That 40B19L Battery or how it lasted 40 months

My car has problems cranking the engine since a few months ago. I thought nothing of it, thinking it was the starter or the key contacts. But then, it got worse last week and so, it just occurred to me that it has been a long time since I changed my battery...

A quick call to my Supplier at Indigo and within 18 hours, I have a new replacement. He wanted to send it to me personally but because of the Roadblocks, he suggested me to go to one of his customer's shop for the same price and also, they did the change without charging me.

This battery has been with me for 40 months! (Read: 3.25 years) Which is unheard of. But then again, with the pandemic last year, I was not able to drive for at least 8 weeks in total, which again, is till not too bad for this battery which roughly costs me less than RM5 per month. And bonus, after seeing the actual prices out there, I am thankful to him for saving me a lot more money.

So, be kind and always help when you can. If not, at least make their work bearable.

After the change, my Car feels very 'on the edge' and little taps gave me spurts of power. All this is made possible by the new battery and those Iridum plugs, I guess.

This tiny little battery (40B19L) packs a punch

 

I was hoping to see a red dot but it just turned dark green.

The T10 Parkng Light using COB LEDs

When it comes to my car's lights, I am a little OCD about it. But in truth, I am more paranoid about being caught by the Police. Still, the degree of that OCD also depends on how deep my pockets are. For today's exercise, I am going to replace the T10 parking lights of my car.

Although they are located near the main headlights, it would be a tight squeeze to fit my hands in there since I have no other tools to remove the headlamp assembly completely. Plus, for a 9 year old car, there's a lot of dirt in there. Since it rained earlier...

So, here are the comparisons between the different LED technologies of the T10 W5W bulb equivalent. The old T10 uses conventional LEDs, which I think, lasted me about a year and a half. But if I were to factor in actual driving time, it would be very much less. maybe a fraction. The new COB bulbs are encapsulated with some clear spongy material which I would guess has the lifespan of between now and when it fails.

 

So, with the new COB LEDs, they are much brighter than the older LEDs. Silly me forgot to order them in that yellowish warm white, which was the original colour of the bulb. I really matches the headlight. But since I have 8 more of those bulbs left, I have to let it go.
 

 

Looking at the burnt LED bulbs, they have turned a slight dark yellow which means, bad news.

 

On a closer look, one LED has 'exploded' while some are cracked. Maybe the inductor is giving out too much power. Then again, in that headlamp assembly, I guess, where there is minimal airflow for cooling, anything goes.

The other side looks OK but had a dark yellow shade.

After going through with the meter, the damage is quite extensive and even with some partially working LEDs and shorting, I have to junk it.