The Tank Chronicles Chapter 3

Blinded by the light. Not

It was a couple of days after I brought the Tank to Penang. I took her out to get my dinner late one evening. The roads around the apartment are a little chaotic with roadside stalls, bus stops, mechanic workshops and little side lanes all on or meeting the main road. The resulting pedestrian and motorised traffic movement is complex and though a little shy of Hanoi’s or Mumbai’s standards, still requires some degree of concentration at the wheel.

Remember I said I’d checked the lights? Well, I certainly checked that they came on and in the dim carpark at the apartment, I could verify this every time I moved The Tank in or out. So imagine my surprise that night when I drove out into the dark and found I couldn’t see too well. At one point on the main road, I couldn’t even pick out a pedestrian darting across and only saw him/her as a silhouette in the glare of oncoming cars.

Hmmm… a closer inspection back home revealed the beams were not too bad at the top, but virtually non-existent on the bottom. The reflectors were obviously perished and to prevent someone - maybe me! - joining them, I figured I’d better get them fixed.

Replacement reflectors seemed to be the brightest idea...

I trawled some of the spare parts dealers on the Volvo groups I’d joined on Facebook and picked out some headlamp replacements, then also sought Ah Guan’s advice. As usual, he provided some wise words of caution - essentially that replacements headlamp units may also have dodgy reflectors. He proposed a better solution which was that they had a source for some Taiwanese-made replacement reflectors and could change my tarnished ones. That seemed to be the brightest idea (ahem) and I gave the go ahead. While waiting for the parts to arrive, The Tank ventured out only during the day and on one night when I had a late meeting in town, the guys were kind enough to pick me up and send me back.

You can see the dullness in the headlamps in the picture at the top. Here's The Tank having her eyes taken out. The wheels were off because I also did a brake pad replacement at the same time.

A few days later, Ah Guan said he had the parts so The Tank had her free parking spot in their workshop while they sorted her eyes out. Just to explain - Lorong Macalister is a coupon-parking area and the residents/tenants who don’t have season parking tickets play a dodging game with the parking wardens who come infrequently and irregularly. When they do appear, someone usually gives a call out and doors come flying open and men and women scurry out with their car keys in hand to scratch out a new and valid couple before they got slapped with a RM50 fine. The Tank was safe in Ah Guan’s workshop for the day.

The headlamp unit on the floor, waiting for surgery.

You can see how dull the reflector is.

All cleaned up and waiting for the replacement reflector.

And don't her eyes look all sparkly again?

In the evening, I picked her up and she was all sparkly and shiny in the eyes and the trip home was drama-free. Cost? RM195 each without labour.

Ah Guan says the manufacturer has stopped producing these reflectors so I guess other owners will have tools for alternative sources or try their luck with old units.