My Honda City

I have not been updating on the fuel consumption since early in the year, but I am still keeping tabs. Above is the latest fuel consumption figures up to May. The average is still hovering around 14.5km/l. It seams like since the last service, the km/l is trending up. But lets monitor how this goes. I will also compare between the previous service and this service to see if there are any difference in consumption. For the latest service, I have used my own Idematsu Fully Synthetic oil instead of Honda Service Center’s Vtec Fully Synthetic oil, which was reportedly to be Idematsu also.

As mention in my previous post, I was in the market for new tyres. My stock Goodyear RCT have bald at ~60k km of usage. My initial intention was to get either Mechellin Precada 2 or Continental Contact 2, of which the later was quoted to me to be about RM168, which is quite affordable. I went back to the hometown during the festive holiday and did not have the chance to get the tyres here in Penang. I had to get it in a rush in Taiping. The Continental shop that I went to did not have Contact 2 and his Preceda was RM2xx, way over what I was willing to pay for a tyre. Instead, he was selling the Korean Hankook hard. I have never heard of this brand before and was rather sceptical. Inspecting the tyre more, I find that the tyre was a little lighter than Contact 1 after comparing side by side and was very soft. Much softer than the Contact 1 and also the Goodyear RCT. The guy says this accounts for the noise reduction. He says this tyre could last about 40k km, which much less than the current Goodyear RCT. I guess there is a little price to pay for the noise reduction of soft tyres. I was sold as I did not have the time to go shopping around in Taiping. After installation, I find that the tyres were indeed quiter than Goodyear RCT. The aircondition blower in the car now sound more prominent, compared to the tyre sound previously..

It has been some time since I shared on my car fuel consumption performance. I have device a new method of computing the fuel consumption. What I do now is to pump a fix value each time, in this case, I always pump 26.04 liter. This value is based on RM50 @ RM1.92/Liter. For each of the fueling instances on the x-axis, I pump 26.04 liter and drive the car till it’s empty, which is till the light comes up and the indicator go to the lowest, most of the time hitting E and below. Then I pump 26.04 liter again. I find that by doing this, the fuel consumption are pretty stable at the average of 14.5km/liter and a Standard Deviation of 0.59. My stock tires which are Goodyear RCT are going bald and I will be changing them soon. Currently I am eyeing on Continental Contact 2 or Michelin Preceda 2. The Tires manufacturer always claim that their tires safe fuel, etc.. well, I will be putting them to the test. I will compare the fuel consumption before and after the tire change. Since I will be changing all 4 tires at one go, it would be a good estimate to see if what the manufacturers claim are valid. Oh, by the way, instance 2 and 3 was Caltex Techron and the rest were Shell Super.

Alex Allied have finished with his upgrade, and this is the part 2 of the series. Also, he has painted his car Bluish Silver White. Wish I have the cash to spend on my car, there are loads of things I want to do. Firstly, is to get a nice head unit with GPS, then a nice bodykit, next would be on the engine, and that would have to be after the warranty period expires. That’s my wish list for years to come.

Recently, my city engine noise starts to get louder, and a faint rattling sound accompanies the noisy engine.  I sent it in for service and the service centre advice that the tappet has run out of alignment and would need re-alignment.  This would cost $300 which would not be part of warranty coverage.  No reason was given, except that, its just not covered by warranty they exclaimed.  I sent the car in and the car has to be left overnight for the engine to cool down before they can open up and do the re-alignment.  The following evening I went to collect the car and the problem was still there.  The technician suggest to bring the car back the following Monday for a detail check up.  And so I did.  I sent the car in on one early Monday morning.  Tuesday come, the car was not done, they need to call the Honda headquarters to get permission to remove the engine.  Wednesday come, Honda Headquarters has yet to reply.  By Thursday, my patient ran out and give the service station an ear full.  An hour later, they called to update that Honda HQ have replied with a a list of items to check and that’s what they did.  By Friday evening, they have finish the checklist, which is mainly cleaning ups of the engine mounting, etc. I got my car and was delighted to find that this $500 bill was covered by the warranty.  The car engine felt like new, and the entire car was as tight as ever.  It felt like a brand new car.  It was an exciting drive and renew the love for my city.  It helps me to appreciate the car more, especially the car being so responsive and the drive was such a joy.  Overall, the experience was dreadful, not being with a car for a week was difficult, but in the end, the wait was blessed with a brand new feeling car.  Honda service centre experience is never pleasant, but at least, they get the things done, even if the customer has to wait for a while, in my case, 5 days.