Looking into getting a 2008-2011 Outlander v6...no huge hurry...whenever the right deal comes along...

Anyone in here do their own timing belts/general maintainance? Is it a huge deal? Are special tools required?

I'm curious what common issues are for these years?

I typically do my own repairs, mostly on Volkswagens (timing belts, brakes, etc)...

Any good places around the Toronto for great deals on OEM parts?

 

These cars are generally fairly stout.

I do all my own maintenance, but I've never worked on an Outlander.

 

Grab the service manual which is a "sticky" post at the top of this forum. Then think of some jobs you'd probably have to do during the life of the car and look them up to get an idea of the work. The severe service schedule is the one you will follow in the maintenance manual.

I've found the Mitsubishi dealers in my area will give 20% off if they recognize you and you have a relationship with their service department for big things or they see you every 3 months buying oil/air filters - chat them up make sure they can recognize you at the parts desk. If you fill out a customer service form they may give a 20% off next parts purchase card.

NAPA also carries some consumables for oil changes and air filters but you may want to compare against OEM quality parts. Cabin filter I have no problem using a NAPA aftermarket part. The engine air filter is a little more important since the element is built into the air ducting. Buy your filters when you do the work and save the reciept as proof of the date the work was done (keeping a schedule) in case of a warranty claim. Powertrain warranty should be transferable from previous owner.

You'll need a dealership relationship for warranty claims an TSBs. The aluminium engine block is slow to heat up in the winter. Dealer can re-flash the ECM to bring RPM's up until the car warms up. Some can have harsh shifting in the winter - also solved with reflashing the computer.

For the cost of Diaqueen 2 transmission fluid - which is the only thing you can use - I'd rather have the dealer hook up to their vacuum machine instead of having myself fumble around and wasting the fluid filling and pumping out. Others have had more success. I plan to do my own transfer and gear case oil this summer which is a straight drain and fill - apparently these drain/fill bolts can strip though..

Apparently the oil filter is over the starter or some other part that can cause issues if it gets soaked in oil. I've yet to get under there myself but will soon once I use up my free oil changes.

I'm going to see about upgrading to some aftermarket rotors for my first brake job. I'm not happy with how the OEM ones are rusting in the hats/veins.

 

To clarify and expand what Nesser said:
The tranny fluid is DiaQueen ATF-J2 in the automatic transmission. There is no aftermarket equivalent out there....I've talked to all the major lube makers.

The trick to chaning the oil and not bathing the starter is to crack the filter so all the oil doesn't come dumping out of the filter. The funnel/guard is small and cannot handle a lot of fluid. I take it slow and still get just a bit on the starter.

I wouldn't rule out the 2007. Nothing changed from 2007 to 2008...other than 1 year of parts making.

I also do as much maintenance as possible. towards the last few pages of the service manual thread, I've got a link to the full north american outlander service manual...not the Russian one. It has everything but body panel instructions. I haven't done the timing belt yet, but that is coming up...we just turned 71k miles on it...maybe next year or two we'll do the belt. Gatorback are supposed to be exceptional serpentine belts...that's what I'll be getting. All instructions are in the manual.

I have yet to run into something that required a special tool. The oddest thing I've had to do was use an old oil pump can (cleaned out) to squirt gear oil into the fill hole of the tcase and rear diff.

The only real odd problem we had was a bad rear wheel sensor. Without it, the computer put the transmission in a limp home mode. If you had a scanner that could read transmission codes, you might have better luck finding that stuff out...I do have a post on it with the Pxxxx code it threw.

The other thing, look at the tires it had. Mine came stock with Geolanders. When they wore out at 40k miles, we put some Firestone Destination LE light truck tires on....they were heavier and our gas mileage went down. Stay with passenger tires and if you can, low rolling resistance tires. On the flip side, they Destinations had something wrong and were really loud. We had them replaced with Bridgestone Duelers, still heavy and sucked gas, but absolute marvels in the snow. At 70mph, we get 24.5MPG....we used to get 28mpg with the Geolanders.

 

I think overall you will be happy with the Outlander. Consumer Reports rates them above average for reliability. As was pointed out, you will want to check with a dealer to make sure any TSB's that apply to the Outlander you bought were done.