both of them stock and both of them had noise coming from the transfer case because of wear caused by leaky seals. I had them both replaced under recall. This recall has been going on since '95 I think. You would think mitsubishi would realize that the same design will do the same thing in other cars too. Its a shame they have waited til now to do something about it. It puts lives at danger.

On another note, there were people at the Detroit Auto Show last weekend handing out info about how Mitsubishi tried to cover up their recal record in reports submitted to the Safety authorities in Japan. So I think its safe to say they know they have some problems as far as safety recalls go. BUT, to be fair, a lot of car manufacturers do too, just look at Ford and Firestone. At least Mitsubishi has been good about servicing the recalls on my cars. This is the first I've heard about them denying recall work. I think the key is to find a good service department that will help you out.

-Loris

 

In the UK this is also and issue.

Mitsubishi, amongst others, have announced that they will not cover work on cars that have been used on the track. Manufactures have also stated that many current ECU's record data on how the car is driven and may use this info in support when rejecting warranty work.

I also noticed that Caterham also say they will not cover claims that are obviously due to track use. Now of all the cars on the road, a seven is almost purely a track car and most will see a track in their life if not almost used exclusivley on one.

I think they may be a case against the manufacturer if they sell a car based on its performance image, then reject warranty work when an owner drives it to that image.

 

Gary - your last point is the one I have always felt. If a company advertises/markets a car a certain way, they have to expect that it's going to be driven that way. And under that expectation, it should be built to survive that treatment. A good example is the S2000 - Honda advertises a 0-60 time of 5.5 (give or take). The only way to achieve that is a high RPM clutch drop - in the 6000-8000 RPM range. That is *not* good for the drivetrain, yet Honda sells the car based on that method. So if I want to match their 0-60 claim, I have to abuse the living snot out of the car - but it's safe to say my warranty stands a good chance of being voided if my transmission and rear end are tore up after 5000 miles. Doesn't seem quite right, does it?

 

you wonder why mitsu kept putting the exact same seals on these transcases.
The transfer assy. on the 3000 is a mits design but built by getrag.

This is interesting because my service manager says the jury is still out on wether the EVO will carry the 3/36 5/60 standard warranty package that all Mitsu's enjoy now. They are claiming this to be a bonafide street legal racecar, and they want people to know that up front.

MMSA has told us at this point the will have to warranty it as a race car because the are addvertising it as a race car.

 

That's funny, is there an echo in here? What dealership are you with?

They are saying it is a racecar for the street. But at the bottom of every car ad, no matter what all the car manufacturers do, with Zoom Zoom this, or some dude driving a Caddy CTS head on into a bunch of black Lexus's, or Rhys Millen spinning an Altima in front of the camera there is a disclaimer at that bottom that says "Please obey all traffic and safety laws" which clears them of having to pay for anybody who does something abusive to their car or taking it to the racetrack.

 

http://www.3si.org/portal/forums/sho...hreadid=124000

The original thread about this from 3si

This is pretty terrifying... would the person who said Subaru was doing this too like to point me at more details?

thanks

-bd

 

BTW - is this thread sticky? It should be.

-bd