Since March 2008, my Kenari did not undergo any sort of modification as I was quite busy with work at the office and at home. Only got a chance to spare some time during the Eid festival. I remember when I first got the car, it was marvelous to drive, smooth acceleration, reasonable comfort & handling balance and the brakes just bite immediately with lots of feel. Now, I couldn’t say the same for the car. The ride comfort isn’t what it was supposed to be when new, after installing those chassis braces, it help improved slightly but not what to the level I once felt, acceleration no longer as smooth as before and fuel consumption has been creeping up from 15km/l down to now at around 13km/l on average, even though oil change is observed every 5,000km. It’s beginning to be a very disappointing experience but I do not wish to part my Kenari until I’ve exhausted all means to make it right.
Firstly the brake. The last bleeding done was in June 2007. No difference felt after that bleeding service. Still lack of feel and didn’t bite immediately. After a year, I went to a few foreman for opinion, some felt that the master cylinder was leaking while another felt that a bigger brake booster should be installed and a reconditioned set from Japan can set me back at RM300+. I did the former option, to change the master cylinder seals, complete brake bleeding, changed a drum brake cylinder which was leaking and adjusted the rear brake clearance (contrary to some owners think, the rear brake clearance can be adjusted). Burnt a few hundred bucks for this and well, the brake performance did improve in a sense that the car can be stopped earlier and faster but somehow, I still can’t get the bite feeling from the pedal I once felt when I step on it, really not sure what else is missing.
Then the engine. As my family is growing bigger, it really places a heavy load on the engine especially when there is a need to full blast the air conditioner and carrying strollers at the same time. However, being a family car, loud exhaust meant for high rpm horsepower gains is not my objective. I’ve decided to go for a lighten crankshaft pulley to improve the low end torque, well, I hardly push above 3,000 rpm anyway. I got it from someone in the internet for RM260 and installation cost me another RM35. I got another quote from Kakimotor and the pulley itself already cost RM300. The weight of the aluminium pulley is around 530gram while the weight of the stock pulley (I think it’s made from cast iron) is around 1.3 kg. The car felt lighter at low rpm, the car can easily move at idle once you lift off from the brake pedal but the thing is, most of us seldom wander at this range between 1000 – 2000rpm for an auto. The crucial range for me is between 2000 – 2500 rpm where I usually make a gearshift, I’ve experienced a flat (if not a dip) of torque instead. However, the torque between 2500 – 3000rpm is just sweet and punchy. Overall, for a RM300 mod, I wouldn’t expect the car to fly but happy to find that there is improvement and not money wasted on an experiment.
Now let’s focus on the chassis. I’ve installed a couple of chassis braces and the next one in my mind is the front lower arm bar. I got it installed at RM190, the foreman got a hard time installing it as the somehow, the location of mounting nut is not exactly where it should be and it could be that the chassis has bent slightly after 4 years of being abused by our pothole ridden roads. Now the driving feel, it’s a bit of positive and negative. The positive is steering has gotten lighter, I just need to move the steering a bit and the car will point to the direction I wanted, the car is behaving even more obedient than before. The front part also felt stiffer and more solid. However, somehow the steering is just too light during mid corner and I don’t really able to get the adequate steering feedback I used to before that. The front has also gotten stiffer and at times when the car hit a bump at mid corner, the car would be thrown off to the side even more than before. Looks like the dampers need to be upgraded as well to cater for the stiffer chassis perhaps. So this mod is kind of like ‘gain something and loss something’ to me.
Then one fine morning while rushing to work, I’ve found that one of the BS Potenza RE030 fitted in front was flat, apparently there was a sidewall crack, not sure it was due to graze damage or sabotage but it was quite a waste as there was easily 50% tread left, done 25,000km for 2.5 years. Did some survey and found out that there is this Hankook Ventus V8RS tyre which is made in Korea with directional V-tread pattern available for the size 165/55/14. Went to this shop at Sunway called Tek Ming and changed it at RM128 per piece including trade in. For the price paid, this tyre is worth every penny compared to many entry level tyres of this size which are probably more expensive. The dry grip met my requirement while it’s not noisy and bumpy at all. Needless to say, the grip is not at par with the PP2 I have at the rear but that PP2 is one hell of a noisy tyre, if you can live with that. For the wet grip, it’s better than those entry level tyres but still not at par with PP2.
After using the Ventus tyre for a month, the car was feeling a little bit underpowered recently and I suspect that the tyre was underinflated so I went to pump in 29 psi, the usual level. I was surprised to find that the current pressure was 28 psi so that shouldn’t contribute to the underperformance. Then I realize that the tyre shop would have pumped in more than 29 psi as I would have lost more pressure within a month. I then pumped in up to 32 psi and well, the power was restored but the best part was, the ride comfort was still maintained as before. I really didn’t expect a tyre so cheap can be this good.
Recently, while I have some free time, I discovered there was this unused flexible hose in my house from my damaged vacuum cleaner. I managed to fit the hose to the airbox and pull it all the way to the hole where the horn is located. The hose diameter is slightly smaller and the entire length is longer than stock. I would expect more improvement on the low rpm and as expected, the acceleration is light and featherish at low rpm. Really a joy to drive. So far I have not noted any loss at high rpm, probably because I never push it above 3000rpm.
Having done the above, I have plans for more mods to come. The rear dampers are really not soaking up the rebound and the rear passengers were bounced off the seat when going over road bumps unless I really slow down to less than 20km/h. The front springs also appear to have sagged as I’ve noted that the front ride height of some newer Kenaris were a lot higher than mine. After 10000km, it’s also time for wheel alignment and I’ve also never change the power steering fluid since acquiring the car.
Firstly the brake. The last bleeding done was in June 2007. No difference felt after that bleeding service. Still lack of feel and didn’t bite immediately. After a year, I went to a few foreman for opinion, some felt that the master cylinder was leaking while another felt that a bigger brake booster should be installed and a reconditioned set from Japan can set me back at RM300+. I did the former option, to change the master cylinder seals, complete brake bleeding, changed a drum brake cylinder which was leaking and adjusted the rear brake clearance (contrary to some owners think, the rear brake clearance can be adjusted). Burnt a few hundred bucks for this and well, the brake performance did improve in a sense that the car can be stopped earlier and faster but somehow, I still can’t get the bite feeling from the pedal I once felt when I step on it, really not sure what else is missing.
Then the engine. As my family is growing bigger, it really places a heavy load on the engine especially when there is a need to full blast the air conditioner and carrying strollers at the same time. However, being a family car, loud exhaust meant for high rpm horsepower gains is not my objective. I’ve decided to go for a lighten crankshaft pulley to improve the low end torque, well, I hardly push above 3,000 rpm anyway. I got it from someone in the internet for RM260 and installation cost me another RM35. I got another quote from Kakimotor and the pulley itself already cost RM300. The weight of the aluminium pulley is around 530gram while the weight of the stock pulley (I think it’s made from cast iron) is around 1.3 kg. The car felt lighter at low rpm, the car can easily move at idle once you lift off from the brake pedal but the thing is, most of us seldom wander at this range between 1000 – 2000rpm for an auto. The crucial range for me is between 2000 – 2500 rpm where I usually make a gearshift, I’ve experienced a flat (if not a dip) of torque instead. However, the torque between 2500 – 3000rpm is just sweet and punchy. Overall, for a RM300 mod, I wouldn’t expect the car to fly but happy to find that there is improvement and not money wasted on an experiment.Now let’s focus on the chassis. I’ve installed a couple of chassis braces and the next one in my mind is the front lower arm bar. I got it installed at RM190, the foreman got a hard time installing it as the somehow, the location of mounting nut is not exactly where it should be and it could be that the chassis has bent slightly after 4 years of being abused by our pothole ridden roads. Now the driving feel, it’s a bit of positive and negative. The positive is steering has gotten lighter, I just need to move the steering a bit and the car will point to the direction I wanted, the car is behaving even more obedient than before. The front part also felt stiffer and more solid. However, somehow the steering is just too light during mid corner and I don’t really able to get the adequate steering feedback I used to before that. The front has also gotten stiffer and at times when the car hit a bump at mid corner, the car would be thrown off to the side even more than before. Looks like the dampers need to be upgraded as well to cater for the stiffer chassis perhaps. So this mod is kind of like ‘gain something and loss something’ to me.
Then one fine morning while rushing to work, I’ve found that one of the BS Potenza RE030 fitted in front was flat, apparently there was a sidewall crack, not sure it was due to graze damage or sabotage but it was quite a waste as there was easily 50% tread left, done 25,000km for 2.5 years. Did some survey and found out that there is this Hankook Ventus V8RS tyre which is made in Korea with directional V-tread pattern available for the size 165/55/14. Went to this shop at Sunway called Tek Ming and changed it at RM128 per piece including trade in. For the price paid, this tyre is worth every penny compared to many entry level tyres of this size which are probably more expensive. The dry grip met my requirement while it’s not noisy and bumpy at all. Needless to say, the grip is not at par with the PP2 I have at the rear but that PP2 is one hell of a noisy tyre, if you can live with that. For the wet grip, it’s better than those entry level tyres but still not at par with PP2.
After using the Ventus tyre for a month, the car was feeling a little bit underpowered recently and I suspect that the tyre was underinflated so I went to pump in 29 psi, the usual level. I was surprised to find that the current pressure was 28 psi so that shouldn’t contribute to the underperformance. Then I realize that the tyre shop would have pumped in more than 29 psi as I would have lost more pressure within a month. I then pumped in up to 32 psi and well, the power was restored but the best part was, the ride comfort was still maintained as before. I really didn’t expect a tyre so cheap can be this good.
Recently, while I have some free time, I discovered there was this unused flexible hose in my house from my damaged vacuum cleaner. I managed to fit the hose to the airbox and pull it all the way to the hole where the horn is located. The hose diameter is slightly smaller and the entire length is longer than stock. I would expect more improvement on the low rpm and as expected, the acceleration is light and featherish at low rpm. Really a joy to drive. So far I have not noted any loss at high rpm, probably because I never push it above 3000rpm.
Having done the above, I have plans for more mods to come. The rear dampers are really not soaking up the rebound and the rear passengers were bounced off the seat when going over road bumps unless I really slow down to less than 20km/h. The front springs also appear to have sagged as I’ve noted that the front ride height of some newer Kenaris were a lot higher than mine. After 10000km, it’s also time for wheel alignment and I’ve also never change the power steering fluid since acquiring the car.
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