Shell RON 95 Available Nationwide

Looks like I'm going to get myself some RON95 to test soon :)

Motortrader.com.my posted this latest update about Shell's RON 95 availability.

Replace: Crank Sensor

The Problem: Engine Cut while Idling

Had the crank sensor replaced today for a piece of mind. The frequency of the car having an engine cut during idle has been increasing. Went ahead with the change. Cost me RM400 inclusive of labour at Tan Chong. Ouch....

Right before they replaced the sensor, I made them pull a diagnostic first. As usual - no fault detected at all.

Here are the dates where the engine cut during idle happened.

23-06-2009 - Day
03-08-2009 - Day

16-08-2009 - Day

20-08-2009 - Night
25-08-2009 - Evening

Now I'm going to pray hard that the problem will go away.

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Update 12/12/12 - Didn't realize it has been so long. I have no problem since I replaced the crank sensor. Its been like 3 years since. 
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Gluk - Final Episode

After whole day at TCEAS, I believe I can finally close the chapter on Gluk. Yay!!

Who was the culprit? The stabilizer bar bushings. Off all things. Who would have thought 2 pieces of rubber could have caused so much headaches.

So how much did this part cost ? RM30 a piece. TCEAS apparently have RM30 listed as the price as well. Unfortunately they did not have stock so I had to go visit my friendly neighbourhood spare part shop Double Champion.

Installation took a little more than 30 minutes as they had to dislodge the tie rod ends to access the stabilizer bushing nuts.

I will be writing another piece later on as a post mortem for gluk. Stay tuned!

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Well the stabilizer bushings did not take a whole day, today I made an appointment with TCEAS's chief technical to troubleshot pop noise while going through bumps and the gluk noise.

There were a few test drives involved, removing the left strut and installing it back. We found the right inner tie rod faulty and that had to be replaced. TCEAS pricing puts it at RM225 after a 10% discount and another RM45 for labour. I still think TCEAS parts pricing is cut throat. They comfort you with a 90 days warranty.. bah...

Anyway the strut was removed and disassembled to look for problems. None could be seen visually. The test drive after it was refitted.... no more noise. At least for the time being. Going to monitor this.

I'm guessing its due to this little part. See picture below. Assembly could have been shot previously.

One interesting bit observed during testing was the difference between damping for Tan Chong OEM absorbers and Tokico Japan absorbers. It took a lot of effort to press down the shaft for the Tokico Japan ones. The Tan Chong OEM just goes up and down easily.

• T30 Absorber: Tokico Japan - Hard
• T30 Absorber: ETCM OEM - Soft

96000km Plug Replacement.

The Problem: Engine Cut while Idling

This wasn't scheduled change, just that the car has been stalling at red lights a couple of times. One was the suspect was bad plugs. So after it stalled again during lunch i decided to go get my self some new spark plugs.A pack of 4 Denso Iridium plugs which cost me RM170.

First time I'm changing plugs myself. When I removed the coil I found the it so have some sticky residue on the rubber. No clue what it was. Somehow I don't think you are suppose to find stuff in that chamber. Found this in chamber 1 and chamber 3.

The existing plugs have about 16,000km on them. Are they suppose to look like this?

So far no problem running after replacement. Now to monitor if the truck stalls again at the lights.

JDM Aerokits - Do they work?

Did you ever wonder if those aerokits stuff like bumper carnards, splitters, rear wing and diffusers actually work ? I wonder at times as well. I had always believe that one will see the improvements by these aerokits once you go fast enough. The question is how fast is fast enough for all these fancy bodykit add-on before they really work?

Below is a documentary by the Option magazine network on the Tsukuba Time Attack's Cyber Evo. They created an experiment to show the amount of downforce and how much these aerokits improved it. There is a comparison at the end of the video showing the effects without the standard bumper and without the rear wing.

Air speed in their test was 25m/s (90km/h or 55.9mph).

What say you after watching this?

3rd Generation Prius in Malaysia - RM175000

Zerotohundred carried the article about the launch of the 3rd Generation Toyota Prius in Malaysia. It is selling for RM175,000. Yes that is how much they are selling it. It is even more expensive than the Toyota Camry or the Honda Civic Hybrid which is priced at RM129,980.

A check at Toyota's website have them list the price for the 3rd generation Prius as "estimated price list" at RM175,000. Is there something else that we should know?

Even Chips@Motortrader and PaulTan was way off with their estimate pricing when they tested the car in Japan.

I guess its going to be a costly affair for us normal Malaysian to drive an eco friendly vehicle until the government decides to do something about it. Who knows if that day will ever come.

Clay Bar

Recent viral browsing brought me to read up about claying. What the heck is claying? Claying with a clay bar. Ok I have to admit that I'm not a detailing freak but I always like a nice shinny finish to my ride. I love some good elbow grease but detailing the whole car by myself is just to long. (I'm just plain lazy at times)

Back to claybars and claying. Here is what WikiAnswers says to the question - What is a clay bar?.

I would define it as below.

Clay bars - putty/dough like material that can be shaped and moulded. The material has ability to remove surface contaminant.

Many people have written guides and suggestion on detailing with the clay bar but I find this clay bar detailing guide the best so far. Make sure you read through the clay bar detailing guide before you start claying your vehicle.

Here's a nice video guide on using the clay bar.

What I need next is to get my hands onto some real clay bars!!

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