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

paul_s0 said:

Good old Landrovers.  Went to get the Disco out on Friday morning for the wife to take to work before heading to the in-laws beach house, and the alternator was whining (note, different whine to the cold start whine, that appears to be the idler pulley, I did have the required 6203 2RS bearing in stock, but I need to find it).   ****After work yesterday I went and checked the Landy, and the alternator isn't charging - 11.4V at idle, at 3000rpm 12.1V, all that with no load, turn the lights on and it's even worse.  Whipped it off in case it was anything daft like a stuck brush, but it looks like the diode pack is fubared.

The offending alternator (including obligatory shot of a foot - it's still 25 deg C even at night here now, it's a bit warm for spannering)

Reading around the Discovery forums it appears a common failure mode, a whine one day followed by no charge the next.   Obviously nowhere here stocks a Disco3 alternator nor the diodes, so we've just had to lump a considerable sum on the card to DHL an alternator from Rockauto, fingers crossed it arrives this week (last order got here in 3 days).  Unfortunately customs are going to be dipping their finger in on this as it's over $200.

***

....and it would appear to be time for alternator #3 - 5 years / 40k kms later.   Firing up the Disco 3 in the morning and greeted by loud whining from the area of the alternator.   It's still charging (for now).. After work I'll take the belt off and make sure it's not a pulley, but my ears tell me it's the alternator again...  That was a Bosch reman, but the only issue *appears* to be bearings.  I reckon I'll try a BBB reman this time ($80 - half price on Rockauto currently) as opposed to $230 plus 30% customs fees, and source bearings for the Bosch.

So.... I took the belt off, and the alternator was definitely a bit noisy.  Ordered the alternator Friday, arrived Monday (well done DHL/Rockauto).   In the interim, we had a leaving party to go to for one of mini-me's classmates..  Leaving do was in Cieneguilla, countryside about an hour East of Lima.   The route there is a bit rough (both in terms of terrain and security), and can have issues, we uhmmed and ahhhed, and agreed to use the Landy as the alternator wasn't too noisy, and was still charging fully.   We did that, no issues, and now the alternator is making no noises and still working 100%.  Hmmm.  I now have a spare alternator.  Looks identical to the Bosch, apart from a different sticker...

Just before my last trip up through the highlands, I slapped 2 new coil packs and all 4 coil/plug boots on the Mazda.  Didn't notice any difference, until I've just calculated my MPG since then, the last 3 fillups have all yielded 10-15% better economy than previously, no other changes, same routes as always, same terrible traffic.   I can only assume the coils were deteriorating.  I really ought to change the coils on the LR3, they've got over 255,000 kms on them now, they've gotten so toasted the plastic has gone brittle, they really must be past their best.  It'd be nice to get them for when I finally get around to changing the heater hoses and passenger side rocker cover gasket, as they all have to come off for that...

Oh my, club level motorsport, here, in Lima.

"Autoslalom" they're calling it.  I may have just found motivation to keep my car and not give up on fun.  Shame I only just stumbled upon it, there was one last Sunday.  Let's see when the next one is, and hope I can get to it..

I just went to look at a CX9 for sale.  I'd decided to bite the bullet and try and spend a bit more to get something newer and lower mileage, and preferably through a dealer so I could leave my Mazda in part ex, even though it's not the best financially, it takes away months of hassle trying to sell it.

So, I enquired after 3 different CX9s, 2 of them took the listings down after I wrote to them, one answered - so I went to look at a 2013 CX9 with supposedly 85,000kms, $12,900.  Looked tidy in the photos.  I get there, and the interior looks a bit more used than I'd expect for the miles, dealer proudly proclaims the tyres are nearly new - they're 3 years old and the right rear has 5 BIG chunks out of the sidewall, can't get to the left side to see.  I tell the dealer it needs 4 new tyres, as at least one is junk.  Open the bonnet.  I see a dampness in the V behind the motor mount bracket - as far as I understand that's one of the weep holes for the infamous water pump.  I see the bolts for the mount bracket are not in the factory original position.  That only needs to come off to change the mount, take the motor out, or take the timing cover off.... Suspicions are rapidly mounting.   Take the oil cap off - mayonnaise in the cap (can't see much inside the cam cover though).   Stick my head underneath, all the underside is dripping, not sure if coolant/water or oil, but I'd seen enough (I was born without a sense of smell, I can't just sniff it to see).  Dealer tried to convince me it was condensation inside the cap.  Maybe it was, but I'd seen enough, with what I'd seen, I'd have to do the water pump to trust it, and if w

I left wondering if it had already had 1 water pump, and it's real mileage was double what it showed, considering the wear on the interior, and the fact that motor mount bracket had already been off.... Waste of my lunch break, hey ho.  I've also got 4 2012-2013 Grand Cherokees saved....Do I give them a try???  Between 90k kms and 140 kms.. Or how about the 2013 Outback 3.6R with 95k kms?  Argh, I hate being so indecisive.

https://www.facebook.com/share/ebGkEwLj5GwMm66c/

Nearly 4 months?  I decided to stick with my 3, bought a new OEM fuel pump and changed it.  Gave my old one to the chap with my old red 3 hatch - he's had loads of trouble, mostly induced by "mechanics" doing unnecessary jobs badly.  One of those was "adapting" an aftermarket pump to work.  But it didn't.  My old one was fine apart from the 10 hr trip through the mountains where it got intermittent (overheating?) 15 mins from the summit, so I fitted my new one (over $500 delivered here) and gave him my old one.   Fixed all his problems.. A month ago my clutch started showing signs of use and the RMS leak worsening, so I imported all of that, then before installing, got a small lump of cash which was unexpected, and has made me go looking at SUVs again. 

Looked at 2 more CX9s, both 2010/2011.  Both around 100k kms.  Both looked and sounded decent, until I crawled underneath.  RUST.  1 was badly rusted in the rockers and rear suspension mounts.  Other one had been undersealed, I didn't notice the rust until my 2nd visit (planning to buy it).  They'd undersealed over the rust, and even the dirt.  The rust I could see wasn't as bad as the other one, but still considerably worse than my (older) 3 and the Landy (built in rust prevention😀).

Not necessarily terminal rust, but not what I want for the long term family vehicle(and what's under the underseal?).  Ends of the rockers were worse..

That leaves me wondering what to do.  I quite like the Jeep Wk2s.  Saw one the other day, no rust, but that 3.6 had LTFT at 25%, and a bunch of O2 and cat faults.  

Or should I wait for end-of-year new car offers? Ford have taken anothe $1k off the list of the Maverick.  I don't need a pickup bed, but I like the rest of it.. how much hassle would it be as as a family vehicle..? Would be $12k more on credot though

So, how about a complete change?

Last week we upped the budget, to look at newer/lower km stuff.  Went to see a 2015 CX9, 68k kms.   Drivers seatbelt wouldn't retract, sludge under the oil cap, needs 4 tyres (worn out and 2017 date stamp).  Also clunk from the front end over speed bumps (end links?).  Felt sluggish too, compared to the others I'd seen.

Sigh.  $15,500 and still loads of question marks.

Sat down at home and we had a long talk.  Finance on a new car offers an interest rate nearly half that of a used car.  Went to the Mazda dealer next day, looked at CX5s (base trim and "sport", 2.5 AWD trim) and a CX9.   CX5 was nice and would be fine for 70% of the time, but was going to be a squeaze for 4 humans plus dog and all the trappings if going away.  $200 more than the CX5 "Sport", was the CX9 base trim, FWD.  Didn't realise they offered a version with halogen headlights still.  Opted for the next version up, $4k more for AWD, LED headlights and other bits.   Only 2 left in inventory.  Did a bit of haggling and got a couple of $k off, and within 21 working days we'll be receiving a 2024 CX9 Core (2.5T AWD, 2nd one up from bottom) in red, of course.. A financial stretch but doable, and I reckon the best thing for the family.  My 3 will be tidied up and sold.  LR3 will stay for wife's daily duties and within Lima (especially the rough areas).  I must get around to changing TREs, rear pads, and spark plugs (and one day the passenger side cam cover gasket..)

In reply to paul_s0 :

You made the right choice. The US used car market is rife with overpriced junk. Your used car market seems to be things with maybe 4 wheels and barely held together with no hopes no dreams and not even duct tape.

So...

A picture to start:

I doubt (hope?!) there'll be much to write about the CX9 here.   In the meantime, some initial thoughts:

It feels enormous compared to the first gen 3, especially on these streets.  It's quite stressful trying to avoid everyone's attempts to hit it.  I assume I'll start to relax a bit about it at some point, but still feeling very uptight about looking after it.  I've not really opened it up yet, less than 400kms on the odo still, but you can definitely feel the torque from the turbo motor, quite nippy.

It comes with Yoko Geolander A/Ts on it.  Not sure if it's the tyres or how the CX9 is, but it feels quite understeery (ok, I know, I'm comparing it to my 3 with the 27mm rear bar on it).  I also didn't realise (my failure), there's no way to disable the stability control.  Still, the family is happy, stress is now reduced for planning family trips, and it's considerably more comfy and safer than my poor old 3.

Visibility - not great, can't see the furthest 6" of bonnet, I'm finding it difficult to judge the width.  I don't think it's much different from most other modern vehicles though.  The LR3 is a big square greenhouse by comparison, much easier.  Neither of which could hold a candle to my old Dolomite Sprint (reminiscing).

Size - apart from the issues in traffic, the LR3 is now the "small" vehicle - the CX9 doesn't fit in the parking for football (soccer) practise for mini-me #2.  I need to check parking availability/size before going anywhere.  It means I need to steal SWMBOs LR for soccer practise

Economy - 15.3 MPG (US) on it's first tank.  Traffic has been even worse than normal recently, mostly due to the APEC event being hosted last week.   I think my average speed has been something like 18kph I'm hoping that economy improves with more kms...

Having procrastinated so much in changing 1 vehicle, it now appears both will be changed in short order.  The LR3 is likely to become a 2020 RRS Hybrid within the next 2 months.  As if I didn't have enough trouble keeping the LR3 going, now a modern Range Rover with hybrid system too.  I'm sure that will feature here... I may just start another thread..