ez76

iTrader: (5)

The past couple days, the power has not been all there. Third gear felt especially anemic.

Tonight, boost felt almost completely absent. Under boost, the car sounded louder, but made less power. Finally at one point, while accelerating in second, the Evo started shrieking loudly as it hit peak boost.

Does this sound like loose hoses or ... ? The car drives fine out of boost, but I don't want to blow it up. Damn I wish I had that boost gauge right about now!

Any ideas are appreciated.

1QWKEVO

iTrader: (3)

Mostlikely it's a boost leek, unless something broke. I hope nothing broke... What did you do to cause this noise or when did it start. I've heard from mitsu that there was one case that a hose came off or boostline they wouldn't really clairify the problem to me.

ez76

iTrader: (5)

Thanks for the quick reply - gotta love this forum.

The car has had Vishnu stage zero for about 3 weeks/800 miles/plenty of trips to redline, but the problem only started these past 3 days.

Apart from the XEDE/cat-back (which I have no reason to believe caused this, as boost levels are stock), I haven't messed with the underhood.

EDIT: Any tests I can do on my own to diagnose this?

1QWKEVO

iTrader: (3)

u said u had a boost gauge? if not get one... make pulls and if there is no boost u know there is a leek. If you want you can make a tester to test for boost but it would benifit you better to buy a gauge or soemthing becasue ur going to need one anyways in the future.

ez76

iTrader: (5)

The boost is actually fine.

The transfer case, however, is making a horrible metal-on-metal noise above 30mph. Imagine the deceleration noise people complain about, only about 8 times as loud and also under acceleration.

And this is after a full tranny flush (by the dealer) with BG SynchroShift a day before.

1700 miles on it.

It's at the dealership. Let the games begin.

Mad_SB

iTrader: (8)

Hmm, maybee they for got to put one of those threaded metal things... what are they called agian... oh yea a drain plug Maybee they forgot to put the drain plug back in....

Seriously though, sorry to hear about your missfortune man.

I hope you pulled out the exede before the car went back in.

1QWKEVO

iTrader: (3)

Man I hope it's their fault, tell them you want the ACD at their expense

ez76

iTrader: (5)

I thought they might have forgotten to replace the plug but the transfer case was full of BG SynchroShift when we checked it. The first mechanic I visited said it sounded like the bearings were bad or that "something round had become oval" due to mishandling. I think that's what he said at least. He's a great mechanic but there's a minor language barrier.

As far as removing the XEDE, I didn't. If they want to claim my mods (or my driving) broke the transfer case, I expect them to prove it. I believe you need to be willing to take responsibility if you're going to mess with your car and that you're better off (in some karmic sense) walking into a situation like this with clean hands if not a stock vehicle. Apart from the general manager (who didn't want to give me a loaner car until his service department found it to be covered under warranty), my experience with the dealership has been pretty positive to date so I'm acting in good faith that they won't try to weasel out of fixing/replacing it if it is indeed defective.

But damn, right now I just want it fixed!

zx6r

I'll be real interested to hear how this one turns out.

As much as you can keep us uptodate in how the dealer treats this and what they find the problem to be.

N10S

iTrader: (4)

I have done my share of wrenching on cars in the past 45 years, and when things happen to cars especially right after they have been in for maintenance you should be very suspicious.

It is unlikely that you are one of the lucky few to have this kind of problem, but wait.....oh yeah you just had the transfer case flushed and re-filled right before you started to experience the problem? What a coincidence eh?

For all you know they drained it, forgot to fill it took it for a test drive and suddenly realized their error and quickly re-filled it hoping that they would not get dinged for their stupidity.

Hey, sounds like a warranty issue...or what about that mod stuff the guy has on his car? This,of course, may not be the scenario at all and you may have a kick *** relationship with your dealership.

Personally I don't trust any of them with my cars. Just remember that crazy situations make normally stand-up people do less than honest things.

Good luck, and don't let the wool get pulled over your eyes, as something seems rotten in Denmark with this deal.

Just my paranoid .02.

ez76

iTrader: (5)

The service foreman seems like a good enough guy, though I'm not sure who ultimately makes the call on whether something will be covered under warranty.

1QWKEVO

iTrader: (3)

Thats usually the inspectors call, not a dealership.

Mad_SB

iTrader: (8)

I hear ya man, and the fact is your mods probably had nothing to do with the problem, but the xede is sold for the purpose of increasing power output which is reason enough for them to not honor your powertrain warranty.

I don't know who makes the call on warranty claims, but I would imagine at some point they ask if the car was modded and if so how.

I agree with N10s, it sure seems fishy. I got a car back with blown alternator and ripped up powersteerin glines (patched with rubber hose) because the mechanic was in a rush and didn't disconnect them before dropping the subframe. He denied any fault of course cause he would have lost several hunderd dollars but I know he and I were the only ones to touch the car after i installed my headers and it was fine when I finished up that job so..... he f'd it up and then denied it and I ate the cost of fixing it.

I only know one honest mechanic, actually he owns his own shop, mazcare, but he only works on mazda's. Guess I need to find one that works on evo's now!!

ez76

iTrader: (5)

The dealership will be replacing 4 parts including I believe the transaxle and transfer case. Not clear whether it's the dealership or MMNA who is footing the bill. The parts are supposed to be coming Monday.

Official word is that the noise my car is making is "normal" and that it is safe to drive in the interim, but the noise is still pretty horrible metal-on-metal so I'm leaving it be until the new parts are in.

timzcat

iTrader: (10)

It's up to the technician, unless he goes to the foreman or manager then it is up to them. More often then not the technician doesn't care as he gets paid either way.