So I’d got my car and as the tyres were almost bald and seriously hardened, I got those changed first thing as a priority. After that came time for the first major service, this is an important thing to do when you buy a second hand car – even if it has a ‘full service history’ you are better off changing all the fluids.
For any car that generally means:
- Engine Oil
- Transmission Fluid (ATF or Gearbox Oil for manual cars)
- Brake Fluid
- Power Steering Fluid
- Axel Grease (for 4wd cars)
At a very minimum if you can’t afford everything, get the oil and oil filter changed first thing. The other items you need to look at after you buy the car (and is safer to change) is the rubber items like belts. Check the following:
- Timing Belt (most important, if your timing belt breaks when you are driving it’ll destroy your engine)
- Alternator Belt
- Aircon Belt
- Fan Belt
If you buy a car and you don’t know when the timing belt was last changed, just change it. It’s less than RM1000 including labour for the majority of cars, obviously if it’s a car with a timing chain you can ignore this.
I started out just thinking I need to do these things, maybe the engine mount, timing belt and well that was about it! I took the very first service a little easy so the damage wasn’t too bad, a total of RM1182.
As I originally suspected at the beginning the engine mounts did need changing, and this car has 4! Including the gearbox mount.
Engine Oil AGIP 5W-50 – RM232.50 (Which I later found out was the wrong oil and has messed up my lash adjusters/tappets)
SAE Gear Oil – RM60
Oil Filter – RM45
Dia Queen ATF – RM180
Front Engine Mount – RM260
Rear Engine Mount – RM270
Labour – RM126
Car was looking good tho!
That really wasn’t too painful, but I still had 2 more engine mounts to go and the timing belt. The next round I was a little more gung-ho and decided to just whack everything…and boy was it painful. The total damage was RM3018.50! and w00 that hurt.
Brake Fluid – RM34
Power Steering Fluid – RM38
Genuine Timing Belt Kit – RM540
Right Engine Mount – RM495
Left Engine Mount – RM395
Alternator Belt – RM95
Service/Recon All 4 shock absorbers – RM760 (1 was leaking so I just serviced all 4)
Fuel Filter – RM210
Alignment & Camber adjustment – RM136.50 (which I found out later was completely shit and partially screwed up my new tyres)
Labour – RM315
None of the above contains any particularly expensive items but it sure does it add up fast. Add onto that another RM140 for the reverse sensor..and well let’s just say I had quite an empty pocket! Turns out this turbo car ownership is an expensive business. Deeply satisfying tho!
And well the above was just the start, I thought it’d solve the problems the car had such as vibration, stalling, bumpy idle and jerking when accelerating…but well let’s just say it didn’t and the fun had only just began! More on that later tho. And well bear in mind (including the new tyres) to date I’d already spent RM6100 on the car after buying it just doing basic maintenance work – that’s without solving the problems and even starting to modify it yet.
So if you’re thinking of buying this kind of car (performance/sports cars, especially models with a turbo) make sure you got about RM10,000 spare to use to keep the car running. And if you’re modding it, including stereo equipment etc you better make that RM20-30,000 (that’s just average stereo setup and light mods to handling, engine and brakes).
Airtrek power! You can find all posts about this car under Project Airtrek.
serious deep pain to the wallet.
some toyota cars, while using timing belts, won’t cause engine damage if the belt break tho
At least you managed to change quite a lot of things for RM3k! My service center said that the power steering motor on my Civic has some issues and it will cost me RM3k to get it fixed! Arrrghh!!!
Ouch… But I’m sure that it was worth the $$$ spent.
its still ok bro. One of our company car – PERDANA had a major service – timing belt,etc cost us about RM5k in EON. then later, brake pump – abut RM2.4k. All within a week. FML . . .for such an old car.
foodcrazee – so what those fellas in the gomen and their maintenance charges were correct ah? Nowonder they wanted to change to Camry’s!
Mark, i would think so. . . .for a JUNK like tht. . .wtf! kinda of charges is that?
Genova: Yah loh what to do.
KY: Interesting, must be using different technology.
Mark Leo: Wow, new car aswell right? That’s painful.
Angie Tan: Yah it was totally worth it!
foodcrazee: LOL Eon is cut-throat, and Perdana is one of the cars with highest maintenance charges. It’s nuts. Some more very unreliable, always kena brake problems (car too heavy), kena gearbox failure (no ATF cooler).
Great list as reference for anyone looking at getting a 2nd hand turbo car when it comes to maintenance.
I always thought the Oil Filter is thrown in for free when we do our usual servicing.
you change color?
Mike Yip: Depends what filter you use, can use ori one, Evo 7 one or Ciplak wira one haha.
trekkie: Me or my car? Neither changed, I’m still white my car still black 😀
Thought your atr was gold color
wou i love the inner view! 😀 so japanese liked ^^
Welcome to forced induction ownership. I ran a turbo car too. I am not familiar with Airtrek parts prices but they do seem a tad high to me. I mean, OEM engine mounts for RM495 and RM395 each? Yikes!
She’s known to be a thirsty one! Drop by for a paintwork check & recommendation 😉
Nothing beats having the best things for your car though? Love the cockpit…
trekkie: Nah mine is black, my friends is gold that I posted about the dyno before..maybe you got mixed up with that one.
Vicky: Haha yah proper JDM car.
EuJin: Many cars have expensive engine mounts, check out the price for Honda Jazz they are nuts too. Next time will use Wira or Evo7 mounts.
macdude: Haha yah sure is a thirsty lady. Will pop by one day when I’m ready for some bodywork.
JD: Haha yah indeed.
hyee there…
sifoo, whre did u bought the engine mounting?.. mine is rocking like hell now..mind to share whre u got it.. n how much ….
Thanks a alot.
Cheerr!!
abe ite: Front and rear prices are above, side mount more expensive around RM400. I suggest you check out Bintang Auto parts, details on Airtreker forum – https://airtreker.com/forum/index.php?topic=2380.0