Tim, I think you've still got a pretty decent case here. It's hard for oil to go from good condition to THAT in 2 months of regular usage. How many KMs have you put on since you bought it?

If you haven't been driving it too far, you should be able to leverage against the used car dealership. Clearly the oil was in a condition that would void your warranty when they sold it to you.

I have played enough Gran Turismo to know you net some extra horsepower when you change the oil right when you get the car seriously though the dealership should have had the car prepped for you and oil change definitely should have been on their list of things to do before they found a buyer. I think a used car dealer is more about bottom end than a dealership is.

Absolutely they are. Dealerships have a wide range of options for making money; used car dealerships tend to be just that: they sell used cars. Of course they're all franchises or independently owned, so there is a lot of variance.

I will agree that they should definitely be doing an oil change on any car they're going to sell though. Buying the materials in bulk, they could be doing oil changes for $15 per car. Then they can add some "Full 30 point inspection!" to their sale pitch for changing the oil and wiggling a few things while they're under the car.

Andrew, i found the car on Kijiji so it was a private sale. I was looking into financing through my bank. The seller said that he can try to get it done through the dealership. I went to Autopark and talked to them and they said that they could treat the car as a trade in and do the financing for me. So i guess the correct answer to that question is both.

Now i went home last night and spent alot of time stewing over this. I looked at the oil again and it does not appear to be any worse then oils i have drained from my Eclipse. sure its black but its used. Isnt it always black? There was no sludge build up or anything.

So i guess its just an easy out from Mitsu to say well the oil was dirty so you clearly never changed the oil. I looked into the 3rd party and their stance is if Mitsu will not warranty it because of poor maintenance then they will not either.

As for the place i bought it I have no beef with them. They did me a favor and did not mark up the car on me. They really only brokered the deal for me. They did a certification for me but of course that does not include checking the oil. Autopark only had my car for a few hours once the deal was ready to go. The previous owner is a mechanic and still to this point swears that he did the oil change before handing it over to them. I guess I still should have done it but to be honest i am not 100% sure that he didn’t do it and this is just an easy cop out from a dealership. Really it comes down to my word vs their trained technician so I don’t have a leg to stand on.

Here is my BIGGEST issue with Mitsubishi. The timing chain on the 2008-2010 Evos have been known to fail prematurely. According to the service manual there is no maintence for the chain so in theory it should last forever. I know the timing belt needs to be changed at say 100k.

The timing chains have been failing on cars with as little as 20k miles. They have been stretching out. Mitsu will not admit that this is an issue nor will they do a recall for them. So what did they do? They revised the chain in 2011 and proceeded to give it the same part number as the original. So they basically swept it under the rug with no revision number.



Here is a pic of the original chain on the top along with the revised triple linked on the bottom. I wonder why they beefed it up.....

Well i took pics of the original chain that was on my car. I told them i want a pic of the new chain before installing it. I also informed them i do not want the same one that is there as it only lasted for 85k. I want the updated chain that as far as i can tell is yet to fail.

SO how can they release a revised chain without admitting that the original one was failing premature??

BIG $$$$ involved here Tim. Big Corprations make things happen in this world, by hook or by crook. I think its pointless sitting here and dwelling upon it. I'd fix the car, put all your mods back on, mod the hell out of it even more, forget the warranty, and enjoy it. These used car warranties are worthless.

Its an evo, you bought it to have fun

I think Reza is probably right on this. However, since they are denying the warranty claim, I DO think the aftermarket warranty company SHOULD need to refund the cost of the warranty...less probably some "administration fee"..

Ah, I didn't realize that was the case. It seems you're on your own then

I would have to see the oil in person to really judge it; I was going off of their description. I can't really tell from a picture through a bottle.

When you get some on your fingers, is it black? Or does it get kind of brown as it thins out?

Thanks guys, at this point money is not really the issue. I HAVE the money to fix it. It just sucks that they dont stand behind their product. I am just going to get a refund of my warranty and put my mods back and enjoy the car.

Rob c was awesome enough to offer to help me change the chain if i decided to go that route. At this point its at the dealer and already apart to i will just let them get it done so i can have it by the weekend. I hear we might have a meet

I took a video , it was pretty black.

http://s914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/tim-s/?action=view&current=20120417_165055.mp4

Thoughts?

also i have a bottle full if anyone knows if there is a way i can test it.

Yeah.. it does look pretty dark/thick. Doesn't look like oil that was changed 2 months ago, unless you've been doing a lot of driving. I'm sure you put her through the ropes when you get her, but do you drive a lot and with a heavy foot?

I would agree though that at this point, it's best you're just fixing it and moving on. It's not worth the headache and the stress for the little to nothing you might be able to squeeze out of Mitsu (probably nothing).

If you have the oil there are tribology labs that can test it for you. They do used oil analysis though it will be a little tough since you don't know the brand or viscosity used in the engine to start with. They would be able to give you a reading of metals etc. to give you an idea of engine conditions. It's pretty cheap to do the test and well worth it especially if there is any doubt about general engine condition. Just looking at oil tells you nothing about the oil, only a proper test tells the tale.

I have done some "spirited" driving. I have put maybe 3000 km on the car. Manual says that you should change it every 5k so i cant see it blowing at 3.

^ (referring to Darren Schoff's post) I agree 100%. I am not sure who does these tests, or what it costs, but if it is reasonable, it might be wise to KNOW the results, especially if they are an indication of engine condition and previous maintenance.

Thanks Darren. Where do i find a lab like this?

WearCheck Canada Inc.
4161 Sladeview Cresc. Unit 11
Mississauga, ON
L5L 5R3
Canada

ph 905-569-8600
fax 905-569-8605

http://www.wearcheck.ca/

or you can try this http://lmgtfy.com/?q=oil+analysis+gta

thanks Bryan. I will take it there. Not sure what this will gain me but good to know for my own piece of mind

Just dropped off the oil at WearCheck. I will post results..

Also from an update perspective I might have made some progress. I called the 3rd party warranty company and apparently no one has called regarding this. I informed them that i was deing denied my clain from Mitsubishi because i do not have any receipts. Well Coverage One didnt ask me for proof when they sold me the coverage so clearly they can not now. They said that I am not able to open up a claim, that it has to be opened by the dealership. I got my call to an auditor and told them my situation. They said i need to get in writting that the dealership will not honor my claim and i should be able to put in a claim with them. According to them, even if the previous owner was a complete moron and didnt do a single oil change in 4 years i would still be covered under their policy as there is no way for me to know that when i bought the car. HOPEFULLY Dixie calls this in early today so i can get someone out to look at my claim today. I have been almost 2 weeks without my car now

This is what I wanted to hear!!

well hit another road block that maybe you can answer for me. Mitsu Dixie informed me that Coverage one asked for a written reason as to why i was denied. He told me that because my car was flagged from Erin Mills that the car is modified he would have to inform them of that. He suggested i just pay cash as it would set off flags with Coverage one. I only have 15k more with the power train and so then it wouldnt matter.

My point to that is if they are going to deny me for having an exhaust NOW then they will next time i make a claim anyways. I would rather find out now and get my 3 grand back.

Does the dealership gain anything by me paying vs the warranty company? Like would they make more? Or is this just a showing of good faith or their part to say leave it for now so there are no flags.

Also my part came in. Surprise, surprise it was the revised chain! I am going in to take a pic.

Were the mods on there already when you bought the car? If that's the case, then I think by the policy you stated in your first post today, you're in the clear.

Everyone likes cash...
Nobody likes dealing with warranty and insurance companies because they don't like giving up the cash.

Warr typically pays the same as what you would pay other then they more often then not dont pay much for diag

Just got back from the shop.

Here is a pic of the chain in my car:


Here is the new chain the ordered me. I made them open the package so i could take this photo


Can you see the difference?? I inquired why it was revised and I was told they probably just changed suppliers. No recall reason at all.

I have an adjuster coming from Coverage 1 to look at the car. Cover the cost or give me a refund. End of story

As for warranty work i dont think dealers like it. From what i was explained they have all he tools laid out for them that they need and do the job on a brand new car. They do the job 3 times and they take the best time and that is the shop rate they get. So it it takes you 8 hours then 6 hours then 5.5 they would write down 5.5 and thats what you are paid on.

Either way NOT my problem! I paid for a warranty. Quit looking for excuses why you shouldnt pay

Aftermarket warr will pay hourly rates but will shop around for the lowest job time and pay that. They often will fight me when I try to get diag from them and other times they just let it go with out question.
But thats it time for them to man up or pay it off.
I dont think our dealership would have offered you a aftermarket warr on a car with the type deal you broght in to them. I think what they did for the deal part was fair but the warr sale was just money grabbing.

I agree with you there that it was a quick money grab. I wasnt going to take it as it was alot of money. But once they told me it would only cost me $18 a month i figrued well that is worth it for piece of mind. Live and learn, there is no piece of mind with a turbo car.

I heard Subaru is not much better

Always been that way with high output small engines. Lets face it anything with hp equal to displacement ie 2 liters 200 hp and so on ig prone to having a small thing add up to a large repair its just the nature of the beast.
I have a lot of friends with fast Scoobies and some have just been dreams some have been nightmares

More fuel for the fire. My buddy went to Markham Mitsubishi and took these pics. They have the exhaust they black listed me for hanging on the wall along with Dyno charts

Your buddy should "wear a wire" and go in and ask if that exhaust would void a warranty....then you should go have a talk with the OWNER of the dealership...

Oh but only Mitsubishi technicians are qualified to install that exhaust without disturbing the timing chain.

If I was 30 years younger, I would probably go picket the place!
I think you should advise the owner that he needs to post a sign with that exhaust (and any other aftermarket parts they are selling) saying that it will void your warranty, or perhaps you should involve the ministry of consumer affairs.

My buddy its going to get me a written quote for the install :-)

Good! Don't let go! This is an OUTRAGE!

Thanks Ziggy. This whole process has turned me off Mitsubishi. I will probably never buy another

LOLOL!!!

It is probably a little unfair to blame Mitsubishi for this. I would place the blame with the dealership!
You never really get to deal with Mitsubishi, it is their job to refer you back to a dealer. That is sort of the agreement they have with their dealers.

Often the owners of the dealership own other dealerships, usually different brands. You would probably find that if this same person owns a Honda or Toyota dealership, it is hard to get warranty work done there also!

For that reason, I am a big believer in "loyalty" when you find a GOOD place to deal with. Give them ALL your business. If you go elsewhere 4 times out of 5 to save a buck, and then go to them the fifth time with a big problem (and I am not saying you did this, just saying in general), don't expect a lot of help or super service!

I see this every day with my own customers. I have some loyal customers who I bend over backwards for regularly. I also have guys who buy 95% of their stuff on e-bay, and only come to me when they have a big problem. Well, don't be surprised that they don't get the same service the other guy does.

Again, not saying Tim did ANYTHING wrong here....just saying when you finally DO make some progress and get this resolved satisfactorily, REMEMBER who it was that helped you through it. If you find a dealership that DOES help you get this covered, let everyone know, and go a little out of your way to give them more business..

At the same time, continue the negative advertising for the outrageous places that are just trying to screw you because they can charge you more for the repair than they could charge mitsu under warranty.

Like Ziggy said, I wouldn't blame Mitsubishi for this... I'd be more pissed with the dealership. You yourself have had a more positive experience with a different dealership, which emphasizes what Ziggy said. I had a problem with my '10 Ralliart with only 26,000km on it and they asked no questions whatsoever and honoured the warranty. They knew I had mods, they knew I raced, but customer service was more important to them. Since I bought the car I've gone to them for everything, oil changes too.

With all that being said, I'd 100% avoid the dealership that's trying to screw you and encourage everyone I know to avoid them. I know I'll never go there for anything... The better ones I know of are Richmond Hill and Belleville. I've had very positive experiences at both.

From this experience so far Dixie Mitsu seems ok and mod friendly. Unfortunately he can not help me as the a-holes at Erin Mills flagged me. I also found out the person who owns Dixie also owns Markham so they are also Mod friendly. They better be condsidering they have it hanging on the wall

I want to give a big thanks to the guys at Ultimate racing for telling me that. He has been helpful though this.

Also Autopark superstore has bent over backwards to help me. They called EM to call them out on the bullsh!t they were trying to feed me and they also called Coverage one and got them to agree to fix it. I must have spoken with them 3-4 times a day and they never made me seem like i was bothering them. Going forward i will probably just take my car there as they used to be a Mitsu dealer so they seem to know the car well.

My next task is to try to get my flags removed from EM. I will be posting everywhere warning people about them. I have posted on Dealerrater, yellow pages and all the Evo x forums as well as here.

If i can save one other member from going through this BS then i will be happy.