Peugeot 206 @ Naza 206 Bestari

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Wet Light

Mileage: 23,200KM

Months ago, I've posted a blog about "Wet Tail". Today, I have the same issue again with the other one. Last time it was the right side.

Anyway, the DIY steps are same as previous entry.

You can see the water line inside the light, look at the bottom right corner

Another view of the light

Note:

I use the same steps as previous DIY. Using silicone adhesive sealant.
After a close inspection, I could not figure out how the water got into the light. Seems this case a bit different. The water might got into the light through the waterproof padding, coz it was damp.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Bumper Scars...

Mileage: 22,815KM

Last weekend, parked my car after done weekly grocerry shopping. Then I noticed something which is not look so good to my eyes. How did the scars end up there, at my front bumper?

The whole night I've been thinking about it, I did not bump to anyone nor hit any pillars (not again!) or curbs. I did not even feel any knocking vibrations through out the whole journey...

The scars (pic without flash)

The scars (pic with flash)

The scratch is quite deep. The impact chipped off the paint and also the bumper fibre. Luckly it did not crack.

Suddenly, wifey broke the silence. She said a rider bumped the car when she was on the way home from office. The impact even ripped off the black plastic moulding but she clipped it back to the bumper after the accident.

And not so funny part is.... the accident happened two days earlier. Tisk.. tisk... tisk...

I think I won't repair the scratch as it is not so obvious. The bumper material is made from a white colored fibre and my pug is quartz blue. The scratch is not so apparent. I will leave it until I'm ready to paint the whole bumper.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Hertz 240 Watt 4 Speakers 1 Subwoofer

Mileage: 20,850KM
Do It Yourself: Yes (Some parts may need professional help)
Difficulty: Average to Hard

Happy New Year!!!

Just one day after new year, I began to think of upgrading the interior of my Pug particularly on audio. By far, this is the most challenging DIY to date, but I managed to do it within the weekend.

I'm in love in car audio since I've own my first car. I've learn a lot, some from the professionals, others by trial & error basis.

Anyway, for my Pug. I've decided of "SQ" setup. This is the most challenging setup in car audio because it is more on Sound Quality, clarity, sound balance through out the entire sound frequency (we are talking a big range here from 20Hz to 20kHz). Another setup called "SPL" (Sound Pressure Level), this is more on raw power and the main objective is how loud you setup can produce before audio clipping, quality is second here.

The drawback on SQ are...

Expensive components involve.
Hard to tune but once you hit it, shortcut roads are not in your option anymore.

Hertz ESK165 System

Before choosing Hertz, I went a lot of audition on other brands just to get the best value for money (and promotion, this is the jackpot), namely.... (all of the audition was based on my ears and what was available at the dealer at that time. I'm not auditioning their demo car as this is unfair)

Macrom - Italy, good vocal but lack of mid bass. I own one of the M2 5" series and still having it in my Kancil.
Mohawk - Malaysia, good value for money but it is more on SPL, lately their products able to tune to SQ but I'm still skeptic on the performance.
MB Quart - Germany, very harsh tweeter.
Dynaudio - Germany, very well known to SQ community and too common.
Rainbow - Germany, not very much option. A nice SQ.
Sinfoni - Italy, hand crafted and not very much option. A nice SQ.

Why I chose Hertz....

I've got promotion at that time.
Not too common.
Manufactured by the company who produce a well known Audison amplfier, Conection accessories etc.
Very good mid bass and well balance soft sounded tweeter.

I still have plenty of upgrade plan, this is considered as part one because I only have Hertz front components. The system was matched with my...

Two years old Clarion APX4240 amplifier (purchased it from Eneos 1U).
Four years old al cheepo subwoofer (the box was given to me by my friend as he accidentally fried the voice coil and unable to get the replacement. Luckily for me, I've found 8" bass speaker on sale).
Peugeot RD3 head unit.

For this setup, I laid a one time installation using 8AWG grade cable for the power and ground and 18AWG grade cable for the speakers. The is no RCA output from the head unit, so I've to use the speaker level input. Furthermore, the stock head unit does not have remote lead to turn on the amplifier. Until I found a good way to solve this issue, I will use my cigarette lighter 12V feed as the remote lead signal temporarily.

My simple setup diagram

The Hertz box

For 12VDC feed for the amplifier, I tapped directly from the battery. Well it is not directly on the terminal, I'm using the relays and fuses box. With the cover, it is well hidden from the plain sight.

The relays and fuses box

The cable was laid beside the battery all the way to the firewall. If you notice, there is an extra rubber gourmet which is just nice for the cable to pass through.

The 40 amp fuse tube and firewall entry point

A view behind the glove box compartment. The cable was laid along the door sill to the boot

Ground point. If you wonder where is the location, it is on the left side of the boot under the trim, just below the parcel shelf

The remote signal feed, tapped from the cigarette lighter, I'm disabling my lighter function at the moment

The remote signal cable path beside the hand brake lever all the way to rear bench

The speaker output from the head unit was directed to amplifier. Then, the output from the amplifier was connected back to the original wiring to drive the speakers. This is speaker level input method. All of the wiring connection was done using heat shrink tubing, much more reliable than the pvc tape or block connector. IMHO.

The head unit wiring

All the speaker cables are routed behind the instrument cluster, then downward at the A pillar to the door sill. The cables are laid along the door sill using all the factory supplied wiring harness.

View at the fuse / BSI area

Door sill at the driver side

Temporarily, the amplifier was not properly mounted in the boot. Plan to change it later.

Clarion APX4240

I'm using two method of amplifier gain adjustments. Mathematical using multimeter and ears approach. Since I do not have oscilloscope to be able to tune perfectly. It will be done up to my satisfactory level.

Mathematical approach...

Get the optimal speaker output voltage in AC by getting the square root of RMS power of the amplifier x the speaker impedance. In may case, it was 15.5 volt.
Connect the multimeter to the speaker output of the amplifier. Set it to 20VAC range.
For front component, I'm using 1000Hz test tone recorded at 0dB, for sub is 50Hz test tone.
Flat out the bass and treble; turned off the loudness.
Crank up the head unit volume to 3/4 of the maximum volume (which is 22) and increase the amplifier gain to get 15.5 volt.
Note: For my setup, I've to turn down the volume to 1/2 as 3/4 yield a 22VAC before gain which definitely a clipping.

Ears approach...

After done the above adjustment, I'm using a few audio CDs to fine tune the sound staging and subwoofer level.
It is a mixed music from Celine Dion (A New Day Has Come), Ella (A Journey Beyond...), Search (Memori Hit Rock Otai), Awesome 80's Disc 3 compilation, Metallica (Black); M. Nasir (Terbaik M. Nasir - the best album to test full frequency of sound production; rich of orchestral instruments) and a few track from IASCA Test Audio.
Finally, the setup was done with 65Hz highpass for the front components and 65Hz lowpass for the subwoofer.

My subwoofer, need to get 12 inch after this to feel the very low frequency

The rear view of the 6.5 inch Hertz speaker driver. I've also done soundproofing on all of the 4 doors (this was done at the shop prior to my audio project) using STP Material (StandartPlast)

The tweeter mounted at the original bracket

Although the tweeter looks small, it is actually same as the factory fitted tweeter. The original tweeter looks big because of the casing. The white connector is an aftermarket connector, you can have the casing from any electronic outlets.

The rear view of the tweeter

Hertz supplied with a lot of tweeter mounting kit to cater all kind of installation. The one I'm using is direct replacement of OEM mounting. There are flush mounting, surface mounting and wedge mounting with 30 and 60 degrees angle.

Door view before assembling the door card.

The mid bass speaker was mounted on a spacer as there is not enough depth to fix the speaker. The passive crossover was taped to the door membrane. A few cuts was done at the door card styrofoam before fixing to accommodate the crossover.

That's all from now. To be continued...

Update (10/1/2010):

Reuse the original sponge lining (which is glued together with the OEM speaker). No more excessive door card vibration.
Changed the mid bass speaker cable to 18AWG, originally using supplied tweeter cable.
Changed both tweeters polarity as it were out of phase.
Changed the speaker spacer / adapter from MDF to plastic, more robust and fit nicely.
Rerouted ground and power cable termination points to minimize cable tension.
Downgrade the fuse rating from 40AMP to 20AMP, adequate for current amplifier requirement

Monday, December 14, 2009

20K Service

Mileage: 19,371KM

Since I've no morning meeting or appointment today. I've decided to do 20K service on my pug.

Short of 400KM to 20K

My last service was done at KL Volcare, Ampang. Today, I would like to try another service centre which is nearer to my office, preferably in Petaling Jaya or Shah Alam area. Apart from BB in Glenmarie, another well known service centre (which also carry Total lubricants (a must for me)) is GeotAuto at Jalan 227, Petaling Jaya (if you can find Jalan 222 then you can find this place).

This service centre is more popular amongst Peugeot old timers. Anyone who like to pay them a visit here is the Long/Lat of the location...

N03 6.001' E101 37.890' (Garmin), or for MalFreeMaps users with custom POI, just key in "GEOT" keyword in the POI search menu.

GeotAuto main entrance

Reached GeotAuto at 10:30AM, not many cars today. Straight away met Mr. Sultan, Service Manager and prepare the work order.

Draining the engine oil

The first part of the bill, notice the mileage written in the bill. Maybe a miss communication at the counter

The second part of the bill

Job finished at 11:30AM.

As a conclusion, I'm satisfied with their workmanship and most importantly attitude. They are very friendly and willing to chat with me during the whole service period. If you need to rest, there is a customer waiting lounge, not so grand compare with BB but sufficient to have a short nap and coffee break, a few places for nicotine break and if you feel curious about the car, you can wander around the service bays and chat with the mechanics. All of them, I believe is more than 30 years old and quite competent in Peugeot cars.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Dismantling The Front Door Panel

Mileage: 15,998KM
Do It Yourself: Yes
Difficulty: Easy

It is time for me to open up the front door panel on my car. I noticed something missing when assembling the front door panel when my car was sent to do bodywork last month.

Well, we need these tools to do this task....

Torx T20 driver
Flat screwdriver
A piece of cloth

Start off by removing the tweeter cover.

Carefully pull the top and bottom part of the cover. Watch out for the cables

Using Torx T20 driver, unscrew two screws behind the tweeter cover and on the door panel near the middle of the A pillar. Refer to this link for the rest of the process.