seech
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- Dec 21, 2006
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Just my contribution to the great auto gearbox debate. Apologize for the long grandfather/grandmother story. Can skip the background story to speed things up. :sleep:Background grandfather/grandmother story:A long long time ago, in a galaxy.... errr... actually last week on the way to the Curve, I was rushing for a dinner appointment so switched the gearbox to sport mode and was errr.... driving rapidly.... from USJ on the NKVE. The car seemed less powerful than normal during the drive and you really had to tekan the accelerator to get it to accelerate but since its a M50B20, you get used to the lack of power so I didn't really bother. Exited at the Kota Damansara toll and that's where the problems started. At the traffic light in front of Seri Selangor Golf Club the car was really slow to accelerate away from the traffic lights even with the engine revving (much like a slipping clutch) but was still able to move off. Came to the next lights in front of Palm Springs and lagi worse. Worried that the car would not be able to make it up the hill. Managed to go all the way to the Curve and decided to park the car and go for dinner first and deal with the car after dinner. After entering the parking lot the car could not even crawl over the speed bump near the ticket machine. Had to reverse and then charge forward over the bump.Anyway..... went to dinner and after dinner tried driving the car and it felt ok. No more slipping etc. Drove back to the house and to work the next day and started to look for a gearbox specialist.Actual grandfather/grandmother story:After doing some research on gearbox specialists I decided to go check out M-Scope in Batu Caves for an opinion on my gearbox. Met up with the boss Mr. Tan (Ah Hwong). Was quite impressed with the setup as they had an air conditioned workshop where they worked on the gearboxes and the work area was very clean and they only repaired gearboxes and nothing else. There was a gearbox in the process of being refurbished and he explained that it was likely the friction plates that were worn out and possibly some fault with the solenoids.I asked how much it would cost to repair and was quoted a 'maximum' worse case price. If there were parts that did not need to be replaced then the cost would be lower but there was no way of knowing until the box was opened up. Before any repairs would be carried out I would be asked to come back to the workshop and they will explain all the parts that must be replaced and other 'optional' parts that is better to replace as well.I did ask what was the difference between what they were doing and a recond gearbox. I was told that for a recond gearbox you don't know what parts are new and what parts have been reused whereas for them, the entire gearbox is disassembled and all the parts are checked and replaced with new parts as required. That is why they are confident enough to offer a 1 year warranty.Although the price quoted was not the lowest, they did have a 1 year warranty and they seemed very knowledgeable and professional so I decided to let them repair it.One day later, I was asked to come back to the workshop as they had disassembled my gearbox. They showed me all the parts which needed replacement and explained what was required to fix it. I told them that my main priority was to fix it properly one time and I did not want any other problems to reoccur so they recommended that the solenoids and the torque convertor be changed as well.The repair was completed a few days later and I went to pick up the car. After handing out a substantial amount of $$$. 
they issued me a warranty card and I drove the car back.What can I say? The results are much better than I expected. The shifts are silky smooth, can't even feel the shift from 2 to 3 and from 3 to 4. Better than new car. Very, very happy. Worth the money. :top:End of grandfather/grandmother story.....
they issued me a warranty card and I drove the car back.What can I say? The results are much better than I expected. The shifts are silky smooth, can't even feel the shift from 2 to 3 and from 3 to 4. Better than new car. Very, very happy. Worth the money. :top:End of grandfather/grandmother story.....
