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

Thank you Previous Owner.  Words I've not uttered very often! My 3 has a 'gert big ugly tow hitch fitted, never been used (to tow anything)

Today, in the grey drizzle of Lima's winter, a chap in an early 80's Datsun/Nissan Bluebird thing with bald tyres and no wipers decided to go quicker than his talent. 

I'd spied him in the mirror a half mile previously, weaving in and out of traffic overtaking everyone, then a bus pulled out of the improvised bus stop, straight into lane 2 (the lane I was in), and stopped, blocking lanes 1 and 2.  Me and the 3 cars in front throw the anchors out, and I glance in the mirror and realize there's no way that Bluebird was stopping in time, eased up on my brakes to go as close as possible to the car in front and give the Bluebird maximum space, but it still wasn't enough. THUNK into the back of the Mazda it clonks.  I jump out and see his bumper up against the tow hitch.  Couldn't see any damage, and the boot opened ok.  The other guy refused even to get out let alone offer to make good any damage, so I jumped in and headed off too. 

When I got to work I found it wasn't entirely undamaged- scratches on the bumper and underneath where a brace goes is slightly bent, but that can be bent back without any problem.  Thank you ugly tow hitch for preventing the bumper getting destroyed.  Hey ho, the joys of driving here.

2 weeks ago I managed to get the new compressor on the LR3, and no more BOING "Air Supply Failure" since then.  I did notice the transmission shifting a bit harder than before a couple of times when I drove it last week though, I'd better get some unicorn tears on order and figure out when I can change transmission fluid.  That and those heater hoses that are weeping occasionally due to the LPG installation..

Sending you a PM

I would appear to have a magnet for trouble in the Mazda.  About a week after the that incident, more stress cracks have appeared in the paint on the bumper, so that's annoying, and ugly.

Then, yesterday, a white SUV hit the door whilst the Mazda was parked, and obviously buggered off.   Came back to the car to find it.   No cameras, no one saw anything, nada.  Doesn't show up very well in the photo, but it's also dented, on the rubbing strip.  This morning went to look a bit more, it's even bent the side impact bar/reinforcement beam inside.  Have pushed the dent out mostly now, and spent 10 minutes with some t cut to get some of it out, but it's taken paint off, and will need painting - along with the rear bumper, passenger mirror (motorbike in traffic), and various other bits where the painter from 3 years ago put the paint on too thick and over time it's cracked.

...and last week, driving down a 2 lane at night, a trench dug across the road, square sides, I'd guess about 6" deep.  I was only doing 40kph, but with all the oncoming glare (everyone fits aftermarket HID bulbs in Halogen housing) you can't see holes until you're in the them, and I had solid traffic in the other lane.  Impact was enough that phone went flying out of it's holder, one bent rim (this is after some time straightening it a bit).  I'd imagine the tyre has internal sidewall damage, although there's nothing visible.  These ECS' have only a couple of months left in them, so it's not so bad, I guess.

aaaaaannnd I just got hit again, combi in traffic just drove into the back of me at low speed.   Impaled on the Mazda's tow hitch, no (additional) visible damage.  That's 3 in 3 weeks, hopefully the last one....... There had been 2 previous attempts this morning, one truck forced me off the Panam onto the shoulder (he swerved from lane 2 across to take an exit without indicating as I was already alongside), and a bus doing around 10 kph pulled straight into lane 2 from an on slip as I was doing a steady 70 in lane 2, traffic to my offside so it was a full emergency stop, thankfully nothing hit me from behind (this time).

3rd gen 4runners have metal bumpers, right?

Oh what to do... the 3 needs new tyres (I've put the ECSs on the back to try and get a little more time out of them).   I need to decide on it's future, made a bit more pressing as I need to do my ~1k kms trip through the highlands in a month or so.  If I don't replace it before then, I'm going to need to buy tyres.  If I do replace it, it needs to be soon to check over/do preventative maintenance to whatever I get.

E60 525i Auto, 114k kms $8700

Reliability?  BMW problems? ZF Auto box worries?  It's fairly low mileage, so maybe some time before issues (the ZF in the LR3 didn't start with issues until 200k kms, and had never had a fluid change until 150k, and before we got it, had been used hard for high speed 12-14 hour trips in high temps and those 10 hour trips climbing the Andes).  How would E60s/E90s cope with the bad roads I frequent?  Many don't have a spare do they?

E90 330i Auto, 75k kms $9000

Same as the above, bit smaller, bit quicker, even lower kms.

2000 Pathfinder (VG33) 5MT base spec, ugly aftermarket rims, odd tailpipe, 235k kms $7000

2000 Pathfinder (VG33) Auto, LSD rear, looks well cared for ??? kms $8900

2008 Outback 3.0R 5EAT, 114k kms, looks well cared for $8800

Auto Pathfinders with higher mileage/23 yrs of age concern me, as there are a fair few documented autobox failures at higher mileages., and I can't just go to a breakers and get a replacement box here, but maybe I'm worrying over a small risk?  The 5MT Pathfinder appeals, but that particular example looks a bit too locally modified, I'd have to set aside $500-$700 to find some decent wheels too.. There's another 5MT VG33 Pathfinder, but it has 350k kms and he's asking $9000 for it (!), or a 5MT VQ35 Pathfinder, less than 100k kms but $12,000 (!!).

The low mileage E60 / E90 are appealing, even knowing full well about the BMW ownership experience, but I'm not sure how they'd cope with the beat up roads here. 

There's also several 6 cyl WJs for around $7k (do I want another WJ?), and a few Mazda 5s around the $9k mark, but all the 5s here were only sold with the 2.0MZR / Auto combination, so somewhat slow.  I do know the platform though, and I could swap over some of the good bits (rear bar, rear Bilsteins, MAF, O2 sensors with less than 10k kms on them etc).  Don't think SWMBO would agree though, she's not a fan of the mini van..

That 3rd gen 4runner (the only one for sale in all of Peru at the moment), the seller isn't the registered owner, and it's had a new radiator and all new fluids.. What is one of the more well known failure modes? Ah yes, transmission oil cooler failure, when it happens folk throw a new rad and fluids in, and try to sell it before the transmission fails..

Sensible option would be an 8th gen Accord, big, safe, comfy, reliable (2.4/5MT), there's a few around the $9k mark, but....I fancy something more interesting... This time next year I'll probably still be thinking about it

In reply to paul_s0 :

Would there be any issues with attracting attention in something like a bmw?

I would avoid the bmw due to parts cost and the fact that they eat through bushings even on good roads. 
 

Personally i think the outback seems to be the most practical. I have a few cars with ej25s and they will run forever(non turbo) if you update the head gaskets and reseal. I don't think the 6 had hg issues 
 

Cheers Mitch.   Attention.. hmmm, not so much, you could be a target in anything really.   The bushing appetite is a good point though, not a reliability issue, but certainly a cost issue.

I knew I was going to need to replace my ECS's soon, as the inside edge is down to the wear bar, I didn't notice the state of the other 2 (Maxxis MAZ4S) which are 6 months older. (5 years old now).  Loads of tread still, however I'm a little concerned by the cracking in between the tread blocks.  I really didn't want to be buying 4 new tyres for this

That red Pathfinder never answered my contact attempts, and the advert has now gone.  That E90 330i has dropped down to $8k, quite a bargain for these parts, and a '07 328i has cropped up for $8500, 60k kms more than the 330i though.  A 5MT VQ engined Pathfinder has also popped up, asking $9200 for it with 200k kms.

I really need to find some time to go and look at some of these, starting with the Outback, but with working 6 days a week and constant kid activities it's a bit tricky!

Guess what, the Mazda continues to stay.  We just had another unexpected financial hit for the kids, so anything needing monthly payments is out for a few years at least.

Right now I need to get up to date on a few things with the Mazda. 

First of is going to be 4 new tyres. 

I'm debating doing a precautionary radiator replacement, as I'm likely to be travelling up through the highlands more this year (starting next month). 

The rear door check straps have defeated the R&R I gave them a year or two back, so for kiddies safety I ought to get those.

I'm also certain the front struts (KYB Excel Gs) are "sub-optimal", and coupled with the newish B4s on the back, is contributing to the choppiness.  I also think the damper shaft on the drivers side is slightly worn - I've tried 2 different new (genuine) bearings in the strut tops, and can't get rid of a slight amount of play that side.  When I got it, the strut top mounts/bearings were badly installed. I'll see if I can factor in some B4s for the front.   I'd like to hoover up some MS3 front springs too, to balance things up a bit, but that is a "nice to have" and will have to wait. The bump stops on the rear dampers have disintegrated, so I ought to look at those. 

Motor mounts - the lower e-focus mount I fitted a few years back has failed (Dorman, not OE), the rubber has ripped.  I've slapped some local composite in there for the minute and have just ordered a genuine Ford mount.   Passenger side mount (genuine Mazda changed a couple of years back), is loosing the fight, it's sat on it's rubber travel limiters, and leaning back towards the firewall.  That can wait a bit longer though.

Back of the car moving around (WRT to structural rigidity, not oversteer)- I'm trying to source some off cuts of rectangular stock to fabricate a bar for the boot area.  I've seen some designs which sit almost flush to the floor and folk have noted an increase in rigidity. 

I'm going to try and look into some cost-effective ways of dampening some of the road noise, especially in the back seats.  Tyre drone makes it difficult for my daughter to participate in conversations. (Changing the worn Maxxis should help too).  I did strip the rear arches a year or so ago, treated it all with rust convertor, paint, then bed liner.  It actually helped a bit with the drone.  I'm inclined to get some underseal and try it (after cleaning it all up and making sure there's no chips in the bed liner).

To facilitate it's use on longer family trips, I also want to look into roof bars/boxes.  I've some generic roof bars, but they don't clamp so well on the shape of the Mazda's roof.  I figure I'll try and hoover up some Mazda specific feet for generic rectangular bars, a roofbox I can source locally.

The Disco3. It needs the front timing chain (if it sits for more than a day, I need to pull the fuel pump fuse and prime the oil first).  I'm hoping to hoover up the front timing chain, primary tensioner, some timing tools plus all the gaskets etc next month, then I need to carve out a few days for the job. I'm also intending to hoover up the heater hoses, plus generic  heater hose and vacuum hose to redo the last of the horrors of the LPG installation.  I'll install the tees in the main heater lines at the FRONT of the engine, not behind the passenger cyl head there's plenty of space, and that way any future maintenance won't necesitate removal of the inlet manifold/plenum.

Argh, lots of money!

In reply to paul_s0 :

I very much relate to this. Sequoia was totaled 6 weeks ago now and I still haven't decided what to buy. 
 

6 weeks? you've loads of time, I'm going on 6 years of indecision

Those tyres are still waiting to go on, difficult to find a spare hour or two at the moment.  I've also just gone and placed a $300 order with RockAuto (well, over half is shipping cost), radiator, hoses, filters are inbound.

I failed to mention that the Sister In Law borrowed the Discovery when we were away at the beach over New Year, and left the lights on, until I went to try and start it 2 days later... Got it going with a jump start, but even after a 2 hr drive, the battery was dead (thankfully I'd fuelled up both tanks on the trip to the beach so could get back without stopping).  Tried to revive it but no good, 2 dead cells, I'd planned on replacing it in July anyway (local battery, they've all died (3rd one) within 24 months of installation).  

So, we had a 2023 Kia Sportage GT Line turbo diesel with the 6 speed manual as a hire car for 10 days in the UK.

I thought I’d write up my thoughts on it.   I did a mixed bag of driving in it, some motorway, some narrow country lanes, some quick single lane stuff too.

I’ll be honest, it’s more negatives than positives, but I reckon it’d be similar for most modern vehicles, there are many things that most moderns have/are that I just dislike.

The controls.  I’m starting with the negatives…I hate the nannies.  I’m sorry, I do.  The engine start/stop I had to disable everytime time I started the engine.  The lane control/steering assistance was intrusive and horrible, I also had to turn it off every start.   Collision avoidance.  Awful/dangerous.  On a narrow country lane it nearly caused the car behind to hit us (he was following to closely to be fair).  I think it thought the oncoming car was going to hit us (it wasn’t; we were each on our sides of the road, but it was narrow), and it slammed the brakes on.   Probably 2 dozen or more other times it activated on the approach to roundabouts, without cause.  Just judging the gap and when the car(s) in front would join – not even enough to activate the human collision alarm (my wife is a very nervous passenger and will shout whenever we’re vaguely close to anyone).  Bonkers.

Right, having ranted.. The rest of the interior was decent, didn’t have any issues with the seats (I didn’t do more than 2.5 hrs in a stint though).  I dislike the trend for non-round steering wheels (this had a big flat section on the bottom).  Heated seats and steering wheel were nice in the cold temps.  Speedometer very clear, but I don’t like the digital tacho (1.9x1000 rpm is not want I want to see).

I was surprised road noise at speed wasn’t really any better than my 15 yr old Mazda.  Like most modern stuff I found the suspension overly stiff and crashy without any handling benefit.

Interior space.  For passengers, great, no complaints.  Interior storage wasn’t great for the size of vehicle.  Boot space was limited considering the size of the vehicle.  I reckon if the rear screen was 5 or 10 degrees more vertical, you’d gain a lot more usable boot space.  Storage pockets under the boot floor were nice for dirty kids shoes.

Mechanicals.  Engine felt quite responsive – from 2000-3000 rpm.  Outside of that, not at all.   I got this with a 6 speed manual.  I’m a manual die-hard, I dislike automatics.  This could have been an auto and I think it would have been better to be frank.  The ratios didn’t match the powerband, the shifter was clunky without any feel.  Obviously all the controls were very light, as is the trend.  Brakes were very grabby (over assisted).  Handling? No idea.  It gripped enough for the situations I drove in, but never communicated anything.

I'd been putting it off a while, but finally this weekend the Mazda got 1)oil and filter change, and 2)new radiator and hoses.  I figure that seeing as it's got nearly 16 years of heat cycles on it, and the state of the LR3 radiator when I changed it 2 years ago, it was a good idea for peace of mind.

It should have been simple, but the damn hose clamps made life awkward.  I think the replacement Gates hoses have a fractionally larger OD, which made getting the clamps on the hoses/fitted an absolute nightmare, made worse by not being able to get a good angle in a few places, and the conditions (36 deg C in the shade, and I was mostly in the sun, I was starting to suffer heat stroke and, on a practical note, I couldn't grip things as I was soaking)

So, it should go like this:

Comparing hoses, pretty similar (new hose being a "trim to fit"):

A reasonable amount of space to work with to get the rad out:

Old and nasty:

Cheap but new:

Everything was straightforward, bar those hose clamps.  It would have been an easy 2 hour job otherwise, as it was it took 4 hours, I lost more than an hour on one hose clamp (onto the Tstat housing, limited access).  Fired it all up and let it warm through, seems to have bled itself, no evidence of air bubbles or leaks.   Will see how it goes this week, as next week we're back to doing the school run...

Mazda's all working fine. 

So, I made a decision.  I decided to go and look at this Pathfinder:

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As I made contact one last time to confirm the address, the seller decided he didn't want to sell after all.  Sigh.

Then I faffed more, and decided to look at this Outback 3.0R:

...but the seller stopped responding after saying I could go and see it, so I also haven't gone to see that.  Maybe I should stop looking at beige/gold cars?

Hmm, how about another WJ??   Oh hell, it's beige/gold too.   I'm not sure I even want to ask....

One of the moments I looked back at the Mazda and thought... it doesn't look too bad.  A hazy morning dropping the kids off at school...

A weekend of lucky escapes..

First of all, Saturday, the water heater isn't heating as it should, check and fine some top quality Chinese QC, which has allowed the breaker to melt before tripping (it never tripped).   It was installed by the heater supplier, I never thought to check the brand... It's now got a Scheider unit fitted (best I can get here, and 3 times the cost of what was installed....):

Come Sunday and I thought I really ought to do the tire rotation on the LandRover (I didn't get chance at the last oil change).  I'm really happy I did, as when I took the left front off, I was greeted by this:

Those are 3 of the 4 bolts that hold the front diff in... 2 were 1/2 -3/4 of the way out, the 3rd was finger loose.  I've not touched anything around there since I put the new diff in, how ever many years ago  (edit, I just checked, nearly 4.5 years ago).. Very very peculiar.  I asked SWMBO if she'd annoyed anyone at work recently.. They went back in with loctite on, and I spent the next half hour crawling around underneath seeing if anything was loose.  Nothing else appeared to be, although I did find the rear propshaft has quite a lot of play in it (front was changed same time as the diff)

Sooo.. I've found something which is a bit of a unicorn, even if it may not be much interest here... a late 2004 R50 Pathfinder, VQ engined and with a manual box..  That would meet most of my requirements for a hopefully-reliable, non-boring replacement for the Mazda that allows family transport..  Fingers crossed I'll be going to look at it on Sunday...It's been for sale for a while, but overpriced, price has now come down to something reasonable... here's hoping it's decent...

In reply to paul_s0 :

Pretty cool, but is a 21-year-old car the right choice?

I doubt there is a right choice, on our budget / in this market.  I'd toyed with the idea of waiting a year or so and getting a bit more budget, but I'm not sure the Landrover will oblige..

I didn't know Nissan put a VQ in the Pathfinder, 3.0 or 3.5?  That generation was recalled for rusty strut towers, when they go it creates interference with the steering shaft.  My SIL had a really nice SE that got bought back and removed from service.  To bad, we really liked that truck.

The 3.5.  They used the VG33 until 2000 -2001 ish, then put hte VQ35 in.  The grand majority of VQ Pathfinder are automatics, I think in the US they stopped offering the manual from 2003?  As AC mentions, they're all over 20 years old now, with 175k kms - 400k kms, and I've more faith in the manual transmission than the autos with those kms (and I prefer manual).

I had been debating saving up until year end and looking at new stuff, but it's a big financial commitment, and we really need something ASAP (this weekend's fun will be taking the top of the LR3 engine apart, changing cam cover gasket, coolant hoses (need to remove inlet plenum), and another change of ZF unicorn tears in the transmission.   After a cold night / no start for a day or 2, it'll remind me the front timing chain/guides are pending too, which means taking it down for a few days.  Then there's the rear prop, not a big job, but $500 for the prop (plus 30% import duties) and $200 shipping.  Around Lima it's fine, I'm just wary of taking it out of range of recovery/cell phone coverage. 

Of the stuff I'm looking at, there's the Pathfinder for about $500 more than the Mazda´s value, the beige Outback 3.0R at the same price as the Pathfinder (guy has answered now, he was travelling), CX7s for $2k-$3k more, CX9s $3k-$4k more, E60s $1.5k - $2k more, there's an E46 330 manual which solves none of my problems of space but I'd like it, a 2010 Exploder for $3.5k more(maybe I can bulk buy Ford SOHC timing chains/guides?)

So, a busy few days for Paul.  First off, Saturday we blatted down to Paracas in the South for a few days escape with the kids, a nice contrast to Lima, and well worth the 3 hr trip each way.

Having successfully negotiated that trip in the Land Rover, 12 hours after getting back I hopped in the Mazda, for a trip to the highlands for work, hard work but nice scenery:

....with the occasional surprise (zoom in on the taxi's boot):

The trip wasn't without incident - on the ascent, about 15/20 mins before the summit (just over 13,000 fasl) and the mysterious power loss returned, complete loss of power 4 or 5 times, having to coast off the road to not be squashed by a truck.  Engine off, open the fuel cap, big equalizacion of pressure, fire it up, and off we go again for another few kms.  Those last few kms are the steepest, not sure if it is a pressure issue with the tank, or simply the pump giving up (downstream O2 read fully lean each time it occured).    After I reached the summit, it was business as usual (well, for the few remaining bhp at that altitude!).  Aside from that the car did well, but some bits reinforced my SUV plan - 2 bits of road were washed out, on one I had to drive slightly up river to cross (rocky not muddy thankfully), the other one was just very rough.   Lots and lots of pot holes, 6" - 12" deep, managed to avoid all of the deep ones, but it was a bit sketchy on occasion..

Even on my full size screen the back of the taxi is not legible. I don't even recognize the brand vehicle. Has it got a GRM decal?

Sorry about that, it's a fully grown sheep in the back of a Nissan something estate.  Poor thing was about folded double in there, when it poked it's head up I nearly died laughing