Scarred beauty and scared beauty

Something happened to my dear Chevy last Saturday... was driving along the North- South highway from Mines back to KL on a quiet Saturday morning around 10:30am and all of a sudden, a big rock the size of my fist came out of nowhere and flew onto my windscreen. I didn't see any construction along that stretch.

Before the rock hit, there was a silver waja trailing very near my back which forced me to switch from the rightmost lane to the middle lane. After moving to the middle lane, I noticed a strange old grey vannette, driven by a man with the window open, on my left. The reason I found it strange was because it was driving halfway between the middle lane and the leftmost slow lane. It seems to be trying get onto the middle lane but keep going halfway between the slowest lane and middle lane even though I drove at a constant speed behind the vannette to let it cut into the middle land. I drove on, minding my own business and suddenly the white rock hit in front of me. I was shocked... but I kept driving. I thought my windscreen have cracked but I didn't stop and just kept driving and didn't think much about the van nor the waja.

When I finally reach home, I checked my car for any damage and luckily the windscreen survived with only a scratch on the surface. The car bonnet, however, suffered a scar.... a scratch about 1.5cm long and 1 mm wide. Yeah, no doubt I was heartbroken (oh, how do you fix the scar?) but after hearing my colleagues told me later, I felt really really scared.

She told me that there are some syndicates out there who purposely create accidents like breaking your windscreen and then later rob and rape the car owners. Additionally, if the rock had fell or flew from somewhere, my windscreen would have been smashed due to the mere impact as I was travelling around 80km on the highway. However, if it came from the vanette, the impact is less since the rock was travelling around the same speed of my car. So the possibility of the rock coming from the vanette is very high.

I am really thankful that the chevy's windscreen didn't break... and that I have kept on driving.... I wasn't alert about the 2 cars then until now when I think back about the whole incident. I still feel very very scared now.

To all drivers out there, please be very very alert and careful when driving along lonely and quiet highways, and try not to stop at deserted areas.

Alarm system is A-OK... :)

At first, I noticed that my car alarm doesn't sound at all if I forgot to close the door/boot and pressed the lock button on my remote control key. So I was a little worried that there was a fault with my alarm system.

Then today, I tested my alarms and found that it's working ... hurray...

Here are the findings:
1) The normal function of the alarm is, when you shut tight all the doors, and then press the lock on your remote control, there will be a single high pitched beep sound coming out from your car alarm. And then the red light next to the lock knob on the driver's side will start to blink to indicate the alarm is armed.

2) If you forgot to close your doors tightly before pressing the remote control to lock the car, the alarm will not trigger a sound. You wont even hear the single high beep sound. When you dont hear a sound, this indicates that one of your doors are not shut tightly. (Slightly different from the normal alarm system which will wake the whole neighbourhood with false alarm if you only forgot to close one door. I guess they want to minimise false alarms so that when you really hear teh alarm sound, it means that you REALLY have to be alert and that someone has really tried to open the door)

3) Even if you forgot close your boot, the alarm will not sound. But again, the single high pitch beep will not sound, indicating you havent locked all doors completely.

4) If you unlock the doors with your remote key and don't open any doors within 1 minute, the door will automaticly relock by itself and the alarm system will be armed again.

5) If any of the doors are open after the alarm is armed, then it will trigger the alarm (high pitch continuous bee-boo).

I did the following test-
a) Wind down a window,
b) Subsequently shut all the doors tight.
c) Lock the door with the remote control.
d) Unlock and open the door via the wound down window.

This will trigger the loud high pitched continous bee-boo... [:D]

1000 km Service - 5 June 2007 Tuesday

Due to my exams, I forgot to write about my Chevy's first 1000 km service. Yes, time flies and my chevy has reached it's first date with the doctor.. :) 1000Km.

Brandon brought the car to PJ Volcar Service Centre at Jalan 225. Was recommended by Steven to this SC as it seems they service mainly Chevies.

Well, there was not much complains about the car, except the hand brakes were too high, and the brake padel was not effective (i.e. have to press on it very low before the brakes are activated). Thus we were adviced to do the normal 1000 km service and they will have a look at the brakes to fine tune it. Oh I nearly forgot, we did complain about the jerky feeling whenever we change the gears from N to D after stopping at a traffic light.

The mechanic changed the engine oil and oil filter. Brandon said that he did check and refill the battery water but they didnt invoice us for that...

Engine Oil (normal - not fully synthetic) 92.00

Oil Filter 25.50

Workmanship 30.00

Service Tax 1.50

Total Service came up RM149.

Not too bad. The jerky feeling seems much smoother as opposed to the earlier knocking feeling (also felt by colleagues who sat in my car before and after service). The brakes have been adjusted to the correct level. Will have to check later if the petrol consumption have been improved after this service.

Oh, I have asked around and kind forumers have told me that the jerky feeling is due to the old technology used by ZF gearbox (German) which are a little slow in engaging gears. I have tried delaying the time that I changed the gear from N to D and the time I step on the fuel pedal and there was no jerk.

A colleague of mine who drives an Opel (under the same GM umbrella) told me that his Opel has the same jerky feeling and his mechanic has upgraded the software that controls his gearbox and it worked fine for a while. However, he mentioned that the Opel is a smart car and learns the driving pattern of the driver and will update the software accordingly. As such, over time, the gear will have the same jerky problem again. His problem occurs even when the car is in motion, i.e. he can feel the jerking and knocking when his car auto switches between 2nd and 3rd gears.

Well, I am not sure if my ZF gearbox is a smart one, but I haven't have that problem ever since I delay the time between changing gears and stepping on the fuel pedal.

I also noticed that after service, my fuel consumption has become 25 sen per km only. :) Prior to the 1000km service, my thristy hippo was consuming around 29sen/km. Today I just pumped petrol until it clicked... My readings are as follows:

RM96.36 for 380.2 km travelled.

This sums up to only 25sen/km.

Very happy with the results. Will need to monitor and take a few more readings before I can confirm whether it`s really 25sen/km on an average basis.

Other trivia about Optra that we learnt from the SC:

1) Was told that Optras' headlamps are really strong and sturdy as they couldn't break the headlamps for one of the Optras that was brought to the SC to be totalled.

2) The timing belt is the most expensive element during service.. (which have to be replaced only after 60,000km) costs RM2,000 (original whole set inclusive of workmanship).

I am really excited about all the new things I learn about this Chevy... I learn a new thing everyday.. :).. .

Will talk about my alarms in the next installment...

Wrong method in calculating FC?

I just realised that I used the wrong method to calculate my fuel consumption. No wonder I got the wrong readings.

I have always used the pump till full tank, and then used until the red line and estimate from there. It's not very accurate and takes a long time to estimate as you need to finish the whole tank.

The other method recommended by a fellow chevy driver:
1) Pump the petrol till full tank until the pump automatically stops
2) Initialise the mileage meter.
2) Use it as per normal until the next time you stop by at the petrol station
3) Pump petrol till full tank again until the pump automatically stops.
4) Note the mileage and the amount of fuel pumped or the cost of petrol pumped.
5) Divide the cost of petrol pumped by the mileage and you'd get the cost/km.

Havent had the chance to try the new method but will let you know the readings soonest, as I have been busy with my exams and haven't really got the time to fiddle with the car. So far, my chevy has been a pretty good and smooth ride.

More pictures for you.. :)

Side profile of my chevy


Sexy corner look


Look at my wheels.... 15inch of true alloy beauty.. :)


My Butt Shot



No time to organise the pictures... tired... need to zzz....