VeeChai is 12 years old now. And needs a lot of TLC. I know that if I were to send him to a Perodua Workshop, they are going to have a field day quoting a lot of stuff. Heck, they might even ban me from taking him out, maybe declare it unsafe.
I do know the front under-carriage has a problem ever since I had the brakes and tyres changed. I even had the lower arms and other bushings replace but the noise has come back. Anyway, for today's story, I am going to change the door switches.
It took me so long because of my mindset with Shopee after I learned that I can get free shipping just as long as my purchases exceeds RM15.00. I could go to the spare parts shop which I calculated the cost to be about RM3.22 as opposed to the free RM5.00 Shopee shipping. That is, if that shop has the part on a Sunday.
Are the Doors open?
It is quite infuriating when I disarm the alarm from a distance or when I am carrying stuff. After about 30 seconds or so, the alarm will re-arm itself. If I am carrying stuff halfway, with the door opened, I have to act fast to disarm it or else the alarm will go off after a few warning beeps.
For a 12 year old car, it is understandable that the rubber components or the switch itself is not working as it should be. So, it is slow to respond to the door opening or in most cases, not at all.
Replacements won't be in until Tuesday
Well, not really. It arrived on Tuesday. I was a bit busy with errands until it was pointless to replace the switches in the dim evening glow of the Moon (It is now at the waxing crescent phase). A lot of things can happen in the dark...
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| Finally, I got the chance to buy these door switches. It took me so long, the design has changed... |
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| The only tool I needed was a #10 socket wrench. And I always do carry it with me in my bag nowadays because of my job. It allows me to change a typical car battery in less than 10 minutes. |
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| You can pull the switch out as there are extra cables. Do note this only works for the rear doors. You'd have to fight with the front ones as the cables were too short. The cable snaps to the switch and you can just push the locking plastic to free it. For the front switch, make sure you hold the wires when you unlock it or else it will go back into the hole. |
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| Don't worry if there is only one cable. This is normal as the other end would be using the bolt (once you screw it back on) to connect to the car. |
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| All done! The latest switch is slightly smaller and it uses a different rubber design |
I know all four switches works perfectly because I can see the indicator on the front dashboard. I cannot see it from the courtesy light on the roof of the car because... the bulb is broken.
