you WILL LOSE THIS CASE.
its obvious you do not have the knowledge of mechanics,pics or not.
as stated above,POOR driving habits and knowledge.
case in point a woman came in and said my SRS light does not light,45k miles,and i quote .
she said it always worked,well guess what ? it never had that feature.
so good luck with a lawyer,a good tech can duplicate what happened TRUST ME,
GOOD LUCK!
A dragging clutch means the clutch does not release completely. This usually makes it almost impossible to get the transmission into reverse gear. It will grind and make a lot of noise when you try. The synchronizers on the other gears, especially first gear, can sometimes overcome this clutch problem for a while, but the brass parts will suffer premature wear because of it.
As others have mentioned, Mitsubishi transmissions, especially the 5-speeds, are famous for premature failure. But it’s usually the weak 5th (OD) gear that starts “popping out” by itself and then gets pretty noisy.
Another option you may have overlooked is to take them to Small Claims Court. But like MET002 said, you are probably going to lose. They will have an “expert” show the worn syncro rings and say “these parts are not defective. They are simply worn out”. Our warranty does not cover wear and tear, only defective parts…You must PROVE those parts are defective. Very difficult to do.
“I recently had difficulty putting my 2005 mitsubishi into 1st or 2nd gear.”
Please explain this “difficulty” EXACTLY…I’m assuming this is a FWD car that uses a cable type shifter mechanism.
OP, I have to disagree a bit with part of what you’re being told about the clutch by the dealer. The “blue” they refer to are burn marks caused by a slipping clutch. These marks will appear on the flywheel and the clutch cover (also called a pressure plate).
It is possible to have a dragging clutch without having any blue burn marks. Sometimes this can be noticed as a glazed clutch disc surface in which the disc lining (similar to a brake shoe lining) will become glassy looking in spots.
Without seeing the disc I can’t say if this has occurred or not.
The dragging clutch is the one thing that keeps coming back to me and it’s possible this could be caused by normal disc wear or clutch slave or clutch master cylinder starting to fail.
It would have been interesting to check the clutch pedal free play and engagement point without vehicle in hand and since it’s now apart that’s an impossibility.
I am a retired auto worker. I spent 18 years at Mitsubishi in Normal Illinois building Mitsubishi cars. I can assure you that They will never admit to being at fault. I will give no spacific examples because they are the type of company that would come after me for bad mouthing them in writing. Just some facts they can’t deny. Many Mitsubishi auto executives in Japan went to jail over covered up warrenty problems. The people running Mit. auto now are mostly from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, not car people. I wish you luck but don’t expect too much.
you WILL LOSE THIS CASE.
its obvious you do not have the knowledge of mechanics,pics or not.
I don’t think so. He doesn’t have to go up against the tech. All he needs is ANOTHER tech as a expert witness. Unless they can PROVE that it was caused by him resting his hand on the shifter they’ll have to honor the warranty. All a tech has to do is show that there are other ways the syncro’s can be worn…(i.e poor manufacturing…or defective parts). The dealership will have to PROVE that’s not the case. That’s a lot harder to do.
The only part of 4flashman’s comments I differ on is that all of the other car makers are guilty of the same thing.
They only “sort of” admit fault if they’re backed into a corner by the Feds, a class action lawsuit, etc.
I think some Toyota execs were charged after it was discovered they were covering up a suspension problem. Subaru at one time was hiding a steering rack pinion spring problem from the Feds in an attempt to avoid a recall on it.
Every car manufacturer is guilty of whitewashing things.
Thanks for your optimism metoo2. It’s very encouraging! Comparing me and my knowledge of the inner workings of my transmission to a woman who doesn’t know her car features are completely unrelated and quite ridiculous. And obviously I don’t know anything about transmissions - that’s why I posted this. But, I have to say that I’ve learned a lot about transmissions and can have an educated conversion with my service people - thanks to a lot of good people with good input from this site - excluding you. I have been driving stick for 20 years and have absolutely no problems with my driving skills and techniques. I’ve had cars for 100+K miles w/o any clutch or transmission issues. And FYI I did find out today that the second gear shift fork was worn thereby causing the other problems. And the wear of the fork can be mechanical not driver error since my clutch looks great. So, yeah for me because I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel
I’d engage the clutch and move the shifter to 1st and it wouldn’t go in. Same with 2nd. In order to get into 1st or 2nd - with the clutch engaged I shift into 3rd - keep the clutch engaged the then into 1st or 2nd and then release the clutch. The dealer did tell me today that the 2nd gear shift fork is worn and is what caused the problem. And again is a gray area but says it could have been to a weak/faulty part. Also said my clutch looks good which helps support my case that I don’t abuse my transmission.
Thanks, I’ll check about the glazed clutch disc with the service rep tomorrow. The rep did tell me that the 2nd gear shift fork was bad and was causing the other problems . He said it’s made of aluminum and could have been weak. And he said my clutch looked good but after what you described - I’m not sure he knows exactly what he’s talking about. Maybe he was keeping his descriptions simple knowing my lack of knowledge on this matter. Thanks
Don’t you think the “experts” (if this issue sees a court) will be enginners? not Techs?
I have been thinking about how sure it is that the hand resting will cause a syncro problem (maybe it does,how would the proof go?)
In the extreme, have all the parts inspected before assembly, assemble the transmission and drive with hand on shifter until a problem developes,disasemble and look at the wear.
Just wondering how can something like this be proven
We know what a bearing that runs without oil looks like,and how detonation destroys a cylinder head,the patterns on a ring gear when not set up right,but a syncro damaged by hand on shifter, and the proof hold up under scrutinity. I don’t mean to ask you, personally,just trying to find a place in the thread to inject the question.
Could you engage REVERSE without difficulty?? You must back up now and then…
Yes, no problems with getting into reverse. I use reverse quite often due to the fact that I park front-end in - into parking spots. But, I would hear a type of high pitch whining noise as I released the clutch. I discussed this with the dealer yesterday and he thinks that is unrelated to the issue.
Don’t you think the “experts” (if this issue sees a court) will be enginners? not Techs?
What Mitsubishi is going to send a engineer from Japan as and expert?? Very unlikely they’ll use a engineer who’s designed transmissions as an expert. They’ll call who they have quick access to…and that would be a tech.
If I was the plaintiff in this case my “expert” would be a enginner,(enginner with manual transmission design and failure diagnosis experience) for one, higher level of skill(mechanical enginnering degrees,fancy titles)and two it’s possible the members of the jury have had “experiences” with techs,bad experiences.
As you note Mitsubishi is free to send who they want,but they do have a lot on the line.
So, small claims court and the BBB would seemingly be a very good way to get results. It truly seems you did nothing wrong in your driving habits, and that Mit has a tradition of trying to step away from warranty responsibilities. Your judge will see through the very thin veil presented by whomever from the Mit camp. And you can be fairly sure it’ll cost Mit far more than $2,000 to defend themselves and have their name further dragged through the mud in a court case and at the BBB.
You’re educated, you come off as a reasonable person, and I think you will prevail,
even before the hearing date.
Sheesh. People pull this lawyer, court, BBB stuff out like it’s a gun without fully understanding the obligations outlined in the warranty. Now would be a good time to actually READ your warranty and understand your obligations. Many warranties expressly outline a condition where the parties must agree to attempt arbitration of any disputes before filing suit. I’m not saying yours does but you should at least educate yourself on the terms of your warranty before forming a posse.
Personally, I don’t think you’ll win 100% on a wear item. Too much burden of proof to show it was a defect rather than abuse. You’ll end up spending way more than the cost of repair in getting expert witnesses to testify for example. The defendant has too many tricks and tools to outlast you. For example, they can hang out waiting to see if your witness shows up and if they do, we want a continuance for (insert any excuse here). Lather, rinse and repeat until you; a) run out of money, 2) your star witness doesn’t show for the 3rd court date or III) you give up in frustration. This is just meant as an example of how things can go very difficult for your side, if you’re thinking this will be like taking candy from a baby as some seem to suggest.
A dragging clutch as noted by others which can be caused by low fluid if you have a hydraulic clutch or a partially failed clutch master or slave cylinder as a possible source of the shifting problem is not likely as it would be too obvious for the dealer to overlook this simple fix. Stupider things than this have happened, however. If you have a cable clutch with an automatic adjustment mechanism, this should be considered too.
50,000 miles in four years indicates that this vehicle has spent plenty of time at higher speeds. Resting your hand on the shift lever, if you did that and I read that you did not, would more likely be in top gear while the problem is 1st or second. Even so, I think that relatively little time would be spent in 1st or 2nd if mostly city driving, not enough time to wear out the synchros in my opinion. That Mitsubishi ventured that a resting hand or hard driving wore out the syncros makes it obvious that they are simply groping for excuses. Denying a warranty repair because of a worn, non-maintanance item is not valid in my view. Prematurely worn non-maintenance parts ARE defective! A prematurely worn non-maintenance part indicates inadequate design and/or development including taking design precautions to reduce the possiblity of this such as an adequately strong shift detent mechanism.
This sounds like a possible case for small claims court where you can present your case inexpensively. Document everything including your case as you state it verbally and give a copy to the judge. I have not been in small claims court but this seems to be an obvious thing to do rather than speak with no follow-up documentation. You must do your homework to appear credible.
By the way, my Chevrolet owner’s manual says nothing about a hand resting on the shift lever while my VW’s manual does. Check your Mits manual. If they say nothing about this, then that is another point in your favor.
It might be worth a final discussion with the dealer and Mitsubishi to inform them that you may have to take this to small claims court to allow them a chance to make good. If they don’t show up, you win!
PS, check if your state permits expert witnesses in a small claims court.
Do you have any idea how bad a top executive in Japan has to screw up to go to jail? Don’t tell me all manufacturers do it. The government in Japan stoped buying Mit. vehicals for their own use. Do you sell Mitsubishis?