Daily drivers in Peru - Mazda 3 and Discovery 3 (LR3)

Re:subie 

atleast head gaskets are easy to ship flat-rate DHL? 

The 3 ltr head gaskets are supposedly not as bad... but I have still seen a few stories of timing chains and various other Subaru issues that make me wary!  Not least of that is that it's got a slushbox hung off it, and it's $2k-$2.5k more than the Mazda, and running costs would be higher..

On that note, last night I dived out early, hastily promising to SWMBO that I'd be back "as soon as possible".

In 14 minutes from getting the tools out, we had this, 1 LCA:

Sadly after that, things went like normal, another 45 minutes to swap the rear bushing over and get it back on the car.  I pinged a message to SWMBO saying 35 minutes more..  and the other side was worse, of course.  Not very impressed with the fitting hardware, Whiteline your washers are made of cheese, and I had to chase the thread on one bolt as the end was damaged .

A quick comparison pic:

Still, just under 2 hours after starting it was all done:

Hmmm, as I mentioned before, I'm running our of room at the front of the arch, I'm going to have to watch that....:

Neat thread. Thanks for sharing.

I really hate myself sometimes.  So, got that lot done, and finally today went got out to drive.  It was drizzling. Here in Lima the roads are covered in muck, be it mud, or various fluids (mostly from cars), and it doesn't rain often to clean it.  This means that when it does rain it gets very slippy.

Off I toddled, and it was feeling pretty good. Then, at the first opportunity to have a play, weee.. oh, no, damn FWD.  Next one, got a little run on it to carry some speed (note the roads are fairly empty), and...*sigh* FWD.  From then all I could think off was *berkeleying FWD*.

If I was somewhere where I was often driving quicker flowing roads, then yes, I can enjoy FWD.  Here it's 90% low speed, low grip, exactly what I hate for FWD and love for RWD.  I think no matter what I do to this, I'm always going to have moments like this, just because the driving wheels aren't at the end I prefer..

I reckon I ought to put a for sale ad up and see if I get any bites.  Problem is Mazda's depreciate horribly here, there are currently 2 up for sale, same year (ish) and spec, one is $7400, the other $7100, and they don't have the clearcoat issues mine has, although they will also still be on their worn out suspension, engine mounts, etc.  On the plus side, SWMBO will be happy if it goes - for some reason she has never liked it (although said nothing until after the purchase...), and I can take my time finding a replacement as I'm likely to be working from home until the end of the year, and we've got the Discovery.  I've been making up excuses to take the Mazda out once a week just to put some miles on it - until the kids go back to school/I go back to the office I've no *need* for my own car (want is a different matter of course!)... The only options to replace it that would get the green light from both SWMBO and I would be an E46 or a Pathfinder R50..

I realised there's precious little (none) motorsport in this thread.  I happened upon an old low quality onboard from many years ago, competing in a (very tight) Slalom in my old 200k mile AW11 which made me chuckle.   NSFW, swearing as I mess up the first 180 around a cone.  Skip forward to 1:20, for the start, underwear change needed at 2:17 ish. 

...and an Autosolo at Silverstone in my MX5, sliding everywhere..

Well, the decision whether or not to sell the Mazda has been decided for me, it's staying for the foreseeable future as all the savings are going on a house.  We're finally (assuming no last minute snags) going to be moving out of the apartment and getting a house.  Huge financial commitment obviously, but it'll be a lot better for everyone, especially the kids.  It also means we get two garages/car ports so I can finally do most stuff on the cars without having to go down to the workshop, and I'll have some space to set up storage and a workbench (on the 3rd floor, but better than nothing!).

I've been tweaking front and rear alignment a bit on the Mazda, and now I'm a lot happier with it's handling, although I'd still like to improve turn in (as always).  I also need to think about programming time to change the rear trailing arm on the passenger side, which has been pending for over a year..

One of the other things I'm looking forward to when we move, is getting my jet washer out of storage, and cleaning up the underside of both cars...

I finally got the new front brake discs (rotors) on the Discovery:

I got a little bit of spending money recently, and I've been faffing trying to decide what to buy..  I had ordered a pair of headlights for the Mazda for a good price (passenger side has a burnt/damaged reflector in the projector housing), but there's been a problem and they wanted an extra $75 for shipping on the order, so I cancelled it.  I can either (all car bits are for the Mazda):

1)Order a single headlight from Rockauto, and bushes for the front subframe.

2)Order bushes for the front subframe (I've got a creak/crack from the rear mounts), steering rack (while I'm in there), and rear control arm (inboard bushing is a bit tired), plus upstream O2 sensor, and a few other other bits and bobs from Rockauto.

2a)Order bushes for the front subframe (I've got a creak/crack from the rear mounts), steering rack (while I'm in there), and rear control arm (inboard bushing is a bit tired), plus camber correction bushes for the rear (still too much negative camber on the rear, especially driver's side).

3)Order upstream O2 and a few other bits from Rockauto, and spending the rest on tools and materials - a 5" vice, timber to build a workbench, a new drill (my old died at the start of the year, and I bought a cheapo), a bunch of drill bits, etc

4)Order a rear sway bar from amazon

5)Order an RC car (probably an FTX Zorro) to play with the kids, although I already have an ECX Circuit (upgraded to brushless) and a TL01 with a few bits.

6)Order an RC Heli (Blade 120S or XK EC124).

If all things go to plan, however, I'm going to be a bit busy for the next few weeks, between sorting out our apartment, and the new place..  With that in mind, option 3) is looking most likely/sensible, although I am getting bored with being sensible....

I say 3 if the other maintenance stuff is something you can put off.  The RC with the kids sounds fun though, maybe just get them an inexpensive one?

Well guess what - the sellers of the house were time-wasters.  After meeting their asking price we had an agreement, we started all the lawyer stuff and after exchanging initial documents, it all went suspiciously quiet.   First of all, an "inconvenience" with some local council paperwork, then health issues with the husband, then cell issues (turned off / not answering for over a week), then some relative passed away, etc etc.  We finally called them on it, and eventually were told a % of the house is in the name of one of their offspring.  Said offspring is a local politician (sorry, not a fan of politicians in general, especially here), and has decided he doesn't agree with the price, and they want an extra $70k on top of the agreed price.  So we told 'em where to go, and had to swallow the lawyers fees.

On the upside, we've found another place which is *much* bigger.  We've got an agreement with the sellers (again), but we know there will be a delay of a couple of months at least as one of the 5 siblings (owners) is in the USA. 

It's a very short walking distance to the main office for my work, and the in-laws.  It has a huge (by Lima standards) garage, enough for 3 cars comfortably, big house and not a bad garden (again by Lima standards).  Obviously there's a downside - it's a fixer-upper.  It was lived in by an older couple, and has been empty for around 18 months.  Basic structure is sound, and appears well built in the boom years of the 80s, however being empty so long hasn't done it any favours - it needs new bathrooms/showers/kitchen, plus paint, fixings etc, and water tank/pump (bigger houses have a water tank to protect against outages which were very common (and still can happen every few months).   This one has a big concrete tank on the roof which 1) has a big crack in the tank 2)needs lots of maintenance 3) weighs a lot.  That'll need to come out and will be replaced with a modern plastic tank.  

Just to keep me busy, several boxes arrived recently - O2 sensor for the Mazda (changed, currently showing a decent MPG improvement according to the onboard, will see how it is after a tank of fuel), special unobtanium oil for the LR3 transfer case, CHF11S for the steering, a repair kit for the fuel filler flap (broken latch), then a Rockauto box with Moog tie rod and TRE for the Mazda, Lemforder anti-roll bar endlinks, PAS fluid, and a cabin air filter.  That little lot ought to keep me busy, along with pending DIY on the apartment...

So, that house...  5 siblings own it.  2 in Peru, 2 in the US and 1 in the UK.  They haven't actually got the paperwork ready, in spite of what we were told back in October.  1 in Peru wants to sell using a Realtor, 1 in Peru doesn't.  The 2 in the US don't need the money and have basically said "we're not interested in getting off our arses", the 1 in the UK has everything ready and just wants it sold.  So basically 4 of the 5 are all at odds with each other, and we've started looking again

Cars.  LR3 fuel filler flap fixed, we now have a fuel flap that doesn't flap open for the first time in 3 years... 

Mazda tie rod and end changed, fairly straightforward job, although now it seems like there is some excess lash in the rack/pinion interface, and the seals are just starting to weep (slightly damp inside the bellows, nothing major though).  New end links fitted, and cabin air filters changed.

For reference, I changed the cabin filters last year, this is what 1.5 years in the air of Lima looks like, Mazda first:

...and the LR3, changed 12 months ago - in real life it looks worse but it is still better than the Mazda, I guess having the intake that much higher up helps..

I'm still debating getting rid of the Mazda, purely to get something RWD / 4x4 (and possibly safer, the non-side airbag 3 isn't great in a side impact, and worse in a rear impact).  The problem is anything will involve dealing with more idiots, and will also need a cash injection of $1k-$2k, assuming anything I get needs most things (cooling system, bushings, etc)

This is tempting, an E46 323i, especially if the 59k kms are real, it'd give some time before needing to reinforce/repair the bootfloor:

https://neoauto.com/auto/usado/bmw-323-i-1998-1576974

The '08 Legacy 3.0r is still up for sale, and a couple of VQ Pathfinders which are vaguely interesting.

There's also a couple of E36s, but the safety aspect with carrying the kids is a big concern.

A year or so after buying the cam cover gasket, I finally got around to changing it, only the 1 pic though:

The new AC clutch I got from Amazon a couple of months ago is squealing.  I popping the cover off and found the bearing is spewing grease out.  Marvellous, obviously a top quality bearing.  I cleaned it all up and have ordered an NSK bearing.  When that arrives I'll press whatever is left out of the clutch and install with a new belt (something else I've not gotten around to installing!)

I figure it makes more sense to stick with the Mazda considering how much I've put into it recently, and use the extra we would have used to replace it to do some preventative maintenance on the LR3 as that needs to be kept working.  It's got 230,000 kms on it now. At some point in it's prior life it had a dubious repair to the radiator.  I'm thinking it would be a good time to do a pre-emptive radiator replacement, I'd like to do the thermostat too, but it's only available as part of the entire hose assembly, LandRover only - over $200.  I shall ponder that one.   Bushes in the front lower wishbones are starting to get sloppy again (70,000 kms on those), and the top rear wishbones (they were cheapos around the same time), I'm considering going poly this time.  Finally the rear dampers don't do much damping these days, a pair of B4s are $200, B6s over $400.  Lots of money....

Ok, so LR3 maintenance.  Last Sunday we went over to the in-laws, I loaded up the boot with everything, and got stuck in.

"Sealed for life" transfer box fluid, yuk:

..and the new stuff waiting to go in:

Then it was time to get onto the front anti-roll bar bushes.. I knew they were well over due, but...  What a surprise, Sr bodge-it has been there before, both sides had a chunk of steel wedged behind part of the bush to try and put some pre-load on them..

New bush, old bush, lump of steel:

Then it was engine oil and filter, and re-calibrating the transfer box clutch.  After that it's a lot smoother, much less slack in the driveline and much smoother and quicker to react.  We shall see how long it lasts!  I've just been pricing up radiators -cheapest reasonable aftermarket rad is around $180, then plus $200 in shipping

Hats off to Rockauto and DHL - order placed lunchtime Tuesday and delivered this morning (remembering I'm down in Peru).

This time a bunch of bits for the Mazda (rear control arms, rear track rods, lower engine mount, front brake flexi) plus a MAF for the Disco3, difficult to get a definitive answer, but hopefully my Googlefu was good enough to cross reference the part numbers.  OE is Denso, but all my normal parts suppliers for Landy bits were offering Land Rover branded at huge cost or alternative aftermarket brands.  Considering replacing the Denso MAF on the Mazda has seen good gains in responsiveness and MPG, I figured I'd throw $65 at the Landy to try.  Currently waiting on shipping quotes for the radiator from my UK suppliers, although I may wait a bit as here in Lima we've once again been put on lockdown (from Sunday)- no ICU beds left, the hospitals are overflowing, and still no vaccine here - looking at next month at the earliest, and you can bet the first doses go to all the politicians.

I decided to throw an extra coat of Rustoleum on the control arms before they go on the car, hopefully I can do that Saturday afternoon before we all get locked down.

Changed the MAF on the Landy last night, drove it over to the in-laws today and wow, a decent difference in smoothness and a lot more performance from it, and that was on LPG - on petrol it ought to be even better.  Very happy with that! I'll be interested to see how the fuel consumption goes.

Well I managed to find a bit of time to get that lot fitted on the Mazda, the engine mount and the track rods were totally shot.  No real issues getting it done, save for one bolt that just didn't want to line up (there's always one, right? )

Control arms, a bit scraggy but not as bad as I thought:

Yuk, all the tie control arm bushes were shot, the photo doesn't show quite how bad they were:

Nasty lower engine mount that I'd filled with PU about a year ago...Problem is everything was separating, including all the original bushing from the metalwork..

With all this COVID malarky and being on lockdown here, without going into details, our kids are suffering a bit.  Both kids love the beach, and the eldest has recently lost her fear of the sea and loves it too (so far).  She's been having a few issues of late, and so we booked her in for a few horse riding classes to see if she liked it - she loved it and wants more.  Cool (if expensive).   I used to surf (badly), but with young kids it took a back seat and I was debating selling my longboard.  Thankfully I kept procrastinating, and now SWMBO actually suggested getting back to it and trying seeing if the eldest fanciest it too.  Her face lit up instantly and declared that yep, she'd love to try it.

With that in mind I said the first thing to learn is looking after your gear (so to speak), so wetsuit washing in cold water and hanging up.  Then dig the board out.  Poor old thing was well used (abused) when I got it, and hadn't been that well repaired, so we got to work sanding down various dings.  Of course she got bored fairly quickly, I then got on with it a Pisco Sour to fuel the process, and I've  still got quite a bit to do:

In reply to paul_s0 :

Not doing poly bushing for these rear suspension bits?  Or adjustable toe arms?  - https://thmotorsports.com/5233148-megan-racing-mrs-mz-0270-toe-arms?utm_source=google&utm_medium=surfaces&utm_campaign=shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgomBBhDXARIsAFNyUqM8bd016w4D21HC4plqmxuEnF57TWjyd7lruOSdK6EfWybwZtnfhjIaAuBsEALw_wcB

I thought about poly bushes for the control arms, but the way the rear suspension moves through all 3 planes, I'd be worried about binding, and I'd actually rather have the compliance of rubber given the state of the roads around here.  At the end of the day, the control arm's adjustment can adjust toe (and to some extent camber at the same time ), next on the list is probably some camber arms.  Having got that lot fitted, and the toe somewhere handy, I've got more negative camber on the back than I'd like (purely measured with the mk1 eyball).  I'm torn between some cheap camber arms, or the adjustable bushes in the standard arms.

paul_s0 said:

Changed the MAF on the Landy last night, drove it over to the in-laws today and wow, a decent difference in smoothness and a lot more performance from it, and that was on LPG - on petrol it ought to be even better.  Very happy with that! I'll be interested to see how the fuel consumption goes.

Drove it again for only the 2nd time since changing the MAF, and I'm very happy, probably the best $60 spent on that thing.  Very smooth when wanting to be smooth (coupled with fresh transfer case fluid and a re-calibration), and, having dropped off the MIL and SWMBO, opened her up from around 20kph to 'highway speeds' and definitely went very well for 6 cyls lugging 2.5 tonnes  I probably ought to look at the O2 sensors in which case...

Here's what $20 camber arms from Rock auto look like, Ultra-Power brand.  To be fair they're better than I thought, and are stamped up with Moog part numbers, pleased to see the clamping bolt is 10.9:

I spent a couple of hours down at the taxi workshop and got them installed, and decided to also change the trailing arm bushing that had been pending for around 18 months    Here are the old bits:

I still need to do a final round of adjustments, but it's pretty close, just the left rear I need to give a little bit of negative camber back, I took a touch too much out of it.

In reply to paul_s0 :

I think you have found the best deal on camber arms for sure! I bought some eBay ones described as being Spec D Tuning brand - $65 for 2.  When I saw this post I ran out to the garage to check the hardware.  Alas, I've got inferior stuff. 8.8. 

Just to update things here... Things have been/are likely to be on hold for a while.  The local currency is plummeting, investors are running scared.  Politics in Peru mean the next president will either be an ultra-left puppet for a group who thinks Venezuela and Cuba are shining economic models (and have links to domestic terrorists), or the daughter of far-right Fujimori, who is universally disliked and has been convicted several times for corruption (but is by far the better option for the economy).  Current polls show the ultra-left are winning (hence the investors running), and they are coming out with pretty alarming rehetoric, their manifesto states such nuggets as: nationalising everything, seizing assets owned by foreigners, state controlled media, internet, confiscating land (and we'd just bought land to build a house), state taking 70% of all private business' profits etc.  Both sides have various investigations/convictions for corruption.  I'm likely to put the Mazda up for sale to try and and get what I can for the Mazda, and park that money for flights if it becomes necessary - we may have to leave in a hurry.  A shame after all the work that's gone into it recently, but... bigger picture.

Dang, I came in hoping for good news on your house search...That's scary stuff. Remind me: why are you in Peru? I assume it's related to your line of work, but I don't recall the specifics. 

Very scary.  SWMBO is Peruvian, I agreed to try over here after she was having trouble feeling at home in the UK, plus work.  Before all this broke (the left wing guy came out of nowhere), we'd just bought land, done all the planning with the architect, and the licence to build should be being issued in a few weeks.  Schedule was to be in the new-built house (with v.small workshop but better than the kitchen table!) by Xmas this year (4 months outer shell, 2 months internals/fittings, 1 month contingency).  Hey -ho.  Maybe Fujimori will win..

So, the Mazda is up for sale.  At the moment the surveys are showing a dead heat between the 2 presidential candidates, so goodness knows what will happen.  Local currency is still tanking though, and will stay that way until/unless the right-wing candidate wins (election is next Sunday, 6th June).

If the right-wing folk win, and thus the economy doesn't crash, the house project is moving forwards, currently speccing a few bits with the architect prior to starting construction, and I've gone back to thinking of getting an E36.. Not helped there is a very tidy looking 328i M spec 4 dr for sale, VIN number checks out as being a factory M optioned car, the only real mods seem to be an LSD  and some lowering springs .  It's actually a little more than I'd likely get for the Mazda, but I am very tempted.....There's another 328i non-M car for $2k less, but it generally seems less cared for..Though $2k buys a lot of spares!  Plus 2 Legacy 3.0Rs, one $500 more than the good E36, one $1800 more.  Both autos though...

At the moment the president appears to be trying to distance himself from the more extreme elements, and last week got the ultra-left foreign minister to resign, so now we have moderates as the economy minister and foreign minister, and the economy is picking up a bit.  Fingers crossed things continue in this way.

So, far away from all the scary real-world stuff like politics and property prices, the Disco has had a radiator waiting to be fitted for over a month now.  It needs doing whether we stay or go.  Each time I've tried to get round to it something has come up.  Finally on Saturday I had a chance, so after finishing work at lunchtime, I got down there (and then again on Sunday)

All I can say is what a horrible job.   Made worse by not being able to get hold of a suitably sized viscous fan spanner, I had to do it with fan (and hence lower cowl) in situ.  However, regardless of that, every single fitting had stuff obstructing it.

This is one of the main mounting bolts, doesn't look sooo bad from this angle?

This is how it actually is from more or less directly above.  Under the wiring loom is a steel bracket, completely obscuring access.  The bolt is recessed in the plastic housing, meaning you can't get a ring spanner or a ratchet directly onto a socket.  Ratchet on extensions with a UJ only worked for half a turn, then it was an open ended spanner for 1/8 of a turn at a time. 

The other side is worse - I've angled the pic so you can at least see the bolt...

One of the various AC condensor bolts with no access:

Nearly there... took 3.5 hours to get it out

Yuk... Note the inlet for the top hose - it had turned powdery at the very end, and as I touched it with my finger half of it fell off...

Shiny new radiator in it's hole..

It took 3.5 hours to get the old one out, then around 4 hours to get the new one in, filled, bled and then the transmission topped up.  No photos, but the ZF box has to be filled with the engine on.  The filler plug is just above the exhaust.  I have various burns up my arm.... I love working on this thing..

Now I just need to get it's oil&filter change done, and change the bushes in the front lower wishbones... (again).   This set lasted 50k kms (not the 70k I thought, having checked), not too bad on these roads..

I'm a bit worried about the state of the cooling hoses - they all felt rather soft.   It's the best part of $280 for the assembly of top/bottom hose and stat..

Trying to do stuff in Peru.  Ignoring all the scary stuff, I ordered the thermostat/cooling hose assembly for the Landy.  It's over $200 so it's notifiable to customs, ok, I know I'm going to have to pay this time.   Package arrives in customs here.  "Sorry sir, but either because of the value or the number of imports you've done, you now need to register as a company.  If you don't you need to arrange for the goods to be returned or they'll be declared as abandoned in 15 days".  Berk.  Jump through the hoops of trying to register as a company, and it's rejected - when they check my ID card against the online database, the date of emission isn't the same - Immigrations have registered the date I picked up the card NOT the date of issue on the card  The only way to sort it is a new card, which will take at least several weeks (last time was 2 months), then apply again to be registered as a business.  No chance of getting it done in time.  I can't even start the process, as I need to go to the "Banco de la nacion" to pay S/40 to register the application, the nearest one is about 40 minutes away, and you can easily loose half a day in the queue, so it means a day off work.  

I've now emailed the supplier asking them to arrange the return, and refund me whatever is left after that.  The fun bit is there were another 2 orders on the way (transmission oil for the Landy, impossible to get here), plus some Dr Tranny additive as it's just started a judder from the TC and a top strut mount for the Mazda (it's popping and clanking).  Cancelled the additive and re-ordered in my wife's name (but without the strut mount).  Crossing my fingers the transmission oil comes under the radar as it's not notifiable to customs (under $200), otherwise I'll have an issue..