Bye bye.... Hankook V12

Finally SR4 rubber was replaced. The Hankook V12 served us well for 4 years. I tried to look for it for a month but it is out of stock up to importer level. Yesterday after noticing the wear on the tyre have signed of the threads coming out, I know the replacement must be made. After some consideration and getting some inputs, 4 pieces of PS3 is the one (thanks Koh). Immediately after installing the shell, I go to "The Tall Guy's" for alignment check and dynamic wheel balancing. The 2 front wheels is ok but the 2 back wheels need to rebalanced. After a little bit of driving, I found it quite good in the dry, very grippy. So lets see how it goes when it rains. (Pictures will be added later).

Update on SR4

26Mar2013: Just managed to get over a hard time on having Engine Error code CEL9. This codes shows as CYP which Cylinder Position Error that is normally caused by Distributor, ECU or Wiring.
It is very hard to find a proper distributor to replace my current unit and finally i give up on finding a Half cut B16A distributor. My mechanic managed to get a SV4 distributor and salvage the Sensors and ignition coil packs from it and refit to my distributor housing.

However the car is still throwing a CEL9 (puzzled), later he managed to get a B16A ecu (auto) to test my car. The CEL9 is gone and a new CEL19 appears, this is expected as CEL19 is on Transmission system (My car is a manual, the ECU is auto). This tells us the ECU is problematic. I then managed to source a B16A (FEELS) ECU from IJAN (ECU Seller). We fitted the FEELS ECU and the car starts without CEL9. Happily I thought it was over and done, but after ~4 minutes the CEL9 pops up again. Bewildered we check with another ECU and yet it happens again. In the end I still end up buying the FEELS ECU as after he open my current ECU cover and found the capacitor are indeed leaking.

With an unanswered question in mind "WHY it still comes out? CEL9 Why!", i drove home and get some sleep. After clearing my mind from confusion, with some time an internet research was done and some discussion with experts went thru too....

Finally I guess the distributor may still have issue and found out the sensors need to be placed "very" near to the center shaft of the distributor. So i go back to my mechanic and share the thoughts that the sensor position may be too far from the center. The distributor was then dismantled and the sensor is repositioned. Fingers crossed, the car started without CEL9 and pray God that this is finally solved. Attache below is some good guide links for Distributor salvage and some pictures.

 Guide: http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2441044

 FEEL'S ECU and check out the refitted Distributor with SV4 to SR4 custom made conversion harness.

Take note: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IMPORT ANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
when you put the sensors in, finger tighten them down and adjust them closest to the center of the dizzy you will need to spin the spindle to get the sensors to push themsleves outward to where they barely touch. Wiggleing the housing in SMALL circles will help with this, THIS IS VERY TIDEOUS ONLY ADJUST AND TIGHTEN DOWN ONE SENSOR AT A TIME REMOVEING THE HOUSING AND TIGHTENING THE SENSOR AFTER EACH ADJUSTMENT START WITH THE LOWEST SENSOR FIRST!!!!. besure that the housing lines up with its perspective holes to insure the sensors have clearance when the housing is screwed in....NOTE: the sensors can never be too close, but if they are too far away they will throw CEL codes and missfire.

 

K&N filter cleaned.

Cleaned my car K&N filter charger. Mileage at 93939. 30ml oil recharge was applied to the clean dry filter media. Engine response is much better. This is the first time I cleaned a K&Nfilter.

3 July 2012:
My car battery died at the factory during lunch time. It was raining quite heavily after work, me and my colleague (Kwee) has to jump start the car in the rain. It is lucky that Chong has a good jumper wire the original Toyota jumper wire is lousy and did not work. Finally got my battery replaced at the shop. Thank you to Kwee, Cecelia and Chong :)....

I was wondering if my alternator is bad so I check it with multimeter:
1) Battery only: 12.79V.
2) Ignition ON: 13.90V (alternator kicks in)
3) Head lights: 13.89V
4) HL + AC On: 13.80V
5) HL+AC+ Stereo On: 13.72V
6) HL+AC+Stereo+ Spot Light On: 13.05V (Big drop when HL+SL On)
7) HL+AC+Steroe+SL+ Heater On: 12.63V (Battery will drain)

Lesson Learned: Do not use spot light if you don't have to. :)
Improvement: Noticed that HID lights takes up less Voltage. May change the Spot light to HID bulbs.

2012 The CNY of the Water Dragon.

Little did I realize that it has almost been 1 year this blog is left untouched.


I did not did not do much performance upgrade to the SR4 as it is now already in the 4th year in my hands. Pretty much stabilized, so just need to maintain and up keep.

2012 is known to be a challenging year for the Horse. I have to re-focus my effort to establish more contacts/network, both at work and socially.

There are some die hard bad habits which I really need to get rid of:
1) Sleeping late. (It is 2.30am now)
2) Poor listener. (I like to cut in middle of the conversation to emphaize my thoughts or drops questions. One of the reason i found my self dong this is because I worry if the idea is forgotten. So now I plan to bring a pen and paper to jot down the questions/thoughts when others talks, it will then be used to refresh my memory for converstation later and in doing so I hope it can train my mind to remember.) "Listen, Think, View and ask questions or comment later."

So the list now stands at 2 items and i know there is more but lets get this started and I will now go to sleep. Hopefully I can sleep before 12.00am every day from today onwards.

Good night. So let's see if I am sucessfull to change my habits now.

New Kicks....

Finally got my shoes replaced. I bought the Asics Gel-1150 and gets the Puma SL Tech as gift (thanks to my Dearest Better Half ).


Asics Gel-1150: I have started to use the Asics and found it great for running and moving around (It is a running shoe so it is expected). I tried it when driving and found that these are not suitable for driving. They are too plushy and less sensative. It is designed to absorb impact when running so this is the payoff. I will use these for running or Gym. These shoes is really light and comfortable when compared to Brooks, Reebok and Nike (at same price range).









Puma SL Tech: I have just tried these in the shop and all I can say that it beats the crap out of Adidas (at the same price range). They feel comfy to be able to walk around and the grip is quite good. I will start to use these tomorrow and will update the experince. I have checked numerous online review and comment and all of them is saying these are very good for driving so lets see tomorrow. These weight just about 10 oz and they are the lightest sneakers that I have ever owned. I love light shoes and sandals.

Wheel Stand.

The G27 wheel, i know that a wheel stand is needed. After some online checking, i found that most after market wheel stand does not come cheap! One of the most popular is the WheelstandPro which cost about RM600.

I checked online for some DIY wheel stand and those do look good. But building one will not be easy as the material needed is difficult to get and i do not have a lot of wood work tools.

I managed to find good desk which is then moded to have a gear shift lever mount. This is what i got for under RM60 (this is 10% of the Wheelstand Pro price.)

Now that the steering wheel is well mounted, i can start to learn use it properly.