Hari Raya Trip ...

The trip back home was uneventful enough. It was on the eve of Hari Raya. After filling the car tank with RON 95 and the 4 tyres with air at 240 KPa pressure, Zul took over the wheel, giving excuses that I would be too sleepy to drive, in spite of the fact that we left the petrol station at exactly 5.00 pm. Odometer reading at the station in Subang Jaya was 21,875 km. The end odometer reading was 22,377 km. So I have travelled a distance of 502 km. and had consumed RM 89.73 worth of petrol. Petrol consumption was therefore 10.6297 km per litre or 29.5638 miles per gallon.

The drive home to Chepor was marked by an error in navigation. As it was already dark by the time we reached the site of the old toll booth at Ipoh, Zul took the middle lane and completely missed the road that would take us to Jelapang and then to Chepor. Instead we found ourselves going through the tunnel, past the Perak River R&R, and had to make a U-Turn at the Kuala Kangsar exit. We reached Chepor about more than an hour too late.

Just imagine, for about a year since the last Hari Raya trip, I have travelled for 2,337 km only. No wonder my battery conked out twice, and I have wasted money on roadtax and insurance !

Ah, at last ...

The reason I have not been blogging since the last blog entry is because I have lost my password. This is due to my 24" IMac that crashed some months ago and the spreadsheet in which I kept a list of my blogs with their relevant usernames and passwords became irretrievable. I have been making innumerable attempts to open the blog without success until today. Now, I can continue to write on my Nissan 350Z. I have to re-check the petrol consumption again. Since the last check, I have not driven the car for any considerable distance.

Update: 28/08/2011: Today is Sunday the 28th of August. My next blog entry would be about my trip back to Chepor for the Hari Raya which falls on Teusday the 30th of August and back home again in Subang Jaya. The trip would present an opportunity to check on the petrol consumption again. The last few days I was driving the car for short distances was to make sure that the battery is recharging. In the meantime, I had to renew my comprehensive insurance which set me back RM 2,800/=. Apparently, the insurance company reckoned that it had to provide for a 10% loading on a car it classified as a "sports car" which it considered as a vehicle that attracts perhaps more risks than if it were a normal saloon car.

To me, this is ridiculous. For one thing, drivers of sports cars are more skillful and experienced than those of saloon cars. The drivers of sports cars have graduated from being saloon car drivers that they were before. For another, there had never been occasions on the Malaysian roads, except once that I know of, in which sports cars were involved in accidents. The one occasion was some years ago (in the 1980s) when a Ferrari or something driven by the CEO of Arab Malaysia Bank went off the road. The cars that are usually involved in accidents are the Kancils, the Protons, the Peroduas, the Toyotas, Mercedes, and so on, all of the saloon variety, not to mention the lorries and the buses. I don't know where the insurance companies get their facts about "sport cars" being more dangerous. Sports cars generally have more power, better acceleration, are more adept at road handling especially at corners and bends, and have better braking power than normal cars. The insurance companies are simply prejudiced in their views of sports cars. Period.

Petrol consumption again ..

Before leaving for Ipoh with Zulamran Hilmi at about 16:30 hrs on 09/09/2010, I filled up the car tank to automatic cut-off level. The odometer display read 19,557 km. On the 3rd day of Hari Raya, on my way back to Subang Jaya, I had filled the tank with RON 95 that cost me RM 75/=. When I got back to Subang Jaya petrol station, I refilled the tank in the same manner and it cost me RM 9.99. The distance travelled from Subang Jaya to Ipoh and Chepor and back again to the same petrol station in Subang Jaya was (20,040 less 19,557) 483 km. Petrol cost was RM 84.99 and no of litres consumed was 45.9405. Therefore, the petrol consumption this time was 10.5136 km/litre or in terms of miles per gallon, it's 29.8783 . Not bad this time compared with the last test.

Changing my battery ....

Oh, it's a long time since I blogged and my car has not travelled much either. No wonder my battery conked out since the car has been in the porch for some time and I had not the foresight to remove the battery or at least disconnect the negative terminal. Well, today I changed the made-in-Korea GP battery to another made-in-Korea Novo battery. At least the newer one has 13 plates instead of the 11 plates in the GP battery. The battery is one those new-fangled "maintenance-free" battery without the need to top with distilled water when the electrolyte falls to a certain level.

The voltmeter needle indicates that the battery power is just a shade over the 12 volt indicator line. When removing battery, one thing I must not forget is to disconnect the negative terminal first followed by the positive terminal. When installing a battery, always connect the positive terminal first followed by connecting the negative terminal.

Next time I shall make sure that I disconnect the negative terminal if I am parking the car for an appreciably long time say for 3 weeks or more.

Hari Raya falls on Friday 10th September 2010. As before, I shall be driving north to Ipoh with Zulamran Hilmi and will be monitoring my petrol consumption from where I live and back again. The others in the family are already in Chepor in the E320 Mercedez Benz. The full year comprehensive insurance recently cost me about RM 2,700/= while a 6-month road tax came to about RM 2,200. Is this what you have to pay for a "luxury" car ?

The fans again ...

The day before yesterday, I was driving to KL to fetch Dania from her violin class. While waiting for her, I let the car engine running for about 15-20 mins only to luckily realise that the temp meter needle went past the middle and was creeping toward the upper indicator mark, though not yet up to the danger level. I quickly switched off the engine.

I don't know why this has happened since after I had changed the cooling and aircon fans, the temp meter never even budged past the middle and this is about 2,500 km ago. I started the car again and drove back home with Dania constantly watching the needle. The aircon was switched on and off until at some point, the temp seemed to stabilise as before. Happily, I continued driving until I arrived at the last traffic lights before reaching home.

Then the needle started creeping upwards, and, with aircon switched off I continued driving to the washing bay of the condo where I lived. The engine was really overheating but not to the extent that I had experienced before. On checking the fan, I noticed that both the radiator and aircon fans were not spinning at all. I then parked to let it cool overnight before taking it the next day to the workshop that fitted the fans before.

Since it was already a bit late when I took the car to the workshop - APD - the mechanics there were unable to diagnose what went wrong.

Today, I discussed with chief mechanic Ali who had yesterday checked all the electricals and found them to be in order. There were no signs of over-voltage that could have caused the motors to burn. When he discussed with some Tan Chong mechanics, they told him that, apparently, it's a common failing of the 350Z. Ali was himself not satisfied with the views of the TC mechanics and wished to re-check the system again. So I left him at that and went home.

Update 20/03/2010 Saturday: Today, I collected my car after it being in the APD workshop for a couple of days. Just before this, I discussed with Ali what he had done to rectify the fan problems. He emphasized that there was nothing wrong with the relevant electricals; the fault was due to the fan motors themselves. He described, as agreed in the previous discussion, that he had installed the Nissan Cefiro fans rather than the 350Z fans based on the experience of a 350Z owner who had similar problems until he switched to the Cefiro fans when the problems disappeared. Ali mentioned that shims had to be installed in order to align the fans to match with the original fans. The cost of installation and fans came to RM 700/=. This is considerably cheaper than the so-called UK made Nissan spec fans that he installed and got burned after a couple of months and that cost me RM 1,954/=.

The mileage meter when I sent to APD read 19,330 km or thereabout. I jotted that the mileage when I collected the car was 19,344 km.

I just wonder whether other 350Z owners have similar problems with the car fans. After this problem, I may put off or totally abandon the idea of installing a supercharger.

Driving the Fairlady again ....

Ahh ! After such a long time, during which the car has not been driven because I was away on holidays, I am again checking the fuel consumption. After inflating my car tyres at the operating pressure of 240 Kpa, I filled petrol tank at odometer reading of 19 ....... The fuel used was .... litres at a cost of RM .........

The fuel consumption is therefore ......

To complete .......

My home town ...

Yesterday, I drove back to my home town in West Pahang to meet an aunt of mine who had been away from home since 1948. She had been a nationalist fighting the British and had been operating as a resistance fighter in the Malaysia-Thailand border area all these years. As she is now about 92 years, she was granted permission to enter Malaysia for a month to visit her relatives before her end. I don't know her personally as I was not born yet when she started fighting the British, but I went to see her on the invitation of her brother who was considerably younger than her.

For a 92-year old women she looked strong except for the fact that she had to go about on a walking stick. When I posed her some controversial questions she replied with full of spirit and enunciate her words clearly. From the way she talked, she seemed convinced that what she had been doing was right.

Afterwards, on her behest, I took her to see my sister who knew her before she disappeared into the jungle. My cousins from Kuantan and Kuala Lumpur also drove up to see her for their first times. There was a lot of videoing and photographing and storytelling about how our grandparents lived and who were related to whom.

Anyway I took the opportunity to once again check on the petrol consumption of the Fairlady. From the last filling to the filling just before I left the petrol station, the odometer had clocked 424 km and petrol consumed was 59.32 litres. The petrol consumption therefore had been 7.1477 km per litre or 20.1947 miles per gallon. This was an improvement over the previous check of 15.8384 miles per gallon.

The average to date consumption since I first used the car was 22.2837 miles per gallon.

That's the trouble with me ....

I don't know how I was persuaded into spending some RM 270/= on car accessories today. My purpose of going to Shah Alam was to discuss business with Durai (also nown as Appu) at the Indian coffee shop in section 26 Shah Alam. The subject of discussion had nothing to do with cars. While waiting for him to show up, I ambled along the 5 foot-way in front of some shops where car accessories were being fitted. I had absolutely no intention of buying anything.

But then I remembered that my car stereo system (the original from Nissan) was unsuitable for use in Malaysia since it was installed to Japanese specifications. The FM broadcast frequency range was 76.0 to 90.0 MHertz while in Malaysia, its 88.0 to 108.0 MHertz. Because of this, the system could only accept a limited number of FM broadcasts.

Responding to my problems, the workshop proprietor suggested I installed a booster for RM 180/= without having to replace the radio. He further added that the LED frequency would not be the actual broadcast frequency because the booster would automatically compensate for the the Japanese frequency range. Thus, for example, the ERA radio frequency of 103.5 MHertz would be adjusted to allow for the original range and would be shown as some figures below 90.00 MHertz. Satisfied with his explanation, I decided to install the booster as recommended.

In the meantime, the proprietor suggested that I installed a water repellent carpet at a cost of RM 6/= per square foot. I agreed to the price of RM 50/= for a 9 square-foot of coverage. Another refinement to the car was the replacement of the car number plate holder with one that had Nismo and Nissan on it, rather than the one with the name of the motor trader from whom I bought the car. I declined when the man proposed to tint the car windows.

I had unwittingly spent a total of RM 270/= but as consolation for my impulsive purchase, I was satisfied with the stereo system receiving considerably more stations than before and on that note, I left for home.

Be friendly if you want to sell cars .....

I wonder how many people have experienced what I went through when dealing with car traders. For one, I noticed that the saleman's attitude was one of take-it-or-leave-it and that he seemed to have no time for you if you asked him too many questions. It was as though he expected that, once you entered his show room, you give him a booking fee and immediately purchase the car. He was not interested in answering your queries on technical issues apart from telling you the price of the car. As for discount, forget it. He did not even suggest that if you wanted a discount, it's better you discussed with the manager.

I experienced this with Naza Motor on the Federal highway, Ming Heng Motor in Genting Klang, and several motor traders in Bukit Lanjan. With Naza, you don't talk about discounts unless you pay RM 5,000/= upfront and only then would the Manager be ready to discuss with you. If not, it would be a waste of his time. With Ming Heng, the salesman would give you his call card and never bothered to follow-up. He waited for you to call him, not vice versa. Zaibar Motor's attitude to car marketing was no better until I made several visits which prompted the salesman to think that I was really interested in purchasing the Fairlady, which I did eventually. His other Fairlady was not taken and it had been a year already.

So today, I got the itch to go to Iktikad Raya to see some sports cars that were advertised in the On The Road motor magazine. This car trader appeared to be one of the biggest car traders in the Klang Valley and one of its sales premises was located along Jalan Pahang, so said the advertisement. Another reason why I wanted to go to Iktikad Raya was that their ad claimed that they had modern facilities to maintain and modify cars.

When I went there, I could not find a proper entrance to go in, save for a small road on one side and another small road terminating at the busy Jalan Pahang. Along this road, cars were parked haphazardly on the grass verge on both sides of the narrow road that I had to squeeze my car through. There was not even a welcoming sign to suggest where to park your car. Fearing that I might be stranded on the small road with no way of reversing if there were obstacles in front, I decided to drive away from the area. It reminded me of Naza in Kampung Bharu in those days when you had to park your car far away if you want to see the cars on display. The motor traders attitude was not a welcoming one. The only way for us customers was to beat a hasty retreat.

Some pictures of the car ...

All the while, I have been talking about the Nissan Fairlady but have never shown its pictures. So, here they are.