I bought my ESi with 22 mths left of COE in 2001. I was the 5th
Owner then. When I test drove before buying I noticed a pretty
annoying and loud noise from the Gearbox (Mine was a manual geared)
and stated it in black and white to the car dealer that this had to
be fixed. It really turned out to be defective and the dealer LL
have to get it fixed for me. It cost the dealer $600 to change to a
re-cond unit. Lucky and unlucky both at the same time as I have to
burn 1 weekwend taking public transport while the gearbox get
changed...
3 mths after I bought the car I start to experience over heating
problem. Since then for the rest of the 18mths or so I went thru
great pains to maintain the car from over heating. Initial check at
the mechanic shows a clogged radiator. Ok fine, we thot its just
rusty radiator water that jam it so got it flushed and with new
coolant replaced. Barely 2 week later same problem happens with the
needle shooting high to 3/4 mark and approaching near max temp.
This time I got the entire radiator changed to brand new unit. cost
me almost $400. 2 weeks after that the same problem happens again.
This time we finally nailed the fault. It was the Engine. My
mechanic had been noticing that my Radiator fan seems to be
permanently on though initially he thought that it was on cos I
travelled quite a bit to his workshop so its norm the radiator fan
turns on once he start up. The fan was rigged to turn on whenever
and as long as the car is started up. The engine was "fatally
wounded" internally by the previous owners as the ESi engine, of
aluminium construction, would experience bending of parts
internally when over heated. Once wounded, the parts will cause the
overheating problem until the engine is REPLACED. My mechanic says
its a common trait among EG ESis and EK VTis to overheat. Since the
problem is so rampant a widely known solution has been developed
for it. Import Re-Cond ESi Engines from Japan. But must discreetly
do so as L*A must not know of it so some serial numbering "ARTWORK"
have to be done to the imported engine. Total cost: $2000. Add $300
to change Timing belt and Water pump for "new" engine also since
its a very good opportunity. At that point of time, my ESi still
have 15mths of COE left. So how? I did not take the package. Nor
did I change my car cos I abt to ORD from AF so drop the idea of
burdening myself.
The solution given and taught to me by my mechanic is to drain and
replace radiator water once a week. He taught me to feel the
butterfly knob beneath the radiator and showed me how to drain the
water. Ever since then every week, without fail, 6 bottles of 1.5L
mineral-water sized bottles would follow me to the car. I would
spend abt 30mins to drain, cleanse and replace the radiator water.
Every morning MUST do first parade task on the radiator water
reservoir. Plus I must keep my speed at around 70km/hr (MAX!) else
the radiator will jam up again very soon before the 7 days are up.
So every morning before work and afternoon after work a red ESi
will travel at 60++km/hr on the 4th lane of the expressway and
mostly without aircon on (cos aircon on will cause the temp to go
up slightly higher also). I developed a phobia of turning on aircon
unless except in rain. In this manner I kept the car running till
the last day of COE on 23rd Nov 2002 and got it scrapped. Finally
relieved.
In between, my rear suspension gave way and produced squiky sound
over humps. These cost me $300 to replace.
My Aircon gave me problem 4 mths before scrap. Got the condenser
unit washed and some parts replaced. $300 again.
1 year before scrap, my speedometer needle swung suddenly to the
extreme right (indicating infinity!) when I travel past the
100km/hr mark. No. This time I did not replace it. I lived with it.
All I have to do is to rev up to 100km/hr limits again and knocked
on the speedometer. The needle will somehow siao siao swing back to
the left side indicating 90+ km/hr. But not everytime this will
work. So I have to find opportunities on the expressway whenever I
can. This is most fustrating cos' at 100km/hr, a bit more I will
break the law and if I am at that speed for too long, the water
temp will rise... Everytime its dramatic man I tell you...
My exhaust pipe leading from the engine to the exhaust pipe was
found to have a crack as it was repeatedly bent whenever reversing.
Why this happens is becos the car is quite low and the kerb near my
house is quite high. So every time I reverse park I am actually
hitting the kerb against my exhaust pipe. So over a period of time,
the exhaust pipe bend near the RH wheel area gets bend and
eventually crack. The symptoms of such problem is a pungent smell
at the back of the car whenever I start it in the morning (This is
actually unfiltered exhaust gas from the engine itself so its smell
is stronger than normal of those that went thru catalyst before the
exhaust pipe. Why I go fix it is because one fine morning when it
was raining heavily and flooded on the road, the water on the road
actually gets sucked into the engine via the crack and nearly
stalled my whole car! In the midst of negotiating a bend in a major
traffic junction somemore! No matter how I rev the engine it just
felt totally powerless cos' its burning water, not petrol in the
chambers. Only after repeated flooring of accelerator did I restore
the power... and also after numerous high beams and horns from the
cars behind cos I after the bend I entered a one lane
traffic...
I drew only 1 consolation from driving the car. With virtually no
aircon, travelling on expressway at 70km/hr and on the slowest 4th
lane on expressway, I achieved a FC of 15km/L. Almost 630km per 42L
of RON 98 petrol. But then again, the $ saved all goes into
repairing the car...
Eversince I bought the car, I only open the VTEC valves once. And
that time not open by me, was opened by my mechanic when he test
out the new radiator after we changed it. He whacked the car to
6000rpm with speeds of 130km/hr along Old Lim Chu Kang Road (next
to Tengah Air Base leading to Sungei Gedong Camp). It was shiok.
But I only can shiok once. After that I have to "kwai kwai" follow
the trailers and lorries on lane 4...
