I have a 2009 lancer gts with the cvt. transmission and there is about 37000 km( 17000 mi) on the car. In the last while i have experienced a couple close calls making turns or just trying to accelerate. I'll be in manual or auto mode starting to accelerate and there's no power, the car will not pick up speed. I'll have my foot mashed to the floor and nothing, it feels like trying to start in 5th gear. It doesn't help changing back to auto or up/down shifting. After a few seconds the power comes back and it's fine. The CEL doesn't turn on and there are no problems accelerating after. I've noticed it happens most often after driving then turning the car off, coming back like 30 min later and driving again.

I have talked to the dealership and there mechanic took the car for a drive, No surprise the problem didn't happen to him. His only suggestion for the problem is that I'm up shifting to far by accident. The guy told me that the car would register an error code and with no error code there's nothing he can do.

So, I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar problems, what causes this and what the fix is.

I dont know how much this will help but i use to have the same problem with a 95 bonneville where I would just lose power and it would just come back in. It happened to be a clogged fuel pump. It normally happens if you let your gas tank run too low . the pump is forced to suck in the dirty gas at the bottom of the tank where all of the impurities normally settle and that might cause the pump to get clogged. Im not saying this in the problem you are having but its the same symptoms that my car showed and cause it was just a clogged fuel pump a cel never tripped

Sounds like limp mode. When the CVT transmission gets too hot from hard driving, it will sometimes activate a safety feature that will not allow it to run higher then like 2k rpms, or it goes "limp". Next time this happens take into consideration if you have been driving the car hard, or using manual mode a lot and accelerating hard.

I have the same problem driving uphill in sport mode. If it's in 6th "gear", the revs won't go past 2300. However, when I change it to 5th, I can go all the way up to red line. Like the 1st guy replying said, its probably a safety feature to stop the CVT from overheating.

All I'm going to say is:
That's why I drive standard (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Ok, I'll say some more:
Sorry to hear that you're having these issues. Hope you figure out whether it's a defect or it's just the way it is.

if its a safety issue.... who the hell is Mitsubishi to tell me how hard i can drive my car.. lol I'm with Rox on this one.. sorry for offtopic and good luck. I would take it to a dealer just to make sure it is nothing serious.

That is the reason why the made Evolution x,if all lancer can be driven as fast and hard as evo no one will purchased an Evolution (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

i dont know what you talking about, i drive my lancer like its a ferrari (IMG:style_emoticons/default/gunsmilie.gif)

+1
It's all about what's in your head, not under the hood. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhahahahaha.

I research information on Limp Mode, from the data i found and if your driving very hard, the ECU gets a temp reading from the tranmission and puts it into safety mode ( limp Mode) basicly it limping untill it recovers! something keep you from burning up the transmission and good for Mitsubishi 10yrs/100,000 warranty claim. maybe installing a Heavy duty tranimission cooler will cure this problem some what ??? please feel free to comment ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/banana.gif)