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My Latio AT felt jerky this morning when I drove to work. Went direct to AD as its near my office. They told me the ignition coil and spark plugs need to be replaced. Est $900. Went to a small motor shop and the uncle who had a nissan diagnostic computer told me only 1 ignition coil need to change. Est $100 plus. However, spares are available only on Monday. Anyone knows if driving with one misfiring coil will damage the engine?

Hi, anyone knows or experience having installed with different tyre/tires compound on the car even though tires of the same brand? Recently I went back to the same tyre shop that I have patronized for last 3 years but this round, I got bad experience as the tyre were installed with different compound. (Initially all MO and rear tyres need to replaced. It was replaced with 1 N2 and 1 AM8 by KH tyre shop!! at ubi) less than 2weeks, I realised the drive was different esp. on corner and wet floor (these few days raining). I started making inquiry and read a lot online and I understand that its important not to have mix component. I went back to the tyre shop and damn unscrupulous owner gave lots of excuse. **shall elaborate the excuses given by the scheming tyre shop owner** sucks, bulls**t excuses I was told if any accident with root cause related to the tyre will have the insurance void as the tyres were not meant to be mixed! apart from this important factor. All bro, can tell me what to do?? any advice and action that I can take?

http://www.edn.com/design/automotive/4423428/Toyota-s-killer-firmware--Bad-design-and-its-consequences Toyota's killer firmware: Bad design and its consequences Michael Dunn - October 28, 2013 70 Comments On Thursday October 24, 2013, an Oklahoma court ruled against Toyota in a case of unintended acceleration that lead to the death of one the occupants. Central to the trial was the Engine Control Module's (ECM) firmware. Embedded software used to be low-level code we'd bang together using C or assembler. These days, even a relatively straightforward, albeit critical, task like throttle control is likely to use a sophisticated RTOS and tens of thousands of lines of code. With all this sophistication, standards and practices for design, coding, and testing become paramount – especially when the function involved is safety-critical. Failure is not an option. It is something to be contained and benign. So what happens when an automaker decides to wing it and play by their own rules? To disregard the rigorous standards, best practices, and checks and balances required of such software (and hardware) design? People are killed, reputations ruined, and billions of dollars are paid out. That's what happens. Here's the story of some software that arguably never should have been. For the bulk of this research, EDN consulted Michael Barr, CTO and co-founder of Barr Group, an embedded systems consulting firm, last week. As a primary expert witness for the plaintiffs, the in-depth analysis conducted by Barr and his colleagues illuminates a shameful example of software design and development, and provides a cautionary tale to all involved in safety-critical development, whether that be for automotive, medical, aerospace, or anywhere else where failure is not tolerable. Barr is an experienced developer, consultant, former professor, editor, blogger, and author. Barr's ultimate conclusions were that: Toyota’s electronic throttle control system (ETCS) source code is of unreasonable quality. Toyota’s source code is defective and contains bugs, including bugs that can cause unintended acceleration (UA). Code-quality metrics predict presence of additional bugs. Toyota’s fail safes are defective and inadequate (referring to them as a “house of cards” safety architecture). Misbehaviors of Toyota’s ETCS are a cause of UA. A damning summary to say the least. Let's look at what lead him to these conclusions: Hardware Although the investigation focused almost entirely on software, there is at least one HW factor: Toyota claimed the 2005 Camry's main CPU had error detecting and correcting (EDAC) RAM. It didn't. EDAC, or at least parity RAM, is relatively easy and low-cost insurance for safety-critical systems. Other cases of throttle malfunction have been linked to tin whiskers in the accelerator pedal sensor. This does not seem to have been the case here. The Camry ECM board. U2 is a NEC (now Renesas) V850 microcontroller. Software The ECM software formed the core of the technical investigation. What follows is a list of the key findings. Mirroring (where key data is written to redundant variables) was not always done. This gains extra significance in light of … Stack overflow. Toyota claimed only 41% of the allocated stack space was being used. Barr's investigation showed that 94% was closer to the truth. On top of that, stack-killing, MISRA-C rule-violating recursion was found in the code, and the CPU doesn't incorporate memory protection to guard against stack overflow. Two key items were not mirrored: The RTOS' critical internal data structures; and—the most important bytes of all, the final result of all this firmware—the TargetThrottleAngle global variable. Although Toyota had performed a stack analysis, Barr concluded the automaker had completely botched it. Toyota missed some of the calls made via pointer, missed stack usage by library and assembly functions (about 350 in total), and missed RTOS use during task switching. They also failed to perform run-time stack monitoring. Toyota's ETCS used a version of OSEK, which is an automotive standard RTOS API. For some reason, though, the CPU vendor-supplied version was not certified compliant. Unintentional RTOS task shutdown was heavily investigated as a potential source of the UA. As single bits in memory control each task, corruption due to HW or SW faults will suspend needed tasks or start unwanted ones. Vehicle tests confirmed that one particular dead task would result in loss of throttle control, and that the driver might have to fully remove their foot from the brake during an unintended acceleration event before being able to end the unwanted acceleration. A litany of other faults were found in the code, including buffer overflow, unsafe casting, and race conditions between tasks.

Personally, i like this post better because it is non partisan. Enjoy. http://flaneurose.blogspot.sg/2012/05/hidd...of-massive.html

From ST Forum: http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/...ory_799326.html NS: PRs who don't serve will face adverse consequences Published on May 16, 2012 WE REFER to the commentary by Dr Leong Chan-Hoong ('Bridge the foreign-local gap with NS'; last Wednesday) and related letters ('Have alternative NS for new citizens, PRs' by Dr Harold Teng Siow Song, and 'No NS? Get new citizens, PRs to do community service' by Jack Lin in Forum Online; last Saturday) recently about national service (NS) for permanent residents (PRs). NS-liable PRs who fail to register or enlist for national service will be treated as national service defaulters. PRs who renounce their PR status without serving national service will also face adverse consequences. Their failure to serve national service will be taken into account when they subsequently apply to study or work in Singapore, or when they try to have their PR status reinstated. These adverse consequences will apply to the PRs, quoted by Dr Leong, who gave up their residency before being enlisted for national service. Under the Enlistment Act, male PRs are liable for national service. First-generation PRs who are able to contribute to Singapore economically immediately upon the grant of PR status are administratively exempted from national service. Second-generation PRs, who are sponsored by their parents for PR status and those granted PR status at a young age based on their potential to contribute to Singapore in the future, are required to serve national service and will be enlisted after age 18. Therefore, it is incorrect for any PR who is serving or has served national service to claim that he volunteered for it. National service is mandatory for PRs, just as it is for Singaporeans. Colonel Kenneth Liow Director, Public Affairs Mindef

I have a friend who think he is a wonderful driver but get into accidents constantly. In the last year, he had 3 unreported accidents and 1 reported accident AS FAR AS I AM AWARE. His insurance company is refusing to insure him and his insurance agent is encouraging him to sell the car, buy another and get someone else to buy the insurance... I am assured that any accident claim on the car will not affect mine. Any experienced person can tell me if that is true. That if he claim on the next car with insurance under my name... my insurance renewals on my current car will not be affected in any way? And is there any legal consequences as well?

Hi guys... my engine mountings kaput and i have to change new ones... But after i changed all 5 new engine mountings, the engine is so solid firm until i can feel vibrations and weird noises inside the car. Even my sunroof have rattling noise when i clutch in and move off. Anyone experience this? I cannot possible change back to old mountings right...?

so much talk about tampered fuel gauge... haiz.... anyone knows of anyone who kanna caught? wats the consequences? ONLY 'consequences' discussions pls. i heard from a frd's frd his dad went in JB 4 times in a day to buy petrol and came back to pump out into containers..., on the 5th time kanna caught the fine was in Thousands... according to him lah... but if true how the hell you pump out petrol unless very old car model if not fuel tank design how to pump out? and imagine how many containers to fill sia., for 4-5 full tanks... siao

I heard bros here said it'll destroy the engine in the long run. I believe that the definition of light-footedness means accelerating below 3k rpm. Will it really harm the engine? anyone bros here wanna comment?

Hi guys, I'm thinking of transferring the ownership of the car from my dad's name to my name. This is to allow me to apply for season parking at my workplace. Just wanna find out what are the consequences of transferring the ownership of the car over to me? From what I understand, it will be seen as if I'm getting a second hand car, so does that means it will affect the resale value of the car in future (say selling the car at 5 years old, vs 10 years old). I am interested in finding out more before making this commitment. Please give some advice if you have any to share. Thanks!

My friend bought a 2005 Honda CRV with 25,000km mileage 3 mths ago. The car came with 235/50R18 rims. Consequences: 1. Tyres have rubbed rear wheel arch when going over bumpy roads with full load. 2. His shocks are leaking and need replacement. He is now looking for the orig rims and wants to fit the orig tyres. Is the orig rim size 205/70R15? Where can he get the orig Honda rims for CRV? 2nd hand ones are fine.