Big Butt

Yep... Think I have a blind spot or something...

I keep hurting my chevy's "hip" on left hand side...and each time it's a corner. I just couldn't see....

It's a blind spot..

Or perhaps i have a big hip... ahahah...

~ Miss Clumsy ~

Understanding your tyres (can be quite tiring)...

How to check Car manufacturing date

Actually it's very simple...

Look for the 4 digit code on the tyre. It represents the week and the year the tyre was manufactured, i.e. wwyy.

Let's say the digit on my tyre is 3808, that means, it's manufactured on the 38th week of 2008.

The longer the tyres are kept, the harder the rubber will become. :)


How to decipher the codes on your tyres:

Since there are lots of codes on a tyre, we would all wonder what all of these codes mean. Well, I suppose since we're not tyre shop owners, I think it's just suffice to know the model and profile of your tyre and here's something I found from carbibles.com.

Key	Tyre Marking Description
A	Manufacturers or brand name, and commercial name or identity.
B	Tyre size, construction and speed rating designations. Tubeless designates a tyre which requires no inner tube. See tyre sizes and speed ratings below. DIN-type tyre marking also has the load index encoded in it. These go from a load index of 50 (190kg) up to an index of 169 (5800kg).
C	Denotes type of car tyre construction.
D	M&S denotes a car tyre designed for mud and snow. Reinforced marking only where applicable.
E	Pressure marking requirement.
F	ECE (not EEC) type approval mark and number.
G	North American Dept of Transport compliance symbols and identification numbers.
H	Country of manufacture.

Tyre Size Notations

When you change tyres, you will need to know which type of tyre that you need to fit your rims. This is done by refering to the funny code that comes under the B marking. To decipher the funny code that signifies your tyre size, refer the table below (I will use my own tyres,195/55/R15,as a guide):

195	55	R	15
Section width	Aspect ratio	Tyre Constuction. R for Radial	Rim diameter

Tyre Size Notation	Description
Section Width	This is the width in mm of the tyre from sidewall to sidewall when it's unstressed and you're looking at it head on (or top-down).
Aspect Ratio	This is the ratio of the height of the tyre sidewall, (section height), expressed as a percentage of the width.In this case, 55% of 195mm is 107.25mm - the section height. Higher aspect ratios provide better comfort. High performance tyres usually have a lower aspect ratio than other tires. This is because tyres with a lower aspect ratio provide better lateral stability. When a car goes around a turn lateral forces are generated and the tyre must resist these forces. Tyres with a lower profile have shorter, stiffer sidewalls so they resist cornering forces better.
Tyre Construction	"R" tells you that the tyre is of a radial construction. There are 2 types of tyre contruction, Bias/Cross-ply Construction and Radial Construction. Radial tyres are almost used on almost all the world's passenger vehicles now (for the past 20 years or so) as they are more resistance to tear and provide higher performance and better fuel economy.
Rim Diameter	This is the diameter in inches of the rim of the wheel that the tyre has been designed to fit on.

Well, now you know at least something about tyres. Change them every two years or when you noticed the tread have worn off. Here's signing off in support of better safety on the road. Yawn.. this is tiring... hahaha.

New Tyres for the tired...

My tyres are way overdue. The old faithful Yokohama S306 have served me well. Well, for that profile 195/55/R15, it really served me well with the quiet and comfortable soft feeling that I get when I drive around. And it's really steady for a tyre that had been sitting in the storeroom for 2 years.

My tyres dated 2005... I bought them in 2007 but people tell me that tyres harden even when you don't use them. Since I am a low usage and safe driver, I decided to ignore the 2 years shelf life and just continue with the recommended on-the-road tyre life of 2 years (Actually, also because I wanted to save cost on changing tyres as it doesn't feel "monetary-correct" to change brand new tyres when I first got the car). So my tyres are actually 4 years old now, way overdue... And after much nagging from dear old friends of mine (thank you so much for caring for my safety... ), I decided to change them yesterday.

The tyre changing ritual started with the inevitable price checking... People (friends and car forums) tell me that Klang can offer very competitive prices for all kinds of brands. They tell me that depending on the type of tyre I get, I can save up to RM50 per tyre and that savings can cover the petrol cost of going all the way down there and also even cover a bak-kut-teh meal or two.... Hmmm very tempting... especially the bak-kut-teh bit.. :)hahaha...

Anyway, one good guy told me that there's a reputable tyre shop in Maluri, Cheras which could match the price ... maybe slightly more expensive by RM5 or RM10.

Prices quoted by Klang was Yokohama - RM180, Falken - RM175, Bridgestone - RM155, Michelin - RM200.

Price at Cheras was Falken - RM175 by cash, RM180 by credit card.

And I thought, well, why not, since it's more convenient for me to do my chores during lunch time than during weekends. And so to Cheras we went on that fine Friday as most of us have more flexible lunch time on Fridays.

It was an eventful Friday. Most of the guys just wanted a change of taste when it comes to lunch, so we all packed ourselves into 2 cars and headed to the town which is famous for its seafood noodles. Tyres were changed in 1 hour. The price came with free balancing, free alignment and free checking of the year of the tyres (my friend actually went to check the year the tyres were made and ensured that I got the latest tyres... :)) Will let you know how to check the age of the tyres in my next installment... meanwhile, I have to go wash my car and get some pictures.. :)

Thanks guys. Didn't bring enough cash the other day for the seafood noodles... next meal on me.. :)

Helpdesk

I just found this too funny... especially when all involved are from the IT industry...
===============================================

L: Happy Malaysia Day, everyone!!

MC: Cher… no holiday, how to happy ?

LV:Fyi, this month is also the IT month, and I can’t remember whether today or yesterday is the programmer day...So many lousy days but never bring any value to us..

Mr.D24: HAH got IT programmer day 1 ah…. Then let us celebrate it la don’t waste it come to Petaling street to eat today

AND oh tell u secret oh…. Lastnite when I MSN with this famous blogger oh. She asked me to write comment on her blog then I put lo... after that when I press the button to post it….. JALAT la.... her blog need me to signup to either GOOGLE/BLOGGER which I dun hv any id with these 2 website.... then comment posting TAK JADI lo. Since v hv one famous blogger here ah I want to ask her why the blog so lousy 1 must register first then post comment.... Kelly can explain a bit ah :p

Anyway, what I want to share in the blog is…….. I saw “HERCULES” pushing a Honda car wow and he is so strong because I ONLY saw him alone pushing the car hehehehe…. Good training from California fitness ah HERCULES MC hahahaahhaha…


Me:
Dear frustrated comment writer (Mr. D24),

From the attachment that I have sent you, you can see there are a few options just below the comments text box. You can choose to either post with your blogger/google ID, Open ID, name/URL or anonymous. Just select Open ID or name/URL to put your own fancy name, if you do not have a blogger/google ID.

Feel free to let me know if you still cannot find the radio buttons...

Your friendly helpdesk
K Rivers.

Mr.MyHump:
Dear Helpdesk,

I do not see any difficulty in leaving comments in your blog. I have, in fact, left many comments in your blog to show my support for your job well done, especially when your friends were in trouble and all you can do is to take pictures and laugh (no pun intended). However, I am not surprise that other users might have problem using the comments function as we have noticed that different users behave differently. I remembered once when a user called us up to complaint to us why he can't access YouTube via our Proxy server. Ironic, isn't it? Especially when they already signed the rules and regulation form stating that Internet surfing is for official use only. Of course, the most famous joke was someone use the CDRom drive to hold his Starbuck coffee. So, in short I don't blame this particular user for not able to successfully create a comment in your blog. Just another typical users from our community, unfortunately from IT background too... sigh...:(

regards,
Mr.MyHump
via Web Access
===============================================

Perhaps the above may be a little dry for non-IT people but it's a big joke for us, the mundane IT geeks. Hahaha... It's like an accountant asking what's debit and credit on a T-account, or a Sales personnel asking what's a customer, or a cashier asking if he should accept cash as payment...

Oh well, Happy Programmer Day anyway.. hahaha

P/s FYI, Programmer's day is a whimsical "holiday" on the 256th day of the year celebrated mostly by computer programmers (reason: 256 = 2 to the power of 8 = the number of values representable in a byte of data). Traditions include drinking, behaving silly, coding silly programs, mini computer games, playing with old computers, etc. Programmer's day usually falls on September 13th; on leap years, it is September 12th. (Source: wikipedia)

*the names of the characters involved in this satire have been changed to protect their identity and their jobs. Any resemblance to any real people and real incident and experience is purely coincidental and this satire is done in good humour with no harmful or untoward intentions.

To all the batteries we loved before...

*note: when this picture was taken,
MissD24 was pressing the brakes,
and thus MC wasnt able to move the car
despite using all his strenth!

Friday Sept 11, 2008 - 911... Disastrous Day for MissD24....A comedic one for me though... Something happened today to confirm that I am not the only girl in the world to have murdered batteries before... This is common among girls and I think we should be forgiven for it... (hey, now you'd believe me when I say our hands and minds are not built to check our cars, let alone the batteries!!!! There are mechanics who have trained technical skills to do this...)

Anyway, we were happily having a Friday happy hour at our favourite hangout in Pavilion, KL... chilling, gossipping (yeah, now you know guys enjoys bitching as much as girls do), and basically having a good time... until it was time to go home. We got into the car, tried to start MissD24's petite Honda City and guess what... it gave a "Rat-a-tat-tat-tat" sound... but it wont start. Retry... Still only the "Rat-a-tat-tat-tat" sound... Boy, this is not good....

*note: Mr.Keyman and MC wondering which
cable or color goes to which battery terminal

MC went to get his car and Mr.Keyman went to get his jump start cables. The cables were thick cables... and we waited for it to charge around 10 minutes but still it wont budge. In my mind, I knew it's going to be a dejavu situation... A quick call to my uncle and he said he's going off to a dinner and can't come to assist... Bummer... Mr.MyHump made several calls to Honda and noted that they do give waranty for batteries if the mileage is below 40,000km, but the car has to be brought to the service centre. (Chevy only gives 1 year warranty for their new batteries.)

*note: Re-parking the car manually
so that the bonnet faces outside

After several tries, and moving the car manually twice... to get a good position to jumpstart the car and also to avoid blocking others in the car park, we gave up... and Mr.MyHump called the Honda Auto Assist to bring in a new battery. They were quite efficient ... coming within what seemed like half an hour and even diagnosed that the battery plates were broken. For RM160, I thought it was a good deal (judging that mine was RM250).

Anyway, Honda City uses dry batteries, so you can't top up battery water (so now we know.. ha, ha)... Initially, the guys wanted to open the battery to check battery water and MissD24 doesn't even know what kind of batteries the car uses. And MC wanted to add RO water to the batteries!

While MissD24 thank us profusely for our help and time, I felt a bit embarassed as I couldn't help despite my "experience". Anyhow, there are lessons to be learnt on a daily basis... what better way to learn our lessons if not with friends and on a "fun" basis... :)

We learnt that:
1) Auto Cars can be moved manually if the gear is set to 'N' AND the owner don't step on the brakes when the rest pushed
2) Auto Assist telephone numbers are very important and should be kept in the car
3) Dry batteries are maintenance free but do not last forever (In this case, not even 2 years). You will need to keep track to change it every 1 or 1.5 years.
4) Batteries with broken plates cannot be jump-started even with thick cables.
5) We should always park with our bonnet facing outside in case of emergency.

Well MissD24, I guess I can only help by documenting down the incident, and hopefully you can have a good laugh, and remember to check your batteries next time... :) And also remember the Honda Auto Assist number which is given to you whenever you renew your roadtax/insurance with Honda.

Batteries, She Murdered Part 2. Lessons learnt.

Ok, here's another lesson I learnt about batteries and jump start cable. Remember I told you that I'd safe the drama for next time,... ok, I will reveal the drama.

It happened on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon. I was all ready to go 1 Utama with mom and sister. I drove all the way to sister's place, only to learnt that she had gone to mom's as she had a haircut nearby mom's place. That was bummer #1 for the day. Positive me thinks that "That's fine... Mom's house is just nearby. Besides, I have to pick up my sister anyway." Bummer #2 was when I reached mom's place and found that she can't leave immeadiately, as she can't leave my niece at home alone. So we had to wait for our brother's return. Sister couldn't wait as she had to pick up her daughter from classes and so she reluctantly (and grumpily) volunteered out from our Saturday Shopping plans. (Bummer #3)

Just minutes after she left, brother came home and we thought we're back to business! We jumped into my car excitedly and were already making plans in our head on how to meet up with my sister for dinner later. Then bummer #4, a ghastly, terrible sound streamed into our ears-the sound of silence! When I turned the key, the beautiful sound reving of engine was replaced with total silence....Between "Oh-oh..." and "why didn't I top-up water sooner?!" thoughts, I tried to strategise on what I can do to salvage the beautiful Saturday afternoon.

There's a bottle of battery water in my car. I thought perhaps I could fill the battery with water, and ask someone to jumpstart my car, and then I could still drive to 1 Utama. I thought by the time I drive around, the battery would have recharged itself. So I called the nearest friend I could find, and lady luck was smiling at me (or so I thought), he had a jumpstart cable! And reluctantly, he came to my rescue.

"Wei, need your help. Could you help me, please?"
"What is it? If it's about borrowing money, forget it!"
"Ha, ha. No, it's just my car. I need someone to jumpstart!"
"Phew! I was a bit worried there. Anyhow, I am sick wor."
"I treat you to drinks when you are much better?"
"Ok lar, I'll be there in a minute. Will call you for directions when I am out."

Hmmm.... talk about the value of friendship, huh? (which usually need to be "bought" nowadays! But I give him the credit that he did come despite being genuinely sick and I have yet to buy him the drinks due to his busy schedule...)

Anyway, the drama continues. He came with his cable and we tried to start the car. Eh? Still the sound of silence? How come? Made another call to B who faced the same situation and he said, "You have to wait 10 minutes to let the other car charge your flat battery." Waited for 10 minutes and Chevy still wont start (bummer #5 or was it #6... Too many bummers...I lost count...) . But the sound changed from silence to the sound of "relay clicking". (That's the picture of a relay on the right). Ok, improvement or so we thought. Let's wait another 10 minutes. He continued to run his engine with jumpstart cables connected to my Chevy Baby, hoping to revive Chevy Baby any minute now.

15 minutes passed. We tried again.
"Click - Click"
"Click - Click"

20 minutes passed. Still more Click-Click sound and that sound definitely does not sound close to the beautiful reving sound of a started engine.

Ok, I give up. Called mechanic uncle to bring batteries for a change. Didn't want to disturb him at first as he already got off work, but we didn't have a choice now. So my kind uncle returned back to his workshop (which is around 20km away from his home!) to find a battery for me. When he finally reached, like 20 minutes later, I felt like an injured person, seeing the arrival of paramedics. He took one look at what we're doing and laughed!

"This thin cables wont work!"

He took out the new battery and his cable. That cable's width was twice or tripple the size of the one we're currently using. Ok, lesson #1. we've learnt that to jumpstart we need thick cables. So dont waste money on thin cables.

Then another bummer. The batteries he brought is not meant for my car. Chevy is a little special, with the polars of the batteries in the opposite directions. Hmm ... I still want to go out for dinner as I don't have dinner at home and still need a car to drive home! Think think think!!!

And we came up with the darndest idea! Uncle would lend me his cables, and the new battery. So in case my car went dead, I would have to carry the battery (boy, I just found out how heavy it was that day!) from the boot to the front, attach the jumpstart cables to get it started! It was pretty manual but I still like the idea since I still get to eat dinner and drive home later!

It was a pretty good dinner at Cagayan (Centrepoint) with sister's family, mom and even cousin joining me, all laughing our heads off at my silly predicament! (Special note: Hey Cousin, next time, you needn't go out to buy a blouse just to have dinner with me, ok!) After dinner, the dreaded part of trying to restart the car came. My battery was totally out, as even though I had drove around for almost an hour, the batteries were not charged at all! We had to do the "manual jumpstart" at the car park. Luckily my brother in law was there to carry the battery in and out of the boot.

However, we didn't go home after dinner but adjourned to my sister's place for further chit-chat and gossips err.. catch up. And when it was time for me to go home, my brother in law had to help me with the batteries again.

Funny enough, the next morning, around 10, the car could start perfectly. So maybe batteries need some "cooling off period" to get the charges going. I don't know and hopefully, I won't have to learn it the hard way again....because uncle manage to find a "maintenance free" battery for me and changed it immediately.

Now, how would I know when to change a maintenance free battery? When my car goes dead again? Another lesson to be learnt some other time.. :)

Batteries, She Murdered!

My car batteries went dead yesterday... And what a day for it to happen as it was Saturday, my day out!!! Imagine, Saturday without a car. Umm...correction, I had my car... but my chevy baby just won't start.... The batteries have dried up again... because yours truly didn't check the battery water level again. Bummer... (Notice that the author used the word "again"... Yeah, I can almost hear you say, "AGAIN???" Double Bummer!)

This is not the first time this had happened... And (*blush*) I hate to say this... It's not the second time either.... it's the third time this has happened to me.. HAHAHHAA... Once with the Old Jalopy, and twice with Chevy Baby...

I always procrastinated adding battery water, thinking that it should be done during those periodic services. But the mechanics probably forget... and my batteries are probably old (given the 2 year shelf life)....

I will let you know the drama later but I'll leave you with this... Your batteries have a separate battery manufacturer warranty - usually 1 year. So if your car battery is faulty within a year, you can claim waranty. However, I doubt they'll let me claim for my negligence (or wear and tear due to negligence) as my battery's life was caused by my failure to feed it timely with battery water. So they may diagnose the cause-of-death to be "dehydration" and reject my claims. But for you out there, no harm trying though. My batteries have already passed its first birthday, and is not eligible for any warranty whatsoever. Thus, I have changed it with those "no-maintenance" battery.

So now I won't feel guilty of murdering my battery due to non-feeding/dehydration.