Beefing up the Peugeot 407: Phase 1

 

I have the privilege of driving the CKD version of the Peugeot 407 which apparently is better than the CBU version. The key reason was found out that the gearbox oil compartment of the CBU version is rather small for the likings of the hot and humid Malaysian climate which led to much gearbox problems. In the CKD version which came out much later, I found that the gearbox oil compartment could take 4 litres of gearbox oil with ease on par with its engine oil compartment. I  found the car to  be surprisingly economical especially for highway driving and because of it's weight and size, a great grand tourer. But there were times when I was too lazy to drive and preferred sitting in the back with the rest of the family that I found that comfort in the back seat was 3 * compared to the front's 4*. This was most noticeable when the car takes bends fast, something which I ahem-ahem happen to do often. As I am have a preference for sporty driving, I just had to beef up the car but being on a shoe string budget, things will have to be done in phases.

For phase 1, I invested in a complete set of 5 stabilizer bars specific to this model. It cost me slightly more than RM1000. In that sense, the car is no more a stock car but it now handles superbly that I give it 5* when I sit in the back seat. Now I love taking corners and release the accelerator pedal as I enter the bend then let the weight of the car grip the road. Passengers now hardly ever experience any hash body roll as before. My brother-in-law recently borrowed the car to return home for Eid festival and the everyone in their family were impressed by the smoothness and comfort of the new ride as they have been on the car before this modifications. They all gave their thumbs up. Together with my family, I can easily say that it was a good investment because not only is the car more safer at handling corners fast but it now offers a more comfortable ride, something anyone with big back sides will appreciate. 

Lessons learnt from 200K service

At 193,000km, my KIA Spectra was nearing its 200,000km general service. My son said the car had shown signs of difficulty in changing her autogear from 2 to 3 and there were signs of gearbox and engine oil leakage. For a car well run and 10 years old, I felt minor leakage was acceptable so long as it was not like a puddle. Anyway, the car was sent to our regular mechanic (not the authorized car service centre) whom by now I had faith in having previously observe him service the car. Components I brought were:

Semi-synthetic engine oil, 4 litre    RM00
Gearbox oil , 4 litre                        RM00
Engine oil filter                              RM00
DOT 4 brake oil, 2 litre                  RM00 
A regular set of 4 spare plugs       RM00
Total                                    RM210

I usually dispose the gearbox oil like using a dialysis machine per 20,000km, so far so good. But this time I forgot and and it reached the 33,000km mark. My mechanic said to change the gearbox oil per 20,000km or at most, per 30,000km. Because of the minor engine oil leakage, he concluded that the gearbox oil should be dirty with engine grit. After gearbox oil change, everything was back to normal and no engine oil leakage.

It was found the gearbox oil stalk was not properly closed and that caused gearbox oil to splash around the engine bay thus gearbox oil leakage. Closing it properly solved that problem.

It was found that the brake oil was dirty because it was only topped up not frequently flushed. A complete service including bleeding the brake hoses brought back the bite to the brake system.

Although engine coolant was not flushed but regularly topped up, my mechanic advised to continue topping up the coolant as against flushing the coolant as he said that was not good for the car. That saved me some money!

One of the windscreen nozzle had problem squirting water. I was advised to prick it with a needle but in the event it was still blocked, the pump should be faulty. After my son serviced the nozzle with the needle, I was not happy because it still could not function properly. However, upon checking the left nozzle, I somehow pushed the left hose back into the rear nozzle because there was a clicking sound. That brought both nozzles back to generously squirt water as they were designed to. Phew!

Labour charge                       RM80

Of durians and speed traps

Last week, I returned home from Ipoh but not before stopping by Gopeng where under a shady tree outside the market, D24 durians were sold at RM10/biggest plastic you can get hold of which could hold 3 normal size durians that sell for RM60 in Klang Valley. I bought RM30 which ended up in 4 plastic bags and to me was a bargain and I planned to distribute them later. I travelled in air-con style and by the time I reached Rawang R&R, I stopped to relieve myself. Leaving the R&R, the smell of the durians inside the car by then was too strong so I decided to pull down the windows and brought the car to 110kph hoping to quickly extract the odour. At about the same time, I came to the Rawang flyover. I still kept to 110kph as the smell was overpowering only to see a traffic cop aim his speed gun on me. If that were an 80kph area, I had it. And to think that 95% of the time, I was driving at 100-110kph as time was on my side. :-(

Visit to UM's training centre in Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan

The weekend had just passed by where on Saturday, I had to Google Navigate wifey and her 2 coach full of students to a place I myself have never been before some distant place north of Kuala Kwalang, district capital of Jelebu to Universiti Malaysia's seminar centre so in that respect, it was an adventure for me too as it was my first experience on LEKAS highway which if you drove a supercar, you could do 250+kph as the highway was straight and had not much traffic.