Friday, December 19, 2008

Of Rubber Hose & Great White Shark

A few days back, I felt something wrong with the Iswara that I am currently driving. Even though I've already stepping hard on the pedal, the car wouldn't accelerate. The little power that it has is not good enough to sustain 110km/hr on highway. I thought never mind, it might be because of the RON97 fuel I pumped in the day before.

Wednesday was a terrible day. The rubber hose connecting the car radiator and the engine bursted and water can be seen spraying out from the leakage. We were trapped in highway nearby Tapah.

This "lil Napoleon" is the biggest trouble-maker


The radiator has been made totally empty due to the leakage. I think the rubber hose bursted earlier, and because of short journey around Bidor, I was not aware of the rising engine temperature.

Four half-baked "mechanics" including me and my father are responsible for the repair works at a friend's workshop! We laughed all the way while cursing each other because one of the "mechanics" mistakenly fastened a rubber hose in a wrong orientation. Beforehand, he called himself the most competent person there.

Overall 4 rubber hoses of various sizes have been changed. Can you believe all these dried iron sludge clogged one single 130mm run, 12mm diameter rubber hose? I don't believe either.

You can simply press and hear the sound to check whether the rubber hoses in your car are clogged or not. If you can hear cracky or harsh sound from the inside, that means iron sludge has been building up in it for ages.

If you are even too lazy or too hygienic to touch the hoses, just perform a visual inspection. Clogged hoses will "fatten-up" due to excessive water pressure.

If either one of the symptoms occur on your steel baby, bring it to the nearest mechanic. You might not be as lucky as me, escaping astronomical repair bills due to engine overheating. Anyway, the 4 rubber hoses cost me less than rm30, plus RM40 bill of radiator cleaning and service!

***


Great White Shark is the nickname given by Chinese people to Ipoh Specialist Hospital.


2 comments:

easternC said...

luckily u stop b4 the engine jem... or, u hafta full overhaul or change new one.... wahahahaa ~
happened to me twice... my old wira... the exact same cable... huhu ~

KEEFOO LEE said...

haha koyak la wallet if do overhaul~