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...

Third servicing

It's about time to go for another round of servicing. This time, as usual, I brought it to Eneos Car Center in 1 Utama for servicing, and instead of the semi-synthetic, I opted for the Performance synthetic 5W-40 engine oil. It costs me about RM 190 for the engine oil plus the oil filter.

The 5W-40 does improves the car performance, for I could feel that the acceleration is better than before either my Isis is in full load or off load.

Punctured Tyre - A Terrible yet Managable Disaster

One of the fearful things for me when it comes to driving is to have a punctured tyre. My Isis got a screw nail stuck inside one of it's rear wheel. I didn't notice it until I wind down the window on 1 of the occasions where I could hear a constant 'tin' sound coming from the back, while I was sending my friends back home after a basket ball game. It shows how well the sound insulation developed by Toyota that you couldn't even hear such sound.

It was a very long nail. In my past experience, while I was driving my ex-fiancee's Proton Wira and the Peugeot 405, I have to change a pair of tyre whenever there was a punctured tyre either front or rear, because the tyre will always be damaged beyond repair. Thank God for this one because I noticed it early, so all I need to do is to patch it.

I brought it to Lim Tayar located outside of Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. They gave a pretty good service there. The patching plus the alignments cost me about RM 100.00 after discount with Jusco card.

Now, Isis comes with a 'doughnut' half-size spare tyre. Although it was smaller, but yet it still able to let you drive from point a to point b without problem. But, I wouldn't dare to drive faster while my Isis is fixed with this wheel, although I heard that there are people who drive 120KM/h on the KL-Seremban highway, in a Toyota Harrier, with 1 rear tyre replaced with a 'doughnut' tyre.

Second service

I took the car to the Eneos service center in 1 Utama on Monday morning for a regular service and a car wash too. Both together cost me about RM 140. This time, I opted for the synthetic blended oil with grade of 5W-30 instead of the fully synthetic oil that I opted previously.

Wait a minute, fully synthetic engine oil? Isn't those would last for about 10,000Km? So why am I took it to service after only about 5,000 Km? Yup, I was told by my friends who's into car that fully synthetic engine oil could actually lasted for 10,000 Km. But the technician from Eneos told me it's not recommended to do so, so I just took that advice.

1 thing I did observed after driving for more than 5,000 Km with the fully synthetic oil; I found that the car started to response badly - more shaky when it's idle with D engaged, and could feel power is not delivered. Then I checked the engine oil and it started to turn pretty dark, so I opted to take it to refresh it's engine oil.

I wonder, what would determine whether a car with a fully synthetic oil could drive for at least 10,000 Km? Does it includes calculation such as driving up hill most of the time that would require more engine power? Would those actually effect the mileage? I wonder...

Maintenance - First oil change

I took my Isis for a service in Eneos Car Center located in One Utama shopping complex. I was told by my friend who sold me the car to visit this place called Utama Tire in Damansara Heights. I knew the place, but I don't really want to go there if I was awake like 10 in the morning because although the shop was a corner unit, the place was extremely crowded.

At first, I was a bit skeptical because I hardly seen any Isis on the road near Petaling Jaya, so I was not sure whether the mechanic would know how to fix it. I didn't want to bring it back to Vision in Bangsar because they charged pretty high. Thankfully that everything turns out alright. They did a checkup on the oil filter for the Isis 1.8 1ZZ-FE engine, and their people told them to use the same oil filter for the Toyota Wish, which I've did some research that both Isis 1.8 & Wish 1.8 shared the same engine in Japan, but not sure about the Malaysia version of Wish. Well, if it works, then I don't really mind.

I took the RM 175 package that comes with 5W-50 synthetic engine oil (Eneos Pro Racing), oil filter, car battery checkup (of no use because my Isis is using maintenance free battery), and fill the tires with nitrogen gas. I bet it's a good price for such package, because I would expect to pay more than RM 200 for synthetic motor oil. The disappointment that I had was that I was told by my friend that synthetic engine oil normally could last for about 10,000 KM. It will be good for me because I travel a lot. But the sticker still written and asking me to come back after 5,000 KM, so I was really not satisfied with it, and asking one of the staff regarding this matter. The staff told me that they would recommend people to come back at 5,000 KM because if driving more than 5,000 KM, the engine oil would vaporized and become lesser. Well, I just accept it as the guy said.

Some interesting things about the description that I found, written in Japanese, under the hood of my Isis. I could read and understand some simple Japanese writing. Here's what it said:

1. Oil change - every 10,000 KM or every 3 months
2. Oil filter change - every 15,000 KM

Of course, the above is achievable only if I'm using the recommended grade of engine oil written with the information above.