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Life and useless lions

Here's a quick post from Malacca. I was walking my way back to the hotel until I saw this more than half dozen of lion head ... the music was on but they weren't dancing. Life is so easy, all they had to do was to walk with the lion head and make it look like a quick-do-to-ward-off-whatever.

Packing Away

Many of you have probably reached their hometown or better, you don't even need to travel anywhere for Chinese New Year. I am actually doing some last minute cleaning and packing up. Can't wait to munch all the cookies, dried meats, kuah-chee and all. Happy travelling and a very Happy Chinese New Year!

Mind you long ago

It's twenty twelve and there's something special I do every year for a resolution - I resolve not to have any, I mean .. does it matter? So instead of writing new things to do ... I will just write about things that was done long time ago. Things that people have done and have a keepsake of it or say memories of all sorts. I was recently at BikePro and got this evil green red looking thing that I thought will make me look fast. At the sight of it, I was pretty much wondering whether I am a big fan of Italian colors until I remembered I had American colors which I am not a fan of it either. I took it off the wardrobe recently and was trying to imagine how did I ever fit into that size. 

Remember that M-sized jersey you used to pose around which is discolored now and you keep it in your wardrobe and now you are wearing some other fancy looking XL or err, XXL. A week ago when I stared down at Boon Foo for a size, I almost wanted to ask for Medium and boing it goes .. I must be dreaming. I know there's something about cycling that we all like to move on to something newer. Old steel frames, 8 speed shifters, some whimsy obsolete items that we once embraced but the market eventually left behind. We leave it behind because we can't use it anymore ... just like this old-worn-Medium-sized-jersey. This is however my own fault for consuming too much. 

Those old things are all kept somewhere, stored away in a box and eventually you take it out and tell it out loud.

Mind you long ago, I wear Medium. You? 

Vios 2008 - Compressor

Ah Hong gave the car air-con compressor a new life today. There's no apparent reason why I should be blogging this because I am not a car-nut but I am writing this to spread a bit of knowledge to readers out there. Whichever car you own, it is still the same spare part, probably a different model. Unless you are a bicycle purist and don't even drive a car and probably don't even need air-conditioning. So here goes ...

The breakdown of air-conditioning in a car usually occur for several reasons. It could be refrigerant leaks, worn parts such as condenser, compressor, blown fuses, belts, etc. Mine was caused by a worn clutch/pulley. A worn clutch and pulley can be repaired in which the market calls it a 're-conditioned'. According to Ah Hong, he can repair it at a lower price approximate less than RM500 but it is highly likely going to give you the same kind of problem again in another few months time. Hence, the entire compressor (Denso) is replaced - costing an approximate RM1,100 inclusive of the gas and labour service. I took the option of replacing the whole unit as it is recommended and has warranty.

My car is a 2008 Toyota Vios, has clocked mileage of 140,000km and never has the air-con serviced. The car's maturity is not based on the age of car but rather the total mileage. The average life span for most compressor is around 4-5 years which I think one might have clocked similar mileage. Over here, a life span of 3 years (140,000km) is a little bit of premature death but it could be due to bad maintenance or someone who drives the car like a bulldozer.

Look closer into the pics .. the entire compressor will look like it can take a lot of abuse, which I don't doubt it can. The clutch is where most drivers will have problems with.