My car freaked out after a brisk drive

industry · May 1, 2009, 10:47 PM

I hope I am not going to be a TC-SST statistic...

I had to drive up to Elk (3 hours north of S.F.) to visit one of our properties. I figured this was a great opportunity to see what the MR could do since the last 50 miles were through winding hilly roads. I had the car in “Sports” mode and shifted manually but never revved past 6k rpm. Top speed reach in straighter sections was about 80 mph. Even though I was driving brisk, it was never enough to squeal the tires. The last 5 miles were along Highway 1, so I decided to take it slow. The car was still in “sports” mode but I put the shifter to auto. Thankfully with about a third of a mile left to my destination, the car freaked out. I was doing about 25-30 mph and in a straight section when the MID turned yellow and showed a large ASC (car slipping) diagram. The “service engine soon” light came on as well and the car started dinging. The RPMs dropped suddenly to idle speed, and when I tapped the throttle lightly, nothing happened. At this point, the car was coasting and I had to pull over into a driveway. As I was coming to a stop, I could hear what sounded like the transmission trying to engage and some clicking sounds. After the car came to a complete stop, the engine’s idle was kind of pulsing, going up to 1500 rpm, almost stalling down to 500 rpm. I turned the car off and waited about a minute. When I started it up, the idle was now normal, but the “service engine soon” light remained on. I shifted into “drive,” and nursed the car to our property.

The first thing I did when I got there was call Mitsubishi’s roadside assistance. I explained what had happened to them and they recommended that the car be towed to the nearest dealership in Santa Rosa (about 100 miles). The flatbed came and considering the rain and the Friday evening commute, we got to the dealership after service hours had ended. Since their service department wasn’t open on weekends, I figured I had no choice but to leave the car there until Monday. I started the car to drive it off the tow truck and noticed that the light was gone. I drove slowly around the lot to see if anything was weird but it seemed like the whole thing never happened. With the car “resetting” itself and the incredibly rude staff of Manly Mitsubishi, I made the decision to drive the car home. During the drive, I did notice that the shifting was a bit delayed and different than before, but nothing that made me think I need to pull over.

I did a lot of research before buying my MR and knew about the possible issues with this new gearbox. I didn't to any mods to the car except for exhaust (HKS Legamax), panel filter (HKS Hybrid), and bov (HKS SSQV). I only have a little over 3K miles and drive the car most of the time in "normal" auto. So often in this mode that my fellow Evo comrades nicknamed me "old man x."

I am going to take it to San Leandro Mitsubishi to see if they can diagnose anything. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is not severe. I will keep you all updated.

Wik3d_MR · May 1, 2009, 10:53 PM

This kind of happened to me, I just pulled over and shut off the car and restarted it and the car was fine. Did you throw any codes?

industry · May 1, 2009, 10:55 PM

didn't get a chance to connect it to an OBD yet. i will probably do so tomorrow and post my finds.

did you take your car to the dealership? if so, what did they say?

thanks.

Stop&TurnFreak · May 1, 2009, 11:03 PM

After brisk drives ... but the car in normal, and the TCM will go back to 'standard' trim... If you leave it in sport, it will get confused when you stop driving aggressively, because it is out of the norm, from the first part of the drive ... I found this out the hard way too....

strocse · May 6, 2009, 08:18 PM

Took my MR to the track monday no problems, but I have to admit I'm always waiting for the tranny to blow up. I only have a drop in and a tune. I feel sooner or later that 5 year warranty will be getting used.

IdriveRA · May 7, 2009, 09:19 AM

same with my RalliArt, but No CELS here.
I put it in sports mode and do brisk drives. Then while still in sports mode If i drive normally for about 5-10 mins, the deng thing wont downshift like it's supposed to unless I come to a complete stop. kinda weird.

Burkeyro · May 7, 2009, 03:15 PM

Yeah, Same with me, No codes, but it definately seemed to shift "Wierd" after driving normaly in Sport Mode. Even after putting it back in Normal, it will take a little while to "Kick" back over to normal. The TC-SST is cool, especially for a daily driver, but definately need some time to get used to the little quirks.

Jake26 · May 7, 2009, 08:59 PM

i had the SLOW DOWN light come on for a brief second for me. i have a 09 ralliart. when the light came on i tapped on the throttle and RPMs went up tranny wasn't engaging!! so i pulled over with what ever momentum i had and shifted to park. shut the car off. waited 2 minutes and cut it back on and tranny shifted and engaged like it nothing ever happened... maybe its a good idea to get a second oil cooler for the tranny or a fan?

boostsaves · May 7, 2009, 11:56 PM

when something like that happens the tcsst ecu puts it sort of in a safe mode, kinda like if your home windows pc has an error it will go into safe mode to load minimal drivers and such. You would then just restart the pc to last known good configeration, and your good to go. This in essence is the same thing. So, just turn the car off,wait, and turn it back on. It will go away. Anytime you get a ses light in the mr or ra, the tranny will always go into retard mode to protect itsself.

Hope this helps

tateX · May 8, 2009, 06:10 AM

I had exactly the same problem out here in japan, just i was driving alot faster on the interstate when my car freaked. I took it to the dealer and they said that i popped an "over torque" code and an "abs" code. The dealer has no idea why the car popped these codes but they blamed it on my Camp2 system... I called HKS directly and they told me that on the HKS demo car the "over torque" code will poped if you adjust your "boost curve" to much from the original, the car will pop codes and if it dosent get fixed the car wil go into a fail safe mode.

Now all i have to do is adjust my acuator for a little lower psi.

Hopes this helps.

Jake26 · May 8, 2009, 07:27 AM

^^^^ both of your answers help al lot thank you!!! i was thinking i blew it up! hahah

industry · May 8, 2009, 10:45 AM

UPDATE:

went to WORKS yesterday instead of a dealership (none around my area seem competent enough IMO). they used the mitsubishi MUT-III tool to see what the heck had happened.

other than the TPMS codes (no sensors in my advans), they couldn't find anything logged. so, the conclusion to my event was that it hiccupped. they told me to drive like i would on a daily basis and if the thing happened again, to get it re-read.

so... life goes on. although i hope otherwise, it may be possible i will contribute to this thread again later on.

evoLove all.

Jake26 · May 9, 2009, 12:57 AM

^^ good to know thanks

Burkeyro · May 13, 2009, 02:39 PM

All in all, I love this car, I just hate how much Electronic crap ends up cars now a days. SIGH, oh well. LOL

industry · May 13, 2009, 10:02 PM

yeah, although these electronics are there to make our lives easier, er... thrilling in this case, they do have a rather large achilles heel.

i just hope it doesn't get to a point we need virus protection for our cars.