Got this in the mail…

A man was driving down the road and ran out of gas. Just at that moment, a bee flew in his window.

The bee said, ‘What seems to be the problem?’

‘I’m out of gas,’ the man replied.

The bee told the man to wait right there and flew away. Minutes later, the man watched as an entire swarm of bees flew to his car and into his gas tank. After a few minutes, the bees flew out.

‘Try it now,’ said one bee.

The man turned the ignition key and the car started right up.

‘Wow!‘ the man exclaimed, ‘what did you put in my gas tank‘?

The bee answered,

BEE PEE!!!

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Yup! I found it! Well,actually the woman who mend a drink stall at the UOA food court found it. Alhamdulillah!

The picture above is specially for Lollies who was wondering how in the world that a car can be started and stopped without using the key. You just need to remove the metal piece where you normally slot in your key and the white thingy is what was left after the piece was removed. So dah kira bogel la tu… Then you just need something, such as a screw driver to put on the black circle so that it can be turned. Turn clockwise to start and the other way to stop. Senang je kan?

Anyway, back to the missing key.  The next day, before going to get the key set replaced, we (this time the whole family joined the search) had decided to make another visit to the food court at UOA as it was already closed the night before. Tak puas hati punya kes la ni. I went straight to the last place that I stopped on that fateful evening.

“Ada orang tinggal kunci kereta tak?“ I asked a woman there.

“Adaa…” and she gave me the key!

“Thank you very very very much!”

Lega gila rasa masa tuh. Since I got back the key and there was no need to get a new key set, we drove over to Ah Heng’s workshop. Ah Heng was the guy who macgyver-ed the ignition system. Since he dismantled it, it was best that he put it back together.

In short, after a brunch at Q-Bistro, the car was up and ready…

Last but not least, thanks to Inar and hubby for helping us in getting the car temporarily fixed while we looked for the key. You guys truly rock!

Jangan lupa check your spare key ha!

Updated 8/12/2008 2320 hours!

I read on the Saturday (6/12/2008) Star newspaper that the driver of the car or the fourth person who has no seat belt to wear at the rear seat will not be fined although the law is there after taking into consideration the rest of the factors involved.

*** updated ***

Come 1^st January 2009, Malaysians are required by law to wear the rear seat belts while traveling in a car. I have nothing against that law as it is for our safety and bla bla bla… The law states that all the rear passenger of a car must wear the safety belts and therefore, it is against the law to carry more than three people in your back seat since there are only three seat belts available.

Now, this is the thing that hit me. Like being hit by a balloon filled of water. It’s not painful yet a bit unpleasant and made me wet…

What about those family who has four kids? Let’s say they are aged 5, 6, 7 and 8 years old. Are you going to leave one at home just because of the new law? What happened to the family holidays and Cuti Cuti Malaysiathat the government has been eagerly promoting? They would tell you go buy an MPV or get a second car. Or worse still, just leave one behind…

They don’t care. Those people who got together and come up with this law don’t care. They are one of those who are provided with a car by the government and with their fat salaries and “other” incomes, they can then by a big fat MPV for their wives. Why should they care?

If the price of an MPV is as cheap as a Proton Saga then may be that would make some senses but you can wait until the cat plays the fiddle and the cow jumps over the moon since that is not going to happen. Not in this lifetime for sure… Imagine if that happens… You can then buy a Perodua Kancil for a price of a motorbike…

When later you start reading news about how an 8 year old child died after being left alone since there was not enough seat belts in the car or a 6 year old got kidnapped while taking the bus alone, due to no more seat belt in the car, so that she can join her parents somewhere, you will start pointing finger to the authorities… But, the problem is always that when you point a finger, there will always be at least three other fingers pointing back at you. Try point your finger to someone now and you would see what I mean. You just can’t win. Even when the little dog laughs when the dish runs away with spoon, You still can’t win…

So what can you do? If you can’t afford an MPV or a second car, do not make more than 3 children. You can forget about your extended families as they do not have seat belts reserved for them anymore. Grandpa and Grandma can no longer join the fun… You can also choose to use our “world class” public transportation system to go around with you whole family. Which world is our world class referring to again? Well those are just some ways that I can suggest to you. Think about other ways yourself please….

Why is the rear seat belt very important? It is the same principle as the seat belt on an airplane. It does not really save you but in an event when your plane is going down, you would not be bouncing everywhere and messing up the whole cabin with your blood and etc. You keep the mess to your own seat. The same goes to the rear seat belt in the car as well. You would not see something like the picture above anymore. Neater, isn’t it?

Well it doesn’t hurt me yet as I only have one child and today is Friday. So, hey didle didle, have a good weekends and Salam Aidil Adha. That dies not rhyme… So, sue me!

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After serving me for more than 8 years, I had to say to goodbye to the trusty thermostat that had been working hard to maintain the engine temperature of my car.

This happened on last Thursday when my family and I decided to visit Genting Highland. The main purpose was that my brother in-law who came all the way from Jakarta wanted to get a Genting’s t-shirt. I don’t think they sell that in Petaling Street so, we had to go up there to get one.

After having our lunch at the Genting Sempah rest area, we proceeded with the climb and shortly after that, the car started to lose power and I noticed that the engine temperature started to rise. At first I thought that we had too much weight since we just had lunch but that should not be the case as the car is designed to carry 5 adults and yet we only had 4.

I switched off the air conditioning and that did not really help. As the temperature kept rising, I looked for a place to stop and fortunately or may be unfortunately (read till the end and you know why), a car with two mechanics happened to pass by and asked me to stop. Since I was planning to stop anyway, so I stopped the car.

One of them told me that he saw coolant dripping from my engine and smokes came out from under the hood. I opened up the hood and saw the cap to the coolant reserved tank was dislodged and one of them said that could be a signed of an overflow in the system that caused by a blockage at the thermostat. He asked my permission to open up the thermostat to confirm and since I have no other choice, I agreed.

He confirmed that the thermostat was faulty and the cheapest solution (that was not that cheap due to road side services) was to remove the thermostat and run the car without it. I was skeptical as the engine is the heart of the car and removing something from the heart did not sound like a good idea to me.

Then he explained to me that the function of the thermostat is to regulate the coolant flow to the engine. Since the engine is Japanese made, the thermostat was put there to ensure that the engine could be heated up fast during winter so that driving can be done smoothly within a short time and after that, the thermostat would just regulate the coolant flow so that the engine will operate at a safe temperature and avoid any over heating. In a simple term, It is something that controls the opening of the gate for the coolant to go into the engine.

So, in a country, such as Malaysia, our temperature is between warm to hot and even our cold morning would never be as cold as a winter in Tokyo, so the service of the thermostat was not really needed. In my case, the thermostat failed to fully open during the steep climb thus causing the engine to be over heated. It could have been worse if I did not stop in time. The radiator and the engine casing could have been damaged.

Anyway, after fixing back the thermostat housing and pouring 2 liter of coolant, he asked for RM 120.00 and I gave him RM 100.00 that he happily accepted. He told me that was a standard rate for any road side vehicle services. Who am I to argue anyway?

Without the thermostat, the car climbed up Genting Highland with no problem whatsoever and the temperature now is only ¼ up the gauge compared to almost ½ with the thermostat installed.

Anybody has any advice on this? Would it be okay for the car to run without the thermostat?

By the way, we did get the t-shirt and my son had a great time in Genting Highland!

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Last Saturday I went to a workshop to inquire about the squeaking noises coming from the right rear side of my car. It sounded as if I had a bunch of mice or rats having a debate or a verbal fight at the back of my car. It was noisy and really irritating.

The mechanic at the workshop, without even making any effort to check out what was causing the noises told me that I had to replace the rear absorbers. He told me that it would cost me RM 250 to get the job done. I told him that I would come back at the end of the month when I have the money…

What I didn’t tell him was that I wanted to get a second opinion on the squeaks. I went to another workshop, which was a bit far from my house and this guy agreed to take a look at what was making the sounds before suggesting anything.

After a few minutes he called me to go under the car just below the right rear wheel and show me the source of my squeaking mice. There was no mouse after all. Instead, he push two piece of connected metals and I could hear both of them squeaked.

He then told me to replace the rear long arm and short arm for both rear wheels. He gave me the cost and seriously it would cost me an arm and a leg to get both side replaced. The cost would be around RM 400. I just sat there thinking while my mouth kept on asking about why those parts are expensive…

He then suggested that since the squeaking came only from the right side, I just need to replace that side first and only fix the other side later if it started to squeak as well. I agreed and I am RM 200 poorer that day.

After fixing the arms, he took the car for a test drive and came back saying that my mice had all gone away. As I was driving home, I started to hear squeaking noise from the same place again. this time the squeaks were not as noisy as before but it was still very annoying and since I was going to drive back to my home town later, I was not prepared to endure three hours of irritating squeaking sounds coming from the back.

I knew that I was going to be late but the squeak must go by hook or by crook. I turned around and the mechanic found out that the new long arm was faulty. He fixed me a new one and until I came back from my home town a few hours ago, there was no more squeak from my car.

I wonder how may arms are there in a typical car. So, I learned that my car has four arms on the rear suspension system. May be I should ask the mechanic how many arms are there on the front. If my car has a total of eight arms, then it should belong to the spider family.

On top of that, I also learned that we should always ask for a second opinion. Imagine that if I were to listen to the first mechanic. I would have replaced the rear absorbers, which was actually still good for another year or so, and I would still have the squeaks…

Do you know how many arms does your vehicle have?