Post - Anniversary of NOT BLOGGING!!

Yeap you read it right. My last post was 1 year and i am truely dissapointed with my self, 14 months to be exact is when my last post took place, so lets see if i can recap what has happened:

Now after the 140k service....

- Engine mountings were changed
- KnN drop in filter
- MBC installed and set to 0.7 bar --> this is sweet as you can hear the turbo spooling when acceleration. 
- Works boost meter
- Few more oil changes
- Thermostat replace due to water leaks
- and a bunch of maintenance parts

So to put all this in a wrap and bring this blog to the present era, iv got a short story! :)

A long long time ago in a land not known to others where there were beautiful...hmm wrong story!

Ok so in August 2015, i sent to the car to Wyn who has been taking care of the car since the purchase and told him to check every single bit, up, down, side, in and out of the car and tell me what needs fixing - why? the car was just loose, tires were eating up unevenly, noises that were interfering with me listening to the beautiful harmonics of the turbo spooling were present and so on and on...

After about 2 days, here are the list of things that needs replacing. at least what i can remember on top of my head:

1. Absorbers - recommended to go adjustable - RM 5 - 7k
2. Absorbers mounting
3. Link rods
4. Front arms and rear arms due to worn bushing and ball joint - estimate RM 10k..Fuck!
5. Sway bars bushing
6. Major service with belts etc - RM 5 - 7k
7. Tyre on all sides after 1 - 5 is done - RM 2 - 3k
8. MAF sensor
9. Air inlet tube sensor
10. Radiator T joint
11. AC - requires servicing
12. Paint!!

Point to note not all was recommended by Wyn, some by myself :) and prices are just estimate!
Bottom line to save my lusty relationship with her --> 20 - 25k!
So i was in a dilemma, all the above botox to make feel new or go.........DIVORCE! 
Just like everymen out there i was naughty as well and after a few weeks the divorce was finalized!

My S40 is sold with a very bad impact financially to me and emotionally.

Now the interesting part..whos the new girl?

Some jibber jabber

Sigh....i actually told my self at the starting point of this blog that i will ensure there is actually a minimum of 1 post per month...look at it now...4 months swoosshhh and not a single post...

So to stand-by my words..im going to be making up to all that missing post as alot has happened..alot of updates...alot to share...alot of learning...alot of nonsense...alot of stupid things i did as well :)

To plan my historical post...below are the things that took place:

1. 140k km service at JB --yeap first time doing it there
2. Water leak - K-seal to the rescue
3. Millers oil for Engine and Transmission - review
4. Driving behavior - fuel consumption - some interesting findings
5. Xenon was being a pirate - replaced
6. Raped and abused....bastards...

so yeah...lets see if i can catch up... 

Volvo S40 BTCC

Volvo has always been active in the "racing" industry and has its name for producing really fast cars and not just safe. Most might think volvo are just cars for the old folks or a typical soccer mom, but only few knew the true potential of Volvo!

Volvo has been participating the British Touring Car Championship since ever since 1998. They started their flagship by using the 850r Estate. Imagine that, a typical wagon car that is tearing up the tarmac on the track. As they evolved, there was a point where they were using the S40 and wining the BTCC. Of course those S40 are T4 and mine is only a T3 but its the same base only different CC, Cylinders, and most importantly the T4 uses High Pressure Turbos and mine is just a low pressure turbo..well not for long at least.

Also not to mentioned they have dressed up the S40 stunningly sexy!!

Inspired by the decals on this BTCC model, i went ahead and ordered the 'S40' & 'Volvo' decal for myself. Tried my very best to interpret the size and font from this picture as closely as i could.

Now this is more of a trial actually to see the end results, so the quality on this decal are not he best but meant for some outdoor climate beating. 

Now what i should have done is gone to get a professional to get this on the car but i love DIY and this is just simple right..well not really. Ensuring that you follow the lines of the body is not easy heck its was hard! 

  
But after about a few hours, above is the end results...not too bad i would say. Does give 'i am not an uncle driving volvo' look to it.

Now if only the rims were bigger and the car was about an inch or so lower...then it would look and perform better at the curvy roads.

Double Layer Tinting

Not sure if its me or its just really hot these days. Since i was on a long leave (recovering from a motorbike accident), while having lunch i dropped by the accessory shop close by to my place just to check out on some things.

While i was there, few cars were getting their tint replaced for a better quality and darker ones as well. That is when it hit me, maybe another layer just to make it abit darker will improve the cabin temperature.

One thing went to another, and decided to go 70% darker on all 6 windows. Now i already have a very good tint stucked on it not too long ago, it was doing a good job, but due to its compliance of this country it only filters 50% of light. 50% might already sound like alot but in actually fact i feel almost all light goes through the screens.

This is what the 50% does...close to nothing right, just minor reflection

From the front...even in indoors you can see everything inside, imagine outside under the hot sun

Its a cheap tint where it only filters light, even so it claims to filter out alot more....

End results under the sun...ok i know this is abit too much

Sides, yeap its too dark..i know i know...but im loving it!! :)

After a few weeks of enjoying this deem cabin, i decided to remove the front piece. Most the light that comes in any car is actually from the front windscreen, not the sides or even the back. So by removing the front layer it allowed more light into the cabin and made the overall cabin brighter and not so catchy to the cops eyes.

130k Service..

I have been so busy lately and hardly had time for myself. With work and outside work stuff, things on the car has definitely got the e-breaks ON! Also on top of that, what ever extra cash i have is strictly for savings only as the wedding bells are not too far along and the bank balance arnt looking so good.

Even with all that back in Feb 2014, the moose was schedule to have its fluids change at 130 000 kilometers. Shocking i know as i actually clocked 30k so fast since i bought the car, considering that i usually use my bike for work and the car is only for the weekend.

I will usually bring the moose to my regular place in USJ, but ever since my last visit at MRZ for the wheel bearing replacement, im actually happy with his service. This guy is actually an ex-federal auto mechanic and an enthusiast to volvo cars. He definitely knows his way around the S40 in particular and has seen it all in Volvo cars.

This time, it was just a change of fluid with the regular Castrol EDGE TITANIUM 5W-40 SN. 5.5L needed to be filled into its oil tummy hence 2 bottles are required, lucky for me, i had balance from the previous service.

Also along with it was the OEM Oil Filter as well. The only thing i did like about the service is the fact that they sucked out all the oil as oppose to draining it out. Some may say its the same thing but to me, only by draining it out you will get all the old oil out.

As you can see, its a trusted place for S40 in particular.

Damage:

Oil: RM 200
Oil Filter: RM 40
Labor: RM 20 i think...

Dip it baby...

Ever since i got the car, it always bugged me that the outer door panels looks a bite worn out, well to me its extremely warned out!

As you can see from the picture below how unhappy i am but what to do...the car has aged and the rubbers with Malaysia heat will not last. After a closer inspection, the rubbers are still doing its job but ecstatically my eyes is tearing blood!

Passenger triangle window

Passenger side

So after many, many and many sleepless nights, i thought i will give it a paint job. Sand it smooth and a nice coat of matte black. Obviously this is a cheaper solution. So first thing was to prep the car. Now with paint masking is very important otherwise all the over spray will be visible. 

Little did i know, masking is not easy! Its freaking hard, especially for a person like me who keeps peeling it off and doing it again, until its perfectly aligned. It took my close to 4 hours to mask just the rear passenger door. 1 door that is. I was tired and my back was killing me, so i called it a day and thought i will just finish it up next weekend. So the car was parked at my usual place protected from the nasty sun and rain, but one of the days, it had rained so bad with strong winds, and my whole car was wet!! Arghh which means all my masking with newspaper and masking tape is ruined!!! Had to feel all of them off, otherwise when wet newspaper dries up, it will be an even bigger mess to clean up the car.

So i thought there got to be a better solution. Recently this new rubberized based paint was getting very popular from US. PLASTI DIP! After watching numerous videos on YouTube, i thought to my self, this is for sure the tool for the job. Rubber for rubber. 

I headed on to ACE Hardware, got a minor heart attack to know that its RM 50 per can! Calmed down and still bought a tin.

So how it works is that this paint, once applied we can easily peel off the over spray so masking is not really required.. and i am a happy guy...below pictures will tell you more..

1st coat if im not mistaken

3rd or 4th coat

Close up look at the wet paint...yes its not a good job

5th and final coat

Final coat

You can see the difference between left and right, where on the right i have peeled off the over spray. It comes off beautifully but it is a bitch to peel

After hours of peeling it off

End results..not bad ehh..

End Results

Overall i think i did not a bad job, but i will need to redo it again sometime. Lesson here is for it to easily peel off you need to ensure the over spay is thick enough, which means i will need at least 2 cans and not 1. Also please mask off the areas where you do not want the paint to reach! I used about 40 minutes to paints the 5 layers, the waiting time in between was about 5 - 10 minutes, but it took me about 2 - 3 hours to peel off the over spray because they were all over and they were so thin that i had to rub it off!

But in a nut shell Plasti Dip is AWESOMEEEEE

Out of juice

This happened about a week ago. The night before my place had no electric, but since I was dropped dead tired and thinking about my meeting the next day...I still slept like a baby.

Got up in the morning all fresh and ready for the job. Put on my well pressed shirt and pants, decided to drive as the bike just gets my clothes all crumpled, got down kept all my stuff in the car...and turn in the ignition but the car does not want to crank. I got panicked. Lights are on, radio works! Took out my phone called my trusted mech MRZ.

Told him the symptoms and he straight away says it's the battery! I'm like that's weird because I still have all the accessories working. He then explains that volvo needs a fully charged healthy battery to start. If the car detects that the battery ain't juicy enough it will cut the power to the starter to protect it. So my only option is to jump start but from the same battery or bigger.

Lucky for me my neighbour who drives a passat was about to go for work and got him to defibrillate my car. And lucky enough I had a thick cable to the job.

A few pumps and she comes to life.

Just opposite my place there is at least 5 car service center which all of them sells battery so I headed that way but none of this shops had size DIN66.

So as usual I did some research and found out that bosch and gp is what I'm after.

I know a supplier which is in puchong so I headed there and they had it. But price ranging from RM300 - RM500.

So I opted for a maintenance free Bosch DIN66 with 1 year warrenty. In no time the battery was replaced it immediately I could see the difference when cranking the engine.

So with all juiced up I headed for work which I am so late.

More LED

So yes i know my moose is rather old today and in comparison with the new cars coming out of the factory today and the techhy stuff that's fitted in this newbies, definitely i cant compare.

So in making her feeling abit younger of trying to add abit more new era stuff if you may.

Ever since LED lighting became popular in the automotive industry i began being more fond of it as well.

I started by getting the H7 Xenon conversion kit and adding Phillips LED bulps to it as well.

I always see new cars fitted with DRL. Day Riding/Driving Lights in other words. This is actually popular or standard in countries that snow to help other driving looking at your car.

In Malaysia today its equally popular as well. Some cames standard or you can always purchase an after market one.

I could not help myself by getting a pair for my moose as well.

These are not branded and YES its from the motherland of imitation parts...China. Learning more about parts from China, i soon understood that even this "fake" stuff if you may have their grades as well and the quality aint that bad. So the above cost me a total of RM170 which is not that bad seeing the warranty that comes with it and the finishing of it. Just for your knowledge, a Phillips 4 LED would cost RM 550 :)

This DRL comes with 9 LEDs in a reflective enclosure which will generate better light quality. The quality of the LEDs as well are of good standards...good in a way that i go abit blind by looking directly into them for a few seconds. It comes with all the needed wires and sockets for easy fitment. No wires to cut or splice which i like.

Based on the length of the DRL, the only suitable place would be just below the number plate. My initial plan was to fit them just above or below the fog lights which is a bit tight and decided not to. Any other location would require cutting the bumper which of course im not happy about. 

After the fitment, they actually look awesome. Its not too high up that will glare onlookers, but does the job as well. They have been wired to the ACC power source, which means if the key is on the ACC position, it will lit up. Another way of doing this is to wire it up to your headlamps, but that means only when your lights are on they will come on as well.

End results are awesome...

So with this in ending year 2013...(the mod was done just a few days before new year)..hopefully 2014 will be really bright.... :)

My first lady has another man

On my very first post, i posted an entry stating on my intention to give away my first lady to a new owner.

Yes she is old but not rusty! Yes she has aged but very young at heart and will definitely get your blood rushing when you hit the right pedal.

After a long time of hiding her behind the covers finally 1 guy stood up among the crowd to house her.

After a few rounds of interview and negotiation of the "dowry", we came to an agreement and with a hand shake the deal was on!

It was not an easy process but i managed to get it done.

My last photos of her....

As a going away present i dressed her up with a set of 4 new shoes from a well know designer Bridgestone and a nice bubble bath.

Definitely a lot of nice memories but you got to let go to make way for the new lady..pocket does not allow me to have them both, plus an additional REAL lady coming into my life soon.

bye bye..you will always be my first.

Tragic Accident !!!

As i mourn and write this post, a few days ago i over judge my cornering capability of my s40 and ended up with a tragic accident.

It was at night time and i was not under any influence but the influence of a hungry stomach as i was going to the local "Mamak" shop to pack some food.

As i took the corner i was confident that i could make it, but in less than a second my heart just stop beating. I was so shocked to have feel the impact. I knew this days will come but did not think it will be that night.

My first reaction was to immediately jump out the door to see the damage. It was bad, really bad. I just could not believe i scared her due to my missed judgement. 

Well a damage is a damage... 

Lesson learnt: Dont be hungry and think of food while driving.

S40 Wheel Bearings

During the purchase of this S40, i noticed that there is a slight noise coming from the rear wheels when entering corners, to the left only. After much digging under the car, we thought i could be some aged bushing.

Since that was the case, i never really gave much thought to it, just told myself that i will change all of them when im doing the suspensions.

During my last maintenance, (post about it is here) i had to do a full wheel re-alignment which made the same noise now permanent. This drove me mad, and after much of searching, its was the wheel bearing. In a way i was a bit please because it was not a major issue.

Called up the local volvo spareparts shop and to my shocking 1 wheel bearing cost freaking RM500..arghh plus labor its at least going to be RM550-600.

After a few rounds of my fingers dancing on the keyboard, research found that the Mitsubishi Evo 3/Waja also uses the same bearing... :)

This is thanks to the fact that they share the same chasis construction. Big smiles on my face, as this only means cheaper parts!

Fingers continued to dance to later find out that the ABS tooth thinggy that sits at the back of the bearings are different compared to the Volvo and Mitsu. Their gaps are different, and the way its assembly is not the same as well.

Volvo's one are bolted to the hub while the other is just slotted in. hmm...

So after some thoughts, i do not want to disturb the way the ABS works on the Volvo and decided to send the New Japan Bearing, which is bolted on to a new hub to the local machine shop to make 2 holes so that the ABS tooth thinggy can be bolted on. After an hour its done.

NTN Japan produces the best bearings apparently.

Notice the 2 bolts that have been added :)

This is before the extra 2 holes are made.

 All in i only spent RM 110 for the bearing and RM 80 for the labor and machine work. Total of RM190 and i am happy.

Next things to fix/do:

1. Front Lambda Sensor 

2. Steering Rack cover 

3. Belt Tensioner 

4. Service AC

5. Suspension

6. Bushing

7. All parts related to its arms and suspension

8. Rear passenger power window = RM 1 000 (Better find a used one from the halfcut shop)

9. Tint

10. Multimedia system

11. Rims + Tyre

12. Painting = RM 1500 +- (Hopefully 1 layer of paint will do the job)

13. AC fan

14. Rear wheel bearing

15. HID

16. LED Lights 

Wondermilk.. Really makes you wonder

This is actually a really old update which i found in the drafts...

on of the days in my "firefighting rat infested central store converted to an office", at the very last minute after lunch i found out its my good friends birthday..yeah i know good friend but dont even know its a birthday..pehhh

anyway me and another friend thought lets get her a cake...reality check....we are at office at 3pm located in the middle of no where near a shop that sells cakes..so as usual me and my buddy stormed out the office (we are actually a vendor based on client site so a lot of acting is involved) like we have an urgent issue to fix....run and jumped into my buddies "batmobile" drove out to office..and both of us looked at each other and go...Where are we going to find cake??

Yeap same thing happens for lunch as well..but not too far from the office we have a mall so best place was to try there...

no cakes were found but discovered this place called "The Wondermilk"....

So if you are actually as straight as i am what is the first time that hits your head....yeap yeap you got it...Its a Malaysian version of HOOTERS or a shop that sells milky stuff

Walked in to only see a long showcase of cupcakes...

Now they are not exactly cheap but what the hell..it is for our good friend that we did not even know its her birthday..so we licked the thumb  and chose what visually looks good and sounds yummy...

got 8 of them 3 candles and a happy birthday sign and off to the batmobile :p

The cupcakes are actually very rich and moist...definitely worth the penny.