DIY spark plug replacement

They say "Necessity is the mother of all invention", perhaps Necessity had another child named "DIY"!

In spite of being somewhat of a "car-guy", I must admit I don't have much actual hands-on experience up to now, as most of the tinkering and mods are done by the professionals, of who I make a quick shout out below:-

- Desmond's team @ KL Auto (and various subcontractors) - just about everything else

- Leon's team @ Quicksave - tires and rims

- David Low @ Melaka - our trusted family mechanic for standard services and repairs

- GS Tay Honda Muar - where my Honda Civic gets preventive maintenance work done (in spite of being well over the warranty period)

Now, back to the story....

I noticed that one of my cars was getting harder and harder to start, and lately, the engine sputters and dies off. This was happening at an increasing frequency (which was alarming and down-right dangerous). The first time this happened, I checked my ignition cables, and found that one of them was badly damaged, to the point where the inner copper core was visible. At this point, I would not risk driving any long distance until I fixed the problem. Not good - but fortunately, Desmond has a spare set and DHL-ed it to me. Changing the cables was fairly easy and straight forward. Of course, in order to avoid connecting the wrong cable to the wrong spark plug, do change one cable at a time, as I did.

Now, this time round, the cables were still good, but the familiar symptoms began to recur. As it was again risky to drive up to KL Auto for a check, plus we're in the middle of the MCO (Movement Control Order) lock-down, I figured out that it could be the spark plugs instead. Hopefully....

This time round, I tried something different. After extensive checking on spark plugs (believe me, there are many variations out there depending on your car, so getting the wrong ones would be disastrous), I ordered some through Shopee and waited patiently for them to arrive. A good thing that online shopping still worked, though the courier service was a little slow given the current circumstances.

When the parts finally arrived, I got out my tools and popped the hood. Though the procedure was easy, this was the first time I ever did it myself. Having taken out the first plug, I noticed 2 things. Firstly, the tip of the spark plug electrode was almost worn out completely. Instead of a cylindrical shape, the old plug was now resembling a concave cone (like the back side of a Herschey's Kisses chocolate). Secondly, from the screw threads right to the tip, the plug was blackened. This indicated that there could be something else wrong besides the plugs. Take a look at the photo below - the old one is on the left, next to the new one on the right.

Anyway, I managed to swap the old plugs out and screw in the new ones in under 15 minutes - being very careful to screw in the plugs so I won't damage the threads and also risk under / over tightening them.

Once done, I turned the key to on and then fired her up. I was extremely relieved that the engine came on and idled smoothly once again. My first DIY spark plug replacement successfully executed!

Though I knew there's more to fix than I could DIY, at least I got her up and running again. Will plan a trip down to KL Auto as soon as this MCO is lifted so the experts could take a look.

MCO Phase 4 (3rd extension) - holding on for a little while longer

The end of the Movement Control Order (MCO) was in sight, and, unsurprisingly, once again, the finish line has been moved back by another 2 weeks. The 3rd extension brings into effect MCO Phase 4 from 29 April 2020 to 12 May 2020. Yesterday, the Phillipines has also followed suite and extended the lockdown of Manila until 15 May 2020. Quite similar to Singapore's extension of the "circuit breaker" ending from 4 May 2020 to 1 Jun 2020.

As i blogged my thoughts two weeks ago, businesses were already getting restless due to the long stretch of inactivity, with running costs to upkeep it's dormant workforce eating into their reserves. This further extension further aggravates the situation, though many manufacturers (particularly those from the automotive manufacturing industry) have quickly converted their production lines to manufacture face masks, ventilators, and other relevant health equipment. This has a two-fold benefit of both generating income and keeping their workforce productive.

Unfortunately, this latest extension crosses into Ramadan, the fasting month for Muslims which started yesterday (24 April 2020). Life just got one level tougher for our Muslim brothers and sisters, though most of them are very positive and take this as form of divine challenge to strengthen their resolve. In order to ensure social distancing, the usual Pasar Ramadans (food bazaar) are not allowed this year, and the government is working hard to enable and online solution for the traditional food sellers.

Now, this is somewhat of a relief to me and my family. Prior to the announcement, we were thinking of how to handle going back to work when schools were to remain closed (the government would make a separate announcement when schools would resume, 2 weeks ahead of the starting date). This meant that while parents like us go back to work, the kids would have to be at home, as day care and baby sitter functions are not likely to resume. My company had already planned to split the workforce into 2 alternative shifts rotating weekly between working from home and being in the office. This extension buys us some time, though ultimately the day will come when we have to face this issue and find a solution.

Somehow, we have gotten used to the life staying at home, and also working from home (WFH)as well. Can't say the same for others, as I still observe some people taking regular morning and evening walks around my housing estate. I hope that they do not get arrested by the Police, a real risk as there have been many cases in Malaysia daily. Having limited detention space, the authorities also consider a fine of RM1000 for those violating the MCO rules.

Speaking of WFH, just to add to my recent thoughts which you can read over here, as long as the telcos are kind enough to stick to their commitment of daily free data (which is sufficient to carry out teleconferences and file access online), working from home is "manageable". I use this term, as in my own experience the quality of the connection is intermittent - sometimes, impossible to do anything in real-time (like voice and desktop sharing). I'm using the wireless broadband from my phone as a WIFI hotspot. Especially challenging when you present your desktop, and try to speak and scroll around all at the same time. Your own mileage might vary, and if you have a wired connection, I guess you should be luckier than me. I use roughly 1 Gb of data per day, so for a typical 4-week month, that comes up to ~20 Gb. Soyacincau.com has put up a good comparison of the free data + extras offered by the major telcos in Malaysia over here. On the bare minimum, all of them offer 1 Gb of free data per day from 8am to 6pm (enough for doing work during regular office hours). For most of them, either it's automatically given or a one-off request through their app or SMS. Maxis is the most troublesome, as you have to use the app to apply each day after midnight. For those with kids in school, YTL has a good offer of a 40 Gb / month free data plan for 60 days (check it out here). And for those "big kids", Telekom is offering a good deal (RM59/month for unlimited data) to those pursuing tertiary education at selected institutes of higher learning (read more over here).

In any case, with everyone using the Internet, I guess this is somewhat expected. All the more reason for the world to speed up on the adoption of 5G technology (US and Huawei better get their act together and align once this is over). In the mean time, entertainment companies such as Netflix are reducing their bitrates of their streaming services, since the "width of the pipe" is not going to get bigger any time soon. Youtube has also followed this move, though I'm not sure if Europe alone is sufficient since America and Asia are also likely to consume high volumes of data.

As businesses become more restless, people are also becoming increasingly uncomfortable, as it looks like Hari Raya this year will be a anti-climax of a celebration after a month of fasting. The government is also working to restart the economy by gradually relaxing the controls that are in place. For several days now, the number of new confirmed cases in Malaysia has been in dual digit figures, though it is still to early to lift the MCO completely.

Even after this is done, it is certain that we will not go back to the life as before - there will definitely be long-lasting or even permanent changes to our social and travel aspects of life!

"No connection dinosaur" - new high score

Ironically, after my telco shortly before lunch today, my internet connection suddenly went spotty. Instead of giving up and going downstairs to eat (still at home during this MCO phase 3, after all), I tried my luck again at another game with the monochrome T-rex on my Chrome browser.

This is not the first time playing this game, but only since these few weeks do I see this very often (due to the intermittently poor connection to the Internet via wireless hotspot connection). Not sure if this is due to the telco infrastructure (both Digi and Maxis give similar results) or if my house is poorly located.

Today, I managed to break my old record from 2 weeks ago, and reached a new high score of 4162! 😀

Yep, a cactus in the face ended my run (again). Haha, either I am getting more patient, or getting better with more practice. Maybe I have to find some different hobbies to get through this lengthy home-isolation due to MCO. Any recommendations?

Well, for any of you out there who are in the same boat as me, perhaps you too have become increasingly proficient in this game...! 😁

MCO Phase 3 - Businesses getting restless

It's 15 April 2020 - Melaka Historical City Day! It's a public holiday for us in Melaka, to commemorate the declaration of Melaka as a historical city by UNESCO in 2008. Interestingly, this was inscribed together with George Town, Penang, but somehow it's only a holiday in Melaka. For the rest of Malaysia, instead of going back out into the world (and into the office, for most of us), instead today marks the start of MCO (Movement Control Order) Phase 3. This extension is from 15 April to 28 April 2020, and is expected to be a step up in terms of measures and controls implemented during the month long "Stay at Home" initiative.

For businesses, in principle only "essential" supplies and services are allowed to operate (this itself with some degree of ambiguity) with the approval of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). Ironically, MITI takes care of the approval of "Internal"/local business activities too. As businesses are not allowed to cut pay, force staff to take unpaid leave, retrench / lay off staff, there is increasing financial pressure to remain in business through this MCO period.

For my company, being a multi-national semiconductor manufacturer, some of the departments which are not limited to that in Malaysia are able to operate (sometimes with reduced activities) by "Working from Home" (WFH). Of course, we have a manufacturing plant here, which I just realised also supplies parts for ventilators! So, for the respective production staff, work goes on....

However, many businesses in Malaysia are not in such a situation. From the start, there have been concerns from businesses on how to stay afloat. The key focus points / grouses:-

1. Cost-avoidance: Appealing to defer rental, loan repayments and other costs during this period
Coming from: Most SME's, typically in hand to mouth situation

2. Continued payment: Argument here is that the monthly payments are in fact a division of cost across the entire year, hence should be paid even during this time
Coming from: School bus operators (though they are open for negotiations), day care centers

3. Allowed to work: The strict requirements, including limited workforce and measures (sanitizing, social distancing) are no deterrent to several businesses who seek to restart activities to offset fixed costs
Coming from: Manufacturing, Agricultural sector

4. Government bail-out: Citing loss of income, appealing to the government for aid
Coming from: Taxi Association

As the prolonged MCO has shifted the economy back to first gear, it is crucial to have a plan to restart the businesses as soon as possible to minimize the effects of recession. Of course, the challenge is to clearly define which business could resume operations, and how to enforce this effectively.

Our company management has already drawn up some elaborate plans to ensure social distancing and the necessary precautions can be taken once the MCO is lifted. Still too early to deploy, as the end of the MCO series is not yet in sight, but good to know we have a very proactive management team!

Initially, MITI did announce that barbers, hair saloons would be allowed to operate, much to the surprise of the community. Unsurprisingly, most Malaysians did not understand how this sector of business could qualify as essential, and also how social distancing could be maintained (eg, while having a hair cut). Even the association of barbers themselves refused to go back into business, even though it was apparently allowed. Better to stay safe and healthy rather than take the risk! Eventually, this was retracted by the government.

On the other hand, there are many, many businesses that seek to restart, as there were so many applications to the MITI website over HERE that it crashed shortly after opening on Monday (13 April 2020). I don't have a breakdown of the applicants, so it could be a mixture of essential businesses which still needed MITI approval, or simply those who wished to try their luck.

Not everything is bleak and disastrous. For certain businesses, namely e-commerce (Lazada, Shopee) and logistics (DHL, FedEx, Grabfood, Food Panda), the MCO has temporarily put competition on hold and causes a surge in clients. Some are even adapting and evolving their businesses to the current situation, such as Lazada, which has started to sell produce from Cameron Highlands which would otherwise go to waste. With Hari Raya just around the corner, the annual Pasar Ramadans are no longer allowed to operate this year due to the CoVid-19 situation, however, the authorities are offering support to business owners to go online so that they can continue to sell food during the Puasa month - a yearly phase where there is a significant potential for income.

The only risks now are running out of inventory, hitting bottlenecks in the supply chain (ie, not enough delivery channels) and compromising quality of service. For now, people are switching because they have no choice - whether or not these business make a lasting positive impression and experience to permanently secure their new customer base is entirely up to how they perform in these times.

For us, I would say our manufacturing is somewhat affected, but we still manage to continue where our business partners, situated in other countries, are allowed to resume operations. Example, those in China are cautiously back to work, while on the other hand those in Philippines are basically in the same boat as us.

Are you a business owner who would like to share your experience in these troubled times, or perhaps you are a wage-earner like me who is dependent on the employer to bring us through?

Movement Control Order - 2nd extension

As officially announced yesterday at 4pm, the nation-wide MCO (Movement Control Order) here in Malaysia has been extended for a second time for an additional 2 weeks. This means the end of the MCO has been extended from 14 April to 28 April.

Even before the announcement, judging from the daily new confirmed cases alone, it would be a real surprise if the MCO would be ended as planned.

Extending into the 3rd phase of MCO will not be a case of "more of the same", as this state of economic stasis cannot be sustained indefinitely. As essential supply chains are disrupted, its only a matter of time before food, medical supplies and other consumables run out.

The definition of "essential" remains somewhat ambiguous. The government has published a list of permitted industries, and those that were not listed would be allowed to appeal from Monday (13 April). However, this then opens up a can of worms, as there is little transparency of how such appeals are handled. Also there will be some bad-hearted parties who will object that approval is given to some. Thus, I expect this list to be somewhat dynamic (not counting exceptions) so do check the official government websites and sources for the latest info.

The key problem statement is how to resume daily functions with adequate controls without compromising the social distancing and other necessary measures. Besides restarting essential supply chains, businesses cannot afford to continue paying their staff for doing nothing. As they are not allowed to take any measures such as terminating staff, closure remains the only realistic option, which will then leave people jobless instead of just short of income. This sadly would be a real case of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. On the other hand, businesses like day care and school buses are insisting that they still be paid in full throughout the MCO period. So, everyone is being pressed and doing their best to stay afloat in these difficult times.

As of today, this is a tough challenge which no country has a clear solution. With the reopening of Wuhan, China today is taking the first steps into uncharted waters, and I hope China will be successful and that we can all learn from the experience.

One thing is clear - everyone, from the leaders down to the common folk like us, has to do their part and act responsibly, if we are to overcome this global pandemic.

Every day, there is still news of people arrested and fined (as space in detention is fast becoming a bottleneck), their numbers far exceeding the confirmed cases. I also observe inconsiderate people in the neighbourhood still going for morning and evening walks, and even stopping to chat with anyone they bump into. No doubt they share the same shallow thinking with the doctor and engineer who was jogging in Penang as well as the Shah Alam City Council member and friends who were playing badminton. Perhaps the police should start patrolling rather than just set up static road blocks...?

Back home, how does the news of extension bode for us? Well, the kids are getting started with their online lessons, though the teachers are the ones with the most challenges - having to master online teaching tools. Most of the lessons are a form of watching online video lessons followed by questions. Haha, for now, the videos are not of the teachers themselves, but some 3rd party. Not like what I've seen on social media for China, where some videos are starring the teachers themselves. But I don't blame them - even for me, presenting a Powerpoint slide online is no problem, but live (or even recorded) video feed is a completely different and new experience. Unless you are a seasoned vlogger on youtube, you'd probably keep comfortably off-screen....

For me, life during MCO is quite routine, occasionally starting my car to break the monotony. Working from home is still possible, and major telcos like Digi and Maxis are kind enough to offer free data daily from 8am to 6pm, which is sufficient to get a day's work done. The network speed can get slow at time, making teleconferencing a choppy affair. With the extension of the MCO to 28 April, I hope the free data plan offer would also be extended accordingly - otherwise, will have to incur a bit of cost. It would be interesting to calculate the daily cost of working from home versus the usual working at office (factoring in costs such as refueling and parking)....

Well, the first MCO clamped down on our daily lives and started us working from home. The second MCO (14 day extension) limited our movement to within 10km of our homes and with valid reason only. Let's see how the next two weeks go along in the 3rd episode of the MCO trilogy - hope we start to see the light the end of the tunnel (as Donald Trump aptly puts it) or maybe we'll see yet another extension - but even then, life after this pandemic will unlikely to be the same as before!

Red alert for Melaka (Covid-19 situation)

Just as news of the MCO (Movement Control Order) extension by an additional 2 weeks hit us (a bitter pill to swallow, but not completely unexpected), today the number of cases in our district of Melaka Tengah exceeded 40 cases, effectively putting us into the Red Zone.

The zone classifications are as follows:

• Green - No detection
• Yellow - Between 1 to 19 detections
• Orange - Between 20 to 40 detections
• Red - 41 detections and above

There are 3 districts in Melaka - prior to this Jasin had already gone into Red, and Alor Gajah was edging closer to the upper limit of Orange too, as reported on the FreeMalaysiaToday website. If you look at the map of Peninsular Malaysia below sourced from the KKM (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia), this generally means the overall situation in Melaka (which is a relatively small state compared to its immediate neighbours Negeri Sembilan and Johor) is quite alarming!

As you can see, the central and southern states are quite badly affected. There are 4 green zones where there are no detections so far - let's hope it stays that way.

For us, this means definitely having to be extra careful when going out for the essentials (food and other supplies)!

Having a bit of fun with "No connection dinosaur"

As almost everyone is on the Internet, it's no surprise that the line quality and connectivity can be intermittent at times. For Chrome browser users, when this happens, you will see the familiar game in your browser window (sorry IE users).

My daughter coined the name "no connection dinosaur", for obvious reasons, but upon digging further, found out that the monochrome T-rex is officially known as the Chrome dinosaur offline game, and even got the nickname “Project Bolan” in honor of Marc Bolan, the frontman of “T-Rex’, a legendary rock band of the 1970s.

It's one of those overly simplistic but addictive games with only two buttons to control. Space bar to jump and down arrow to duck - I only recently found out about the duck move today while researching further, but honestly never found a need to use it. If you hit the cactus or pterodactyl, game over (as shown below when my T-rex decided to kiss the cactus):

Well, today, managed to get my highest score yet: 01633. May not be a great achievement for some of you, but haha, I guess this is the highest I would ever score. Hopefully, either my Internet connection improves, or I run out of patience....

How about all of you out there - do you have any better luck (or skill) playing this game? If you do, feel free to drop a comment down below.