Car servicing in Malaysia for SG Cars

[aargon]

Does anyone go to Malaysia to get their car serviced/fixed? I drive an SUV which is having some electrical problems - was told by a service centre here (Mazda to be more specific) it would cost about 5K to completely replace the wiring. Came as a bit of a shock (the price), hence looking for a cheaper option ie taking it to a Mazda service centre in Malaysia and getting them to fix/re-wire the car...... appreciate if anyone can share any experiences taking their car for servicing in Johor Bahru.

[QRM]

I had a Toyota alphard that had an electrical motor fail in the autodoor, here the local agent said it needed 4 weeks to order the part and was expensive to repair.

I logged onto the local Alphard forum and checked the feedback one garage kept cropping up in KL. I called them up they had stock and repaired it for a third of the cost of the Singapore bunch. You have to factor in the cost of getting there, but we often drive up to KL for a holiday so it wasn't a problem.

I think you need to really make sure there is a good feed back from any workshop across the water.

Plus worth checking insurance assume the worse case scenario the car gets totalled while stripped in a Malaysian work shop would you get your money back?

[Strong Eagle]

Completely replacing the wiring sounds like a rather drastic measure, and it is probably unnecessary as well. Sounds like these people are too lazy or too incompetent to do proper troubleshooting.

Wiring issues usually result from loose, intermittent connectors, wiring insulation that has rubbed through and allowing wire to wire or wire to ground contact, or sometimes interference with nearby electrical devices.

I repaired an intermittent problem in my neighbor's car with a 1/2 inch of black tape... the key was tracing where the fault lies. This takes the proper wiring diagram manual, a thorough understanding of the symptoms, and a rational approach to problem elimination.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Also having the B.Electrical Engrg from Rice didn't hurt much either did it!

[aargon]

Completely replacing the wiring sounds like a rather drastic measure, and it is probably unnecessary as well. Sounds like these people are too lazy or too incompetent to do proper troubleshooting.

Wiring issues usually result from loose, intermittent connectors, wiring insulation that has rubbed through and allowing wire to wire or wire to ground contact, or sometimes interference with nearby electrical devices.

I repaired an intermittent problem in my neighbor's car with a 1/2 inch of black tape... the key was tracing where the fault lies. This takes the proper wiring diagram manual, a thorough understanding of the symptoms, and a rational approach to problem elimination.

I completely agree with you SE. They told me its a lose wire somewhere but they had no way to identify which wire it was, hence preferred to import me a whole new set and have it completely replaced. I was like WTF? and this wasnt some back alley way workshop, but a supposedly recognised specialist service centre....

QRM, really good point about checking my insurance policy to see if it covers Malaysia!! I didn`t think about the risk of them going one up on their Singaporean cousins and re-wiring the car incorrectly....or giving me back the car with missing parts kept as a "souvenir"....

maybe I should shop around here first before jumping over the border...

[ecureilx]

I completely agree with you SE. They told me its a lose wire somewhere but they had no way to identify which wire it was, hence preferred to import me a whole new set and have it completely replaced. I was like WTF? and this wasnt some back alley way workshop, but a supposedly recognised specialist service centre....

Never owned an Alphard nor could I afford one, but know enough if you are referring to the people in Macpherson .. they prefer to 'import' items from their HK office that spend time resolving problems locally

[ScoobyDoes]

.... and this wasnt some back alley way workshop, but a supposedly recognised specialist service centre....

That's mostly the problem, go to an electrical specialist in AMK Autopoint or Defu for example and you'll find somebody that will be able to trace it probably without too much effort.

If your car is out of warranty then there's no need to go to the dealer anyway.

With regards insurance, if you are covered to drive in Malaysia then you should be covered for the repair also.....you broke down on the way back.