Blackbox meets Turtle

Collected the 1.7 Edix from dealer last Friday.

Conducted a full car check before taking over... and asked questions ... I think I accidentally terrorised the poor young chappie SE...

The Blackbox (which I named this Edix) was quietly beautiful... wifey had chosen black... which got a Tuff Kote undercarriage job done, as well as the System 6 grooming done to the exterior.

Surprisingly, all the plastic wrapping was removed. Which I tot was quite nice... I'd remove them all anyway... and the DVD player/tuner was installed as promised.

However, no sports rims (SE says no stock, collect in 2 weeks) - so I got the stock steel rims with hup caps... I just hope the SE would deliver the rims... and not hold out on us... anyway it's documented so there's no escaping the fact that it was promised to us. So I was laughing... new tyres and rims to run for a while first... quite interesting.

I pulled out the dip stick for the engine oil... was surprised to see that the engine oil was almost transparant... really damn clean... and i did not recognise the colour at all.... in most cases, the oils i used were almost always have a 'golden' hue to it... not this one... it's like super clear lor...

hmmm... checked with the SE... says he dun know... car came from japan like dat... that's very interesting... I shall go around to look at the japanese brand oils to see if i can find something of that kind of a hue. so clear...

anyway, it's for the first 1,000 km so i won't care la... once change out i will put in Redline 5W-30 leow...

The rear pointing reverse angle camera was hooked up... quite interesteing to use... but you can get careless with that thing... becos once pass the rear bootline, you won't notice anything on it, such as side pillars haha...

but nice.

The instrument pod is also nicely laid out... and is those illuminated type, like on the ES5... so is the centre consol... in all, this is a very comfortable vehicle... minivan hahaha...

In the UK, this model car is called the FRV. not MPV. I was asking myself, what the f was an FRV? I got to go find out.... no other vehicle is in this FRV class...

And so I drove the vehicle home with wifey...

We stopped to eat at Upper Serangoon Road. Wifey hungry... the usual place, we ordered the famous steamboat fish, and a veg...

Lucky Roy sms to ask if I needed a ride. bro ahren moved to the shc meetup leow... and i was totally held up having dinner with wife...

The Blackbox was exceedingly easy to drive, and it felt quite powerful with only 2 of us in the cabin... Topping up from reserve tank took almost 50 litres so this is a big fuel tank.

The only instant feel i get is that the brakes might be a bit lacking - but then it hasn't fully scurbbed in yet anyway. The odo at that time only had 28km in it. Will wait a while before starting to 'mod' this ride... at least steel braided cables and better brakes and fluids will be on the first to mod list.

Drove the Blackbox during the weekend and put in about 100km on it - family outing, etc. The fuel indicator dropped 2 notches from full leow... The onboard computer trip meter calculates projected range from the fuel top up... but is quite a guestimate becos it revises as you drive... Personally I'd prefer the km/litre readout the was on the Jazz and the Oddy. But range is a good readout... haha you can work on that to get home even on reserve tank.


The Turtle was left to rest for most of the two days of the weekend... first time it was left 'off' for so long hahaha... holiday leow... anyway, it's back to the Turtle for daily drive... wife drives the Blackbox on weekdays...

<>

out went the jazz and in comes the black box. dun neglect your turtle dude.

Finally my Turtle gets to rest during family outings in the weekend. The Jazz and the Turtle both same out within 2 weeks of each other Sep/Oct 2004... the Turtle has clocked 98,000 km to date... the Jazz 31,000 km... go figure...

The Jazz has never stepped out of Singapore...

I intend to bring the Blackbox all the way to Penang and up Cameron Highlands and Genting etc by end of 2007... haha... shud be fun... but first, upgrade the brake hoses and prolly up the pads to 500 degrees hawks or something... i discover that i brake a lot with the Blackbox... the vehicle is heavy at 1400kg
coming down the hills will be taxing on normal standard brakes setup.

This morning, after collecting the car from the MSCP to park at our block's 'car park' for wifey's easy access to move off to work, kena one phone call ... darling... when you park the car how come never engage the parking brake??

oops...

but the car put to Park mode on the auto selector rite? I ask... the engine has locked the wheels already so not to worry... wun move one... no but that means no need parking brakes rite? why put parking brakes option in the first place?

erm... it's for if there is a slope, or park with gear in N position den need... but not supposed to kill engine in N position ma... rite?

OK OK... sorrie darling... next time i put parking brakes properly... sorrie.....

Blackbox came with System 6 package (wifey paid la...) but din request to do interior grooming... I got this feeling that everything was factory fresh... including the smooth, dry leather, and matt finish on the dashboard and powdery feeling on the hand.

So we were out shopping and I saw this Armourall Gel thing... and bought a bottle.... and applied on Blackbox... oooo..... immediate effect leh... the whole dashboard came to life... black lusture on all the plastics!! and so I layered the whole car's interior's black plastics... including the steering wheel... it was most prettyfying to see the blackish shine...

next would be the leather seats... but that would be another days' story... Blackbox has a lot of black plastic... boot area, rear doors, sills, passenger side glove compartments etc, all need a coat or two of gel...

:star:

Had a date with Jolvin to touch up the Turtle on 27 Feb... sun bian get him to do up the Blackbox la... He said OK...

Wow... did you see the pics Jolvin posted? hahaha... despite low lighting, damn chio sia... interior as well... need to really apply the leather care on thickly man... the leather seems resistant to absorb the care cream... but the aftereffects can be felt... the butt feels 'smoother' when moving aorund on the seats thereafter... got to apply more.....

the first 1,000 km came and went during the CNY festivities... by the time I booked the servicing at Premium Motor works at Sin Min (the designated service centre for this PI) and went to service it, the odo already reading 1,700+km leow...

Brought along my 10W-30 Redline Engine oil... becos they used Shell Helix Ultra... which i did not wanna use... and they charge $105 for it. (when I called, I asked... and no surcharge to bring in my own oil... NICE!). My Redlines cost around $XX*... sorry... groupbuy price cannot reveal...

Watched the mechanics drain my original oil... it was darker than I remembered... dunno why... hmmm... anyway in went the new filter, and Redline...

Next got vouchers for 16 inch sports rims and tyres... those went on too... tried carring the rim/tyre... blardy heavy man... but the tyres were good... Yokohama A-Drive R1... very nice indeed... never tot they'd give such nice tires for the sports rims that PI included in the sale... the rims I dun like.. although nice unique design... too blardy heavy... will have to swap out the rims for Rotas leow... going for the Sub-Zeros... hahaha... 6.5kg for the 16 inch rims... not bad.... else go for the Advanti A15 leow... but dunno how heavy those are...

They also completed fitting the ICE setup... lousy DVD head unit now better reception after I complained to them (gently) that radio reception is damn poor... they added additional internal antenna... haha... now it's markedly better... oh the extra thing fitted (becos when delivery of car - the component was not available) was the DTV Tuner... yet to learn to use it...

And discovered that the Folding Wing Mirror switch was faulty. It won't stay 'on' so wings won't stay folded... I tot it was a safety feature at first... but it's the switch spoilt... oso agreed to replace, but parts yet to come in... ordering leow...

haha... while waiting for servicing and upgrades to be completed, the earthquake came...

The display racks at the waiting area housed at least 15 sports rims of various sizes and designs... all heavy, all made in taiwan... all swaying to the earthquake!! tot they would drop anytime... the display rack was rocking back and forth and sideways too...

actually i did not know it was an earthquake... but when another customer asked i just casually said so... like I knew... hahahah... i tot just big lorries moving past and caused the ground to shake a bit... it happens rite?? never occur to me really earthquake...

ok back to the Blackbox... supposed to have HID upgrade as well... but no stock... will come back for those next week... hopefully the switch would also be in...


Results - Redline Engine oil in... the engine revs a little smoother now... it was already damn smooth to begin with... got to watch the FC now... hahaha... but not expecting much la...currently going at 11.2km per litre quite ok leow... for this heavy truck... some more put in larger and heavier sports rims... sigh... can remain above 11km per litre very happy leow. If it drops I will most definitely change the rims!

to be continued hahaha...

I remembered I sold my Phoenix Gold amp to my good friend when he needed an amp to power his City... but later he decided not to do ICE and storaged the amp...

I called him... he has it still... and wud sell it back to me at same price I sold him... wa liew.... more than a year in storage leow leh!!!!!!!! still same price...

but he ask me to test it first becos dunno still can work or not... sigh... lucky i din sell him ex but even then.,.. i gonna take it ... and not pay in full hahahahaha... hope he dun read this post!! kakkaka... joking la... but will bargain a bit ba... how can same price???? damn...

anybody got good second hand speakers for sale? anyone upgrading and throwing away their Focal or CDT speakers? anyone?


:P

Got my hands on a pair of CDT 6.1 speakers from a City driver... cool speakers man.... good price too, and run in already hahaha...

So now the ICE upgrade to the Blackbox is ready to be installed... just need a day at the shop... and prolly will have to accumat the 2 front doors too... sigh... more $$$ and this one cannot get 'second hand' hahahahaha.... crap...


Also gotten my hands on a used Hotbits header 4.2.1 in nice condition... and planning now how to transfer the BMC CDA into the Blackbox after I put in the E-Ram into my Turtle... Peter may be pissed with me for this... of course he would prefer I buy the limited edition CDA from him...and have 2 CDAs running in my two vehicles... but I dunno how to resolve the E-Ram + CDA issue ... sigh.... it's mutually exclusive and compromise is unacceptable to performance both ways....

so there.... more decisions...... sigh...

had been dreaming of putting the E-Ram in the Blackbox instead, to help it blast forward at WOT... interesting tot.....

the other dream was to do the first plan, to swap the CDA and implant the charger into the Turtle, and opening an intake on the bonnet & small airscoop for direct air intake with a heat shield below to block hotter air from going in... will be quite an interesting mod... or shud I get a Carbon Fibre bonnet done up with the scoop in place and keep a stock bonnet somewhere (dunno where... maybe got to rent a storeroom leow.... shucks so many stock parts to put away... hmmm... den can even get a second set of rims... and tyres for track!!!! hahahah shucks... damn... and got space to store the stock seats to put in buckets!! Recaro of course... european sized Recaros..... omg... my horns are grown bigger than my torso and legs leow.... heavy......)

.

mcdss wrote:

Got my hands on a pair of CDT 6.1 speakers from a City driver... cool speakers man.... good price too, and run in already hahaha...

So now the ICE upgrade to the Blackbox is ready to be installed... just need a day at the shop... and prolly will have to accumat the 2 front doors too... sigh... more $$$ and this one cannot get 'second hand' hahahahaha.... crap...


Also gotten my hands on a used Hotbits header 4.2.1 in nice condition... and planning now how to transfer the BMC CDA into the Blackbox after I put in the E-Ram into my Turtle... Peter may be pissed with me for this... of course he would prefer I buy the limited edition CDA from him...and have 2 CDAs running in my two vehicles... but I dunno how to resolve the E-Ram + CDA issue ... sigh.... it's mutually exclusive and compromise is unacceptable to performance both ways....

so there.... more decisions...... sigh...

had been dreaming of putting the E-Ram in the Blackbox instead, to help it blast forward at WOT... interesting tot.....

the other dream was to do the first plan, to swap the CDA and implant the charger into the Turtle, and opening an intake on the bonnet & small airscoop for direct air intake with a heat shield below to block hotter air from going in... will be quite an interesting mod... or shud I get a Carbon Fibre bonnet done up with the scoop in place and keep a stock bonnet somewhere (dunno where... maybe got to rent a storeroom leow.... shucks so many stock parts to put away... hmmm... den can even get a second set of rims... and tyres for track!!!! hahahah shucks... damn... and got space to store the stock seats to put in buckets!! Recaro of course... european sized Recaros..... omg... my horns are grown bigger than my torso and legs leow.... heavy......)

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Other than driving Blackbox in the weekends, I did not get to drive it much, except every morning when i start it, warm it up, and drive down the MSCP to the foot of my block ready for my Queen to drive it to work when she rushes down after the usual lady preparations .....

sigh... so many things on standby for Blackbox all no time to fit in...

in the engine... the Hotbits Headers... and K&N drop in filter...

In the cabin... the CDT6.1 speakers and the Phoenix Gold Amp...

I also have a Autometer Volt gauge to go in too... thinking of getting other gauges like the vaccum gauge, but since Blackbox's instrument panel has this ECO light, it sort of will tell me when I am doing best speed/throttle setting... so no need leow...

better hurry before the speakers die in their box...


and on the brakes, have a set of 500 degree project miu pads from the Turtle - hardly worn in even... to be migrated into the Blackbox... perfect fit leh... but still got to do the brake swap... soon! The current brakes are ok la... expected... and definitely can be improved...


sigh..... waiting for the weekend......


twisted mind says to install the AFC Neo on the blackbox... damn... wait for bonus ba...


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No mods were put onto Blackbox when we went out to Cheriting, on the East Coast of West Malaysia...

And finally, with 10W30 Redline oil that's been in there for 5,000km we drove up... in the day time... becos the East Coast is not like the NS Highway... it's not lit at nite... and it will be hell on earth if you crash there... it's two lanes one up, one down most of the way too...

but what a ride... some of the times I wish I was driving my Turtle... the roads were beautifully deserted... ok only some of the stretches... but lots of overtaking is required.. and Blackbox performed beautifully, outpulling the Gen2 too... unless that is an IDIOT driver who doesn't drop gear or/and doesn't give 100% throttle when overtaking... fcuiking idiot on the malaysian backroads...

tried out the Blackbox's usable top speed (not limit speed as it will take time to climb to that speed) - found that it will pull to 150kmh on command easily in D mode! just floor the accelerator and walla... 150kmh in a few shakes of the ducktail! impressive for the 1.7 litre D series engine to do that in stock form... total stock... not even changed intake filter to K&N drop in... it's dead stock! and stock spark plugs too... i think it may pull easily to 160 if some simple mods done and I'm not even talking headers swap.


this is one great car... er... Family Recreation Vehicle to drive... yup, in the UK, this is called the FRV. NOT an MPV... becos it dun have 3 rows of seats, and not a 7 seater... it's a 2 row six seater... 'station wagon' if you must... seating 3 per row. haha it's a wierd configuration.... but it works... people charge less for washing at car wash too!!


petrol consumption is not bad at all... all that full throttle accelerations to overtake lorries and slow vehicles, must have done about 100 overtaking manoeuvers on the trip... hahaha fun especially if there's oncoming vehicles... it averaged 13 km per litre!!!! (ok rounded up from 12.8+)

If I drove like auntie... i.e. stick to the 90kmh speed limit and not overtaking... prolly can average a lot more... this is a no-regrets vehicle to get... i'm proud that it performs well...


OK, one downside... suspension at 120kmh... not good for the sweeper corners... feels like it's gonna lose it... but it held ... so it's not confidence inspiring... however, it is a VAN per se... and has a DAMN HIGH centre of gravity... so how to blame?? Even with sports suspensions like the Tien Wagon coils put in... i doubt if it will change the handling very much except make it a lot stiffer... which i think may be dangerous to something with so high a CG...

Ride quality is great over rough roads... truely shiok over humps too...just go at a slower speed... not dead slow like on the Turtle... I think i won't be changing anything in this department for now.

Brakes... on stock brakes... din have to really stomp on them except for a few overtaking moves which required quick swerve back into the lane and slowing to avoid ramming the slow vehicle in front. This did not happen enough times to make me wish i had better brakes... but I was conscious that it's stock pads i'm riding on... and was careful to feel for any signs of fade...

It rained buckets on the way back on two occasions... i.e. we drove into storms and drove out of storms... isolated rain spots.... there , wiper was on full speed and lights were on... and speeds dropped to 70-80 kmh even tho there were no cars in front... becos cannot see the road la... and it's not a straight road, it's full of nice twisties that is shoik to drive fast in the dry and sunny... but not rain and low visibility.

The A-Drives held really well, and did not have any signs of drifting, hydroplaining... not flooded - thank goodness... despite the super heavy downpour... and brakes held up well too...


interesting that i did not take any pictures this trip event tho i'd brought along my trusty camera and fresh batteries.


but this is one way I'd love to bring the ES cars up one of the weekends and have a wild drive to a nice resort for a short holiday... or the Edix Owners' Club.. but i only newbie there... so it's up to the big bros in that forum to decide...


but that's another story for another thread...

Gave the Blackbox a good wash and vaccum and walla... good as new... it was really road dirty when we got back... haha... what did you expect?


Time to arrange to change oil and filter for the Blackbox leow... if the oil feels lousy to the touch later when I go check... haha


./

it finally happened...

it was a dark and unlighted car park at goodwood park hotel...

Blackbox was parked at the L corner of it front in.

coming out needed reversing and facing the car 90 degrees to drive out of the car park...

there was this black mercedes that had come out of the car park lot halfway... headlights were off.. in fact, all lights were off on this car... black merc, in a no light car park off its parking slot, head out... right where the Blackbox was reversing and turning...

in the blackbox... chattering... and glancing only at the reverse camera... which showed little in the darkness (this is not an infra-red equipped reverse camera installed by the PI) and whalla... impacted on the Merc in the rear left corner of the fender...

not going too fast... but the bump misaligned the rear bumper, rear light cluster, and left a slight dent on the bumper itself, and the whole left rear bumper joint was popped out.

in the merc was the driver, a 24 year old female driving her dad's car, and two more female at the back. At her insistance, it was signed on the accident report form that it was the blackbox's fault to the accident.

the girl said Dad would call to quote from the workshop to fix the Merc's front bumper.

The Blackbox was evaluated and estimated at TanLim and repairs/respray of whole rear fender was totalled at around $200.

The merc girl called to say a workshop quoted her $400 for her damage. of course, she was informed that the Edix only estimated at $200 - pls go to another to get a quote, becos the price was to obvious a carrot chop. The girl agreed... becos she did not go to her dad's regular workshop... scared to tell him?

will continue this saga next week when more details are known... this case is still 'pending' quote from the merc side.

may be a good opportunity to change a few things on the Blackbox... will decide when sending it to the workshop later ...


I oso busy to send car to workshop... no vehicle back to office...


./

The blackbox was originally slated for a few things... Hotbits 4-2-1 being one of them... but after this round of inspection, i guess i will not be touching the exhaust except for the ones with 'cert' ... those cost money... over a thousand bux a piece... which shud I get? Remus? haha there is also fujitsubo and some other that is 'legalised' for the Edix...

nice to have some choices...

and yet to drop in the K&N into the box... sigh... procastination...


although lately meters come into mind... i now have a spare set of water and oil temp plus sensors to put in... wun put in the pressure sensor tho... troublesome...


but all these will have to wait till i get mula to mod the Turtle first... sigh... always the cash flow problem..


oh well... that's life...


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Blackbox was overdue for its 11,000 km service... the odometer was reading 13,xxx km already when I drove into the 'warranty' workshop having made a last minute appointment on a Saturday afternoon.

haha usually KM will make you wait at least 2 weeks for weekend slots... this one, said full, but I said 'can i wait' and she say "yes, if you come in by 4.30 pm" hahaha... it was 3.45 pm already...

also made known I'd bring my own oil... that said, i made my way out of my apt in NE at 4.00 pm...

of course drive wif purpose la... only 30 minutes to get to Sin Min Industrial estate... reached the place at 4.25pm... *phew*

and as I drove in, i was thinking... hmmm... may as well COMPLAIN about the DVD player... see what they gonna do...

ha so first thing I ask the Service Adviser - "eh, my DVD player har... damn irritating leh... original DVD also cannot read properly you know... disappointed my son many times leow when we make him leave his fav DVD programme to go out ... so how har?? can repair or not?? ORIGINAL dvd oso cannot read??? and no... i did not bring any DVD to show you... "

and he said, "ok sir i bring it over to the tech side to check it out while waiting for your turn to do servicing"

after a while in the waiting area finish my coffee - got nice coffee there must drink else rugi... haha... I made my way to the workshop floor... damn... this workshop services parallel import Porches... knn... see until eyes tired of them leh... anyway, first things first. go ask the electrician how my DVD set... the SA was there too... "sir, it can play leh..."

"Yah... can play... den cannot play... den can play... ORIGINAL DISC oso this type of thing happen... FREQUENTLY! how??" The SA and the electrical tech look at each other... SA ask the electrical tech "how? want to do repair?" ET shook his head...

I KNEW IT... this set so damn problematic mine won't be the first set with such complaint one... my eyes looked around and saw a whole half cut oil drum full of cling wrapped head units (my Blackbox model la) look like just throw in there... not stacked neatly... further proof why ET shake his head... prolly he check until give up also...

SA tell ET... "change a new set for him"

My heart din jump... the headunit was changed before, a one for one exchange with the same model... KNN.... maybe one of those in the bin... but i just keep my poker face on and said 'OK lor... hope the new set dun have such problem' and walked back to wait area to enjoy another coffee. "no eyes see" how they dismantle and install... quite un professional one la... of course...


after a while, the Blackbox was driven to the service bay... i followed primarily to check that they change my oil properly. and I realised why... the idiot mechanic (who looked middle eastern) tried to explain to me that check oil level must start engine first, then stop it, then check to get reading.

i held my breath and counted to 10... you guys overfilled the oil the last time and went WAY PAST the higher marker... now you just fill 3 full quarts, and the last one 1/3 bottle will do. He looked surprised and say that won't be enough.

told him I'd fill up the balance in the morning after the car has a overnight rest to settle down the oil level. reluctantly he agreed...

The next day i checked, true enough.. overfilled!!! but at least only a bit overfilled instead of WAY overfilled... next time i tell them just 3 quarts. The rest i will fill myself to the desired level.

I can't believe how dumb it was to let them fill it that way. I checked the 4th bottle - they filled at least half leow... despite my instructing them to use only 1/3 of the quart first. next time I go there, i will pour out 2/3 from the 4th bottle before going there, so they can pour ALL in and not overfill my car...

KNN... stupid one leh...


BTW, mine was 10W-30 redline the last time, this round using 5W-20 redline. The engine felt good. Gonna install in a Oil and Water Temperature sensor in there soon.

.

in my haste to slamdunk the mechanic, i'd totally forgotten to note at the last post that i'd looked at the dashboard... and was plesantly surprised to see a BRAND NEW MODEL DVD player with touch screen functions and a whole lot better user interface.

and the technicians even bothered to look at how i set up my radio stations and reprogrammed it to my preference!! now my hat's off to them... it's the equipment lousy, not the technicians there lousy... i'd hire this fella anytime if I'm in the business ... but i'd remember the mechanic tho... oil fill level oso dunno... better not ask anything more...

and so ends my plans to buy a new dvd head unit at the end of the year... phew... got more cash to do other things leow... in the plans anyway hahaha...