Fuel Consumption

2nd tank of my putra fuel seems to last longer, perhaps the ECU is starting to learn my slow driving style. This tank of fuel are purely city driving only, the first tank with 17" rims were on highway to klang and also KLIA, which i only manage to get 424km for RM75. This 2nd tank were a bit surprise to me, purely city drive but i get 432km for RM73!!!

Fuel usage RM73.00 (38 L)
Distance Travelled (432km)
Distance travel per Litre = 432km/38L = 11.37km/L
Cost for Each distance covered = RM73.00/432km = RM 0.169 /km

Difference for 1st and 2nd tank , 5% better in terms of fuel consumption

Fuel Consumption on 17"

First full tank of my putra with the new 17" wheels shows the milleage clocked at 424km while the refuel cost me RM75 @ RM1.92/L which sum up to 39 L of fuel.

Fuel usage RM75.00 (39 L)
Distance Travelled (424km)
Distance travel per Litre = 424km/39L = 10.87 km/L
Cost for Each distance covered = RM75.00/424km = RM 0.177 /km

Fuel usage wasn't much difference I guess. But i remember i was able to do 0.168/km once .. :)

Experince with 17" Rims

There has been comments on my new 17" rims, most of them says the older 15" looks better (Girls comment). This is because the older rims are white in color which is more attractive compare to the current one. Actually, there is a purpose behind the color of this rim. The purpose is to match a white color putra, which i plan to repaint the whole car near future. Maybe another 2 years later.

During the days with 15" wheels, I love to speed a lot. I even dare to do speed that super fast :P. I also love to conner fast with the gripy tyres and custom absober its just nice. Since few months ago, I quit speed, i made myself drive slowly. But then once in a while i love to conner with some speed too due to the grip tyres, lowered setting and semi bucket recaro seats.

Now with the 17" wheels, I dont even drive fast anymore. The acceleration was slowered even with the mivec throttle, yet with the oversized wheels if i conner too fast , the wheels will hit the fenders which help me to slow myself down!.. but i love it :) i really meant to drive slow ..

Full view of my ride with new rims. Front lowered to 2 fingers height so that i cannot drive that fast :P. Because when i conner a bit faster, the tyre will hit the arch fender. LoLz. Guess thats the price you have to pay when u go for cosmetic. Thou the wheel seems alot heavier then my previous 15"x 6.5", it does not tkae much effort for the 4G93 to push the car to move. Acceleration is a bit laggy compare to 15" but the ride is smoothen and the torque is still very much there. As for fuel consumption, it doesnt seems much different to me, maybe it will have better fuel consumption as well due to the new tyres.

The new Wheels actually looks sporty on the car but the original bumper and side skirt is a bit too tiny for the large wheels now... Headache..

17" Rims to replace my old cracked 15" Rims.

The minute i made my decision to replace it to a 17" rims, I know i wont be driving fast with my car d. With 16.7 kg/m torque i was not worry about the extra weight on the wheels.

The Car when its on the previous 15" wheels, with 195/50/R15 Matrix tyre (cheapo yokohama). My new ride with 17" taiwan rims. Fitted with Falzen ZE522 tyres 205/40/R17".

No doubt the car got weaker during acceleration, but I'm happy with it, cause I've been quiting speed since few months ago. But i worry about pot holes now :)

Preparation for new rims

2 months ago, I cracked 1 of my sport rims. Many frens has advice me to change it as it is dangerous to drive a fixed crack rim as it wont last.

Currently, my putra is riding on 15"x6.5" wheels with 195/50/R15 tyres for all four wheels. To make it sportier and conner faster, I send its absober and spring to be customized 18 months ago and it ran fine all the while. But today, I have to make some changes to that setting to allow me to fit in large wheels tomorrow. The original spring is fitted back in so that the ride is set back to its original heights which is around 2" higher than the current setting.

This was the look before change back to the original spring.

My plan was to fit it 17"x7" with 205/45/R17 tyres in front and 17"x8" with 215/45/R17 tyres behind! HeHeHe.... If and only if my budget allow :)

Alternator died ..

there is a phrase amoung the chinese, if its nothing wrong with the thing, dont mess up with it, else it will get worst. This is so true. My prince alternator was okay all the while, but then i decided to fix it a bit as the bearing was jam and was making noise thou it is still charging well. After changing the bearing and the carbon. I didnt really test it as i was heading back to Jakarta.

Today I come back to Malaysia. driving my prince was much fun as all the new mountings fits well as the engine vibration become minimal. Its like a new car to me. But after having my dinner with my colleague at leisure mall, we decided to move on to another drink as we were waiting for another fren. As i drove out from the parking. I notice the voltage meter is reading quite weird.. Its reading as low as 11v compare to the normal 13v during charge. When i accelerate, the volt drops. Immediately i made a call to my mechanic. He told me to drive home and try to save the batt as much as possible.

Drive from cheras to Kota Damansara, Thats really a challenge. Headlight was not on. I only on the small light to save energy. After the 50 cent toll at Tasik selatan, the battery reading was as low as 10.5v d. without wasting much power, i pedal it to try to get home as fast as possible. as i reach around mid valley, the reading was as low as 9.9v d. To further save power, i switch off the battery reader. Taking the Kerinchi link to save time as my prince is running out of battery power! Further taking up the spring toll for RM1. as soon as i'm out of the toll, its quite noticeable that the battery power is very low already because the digital clock light was very dim already. Following my the RPM meter goes up and down. At that point, i totally switch of my lights worrying that i can't reach home. Luckily I was able to reach home with sufficient battery power to close of my power window with a bit of hand help.

Guess i'll need to get myself a new alternator for my prince once CNY is over.... :(

Major Service for my Prince

The night after Jacky Cheung concert, I send my friends back and head my way back to my house. The road was dark, didn't notice there is a huge hole on the road.... Malaysian Roads... Bang... OUCH .. That was painful. Got out of my prince, and found that my rim are dent and cracked ... :( . Sad night. I've actually plan to change my rim from 15" to 17", but i dont have the budget yet so i guess i have to fix the huge crack for now.

The crack was very long and quite wide open, but then the tyre didnt leak a bit. Weirdo..
The next day, my prince was up in the garage. As i ave previously plan to major service on it especially on the clutch, need to replace. Since I've bought the new clutch, Its a day to replace it as well.

My car alternator, the bearing was not that good already. Its making noise, Since I'm Changing the clutch d, might as well change the bearing. As well as replacing the carbon contact inside the alternator.

My old clutch, Its original and hasn't change before since 10 years ago. Its old and worn out already. The plate was already harden.

The new clutch that will replace the old one. My fren ah keong bring me this clutch from his hometown. Its not a super good one, but i got it for a bargainable price. Hehe

Side view of my engine, flywheel has been removed.

My front disc brakes. It has been a bit scratch, so I did a disc skim on it to make it works like new.

My prince gearbox. Has been clean throughly. Thanks to my mechanic!! ah Yong!

Replaced both the upper and lower clutch pump as well. Took my mechanic whole day to replace all the parts for my prince. I also change all 4 new engine mounting. The car is as smooth as new one now :)

Putra Gearbox giving up ...

Lately I've found out that my putra's 5th gear is giving up... When I'm driving at constant speed at highway , sometimes the gearbox will kick the gear out from the 5th gear position into N automatically. Its kind of irritating, when the first time it happens, i thought my clutch has failed, because the RPM keep hiking all the way up but the speedo is going down. Checked with my Mechanic, he told me that the 5th gear need to be replace would cost around RM3xx and a whole day work. Guess i will fix it together when I replace my clutch pads. Kind of worry my other gears might be spoilt also, because the other day driving at 4th gear, heard some sound like gear grinding. I wonder how come problems happen on the 4th n 5th gears as I normally trash my 3rd and 2nd gear only, when I downshift .... LoLz... anyway the putra gears are kind of old, need some new replacement parts on it d i guess. Travel more than 265,000 Km already.