Saturday, April 26, 2008

Information on the tyre wall

The car tyre is marked with various information on its wall, including the tyre size, load rating, speed limit, place of manufacture, time of manufacture, etc.

For example, the tyres originally come with Toyota Avanza 1.5 has the designation of 185/65R15 88S. This denotes the tire has:

  • section width of 185mm
  • aspect ratio of 65, which is calculated by its (height/width)
  • "R" for radial construction
  • rim diameter of 15 inches
  • load rating of 88, which can carry maximum weight of 560kg
  • speed rating "S", which the maximum safe speed is 180km/h






There is also a 4-digit batch number, or a code longer than 4-digit and the last 4 digits are numeric. The first two digits are the week of manufacture, and the last two digits are the year of manufacture. For example, a batch number of "1007" indicates the tyre was manufactured on the 10th week of year 2007.

The rubber of the tyre will degrade over time no matter it is being used or not. It is recommended to change tyres at most 6 years from their manufacture time. When you purchase new tyres, ensure that the tyres are manufactured less than 1 year so that you can use them for a longer time.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Toyota Avanza enhancement - cargo net

The boot space of Toyota Avanza is flexible. It could be just enough to store small things when the 3rd row seat is locked in place, and it could be very spacious when the 3rd row seat is folded forward.

To prevent things from falling out of the boot space when the door is opened, you can install a cargo net like this.



This cargo net is made with extensible Nylon ropes, and is slung to 4 hooks attached at each corner. It is easily detachable when not in use. The hooks can be attached to the car body with 3M double-sided tape, or optionally can be firmly secured with screw.

I could hardly find this cargo net in most car accessories shops, and finally found and purchased it with Eneos at 1-Utama.

Toyota Avanza enhancement - wing mirrors with LED signal lamp

The original wing mirrors of Toyota Avanza does not come with LED signal lamp. Recently, this wing mirrors with LED signal lamp is made available as an optional accessory by UMW Toyota.



Similar products are also available in car accessories shops such as Brothers, JE Automart, etc.

Hint: Click on the "Older Posts" link to continue reading, or click here for a listing of all my past 3 months articles.