The second of my belated posts from 2016...
I endured a few months of so-so air-conditioning when I first got The Tank. Ah Guan reckoned the air-con would never get very cold and needed some modification. I was reluctant to spend the money so put up with the occasional tepid flow for some time.
Then one day, not long after I’d begun to bring The Tank to Lee, tepid turned to hot. Lee spent an afternoon looking at the car and worked out that one of the pipes was full of gunk and needed replacing. He cleaned out the system while at it and suddenly the air-con was cold as anything.
A few days before, one of the regulars at the cafe had opined that I was taking a risk subjecting The Tank to the KL drive for Chinese New Year. I told him he shouldn’t jinx the journey like this but as it turned out, his words rang true.
I started the car that morning and drove off to the petrol station. I noted there was no click from the compressor and true enough, the compressor simply refused to come on. I discovered a burnt fuse (only 8A!) and substituted it only to see the replacement burn too. Just to test the system, I plonked in a 16A fuse instead and watched it for a few seconds only to see a wisp of smoke curl up form the fuse box. I quickly yanked out the 16A fuse and figured this was beyond my fixit-skills.
Trying to find a mechanic two days before Chinese New Year who could do the job proved ultimately futile so I drove a sweaty, sleepy drive down to KL.
Back in Penang a few days later, I found an air-con guy open for business and Chiew turned out to be marvellous at his job. Just down the road from me, he worked alone and pronounced the compressor dead through an electrical fault. He swapped it, a process that required some modification due to different pulley sizes and so on, but The Tank has remained pretty cool ever since. All his effort cost me only RM900 which I still think is a good deal.
Oh, except for one little glitch when the compressor stopped again. I brought The Tank in to Chiew again and with the help of his friend he worked out it was a wiring fault and they spent an hour finding it and then fixing it. Best thing was, he refused to accept any form of payment from me for this! What a wonderful chap! Highly recommended so if you’re in Penang and looking for a friendly and reliable air-con guy, look for Chiew in Relau.
ChiewAircon
I endured a few months of so-so air-conditioning when I first got The Tank. Ah Guan reckoned the air-con would never get very cold and needed some modification. I was reluctant to spend the money so put up with the occasional tepid flow for some time.
Then one day, not long after I’d begun to bring The Tank to Lee, tepid turned to hot. Lee spent an afternoon looking at the car and worked out that one of the pipes was full of gunk and needed replacing. He cleaned out the system while at it and suddenly the air-con was cold as anything.
The cold only lasted two weeks.
This lasted two wonderful weeks then suddenly all was warm once again. I brought her back to Lee who said one of the joints at the compressor was a little worn and the seal had been compromised, letting out all the gas. He made some adjustments, refilled the gas and all was well again though he cautioned me that that joint was not very strong and may leak again, whereupon a new compressor would be needed. Well, she lasted a good half year more until earlier this year (2016) when on the morning I was departing for KL, the aircon failed to work.A few days before, one of the regulars at the cafe had opined that I was taking a risk subjecting The Tank to the KL drive for Chinese New Year. I told him he shouldn’t jinx the journey like this but as it turned out, his words rang true.
I started the car that morning and drove off to the petrol station. I noted there was no click from the compressor and true enough, the compressor simply refused to come on. I discovered a burnt fuse (only 8A!) and substituted it only to see the replacement burn too. Just to test the system, I plonked in a 16A fuse instead and watched it for a few seconds only to see a wisp of smoke curl up form the fuse box. I quickly yanked out the 16A fuse and figured this was beyond my fixit-skills.
Trying to find a mechanic two days before Chinese New Year who could do the job proved ultimately futile so I drove a sweaty, sleepy drive down to KL.
A call to a friend and at least I had a BMW 3-series to drive around in
A call to my friend Sunil who was also in KL for the holidays didn’t yield a mechanic open to help, but he did offer the use of his father’s BMW 3 for the few days we’d be there so at least I had wheels to cart Mei, the kids and I around.Back in Penang a few days later, I found an air-con guy open for business and Chiew turned out to be marvellous at his job. Just down the road from me, he worked alone and pronounced the compressor dead through an electrical fault. He swapped it, a process that required some modification due to different pulley sizes and so on, but The Tank has remained pretty cool ever since. All his effort cost me only RM900 which I still think is a good deal.
Oh, except for one little glitch when the compressor stopped again. I brought The Tank in to Chiew again and with the help of his friend he worked out it was a wiring fault and they spent an hour finding it and then fixing it. Best thing was, he refused to accept any form of payment from me for this! What a wonderful chap! Highly recommended so if you’re in Penang and looking for a friendly and reliable air-con guy, look for Chiew in Relau.
ChiewAircon
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