It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

So the common thread with all things evo related is that they are reliable, powerful, and streetable. That's how I always have felt, it's an evolution of what dsm's were. Where they failed, the newer evos strive, blah blah blah. No I didn't mean to preach it or really really heartfully mean it because the newest dsm is 4 years older than the oldest evo (USDM).

I lost a little faith in my evo recently, and really it's just the icing on the cake of shit that's happened with it recently. I am *never* nice to the car. It gets driven 40-100 miles per day, several hundred miles per week, and over a thousand miles per month. I'm playing with E85, alky, pushing the tune, blah blah blah so really some of this stuff comes as no surprise. Water pump leaking, check. Timing belt tensioner on backwards, check (all me). Headgasket, check. Water pump freeze plug blowing out on xmas day, in front of 2 members and later 20+ members of my family, check. Weird-ass electrical gremlins popping up out of nowhere, check-check-WHAT?

That's right, go mitsubishi. There's a seal that goes through the fender that leaks. No recall, nor a TSB (that I've found). Yet water leaks in, dripps down onto the main wiring harness and its 6 big plugs, and then goes ahead and corrodes the living fuck out of them.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, I can't believe I had to do this to my *2005* evo. It's still fucking new to me. Soldering to follow.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9402.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9403.sized.jpg

Screwdriver points to the faulty seal thingy:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9408.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9409.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9410.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9411.sized.jpg

It's winter in MN, water gets everywhere! EVERYWHERE!
http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9412.sized.jpg

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

ps--my car has 63000 miles on it. Not that mitsu would do anything about this anyways.

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

But dude, EVO's are awesome and never break. But it's not a DSM, it a fuking EVO. I've know that since 2003. John's dad's car had this issue it's SECOND winter. I would have figured there would be a HUGE sticky on EvoM by now, guess not. Go make one and save some other guy some trouble.

P.S. If your having these issues now, what will happen when it's 10-19 years old like DSM's are?

P.P.S. Support the economy, go buy a GM, Ford or Chrysler.
Oh wait, I have a GM and lower intake manifold gaskets fail, on a motor that's been in production for 5 YEARS. Every car company has their fuk ups, enjoy.

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

Damn man!! You havent had very much luck/love from the evo recently, sorry to hear..

Im going to seal the shit out of that hole..

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

wow! thats a crapper. im guessing in the next 7-13 more years, the Evo's will be the new DSMs...ugh. good luck man, what specifically went wrong though? did CEL start popping up? did you get shocked? lol.

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

Scheides, I'll trade you straight up for a nice reliable DSM.

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

I'll trade you a conquest

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

Jeezuz, that is shitty. Props to you for doing something about it. Im all thumbs when it comes to electrical systems.

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

Sadly, it is not far off from the dealer's warranty fix:
http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/34...600x600Q85.jpg

This was posted by a dealer mechanic on evoM. Unfuking real. If you own an evo, fix this now before its too late!

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

I'm gonna have to make sure mine is sealing good, maybe while my car is getting some other work done ;)

Thats sad the dealer didn't put a new connector in it!

Re: It's a fucking DSM afterall!
 

I drive my DSM every day to work, The only trouble I have ever had with a DSM falls under two categories:

-Normal Driveline Failures (clutch, synchros, rotting bushings)
-Rubber age/heat exposure related leaks
-Failures by myself to properly service the vehicle (letting a bolt fall into the exhaust port)

To be quite honest, for what I do to my car every day, my car is extremely reliable.

I put 70 miles on my DSM every day, I average one hard launch a day (AWD clutch dump)

I have no towing/AAA service.

Sorry about the electrical issues, mitsu is pretty good when it comes to this normaly.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I think we're fairly lucky with the electrical reliability of our cars. At least we aren't plagued with the issues that Audis/VWs experience.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

this sucks to hear that it happened but if i were you i would put some silicon on thise connections. it will help the connection and prevent corrosion

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Grommets in the inner fender well FTL. I fixed that issue on a couple of Lancers and Evos back in the day when I worked at Mitsu. The reason they don't install a new harness is that it's not available without getting an entire chassis harness or engine harness and it will happen again over time.

If I was you I'd seal that whole grommet area up under the splash shield with silicone.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I'm thinking of just doing it from the inside. Is there any reason to tear the fender liner apart to do it from that side?

Here's what it looks like from the inside:
http://forums.evolutionm.net/attachm...704-x-528-.jpg

And the outside:
http://inlinethumb14.webshots.com/34...600x600Q85.jpg

I'm thinking of just using some silicone to fill the holes from the inside, since I can now reach up there easily with my dash all torn apart.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Considering it takes all of 5 minutes to remove the splash shield I'd do inside and outside if it was mine.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

But wait, I though a car is only as reliable as the person that takes care of it. If you would just take care of your car properly it wouldn't be so unreliable...

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Right, I should have thought to check for moisture inside the cabin, on the backside of a huge rats-nest of wiring, on a car that's only a few years old.....what was I thinking? :P

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Exactly. Hence the reason I get sick of hearing the same dumb comment when mine or anyones DSM is down. Shit happens.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

LOL.
Sorry to hear, it sounds completely messed up, IMO a design flaw that they should cover at least partly.
Anywho, way to post it up and help save some others.
Also I would take Hill's trade. maybe.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

At least it isn't like the BMW Z3's that rip the bottom of their trunks out and shit their rear end onto the road. They also refuse to do nothing about it and have known about it for years. Like was said, every car has it's issues.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Lawsuits (or possible lawsuits) have not reached critical mass

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Rewire done, testdrive complete. Sealed it all up, tied up everything nice and high so this won't happen again.

:)

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

80k on my insight (now at 170k) and no issues yet :)

That is one of the things I didn't like much about my past DSMs, they kept nickel and diming me. There was always something that came up to destroy a weekend of fun and put me back in the garage for the weekend fixing the problems.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

how much more power than stock does your viper have?

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Yeah that wiring harness thing is lame. If I bought an evo that would be one of the first things I would do would be to seal up that area.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Yearly bump! It's the middle of winter and a PITA time to do this, but hey you never know :)

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

http://www.scheides.com/albums/Dec20...9403.sized.jpg

Hey Chris, if you take a look in your pic here you see those blue butt connectors? replace all of the red butt conectors you have with those type of butt connectors.

With those blue butt connectors, you are supposed to take a lighter or apply heat somehow the ends of the butt connector, it will shrink against the wire insulation and keep water/moisture out.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Ermmmmm... I think it's a little too late. :/

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Well for future situations. I see many trucks come in with the red butt connectors, and they get corroded from moisture.

I see these alot too, there worthless
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...WaCCO7a4Ch4gg7

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I was wondering about that when I first looked at those pics. I hate both of those types of connectors. I only solder and shrinkwrap all wires going back from my car stereo days.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

Very nice, this is the best possible way!

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

This. Soldering and using the good 3m shrink wrap is key.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

IMO the blue butt connectors are a very close second to solder/shrink wrap. The middle is filled with solder so when you hit it with one of those mini-torches/torch lighter it melts the soler, then you seal the ends.

My buddy can get these by the box at the Waste Management repair shop. I think they are like $1 a piece too :O

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I consider it a second best too, what i didnt know is there is solder in the center of them, sweet!

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I use those blue ones all the time at work, and have used them a couple times on my personal vehicles. They work pretty badass, and I've never had a problem with a weak connection with them.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I used plenty of those back when I used to wire in AFC's...never once had an issue with them, just need to do it right. Used them for my turbo-timer and radar detector in my IX too; 3 1/2 years later and still going strong.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

A lot of it depends on where you buy them too. There's a lot of different ones that look the same, if I do use them, I buy at AEI electronics in Golden Valley. They're expensive, but I trust them more than the Pep Boys sourced one.

I'm going out to do this mod to mine this afternoon since I'm waiting for parts. I'm just trying to think of little things to fix while it's down. I'm sure I'll find a bunch once I drive it.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

LOL, remember that I 'fixed' this around this time of year, middle of january. It was cold as FUCK out and I was basically praying that replacing all these connectors would solve the freaking crazy problems I was having: windshield wipers stayed on, tail lights would go out, ignition would stay on, etc etc etc.

Thanks for the advice but I have since junked the car seeing as I rolled it, remember? :P The blue connectors are always way better than the basic red ones (once heat is applied as goodhart stated). They're a happy mix between simple butt connectors and soldering. Soldering where these wires is would be nearly impossible w/o removing the entire dash. Again back to it being cold as fuk out, soldering was not an option. Then as I replaced wire by wire with my trusty blue connectors (I also used these for my mini wire tuck over the top of the engine) I eventually ran out. The task of actually bypassing the harness plugs (what this thread is really about) was actually fixing problems one-by-one so I told my frost-bitten knees (even in a heated garage this is one of those spots, kneeling on the floor, that never will be warm) to fuk off and lets DO this. I told myself I'd replace them if I ever had even a minor problem, but it was never an issue after that, so those connectors may still be in the hunk of metal that used to be my beloved dsm/evo. :)

TL;DR - fuck it.

Re: It's a foking DSM afterall!
 

I used the same thing Scheides did, but with the heatshrink ends. They worked really well and still are working fine, you need the proper tool for crimping them (pliers don't cut it) and the heat shrink ends do the trick of keeping the moister out.