Time to settle down

It’s official, with another blown 4AGE, I simply don’t have enough financial backups for the repairs, not for the 2nd time in a year, this truly sucked.

I’ve driven my Charmant to the workshop and the mech just left it untouched for an entire week due to his jam packed schedules, however, it also gave me sufficient amount of time to rethink it over, and before the mech got the chance to dig his hands into my 4AGE, I’ve made a decision to drive it back home and left it in hibernation mode.

Despite the fact that I picked a rusted old schooler in the first place, and I opt for one of the cheaper setups (4AGE etc) thanks to Louis, yet this Drifting thingy… is still a very expensive hobby to me,  the reason why there was barely any noticeable updates or upgrades to the car was obvious, I simply can’t afford to spend!  The only spendings that I’m willing of are tires, regular oil change services, and petrol, the usual stuff that gets my car going, and also brings me joy when I’m clutch kicking my Charmant at corners.

I’ve always known the fact that if you plan to abuse your car and your engine, you should build it up the proper way, using the right parts, and not cut corners, which was how I treated my car for the past couple of years, that’s for being a cheapskate.  I ain’t denying, I am a cheapskate when it comes to this sorta stuff.

I’ve decided to leave the Charmant un-attended to simply because I’ve realized, if I were to get it fixed again, I would definitely need to do it PROPERLY, no more shortcuts, no more crappy 2nd hand parts from god knows where.  If you want to play hard, then your toy should be built hard enough to withstand the abuse, and that’s exactly what I’m planning to do…. that is… when I’m financially ready, and god knows when that time would ever come…

The thought of selling the car also crossed my mind several times, but I loved my Charmant too much that just the thought of parting with it is absolutely unbearable! (And who else would want a car with a f*cked up engine anyways?)

That’s it I guess, no more drifting from now onwards, it leaves me no choice but to settle down.  I’ve gotta admit, I was extremely disappointed that it all didn’t went out with a BANG!  If you know what I mean… I wasn’t pushing the car hard, I rarely drifted it after the 1st engine replacement, just some regular drives here and there and out of a sudden… BAM!  It blew… mother F*CK!

If only it blew when I was like drifting it hardcore, tsuiso-ing and pushing the limits, having a blast for an entire day…. but I had none of that!

Sleep well Charmant… sleep well…

F*CK!

…And they always say how reliable and durable 4AGEs are, guess it’s not the case for me, because I’ve just blown my 2nd 4AGE, in less than a year!

Thing is, I haven’t been driving HARD enough since I first got my 1st blown engine replaced!  Not only have I been taking extra care of it, I haven’t been driving it as much as I did too (was way busy for past couple of months), so this is like super WTF moment for me, I’m so frustrated and I’m pissed!

Arghhh!!

Engine in trouble…again!

Ever since I got my 4AGE block replaced several months back, I’ve been taking that extra care of it, yet, the problem still returns and bugs me now.

Last 2 days, I drove a few miles to Sibu Jaya for the Saberkas Borneo Eco Hash event, on the way up, I’ve noticed that there’s this little rattling noise coming from the right side of the engine, at first I thought it was that loosen screw which I’ve yet to properly dealt with, so I parked my car at a nearby petrol station and got it temporarily tighten using nothing but my bare hands, no tool FTW!

As soon as I continued on the drive, the rattling noise is still apparent, and to my horror, the water temp was already half way past the optimum level, fortunately I reached the destination just in time for me to shut down the engine and let it cool off, not having any spare time to diagnose the problem, I left it at the parking lot and moved on with the hash with my colleagues.

After the exhausted hash, I got back to my Charmant and nervously started up the engine, it runs fine, and off I went.  But the nightmare continues, as the water temp continues to rise I was yet again forced to stop the car at a nearby petrol station, a 15 minutes rest and I started the drive again, but instead of driving straight back home, I drove to my mechanic in need of urgent help.

I arrived at the shop late, and the mech was about to leave, a brief check on the engine and the 1st thing he noticed was that my throttle sensor socket was unplugged.  We plugged it back in, used some cable tie to make sure it won’t get loose again, and surprisingly, the water temp dropped!  This is just down right… WEIRD!

Anywhooooooo… I was still skeptical on my 4AGE’s condition, so yesterday I called up Johnny (he’s still in Sibu, haha!) and we met up at the old airport runway, after a few slow test drives and a more in depth check on the engine, my worst fear was realized, I ain’t gonna say that I’ve f*cked up another 4AGE just yet since I still need to open up the head to know what exactly happened, since my engine is already spitting white smoke, I do fear for the worst, hopefully the damage is minor.

Gonna send my car to the workshop later, I’m eager to find out what actually caused this to happen, there was absolutely no warnings at all! 😡