Peugeot 206: Air Conditioning Leak

Last year, my BB Lion’s air-conditioning failed… Well, sort of, or more accurately, the cooling efficiency drop and I thought it was due to the climate change, hahaha… Top up the gas and at first it was OK, but the cooling efficiency drops again in about probably 2-3 month or so. Went back to the Service Centre and ask if they can check, but they said it would take a lot of time to find any leaks, so they suggest to top up first and if still out of gas, they will check on it. True enough, in about 1 month++, the cooling efficiency drops again and it’s getting worst, and it happen when I’m going out with my friends, so stop by an air-cond repair shop to top up the gas. The air-cond man wanted to open up to check on the condition or possible leak but he’s not familiar with Peugeot and don’t know where it’s located, so he just top up and told me it’s better to go back to Peugeot Service Centre.

BB Lion all ready for operation...

In about less than a month, it got worst, like totally out of gas, no sign of cold air, it’s like driving in sauna room under the hot sun,… Well, serves me right for delaying so long… Since it’s sort of emergency and a week day where I need to work on the next day, I went to another air-cond repair shop for top up before I planned the day to send to the Service Centre. This shop, my friend used to go there and said it was good and honest shop (it’s hard to find one in Malaysia , really). The boss is a very nice chap, he check with me on the situation and advice me, if there is a suspected leak, it’s better not to continue to top up as later it will damage the compressor when the compressor oil runs out. Since I’ve done some research and found information that usually the leak is at the evaporator coil or cooling coil (thanks to Tysontalenta), I took this opportunity and ask him about the leak and if whether he can fix it.

It was a joy to know that he can do it, not only that, he have done it before and it was also leak on the evaporator. Knowing he’s able to fix it, I check with him the “damage” on my wallet if I were to repair this, and as usual, he asked if I wanted original parts or third-party, and for third party, there is Taiwan brand/made and China brand/made. The China brand/made (Dowson) is the one similar with the one replaced by Tysontalenta.

The price gap between the 3 is huge. Original parts cost over RM2000! The Taiwan brand/made is around RM700++ while the China brand/made is around RM300++. He recommended not to get the China brand as they deal with those parts before, whereby when it leaks, it leaks badly. As the original parts is too expensive, he recommended me to go for the Taiwan brand. Since my original parts can’t even last me 3 years, I decided what’s the point of getting original? I also check with some other members who face similar issue with the evaporator. The main problem is,… for this car, it’s hard to service the evaporator as the entire dashboard needs to be dismanteled which will take a lot of time and you’ll also be charged for the workmanship.

Anyway, after checking out the shop, saw many pictures of the cars they have work on, many of it are continental cars which also requires dismantling the entire dashboard. Knowing this, I’m more relieve and decided to let him fix up BB Lion’s air-conditioning system.

BB Lion's Dashboard removed...

The total time required for the entire repair process will took about a day, from morning to evening. So, I send in my BB Lion on Saturday morning around 9AM when they start work. To cut things short, they started working on my BB Lion about almost 10AM and they finish around almost 7PM. When they dismantle the dashboard, it’s really heartache to see but at the same time, it’s interesting and amazed to see all the details in the car itself. The dashboard looks really cool, futuristic and complicated with all the curves and details, unlike some of those plain straight dull looking dashboard. It looks like a sophisticated cockpit from some cool ship, and it’s big.

The cool and sophisticated looking "cockpit" or dashboard with curves and detail...
Unlike our typical B-Segment cheap and simple looking dashboard...

After dismantling the dashboard, you will be able to see the “pollen/cabin filter” compartment and the pollen filter itself, and also some “holes” at the middle of the body which can be accessed from the front engine compartment. Here, you can see how important is the pollen filter as it’s required to filter out dust, contaminants, etc from outside. I took out the pollen filter and gosh it was dirty! This is also important to prevent dust from entering and clogged up your evaporator which eventually causes it to fail. Similarly, it’s important to keep your cabin always clean or you might risk polluting the evaporator (I was inform about this long ago when I was driving another car, but back then the car I was driving, the evaporator can be removed easily and be cleaned).

The pollen/Cabin filter.

The pollen/Cabin filter (Closer Inspection).

View from the inside of the car...

After some long hours of work, they managed to take out the evaporator and check for leaks. Found out there is leaks and it’s quite obvious as well, the boss also checks on the pipes and everything else. He mentioned one of the part, "Expansion Block Valve", is “still” working but not in good condition, though, he let me decide if I want to re-use it back. He also mentioned that in case it fails it, it can be replace “quite” easily (at least not needing to remove the entire dashboard). After some short consideration and checking the price of a new unit (3rd party - made in France, also used by Merz), I decided to change it to prevent the “hassle” of coming back again and probably paying for additional workmanship. I also decided to replace the "Receiver Drier" since it’s old; Well, better to get it all done at once than doing it one by one, unless I’m very free or I’m working as Sales with lots of time to spare, or I have more than 1 car…

The leaking evaporator oil or cooling coil...
(Can't see here, taken using phone camera)

Finally, it’s done. Everything is assembled back, now the biggest fear I have, can the car start “normally”?..... Hearts pumping and the worker switch on the ignition and… cranks…… Thankfully, it started normally. It was a great relief =)
The air-conditioning gas as well as the compressor oil was also topped up, and final inspection is done to make sure everything is OK and the air-cond is cold again.

While on my way back, I notice something wrong… the lighting is very dim… Oh gosh… At first I thought they damaged something… but luckily one long lost memory somehow find its way back to me before I embarrass myself; The “brightness” can be adjusted from the controls, but since I’ve only adjusted it once long long ago, this “memory” was lost somewhere in the memory bank. Luckily it’s smart enough to come back to me before I embarrass myself =P

Anyway, overall everything was all good, only have 2 main complaints:
It seems the cover of the middle steering is now unable to close “properly”, this is due to the way they open it when they want to take out the steering. To fix it, I suppose I’ll need to remove the cover and try “bend” it inwards to make it “bend” slightly inwards.

The 2bd issue is more problematic, my gear-knob is damaged… It seems they thought the gear-knob is removed by twisting it at first (the right way is to pull upwards)… Now my gear-knob is loose, it can turn around… and I also found some pieces of the plastics “peeled off”. Recently, while trying to fix this using glue, twisting it caused the entire gear-knob detached as the plastics already broken. Having no choice, I glued everything with ‘Super Glue’, but not sure if it can last… or how long can it last…
But guess what? It didn't last long, the whole thing broke BUT luckily it happen when I've reach the destination... What I did then was... bandage it up like an injured gear-knob, haha...
Luckily and many thanks to Intermilan (Zaid), he have a spare GTI gear-knob, and he was very kind enough to sell it to me and also help me to fix it up. BIG THANKS to Intermilan!!!

Lastly, here's the breakdown of the repair cost:
1 X Evaporator/Cooling Coil (1 Year Warranty): RM783.00
1 X Expansion Block Valve (1 Year Warranty; Made in France): RM363.00
1 X Receiver Drier (6 Months Warranty): RM178.00

Vacuum Top Up Gas R134a: RM55.00
Compressor Oil (Denso) Top Up: RM40.00

Labour Charge: RM280.00

Total Damage: RM1, 699.00

Here's more photos:

Dials by Jaeger

The Single Climate Digital Air-Cond Control Unit

The Multi-Function Display (MFD)

Infamous Com2000

The evaporator unit...

Ew.....

Putting all back together...

Awaiting for "key" (steering cover) insertion....

Ready to form Voltron...
Activate interlocks!
Dynotherms connected!
Infracells up!
Megathrusters are GO!
=p

BB Lion all set and ready to go~

Battery Replacement

In preparation for my upcoming event on 25th July 2010 (Sunday), I decided to change away my "still working" battery on my BB Lion. The event which will be held in the morning and I will need to leave around 7am. In case somehow the battery decided to fail on me on that day, I'll have no where to get a replacement at that particular time of the day.

Since my "still working" battery is already over a year, I decided to take prevention steps and change it. Besides, in recent months, I've been doing a lot of short distance driving with frequent start and stop. It ain't good for the battery.

The battery I'm changing to is of Varta brand (Europe), which is one of the original brand for Peugeot cars. Basically there're variants of each size:
Black Dynamic
Blue Dynamic
Silver Dynamic

If you check out Varta official website, you can find more types. I would say the 3 different variant/types is similar to of Bosch S3, S4 and S5. My current battery is Bosch S3 of size DIN55L. I found this Varta seller from mudah.com.my; Actually, I found him last year when my battery failed on me early in the morning before leaving to work, due to time constraint, I bought the Bosch S3 from nearby tyre shop. Wanted Bosch S4, but they only have Bosch S3. This time, I have more time and choices.

The Varta battery seller is actually a battery supplier, and they also supply Bosch batteries in case anyone is interested. They also accept trade in of your old battery for a small fee. Finally, they do delivery service around Klang Valley. How good is that deal? In my opinion, superb~

I bought Varta Blue Dynamic DIN55L for RM350 and traded in my old Bosch S3 DIN55L for RM20. The boss himself came over and do the installation as his staff was not able to make it. Very nice guy, after he installed the battery, he also test and checked the battery and also my alternator to confirm everything is OK. I don't get such service when I change battery outside before, have you?

He also tested my old battery and notice my cold cranking amp (CCA) was around 280++ only, while the new one is around 600++. So, guess my old battery was also retiring soon. Oh yes, he also check my old battery manufactured date, it was somewhere in 2008, so it was also in storage for sometime before I actually bought it.

Finally, I was also given a receipt for the battery. Overall, the price is reasonable or great and the service was great~ definitely recommended! Hopefully, through this, he can give special price for all 206 owners and hope we can all help to support him for providing such good service and product.

INFORMATION OF THE SELLER:
Website: http://batteryworld.webs.com

HEADQUARTER:
NO.25, JALAN PENDAMAR 27/90,
TMN P'IND ALAM MEGAH, SEKSYEN 27,
40400 SHAH ALAM, SELANGOR, MALAYSIA.
TEL: +603-5191 6113
FAX: +603-5192 6113
MOBILE: +6012-225 5152 +6016-769 8811 (Sirlim)

They are Automotive Battery Supplier and they supplies many ranges of battery brands. So, if you're interested to get other brand, you can consider their service too.



Lastly, actually there's some important information on disconnecting and reconnecting the battery which you can find from the Internet. This applies for most modern cars with BSI, this is to prevent problems like corrupting/damage to the BSI (something like when you remove your memory card while it's being access which could lead to corrupted data or worst, your memory card). This is actually very important as there're owners with failed BSI and have to replace the entire BSI, although I'm not sure the actual caused. But why take the risk when the below simple step isn't hard to follow?

Method for unplugging/disconnecting the battery:
1. Before unplugging the battery, turn off all gadgets and lights, closing all the doors and unplugging any kind of diagnostic tool. The drivers side window has to be kept open for any kind of requirement.
2. Turn off the ignition and take out the key following which unplug the battery after an interval of
3 minutes.
3. The BSI needs to be taken to sleep mode or Active Economy mode, during which nothing in the vehicle should be operating. Even the bonnet should not be opened that time as it can 'wake up' the BSI if the vehicle has got an alarm installed.
For batteries under the bonnet, the bonnet should be opened and left up before allowing the BSI to go to Sleep Mode. During this 3 minute interval, use of any remote control central locking gadgets for other vehicles should be avoided in the vicinity of the concerned vehicle.

Method for connecting the battery:
The following procedure is for reinstalling the battery connection unless told otherwise by Peugeot or Product service. Failure to follow this procedure may result in damage to the BSI's embedded software during reconnection.
1. All the doors have to be closed with the ignition key turned off and the key taken out.
2. Now without opening the doors, replug the battery and wait for 10 seconds.
3. Turn on the headlights, turn on the engine and inspect the system's functioning.


Some good source of information about Battery:
http://autorepair.about.com/library/weekly/aa101604d.htm

Some information taken from the above site:

Batteries are perishable, so buy fresh.
Unless a battery has periodically been recharged, never buy a non-sealed wet Low Maintenance battery that is more than three months old or a sealed wet Maintenance Free battery that is more than six months old because they have started to sulfate.

"Dry charged" batteries are shipped without electrolyte, but usually have "sell by" dates of one to three years. Battery dealers will often place their fresher batteries in the rear of the rack or in a storage room. The date of manufacture is often stamped on the case or printed on a sticker. If you cannot determine the date code, ask the dealer or contact the manufacturer.

A battery will lose its charge sitting in storage.
Depending on the type of battery and temperature, batteries have a natural self-discharge or internal electro chemical "leakage" at a 1% to 25% rate per month. Over time the battery will become sulfated and fully discharged. Higher temperatures accelerate this process. A battery stored at 95° F (35° C) will self-discharge twice as fast than one stored at 75° F (23.9° C).

More RC (Reserve Capacity) or Amp Hours is a good thing.
Larger RC or Amp Hours is better because of the effects of increased parasitic (ignition key off) loads, normal battery self discharge while in long term parking or storage, and the demands of stop-and-go driving.

Amp Hours (AH) is normally used to describe the capacity of deep cycle and international car batteries. When comparing Amp Hour specifications, use the same discharge rates, expressed in hours. There is a relationship between the weight of the battery and the amount of RC or Amp Hours. A heavier battery has more lead and is normally better choice.

Size matters!
Purchasing a battery has become much easier because most of the battery and vehicle manufacturers have adopted the BCI Group Number as a standard for the battery's voltage, physical size, terminal type and terminal location. It contains the vehicle's minimum cold cranking amps (CCA) requirement and Battery Council International (BCI) Group Number replacement recommendations by make, model and year of manufacturer.

Select the battery with CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) that will meet or exceed the vehicle manufacturer's recommendation.
Do not substitute CA (Cranking Performance Amps), MCA (Marine Cranking Amps), or HCA (Hot Cranking Amps) for CCA. In hot climates, buying batteries with double or triple the cranking amps that exceeds your starting requirement is not recommended. However, in cold climates, a higher CCA rating is better, due to increased power required to crank a sluggish engine and the inefficiency of a cold battery.

A larger capacity battery will damage my car.
A starter motor will only draw a fixed amount of current from the battery, based on the resistance of its load. A larger current capacity battery supplies only what is required. It will not damage your vehicle. Using batteries with higher or lower voltage or physically too tall could potentially damage your vehicle.

Care & Maintenance:

Bad batteries may harm the charging system or starter.
A bad or weak battery causes more stress on a charging system or starter and can cause premature failures due having to compensate the voltage or current. If you replace a battery, alternator, voltage regulator or starter, you should test the other components for latent or permanent damage.

"Maintenance free" batteries VS hot climates.
In hot climates, the water in the electrolyte is lost due to the high under hood temperatures. Water can also be lost due to excessive charging voltage or charging currents. Non-sealed batteries are recommended in hot climates so distilled water can be added when this occurs.

Car batteries in hot climates & cold climates.
Car batteries last an average of two thirds as long in hot climates as cold ones. Heat kills car batteries, especially sealed wet Maintenance Free batteries and cold reduces the battery's starting capacity.

DO NOT test the alternator by disconnecting the battery with the engine running.
A battery acts as a voltage stabilizer or filter to the pulsating DC produced by the alternator. Disconnecting a battery while the engine is running can destroy the sensitive electronic components connected to the electrical system such as the emission computer, audio system, cell phone, alarm system, etc., or the charging system because the peak voltage can rise to 40 volts or more. In the 1970s, removing a battery terminal was an accepted practice to test charging systems of that era. That is not the case today.

Pulse chargers, aspirins or additives will revive sulfated batteries? Myth Or Fact?
Using pulse chargers or additives is a very controversial subject. Most battery experts agree that there is no conclusive proof that pulse chargers work any better than constant voltage chargers to remove sulfation. They also agree that there is no evidence that additives or aspirins provide any long-term benefits. Short term gains are achieved by increasing the acidity of the battery, but this will damage the battery plates.

Safety & Defensive Driving Course

On 18th July 2008 (Saturday), we joined the Safety & Defensive Driving Course organized by Autoworld. It was a good and fun session. Below are some information and story if you like to "read".

You can read the Autoworld write up here:
http://autoworld.com.my/emzine/review/viewarticle.asp?awReviewId=2594&awCatId=RT.ATC.CAR.FS

Our Rally-X Hero In Action

Theory Session:
Basically, this session is more on awareness, usual mistakes or problems (especially with Malaysian drivers). It's an informative and good session, though, I believe many would agree that more time should be spend on the practical session.

We're also taught about push-pull steering and it's benefit compared to hand-over-hand (which most of us usually do; our hands will cross the steering). One main reason is the for cars equipped with Air Bags, if it were to deploy, the impact is enough to break our arm and consequently smash onto our face.

For those who doesn't like to wear seat belts were also explain of the possibility why, such as, uncomfortable. This is all mainly due to wrong seating position and adjusting the seat belt wrongly. The seat belt should be adjust so it's rest on the shoulder and the waist.

Practical Session:

1. Basic Check On Cars

2. Slalom Test
I can't really recall the actual purpose of this session. Basically, we're taught the correct seating position, and push-pull steering demonstration. We were shown some demonstration by the trainers, although it might look "not really fast" but in fact it's not as easy as it looks, if you look closely at the driver, you'll see he/she will be very busy steering the car. Later we also sat in one of the cars and experience it while being explain how we should do it via push-pull steering technique.

Another catch to this slalom test is, you should maintain your speed throughout the slalom; which means, if you enter at speed of 30km/h, you should maintain your rev and slalom through the course at 30km/h till the end.
It's not easy, you'll see most of the participants doesn't maintain the speed.

3. Understeer
This session we get to experience understeer (wheels locked) session, where to overcome such situation for cars without ABS, we need to do cadence braking (that is to pump the brakes) to allow the car to steer. For session onwards, most of the participants used the 5 Honda sponsored cars, with only the Honda City's ABS turned off.

4. Oversteer
This is the most fun session I must say! As we enter the area, we need to turn the steering to the left and the trainer will pull the handbrake causing the car to oversteer. At this point, we need to countersteer quickly. To overcome the oversteer, we need to ease-off (not sudden let go) and absolutely NO Braking! (Braking will make the car spin out) steer to the direction we want to go. Failure will cause too much oversteer or spin out. We can also play a little bit with the throttle to "straigthen" the car back to where we want to go.

This session can be very dangerous and it's strongly adviced to have a trainer with you in the car. Each participants get about 3 chances, which I personally find it not enough because I think most of us still panic and revert to 'AUTOPILOT' instinct. We haven't get used to the feeling of oversteer, stay clam and steer or do the 'right' thing.

My first time was shocking to me when it oversteer, I got panic and applied some brakes; The trainer immediately notice and 'scolded me' (hehe), "Why did you press brake???"
Oooops, luckily it didn't spin and still able to "pass", hehe
The 2nd round, I think a little too much oversteer and come to a halt, sort of, but still able to "pass" through the gate (I think). The trainer also notice my mistake and tell me to countersteer earlier.
The 3rd round, I feel quite messy too cause there's many left and right and I use the throttle to straighten the car. Heard the walkie-takie someone say something like "Nice one", but the trainer replied "He already step on the gas". Ooopps? =P
This trainer is very observant and good I would say, he's able to observe what I've done clearly and also to correct mistakes/technique/problems =)

CHALLENGE
There's a special challenge organize for us, a short mini autokhana session with the Honda Jazz. I was the first one, oh dang. I think most of us loose the time at the reverse parking session; For those more aggressive and take the risk, score a good time. The first being blackdolphin, I think around 26seconds++, which his time was unbeaten for some time, until another Honda driver score around 25 seconds++. Some aggressive one scored good time too but they either touch/hit a cone or two. Each cone give 5 seconds penalty.

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