Stupid Mistakes

Learn some stupid mistakes from experience

1. Installing the air filter the wrong way - it could break the IAT sensor or cause vacuum leak in the air filter housing (box). Because you thought it is the right way you might force the air filter inside the housing box causing the IAT sensor to break or obstruct its sensor passageway. Apart from that it may nudged away the IAT sensor from its original positions causing air leak through the IAT sensor gasket.

Some symptoms of vacuum leak in the air filter house because it bypasses the IAT sensor reading. The ECU miscalculate the air intake that may result in injecting more fuels.

• Bad fuel economy above 12L/100km - check this on the meter gauge
• Air filter looks very clean even after years of using (This is a sign less air passing through the air filter but from somewhere else). You may be happy to have clean air filter, but it is not normal after so long it must be dirty that's normal. 
• Weak acceleration and minor jerking while driving
• OBD2 LTFT / STFT trim reads higher positive percentage more than 10% on idle

2. For the sake of looking neat - hooking the throttle body wire and depress it by tightening to make it look neat could cause the gas pedal to vibrate when reverse or accelerate. This is because the throttle body wire having difficulties to stretch when the gas pedal is pressed. Just leave it freely and don't hook it anywhere as long as it doesn't obstruct anything.

3. Leaving the coolant reservoir tank cap loose - this took a significant number of worries before it was settled. It may lead you to think there is coolant leaked into the engine since there is no physical sign on the outside. But the notion was dead wrong because a loose coolant spare tank cap allow coolant to escape when it is getting hot. It doesn't do that immediately, but it takes time like few hours resulting less coolant in the spare tank. That make you wonder where the coolant gone to? no sign of leak

Untighten hose between radiator and the coolant reserve tank also may cause leaks when it is getting hot - it's best to tighten them with cable tie. However, when it leaks you will see sign drip white residue around the hose opening.

4. Using Mr.DIY AEROPAK Aircond cleaner indiscriminately without considering about the wires. It looks pretty easy and no harm at all just spray the Mr.DIY Aircond cleaner inside the air vent holes and let it sit for 10 minutes and after than turn the air conditioner on for a couple of minutes to let it dry. It turns out no problem at all. However, when trying to lock the car with the remote suddenly the car trigger loud alarms (honking) as if some doors are not closed. I've checked through on all the door sensors including the bonnet front and back nothing wrong. And this problem lasted for hours and couldn't lock the door with the remote control. Fortunately, despite of that the car can be turned on normal and drive as usual. So, on the next day after driving, it sends kid to school and came back - then try again to lock the car so this time is no problem. Thank God!

So, there was no doubt that the Mr.DIY Aircond cleaner might have leak through and sip into the wiring during the cleaning process when it is in liquid form and cause some short circuit in the wiring. Next time better be careful - it could potentially cause permanent damage some of the wiring if you force the short circuit to on for long time. After all cleaning the Aircond using such method is not 100% safe as it turns out to be.

5. Opening the Auto transmission pan to change ATF fluid is not a rushing job and if you want to do it better put all your heart and efforts into it and be careful with remoting the bolts and tighten it back in. Otherwise, it will turn into a major trouble that will worries you for weeks. This is what happen when trying to change the Auto Transmission Fluid for Alza - it was a rushing time and couldn't help it to tighten the pan's bolts and snapped one of them. As a result, the fluid keeps for leaking for weeks while waiting for the right equipment / tools purchased from Shopee to arrive. If you send it to the workshop, it could cost you hundreds or probably thousands just to remove a single bolt like that - because they know it's the most important thing and if you don't fix it the leak will go on until the transmission, get damaged.

After the tools arrived also with some drill bits purchased locally from Mr.DIY and supersave stores - trying to figure out how to remove the broken bolt of the ATF oil pan. There are few things to consider

1. Avoid drilling dust and pieces drops into the transmission while working on the broken bolts - this is so important that if you just proceed blatantly could potentially risk the whole transmission with pieces of metal dropping inside. To do this just prepare some taps and carboard or whatever to prevent metal pieces from the drilling process dropping into the transmission.

2. Avoid breaking drill bit on top of the broken bolt - If this is happening it could make life a living hell because drill bit is much harder metal compared to the bolt. And it will take more efforts and time to remove everything.

3. Avoid damaging the bolt hole thread while drilling into the bolt - Otherwise a damage thread will cause you money to rethread the whole and you will need to send to engineering for rethreading job. So, use a perfect center punch that at least drill right at the center of the bolt

4. Avoid breaking bolt extractor on top of the broken bolt - This will be worst then drill bit because the metal is way much harder, and it takes hell of work to remove it.

After 3 hours of work...breaking 2 pieces of drill bit and fortunately with the help of mighty God they didn't stuck on top of the broken bolt but breaks and fell away. The 2 pieces of drill bit bought from local Mr.DIY and supersave are not good and couldn't penetrate the bolt smoothly and they broke after getting heated up. Luckily with another might of God here comes drill bit from China (shopee) hss cobalt and it penetrate the bolt like soft wood. It was shocking how easy it could be if the right drill bit was used. 

Finally, after all the hassle - the bolts came out and the thread hole no damage. However, the problem was not done yet with no replacement bolt at hands. Search after search finally found M6 bolt with the same length with a little different shape of the tip. The ATF bolt has a little sharper tip while the normal M6 and not sharp tip. Tried to put it on the broken bolt hole couldn't get it to tighten fully...another worry came up. So, the problem solved just use a normal ATF pan bolt on the broken bolt hole and use the M6 bolt on another hole.

The lesson learned here...never rush to do difficult job because to fix the problem is worse than doing it right (at slow pace). Secondly use the correct tools before you ruin the whole thing especially drill bit uses the proper strong and tough drill bit. Mr.DIY (Ingco) and Supersave drill bit less chances to work.