[K a s h]

This is an account of the lateral upgrade i did 2 years ago and the initial challenges I had for maintaining a discontinued full size SUV!

The Itch
My last car purchase was in 2011 when i picked up an used 2005 Hyundai Tucson crdi. This car served me well for 11 years and 1L+ kms. I was looking for an automatic because my left leg was screaming in Bangalore traffic.

Some requirements from our family for our next car
1) Automatic Diesel
2) Comfortable big car, preferably a 7 seater.
3) Rear AC vents
4) All 4 disc brakes
5) As much Safety features as possible

Options Considered

1) Hyundai Ioniq 5
I always believe used cars have more value but I could not ignore the Hyundai Ioniq 5 that was launched at this time. I tried to get this with my company lease but Hyundai had this exclusive direct sale to customers for the first 500 cars for Ioniq 5. No lease possible. So had to skip this.

2) Ford Endeavor 3.2 AT
Not many cars were available in the used market and whatever i saw were over priced. I did not find value in this.

3) Mitsubishi Montero 3.2 AT
There was only 2 cars for sale- One in Chandigarh and one in Madurai. Spoke to the dealer in Madurai and realized this car may not have any service history. This was when i found a Montero in team-bhp classifieds from our distinguished bhpian 4x4addict. This Monty is a CBU import from Japan with 1.52 Lac kms on the odo with everything stock except for some upgraded lights and an android HU. The first owner is a friend of 4x4addict, so the maintenance history of the car is clean. I simply had to get it.

Some photos from the team-bhp classifieds;

[K a s h]

The purchase experience

The owner being a team-bhpian and the fact that we have a mutual friend made this deal a pleasant one. The car was in Coonoor, so sometime in Feb 2023, I booked a vacation in Ooty, saw the car with my family and sealed the deal.
Coming from a Tucson, I was overwhelmed by the size of the Montero. The first time i saw the Monty :-)


Taking Delivery and the drive back home
The next weekend, I took an overnight shuttle to my sister's place in Coimbatore. 4x4addict drove the car down to Coimbatore to deliver and he also handed over a bunch of spares (in 3 boxes) he had bought for maintenance. One of the many perks of buying a car from an enthusiast!

The timing chain was replaced along with the engine oil at 1.5 Lac kms. Suspension work was done at 1 Lac. Car had Goodyear Wrangler Silenttrac AT tyres that had more than 50% life. He explained me the features in the car and asked me to replace all fluids at 2 Lac kms with only engine oil change every 10k kms.

He had mentioned about an issue with the 2wd selection during our initial discussions about the car. The Mitsubishi SuperSelect is an ElectroMechanical system with a fail-safe feature wherein if there are any issues with the transmission, it will default to 4H mode. In this car the 2wd mechanically engages but the electrical system is unable to confirm that, so it displays a warning in the dash. The 4H and 4HLc works fine without errors. Only 2H and 4LLc had the central diff icon flashing on the dash. I had seen similar issues reported in Aussie forums and was ready to fix it myself. 4x4addict had offered to help me if needed. That was good enough for me to go ahead because i had exclusive access to good mechanic + garage in Bangalore.

Did the customary pooja that night and started home to Bangalore early next morning.


100kmph at around 2k rpm


Breakfast @A2B near Salem;


Went straight to Bay6 Motorworks for a quick wash before heading home;


The mileage and Odo after the drive




Finally @Home


Positive impressions of the car
- Everything in this car is built to take abuse and last forever.
- The Rockford music system is very good with a big subwoofer in the boot.
- The 3rd row hides under the floor and is pretty useful on long drives with extended family
- One touch power windows for all doors is very convinient
- There are two AC compressors and the rear passengers have their compressor located behind the driver side rear wheel.
- The car is insulated well and you wont hear any Tyre noise. Just the thrum of the big diesel.

Not so positive impressions
- No bottle holders in the doors. Such a big car and the door pockets are only 2 inch thick.
- Suspension is a heavy duty so it needs the car to be fully loaded to be smooth. Else you will feel all road imperfections. All Terrain Tyres does not improve this either. I'm currently tweaking the air pressure to make this bearable.

[K a s h]

The infamous Takata Airbag story needs no introduction and millions of vehicles were affected. Almost all of the Japanese cars are affected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FtvZF6hjA

It was really frustrating that Mitsubishi Cars sold in India could not be checked in a website if they are affected or not. This is not the case in other countries.
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2007-1...cles-affected/

So even before i took delivery of the car, I had sent a email to Hindustan Motors Mitsubishi (customersupport@hmfcl.com) to confirm the Takata Airbag recall status for my Montero. I got a response from HMFCL asking for the dealership and year of purchase of the car. I provided all the details and after waiting for a few days, i sent out an email to the Mitsubishi factory in Japan that manufactured my car. They replied back promising that they will ask HMFCL to review my case.

At this point, I had lost hope and was mentally prepared to disconnect the airbags until the replacement was done.
But then we had a surprising development! HMFCL responded that they are actually arranging parts for my car! Sure enough, after a week, HMFCL asked me to confirm the service station that I would like to get the airbags replaced under warranty.

I choose Evolve Motors, Chennai and after HMFCL confirmed the airbags have reached the workshop, I drove down to Chennai and got both the airbags replaced under warranty.



Passenger airbag canisters (old and new)


Old Airbag canisters


I was really happy that the airbags were replaced. Now i can drive the car peacefully!

[K a s h]

The car had PPF installed on all the doors and fenders. Hood and Roof were left unprotected. Due to aging, the ppf had turned yellow and brittle. Since i wont be using the car in the bushes, it was decided to remove the ppf and do paint correction if needed.

The PPF removal exercise took out some paint in the bumper and plastic fender area, so the car was sent for paint correction. This turned out good and the car looked a lot better without the ppf. It was as if the previous owners had gift wrapped the car in PPF for me to open it

[K a s h]

Be careful about buying parts locally. There are a lot of fakes around (In-depth comparison pics | Genuine Vs Fake spare parts for my Mitsubishi Pajero Sport).
You will also need a competent garage to maintain this car.

Parts for this car can be obtained from Amayama.com or partsouq.com. I usually ship it to US or Australia and ask someone to carry it for me.






This car is quite popular in UAE and parts are available with 2-3 days max lead time. For really heavy parts like suspension and mounts, I booked a vacation to Dubai last year and carried it myself from there.



In Dubai, I played a game with my daughter to count the number of Monteros on the way to the Hotel from the Airport. We had to stop the game in 5 minutes because there were too many of them.

[K a s h]

Any used car comes with its history and its own baggage of issues.
So the Montero had a bunch of issues which were fixed in the past 2 years and a few new ones popped up that are getting addressed.
I have fun fixing these issues myself and getting things to work as it should.

1) Xenon lights - One of the bulb was LED and the other was HID, so there was a color mismatch.





So i removed both of them and installed OSRAM Xenons

2) Fog Lamps
The stock bulbs were replaced with Autobahn tricolor LED H11 bulbs and that has improved the lighting quite a bit in the city.

3) Indicators on ORVM
These had cracked and a few leds were not working. So got a replacement from Aliexpress.

4) Headlamp washer
One of the headlamp washers was not working and was sealed with m-seal to prevent water leakage. Aliexpress to the rescue here as well.

5) Alarm battery
The siren was not working and also the indicators were not blinking while locking or unlocking the car.


The Montero has an alarm which has its own inbuilt battery. Its not possible to replace the battery and the whole unit must be changed. Replaced the parts from Amayama.com and everything started working fine.

6) Rear Brake lights were always on high even when brake is not applied. This turned out to be a faulty bulb holder which was also melting the plastic housing. Fixed the holder and switched to led brake lamps from Autobahn.

7) Hood Struts - Installed aftermarket hood struts from aliexpress.

8) Lot of degraded weather strips parts were replaced in the engine bay.

[K a s h]

In the past 2 years, I have driven close to 15k kms and the car is very comfortable for long drives. AC is a chiller and my daughter lounges in the third row. Some random pics of the drives.

Somewhere in NH44


At Club Mahindra Madikeri


Office commute



A2B Krishnagiri

[K a s h]

Since i got the car, during cold start the car used to smoke excessively and vibrate a lot. This is a big embarrassment to any enthusiast!
Did lot of troubleshooting and finally narrowed it down to the Glow plugs!

New glowplug


Old ones. 2 and 3 seems to be dead!


Old and new



Lets see the bottle dance before and after replacing the glow plugs!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wPv5E-cgbBM?feature=share

After replacement (Please note the temp guage in the end - its cold);

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KavaRc4tgwg?feature=share

No more smoke bombs

[K a s h]

Even though this car is big, there is very little luggage space with the 3rd row deployed. So I had to get a Luggage rack and box for long trips.
Reached out to Bay6 Motorworks and they arranged the Thule Luggage system for my Montero. However, there was one hiccup.

Thule Roof rack installed on my Montero compromises 3 parts.

1) Thule Footpack 754(common for all normal roof cars)

2) Thule Squarebar 712400 ( depends on width of the vehicle)

3) Thule Kit 1182 (vehicle specific for Montero)




The Thule Footpack 754 was not in stock & was discontinued by Thule. This was replaced by footpack 7105(new version)

But the Thule Kit 1182 is not compatible with the new gen footpack 7105.

So If i wanted to get Thule luggage system, I need to get the old Footpack 754 from old stock elsewhere. Luckily I found this from RoofRocks Galore, Australia and a friend carried it over to me.




Meanwhile I found a Inno Roof box for sale in team-bhp classifieds and picked it up.


After installation of the luggage system, we went to Rameshwaram and the roof box was able to gulp down 4 bags comfortably.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[NomadSK]

Beautiful car. I have a 2005 model petrol V6, around 3.7L on the ODO. Touch wood no problems with transmission and engine till now. Mine is a very basic car and I appreciate it being mechanically robust. It’s my DIY car for the simplicity. So far has never let me down anywhere. The only bummer is original spare parts are pretty expensive, but they last pretty long. Regular maintenance is the key. Another thing is spares are very much available in the local market.

Have created loads of memories. Did few road trips to Dubai and one to Lebanon (when things were not bad) all the way from Riyadh, the car grips the road like a leech. Suspension wise it’s better than LC. And the last row seat when folded gives ample space for all the stuff required for camping.

The blinking light at console for the differential sensor is a common problems in almost all Montero, the problem lies in the kaput solenoid valve. Replace it with original and you will be good to go. I replaced mine myself and the problem was gone for good.

If they would have been selling in Indian market, I would have picked one with closed eyes and without even having second thoughts.

Happy safe miles !!

[K a s h]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

Beautiful car. I have a 2005 model petrol V6, around 3.7L on the ODO. Touch wood no problems with transmission and engine till now. Mine is a very basic car and I appreciate it being mechanically robust.

Thanks. Your car looks awesome

Originally Posted by NomadSK

The blinking light at console for the differential sensor is a common problems in almost all Montero, the problem lies in the kaput solenoid valve. Replace it with original and you will be good to go. I replaced mine myself and the problem was gone for good. !

I have replaced all sensors and the solenoid too. There seems to be some other electrical issue for which I'm waiting for a part to be delivered from the US.

[K a s h]

I prefer to keep my cars longer so whenever i get a used car, I do one big preventive maintenance exercise with all major work like suspension/timing/turbo etc and then enjoy it for many years with just oil change and wear and tear parts replacement. So, along with the Glow Plug replacement, I managed to get the following preventive maintenance work done;

1) Suspension and Engine + Transfer case mount replacement
2) EGR Delete
3) Intake Manifold cleaning
4) Inter cooler cleaning
5) Cat con cleaning

[K a s h]

I had carried all the parts for this big ticket item from Dubai myself. This included 4 shocks, 2 engine mounts and one transfer-case mounting bracket. All the work on the car was done at Bay6 Motorworks.

The car was jacked up and the Transfer case mount was replaced first.





Next was the engine mounts;




Finally the shocks;

[K a s h]

After the suspension work, car went to Madhus for Alignment and TPMS instalation. I had already procured JKTyre TPMS sensors for all wheels including the spare.







Nice to see OEM camber bolts. I had used after market bolts on my Tucson.


The alignment report


And the TPMS app