My Love Affair With Car Started With Fiat 127

I Fell In Love With This Italian Babe And My Dad Bought It.

If you were to ask me what my happiest moment in my life from my late teen to early twenties, I would say it was the moment when I collected my brand new Fiat 127 in 1975 and it was registered under my name.

I didn't know how my dad feel but I knew he was RM6,000 poorer after he bought me this cute Italian babe with cash. RM6,000 was quite a lot of money 40 years ago in Malaysia for my him. My dad must have loved me so much to be willing to part with his hard-earned money without hesitation.

Source: wikimedia.org

Why Did I Choose An Italian Car Over A Samurai Rival?

At that time the only Japanese rival in the same category was Mazda 1000 which cost slightly more. I had a soft spot for Italian car right from the beginning simply because Italian cars, until now, have souls unlike the Japanese. On top of that, the former have unique styling that stands out among the crowd and yes the performance.

Did I Love This Car?

You bet. Although it was a super-mini class car powered by a 903 c.c. four-in-line petrol engine mated to a 4-speed manual transmission, it was front-wheel driven, independently sprung, spacious inside, fuel efficient and it hugged the road like a leech. In fact it won the European Car Of The Year Award for 1972.

I drove it aggressively on winding roads most of the time and I remember vividly that I overtook many Japanese cars of bigger engine capacity (1.2 to 1.3 Liter) such as Datsun 120Y, Toyota Corolla, Mitsubishi Colt Lancer and Mazda 808 when I drove this car to Genting Highlands back in the mid 70's. I guess all those drivers would have been pissed off.

Did I Date Any Girls Driving It?

Not trying to tell you my romance in details but I did date 5 girls - 4 Chinese and 1 Malay. Holy cow, I even made love with the Malay girl twice in a row inside this car at a park at night! Most of us guys did crazy things when we were young, didn't we?

How Long Did I Keep This Babe?

Four solid years and kind of reluctantly. Finally I upgraded my car ownership to a bigger car but that's a different story altogether.

What Happened To This Abandoned Proton Savvy?

What Is Proton Savvy?

I know the name sounds weird. What has the word "savvy"to do with a car, right? For those of you who are unfamiliar with Malaysian-made cars, Proton Savvy is a 1.2L petrol-engine-powered subcompact partially designed and by Proton using Renault engine. You can read up the details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_Savvy.

Abandoned Vehicles In Malaysia

If you,as a foreigner, stay in Malaysia long enough outside of the tourist belts, it's not hard to find abandoned motorbikes, cars or even trucks at some residential areas or near some workshops. Personally I didn't see even one in Singapore through my 8 years of living there.

In The Begining

I found this abandoned car in my neighborhood at least 10 months ago. Obviously it was involved in a rear-end collision and was parked in front of a workshop. However no car body repair was carried out since it was there.

10 Months Later

Recently I noticed someone had stolen all the alloy wheels leaving the car sitting on 4 bricks and many of the car parts were gone You can see it's in a sorry state as shown in the pic below.

Why Not Make A Police Report?

If you have ever made a police report in Malaysia, you will know how time consuming and frustrating it was. By right the city council should have towed this car away to a junk yard after failing to contact the owner over a period of time,

My Love Affair With Cars - Tools & Books

Many people whom I had met (even close friends) thought that I wasn't a hands-on guy. I didn't blame them because I looked like a gentleman and a bookworm. But you can't judge a person by his look anymore than you can judge a book by its cover, can you?

Since I was a teenager, I have been fixing stuff in my house or a handyman in other words. When my dad bought me my very first baby Fiat, I was thrilled and excited to collect the brand new car from the Fiat showroom.

I read every page of the Fiat owner's manual like reading a Playboy magazine the first moment I laid my hands on it. When I got the chance to observe car mechanics working on the car, I tried to take mental notes of the tools they used and the processes involved. Since then whenever I was free and in the right mode, I carried out basic and routine maintenance on the car and subsequent ones as well.

I ain't a professional "car doctor" but I do keep some basic tool kits either to work on my car or stuff that needs to be fixed at home.

Here are some of those:

(1) Hand-held spotlight with large reflector

(2) Multimeter

(3) 14-piece combination wrench set (8 to 24mm)

(4) Tool Kit - flat-head/Philip screw drivers, pliers, Allen key set, socket wrench, ratchet handle and extension

(5) Tool Box containing combination wrench set, box-end wrench set, Allen key sets, test pen, cutter,

Let me show you some of the books and owner's manual I keep and they are still in good conditions.


(1) My dad bought this thick hardcover book for me, which was printed in Great Britain, for me 40 years ago. Thank you, dad, for buying this book, which you and I had touched, although you passed away many years ago.

(2) I bought this book, printed in Great Britain, in Singapore 23 years ago.

(3)  I bought this car brand new and also the hardcover service and repair manual 15 years ago. This book was also printed in Great Britain.

(4) I still keep this owner's manual, together with other booklets and documents, that came with the car.

 

(5) I liked Jeremy Clarkson, a well-known British commentator, who hosted the widely-watched car TV series called Top Gear. 13 years ago I bought one of his documentary VCD.

 I love affairs with cars continues till now. If I could re-start my life all over again and take up Engineering, I would definitely pursue a double-degree in Automobile Engineering and Journalism. Hopefully that would happen in my next life.

How To Remove A Car Hood Latch Assembly

If you hear rattling sound coming out from your car hood especially when the car is idling or goes over potholes, most likely the culprit is the latch assembly. Needless to say if you are lazy to do it yourself, or your car knowledge is limited to only pumping gas at a gas station, or if you prefer to pay a mechanic handsomely, instead of me, to fix the problem, take your car to a workshop by all means.

Let me show you how to do it yourself. Open up the hood of your car and you can see the latch assembly right next to the hood release lever.

Check the two securing nuts next to the coil using a ring spanner and also the pin using a flat-headed screwdriver. If you can't secure them fully, remove and replace them with new ones. Mark the positions of the nuts before removing them. Note that the mounting holes are slotted for adjustment if necessary.

When the latch assembly is removed, it looks like this.

Take out the components and clean them with degreaser.

Refitting is a reversal of removal. Make sure the nuts are tightly secured.

Your Car Battery

When was the last time you inspected your car battery or wait till your car fail to start one fine day?

The battery shown below was in a 3.2L(A) diesel engine Mitsubishi Triton  belonged to a friend of mine. Those whitish, ashy deposits were the result of corrosion. When I opened the plastic cover on the right, I found more corrosion on the positive terminal than the negative one on the left.

Dirty battery

After I cleaned it, the difference was like day and night as shown below.

Opening the caps of the 6 cells revealed that the 3rd and 5th cells (from the negative terminal) needed to be topped up.

Next I checked the voltage of the battery using a multimeter like this one here:

The battery registered a voltage reading of 13V across the terminals which shows that it was still fully charged. You won't be able to start a car engine if the voltage falls below 12.6V.

The table below shows you the voltage vs. charge percentage of a car battery.

Taken from: .topbuzz.co.uk

A new battery normally carries a one-year warranty from the manufacturer subject to terms and conditions. If you take care of your battery, it can last you for at least 2 years.

The longest life span of a car battery I owned exceeded 3 years since I took good care of it. If you don't bother to inspect your battery periodically, be prepared to buy a new one just slightly more than a year of usage.

What Do You Need to Do If Your Car Was Stolen In Malaysia?

(Image Credit: alicja_M via freeimages.com)

Throughout your car ownership, this might happen to you. If  your car is stolen, you need to inform the police first and then your insurance company the soonest possible. So how do you go about it and what are the documents required?

Once you have confirmed that your car was not towed away by your town council for illegal parking, file a police report at the nearest police station. Make sure you bring along your identification card (or passport if you are a foreigner), driving license, and car registration card.

After you have done that, inform your insurance company about the theft . Provide them the following documents:
(1) Copy of Updated Registration Card (Both sides);
(2) Original Certificate of Insurance;
(3) Copy of Insured I.C and Driving License;
(4) Original Police Report/Certified Copy; and
(5) Copy of Hire Purchase Agreement (if applicable)

Your insurance company will terminate the insurance policy with immediate effect. An adjuster, appointed by the insurance company, will meet up with you and to get all information regarding the theft of your car. You have to show the adjuster the location where your car was stolen.  

You have got to be patient. Your insurance company won't  pay you within the first 6 months while the investigation is under way. Even if it is going to pay you after it's confirmed that your car can't be found after 6 months, your compensation is going to be based on the current market rate or the sum insured, whichever is lower. So, make sure your car isn't under-insured or over-insured your car when you renew your insurance policy.

If you or the police has found your car, you have to file another police report to close the case. If there isn't any damage done to your car or you are going to fix your car without insurance claim, write a letter to your insurer saying that you are not going to make a claim against it. Also, get your insurer to reactivate the insurance policy.