Regular Service - Vision Auto - TRD Malaysia

Brought the car to Vision auto for a servicing this morning. Read from certain auto forum that this Vision auto will charge a lot of money for car servicing, so I've never given any thought to bring my car here for a service, unless I need a major repair. After the experience that I have with them for fixing my car ABS sensor, A/C, and the Shift-Lock problem, I decided to give it a go.

First off, the technical personnel would go to my car, read the tag beside the passenger side door to get the model number. This is some practice that I never seen any motor servicing shop would do. Next stop, he recorded down the mileage of my car. Then, he recommended me the things that should be serviced for this car model at that40,000KM mileage - transmission oil change, engine oil change, and AC oil change. The amount was a whopping RM 784.00... That's a lot of money, but is it expensive? I think it's not that expensive considering that from the price list, they'll be doing a lot of checking and would change a lot of things that's necessary to be changed, that's fair enough.

Because I've done my transmission change before in Eneos car center that included flushing out the old transmission oil, and I've done my AC oil change with them before from my history of servicing with this company, all I need is to do the normal car servicing, which includes the normal inspection, brake servicing, and engine oil change. The whole thing costs me RM 289.00. It's about RM99.00 more than Eneos Car Center, but I could feel that there's a difference with that RM99.00. First, I could feel that the engine run smoother with the TOM's engine oil as compare to the Eneos engine oil. Second, they did service the brake because it feels more grip now when it's pressed. Thirdly, I could come back to service my car after 10,000KM as compare to Eneos Car Center, who always wanted me to come back to service every 5,000KM.

They do have a client database that keep tracks on the history of servicing of their customers, so that they could recommend on the servicing options. This is good because at least they won't simply mess around with your car. I'm not sure if it's expensive, but at least I could get a reliable service.

The breaking down of the air condition and Shift-Lock system

I was frustrated one month ago because the air condition was not functioning at all. On top of that, I need to deal with the frustrating issue of not able to release the gear out from P. Air condition is one thing that I can't stand because in this hot weather, it's inconvenient to have no air conditioning especially if I have passenger in my car.

So I decided to take my Is-Is to see "Doctor" to fix the air conditioning plus fixing the problem with the gear issue. I brought it to Vision Motor, the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) Malaysia located in Bangsar to fix the problem. I was afraid that the gear box will cause me a lot of money because I heard from a friend of mine, if the problem is with the gear box, then it will cause a lot of money, which I don't really think that's the case because I could still able to shift out from P with the unlock button.

It took them quite a while to find the cause of the problem, but it turns out as a good news to me because I don't need to change any major parts. All my car needed is to change the air condition oil and the filter for the air condition to work again, plus changing a faulty sensor located at the brake to make the Shift-Lock system work again. Alas, it costs me RM 660.00 for the whole thing. Still, it could be even worst.

So now I knew that the best place to fix the problem that my car has would be here, Vision, because they do know their stuff. They do provide servicing as well, ranging from minor servicing or RM 220.00++ to major servicing of RM 880.00++. One day I may have to save enough to bring my Is-Is for a major service in order to make sure that it will still be in its tip-top condition.

First long distance drive PLUS some weird behavior

I always wanted to know on how my Isis would fair when it comes to long distance driving. That day has finally came on 9th March 2009 on the occasion to visit a family in Jengkal, Pahang. The journey took about 2 and a half hour, and the statistic shows that Isis could do 14KM/L, could do 120KM/H, and would still provide a comfort ride on the road. So, it's alright to drive it once in a while for long distance.

However, this lately I find that there's a lot of squiky, dangling noises coming from the driver side dash board, from the door, and from the co-driver seat. It's not a major problem because the noise would only come after Isis was taken a trip on some bumpy or un-even road. I have this experience with my brother's Land Cruiser before, that if it's driven off road, all those cranky, thunder-roaring metal sound would come out. Probably this is a norm for Toyota car like this kind.

But there's another major thing that I'm worried about is the gear box. The gear box in my Isis is a Super ECT, gated shift transmission. The gate shift, as I noticed, would not allow me to engage the gear if the brake is on. However, when I was in stalled position, I pressed the brake, and I'll be usually able to engage the gear, but there are times that I was not able to even though I've pressed the brake pedal. What I have to do, is to shake my bump a bit to make the car move a bit in order to make something loosen, so that the gear box can be engaged. I was hoping that it will not be the gear box problem because I can't really afford to pay for any major servicing at this point.

Possibly Major Servicing (Oh Dear...)

This time, not only I have to bring Is-Is for my usual servicing at Eneos car center, I have to bring it to Lim Tayar as well to check out the balance of the wheels. First, let's talk about the car servicing at Eneos.

This time, I have to spend a bit more money on top of the usual RM 190 servicing package. I need to spend another extra RM 54 for the air filter, because the mechanic said that the air filter was dirty-beyond-being-clean. Well, is that a job well done? I do think so, because I've been driving my car quite a lot, plus I'd enter into construction site to fetch people, so there's no wonder that the air filter has to sustain all the dust and dirt that float around in the air.

Then, I took my car to Lim Tayar in Taman Tun Dr Ismail to check out the balancing of the wheel. Guess what, the superviser/manager (I don't like to ask people's name or position, so forgive me for simply addressing this person) told me that the front disk brake rotor needs to be re-surfaced. I was told to bring it back here and let them work on it, which will normally take about 3 hours for the things to work.

But instead of bringing it to Lim Tayar, I brought it to Eneos again to have them check it out for me. This time, the mechanic said that the disk rotor is alright, but the brake pad will have to be changed. Amazingly, the brake pad costs me RM 270!!! Oh Dear, how could this be? Guess I have no choice but to change it. I don't know what's the brand, and I don't really check it on the spot, for I was wandering around 1 Utama to kill my time, while waiting for my car to be serviced.

After the servicing of the brake was done, I have to adjust myself to get used to the action of the brake because the mechanic seems to adjust the action to a bit lower. I started to hear noises coming out from the bottom of the car whenever I was turning my car early in the morning. It doesn't seems to be a major problem because I don't hear that sound after morning, and the car can still turn and maneuver normally. Well, hopefully it's only the effect of the hot-expand-cold-shrink.

I really have to take it to Vision auto one day for a full check up. Oh Dear, that means I need to catch a lot of 'bugs' first because I could do so...