Hi All,

I'm slightly at my wit's end with an irritating fault with my car - that's getting worse. It's a 2011 Mk2 Outlander with the 2.2, 156Bhp PSA Diesel engine, and the SST 6 Speed Dual Clutch Gearbox. It has done 106000mls, and has a a full service history, mixture of indies and Mitsubishi. I had the gearbox oil changed at as a precaution ~90k as I couldn't find any evidence of a change.This was done by the nearest Mitsubishi dealer, which has since gone out of business.

Recently when the car is warm, it develops the following symptom:-

At cruise, below 2000rpm, the engine speed gently surges by about 100-150rpm. This can be felt through the car. If I accelerate so the engine speed is over 2000rpm, the surging stops.This occurs in every gear, so at different speeds, in 6th effectively it stops at just over 70mph.

Regardless of temperature, When accelerating hard, the car accelerates in "steps", instead of the rev counter moving in a smooth way, it rises in 200rpm jumps. Again this can be felt in the car, almost like you were tapping and releasing the accelerator.

When you stop the car there is a brief "mechanical" / metal rattle - which may be irrelevant.

It's been to 2 garages, the first a highly respected local independent diagnosed a faulty DMF, from the way it drives, and the rattle mentioned above, but then couldn't get a straight answer from Mitsubishi if it actually had a DMF, and if it did, would this cause an issue for the SST. They were honest enough to say they didn't want to spend 5hrs+ labour taking it apart to find that it was something else - and didn't charge me for their time.

It's also been to our nearest Mitsubishi Service centre, which is an 80 mile round trip! They claim to of NEVER replaced a DMF in an SST Outlander, even ones with much higher mileages. They did an engine diagnostics (no faults at all), and clutch relearn procedure which changed the "feel" of the gearbox, but made no difference to the fault. Their solution is to take the gearbox out (11hrs) and fit a refurbished one (I assume) - a total of at least £2800+VAT - the cars worth £3800 in part ex.

I see where they are coming from with the refurbish the gearbox approach, but I have found out the following.

It DOES have a DMF, the part is listed on the LUK website, along with a description of how a DMF differs in a dual clutch car.

I've spoken to some Lancer EVO specialists (these share the same gearbox, but have solid flywheels) and they think it's highly unlikely that a 156bhp Outlander has killed the clutches in gearbox rated to take 400bhp & 400lb/ft. It's also been suggested that Mitsubishi dealers have been known to use the wrong gearbox fluid in these which can cause all sorts of weird issues.

Trying to deliberately induce clutch slip - steep hill, manual mode, 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear results in wheel spin (2wd) or acceleration (4wd) with no detectable slip.

Finally! The cars got a couple of years of finance left, so I can't really afford to ditch it at a loss. But I also have a warranty, however the nearest garage that is one of their "network" garages, that is even prepared to look at this is a Peugeot dealer - 100ml round trip (the 4007 was identical to the Outlander). They think it could be the DMF, but are concerned that their computer won't talk to the Mitsubishi (possibly different software on identical hardware) so could end up immobilising my car.

I would really appreciate thoughts on which way to jump :-

1) Get the gearbox oil changed again, £250, which may make no difference at all, it may fix it :-) as it could be the wrong fluid, or the change I had done has loosened "dirt" which is now causing issues - they have an external, replaceable filter and an internal one.

2) Let the local garage take it to bits - likely to be £500 parts & £500 labour - to replace the DMF - they won't be able to tell whilst it's in bits if the gearbox is knackered, and obviously can only check the DMF once it's apart, so as with the oil, this could be a waste of time, but £1000!

3) Take it to the Peugeot dealer who can bill the warranty company directly, assuming the fault is covered, it should be as "all components, friction materials, bearings, ECU's" of automatic and dual clutch gear boxes are specifically named, as is wear and tear - I'll just pay a 20% excess for parts. But they will charge more per hour if its not under warranty and might immobilise the car into the bargain! I have asked the warranty co. if they have any Mitsubishi dealers/ specialists anywhere in the UK in their network, apparently not.....

I'm open to any other ideas as well.

Thanks for reading through this, and thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions as which way to go!

Cheers.