A sneak under the Hyundai Matrix under carriage

I suspect something not right after I took home my Hyundai Matrix and yes I was right..the tail pipe was missing. The rear looks naked without the tail pipe. And a week later, I send to my regular exhaust workshop to install a new tail pipe. Upon inspection found part of the end tail pipe has thinned down due to rust...that explained why my tail pipe gone missing.  

The work of a new tail got underway, I choose a simple stainless pipe tail pipe and new length stainless steel pipe was replace. 

                                                       

                                                      

The end result

Since the matrix is lift up, I check the newly install drive shaft and gear box for any leak ( replace new clutch plate)...everything look good.

Notice the chassis design of the Hyundai Matrix on the left side as well on the right...its very rigid with supporting longitudinal and  short horizontal girder making it looks like small box shape chassis. And no wonder the whole Matrix easily weight more than 1000kg.

My 10 year old Hyundai Matrix Maintenance 2015

How time flies...10 years just like the snap of the finger. So today we begin with the following plan maintenance:

1. Drive shaft replacement
2. Clutch plate replacement
3. Gear old
4. Crankshaft oil seal
5. Power steering oil flushing
6. Windscreen water jet - seems not working
7. Tie rod bushing L/R
8. Aircond servicing

Not much right!...anyway replacement of item 1,2,3,and 4 takes up whole day, so I have to do another follow up.

Hyundai matrix is a robust family MPV, its worth keeping it!

My Elantra X20 battery history till 2015

I own the Elantra X20 on the year 2008 and since then, the 1st battery replacement was performed on year 2011 http://goo.gl/xbnbzb , replace it with Delkor however it did not last long...barely survived for 1 year only. Had it replace with Century Marathoner on year 2012 http://goo.gl/ZbJPWY.

With Century Marathoner I enjoy 3 years of usage  till year 2015 and replace it with GP MF Gold   http://goo.gl/Imz1C5.

So thru out the year from 2008 till 2015, I have fitted only 3 battery and total amount spend on those batteries are about RM650...that's roughly RM93.00 per year investment on the battery.

Change my X20 battery to GP MF Gold

Lets take a look on the old Century Marathoner NS70L  http://goo.gl/t9dfyy which was fitted with Infinitum battery desulphator. And almost to 3 years, the battery begin to show sign of weakness to crank the engine ( I do have a voltage meter fitted ) and the voltage is depleting from 12.3v to 10.3v. There were moment cranking was almost impossible but the battery indicator in the dashboard did not light up.

Even after travelling of more than 100km, the battery show no sign of improvement, the alternator current always maintained at 14.2v meaning its always charging at full rate whereas in normal circumstances, its should be between 13.8-14.0v. So it is better to replace the battery before get stuck in no where. However the shop do not have any Century battery, never mind I just get what he has best in this shop...that is the GP MF Gold from Korea for RM280.00. I did not trade in the old Century battery as I think I can still use it to power up some LED lighting at home. 

Lets see how long this GP MF Battery will last. As for the Century Marathoner, since it can last up to 3 years and there was a few time I left my car without running  for 1 week, it can still start up easily - so it is a good battery.

Hyundai Elantra X20 - new master switch

I have been living with a problematic master switch for the past 4 years. Whenever I shut the door, the rear left window will automatically scroll down and I will have to struggle with the the master switch to rise up the window. Sometime when I happened to hit a strong road bump, it will just auto scroll down.

So to avoid that, I just kill the switch by pressing the lock button. Only the driver side window will be able to scroll down but for how long I have to suffer it. Ain't want to be living in such a condition, I managed to source for a spare unit from a Hyundai spare part dealer in Segambut.

On the left with the broken tip the original unit and one the right is the original replacement unit.

It was not that easy to removed but I manage to do it. Nothing is broken on the panel except on the old master switch. Anyhow I manage to locate the broken piece, might as well glue it together.

The final assembly.. it cost me RM300 for the new master switch.

New tyre for my Hyundai X20

Oh yes..the reason I send my car was just to check the condition of the lower arm and rubber bushing but what surprises me was the condition of the tyres which saw some weird looking tyre wear down. Could probably due to under pressure. Anyway there are other defect too which saw rubber peeling off till can see the thread. 

  

That force me to change all 4 tyres as found 3 tyres are in bad shape.

 

The tyre shop has suggested me using Forceum HEXA. Its cheap for an 18 inch tyre..cost me RM250 per tyre inclusive of balancing and alignment. The way I look at this tyre..its not high performance tyre, its a moderate tyre..safely enough to bring me from point A to point B. Its quite a noisy tyre and for that price ..nothing to argue with. From the tyre patterns I can tell..its good in the wet but not very good in the dry surface. 

Anyway I'm not going to drive very fast say above 170km/hr in the wet or dry. 

Once fitted..it looks nice. Furthermore the tyre come with rim guard.

The unexpected event of my Hyundai Matrix

Sometime's after careful planing and thought that we have made a good decision..save  $$$$ due to the incoming GST of 6% in Malaysia that joy is just short term basis. It feel's terrible.

This is what happened to me last week. My wife called up saying the matrix high temperature and the it can't start. Furthermore she spotted a leak near the gearbox. Luckily she manage to drive slowly to a nearby petrol stations. I suspect the big coolant hose need to be replace as its already being 10 years and never change even once.

So I bought the coolant hoses, thinking I could removed it DIY but at that moment  it was raining ..very difficult situation to do any DIY. Slowly I drove my matrix to my regular workshop and my mechanic found out the radiator is cracked..oh well its already 10 year old MPV and never once the radiator being replace. Further check and considering the aged of it, decided to also change the thermostat, coolant hoses, front brake pads, brake fluid cover,cylinder cover gasket, gear oil and engine oil change.

New radiator inbox.

Old Coolant Hose

New radiator fitted in

Old front brake pad replaced with new one's

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With GST kick in..kindda  hard to digest the extra cost

Good bye antenna

My Elantra X20 2007 ( some call it Avante ) already 8 years old. Since last year I begin to notice the rubber on the antenna has cracked but still holding together..my hope that it won't leak everytime I wash my car. Very difficult to get the same rubber and require to modify ( which I'm not in favour).

As the day goes by, I decided to have solved the problem once and for all. No more worries of crack antenna rubber. So I removed the rubber and the antenna. Patch it with a electrical tape while waiting for the right day to send for repainting.

  

The rear tail light will have to be removed, before the antenna hole is sealed by gas welding. Paint over with the same as the original. Job completed in 2 days.

And finally...its a clean swipe..easy to wax and polish. The antenna hole is history.

Heavy Fuel Consumption

There are few factor to heavy fuel consumption
- tyre pressure
- dirty air filter
- high viscosity engine oil
- badly carbonized spark plug
- cold air intake is from the inside engine bay
- vehicle is too heavy as compare to the engine horsepower
- clogged cat converter
- dirty throttle body
- poor clutch
- using over sized tyre
- worn out tyre thread
- tyre alignment not correct and excessive toe angle
- aircond setting is too low example set at 18 celsius
- heavy foot on the throttle
- poor injection quality by the fuel injector
- placing luggage box above the roof rack

So, if you manage to rectify above mentioned, you are gaining back your losses . However you have to give some allowances such as aged of the vehicle and mileage. Such high mileage vehicle will effect the fuel consumption, perhaps its time to conduct a major overhaul or a top overhaul.

Hope my short advice help's you.

My Hyundai Matrix need a new tyre

     

Its the time of the year when all 4 tyre need to be change. The rear is totally bald and the front is already above 50% worn out. Many of my regular tyre shop are close ( more of less permanent close down) and luckily found a tyre shop at Prima Gombak that is open for business.

Waited nearly 3 hours as this shop as it short of manpower to handle quite a number of customer and why I'am willing to wait..coz the tyre price here is reasonable. I change to a Falken 912 ( 195/55/15 ) and he charge me RM155.00 per tyre including free balancing and alignment !

 

The brake pad has thinned down.. but still can go on for another 6 months. Plan to change to Bendix soon.