Replacement of cracked front speakers

After my memorable trip to my dear old favourite country China last December 2006, I came back home to my beloved ER34 only to destroy the front speakers. Sigh.....

Pic 1: Pioneer TS-A1680S

With budget constraints and the lack of proper resource and knowledge on In-Car Entertainment (ICE) systems, I went ahead and got a Pioneer TS-A1680S Coaxial 4 Way Speaker as a replacement for my Eclipse 8052 speakers. It came with the below specifications:-

- 220W Max. Power Handling
- 16cm woofer / 40mm dome midrange / 10mm dome tweeter
- Interlaced KEVLAR® Brand Fiber Reinforced IMPP cone woofer
- Butyl rubber surround for smoother response
- Long voice coil design
- Glass-imide voil

After installing the speakers it is apparent that cheap things are rarely good. The speakers are kinda 'noisy', an attribute that I was told was due to it being 4 ways.

Anyway, it will do for now, afterall I'm not too much of an ICE person. As long as I no longer have to listen to music via broken speakers.

Pic 2: Door panel removed

Pic 3: Thats where the Pioneer resides

Oil change with Lubegard Bio/Tech Engine Protectant

God I was out of touch for a while. Been a 'lil busy to update my blog.....

Anyway, did my 50,000km oil change on the 12th January 2007. Yup, you guessed it right, in came the Q8 Formula F1 10W-50 with original Nissan oil filter (Part No. 15208-53J00). This time round I also added in the Lubegard Bio/Tech Engine Protectant. This stuffs claims to reduce engine oil temperature which is a problem I'm having.

Pic 1: Lubegard Bio/Tech Engine Protectant

I've recorded 115 Degrees Celsius on prolonged high speed runs on the highway and also on 10th tenth enthusiastic driving. :O

This is indeed getting worrisome. I desperately need an engine oil cooler!!

AC Delco Maintenance Free Battery

If you have read about my constant raves and rants about the car having some electrical problems under Low batt and a fried amp?, you would have empathized with the sort of irritation I've been having with the car.

Pic 1: Stock Pitwork battery - NS40L

I finally got time to try another suspected cause of the problem. Change the battery!! If it still fails, then it has to be the battery cables.

Anyway, one fine day I sneaked out from work to do some shopping. Well, it is unbelievable that one CANNOT find a maintenance free battery the size of NS40L. And this is after going to perhaps 5 workshops and calling up some spare parts shops. Crazy!

Darn it. I finally decided to try my luck with the NS40ZL. The difference between the two is the location of the terminals. In the NS40L, the terminals are located inwards towards the engine while the NS40ZL has its terminal location outwards towards the car front bumper. Fitted it in and thankfully enough, the cables are long enough to reach the + and - terminals. Phew..... and I nearly resorted to ordering a set in from overseas. LOL :D

Pic 2: AC Delco Maintenance Free Battery - NS40ZL

Anyway, the battery I used is from AC Delco, a brand that I have been using since my days in my previous ride. Have no qualms about its reliability and being black in colour is a plus point. :P

Once fitted, I'm a happy camper. Gone are all my electrical gremlins. Now the car feels good without my constant worries of it going dead in the middle of the road.

Woohoo!!!

Skyline Owners Year End Gathering

Pic 1: The Skyline owners

Well what a way to end year 2006!!!

We had a gathering among the Skyline owners on Friday, 29th of December 2006. All started to roll into the meet up location at Piccadilly Restaurant & Cafe in Millennium Square, Dataran Millennium PJ from 9:00pm onwards.

It's a spectacle to see over 30 units of arguable the best export out of Japan all together. We have a multitude of different Skylines from the R32 GT-R till the R34 GT-R and everything in between. In addition, there were quite a few of the Nissan 350Z as well plus a couple of the S15 Silvia.

Anyway, it's nice to meet the owners of the same make and model and we had a wonderful time checking out each others rides. In some what of a contradiction, the group that I was with was drinking beer the whole night.

Hmmm.......this is the first time I drink alcohol during a car club gathering. :P

Anyway, it's great to meet you guys and hope we can do this more often. Perhaps this year I can and I will spare more of my weekend time for drives around our local hill resorts.

Eh, wait a minute I need to get my brakes done first. Sigh.........

Some pics of the night as below.

Pic 2: R34 GT-R with Tomei RB28 engine. Drool......

Pic 3: Crazy quad exhuast pipes!! Aussie style mate!

Pic 4: Row of the Nissan 350Z

Pic 5: The Skylines. Mine looks damn tame. :(

Pic 6: The beer lovers club!

Pic 7: Yours truly. Thanks to CONOCO for the goody bag!

Front bumper repaint......finally !!!

I always hated my front bumper. The stock unit looks damn sissy. Totally makes the car more like a Sentra rather than a Skyline. But well that's another story altogether.....wanted to change it but have not come across anyone selling the NISMO version.

Anyway, my front bumper has some 'scars' on it.

Pic 1: Deep cut

Pic 2: An inch away from the left headlights!!

1) Unidentified Flying Object

Not too long after I got the ER34, I had flying debris (kicked out by a motorcyclist) hit the car. Not too sure it's considered lucky or unlucky coz it hit the bumper just an inch below the left headlights. Had it gone any higher and there goes my headlights. Grrrrr.....

2) The mega scrape

The car had a close encounter with a parking ramp pillar that left the right hand side of the bumper with scraping marks. It totally stripped the paint and the black base is clearly seen. (Well you know what they say about letting the fairer sex drive your car.....)

3) Stone chips!!

If you have read my blog on the ER34's maiden trip to Frasiers Hill, it came back with not only memories but uncountable number of stone chips on the front bumper. Darn it!!

4) A date with the parking ramp

The ER34 has a scary encounter with a parking ramp before the installation of the Tein Super Street Dampers. When it was running on HKS lowered springs, the car was so low it scraped everything!! I even had a tissue box stuck under the front bumper once!! Anyway, the bottom of the front bumper has some serious battle scars that spans the whole bumper from the left till the right.

So with the 4 items above to be fixed, I went to my regular paint shop dude to get it fixed. Now this paint shop is good. Very good BUT takes ages to do stuffs. Just to paint my bumper it took them 3 bloody days.

Pic 3: Front bumper removed

Day 1 - Patch back all the stone chips and scraping marks. Painting of the bumper.

Day 2 - Oven bake the newly painted bumper. Fixture of the bumper onto the car and ensure colour matches with the rest of the car.

Day 3 - Polishing the bumper (got them to do the whole car as well) :P

Pic 4: Front bumper being baked in the oven

Pic 5: Intercooler air outlet

The end results is very nice. Satisfied with their work 100%. Well that's the dependability you can place on a shop that actually fixes pre-delivery new Porsches.

Now where can I find a front NISMO bumper?????

Xiamen and a broken speaker ?!?!?

Well the whole of last week I was away from Malaysia. Flew over to Xiamen in China. Yeah it's a drag to be away from the ER34 BUT hell I love visiting China and had been doing so once a year for the past 6 years in a row!

Pic 1: Xiamen skyline by the seafront

It's more like a working holiday for me this time 'round and I thoroughly enjoyed the excellent accommodation, top notch food, and not forgetting the lovely people of China. But honestly, I think Xiamen is the most boring city I've ever visited in China. Hahahaha :D

Pic 2:Tranquility at it's best.

Anyway, I came back to dull and mundane old Malaysia in the middle of the night, tried to rest for the night and the next day, took the ER34 up for a drive. Drove to Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur for some R&R. Took the opportunity to meet up with some business associates. Had a hearty dinner and proceeded to drink our hearts out in the Perak Royal Golf Club.

Woke up early next morning for my favorite Curry Mee and then drove back to Kuala Lumpur. Enroute I was driving max out at the speed limiter with the music on full blast. Was listening to some lovey dovey mandarin love songs and such. Out of a sudden, my front driver's side speaker gave way with a audible bang!!; and guess what?!? My bloody Eclipse 8052 speakers has cracked it's dome. #!%^&^#!*(&%$

Oh god damn it!! Now I've got to hunt for replacements speakers and to figure out ways to get the funds to do it as well.

What a drag!!

Boost Pressure Sensor Hose split yet again!!!

Well well......ain't this becoming a common occurrence?? This is the third time the boost pressure sensor hose split it edges. The last time in September '06, I told myself IF it failed again, I'm gonna look for a stronger hose to replace it.

Pic 1: Boost sensor hose split yet again

Pic 2: Yea it split up pretty bad

Guess I lied to myself. Hehehehe ;)

I got out my trusty angle spanner and remove the unit, amazingly my zip tie theory worked pretty well as evident in pic 1 above. It actually held the hose in place firmly.

Pic 3: So many zip ties ???

Now that it's proven to be effective to secure the hose via zip tie, I'm gonna do the same thing but instead of a single zip tie to hold the hose to the boost sensor housing , I've added 5 smaller zip ties around the base of the inlet to minimize the chances of it splitting again. After doing the above job, I got the feeling that I’ve just fixed the thing as if it’s a Datsun 120Y. Hey!! A Skyline deserves better treatment that that right?!?!?

Pic 4: Jolin Tsai practising for her concert. At times like this I wish I had a 300mm lens for my camera.

The best part when doing the above is being entertained in the background by Jolin Tsai practicing for her big concert tomorrow. The concert venue is just next to where I stay.

Hope the above fix works.........fingers crossed.