Chris@nolimitmotors

iTrader: (277)

I brought my car to the dealer for a slight 5th gear grind. they attempted to rebuild the tranny and when I got it back it wouldnt go into 3rd. (take in mind I never had a problem with 3rd before) well 4 trips later now my tranny is apart and they are telling me i'm simply screwed and now I'm gonna just buy a TRE tranny. what sucks is i'm not reallt getting jerked by my warranty but more by my dealer because their poor workmanship destroyed my transmission

feldguy

iTrader: (4)

I put in an aftermarket clutch and, honestly...where they CAN get you is even stated in the Magnusson-Moss act. If the driveline part is responsible or can be proven to cause the camage (an aftermarket clutch WILL induce more stress on the transfer case) then they can void the warranty. Where Mitsubishi has a bunch of dopes working for them, they just say VOID before they even look into anything because most people dont argue. Whatever the case, if you do have an aftermarket clutch (do you? I can't figure that out from your post, entirely-you said the car isn't modified but yet there is an aftermarket clutch in there?), then you will most likely get denied however far you go with it. Sorry to say, this time they might be right.

Derekj03

iTrader: (3)

wow that is bs. You will win in court but what a pain in the ***. In order for them to void your warrenty they would have to prove that your aftermarket clutch was the cause of the problem. You are allowed to replace the factory parts as long as they are as good, or better then the oem items. Those punks.

Check around and see how many other people have been denied warrenty coverage and get a class action going. I have 2nd gear grind on my car and if its the trans they better replace it or else...

DaWorstPlaya

iTrader: (31)

What type of clutch did you install? Did you check with the dealer to make sure the clutch was warranty friendly? How did your TC go out? Did you constantly launch your car? Did you use a different fluid in the TC than the one Mitsu uses? Just trying to get a better picture of your situation ... Obviously even if your car was stock (cept for clutch) and you continually launched it (abuse) then they will void your warranty on the tranny. It happened to a guy in my area who launched his car 6 times in a row and then he broke both his front axles (Ooops!). The District Service Manager took one look at it and told him, "I hope it was worth it"...... I replied your PM .... Let me know how I can help ... Goodluck

c-town evo

I tried to make myself as clear as possible here. The issue lies in the fact the Mitsu immediatly denied my warranty claim without evaluating the situation. They do NOT know exactly what is wrong with the car. The true case in point is that i have a statement in my hand from a DPSM that says AFTER MARKET CLUTCH VOIDS DRIVELINE WARRANTY. this statement is backed up by MMSA Complaint reps. This being said, I know my car will not get fixed my Mitsu because they have an out, on page 6, using the word "alteration". But, once again, according to MMSA Reps ,(I have names), I was told that using anything but a Mitsubishi clutch is considered an "alteration" and thus voids my drivetrain warranty. The facts about how I drive my car and what kind of clutch is installed are quite irrelevant at this point, (Could be a stock for all this matters, cause it doesnt matter, it didnt matter to the DPSM or MMSA Reps, it looks stock, it isnt a pretty color, I didnt buy it from Mitsu, may have bought it from another company that carries the stock clutches(they are on EBAY) and then took it to the dealer, wheras they had stated :use customer parts; Cause MMSA did NOT get my money for the clutch, just the installation). Sorry about the rant. I know installing a heavy duty clutch will induce extra strain upon the other drivetrain components. I know doing a 7000 rpm dump will do some damage. Not saying I have done either of these, Im just saying it doesnt matter to MMSA or the DPSM, cause they never got that far to find out. I know its not worth the time nor the money to pursue my warranty denial (Makes MMSA Happy). But, as far as the statements MMSA is making about the consumer immediatly voiding the warranty by simply installing a non-mitsubishi product is quite worth pursuing according to my attorney. I already have it on paper, signed and dated, that this is what MMSA does to their customers. "AFTER MARKET CLUTCH VOIDS POWERLINE WARRANTY" period, no ifs ands or buts. doesnt matter what kind of clutch, or in what manner i did or did not drive the car. I hope this makes the point more clear.
Oh yeah, at one point I was told by a certain Rep (I do have names) that any damage caused by a non-warranty item to a warrantable item will not be covered. A STOCK clutch is a non-warranty item after 12000 miles, so according to that statement, no powerline components would be covered. People, this is not hearsay, this is statements made by MMSA Complaint Reps as well as the DPSM for MMSA in my area. lol, even though he was in Florida when he denied my claim for my car in Tennessee. I do not want these posts to sound as though I am Bi*%#ing about this issue. I want it to seem more as informing.

RaceBiscuit

iTrader: (5)

hmm, sorry to hear you're going through such a hassle over this. I only have 1 dealer here in Austin, TX, and judging from my limited communication with them, they are not at all forgiving when it comes to warranties. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case everywhere, more often than not. But in all honestly, I think you have a good case, so best of luck to you!!!

D1_EVO8

iTrader: (9)

you should of just left the car stock

c-town evo

who says the car is not stock. My original stock clutch went bad, as do many evo owner's clutches. A clutch is a wear item that needs replacing sometimes. I replaced it with one that I did not purchase through MMSA. If this makes my car not stock, then so be it, but I do not think so. Read the full story as to what the issue is here.

Dropspeed

iTrader: (20)

If you can provide some documention that you are going through with a suit against Mitsubishi (which would benifit all of us) as well as documenting the process and outcome...........ECT. I myself would be willing to donate money (as I hope others EVO owners would) to a paypal account (or something like that) for you taking the time to do this. I believe we all could benifit from this in the long run.

Matt

DaWorstPlaya

iTrader: (31)

As you said the clutch is a wear item like tires and thus we as consumers are protected by, as you mentioned, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. I think that in your case it is just a matter of DPSM not knowing that what he is doing is against the law. It seems in your case the only way to get warranty work done is through legal channels as the DPSM in your area needs a lesson in the law. I can understand your frustrations, I'll try and get you some info on Monday and PM you .... but also the reason I asked what i did above is because you don't have that many posts on EVOm and we've had too many kids that don't know what they are doing blow up their tranny due to abuse. Then they complain that Mitsu products suck and that they don't warranty their cars. Honestly we don't know you and how you have treated your car.
But from an engineering stand point here is why they denying you warranty work doesn't make any sense. A clutch by itself doesn't increase the torque transmitted to driveline components only more torque produced at the engine does. Torque is what destroys gears. Since you are aren't sending more torque than the engine normally produces they shouldn't be able to blame it on that. What the clutch can do is increase driveline shock by a slight amount because of the grippy-ness of the clutch, but as long as the clutch restrictor pill is still in place it shouldn't be a cause for concern as the clutch can only clamp at a certain rate.

Eg: Extreme case is Mitsu voids your driveline warranty for using non-stock tires (absurd).....
The user drops the car from 1 story building and expects Mitsu to warranty the shocks because they are blown (absurd)....

Also, it is a known fact that a lot of the 03 model transfer cases came improperly shimmed from the factory, thus the large case of blown transfer cases. You can do a search, if you don't believe me. Alot of owners have taken their trannies to John from Sheppard racing and/or Jon from Team Rip to get their trannies fixed and have been very pleased with the results. Pleased as in, tranny is now like a German car tranny with smooth shifts and they can smoothly shift into 1st gear @ 35mph! Anyways now you know why your TC blew and it wasn't because of the clutch, unless you put the wrong weight oil in it ......

bigjhoney

iTrader: (12)

If mitsu thinks im replacing my clutch with an oem one when my stock one goes, their crazy. Alot of good info. ^ on the above post.

c-town evo

my attorney is doing this free of charge due to his certainty of the broken laws in question. so money will not be an issue. I will continue to keep this post updated.

rkm625

i've got a size 11 that would fit nicely in his *** if he told me that ****. my clutch is gone after 10.5k miles and i'm takin it to them tomorrow....... i'm sure i'll be starting a long fight over it

evo bill

If a dealer can prove "abuse" they will void your warranty without after market parts. I think continued launches at the drag strip would constitute abuse. If you have an aftermarket clutch installed and are doing high rpm clutch dumps, the dealer is going to void your warranty on any driveline parts, like the tc, that would be affected by an after market clutch.

I hate to say it guy's, but anyone who routinely (more than a couple times in the life of the car) does a high rpm clutch dump is going to be subjected to a warranty void if the dealer even has a hint that this has happened.

Mitsu has a big problem in that a great deal of the evo buyers drag race with or without after market parts. They are already in financial trouble and sure as the sun is going to come up tomorrow, there warranty policy is going to be one of avoiding expensive warranty work if they can prove any abuse or installation of after market parts that could lead to affiliated component failures.

The problem is that with the great all wheel traction we have together with low torque motors requires us to go to very high rpm clutch dumps to get the best acceleration times. My C5 never had this problem because I could smoke the tires with a 2,000 rpm clutch dump.

Now that the 05's have a rpm limiter at stand still, the drive line abuse issue will be hard for them to prove.

jcnel_evo8

iTrader: (2)

About the clutch being a wear item ... there are certainly ways to check for severe heating in metal .. in fact you can install little plugs and such that melt at very specific temperatures, and indicate an 'abuse' situation. Since Mitsubishi didn't do this, the consumer should get the benefit of the doubt for their engineering stupidity.

The clutch material is soft on this clutch. Meaning that you can wear it out very soon. One thing that can help your case is that Mitsu. may have after the fact realized that at 12,000 miles you need a new clutch, or basically says that it becomes non-warriantied at 12,000 miles, but where in the service manual does it say that the clutch requires servicing at 12,000 miles? That is a load of BS from Mitsubishi. MMNA changes some parts ever so slightly, they need to make sure the parts go through the engineering process so that they DON'T break, under normal driving conditions.

What really happened is when they had Getrag design the X-fer case for the EVOs going to the US! (thank you bean counters) it was found to be weak. If its not built properly, you can bust one really easily on a STOCK EVO. So I think in order to save face, they put in a weak clutch material and pill to keep the shock loads off of the X-fer case. Well .. its actually the front LSD that blows, but since that's in the X-fer case, they consider it a whole unit. So now you have a vicious circle ... weak clutch slipping and wearing material, and if that material happens to work against you one day, you pop your transfer case.

Yes, the lawsuit is an uphill battle, but there are some indicators that Mitsu will have to end up actually honoring their 5/60k powertrain warranties for the '03s.

Here are a few interesting relationships:
1.) All '05s have got a LSD front diff. that won't break under the same type of loads as the '03s LSD.
2.) '05s may have a different clutch material.

Those are indicators that Mitsu. KNEW they were problem parts and fixed the problem. That's smart of them, and I commend them.
It's however, not smart for a company that's more than happy to sell you an automobile, and then come back and tell you you're an unreasonable customer by not honoring THEIR warranty.

Regards,

jcnel.