PerfMad

@iRage yep yep that makes sense, what I meant was that our vios was higher specced in comparison to our 121. Obviously a luxel would be better specced than a vios.

I still prefer leather over cloth seats, cloth seats tend to retain more dust in my experience and needs to be vaccumed out whereas leather can be wiped

Both have pros and cons....the nice fabric feels a lot better than the fake leather than all the cars like Vios/Corolla/etc..come with as well...the only nice alcantara leather comes only in the high spec models like Harrier, Crown, etc... (even the Camry does not have any actual leather...it is mostly synthetic..especially those in the SEA market). But then, leather does heat up and cool a lot as well so it is difficult to keep it tempreture managed unless it comes with heated seats, etc...and leather needs to be treated as well. So where up keep is concerned I would say both are more or less the same in terms of effort. It is just that the effort has to be put in different ways.

yeah im someone who always prefer fabric over leather. cz the fabric is more comfortable than the leather. However i like the leather seats which comes in W124s. those are genuine leather as i feel and its so comfortable and soft. 

@isuru003 yours is looking mint. best i've seen so far..

@isuru003great congratz. Can I offer you a brand new gear indicator strip for your bj5? I do these spares. DM me if you want

@PreseaLover Thanks for the offer but I already got one from Bjautoparts. Someone from walisara do this part in our 323/mazda fb club. I think he does that for several cars as well. Could it be you I wonder 😂   

This is whats been used by agents and they always says it should be changed every 5k intervals. Well i mostly do highway runs and less city traffic driving. However, since mine is a hybrid cant control the idle stop times 😬😬

I don't have a lot of experience with hybrids, but just going on logic: Having a hybrids probably means your ICE engine runs less and is under less stress (warms-start-stops aren't hard on the engine, as the oil is at temp etc its the initial cold start that mostly causes wear)- So if you are doing a fair bit of highway runs, I feel you can easily push past the 5k limit with fully synthetic oil such as this. I would shoot for a one year or 8500km oil change window, what ever comes first for this kind of oil....(And if you are anything like me that means it will be around 9k when you finally get around to taking the car in for its oil change... 😆 )

Thanks brooo.. I usually change the oil at correct intervals .. im kinda planning to change the service location as at agents  prices have gone up.

If you are switching between semi and full its probably a good idea to use some extra oil of the type you are switching to, to flush the system through. 

May I ask why you feel you should switch to semi-synthetic when the car is not being used often ? Cost of oil is not justified ?

@iRage sorry my mistake.. Im currently running on full synthetic oil. My question is, is it ok to swap to 10k oil from this? and if someday I stop using the car more often then i can switch back to 5k synthatic oil as before without any additional cost or cleaning?

Well...adjustable dampers are pretty good....so don't discount one with a TEIN or..damn..what is the brand assorciated with a lizard ?...upgrade. See if you can adjust the dampening levels and see what it feels like. I think the adjustable dampers would be more versatiley...you can set yourself a parent-friendly setting...kid friendly setting...friend friendly setting....I am all alone and want to go bonkers setting...just think of all the possibilities ! Typically 8-10 different adjustment levels !!! Lets not even get in to the damber and height adjustment possibilities and the # of permutations of setting that offers you ! OMG !!!

@iRage thanks for the explanation. Now the hardest part is to source a stock manual evo or sti. Most of them are heavily modified and i don't want stage 2 clutch on a daily  

Well..look on the bright side...you won't have to work on your glutes and quads at the gym  

uhh...well...at least those on your left...

hmmm i guess its better to stick to the stock mapping. Thanks for the valuable advices.. I'm kinda bored with the car now so thought of doing couple of mods to increase bit of pulling power or else to go back to a manual tranny with a turbo kit..

Start with less radical mods like intake

Ie performance filter and and exhaust, even an injector cleaner helps 

Turbo is expensive but the most rewarding yet it comes with an array of mods 

Intake, exhaust perhaps 

ECU upgrade, manifold, fmic so on. 

Expect atleast 400k for a proper job 

@tiv are you familiar with i-tunedCh**ps ? was planning to get mine tuneup from them with a stage 1 not quite sure how much HP it will increase though.

@Magnum yes because the last version, which was manufactured from 1995/1996 onwards were from India with fabric seats. They are cheap quality materials and most the parts are not what's used in cars which were made in germany. So the reliability and the resale value is low.

Not only that, it also had an issue with the wiring harness. After sometime the wiring start degrading and crap out.

@Magnum true that. I don't think even the body structure is the same quality. 

@iRage yah. Father doesn't want to sell it as the paint job is so perfect. I personally selected the two tone colour since i was going to purchase it from him. But the restoration project took so long and i got fedup going there to see no improvement in the progress during 1st and 2nd covid season. And i wanted to purchase a hybrid as my monthly commute increased and wanted some way of keeping the fuel cost down.

Someone has seen the car and has asked for it. So father has told his expected price. Let's see how its gonna end. To sad to see it leaving as its a 5 cylinder diesel  

Ado no. 

But then again, I get what you mean. Projects can suck. Parts are no where to be found sometimes, lying buggers, scammers, mechanics are lethargic and can screw up the work, now Corona. 

I respect your dedication. I'm here already fed up of my Hawk 250 and now I think I'm going to sell it. Have talked to a few interested parties. It has been plagued by the above mentioned issues too as most projects are. 

Its been 7 months and it has only run 3 kms... Just 3. 

Yesterday I was working on the brakes and I found a wooden block in place of the brake pad.. Wooden brake pad. The bike has been kept well on the outside, no leaks, chrome is well kept, wiring works, all the meters and dash worked, etc.impressive on a 36 year old motorbike.

But on the inside, it seems to have been the playground of a bunch of Maka bases. 

The calipers have been hand painted, wood brake pads, dirty air filter, broken chain adjusters, it had the wrong rocker arms, engine valves from a Bajaj pulsar, both carbs leaking from almost every orifice, main harness under the frame has been pecked...but being a Honda, it ran without complaint. 

I managed to fix most of the above issues and am impressed myself as all the others I have met in the hawk club seem to be atleast 15-20 years older than me as these are the only people who know them or have run them in the past. 

But end of the day, I'm young, I'm not ultra-rich, I'm no Freddie Alles or Jay Leno, I'm not an early-retirement case.. Resources and time are limited, have to use that time either learning or putting miles on the odometer. There's a certain point after which you get fed up and it just isn't worth it anymore.  

So I guess, it's sad but alright to move on. Wanted to see your completed W124, a fan of them myself, which you already knew. 

Hopefully, when the resources are in place, can get ourselves into one someday! One can never know, right? 

@AVANTE sad to hear your story broo.. Yah i feel you. I went through the same shit. Mostly it took time to find the windscreen clips. Had to order those from the company twice as they have ordered incorrect item so that only took good 3 months due to covid. And that hold the final paint job for quite a good bit.

But last time i went it was all done. Paint was pretty sick + door molding set yet to be painted and buffers. One of the rear buffer had couple of spots to be addressed by a fiber worker, but that got dragged as well. Other than that everything else was in good shape as i saw and the AC blower unit restored as well. so there is lot of time and money put in to this to make it perfect. I don't no what else needs to be addressed during assembling though cz i needed it to be trouble free (mostly as brandnew).

Hmm anyways i hope it will end up in a better home than mine. Cz only Merc lovers visit that shop and pretty sure someone who already having a car is interested on this.

Yah one day i will either purchase a good condition one or restore one somehow.. #ONEDAY 

@PerfMad..a taped spoiler is not going to be that strong is it ?

@iRage i guess .. it depends on the quality of the tape and weight of the spoiler isn't it? I do highway runs frequently so it should hold upto 100kmph atleast  

That is the thing...you will never know until it comes off  

@PerfMad AFAIK both piston and piston ring have been redesigned - Honda wouldn't replace all four pistons along with the rings otherwise...

@Hyaenidae i thought the piston ring groove has a redesign and the ring as well.

@PerfMad Not sure what the exact redesign is but I'm really not sure a "modified" piston could be as viable as a redesigned piston that has been manufactured from the scratch. I wouldn't risk it if I were you - apart from the issue resurfacing patchwork repairs like these have a tendency to create whole new issues - like a damaged engine block

@PerfMad if that ain't the truth, haha! 

Bro? W124? How? 

Couldn't go broo. All these weekends were pretty packed up. Some of the AC related components were given to an AC shop to get it sorted, i couldn't even check whether dad collected it. Its going in a slow phase  Even the last time i went there , there was another W124 for a full paint job with same as ours. And for a moment i thought its our one. But to see it wasn't. Im pretty sure it will get finished sooner than ours  i was ired waiting for it to get sorted. But these things are taking forever, unless i go there more often and followp up on things. Interior is still not fixed as AC thing is needed otherwise whole dashboard has to come off again.

But the paint looked really nice. It needs the door claddings to get fixed up and painted as well (its a two-tone colour)  

Drove dads W124 after 4 months of owning the GP. I really miss driving a manual. Drove the car whole day here and there to feel how it was to ride a manual