Vehicle License 2015

Today I passed mandatory periodical check.

New cars should be checked since 2nd year each year. I heard there is a new law update that new cars should be checked since 3rd year.

I was afraid that my off-road lamps will cause passsing issue - but everything was fine as same lamps I used in Skoda Fabia a while ago on same test.

Money spent: 1,683 NIS ($444) and 98 NIS ($25) for test.

32,374 km | 1Y 11M

Wiper Blades Rubbers Replacement

While I was waiting for technicians fix bluetooth in my Blaupunkt New York 830, I decided to replace wiper rubbers.
2 years is about time to replace. If you find cheaper than original and good quality (just look for proper length) - 1 year is reasonable period to change rubbers.

This is the old rubber insert from rear wiper.
It has little cracks and when I pulled it, the main cleaning part came apart from the rubber base.
Also interesting that on plastic holder you can see it says "450-550 L". Length was 450mm and probably it suitable for upto 550mm but you need to replace metal holders with longer ones.

Here are both: the new rubber on top and the old rubber below it.

If you look for details, you can see also production date that is important, because rubber gets dry by the time and you better get newest when you by and can check it.
You can see 2 digits of year ending 08, 09, etc and dots in between. Each dot represents 1 month.
So, new was produced somewhere after 2012, the photo is cutted.
The old was from 2011-03.

32,500 km | 1Y 11M

Rear Passengers Cool Air Lifehack

While traveling a lot with our baby, my wife had experienced lack of cool air at rear sits where she spent time in a trip near the baby.
If we put blower speed to almost max, she feels fine there but I, on driver seat, fucking freezing :-)

So I bought USB fan for about 50 NIS ($13) at local computer store.

Meanwhile it hangs on bungee cord as POC project and it does the job well.
It has 2 speeds, power supplied from 4-ports power USB hub I got since Skoda Fabia's days. Cool air come from central console vents directly to fan and it just passes it over.
Easily removable construction and bungee allows to move front seats with no issue.

Todos:
1. Get black bungee to match interior.
2. Make it possible to rotate left and right and hold the position.

If you have better ideas, let me know ;-)

32,500 km | 1Y 11M

Blaupunkt Service Menu

Got this trick from Teder guys when they checked why Bluetooth module in my New York 830 is not working.

How to enter into service menu?
1. Press Menu on device button (top left).
2. Press Setting icon on screen.
3. Now press DVD and than General icons, repeat this action 5 times.

Here is a short how-to video

And screens you will see.

32,500 km | 1Y 11M

Multi-Function 50800mAh Car Jump Starter Power Bank

There is a trend for compact jump starters now.

They are able to produce 12V 300A (and 600A at peak) current that is actually enough to start a car with low battery. Yes, this thing is working, I saw few reviews on internet confirming that and also few people told me.

Lot of them on eBay. I bought mine too to check if it's real for ~300 NIS ($75).

Shipment arrived to Israel in 2-3 weeks and about 30 days was missing somewhere in our post.
When it finally arrived (magic!) I checked it's capacity. Does it really have 50800 mAh = 50 Ah??? Really?

But before I opened mine, I saw this video. It's in Russian but just watch it, no need to understand speech. It's explains how bad Chinese cheap power banks are build and why they doesn't meet stated capacity.

So... measured capacity was below 7,000 mAh, but should be 7 times more. Whaaaat?

So I wrote to seller about it. It was some stupid excuses that "it's capacity 50 Ah is for jump starting and not charging" and so on. I opened buyer's protection case and got full refund from eBay support team, seller wanted to refuse.

Turns out, inside is 3 lithium batteries of 5,600 mAh each. Connected in series with total theoretical capacity of 16,800 mAh. But looks like its already degraded to 7,000 mAh in total.

Components was not all that cheap, but soldering quality is nightmare.

That's dual center tap schottky rectifier used to convert AC voltage to output DC connector.

LEDs are cool, you can use it in sort of police car mode, blinking one by one.

I'll try to check it's function as jump starter sometime, but not expect too much.

32,200 km | 1Y 11M

You! Follow me

30,500 km | 1Y 10M

Engine and Spark Plugs Inspection

I heard a lot about oil consumption lately.
Anyway I wanted to endoscope cylinders long time ago but today I got good reason, recently I passed 30K mark. And it's always good to have reference.

I wouldn't recommend to bother checking spark plugs just for fun.

One common symptom that engine burn oil (normally it shouldn't, really, zero topping) is dirty blacky tail pipe. This is mine after 30K km.

It was funny, I got napkin in my hand and tried to swap something from there but it was clear, I checked again... I was very surprised :-)
Rust is the only thing that can be there if your engine not burning oil and fuel is good.

This is how can look engine with oil leak into the combustion chamber - black pipe inside, probably throwing some bluesh smoke at start. Depends...

VW Golf  GTI

So... I was exited to look into mine engine.

First, you need tools:
1. 10mm hex for coil bolt.

2. 16mm hex with extender for spark plugs and torque meter (adapter like mine or wrehcn). Ratchet was missing (actually broken in my set), so I bought Kasco on the way to my work.

3. Other tools that was used are: magnet stick to get plugs out and in, brush for cleaning around.

Remove all coils, unplug connectors, remove bolts and pull gently coils up.

Important to keep area clean from any dust. You don't want particles to get into the chamber or between plug spacer and engine body. I used... plastic straw from IKEA :-) for blowing dust from there. Works perfect, don't forget to close plug hole with something when blowing out dust!

Coils made by Denso part number is 30520-R1A-A01, cost around $50 each on eBay.

Now, the plugs. First is form 1st cylinder, last from 4th.

Now more close. From 1st to 4th.

Awesome condition! Fuel is cool, no oil detected.

Few words about torque specs of plugs.
NGK site says for thread size 12mm it should be 15-19 Nm.

When I unscrewed plugs, unscrewing torque was (measured by adapter):
1st - 29.0 Nm (~21.5 lbf-ft)
2nd - 19.2 Nm (~14.5 lbf-ft)
3rd - 32.1 Nm (~24 lbf-ft)
4th - 19.6 Nm (~14.5 lbf-ft)

Why they are differ? If you read this blog from the very first post, you can remember I checked few plugs already at Dec 2nd 2013. And master who did this tighten it back by hand. How people do that? Right, 3/4 turns after it make contact with the case. That's wrong! :-) You should always follow torque specs if possible, over spec and below spec can lead to bad plug job or even broken threads.

I tighten plugs with following specs: 20.5, 20.5, 20.1 and 20.7 Nm.

Bottom line. Engine feeling well.
Almost forgot... endoscoping video :-)

Bonus video (in Russian only, sorry)

30,352 km | 1Y 10M