YowCH & Grace

Last night, 19 Dec, the left front spring stiffener fell out of the strong coil and was ground by the tyre. Thank God it happened at our home carpark. So YowCH jacked up the car, and with Joseph’s help (holding the torch light), tied whatever was left of the silicone stiffener back into the spring coil.

Today, YowCH took half-day leave to visit E-rev to get this replaced, changing to stiffer and taller red ones on the front. The rear ones are working fine.

While being there, we also stocked-up on the Redline 5W30 engine lubricants (bought 6 bottles of 4 quarts each) for ourselves, Gene and Daren. And as E-rev workers were unpacking a new shipment of strut bars, YowCH asked about having a strut bar for the Isis, and was advised that the Wish bar will fit, and in any case, there is not cost in trying. So the Isis now has a new front strut bar which costs $150.00.

With the very high COE of close to $100,000 for 1.6L and above, it is worth improving our current car :)

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We woke up on Tuesday morning and found the front fork (with suspension) of YowCH’s bike stolen. This is about the only part that is not chained up. The thief unscrewed the handlebar, and quick-released the wheel which was chained. Amazing! The replacement cost is $197 and all the 4 bikes are now cramped into the house.

The Isis paintwork felt really rough and colour looks drab after a few years, so we went for a Sonax snow-wash, claybar, polish and wax service at Caltex. Then YowCH applied black polish/wax to the black plastic parts. Looks shiny and nice again.

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We sent the Isis for the ninth servicing at 67000km, and after that, we added silicone spring stiffeners to the suspension coils. These were done at E-Rev, and costs $80 a pair (paid $160 for front and back). There mechanics cut a small piece off as the whole is deemed too long, well, they know best.

The stiffeners are useful to us because:
1. The raise the car by about 1.5 inches, less scratching of the spare tyre cage when parked over high kerb.
2. The suspension feels stronger, a little more sporty although bumpy. Good feel when cornering.
3. Shortens the spring movement, hence less impact on the shocks, and will probably prolong the life of the shocks.
4. Relatively cheap at only $80 a pair. The rubber ones are even cheaper, $60 a pair, but not so durable. Coil-overs are much better suspensions but generally lowers the car and costs around $1000++.

Here they are before and after on the front :

And on the rear:

The car body is certainly raised higher:

Sounds squeaky after crossing humps, probably due to the front stiffeners having a gap as the spring is not fuly compressed onto the stiffener even with the combined car and passenger load.

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We got a white portable (6 AA batteries) 2W amp from Roland, the Micro Cube. It is white and matches our guitar. While the power is low (only 2W) the sound is rather rich.

This amp comes with good effects and controls, it certainly provides lots of fun in addition to playing away from home (running on batteries)!

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With the new tyres, we noted the fuel consumption increase, dropping the previous average of 10.50km/L on the 205 tyres to 9.20km/L on the new 225 tyres in our earlier post last month.

Now, with gentler driving, the fuel consumption has improved back to a decent level of average 9.70km/L. Perhaps the earlier dip is due to the excitement of having new tyres with high friction, hence pushing the car harder to enjoy the grip!

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Over Good Friday, we fixed the Isis spoiler to provide for the bike-rack. We taped 4 layers of 3M padded tape to set the spoiler out a little, with gaps where the strap can pass through. Hence, the weight of the bikes no longer bear directly on the spoiler, and we successfully drove more than 40km with 3 bikes on without any damage to the spoiler or mounting tape. Thank God for a simple and cheap solution.

Tomorrow (9 April) will be the 3rd year anniversary of the Isis, so after Easter Service, we took it for a wash and wax at Caltex, Jalan Bukit Merah. The wax is Sonax, total cost $50 + $5 (tips).



The children were most delighted to be in the car during the wash.

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After running the Isis on the Michelin Pilot Sports 3 tyres for 2 weeks, the fuel consumption has increased by about 10%+, from average of 10.5km/L to only 9.2km/L. This is likely due to the much higher grip on the road, which makes the driving very much better feel and safer.

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With the Michelin Primacy LC tyres running close to 40,000km and 21 months, plus balding and and also the hydroplaning on the highway, it is time to change tyres. We are also planning a trip to KL soon, plus vehicle inpection for the 3rd year by April 2012. So we go for an upgrade to 17″ and better tyres. After looking around for about 1 month for 2nd-hand Prodrive 17″ forged lightweight rims (about $1500 rims only), we finally settled for a Volk Racing replica gunmetal coloured.

Rims changed from RSW 16″-7.0″-ET40 to Volk replica 17″-7.5″-ET42 (about 8.3kg each, $700 for 4).
Tyres from Primacy LC 205-55-R16 to Pilot Sport 3 225-45-R17 ($250 each).
Lugnuts changed from standard to black (special adaptor, added security against theft).
Weight reduction about 4kg each set of rim and tyre, so the car weights about 16kg lighter now.

Total cost after trade-in $1650.00.

We did it at Arrow Tyres, Ang Mo Kio, First Centre Building.

Here is the set and lugnuts.



And the new look of the car:

For comparison, the old look:

And the look when we got the car:

The initial feel is stability, very good wet grip (it rained on the way back home), sharp turning response, but can feel every bump on the road due to the rigid tyres. Nice feeling to drive; gives confidence of safety.

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The original Isis air-filter is about $45, so we decided to try out unbranded OEM ones from China at $13 each. We bought 5 pieces as they are the same for the Altis (Gene’s car)

The old one has 31,000km on it, and the previous change was also at 30,000km.

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With Esther and David older now, and appreciating music better, it was time to improve the car speakers at the rear seats. So we added a pair of tweeters last Saturday, 12 Nov (same as those installed in the front more than a year ago).

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