PU car seat cover

The original beige colour fabric of Toyota Avanza 1.5 makes any dirty spot or stain on the car seats to be quite visible and difficult to clean up. As a result, I've covered the car seats with a layer of beige colour PU (polyurethane) car seat cover. This colour of car seat cover perfectly match with the car interior, and is very close to the original colour of the underneath fabric.

I purchased this PU car seat cover from Brothers at the price of RM380, and additional RM40 for installation. The product consists of PU covers that match with all the 3 rows of Toyota Avanza seat and also PU covers for all the headrests.

Dirty stains on this PU car seat cover can easily be cleaned, and it is also water resistant. However, the car seats will feel a little bit hotter under the sun, and need about 3 minutes to cool down after the air-cond is turned on. This is not too bad since I already have the tint film installed which eliminates heat from building up in the car due to sunlight.

Leather seat cover would be better than PU material, but the price is also much more higher. Beside this seat cover, AOCM also recommends another nice looking CarPro brand PU seat cover, which is almost the same price, available in JE Automart.

Jump start the flat battery of a car

It is always a good idea to keep a set of jump start cables in your car, in case somebody in the car park with flat battery need your help, or in case you are the unfortunate one. Try to get a thicker jump start cables which supports 400 cold crank Amps or above.

Here are the procedure to jump start a car with flat battery that I've learned.

Before jump starting:

1. Check the dead battery. Does it suffered from loose connection to alternator? Does it need to top up with distilled water? Fix the possible problem that has caused the battery to be flat. Sometimes you might find that replacing the dead battery directly is a better and/or safer solution than jump starting.
2. If there is white/green residue developed around the battery terminal, clean them out first. Don't touch it with your bare hand, wearing glove is a good idea.
   
3. Bring the car with charged battery to the front of the car that need jump starting, position so that both the batteries as close as possible.
4. Ensure the engine of both the cars are off. All the lamps, radio, air-conds, etc. should also be off.
5. Ensure that the hand brake of both cars are engaged.
   

Performing the jump start:

1. Clamp one end of the red-handled/positive jumper cable to the positive terminal (the one marked with the [+] sign) of the charged battery.
2. Clamp the other end of the red-handled cable to the positive terminal of the dead battery.
3. Clamp one end of the black-handled/negative cable to the negative terminal (the one marked with the [-] sign) of the charged battery.
   
4. Clamp the other end of the black-handled/negative cable to the metal part of the car with the dead battery. Clamp it somewhere where the current can ground out, such as unpainted bolt or bracket in the chassis. Caution: do not attach the black-handled/negative cable to the dead battery itself.
5. Start the car with the charged battery. Wait for a while.
   
6. Start the car with the dead battery. If it still doesn't start after several attempts, the jump start has failed, and it is time to call a tow truck or bring a new battery to the car for replacement.
7. Keep the engine of both the cars on.

After the jump start:

1. Remove the clamp of the black-handled/negative cable from the grounding point.
2. Remove the other end of the black-handled/negative cable from the negative terminal of the charged battery.
3. Remove the clamp of the red-handled/positive cable from the jump started battery.
4. Remove the other end of the red-handled/positive cable from the charged battery.
5. Put back the jump start cables into the car.
6. The car with dead battery should be immediately driven to workshop for checking. Do not turn off its engine before it reaches the destination. If the battery is still usable, it needs at least half an hour for recharging. Try driving the car at higher RPM for faster charging.
   

HISC5 of a typical middle class person

"HISC₅" is a new term created by me, which describes the main things a middle class of my age is living for. These 8 basic elements that make up the life of the middle class are:

House - this is our shelter, our home, where our family live and rest. For most people, it is also one of the largest expenses they've spent in their lifetime. Middle class like us always strive to earn a better life, and our house can always reflect our living taste from this endeavour.

Insurance - this is a necessity nowadays, we just can't escape from it. When we own a car, auto insurance is compulsory before the car can go on road. When we mortgage our house, the bank always make fire insurance a must. When we work for a company, we are somehow insured as part of the benefit package, covering medical, hospitalization, accident, life, etc. And most middle class purchases some insurance products - medical card, whole life, investment linked, education, endowment, annuity, ... just to name a few.

Spouse - this is our lifetime partner which light up our lives. Lives would be somehow incomplete without the involvement of spouse. Your voyage shouldn't be alone without a companion.

Children - your offspring which grows your family tree, bring you joy, bring you fun, and sometimes bring you anger too. You nurture them, see them grow and develop. Together with your spouse, they make up what you call a family. And living together in your house, making a home sweet home.

Career - this is the successive course that make up your working life, enable you to contribute your skillsets, bring you remunerations, build your professionalism, develop your reputation, and so on.

Car - this is the piece of metal with roof, seats and wheels which enable you and your family to travel around, seek for foods, visit to places, and go to work. It shelters you from rain and sun, even protects you to certain extend in case accident happened. Your family lives would be much more fantastic with it, especially during your vacation.

Credit card - this plastic card is convenient, for you to pay bills online, act as deposit mechanism to check in hotels, substitute your cash to buy things, and earn you some points for reward redemption. When used with care, it also helps you to build up your credit integrity, useful when you apply for loan.

Cash - you need this current assets to maintain all the above, and you should make your cash work hard for you to grow more and counter inflation.

Your social status is pretty much measured by your "HISC₅", but there is something much more important that forms the underlying foundation to all of them. Can you guess what is that? Yes, it is your health. The 8 elements above are basic that make up your life as middle class, and health is the essential element for all classes of mankind. Of course, there are other elements which are equally important as well, such as parents, brothers, sisters, neighbours, bloggers, relatives, friends, pets, etc.

Since these are the basic elements in our life voyage, you will notice that the sharings in my blog are encompassed with these "HISC₅+health".