Semi or Full Synthetic Motor Oil?

I am broke and it is only the 10th of the month! OMG! Babe & I took the car for its much needed service today as planned. We thought since this is the first time we change the gear oil, we better go to authorised service agents. After all, they are the one that know the car better than any other service center. Of course, we already expected it to be more pricey than others. In fact, we budgeted RM400 and that is already double of what I will usually pay to service my car usually.

However, little did I know, I will get the shock of my life. When we arrive, immediately this girl dressed in uniform and looking rather manly approach us with a clipboard, pen and calculator (I should have known when I see that calculator). In the car, before we got there, I reminded babe to asked how much everything will be first before we proceed to let them do their thing. Instead of telling us all this, the girl said, please give me 10 minutes so that my technician can check the car and we will let you know what we recommend.

I thought, hhmm..this is rather good. After all, how many mechanics will do that for you. All they will do is change whatever you ask them to without bothering to check if the rest of the stuff is ok. Of course, I was having some doubt already in case they start to give a long list of chnages recommended without having actually need to change them. True enough, that was what happened! At the end of the list, the total damage came up to RM630! Immediately I said, please ask him, I dont know anything about car. (CLEVER?)

Hahahaa..the reason is because babe is more fierce mar and better at saying no than me. So, he just right out tell them, please just change what I asked you to change and provide me with a list of what you recommend to change. So, instead of RM630 or the RM400 that we budgeted, end up paying RM500 for motor oil , filter , spark plug , gear oil , and air filter change. Inclusive, of course roughly RM50 for service & diagnostic charges! Geez

That was using Caltex semi-synthetic motor oil by the way. We thought we try the cheaper option and see if there is any difference compared to the full-synthetic motor oil. Price is RM93 and RM1903 respectively. The mechanics told us that it is recommended to change semi-synthetic every 5,000km or 3 months whichever first. For full, every 10,000km or 6 months whichever first. I think it all depend to how and where you drive the car to. And of course, different car will find different type of motor oil seems to be more effective for their car than others.

So far, after the gear and motor oil change, I am glad to report that the car is performing fantastically. Can hardly feel the gear change and pick up is much better. Before the change, the pick up was really sluggish and slowing down. It is worse when going up a hill and even a small slope will seems like the car is really struggling to move. So, I am glad to have done the necessary and I think maybe it is too soon to tell if the semi motor oil is good for the car. I will definitely let you all on the progress, if I remember....

After that we went to the IT Mall at PJ to shop for our wifi modem/router. Babe is starting to complain that I am hogging the laptop and internet. (Dont have ler! I let him use mar most of the time. I only use them for a short while only! Honest!!!) So babe paid RM225 for the modem/router and I paid RM40 for a USB port so that my blasted kuno wifi on my laptop can use the G type.

So, right now, we are sitting on the dining table in front of each other, doing whatever we want to do at our leisure. And of course gossip with each other in public using YM! Sitting right in front of me boh. Crazy or not? Cant believe that we see each other everyday and then talk everyday and yet can still talk on the YM when we are both online. hehehehehe...