Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement

Date: 16th May 2015
Mileage : 153170
WorkShop : V-Auto
Item Replaced:
Rear Wheel Bearing

It’s been a while I am driving the Volvo – Most of the time my wife will be using it. Today on the way out for lunch, I hear a loud humming sound from the rear, the sound get louder as the speed approach 70km/h and getting worst as in progress.

Check by revving the engine – but it is not related to the speed of the engine.

Decide to drop by V-Auto to have a check – and Mr.Vasu confirmed, it is due to the rear wheel bearing.

Decided to replace both as it’s more than 10 years anyway.

 

To kept the cost down – not using original for this – Mr.Vasu recommended SKF, which is OEM for Volvo anyway.

Humming sound gone and it back to the great ride!

Total Cost: Wheel Bearing (RM480/—per piece) / Labour (RM180/—)

Right Side Engine Mount Replacement + Service

Date: 20th December 2014
Mileage : 149171
WorkShop : V-Auto
Item Replaced:
Engine Oil / Oil Filter / RHS Engine Mount

It’s due for service again – 5 months to hit 5000KM, with this rate – Semi-Syn oil will do the trick, I am not a fan of having the engine oil in the engine for too long time.

The Engine mounting is not that worn out – but for a 10 years old car, I decided to change it anyway since I already did the left side.

Engine mounting is very important to retain the “New Car Feel” as most of the vibration in the cabin is cause by faulty mountings.

But, Mr.Vasu is not a big fan of customer taking their own parts to the workshop, I managed to convenience him to do it for me this time

I brought the parts directly from US, it is around 20% cheaper that local parts shop.

Total Cost = RM350 (Engine Mounting) + RM187 (Labour + Oil Filter) + RM89 X2 (Castrol Semi-Sync from Tesco)

HeadLamp Wire Reconditioning

Since I have the car, the headlamp wire, that is inside the headlamp is all brittle and cracked – the condition is terrible.

So I decided to  rewrap all the wire:

Quite Easy to take off the cover, need to remove the side reflector to access to the main wire connector.

Condition of the wire before rewrap:

The only think I can think of, is all this “Green” Friendly wire cannot last long enough for our climate – it’s bio-degradable I believed, it degrade before we scrap the car here in Malaysia.

So what I did is wrap remove all the bits (Check out the left picture, Left is after wrap, Right is Before)

And additional protection, this should last for another 10 years

Total Cost of the exercise is less then RM50 – much cheaper to replace the whole lamp.

Left Side Engine Mount Replacement + Service

Date: 12th Jul 2014
Mileage : 144571
WorkShop : V-Auto
Item Replaced:
Engine Oil / Oil Filter / LHS Engine Mount

It’s due for service and as usual – Castrol Magnetec for my car & Left Side Engine Mounting Replacement (Will Leave the Right Hand side to next service)

Here is the view of the engine – can’t see the mounting eh, it is actually under the battery.

Here is the clearer view after the battery is removed.

Here’s how the engine mount looks like:

Total: RM826/--

GearBox Mounting Replacement

Date: 26th Jun 2014
Mileage : Forgot to record.
WorkShop : OEM Auto Penang
Item Replaced:
G/Box Mounting

Old car like this – most of the mounting would have given away. Most of the time, people ignore this but this is the key to restore the “New Car” feeling to an Old Car.

The one on the right is the Original Volvo G/Box Mouting and the one on the left is the Ford eFocus Mouting – Yes, Volvo S40 is based on the same platform (Not everything are compatible, just some).

It looks more solid and most importantly – cheaper than original Volvo Parts. You can order this from eBay around RM360 (including postage)

Effect after replacement ?

More stable gear shift – less jerk. There are 2 more mounting on the engine – I just have to do it one by one

Total: RM360/-- (From eBay) + RM20/-- (Labour Charges)

Interior Panel Light Repair

Problem with Volvos – The interior plastics are cracking and breaking like biscuits. Major headache. Getting it fixed is one the entertaining process it can be.

Look at the crack – well – need to fix this fast – it has been falling off once the car go over some badly patch road.

First need to take it out – multiple pieces fell of, re-assembling the crack pieces like lego.

And Tada – back in one piece!

Error Message - Park Assist Service Required

Date: 29th Mar 2014
Mileage : 140800
WorkShop : V-Auto
Item Replaced:
Reverse Sensor

Having this message since the first day I got the car – the message seems to go away when the car is under the hot sun and it comes again and the reverse sensor refused to give any signal when the environment is cooler.

Can’t take the message any more – decided to bring to V-Auto for checkup.

After some long checking it traced to Reverse Sensor 1 – which is the first one from the right. V-Auto have it in stock, impressive for such low running items. Got it replaced and tada – Park Assist back in action.

Need to take our entire bumper to replace the sensor though, I think it is a bad design if you ask me.

Total Damaged : RM250/--