Haven't updated this thread in a little while. So, here are a couple notes:
- This winter in Raleigh, we had a little snow storm that was referred to as "Snowmageddon".... basically we had around a foot of snow dumped on us in an afternoon. I happened to be on one of the major highways when the snow started.... we had instant gridlock. Cars suddenly became stationary, as they struggled to climb the slightest incline in the snow, which backed up the entire highway. People were abandoning their cars in the middle of the highway and walking home. It looked like the show "The Walking Dead", with snow. The Governor of NC got on the news and implored people not to abandon their cars, that it was a major safety issue, etc... it was an incredible sight. For me, it was much easier... I put my Montero in 4H, and drove around wherever I pleased. It was a superstar. For the Montero, it was as if it was a normal day, it just gripped and gripped and gripped, no matter the surface. I happened to have the day off work that day, so I picked up a buddy of mine, and the two of us spent the entire day driving around Raleigh towing people out of embankments, up hills, off kerbs, turning their cars around, etc (I always keep tow straps and so on in my truck). At one point we saw a group of stranded BMW's and made a beeline towards them so we could pull them out... only to get chased off by a small herd of little Jeep Wranglers that were having fun pulling people out too... we were out-numbered (4 to 1), so we had to let them have the prize. Like hyenas chasing a leopard off the kill... anyway, Snowmageddon was a lot of fun for me and the Montero. Very impressive in those conditions.
- A few months ago, I bought a whole set of LED light bulbs, and attempted to swap them all out of the truck's interior, starting with the cluster. I found that the LED's were generally poorly assembled, so I had to adjust the contact wires on many of the LED's, and tested each and every LED bulb with a car battery and alligator clips in the kitchen... saw quite a few stars that evening! After installing, testing and removing the cluster a few times, I realized there was a resistance issue with the LED's... so I had to swap out some of the bigger LED's for regular incandescent bulbs... but of course, some were dead, so I had to test each one of those on the car battery... it got old real fast. Eventually, I ran out of patience, discarded the Cool Factor, and ordered a bunch of new incandescent bulbs. Waited a few days for them arrive, and then found that half of the new bulbs had bigger bases than the factory bulbs...!!!!! Son of a... it was sloppy casting of the glass when the bulbs were manufactured. So... had to hand-file some of them to get them to fit into the cluster. Once that was all done, all the bulbs worked perfectly and the cluster is bright and clear. Much better. What a pain in the ***.
- Recently did an oil change. Mobil1 was on sale at the O'Reilly's down the road for $6/qt, so I bought some Mobil1 5w30. Being a long-time German car guy, I couldn't help myself and bought an Austrian-made Mahle oil filter in the supposedly-correct part number... only to find out (as I was laying under the Montero doing the oil change) that the new fancy filter was too long! I could tell that I wouldn't have the clearance from other parts of the truck to be able to get the oil filter wrench on and off the new filter. So... I had to jump in my wife's truck and make my way back to O'Reilly's to see what filters they had on the shelf. I ended up with a Mobil1 104 filter... a very pricey filter at $13, but I just don't have the knowledge on common Montero parts brands to confidently choose between Wix, Fram, Bosch, etc, and I had already removed the old oil and old filter, so I had to have something right away. It looks like a good quality filter, and was labelled "Made in the USA" (probably from Chinese components), so I figured I would give it a shot. Next time, I'll probably just order a set of factory Mitsubishi filters and be done with it. Of course, I can see that my old favorite "Mann" also offers an Austrian-made filter....
- Noticed that my fuel consumption has improved slightly now that the weather is warmer. The water temperature is definitely getting up to proper temperature now, with a good horizontal needle, versus the slightly-low sagging needle I saw over the winter. Good thing, coz that 14-15mpg over the winter was getting old.
- My brakes are almost done. I started a separate thread on finding good brake parts... pretty much have decided to go with Akebono ceramic pads and ATE slotted rotors. I'll order those in a week or two and post up as I do them.
- Got a little wobble going, occasionally, in the front end. I think I may have a sloppy ball joint or something. I have to address the brakes first, and then I'm going after that wobble.
