My 1st Montero

[Kjell Sullivan]

Hey guys,
I just picked up my first Montero about 3 weeks ago. It's an '02 Limited 124K on the clock. Just did the timing belt, water pump and thermostat, and temp sender(temp gauge was reading hot.....and still is) I suspect there is an issue with the gauge itself????
Anyhoo, so far I like it. It's comfortable, it has a good amount of room for cargo and whatnot, and seems to be pretty capable off road.
I just sold a NISMO frontier that I had built for adventure, but I needed something that was paid off, and Montero's seemed to offer the most bang for the buck. I will be doing some slight mods in the very near future. I have OME goodies coming this week (courtesy of Wil @ Sierra Expeditions) and an ARB bumper will be going on this thing too. I already slapped on some BFG's and a Thule Xpedition 696(which I'm not sure I like yet), and I blacked out the grill. I will give it the typical Sullivan treatment with a lot of blackness, wheels, rhino lining etc....I suspect this thing is going to look like a storm trooper vehicle when I'm done...er maybe more like a UN vehicle LOL.
Here's a couple pics, and I'll post more as it comes together.

 

[scrubber3]

Nice! What size tires did you go with?

 

[shmabs]

Nice gen 3, they have always made me wonder how well they would work mildly built. Are you down in southern OR by any chance?

Mike

 

[Kjell Sullivan]

Nice! What size tires did you go with?

I went with the 265/75. It doesn't seem like I'd be able to squeeze anything taller in there in stock form, but it's a little better for now.

 

[Kjell Sullivan]

Nice gen 3, they have always made me wonder how well they would work mildly built. Are you down in southern OR by any chance?

Mike

Yep, I'm in the Rogue Valley. So we shall see what I can make of this little beast with some carefully chosen mods. I always love a new project anyway.

 

[Inyo_man]

Congratulations on the Gen. III purchase.
We have been completely satisfied with ours!
The after-market mods. are slim, but some basics are out there.
I remember when ours was stock, it seems so long ago...

 

[fatrat]

Good start! It's going to look sweet w/ an ARB bull bar!

 

[scrubber3]

The grill blackout really improves the look of these things.

 

[mpwelsh]

nice rig. i just picked up a 2002 montero limited. 115k miles. it's at the dealership now getting the timing belt service done along with replacement of some gaskets and seals. i currently have on order the OME lift. i'm wondering if any of you guys have had luck with picking up an aftermarket rear bumber. i know that a guy on this forum somewhere had custom built one. did anyone get the plans for that thing? any rear bumper links/ideas? i'll post up pics and plans as soon as i get my rig back. i'm super excited to take this beast out to the uwharrie trails in late march!!

 

[Kjell Sullivan]

nice rig. i just picked up a 2002 montero limited. 115k miles. it's at the dealership now getting the timing belt service done along with replacement of some gaskets and seals. i currently have on order the OME lift. i'm wondering if any of you guys have had luck with picking up an aftermarket rear bumber. i know that a guy on this forum somewhere had custom built one. did anyone get the plans for that thing? any rear bumper links/ideas? i'll post up pics and plans as soon as i get my rig back. i'm super excited to take this beast out to the uwharrie trails in late march!!

Oh cool, well our build timing is going to be very close. It'll be interesting to compare our thoughts on the mods. I don't know of any manufacturers making a rear bumper. I haven't looked into it though. Seems like a custom build would be fairly easy. I would like to see some examples of others custom rear bumpers if anyone has any pics to post up. I'm installing my lift on Monday. I did finish the hurculining of the little beast here's a pic of that,and I'll post a pic of it with the lift on there soon. I'm also going to powder coat the wheels black, but I'm not sure if I want a semi gloss or flat finish??? still deliberating on that.
ummm...well okay my attempts at posting a pic keep failing. I will try again later....darn it!

 

[mpwelsh]

here's a link to the guy who custom built a rear for the genIII:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/44948-Gen-3-Custom-Rear-Bumper?highlight=monstero

after reading through the details it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to get someone to fabricate one. finding the right shop for the right price might be the tricky part. i just got my rig back from the shop friday. i got a full tune-up with plugs, wires, etc. etc. i had the timing belt service done as well as replacement of some gaskets and leaking seals. the rig runs much better. also, i'm not sure if it applies to your vehicle or not, but mine had a factory recall on the fuel displacement leveler. if this malfunctions on your vehicle then fuel may begin spilling out of your gas cap and down the side of the vehicle. if you haven't had it done yet it would be worth calling the dealership with your VIN to find out.

my OME lift will be shipped on monday. i'm super excited to get it in. i'm currently in search mode for tires. as of right now i think i'm going to go with the cooper s/t maxx in 235/85r16. my only contender to that would be the same tire in 255/85r16. i like the 235's because they seem to do the trick and they're cheaper. who knows, i'm pretty up and down about it right now.

my list runs like this:
lift - tires - bumper/winch - skid plates - cargo roof rack - custom rear bumper

short list, but i'm only planning on weekend offroad camping and the like. the vehicle isn't my DD necessarily. we have the montero and a new VW Tiguan. the montero is parked quite a bit. i commute on bike to work everyday, so that saves on $$$.

looking forward to seeing that heruliner on there. i was thinking about doing that myself.

 

[Kjell Sullivan]

Okay I've got the lift on. Now.....l did have it aligned, and it looks to me that the camber in the front is still a bit off(negatively). Has anyone else who has put a lift on a 3rd Gen experienced this? Will I not be able to get the same or close to the same degree of camber as factory? Or did the tire shop just not dial it in all the way???
Anyway, here are a couple pics, please excuse the lack of quality on these, they are taken with my phone, and the pics I was taking with my camera are 16.2 megs so I have to go through and resize them. I just wanted to get some pics up here for now.

 

[Kjell Sullivan]

Hey that is a pretty good job on that bumper. I wonder what it cost? Those corners are the tricky parts as far as the fabrication goes, the rest of it seems pretty straight forward.

 

[Inyo_man]

Will I not be able to get the same or close to the same degree of camber as factory? Or did the tire shop just not dial it in all the way???
View attachment 89807
View attachment 89809

The lift looks great, and I like the looks of the blacked-out plastic!

Regarding your alignment, be sure the set-up your shop is using will work for IRS.
Did the shop provide you with a before and after look at your alignment, including camber?
I've heard of some shops not adjusting the camber if the hardware is frozen, but they normally mention it to the customer.
Check your rig to see if they had to spray down the hardware with some PB Blaster (or whatever), if it looks like it hadn't been touched, call up the shop and tell the how your feelin'.
You should be able to get the whole alignment spot on.
Good Luck

 

[Kjell Sullivan]

Regarding your alignment, be sure the set-up your shop is using will work for IRS.
Did the shop provide you with a before and after look at your alignment, including camber?
I've heard of some shops not adjusting the camber if the hardware is frozen, but they normally mention it to the customer.
Check your rig to see if they had to spray down the hardware with some PB Blaster (or whatever), if it looks like it hadn't been touched, call up the shop and tell the how your feelin'.
You should be able to get the whole alignment spot on.
Good Luck

I looked over my data sheet, and it shows that the camber is within the factory specified range, but take a look at it from the front. Could this be an optical illusion? I think they come with some negative camber front and rear from factory, but mine is at .01 and .02 in the front and .14 and .03 in the rear.
I know that I do not want to prematurely wear the outside of the tires and I may just have them readjust this. .01 and .02 is pretty close to zero so I don't know how much of an issue this will be? Do you know what camber your rig is set up at? here are a couple of pics to show you what I see.