One of the weirdest things to happen to me (besides the issue with the key switch not connecting up the aircon, wipers and horn properly) was an intermittent fault that affected the power windows and aircon.
As The Tank ran more and more, some strange issues started to come about. One of these was a clunking when I started up from a standstill very rapidly. A loud and brief clunking from the drivetrain and a sharp shudder through the car would accompany any rapid acceleration form a standing start. It got worse and worse.
A mechanic had also opened up just around the corner fro my place and so, rather than drive all the way to Balik Pulau and endure the tricky issue of having to occasionally leave the car there, I decided to give Eco Vehicle Auto Service a shot. Run by two young men who had set up on their own, San and Lai, it seemed like a good and decent setup.
The first time I dropped by was when The Tank suddenly started losing water at an alarming rate. I checked and discovered a leak around the water pump. The pump had recently been changed by Lee but I couldn’t risk bringing the old girl all the way to Balik Pulau so decided to try Eco. San came out and had a look at the car and when he saw that the water pump seemed quite new, I told him it had been changed a couple of months back. He immediately said he could of course change it for me, but suggested I check with the previous mechanic if it was under warranty so that I could save money.
I rang Lee who said it was and that I should be able to make it there if I carried a few litres of water to refill on the way. So one afternoon after work, I drove off with two bottles of water in the car. We actually didn’t need to stop until we’d almost reached Balik Pulau whereupon The Tank swallowed a litre and a half of water quite greedily. I left her at Lee’s and a day later picked her up good as new.
Impressed by San’s honesty I felt much more confident about his abilities and so consulted him on the issue of the carb and the high fuel consumption, as well as the clunking.
She also stopped throwing up plumes of smoke under hard acceleration and I didn’t have to change down so frequently when going uphill.
The clunking was a weirder problem. We eventually worked out that the joints in the prop-shaft were seized and under hard acceleration, the shaft would be inflexible and all sorts of binging and banging would then occur.
Unfortunately the banging and shuddering would result in a fuse being lightly dislodged. That fuse was for the aircon and for the power windows. How did I find this out? Well, one of the first things to do when electrics fail is to check fuses and I always found no burnt ones, but the very act of checking itself would restore power. Eventually, after a few occurrences of the air con and windows dying after a bout of clunking, I put the two together and realised the problem. It’s a strange occurrence and I suspect it was a connector just behind the fuse rather than the seating of the fuse itself that was the problem. Eventually I drove with the fuse cover off so I could use some non-metallic object to just prod at the fuse whenever the aircon suddenly went off, and this worked 9 times out of 10.
So all in all, the old girl was starting to show her age…
At this point, the list of issues were:
1. Rust at the chassis rails - can be fixed as was not yet extreme
2. Clunking in the propshaft - new set of joints and mounts needed
3. Gearbox - after a long outstation drive and then some rest, the gearbox would be reluctant to change up from 1st until it was warmed up or
4. Bodywork - the scratches from the encounter with the rock and some bodywork rust starting to appear around the rear hatch frame and rear quarter windows.
5. Wiring - the brake lights and rear indicator wiring needs tidying up as the brake lights deactivate the rear small light.
I reckoned that it would be good to get everything done up over a period of a year or two and I would end up with a restored Tank, but then…
My wife, Mei, moved to Penang at the end of 2016. Finally retired, our two years of living in separate countries and seeing each other only every 6 weeks or so finally came to an end and she joined me in Penang. By this time my staff were also in an apartment I rented specially for them so I didn’t need to drive quite so much every day. Mei and I did like to travel about a bit though so we decided just before Chinese New Year 2017 to find a new car.
And we did - a 1998 Honda CRV with 197,000 on the clock (very low mileage or a clocked car) with suspension noises but a very good engine and interior. We splashed out on it and got her just before Chinese New Year, at the end of January 2017.
There are a few more thoughts to compile on my time with The Tank and then it’s time to start The CRV Chronicles…
As The Tank ran more and more, some strange issues started to come about. One of these was a clunking when I started up from a standstill very rapidly. A loud and brief clunking from the drivetrain and a sharp shudder through the car would accompany any rapid acceleration form a standing start. It got worse and worse.
Ch-ch-ch-changes. And some clunking.
By this time I had closed my cafe in Balik Pulau and so my daily commute was a bit different, carting staff to and from the canteen we were by now running at the Fairview International School just across the road from my place. Although the school was a mere 5 minute walk away, I had to drive about 60kms a day at least to ferry my staff about. So The Tank was still seeing very regular use.A mechanic had also opened up just around the corner fro my place and so, rather than drive all the way to Balik Pulau and endure the tricky issue of having to occasionally leave the car there, I decided to give Eco Vehicle Auto Service a shot. Run by two young men who had set up on their own, San and Lai, it seemed like a good and decent setup.
The first time I dropped by was when The Tank suddenly started losing water at an alarming rate. I checked and discovered a leak around the water pump. The pump had recently been changed by Lee but I couldn’t risk bringing the old girl all the way to Balik Pulau so decided to try Eco. San came out and had a look at the car and when he saw that the water pump seemed quite new, I told him it had been changed a couple of months back. He immediately said he could of course change it for me, but suggested I check with the previous mechanic if it was under warranty so that I could save money.
I rang Lee who said it was and that I should be able to make it there if I carried a few litres of water to refill on the way. So one afternoon after work, I drove off with two bottles of water in the car. We actually didn’t need to stop until we’d almost reached Balik Pulau whereupon The Tank swallowed a litre and a half of water quite greedily. I left her at Lee’s and a day later picked her up good as new.
Impressed by San’s honesty I felt much more confident about his abilities and so consulted him on the issue of the carb and the high fuel consumption, as well as the clunking.
It's a matter of timing. And a diaphragm.
Of the former, he found a torn diaphragm in the carb and did a complete overhaul using some scavenged parts and some new ones. Immediately the power returned, the consumption dropped and The Tank felt a few years younger - much sprightlier and more responsive. Besides the carb woes, during this time the San also figured there were issues with the distributor. I tried to get a replacement from the Volvo guys on the net (Jim Sean Netto in Negeri Sembilan, mainly) but San did some bodging and it helped for a while until we realised the carb was the main culprit. |
| Rust at the head of the chassis rails. |
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| There are a few models of distributors and I contemplated getting a replacement unit. |
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| The carb finally gets taken apart. |
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| A large tear in the diaphragm. |
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| Bits and bobs. |
The clunking was a weirder problem. We eventually worked out that the joints in the prop-shaft were seized and under hard acceleration, the shaft would be inflexible and all sorts of binging and banging would then occur.
Unfortunately the banging and shuddering would result in a fuse being lightly dislodged. That fuse was for the aircon and for the power windows. How did I find this out? Well, one of the first things to do when electrics fail is to check fuses and I always found no burnt ones, but the very act of checking itself would restore power. Eventually, after a few occurrences of the air con and windows dying after a bout of clunking, I put the two together and realised the problem. It’s a strange occurrence and I suspect it was a connector just behind the fuse rather than the seating of the fuse itself that was the problem. Eventually I drove with the fuse cover off so I could use some non-metallic object to just prod at the fuse whenever the aircon suddenly went off, and this worked 9 times out of 10.
The metalworm rears its head.
Raising The Tank onto a car lift revealed that the chassis rail ends were starting to rust severely at the front. Not dangerous yet but would require attention within a year or so.So all in all, the old girl was starting to show her age…
At this point, the list of issues were:
1. Rust at the chassis rails - can be fixed as was not yet extreme
2. Clunking in the propshaft - new set of joints and mounts needed
3. Gearbox - after a long outstation drive and then some rest, the gearbox would be reluctant to change up from 1st until it was warmed up or
4. Bodywork - the scratches from the encounter with the rock and some bodywork rust starting to appear around the rear hatch frame and rear quarter windows.
5. Wiring - the brake lights and rear indicator wiring needs tidying up as the brake lights deactivate the rear small light.
I reckoned that it would be good to get everything done up over a period of a year or two and I would end up with a restored Tank, but then…
My wife, Mei, moved to Penang at the end of 2016. Finally retired, our two years of living in separate countries and seeing each other only every 6 weeks or so finally came to an end and she joined me in Penang. By this time my staff were also in an apartment I rented specially for them so I didn’t need to drive quite so much every day. Mei and I did like to travel about a bit though so we decided just before Chinese New Year 2017 to find a new car.
And we did - a 1998 Honda CRV with 197,000 on the clock (very low mileage or a clocked car) with suspension noises but a very good engine and interior. We splashed out on it and got her just before Chinese New Year, at the end of January 2017.
There are a few more thoughts to compile on my time with The Tank and then it’s time to start The CRV Chronicles…
 |
| One of the things I miss most is the enormous load area, even though it is a tad low in height. |
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| The Tank being driven off to the new owner. |
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