My battery becomes weak

The battery on my Hyundai Elantra was replaced on 8 January 2018 and today is begin to show usually sign..the cranking becomes becomes slow but able to start, the signal light behaving very strange: flickering inconsistent...some time fast and sometime slow.

Lucky I have fitted a battery meter, a good battery will show reading of 12.0 -12.3V but this time it recorded 10.02V..this means the battery is weak.

I know the cause...my Elantra has not been doing good daily running and frequent starting. Daily travel about 22-30km only.. on weekend the car even travel lesser. 

Removed both terminal and hook up to my battery charger. I hope 6 hours of charging is sufficient. If were to perform recondition charge..it will take about almost to 3 days.

New sport rims for my Hyundai Elantra X20

The road and surrounding areas are not being properly maintained, my tires and rims are taking lots of beating. This year alone, I think 3 times I have to tyre change tyre and with 18inch rims...it's also lighten my wallet.

And the final straw came after the rear tyre punctured, I found a nail and a broken a glass ... the tyre is totally condemned. The other rear tyre also suffer with inner wear maybe due to negative camber.

I wanted a good set of sports rims, not for racing just to get me from point A-B and strong to withstand the poor road condition. My regular tyre shop recommend an old design rims but good and strong match with a 215/45/17 rubber.

I had a good offer...new 17inch rim complete with new rubber, new lugs nuts for each tyre , new metal air valve , alignment and balancing ...RM1,600.

The new look !

Very very lucky ....the engine oil light turn ON ,Timing Belt !

Recently I had oil change to my Hyundai Elantra in May 2019, https://bit.ly/2XlRKwC. I clocked 189,246 km. About a week later, my wife was driving home and she saw the engine oil light turn ON , she was about 2km away from home... I told her to continue driving since the  engine acting as normal with any abnormal noise or smoke.

As I reach home after work, I immediately check..found below the sump tank was wet and extending to the rear. The dip stick was totally dry. The oil filter was wet..I suspect the gasket may have broken...so when ahead with changing the oil filter and make sure I wasn't over tighten. Top up with X-1R again and give it a start.

Then, I give the engine a start...it surprise me....there was an oil leak...came from the oil seal near the crankshaft..it was a strong leak..at any moment it can empty the whole engine oil sump tank. At that moment , the car just clock 189,686km.

I had the car tow away the next day to Ah Yau for check up. In my heart...lucky I top up with X-1R,never expected this incident to happened.

AhYau confirm the timing belt oil seal leak..oh dear! The timing belt was replace last year Feb https://bit.ly/2HQoyZv, it just clocked over 20,000km.

Change to another set of timing belt kit (90,000) recommended by Ah Yau, not require to drained out the engine oil.The alternator and aircond belt was also replace. Total costing RM660...poor me. 

My Elantra Oil Change May 2019

Comes May 2019, the engine has clocked 189KM..time for its regular oil change. This time I have added the X-1R Engine oil Treatment bought it from Shoppee ( I bought 7 bottle !) as seller was giving good discount.

As for the engine oil...it's good...good for 10K KM oil change.

Brake switch of Hyundai Elantra 2.0

Two days ago, the brake light refuse to turn off even after the ignition key was removed. I have suspected the brake switch as this is not the 1st time even happened..this would be the 2nd time and from my other ride ..the solution is to replace the brake switch.

So, I bought a new brake switch, cost me RM35..not that expensive. Below is the old brake switch.

And to my surprised, after replacing the brake switch , the brake light did not turn off...how is that possible !! Then again I check and discover, on the brake lever, there is hole. Usually this is solid metal without any hole. I begin to find small rubber pieces on the flooring. This I assume there is a rubber insert...oh dear, why Hyundai make such design.

As a replacement, I place a small bolt and nut. I tested the old brake switch, it's working, but since I have bought a new one's better to change it and keep the old switch as spare.

No labour cost as this is DIY.

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.

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.