LashNeo

@Komisiripala මහත්තයා ඔකේ තෙල් කොච්චර කරනවද?? AC වැඩද?? Jokes a side.. WoW! that's one hell of a job well done brother. Really happy for you. Especially going in to so much detail in restoration while parallelly running a house project. That's not easy at all. this appraise comes from a guy who even delayed the routine services of his ride while going through the same phase of life. ? I have been a close follower of the Teg project as well. You say it's been 8 years? seems like yesterday for me ?

This car has been discussed on several occasions in the past. Search the forum and see. you will find ample information to make a decision. There are several owners in the forum as well (including myself). ? Compared to the other models available in this segment of mid sized Japanese sedans, this is one of the best cars to buy. value for money based on the options, performance and reliability. Go for a facelifted BJ5P RS version that came after 2000 if you can. They come with lot of options such as All disk brakes, VVT engine, Climate controlled A/C, Trip-tronic gears (please make sure the gear system has been maintained well) etc. If I address your specific questions, Fuel consumption: for an Automatic 8-9 in City limits and 10-12 on highway. A manual would do 1.5-2kmpl more Spare parts availability (outside colombo): Spare parts are available in Colombo in Panchikawatta (New rainbow, Asiri Motors etc,) and Delkanda spare part shops. Also Mazna motors, Aththidiya still has ample stocks with them. But, I'm not sure about the situation outside of Colombo. This is a very common model in Sri Lanka. So, I guess it wont be much of an issue to source parts outside of Colombo as well. Maintaining (cost n frequent repairs ): I've been using mine for more than 10 years now. No frequent repairs actually. However, due to the age of the vehicle, some parts may have to be replaced/repaired due to over use such as Gear box, AC compressor, Ignition coil packs etc. But this is common for any vehicle of this age. Spare parts are slightly high in price compared to Toyota's and Nissans. But, you really don't come across huge repairs or problems that cannot be diagnosed easily. Apart from a gear box issue, I haven't had to spend more than one day at a repair shop for the last 10+ years for repairs. All the other repairs were easily diagnosed and fixed within a day or less. Often, a worn out part was the culprit.

Yeah.. it definitely looks cool on the front end but that rear end really doesn't float my boat. that spoiler/wing thingy (what do we call it actually? ?) combined with the fastback spoils it for me. Anyways looks are subjective. I suppose many would find those looks appealing ?

Hey, thanks for sharing this bro. useful info. Unfortunately, I already traded in the old one when I purchased the new battery. It cost Rs 11,500 with Rs 1000 discount for the old battery. I think Exides would go around 1.5k-2k below that figure. Not sure about the exact price nowadays since I did not consider them as an alternative this time around.

If pop up headlights is your main requirement, why not consider a Mazda 323F / Astina? They came until the mid nineties and therefore relatively new compared to the models you have chosen and therefore I would bet you would have a better chance in finding one with the pop up lights actually working ?. These cars are built on a reliable platform and would be easy to maintain as well. Since its a rather common model here in SL, you would have a better chance in finding one in good condition and sourcing parts would be easier as well. and the best part would be that they are usually priced in the 10-11Lack range and with your budget, you would have plenty of cash in hand if you need to do any repair work to get it to a prime state. However, its not the best looking compared to the sexy machines in your list though ?

Hey! @Kavvz, Hope you cleaned up the gunk and now all is back to normal with your ride. Guess what! I also had to go on battery shopping over last week. ?? Had the fog lamps on for a good 5-6 hours on the Mazda and managed to drain the battery completely. It read as 9V when I noticed my mistake. Jump started it with a friend and ran for about an hour and all looked like it was back to normal only to realize that again the voltage was down to 11V next day morning. Then took it to a charging station and performed a overnight trickle charge which shot it up to 12V+. But, once I took it home and connected to the car it did not crank. The voltage read just at 11V now although the cat eye indicator was all green. So, it seemed like the battery was not holding a charge for a prolonged period. Had enough of this and decided to scrap it at that point. This was the third EXIDE I used on my Mazda on the trot. Therefore before going for another EXIDE I that thought of looking at some of the old Battery invoices to get an idea how they have performed over the years and the details were as follows. 1. Exide Ultra - 2012/05 to 2015/10 ( 3 years 5 months) 2. Exide Power MF - 2015/10 to 2018/05 ( 2 years 7 months) 3. Exide Power MF - 2018/05 to 2020/10 ( 2 years 5 months) As you can see, the longevity of EXIDES are not promising. of course they are cheap and the after sales service such as the BATTMOBILE is great. But for me they are not dependable enough. So, this time went with an "AMARON Go" which comes with a three year replacement warranty compared to the one year offered by EXIDE to be on the safe side. And.. here's the last picture of the EXIDE before I ditched it. You would see that the cat eye indicator is all green although the voltage was just 11V. Maybe the battery was just holding only a surface level charge. ?

Oh wow. Sad to hear that bro. That must have been a horrific experience. What could have lead to the explosion? ? As for the cleaning part, I think water would be the safer option as it would neutralize the acid. You can also mix it with some baking soda to speed up the neutralizing process but taking care of your electronics while doing the cleaning would be the difficult part. I guess you would know better than me on that ?

For exterior plastics, 'Dash Original Shine' did the trick and preserved them in good condition over the years for me. https://arpicosupercentre.com/house-hold/car-care/dash-original-shine-200ml-1.html?SID=0repbr6uf9vlhos13h1ke9t1n7 For tires, it was bit of a mix over the years. Actually, all the local brands of tire shine available in supermarkets such as 'Dash', 'STR' do a decent job on tires. But the reputed brands such as Simonz mentioned by GayanR tend to hold on for a longer period, especially during the rainy seasons

Talking about options, actually you have another option to go with. There are one or two companies in SL which actually re-furbish used shock absorbers into OEM standards. Basically, you have to give them your old shocks and they will give you an identical set of re-furbished shocks in return at a fraction of the cost of original shocks. I'm the kind of a person who like to experiment a little bit with my ride and last year when I replaced my shocks; I replaced the rear shocks with KYB's and the front shocks with Mar**na re-furbished shocks which cost just Rs 4000 a piece. After 7500+Km's of usage I really can't feel the difference between the two sets. I honestly don't know for how long the front pair would last but I'm really happy the way how they fared so far and looks like they will hold on for sometime as well. So, if you are looking for a cheap but a value for money alternative, you may evaluate this option as well.

There's a small place called 'KBL Tech Welding' along the Rathmalana-Mirihana road in Pepiliyana near the Pepiliyana grounds. They did a decent job on one of my damaged alloy wheels 2.5 years ago and it's still well intact. You might wanna try that place if you are around colombo. There location is available in Google Maps.

Exactly, and this is a highly congested area especially when there are classes in the nearby institute. Also, the Subaru was travelling towards Pamankada junction which is just about 200m away from the accident location. From there on-wards, the road is one-way. as per the speed it was travelling; there's a good chance for it to end up in another collision near the junction when taking the right turn towards W.A.De Silva road even if it managed to avoid the WagonR.

On what areas you need expert advice?

If you are sourcing them locally Darly road is the place to go. But the cheap and hassle free alternative would be online ordering via Aliexpress. I've been bringing down these type of minor parts from them without much hassle.

Ah the Allion/Premio.. Gods heavenly creation for the elite humanoids of Sri Lanka who think they attain a higher level of life as soon as they own one Recently, there was a post shared on one of the animal welfare FB pages where a Premio owner purposely goes over a bunch of road dogs and gets out of the car to see whether he actually killed them. Just shows the mentality of the majority of Allion/Premio owners. At the moment, the hierarchy of vehicles in the eyes of an average Sri Lankan would be as follows. 1. Prado 2. Premio 3. Allion 4. Axio 5. WagonR The rest is crap. After this thread, we can add the 'DFSK 580' to the number 6 position ??

oh man !!! all those cars rotting away!! my jaw is dropping to the floor ?. Wish i was there too pick up few bits and pieces for my 323.

How about a turbocharged full option kei Van such as the Suzuki Every Join, Daihatsu Atrai, Nissan Clipper Join etc. More space, More versatile and easy to maintain.

That’s a good read. Actually, It’s really difficult to change the mindset of Sri Lankan’s. Just look at how many vehicles go in the road with only one passenger even during high traffic times. We cannot really blame them due to the damn level our public transport is in. However, we can try to improve the situation as much as we can. One such way is carpooling. But, this is not popular among Sri Lankans. There are some carpooling and ridesharing websites as well as Apps but I really don’t think we are using them. I posted on each of these sites offering my ride for sharing several months ago. But only two people called me back. One person’s destination was a bit far from my workplace and hence had to refuse it and the other was a lady and she did not call me back when I said that I travel with my Wife in the morning . I even made a post in AL as well. So, there are little things we can tryout by over selves to improve the situation. But, very few people are willing to take the initiative it seems.

Was wondering.. when you take it to the agents, does washing, vacuuming, engine dressing come as a must? Isn’t there a way to select only mechanical inspection and servicing such as oil change, cleaning the brake system, refilling fluids, engine scanning etc. only? The place which I take my car for servicing uses this policy. They don’t do washing, but does mechanical inspection and repair as well as servicing and you get to keep a service record as well which is similar to a service record given by the agent.

That’s the way to go. I think undercarriage washing is not something that needs to be done regularly. Often the places which gets dirty are the wheel wells which can be cleaned at home as per the way you have mentioned on a weekly basis. Undercarriage can be cleaned usually after the end of a rainy season. I usually do it only when it is needed.

That’s why people need to be comfortable with little bit of elbow grease and some sweat. You go to a servicing station, waste your time waiting in an A/C room while worrying what’s going on with your vehicle. How about, spending that time at home doing it yourself? It’s a simple process which requires few tools and you’ll be saving your time, money and will be getting a good work out as well. You’ll get to know your vehicle as well. For the past 13 years of vehicle ownership, this has been my process. I take my car to service stations only for oil changing and running repairs. Washing, Polishing, Vacuuming and interior cleaning is all done at home as DIY jobs. It’s really satisfying as well. That’s how I have been able to maintain a 20 year old car in good condition without any electrical or cosmetic issues. ?

Of course. She's still with me and will be with me for a long time as well. Even if i want, my kiddo won't let me part with her. She has this unconditional bond with it and cries like hell whenever i talk about selling. Did few cosmetic mods recently. Got herself a protege body kit etc. And as for your one, if that thing was in Sri lanka, that would be the one and only Mazda 323 hatch running a 2L under the hood as far as i know and it will be a good contender to Amesh's (M*na Motors) 323 hatch which is arguably the best kept 323 hatch around SL.

Aha.. tell me about it. Guess its normal to drive a mazda and then immediately fall in love with it. Welcome to the 323 club bro! It would have been great if you were around to share all the 323 stories.

*UPDATE: Went tire hunting on the weekend. Didn't went with high end brands this time and thought about experimenting with mid range ones. Finally ended up with a set of Federal Fermoza AZ01's at 12,000 a piece (195/55/R15). It seems like a good option for the price. Not quiet as the previous Ecopias with little bit of road feel but actually i like it. Handling, Cornering and Braking seems to have improved a lot. Let's see how they perform as they age.

So, I went to Autodrome last Tuesday and here’s what happened. I showed all my service records and bills and showed my tires to the manager at the service station. He went through all the documents and inspected the tires and even he could not come up with a good explanation on what may have caused this unusual wear on my tires. He checked the alignment of the tires as well and there was a slight misalignment which may have attributed to the ware but it was not the sole reason. I asked him that I previously ran on Dunlops, GT’s and Nankangs which lasted for more than 30K but why does these Bridgestones gone flat in just 15,000km’s? So, he was like, Dunlops are hard but these ecopias are built for comfort and fuel efficiency and they tend to wear of quickly even due to slight misalignments. But I asked him even so, you expect them to last at least 30k isn’t it? He acknowledged it but again re-iterated they have to be taken care of. In the end he offered me a new set of tires at a very low price. He offered 11k for 17k worth tires at a special discount which was actually a good deal. I didn’t have complete evidence to back my claim as I have lost one of my wheel alignment reports and he was saying that these tires can ware off even due to a slight misalignment. So, all in all people at the place was very helpful and I think the offer was reasonable as well. But, with his comments I was reluctant to go ahead with Ecopia’s again even though he promised me a higher mileage with them given that the wheel alignments should be done with them at 5000km intervals. So, my verdict on Bridgestone Ecopia 200’s (Thailand) is, it gives you a very comfortable ride with minimum road feel but that comfort is provided by sheets of rubber which melts like butter on sri lankan roads. So even with very good care, they will not last long. I believe when you purchase your tires; you need to consider the country of origin as well. I believe the durability of Japanese Bridgestone’s are still way ahead compared to the Thailand ones. And it’s time for tire hunting elsewhere…

That's the sole reason why i don't check tire pressure from the same place always. Even when i do it at a fuel station i always do it myself. Inner ware due to over inflation or outer ware due to under inflation would be clearly visible on the tires itself. But in my case; the tires have just worn off completely flat. Will see what the Autodrome people have to say.