T10 led bulbs

I have tested a quite a number of T10 led bulbs in the market, and more often most of them turn out to be  a mere disappointed despite paying a hefty price to purchase these led bulbs via online or accessories shops around. 

Life span of these blubs vary between 1 year to couple of months (the general rule of thumb is the brighter and hotter the bulbs are the shorter their life span), despite that nothing has prepared me for my next encounter which only last a mere 20 mins!

I went and bought a T10 led with 10 led from a "famous" accessories shop along old klang road yesterday. Despite hard negotiations, I only managed to get the pair for bulb for RM70. Despite its shoddy look, i decided to give it a try. The shop's one of many unskilled workers went ahead and installed the T10 led. 

Nightmare begin 5 hrs later, when i found the one of the bulb has actually burnt off, and pieces of it has melted and stuck to the headlight reflector, and I decided to remove the other bulb before that bulb melts away as well, unfortunately the bulb wasn't fixed properly to the socket, so the entire bulb fall into the headlight. Now comes the interesting and grueling part of removing them out. Basically I had to remove the headlight, and take off the main bulb and shake the bulb out. After a good 30 mins both the bulb and pieces of the bulb were removed. But it certainly have left a burn scar on the reflector. 


Conclusion: The bulb which was sold to me, is below sub standard and the workers at accessories shop was certainly unskilled. I certainly wont be returning to that particular shop in this life time or the next. Anyone who wants to replace their T10 bulb, I would strongly advice to source for good quality (Taiwan, japan or even us made). 

Qmax - Nano Air (little wonder plastic)

Granted when you first look at this little piece of plastic, the first thing which rushes to you mind is.. err no way this piece of plastic can do anything it claims to do. It claims to improve your vehicle braking capabilities, it also claims to improve your fuel consumption and makes your engine feel and run much smoother then before. All this is made possible by breaking up the air molecules before it reaches your engine. Fiction? 

Well got myself 1 unit out of curiosity to try out. Installation was as easy. Remove air filter element and clip it to the filter fins, and place it back. Thats it and you are ready to roll. I tried with the other steps mention on their website (http://www.vclassmotorsport.com/template.asp?menuid=47) , is which too:

1. Rev the car engine about 2 - 3mins above 3000 - 3500 rpm  and 

2. To press the brakes for 5 seconds and release it (repeat this process for 4 - 5 times)

Conclusion, I have to agree, this product really works. I didnt feel the difference on the first day, but on the second day, the engine feels really does feel much smoother and lighter. But I have not experienced the improve in braking capabilities nor the fuel saving properties. Will continue to monitor... 

Guang Dao E-Sonic Racing

Finally i got myself the long awaited item from my wish list, a proper Voltage Stabilizer. Was initially looking a few options, the Sun Auto Hot Inazma, the Pivot Megan Rizin and the Guang Dao Hi Auto (E-Sonic). Because of the price of both the Hot Inazma and Guang Dao , I was more incline to the Pivot. After waiting a good few month, and was just about ready to get the Pivot, when news about a unit of Guang Dao was on clearance stock sale at KKLAU (one of the audio, accessories shop in town).

Took the opportunity to go over to KKLAU during the weekend, and before you know it got it installed onto the X20.

All fixed and ready to roll

custom bracket in production

folks at KKLAU was kind enough to make a custom bracket to hold the E-Sonic

Initial findings:

- Smoother / Lighter gear engagement

- Faster pick up

- More drag before each gear change

- Certainly more ommph now.. how much more HP increase? dunno, until a proper dyno is done

Philips Diamond Vision vs Philips X-treme

Here are the results....

The color variantion between the right and left headlights are pretty obvious. the right headlight is on Diamond Vision and the headlight on the left is on X-tereme, which is much yellower compared to the Diamond Vision.

Another shot of the headlights with Diamond Vision and X-terme

the diamond vision bulb

Conclusion :-

The Diamond Vision gives you a pretty intense white light, but not white or bright enough to blind on coming traffic. I personally find that the X-terme has more light throw compared to the Diamond Vision (meaning from the drivers point of the view, there is just more yellow light on the road compared to the white light). Where the Diamond vision lacks in terms of light throw it makes up for by giving you that white glow which make it look like a HID bulb on the road.

Like some of the review said, its pretty good for city driving as less throw light is required compared to negotiating sharp corners or tricky off road conditions on pitch dark situations.

Oh! H7 bulbs!

Here is how the story goes...

I changed the X20's headlight bulb from the stock bulb to the Philips X-treme Power which promises +80% more light due to the 25m long beam it produces. Been happy with the bulbs output & range over the last 1 year. Other bulbs which other X20's owners were using withing the Philip bulb family, were the Philip Crystal Vision which produces 4300k light (yellowish white) and the Philips Diamond Vision which produces about 5000k light (blueish white). Granted the Philip X-treme doesn't come as bright as the other bulbs, but it certainly was brighter then the stock bulb.

X-treme which give you 80% more light

Which give you 5000k light claimed to be whiter then some HID bulbs

All was fine and good, until a week back one of the bulbs decided to fail on me. Was running One headlight that night, luckily the fog light were there to compensate. So it was back to the drawing board. It was a tough fight between Crystal Vision and Diamond Vision, both would suit me just fine, but in the end since the X20 was mainly used for city driving I decided to go with the Diamond Vision instead. This was also done, after going through a few user reviews on the net, and recommendation on the Philips consumer website which quotes the light which is suitable for city driving.

Received the Diamond Vision bulbs today, but will wait till the weekend before that part of the experiment begins. Is it truly whiter and brighter then the X-treme?

Will keep you guys updated...

Twin INCUS mufflers - More Pics

Twin INCUS installed!

Finally the twin Incus are installed! It only took me a good 5 months to sort out the installation of the second Incus muffler. The first one was done sometimes back in Jan 2009. Took the car back to the same installer in Kajang. Showed him a couple of drawings (extracted from the web) for the twin muffler installation, and they didnt even need to much convincing. They pretty much know whats need to be done and went on straight to work.

Y connector used to connect both pipes

Portion which was cut in order to place in the Y connector

twin Incus mufflers

twin pipes with the Incus mufflers

The whole installation took a good 3 hours to complete.

Interior Cabin LED lights

Changed the interior cabin normal bulbs to LED lights.Photo's below shows the comparison between normal bulb (yellow) with the LED cluster (white).

map / reading lights

dome light & 24 led cluster

Cabin Filter

Changed the cabin filter for the X20. Photos below shows the current filter compared to the new replacement filter after about 17k mileage on the meter. Granted that the stock cabin filter seems to be made with carbon element, hence the darker color compared to the OEM filters. A quick rinse and dry could do the trick. Hope it works.

comparison between the stock cabin filter and the OEM

Current cabin filter filled with bugs, dirt , dry leaves and tons of dust particles

Its recommended to change the cabin filter every 10k km ;)

Hot Inazma - Super Pocket

I have been toying the thought of getting the X20 one of the Hot Inazma Pocket for quite some time now. The feedback from its users, swear upon its effectiveness in stabilizing the vehicles electrical pulse.  

With the new introduction of the Super pocket version, and new upgrade to the pervious pocket version, I went to check it out at our local supplier Kaitenaz in Sunway area. The supplier told me the difference between the pocket and super pocket it is that it is able to give faster response plus more refined electrical filteration. If this statement is true or not, I was determine to test it out. 

So I told the supplier, I would like to test it out, and if it work I will get it. My X20 comes with the autofold side mirrors, and that was going to be my test (based on feedback from other owners). 

The Test (without Pocket Inazma)

1. Put in the key and turn the key to ON. 
2. The auto fold mirror will start to OPEN.
3. While this is happening. Turn the Key to START the engine
4. When this happens. The auto fold mirror freezes at its current position, and will continue opening, once the engine has started.  

The Test (with Pocket Inazma)

1. Put in the Key and turn the key to ON.
2. The auto fold mirror start to OPEN.
3. While this is happening - Turn the Key to START the engine
4. While this is happens, the auto fold mirror DOES NOT Freeze but continues to open, while the engine is being cranked to START. 

Conclusion: The power distribution is regulated better, hence while power is being used to cranked up the Engine, there is still enough power to continue the auto fold mirror's operation.

Wheel Rotation & Balancing

Finally after waiting for the longest time, I finally managed to send the X20 in for wheel rotation and balancing. Took the car to Tayaria outlet in PJ old town area, where they have a pretty large workshop area, with at least 10 work bays. Tayaria is the official KB workshop partner in PJ, so figured it make sense to bring it back to them

fixing up the image alignment tracer on to the wheels

Senor above the monitor - trace the wheel alignment

Alignment Results printed out (before & after)

X20 New Design Concept

Came up with a new design for the X20, here are the first 2 images.

front view of the X20

Hayden ATF cooler installation

Finally did the ATF cooler installation for my X20. The whole process took at least 2 hours, mainly because the installer, needs to remove the entire bumper and headlight to get access to radiator for the installation.

The hayden AFT cooler comes with all the necessary hose, hose tie and also long cable tie to old the AFT in place.
After installation

ATF INSTALLATION

Just finish hayden aft installation. Will update with pic soon.

F1 Fever!

F1 fever is back in Malaysia in the first week of April. Like everywhere, most of F1 promotion is done in Shopping malls, and in Malaysia you find it almost everywhere, from F1 fast food menu set to F1 theme related ice creams... Here are pic's taken from one of the new shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur. The Pavillion.

Mereced-Benz merchandise booth seems to be very popular with the shoppers at Pavillion

Replica of the ING - Renault F1 car on display top. And bottom of a Ferrari on display.

Hayden ATF cooler

Next project, is to install an Hayden ATF cooler. Bought a unit from the Hyundai Forum group buy from Singapore. The ATF is said to extend the lifespan of your ATF fluid which make a better protection of the gearbox.

Next project, is to install an Hayden ATF cooler. Bought a unit from the Hyundai Forum group buy from Singapore. The ATF is said to extend the lifespan of your ATF fluid which make a better protection of the gearbox.