Clutch problems of the 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer - part 1

The contact owns a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer oz rally(na). The contact noticed that the clutch slave cylinder was leaking fluid; the following day the clutch petal was no longer operable. The dealer or manufacturer had not been notified nor was the vehicle repaired or diagnosed. The current and failure mileages were approximately 68,000. Updated 04/12/lj.

2003 Mitsubishi Lancer. Axle bearing failed on passenger side. I replaced it. Inner tie rod tore out of outer tie rod. I replaced them. For safety reasons I decided to replace the correspond drivers side parts. When I started to remove the hub assembly the drive axle fell from the car in three pieces. No local or national chain could locate the axle which they all said cost about $75. 00. Mitsubishi told me it would be $753. 00. While I agree that I have no choice but to replace the failed part, I also feel a file should be opened since this represents a safety issue.

Vehicle was bought used. Still has remaining factory powertrain warranty. Vehicle had clutch problems when I took delivery of vehicle in July. Dealer was informed of problem immediately after test driving vehicle. Dealer protested a replacement. Had service records pulled for vehicle. Clutch was replaced under warranty for first owner. Dealer replaced disc and pressure plate. Left assembly line throwout bearing on vehicle. Stated that it is a "non-wear" item. Throwout bearing failed to disengage causing disc friction material to be "spun" some time back. Dealer was informed of this incident. Again, protested replacement stating it is a "non-warranty item". Clutch is considered a wear item, even thought it is the integral link in the powertrain assembly. Clutch completely failed and left this author stranded 45 miles from home, on this date. Dealer again notified and once again, I was denied a claim.

I bought my 2003 Mitsubishi evo shortly after returning from a tour in iraq in 2006, after a short time of driving the car I noticed a grinding sound coming from the car when I let the clutch out in 1st gear, and now reverse as well. I bought the car under original factory warranty and went as far as to purchase the platnum extended warranty. After replacing thousands of dollars in parts on my car it has come down to the clutch, which is a wear item and not covered. The more disturbing portion of this is that I was told on my second visit to the dealership for this problem that the car was sold to me with an aftermarket clutch, and that should have voided the original factory warranty in the first place, to include my extended warranty as well. Now I am stuck with this problem and have to look for legal assistance.

Clutch started slipping after 12,000 miles. Not covered under warranty.

Clutch failed at 16k miles after 18 months of ownership. The dealer offered to examine it for possible warranty coverage, but because of participation in autocross events, the warranty claim would have been denied. However, autocrossing did not contribute any significant wear to the clutch any more so than normal every day driving. As a 25 year, seasoned driver of manual transmissions, this was the first clutch I've ever had fail on a vehicle. Based on feedback from other evo owners, via the evolutionm. Net web site, I replaced the clutch with a non-stock clutch due to the inherent weakness of the stock part.

The driver noticed that the clutch will not disengage.

Loss of clutch operation while at red stop light, clutch pedal depressed, car in first gear, foot slightly on brake. Clutch pedal started feeling soft, then without clutch pedal movement, clutch engaged. Later that day, I find "oil" under my car. Took to dealership and reported problem, and was advised that slave cylinder was leaking.

Car was driving fine. Then started acting funny shifting. Kept getting worse so took it to the dealer. The car had 37000 miles on it and the warrenty ran out at 35000. Ended up being the slave cylinder. The dealer wanted $1200. Took it to a local shop but still cost $38. 10.

Since I have had my 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer evolution viii I have had 4 problems related to the drivetrain. First at 1300 miles, my clutch went out. It was not warranted even though the Mitsubishi warranty said 12000 miles or 12 months. Then again at about 14000 miles the clutch failed again, and it was still not a warranty problem. Finally at about 30,000 miles around the middle of February this year the center differential blew, causing the entire transmission to fail. Fortunately that was warranted, although I still had to pay for a third clutch. I was with out my car for over a month while I had to wait for the dealership to find a transmission to replace mine.

2003 Mitsubishi Lancer evolution was purchased new 84 days ago with 1200 dealer test drive miles. Clutch failed at 4500 miles. I have called Mitsubishi and the dealership, both refuse to cover the clutch under warranty. This appears to be a common problem and Mitsubishi consistently blames the consumer. I have not mistreated the car. The dealer drove the car harder than I ever have while on the test drive.

Mitsubishi evolution clutch failure, I bought a 2003 Lancer evolution 8, I had it for less then 5000 miles before the clutch started to wear down, I brought it to the dealer for warranty work, they accepted the warranty work, adding that they should have charged me 1500$ for the repair because it was abuse, now the car is at 10,000 miles doing the same thing, I use this car to go to and from work only, since I have two cars, now they wont even take my calls, if I mention Lancer evolution clutch to any Mitsubishi warranty department, they cut me off in the middle of a sentence and say"the clutch wear is caused by abuse, sir there is no problem with the clutch it is your fault!" then proceed to hang up on me. Im tired of this, and im not going to pay up to 1900 for a problem they caused. My car is now in operable! 3 days after the clutch started slipping!.

The clutch in my 2003 Mitsubishi evolution failed having 2995 miles on the vehicle. The vehicle had 600 miles on it when it was purchased. We had it repaired at the dealer at a cost of $950. They paid for 20% of the repairs because of the mileage on the vehicle prior to being sold.

Bought my 2003 evo on August 18th 2004. . . On August 20th the clutch went out with only 14k miles, I had just broke 150 miles in the 2 days. . . . Found out the clutch wasnt warrantied but the dealer I bought it off of felt bad and agreed to pay for it to get fixed. . . I didnt lose anything out of the deal but readin some of these complaints and seein mitsu says we all drive our cars too hard, thats a lot of ppl!! but so what if we do, the car is made to drive fast, it should have the clutch in it to be able to take the power and handle the awd. . . . . If this one goes out, im puttin in a double disk so I wont have to worry again. . . Mitsu's warranty policy on aftermarket parts sucks too.

Premature clutch failure.

I purchased a new 2003 Mitsubishi evolution viii with about 300 miles on April 28th 2004. Approx. 3 months later I noticed that the clutch started to slip in second gear. I then proceeded to take it to the dealership where I was told that the clutch was blown. At this time I had appox. 3200 miles on my new vehicle. I was then told that I would have to have a replacement clutch put in and that for them to even look at the clutch it would cost $500 for them to drop the parts needed to confirm this problem, which I thought was ridiculous because I was at trhe mercy of the dealership and Mitsubishi's sub-par replacement part. I had my car towed to a local performance shop where they instructed me to replace the clutch with a more durable and well know act race dics. In doing the repair also the flywheel seemed to be damaged so that was replaced as well. The car was not ever raced or ever abused or driven to any extent of wearing parts excessivly. This I feel is known negligence of sub-par parts used in this vehicle.

Just with talking to the dealership for my 2003 Mitsubishi evolution they are telling me mistubishi is doing nothing about the clutch failure problem . They are stating that it's all of us drivers faults. And there appears to be lots of complaints. Clutch is slipping. No failure yet. Nothing has been done yet. Waiting to hear more.

Clutch slipping at less than 10,000 miles. Car is not raced nor abused.

Slipping clutch with only 3500 miles.

The clutch went out on my 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer evolution that I bought new and has 3200 miles on it.

Clutch failed under acceleration while merging on freeway. Car has 6300 miles, 3 months old. Dealer quoted almost $1500 for replacement not under warranty.

Clutch slipped.

I have owned the car for 4 months and have about 6500 miles on the odomoter. The clutch has started slipping when the turbo kicks in. The problem is getting progressively worse. I have notified my local dealer who acknologes the car needs a clutch, but claims this is a wear item and isn't covered under warranty. They also implied driver abuse. This car is my daily driver, I do not race it or drive it above its intended use. I have even offered to supply a quality aftermarket clutch and have the dealer simply provide the labor, they were not agreeable to this at this point.

Clutch failure after 2778 miles of driving a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer evolution viii. Purchased new vehicle (used broker jim estrada autobroker 602-683-2120) from mark Mitsubishi with 1586 miles. After driving 1192 addtional miles the clutch started slipping. Returned car to mark Mitsubishi to find that clutch problem is not covered by auto warranty. After researching NHTSA website I found 13 similar failures of clutch problems with same result with dealers. There are now 30 reported incidents. I tried to have problem repaired under warranty but was told it was my problem. While negotiating repair my daughter was told by salesperson he knew of clutch problems with this model car. I was also told by this same salesperson that they had problems. His reply when asked why buyer is not informed was that I should do my homework. I do not think a new car should have a problem at 2778 miles of driving. Mitsubishi had troubles with their truck clutches sending one of their excutives to jail in japan. I had to pay $889. 89 to have clutch replaced.

Clutch failure.

Powertrain: clutch assembly.

The vehicle was taken to the dealer because the consumer thought there was a transmission problem. Upon further examination the dealer found that the clutch needed to be replaced.

On June 1st the clutch failed completely it was composed of the clutch slipping and then exploding. This car was not abused and from the 3rd day I bought the car the clutch was slipping. I tried to get the factory to do somthing about it then but had no luck. I was told I was going to have to pay for it out of pocket. I ended up paying for the clutch replacement out of pocket anyway now they are threatening to void my warranty because I didnt replace it with their stock replacement! after the clutch replacement the transfer case and transmission is giving me troubles after only 700 miles. The dealer that I had the clutch repair done then refered me to another dealer to have the car fixed. It has developed a high pitched whine that starts about 40mph it sounds like a wwii bomb shelter warning siren. This has been a miserable experience!.

The clutch is shuttering / chattering when pulling from a stop in 1st and more so in reverse. This started happening mildly when new and is now much worse at 7000 miles. In reverse the shaking and shuttering is often so bad I must push the clutch back in and start over. This happens on a daily basis.

2003 Mitsubishi evolution clutch defective at 5500 miles. Also 3rd gear syncho is gone. Very weak clutch.

I have had problems with the clutch on this vehicle. I have only 7,000 miles on the vehicle. 5th gear synchros went bad. This is not acceptable. The dealership specifically advised they have had numerous complaints about this, and it should be recognized.

Premature clutch wear and failure. On my vehicle, a Mitsubishi Lancer evolution viii, the clutch started slipping at 5700 miles from purchase. The clutch failure occured from normal usage, and this behavior has been exhibited in other evolutions as well. This is unacceptable from a safety standpoint as it can lead to the vehicle becoming inoperable.

The clutch on my 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer evolution viii went out after only 3000 miles. Mitsubishi refused to replace it under warranty saying it was due to customer abuse. When asked to cite a reference to suggest customer abuse they simply said that the clutch had gone out. After talking to many people on internet forums about their evolutions it would appear this is an extremely common problem, and Mitsubishi has made every person pay out of pocket for the repairs.

I purchased a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer evolution 8 from antwerpen Mitsubishi in randallstown,MD and I could not have asked fo a better buying expierence,that is untill my clutch started to slip. . . . I bought it only 3 months ago w/183 miles on it(even though the contract said it had 83 miles on it)and at about 2200 miles my clutch started to slip so I took it to the dealership . I fought with the service manager for days and they just denied the claim stateing that I would have to pay 350. 00 to have the clutch inspected to even see if it could be warrented but according to the service manager it was more then likely due to abuse and it would not be coverd I am not going to sit here and let Mitsubishi steal from us I believe they put a cheap clutch in the car to lower the cost of production to keep the price of the car down something must be done about this so now I am forced to pay over $1000. 00 to have a real clutch put in so if you other evo owners out there feel like I do contact a lawyer like I am going to to ASAP!!!.

Clutch failure at right around 10,000 miles.