1 March 2011

Have I told you the time when my car broke down by the highway? No? Well that's because it just happened this morning. We had just finished dropping of the kids at their school and nursery and took the exit near Sierra 16 when I saw smoke coming out of the front bonnet. A quick glance at the temperature meter showed it was over the roof. So I quickly stopped by the roadside heading to Cyberjaya to see what's wrong.

When I opened the hood, my coolant tank was completely dry. I swear I regularly checked them like once every 2 or 3 weeks. So I called a few people and they said to wait until the temperature goes down a bit before attempting to drive again. So my wife and I sat there for like an hour or so with our hazards light watching people heading to Cyberjaya/Putrajaya/Serdang/KLIA/Kajang drove by. Truly a classic moment. To be honest, I'm just glad none of those pesky tow trucks came by to offer us 'help'. When the car sufficiently cooled down, I poured 2 liters of water into the tank and cautiously drove the car to a Proton workshop in Equine Park. In the end, we had the radiator fan motor changed for RM300+ including labor. Even then the mechanic managed to screw up the car's wiring causing the hazard light to turn on and off occasionally. File this one under shit always happens if you buy a Proton and after it turns 5 years old.

19 February 2011

You can say I'm pretty much a regular customer at R.S Auto in Puchong, a Proton Savvy/Renault specialist workshop. In fact I have put up a glowing review of this workshop on my blog which provided direction and answers to numerous Proton Savvy owners around the country whose having problems with their ride.

I send my car for regular service there every time and this year alone I went there twice already. The last time to change my brake pads which costs RM110.00 a set. Yeah they still charge a reasonable price for their labor and parts. It's only that their service had gone from friendly to indifference. I went there bright and early in the morning, around 10:00 AM when the place has just opened. No one else was there yet, I'm the only customer and yet they don't even cared to say hi or greet me, their returning and paying customer. Mr. Ho, the head mechanic doesn't give a hoot about you anymore. Most of the time he'll past all the work to his crews. I wonder if he does anything at all.

If I had it my way, I would like to take my car elsewhere to somebody who cares or at least give some semblance of courtesy. The only thing stopping me from visiting some generic Proton workshop is their exorbitant fees. Perhaps R.S Auto has got so successful, they've drown in their glory. R.S Auto sucks. The place is filthy and the service is dreadful. I'm not recommending this place to anyone again.

26 June 2009

Scenes from a car.

How to take action movie while driving.

30 May 2009

It is that time in your life again where you had to spend a bomb to replace and service your car tyres. I always dread when this day come. My front tyres is like really bald and the rear ones is not looking good either. So this payday, I had no choice but to replace all my car's tyres. Thank God I live in with a sugar-mommy (i.e my wife). She helped a little with the bills.

I didn't have any recommended/favourite workshop in mind so I just go to this Piau Joon workshop in Desa Serdang. I heard that you can get really good price for tyres in Klang but the problem is there's probably a million workshops there in Klang and I don't know which one to go. I wanted to get some cheap Silverstone tyres at first but then they told me my car can ony wear a 15" Goodyear NCT 5 tyres. After much haggling the mechanic agreed to give me 12 ringgit off for each tyres.

For the record here's how much I spent for the tyres today:
- 4 x Goodyear Eagle 15" NCT5 tyres: RM632.00
- 4 x tyre valves: RM20.00
- Front wheel alignment: RM15.00
- Front wheel chamber adjustment: RM50.00
- 5% BN Government Tax: RM3.25
- Second time haggling discount -RM7.00
- Grand total: RM713.25

The mechanic said all my rims are crooked and bent everywhere and recommended that I change them for an arm and a leg to which I said no. Then he said I need to adjust my front wheel chamber which I did see a little bit out of place. But if the mechanic took me for a ride, I wouldn't have known. 713 ringgit is a lot to spend in one day. Suddenly the cheap tyres from Klang didn't sound so far away anymore.