eyepea

Got 4 new tires. They had a red dot and a yellow dot marked on the tire wall. Tire shop guy mounted 3 tires on the wheels such that more or less the red dot was aligned with the tire valve. On those tires, the yellow dot was quite close to the red dot. So perhaps it could be the yellow dot that was aligned with the tire valve. But as I see it, the red dot was closer. On the 4th tire, the angle of separation between the red dot and the yellow dot was a bit less than 180 deg. Tire shop guy aligned the yellow dot with the tire valve. I asked why not the red dot and the guy said it should be yellow dot. Subsequently all wheels were balanced. Also all tire valves (whole valve - stem and all - rubber type) were replaced too. Afterwards on googling info on red dots and yellow dots, what I gathered from a few sites was that when mounting the tire, the yellow dot should be aligned with the tire valve but if a red dot is present, that should be aligned with the tire valve. (1) Is this correct? Then the tire shop guy was wrong and knew only part of the method. (2) Now that the 4th tire is "balanced", does it matter whether the valve stem was aligned to the yellow dot and not the red dot ? I did not test out at highway speeds yet, but did not feel any significant vibration upto say about 70 kmph. But am no expert. If this matters, I will need to get the tire re-mounted and balanced before the dots get fully wiped off. (3) Is it recommended to change the whole tire value when replacing with a new tire? I ask because, afterwards, I heard some bad stories of cheap tire valves failing.. So wondered if the tire valves that came with the car from japan, even though old (say 10 years or more) would have been better than new cheap tire valves available in tire shops. I can not turn back time, but for other vehicles I can be more cautious. Thanks

Is requiring a gps tracker a trend with leasing companies now? A minus point i see in this is that all kinds of people (irresponsible, unprofessional.... and totally unwanted, etc etc) can track all your movements. If "posible" I would opt for a leasing company that does not require me to fit a tracker. When I leased a vehicle last, many years ago, luckily gps was banned :-).

For those who may be interested... Went on A12 few days ago, passed the elephant areas may be about 7:30pm. Did not come across any elephants though. I suppose that is early for any to be about. Btw some place between putlam and aunuradapura (forget exact place) one lane is under repair. But not a concern as there was hardly any traffic.

Old thread, but I suppose the info may be useful to some, even now. (I never got to make the trip on the A12 last Dec and last few school holidays went elsewhere. May be perhaps next school holiday will take the A12 ) Heard of an elephant attacking a van on the A12 road a few days ago. Some of you may have seen the news, and some of you may have not. http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36684/wild-elephant-attack-on-van-death-toll-climbs-to-2 http://www.hirunews.lk/141588/child-succumb-to-his-injuries-following-karuwalagaswewa-elephant-attack I suppose the time of the incident, speed and ignoring warnings are noteworthy. https://www.google.lk/maps/place/Mee+Oya+Bridge/@8.0454385,79.9226903,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x3afd182900a23283:0xb584d150724a752e!8m2!3d8.0452444!4d79.9220932 On google street view near Mee Oya bridge, can see an electric fence on one side of the road clearly, but did not see on the other side. May be I missed it. Hmm just wondered how the elephants get to the road.

Try m*t*rcade braybrook plc. They had some several years ago. Anyway u could check with them.

ok thanks. will monitor. tnx.

Tyre has done about 25k km. Davy is right, there is a small bump on the sidewall. Ugh! Yep going to replace it. Oh well, now to find the $$ Many thanks for the input guys.

Had a Tyre puncture. OK no big deal. Went to a Tyre repair shop and got it patched. Nothing to write about. But later I googled about Tyre punctures and now am a bit worried due to reasons below. Hence the questions. The puncture was caused by a bolt about 3" long and a bit thick in diameter. I did not bother to measure it and threw it away at the Tyre repair shop. It was about 8mm dia. My previous experience with punctures are with very much smaller screws etc which were fixed with a plug type repair done from the outside of the Tyre. Tyre repair place said since hole is big, a plug won't do and a patch has to be done from the inside of the Tyre. Such a repair was done where a heated press was used for about 20 - 30 mins. A pic of the Tyre after repair is here : I hope it is clear enough. Concern #1: The info from the web in general says if hole is more than 6mm or 1/4 inch, do not patch. Replace Tyre. Well I wonder if there can be black and white definitions, where a 5.5mm hole is safe to patch and a 6.5mm hole is unsafe to patch. I suppose these are guidelines but numbers like less than 6mm have to be used to give the idea. Also this info may be for higher speeds in USA, Europe etc, than in an SL context. Hole is bigger than 6mm but less than 10mm, perhaps 8mm and a precise measurement can not be made. Is strict compliance of guidelines better? For the moment this Tyre is used in Colombo traffic. Tyre repair bass 'thinks' OK. What is your opinion please ? Would you do 100kmph on a highway with this Tyre ? Concern #2: The hole in the Tyre is not filled from the outside. The info from the web says the hole shaft has to be fully filled. I hope I understood the info correctly. The Tyre repair bass says this is the way they repair and no need to fill from the outside and it is OK. I have no experience in getting Tyre repairs for holes this size. But from what I see, I don't feel comfortable with it. Since that spot is a bit soft, I feel that a piece of rock like a typical kalu gal piece about 1" in size with a sharp corner, found in the road side 'may' damage the patch applied from the inside. I wonder if the pic is clear enough (if you zoom it). Is any filling from the outside done when Tyres are repaired (here in SL) ? Or it does not matter ? What is your opinion please? Safety is a major concern. I wish to make an educated decision on replacing the Tyre. I feel replacing the Tyre (I guess it will have to be two Tyres) just for any hole in the Tyre that can be safely repaired is a waste. But if it is safer to replace the Tyre I will do that. Your ideas and advice are most appreciated. Thanks!

Appreciate some advice on the following please: I bought my vehicle on a lease from a bank several years ago. The lease was paid up and finished, a couple of years ago. At that time, I got both the reg certificate and a letter from the bank stating they are no longer interested in the vehicle etc. The reg certificate stated the absolute owner as the bank and current owner as I. I was supposed to go to the RMV and get this changed. Somehow it got postponed and I completely forgot about it. How important is it to make the above name changes ? (Am still using the vehicle and do not intend to sell it in the near future). What are the negative consequences if any that I may be faced with if I don't change the names in a hurry ? Thanks

ok. Thanks for the info

Lot of helpful info. I hope everyone will continue to update this thread of any new areas. Located Thabbowa lake - Karuwalagaswewa area on A12. Tnx. Other areas mentioned too would be helpful when planing trips. Any Google map experts in AL? Wonder if we could add elephant zones like construction zones that are shown when getting driving directions . Many thanks!

Anyone driven on the A12, Puttalam - Anuradhapura road during night time ? Someone asked me to beware of wild elephants crossing this road at night. Just wondering if it is some leg pulling or something to be of a concern. Being concerned of elephants crossing the road may sound funny to some and being chicken to some others. I have experience some time ago where car was chased by a cow and was butted. I think a calf got scared and the cow decided to attack the threat. Nothing to be afraid of about a cow, but resulted in some damage to the car body. But personally, I don't want to find out what kind of damage an elephant may cause to a car first hand :-). So anyone's experience on meeting elephants on roads, would be useful, specially how you tackled it (engine off, lights off, keep quiet or make a dash or charge at the elephant ;-) ?). If anyone is aware of any main roads, areas to be best avoided at times like dusk or traveled as a vehicle group at certain times, that too would be useful when planing routes. Please be specific about the areas / stretch of road. Sometimes avoiding them would be better. Consider a situation where stopping and staying silent would make the elephants just go their way but you have a kid in the car and the kid screams. The elephant might react? Few months back, there was tv news on elephants attacking villages in some areas. What am interested in is more relevant to main roads rather than villages. Anyway village areas too would be helpful in a way. Thanks.

Found the post i think : http://forum.autolanka.com/topic/6737-air-condition-refill/?p=100530 Still any other comments are welcome. Thanks.

Anyone any experience with Tharaka auto A/C, down pannipitiya road from battaramulla junction pls ? (This place is opposite potato-estate garage). I remember reading a post on this place in AL long time back, but could not locate. A search gives me Tharaka auto windscreen in nugegoda, which is not what I am looking for. Someone mentioned this place for car air con service. I would appreciate any comments from AL members too. Thanks.

when using cctv, has anyone considered remote recording ? Is this easy to implement? I heard of a hardware shop that had cctv. Burger had located and taken the DVR.

Ah yep! almost forgot parking under hot sun. Guess (?) in dash units are built to withstand the heat. I suppose nav units that are mounted on the dash or windscreen are designed to withstand the heat too (depending on the brand). That is an option to consider. I do prefer an Android unit. But any comments from guys using Garmin or other units from SA** or any other place are welcome (specially regarding the heat issue if you are leaving the unit permanently fixed in the car while parked and while driving) ? Few of the minor points for me to look for an in dash nav unit is that in my current set up, once in a while the suction cup slips down the windscreen due to the heat (may be due to cheap phone holders in the market) and the smartphone screen freezes due to heat (I presume due to heat since at cooler times and night have not experienced so far). I do not have any heat film applied to my windscreen yet. (Something to try). Bit of fun when it happens while driving and following a route. Actually may be more fun than when you get the 'GPS signal lost' error msg :-D. Thanks, had a peek.

Interesting idea :-) Currently am using a smart phone for the navigation. When mounted on the windscreen, on long trips it has heating problems. If mounted near a/c vents lower down on the dashboard to solve the heating issues, the sky view for the gps antenna is rather restricted. These issues and of course forgetting to pocket the phone when getting out :-D and a few other points are what made me look into android car units. Usually android devices designed for double din installation comes with a separate gps antenna than can be located elsewhere. I doubt if usual android phones allow an external gps receiver to be connected. Perhaps specific devices do. Of course whether mounting the phablet on the 2din opening will be a concern may depend on the dashboard.

If you are using an Android car in dash radio / navigation unit, could you please share your experience / comments etc on the unit please ? The kind of thing am referring to is something like this -> http://www.amazon.com/ALL-Touch-none-Disc-Capacitive-Multi-Touch-Navigation/dp/B00WWM7E58/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1439564946&sr=8-14&keywords=%2Bandroid+car+double+din+radio+navigation+no+dvd (pls note this is just an example). If the link is too much of a bother, just searching for android car radio navigation in amazon.com would give you similar items. Thanks!

Once I drove with a rear almost flat tire and did not notice it until a pedestrian pointed it out. I was moving slowly (kind of speed when looking at house numbers) on a well paved lane. And the distance traveled would have been about 100m. Btw, it is rear wheel driven vehicle. I put this down to my inexperience. When there is a significant pressure difference between the front tires, I have experienced a pull to one side. Sometime the car feels extra bumpy. So I think that if a front tire goes flat and moving fast, I may notice it. But am wondering what symptoms should I feel, if a rear tire is flat or almost flat ? (depending on speed, road surface, front/rear wheel drive etc) Above point I presume may be for a front tire? thanks

thanks guys!

Thanks. Small car - nissan march k11. Front Tyre. (so may be engine weight). May have been flat for max 1 hour or less. Aha that is good. Many thanks for the clarifications.

One tyre was fully flat. Not due to puncture, but issue with loose valve. Valve tightened and tyre was inflated. During inflating, air leaked out between rim and bead and tyre would not inflate. This was due to tyre being deformed under weight of vehicle. (Perhaps I should have jacked up vehicle a little before inflating). Had to block gap between rim and bead temporally to get any air in. Could reduce air leak from gap with a few figures. So that would give an idea of size of gap. As a certain amount of air got in, tyre regained shape and leak between rim and bead stopped. Finally tyre inflated. OK. This is obviously nothing to talk about although it was the first time I encountered it. I can't see anything unusual and pressure has not noticeably dropped so far as per pressure gauge. Of course if the tyre was significantly off the wheel, I would have to get it re-mounted. My question is : Since only a temporary gap occurred between wheel rim and tyre bead and so far no air leak noticed between bead and rim, do I need to bother getting tyre re-mounted / re-seated on wheel ? Or nothing to bother about?. (At tyre shops, when mounting tyres on wheels, I have noted that after placing tyre on rim, air is pumped in and the pressure will hold the bead against the rim. But there the tyre is placed more or less uniformly on the rim. My concern is, can a tyre be held against the rim due to the air pressure and without any leak and still be kind of out of alignment ?. Not a big deal to go to a tyre shop and getting tyre checked, but I need to change my travel plans a bit to do that, hence the question) Thanks

Yep, totally agree. Thanks for the info links.

Has anyone used a dash cam video as evidence in courts in SL ? If so nice if you can share your experience w.r.t the camera and the recording pls. As I have heard (which may be right or wrong), to claim insurance from the other party, one needs to go through a court case and be proved that the other party was wrong. Just curious bcos ... Sometime back at an exhibition, the police were showing video recordings of accidents from cameras located at various junctions. I asked a police officer whether a dash cam recording is considered as evidence. He said yes (but pls kindly check this and don't go by what I said), but it is up to you to prove that the video recording is genuine as the other party can question it. Yet to follow up on that though. which returns me to the topic of dash cams ... :-) I tried out a dash cam (cheap ++ ) that I picked up from Fort some time back. Had several concerns - froze when the unit got hot (no pun intended) - was running off 12v. Well if no recording, nothing to show in courts unless i drove every day, the battery charge could not keep the settings till next time, which meant the date and time got reset. So if you forgot to set it, the date and time on the recording is wrong. What would courts say if date time wrong in recording. could read number plate of car right in front. Not clear enough or can't read at all for cars on the side or some distance away. so on a hit and run case or another situation, no number plate to show in the recording. May be only color of car, possibly make and any dents to go by in courts. So can't show number plate of car. (hmm anyway, if another car came from the side and hit you, the camera may not record the number plate or anything, unless you have a camera setup that covers 360 deg :-> ) What are your ideas and experience ?

ok thanks for the info.