Balanced & Aligned

As the title suggested, finally found time to send GenToo to the pros for a proper balancing and alignment of its tyres. Been complaining of the steering vibrations from time to time, and every time I bring GenToo back to COE surely the 'supposing' people from Silverstone who's in charge of the whole balancing and alignment will be missing or the equipment won't be functioning. Well, it seems that lady luck's not there for GenToo to do balancing and alignment back at Proton

So, after looking far and wide, finally found a suitable place for GenToo to get his paws and boots balanced and aligned. It was a tough thing to do as balancing and alignment isn't as simple as it seems. There's on wheel off wheel balancing, and also positive and negative chamber. Though the rule of thumb is still always to get the wheels spinning in a proper manner and the proper direction to even out wear and also provide the best comfort and handling.

The place was introduced by a fellow Gen2 CPS owner, pedanglaut at Bandar Baru Bangi. He's very familiar with that area and have been a regular at this particular tyre shop and bets his money that this is the best place to do balancing and alignment. So we woke up early, and went to the meeting point at a Petronas station early in the morning. This was adviced because we're not the only people going there given its a Saturday.

We met up and begin following him to this shop since I have no idea where it is. It was actually kinda easy to go to since I've been there now. So, after about 5 minutes drive, we reached the place and the name of the shop was Ah Man Tyre Auto Service Sdn. Bhd. There we saw lots of Government Perdana Executives and even some of the police Wajas there, waiting for their tyres to be done. So, we parked and went into the shop to meet the boss. After a lil chat, he says it'll take about 2 hours to get my car done since there's lots of cars there that day.

Pedanglaut then suggests that its best when my turn comes, he informs us so we can have a look at how things are done. We then went of in pedanglaut's car. His was a modified Gen2 CPS manual, so he showed what his car is about for a while then went to a shop nearby for drinks. The shop had a signature drink made from ice cream soda with ice cream and lime jelly. Sadly, was too busy enjoying the drink and chatting, that we forgot to take pics and the name of the drink.

After getting to know each other a lil better and since GenToo was still in queue, we stopped by a Proton showroom to check out the newly launched Persona Face Lift. It still looks like a Gen2 especially the CPS now with the new front bumper. Like the LED side mirrors though but loves the design of the one on GenToo now. Maybe we can DIY a hybrid of the two someday. While there, the tyre shop called.

We rushed back to see what the proper way to do balancing and alignment is. There, they prefer the on wheel balancing method as it is said to be more accurate and lasts longer. Usually a car doing balancing will have its wheels taken off, brought to a machine which will spin it and then weights added to places so the wheel is balanced (spins flatly). As for alignment, the car will be lifted with sensors attached to the wheels and measured using a machine to see what angles are the wheels in and whether they are aligned.



At Ah Man, basically, both are done with the wheel still on and the car partially jacked. To align the tyre, the car is raised at either end and a machine brought to measure them. Adjustments are then made and the measurements taken again. Here, the boss told me that the alignment for rear tyres are ok while the front tyres are off and that they had corrected it but that wasn't the reason why my tyres were shaking at speeds exceeding 80km/h.



Next goes another machine that will rotate the wheel while it shines a flash of light at the tyre to do the balancing. One side of the car was lifted, and the front tyre will be spun using engine power while the rear will be spun using the machine. While spinning, the machine flashes light at the wheel like a photographer. Then a reading is taken, weights are added or removed based on the readings obtained.

- Applying weights to balance the wheel.

After all four wheels have been done, GenToo was left there waiting for the boss to take it out for a test run. While waiting, one of the less friendly and worst looking employee slammed a car jack to the left front of GenToo's wheel! He just pretends nothing happened and no word of apology came out. Seeing me furious at that, pedanglaut went over to the boss to complain. The boss then shouted at that employee and only then he mumbled the apology. Fortunately, that was the only negative experienced at that place.

- Scratched part of the front left rim.

All in all, it took a lil more than 2 hours, alignment costs RM15.00 with tax of RM0.75 while the balancing costs RM9 per tyre with tax of RM1.80. I find it quite reasonable since that's the price I got when sending my C.L.K. for balancing and alignment earlier. The boss even touched up and polished the scratched part of my rim and apologises repeatedly so no hard feelings. Hopefully the employee will soon learn to appreciate cars and love them the way we do~

So, this is a shop recommended for everyone who wants to align and balance their tyres. Just be there when it happens to prevent sh*t from happening.

Ah Man Tyre Auto Service Sdn. Bhd.
No. 153 & 155, Jalan 8/1,
43650 Bandar Baru Bangi,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Tel/Fax: 03-8922 2328

Happy Anniversary

Today, GenToo celebrated his 1st anniversary with us. It sure didn't felt like a year, I can still recall the day when I went to bring him home. How time flies when you're having a good time! It wasn't much fanfare since we only remembered like 2 weeks ago! It's not our fault as there's no indication of the anniversary and like I mentioned, didn't even notice the time passing.

When I say no indication, it's not like God gave a sign on everyone's anniversary. But more like what everyone will do during their vehicle's anniversary, the mad rush for insurance and road tax renewal! Since no one actually keeps looking at the small sticker on the windscreen, and annually is when you expect your insurance agent to still remember you and become your best friend.

We were having none of it. No one spied on the sticker on the windscreen and no one called to ask us to renew the insurance for GenToo, thus, no one remembered. Once we realised, luckily there's still 2 weeks left to settle things. So, firstly we went searching for the right insurance company for GenToo so that his road tax can be renewed. It's not an easy task since there's like hundreds of insurance policies out there for you to choose to cover your ONE car!

After a long search, finally gave up since we have no idea of what to look for and where. Luckily we have a colleague, Mr V, who's a pro in this field and advised us. Mr V says that, basically when looking for insurance for your car, 3 major things are to be considered. 1st, how easy is it to claim, 2nd, what's the breakdown assistance coverage, and 3rd, reputation of the insurance company.

We were then 'enlighten' by Mr V in that the insurance terms and condition is all being controlled by our Bank Negara, so basically all the charges is the same, meaning the price you pay will be the same which ever insurance you decide to purchase. That's the reason why people look at the gifts you get when you buy insurance. After a day of careful consideration, finally managed to narrow it down to 2 companies, Allianz and Lonpac before deciding to call for more info.

Called Allianz first as they are the most reputable in Malaysia. Rohaida, an agent entertained my call, answering any queries we had about their policy and what are we expected to pay. After a long hour finally the call ends and we can call Lonpac. At Lonpac, Helmi from their Customer Service answered. He also answered every query we had and explained how the charges will be like. So, after hearing from both companies its time to choose which will be best suited for GenToo.

After a time consuming discussion, basically we decided to go with Lonpac. Reasons being, the RM300 breakdown assist per event, better and more polite customer service, and the best part, 5% discount if you walk in. These were things that Allianz were not able to offer according to Rohaida. So, since we were going to pay the same amount of money, might as well go for the one that gives us more value for that money.

Woke up early on the 10th, just to settle everything. Since I don't have to work on that day, I don't have to waste an annual leave. We decided to go to the Lonpac Head Office at Jalan Sultan Sulaiman since it's more convenient and we believe that the service would be better. Once there, we were unable to locate the parking to Bangunan Public Bank, and end up parking ironically at the Takaful Malaysia building next door.

Once we got to Lonpac, we were greeted by a sweet pregnant lady, Mazuin, who was very nice and friendly to help us get all the paper work done. She was even kind enough to check the value of GenToo with a few used car dealers and with the Claims Manager. We then passed the relevant documents to her and within 15 minutes, everything was done! That's what we call efficient! Paid the amount agreed, and we were off.



The next day, went to the post office to renew the road tax. It's so convenient that this can be done at any post office, and since now they can be located in shopping complexes, there's no reason anyone can't make time. There, as usual there will be a small queue. But all in all, it again took less than 30 minutes to get everything done! They charges a fee of RM2, which we will defintely pay to avoid the travelling of more than 50KMs just to get to go through a painful and confusing 'slow death' of waiting at JPJ!

So, on our anniversary, we got GenToo a bunch of goodies from Lonpac, a nice and relaxing car wash, and an extension of 1 year to GenToo's 'license to speed'! And in return, GenToo provides us the joy and exhilaration while driving with confidence and nice sound system without sacrificing comfort. So, a win win situation where both will surely look forward to more anniversary celebrations.