Took a trip up to Mammoth Mountain to go skiing. The Montero handled the conditions like a champ. The Yokohamas just ate up the untracked snowy roads we encountered, however I did feel that lateral grip was a bit lacking on the packed snow/icy thin layer that's left once the plows come by. Regardless, I had an absolute blast 4 wheel drifting around. My mpg on the way home (270 miles in clear conditions - averaging 70 mph) with 91 oct however was not an absolute blast at 13.6 mpg.
Also not a blast was that my transmission started making some awful grinding noises and just straight up would not get into any gear at all. It started (noise-wise) very subtle and over the course of about 300 miles got worse and worse (until it went into limp mode). Checked fluid and it was full but dark. Seeing that it was getting cold and dark I just decided to send it and drive home. When it finally clicked into drive, I kept her running and in D all the way home for fear it wouldn't go back in. Gears 1, 2, and 3 sounded like big ice chunks when they are first blended in a blender. Thankfully 4th and 5th gear were buttery smooth and I was able to make it home just fine. 2 miles from home the tranny went into limp mode (N light flashing, service engine soon light on, and locked into 3rd gear only). The next day I drained the fluid (still at a perfect level) and then dropped the pan to find this:
No bueno. My trans only had 180k on it too. Looking back I probably could have predicted this but I didn't think much of it at the time. When I previously did a flush and dropped the pan to change the filter I found a small amount of very fine metal grains. My trans failed within the next 5,000 miles... Anyways, I now needed either a trans rebuild or a new (used) one, and quick at that. (I needed my reliable ski wagon back so I could chase more pow!) Got a quote from a very reputable shop near me (who happened to be familiar with Monteros -- big plus!!). $3,200 for a rebuild--however he could not find 2 specific parts needed for the rebuild and said it might take months to get them. I suggested sourcing a used unit and the shop said that would be a great idea. They would be willing to remove/replace for $1,150 including mitsubishi sp3 and oem filters/seals and some sort of fancy flush to clear all the debris. I also opted for them to rebuild the torque converter while they were in there for another $250. After scouring the internet for hours, most used transmissions were either very high miles or from the 01-02 5 speed which is not compatible with the 03-06 5 speed. Finally I stumbled onto one from LKQ on ebay. 106k miles and from a very clean looking example that had been in a front end collision. Ran the VIN and everything checked out great. 1 owner until 2018 and full of dealer maintenance records (even dealer sourced tires!). 2nd owner had a front end collision in June 2019 and it went to insurance auctions. LKQ guaranteed to work for 6 months or they will replace/refund money. The only con? The $1,000 price tag and $200 shipping. Since this was the best I could find I decided to just bite the bullet. 4 days later the transmission got delivered to the shop and they had it done that same day for me. At pick up I spoke to the owner who did the work himself. He stated he was surprised at how clean the used trans was and that he pulled the pan and it was absolutely flawless with no metal at all. This was all a very expensive ordeal, but in the end my Montero has a new lease on life and I still don't have to make car payments, so I'll get over it.
Well, rewind a couple days (before my trans went out) and I was awake late at night sleepless because of the poor quality ride and poor mpg that my Montero was currently getting (seriously haha). I then remembered how Gitout had 34" bfgs on his rig with the 4.90s and claimed how perfect they were for our rigs. Well just for fun I decided to look on ebay and happened to run into a great deal: $895 for 4 brand new KO2s in 34/10.50/17 Load D! Soooo, I bought em! And another to use as a spare. After getting my rig back from the transmission shop I took her to get the new tires mounted the next morning.
Woo, love it! No rubbing at all, my ride is significantly more smooth (because of D vs E load rating), and acceleration off the line and braking are greatly improved (each tire is 7 lbs less than my old yokohamas). And, because the yokos literally only have 3000 miles on them I can sell them and offset a good portion of the cost of the 34s. Also, you might have noticed I got some metal spacers instead of the plastic ones I had been running. The plastic ones were not perfect and I had some vibrations at 75+ mph. These metal ones fit perfect and she rides smooth as silk even up to 100mph!
The next morning, loaded everything back up and headed to Mammoth again for more skiiing. This time I got 17.5mpg!!! Woohoo! Same route, very similar weather conditions, same cruise control at 70mph the whole way. Big two thumbs up from me. (Yes my transmission was failing last trip, but previous highway tanks were netting me 12.5-13 mpg so I'd say the trans didn't affect highway cruising too much.) I did have empty crossbars on last trip, but even if that dropped me 1 mpg from say 14.5mpg, that's still a 20% improvement! On a trip that used to cost $200 in gas, that's now $160!
Another big plus is that KO2s are tripeak snowflake rated and in my brief experiences so far, have much better grip in snowy/icy conditions than the yokohamas did. Did I also mention how happy I was with the ride? I don't even desire the extra height that the higher spring perch position provided. She rides amazing!
Now I'm currently scheming how I might be able to modify the bumper a little to block some of the air going straight into the wheel wells for a little more mpg. Even if I only got .5 more and broke 18 I'd be stoked!
