05/04/2026
Let me tell you a story. 3 years ago, I somehow managed to win this car at auction in Japan for $4800 shipped. It wasn’t listed as turbo, let alone AWD and said it was automatic, haha. It also has high miles. So I got lucky. Fast forward to less than a year of owning it and the transmission decided to exit the housing. I parked for the car for a bit but managed to source a “gone-through/ refreshed Evo 3 transmission from Evoparts Limited in New Zealand. After some months they finally sent it and it felt “ok” after install but stiff. I thought nothing of it and drove the car here and there. Then 4 months later it wouldn’t go into 3rd, and 1st was annoying. Long story short I took it out of the car and brought to get checked out and it seemed it was missing a crucial bearing as well as wrong parts used during re-assembly of the transmission. Evoparts Unlimited wanted proof of the “missing “ bearing which holds the gear set in, and as you can guess is possible to prove. I didn’t think to film the guy taking apart the transmission. Anyways he used parts from my original transmission and made 1 nice working one. Been driving the car almost everyday for a couple months and it feels nice. Evoparts Limited wouldn’t compensate me at all , not even for me having to get it “rebuilt” again, since I can’t “prove” their error. So this was a double whammy, buying an 30 year pld car from Japan and the transmission fails. And using an “Evo specialist shop” in New Zealand which was waste of time and money. Evo 3 transmissions are hard to come by these days so I get that, but won’t be dealing with them again. Happy to say that the Lancer RS is great now: coilovers, apexi catback, Evo 3 front brake setup, endless brake lines, hard race camber arms, white line rear sway bar, and SSR TYPE V wheels that I refinished myself in Scotia White , and Yokohama v701 tires. 🫡
