Michelin Primacy 4

Some months ago, my wife complain that the car are not comfortable for long distance driving. She don't have the same comfort as before so I told her that the car is almost 10 years old, noise and suspension, wheel, tire does age and not so good.
I know back in my mind that the current tire I am using is a affordable type which sound a bit loud in the highway, the rims also are bent due to harsh driving for the past few years. So I told her that I will change the tire to a premium one, get the wheel fix and let's try on next long drive on the feeling in the back.

I bought 4 Michelin Primacy which claimed to have better comfort and noise level and fix the bent wheel. Put in nitrogen, balance the wheel, done the alignment and bring my wife for a trip back hometown. I purposely didn't tell her the changes during the trip to gauge her response.
After that, I asked her on what her feeling on the changes of the car after I done up the tire and wheel. She claimed not much differences. Oh dear, she didn't notice much differences. A bit disappointed on my part, but I feel great driving new tire. The new tire brake well, good cornering as it doesn't flex much. Sound is a bit better from previous, but maybe it is due to the wheel balancing and alignment done.
I bought the tire online and went to a local store to install, the tire are delivered there from the online seller, the price include basic alignment and balancing, so I think this way is more comfortable than running around town asking for price from shop to shop. The price are stated clearly including the term and conditions.
If you can see from the photo, there are some hairline cracks on the wheels, is it still safe to drive with it ? Drop me a comments.

B pillar door insulation

Have you seen one of these ? I saw them once before and it doesn't come cheap many years ago. Previously it was advertise manufacture by Korean but now the chinese produce them too, and it is cheap.
Hence I decided to buy one to try it on the car. Price is so affordable, but when I received it, it was a bit shorter than I think. 80cm for both strips instead of 80cm for 1 strip. However it is adequate for Isis. The sliding door on the Isis have good insulation on the left hand side panoramic door so the strips are good for 1 door.
I had install it on the car, 1 strip for the top and 2nd on the bottom, the curve on the middle part of the door seems trick to install as the strip doesn't bend well. After installing, there are a small gap of 1cm between both, but I am ok with it.

The cross section of the strip are as below. Inside is a metal clip to keep it in place on the door position. No glue or sticker are required, I prefer it that way.

Now what left is the road test to see will it block some wind noise. I will update soon on the result.
If you wanted to buy one, just search for B pillar insulation from any online store. Small sum for some easy DIY.

Isis stop production

It's been a while that I follow up on the news of Toyota Isis, it is sad to discover that the car had stop production back 2017, where Toyota officially announced the end of production for Isis without a successor on the same car.
Isis is truely a JDM, as it is kept for the local market so such a long time. Interesting design and concept, typical of Japanese mindset. Hope that there are something great in the future that carry the legacy of Toyota Isis. Now I hope the parts still available and getting cheaper.
 

Radiator cap

It's been a while since I last post, a year plus went missing. It is due to nothing much changes and less usage of my Isis for the past year.  This time I bought a new radiator cap to replace the original factory fitted cap in order to try to improve the cooling performance.
The original factory fitted radiator cap was from Denso 0.9 without spring type, small head. The one that I bought also original parts but not made by Denso. Not sure the brand but still the small head and without spring.

The story started when I notice a drop in cooling performance after my last service. The coolant temperature are a bit higher and I notice some coolant on the overflow tank top and nearby the radiator cap. Hence I believe the radiator cap had lost it performance and hopefully by replacing it, the cooling performance will be restored.
The cost of the radiator cap? RM30.00 and I bought it from my favourite shop in Sentul. However, the owner had opened another branch nearby Batu Caves there. Google for Gateway Auto Parts and you can find it. They carry a lot of Toyota parts too.

Denso Cool Gear Air Filter

When I bought the cabin air filter, I also bought the air filter from the same seller in Lazada, price wise is half of the original parts. Design is almost the same and the quality of the material is almost similar. A notable differences are the thickness of the filter. Cool gear filter a bit more thinner overall.

There are stamps of parts number on the front side of the filter instead of the side on the original parts. Original parts that I bought previously are Made in Thailand and the new is Made in China.

Differences between the old and new, dirty and clean air filter.

Denso Cool Gear Air Filter : 260300-0210 Product Made in China

Previous post on Air Filter :-
http://toyotaisis.blogspot.my/2012/04/replacing-air-filter.html

Denso Cool Gear Cabin Air Filter

 

Do you feel that your air cond is not performing well and the air blown are weak ? Maybe it is time to change your cabin air filter. As you know, all the modern car come with cabin air filter to purify the internal air circulation and it is important to change the filter once a while to ensure optimum air circulation of the car.

In my previous post, I had changed the cabin air filter to Denso premium filter which cost quite a lot however, recently during my internet searching, I found that Lazada does sell cabin air filter by Cool Gear (Denso) for sale and it cost very much less than the original.

Cool Gear is a sub brand for Denso and it sell parts at the more affordable price and since the price is almost 2 or 3 times less than the original parts, I try it out and buy one online and get it delivered to me within a week. It does fit well after installation and out comes the old filter which is colour black rather green (Original).

I would recommend getting this parts rather than OEM as this parts are still manufactured by Denso subsidiary so quality wise should be better than OEM. For Malaysian, you can buy this via lazada and you can get some discount too with free delivery too.

Cool Gear part number : 145520-2520 Product Made in Korea

Previous post on Cabin Air filter :-
http://toyotaisis.blogspot.my/2014/09/denso-carbon-filter.html
http://toyotaisis.blogspot.my/2011/11/changing-air-cond-filter.html

88888

After so many years, finally it reach 88888km… a wonderful journey with the Isis and memorable too.