Okay, let's return to some 1st Generation Perodua Myvi tuning. The 2010 car is now slightly over 35,000km old and still running as it should. It just undergoes regular oil changes and if you note from the earlier posts, the car has had some suspension, brakes and an air filter / cold air intake mod.

The Myvi technically stops faster, corners better and is a little more refined due to the strut bar / rear beam axle anti-roll bar which allows the suspension to be less susceptible to flex. And with those mods, a little more performance from the engine would be nice. So I've basically got a lightweight aluminium crankshaft pulley installed (the polished thingy to the right of the brakes).


As mentioned in my earlier post where I fixed such a crankshaft pulley to the Proton Wira which I own, it basically releases the power that was lost from the heavy standard crankshaft pulley. The lightweight aluminium pulley decreases rotational mass making the engine rev faster than before. It basically shifts the power band a little lower and is actually very good to have in an automatic car (albeit one that weighs slightly under 1000kg). This is because the 4 speed automatic's gearing has only 4 speeds it is spaced out a little and there could be a gap in the powerband that is (slightly) corrected by the pulley. As the revs come in quicker, the powerband feels smoother.

The lightweight pulley is about a kilogram lighter. Testing on a dyno has basically shown that with such a pully the 1.3liter Myvi would only gain 1.5 or so bhp. Good enough as what is more important is the shift in powerband as the power if now coming in lower in the rev range. You feel more engine response and urge at least 500rpm lower than before. This means that the car accelerates faster. No, not Lancer Evolution fast...just faster than before okay. Don't be chasing down Honda Type-Rs after this upgrade.

And then you need better spark plugs. Iridium spark plugs are a good replacement for the stock plugs. Firstly, whilst they are more expensive, around RM180-200 per set, they last longer than regular spark plugs. But do not believe the story that these plugs last over 60,000km. They actually lose power quite rapidly after 35,000km. I would suggest using them for about 30,000km before throwing them away for another set.

Secondly, the iridium plugs have a stronger spark, hence you would benefit from better combustion which gives you better performance (acceleration) and fuel economy (from the better conbustion). The 2010 Perodua Myvi (facelifted 1st gen variant and above uses a smaller Iridium plug compared to the pre-facelifted versions) is fitted with Denso Iridium plugs IXU22 if you are curious. You could use NGKs too but from experience, the Denso plugs are slightly punchier. That's just a personal feeling (what the butt-dyno says so don't take my word for it). 

And so the little Myvi gets to accelerate even faster than before. From the mid-12seconds it is now at least in the mid-10secs from 0-100km/h. And it has a better mid-range too which helps overtaking slightly. Trips to Muar and Kuantan ( pictured there with someone else's Myvi) feel slightly better in a Perodua Myvi that stops, acclerates and cruises better than what was offered by Perodua in the first place. Again, this was not over-done, just enough to make the car drive better. Remember, it isn't a sports car. IT REALLY ISN'T A SPORTS CAR no matter how large the tyres are, how low you lower it and how noisy the exhaust is. No, changing the seats to Recaros are just wasting money. A Myvi is a small super mini. 

So this was done to make an econo-box slightly better to drive. After all, the car is still crashy over bumps and humps, runs on tiny tyres but is a great classless car. By classless in the Malaysian sense this means that a heck of a lot of people own Myvis. From multi-millionaires to regular Janes and Joes. And these mods make it a little better for petrolheads to drive. Probably putting a smile to some faces. Not a large one, just a little smirk. In car expensive Malaysia, petrolheads should be allowed to get their kicks in any way possible. 

Hope this article helps. 

It has been slightly over a year since I wrote about modding the Perodua Myvi. I have been occupied with other things and I have to admit that I had stopped thinking too much about the little Myvi because of this. Anyway, as a recap, the reason I decided to tweak the Myvi was to make it a better car. Not a sporty one, as the Myvi isn't truly sporty (look at the car's overall shape and suspension setup for Godssake) but one which is slightly improved in most aspects.



Anyway, the next step after the amazing and stupendous brakes (which to this date stops on a dime, without any dead travel and one heckuva nice sound as you slow down) it's back to suspension tuning. More engine upgrades will be for later.

Now if you recall, I have kept everything stock with the exception of a front strut bar. I have still kept everything standard because firstly, the ride is already stiff enough. Any harder and things become uncomfortable. The standard shocks and springs is the best setup for ride and handling. One only needs to add something to stiffen the front end of the car so that the suspension works better and you don't suffer from scuttle shake (or that stupid dashboard crash) over large bumps. After the bar was installed, there was less scuttle shake, which meant added refinement, as well as having slightly sharper steering and a little less understeer.

So since I did that, I felt that the Myvi still understeers a fair bit. So how do you cure understeer? You work on the rear of the car to settle the front. The Myvi has a beam axle with semi-trailing arms at the rear (photo above). This is a very cost effective way of building a suspension for a car. Simple, basic and archaic. What you can do to it is add something called an Anti-Roll Bar to the equation.

What the anti-roll bar does as its namesake. It cuts the car's body roll and makes the car corner flatter. In the Myvi's case, it stiffens up the rear of the car (as it adds bracing between the left and right suspension), cuts roll at the rear making the rear of the car more responsive to direction changes, i.e the rear follows the front a little bit more instead of doing its own thing whilst the front is changing direction. The Anti-Roll bar is by local chassis bracing specialist Ultra Racing. The bar comes in two sizes - I chose the less thick one (16mm) as I was informed that the thicker (19mm) one would make the car's ride suffer and is good for those whose Myvi is equipped with coilovers, large tyres and maybe a roll cage inside. In short, the thicker one is for the track or a very very aggressive setup that isn't suitable for road use. I believe so too as I think the pink Myvi feels just nice with the thinner bar. There is still some roll whilst tackling corners, but the car feels easier to control than before. There is less twist as the car feels more connected front and rear.

Now one surprising benefit aside from making the car corner better is that the car's ride is slightly improved. I suppose this is due to the fact that the bar also acts as bracing so that the suspension (springs and shocks) can work better instead of dealing with lateral forces that twist and bend the suspension whilst on the move.

High speed stability is also improved. One thing I have learnt in car tuning over the years is that if you want a very stable car for high speed driving is a solid rear end. Sometimes this means a wider rear track or a stiffer rear that isn't affected by lateral forces. The Myvi, even with its stock 175 series tyres on 14 inch wheels is actually more stable at speeds higher than the national highway speed limit. Surprising bonus to those who add this little modification.

Now the Myvi rides better, corners better (there is still some roll but not like before) and is actually more stable at higher than usual speeds. You only need these two parts to firm up yet keep things comfortable at the same time. I have been running this setup ont he standard 14inch wheels and its fine by me. I have taken the car on trips to Johor and up north too as well as those shorter trips up to Genting Sempah with this setup. The Myvi is fairly comfortable and less fatiguing to drive over long distances. If one were to add springs or shocks to this setup I have to say that the ride will deteriorate and the Myvi will be a little more tiring to drive over longer distances. This is why I have not done  anything else. One could go one size up in wheel size using 185/55//15 or 195/50/15(and not wider or larger sized wheels which will add to some tyre roar/road noise) if there is an itch to scratch when it comes to dressing up the Myvi a little more. This is all it needs if you want it to remain fairly comfortable. This mod is also applicable to the 2gen Myvis.

Remember, it isn't a sports car. In Japan, people buy the Daihatsu Sirion or even Boon variant for old ladies to go to the market. Whilst there are the AWD Boon with a 1.0liter turbocharged engine, this is the exception. It really is the exception as firstly, we don't have All-Wheel drive, secondly we don't have Boosted engines in all our Myvis and thirdly, Daihatsu/Toyota is one company that designs cars for profit and when it comes to their superminis, they're not designed to be sporty in the real sense. So why try too hard? Save up and buy a car that is sportier.

Next comes more performance mods. Stay tuned.

Anyway, if you want to see the previous articles of the Perodua Myvi mod, click here. 

I have to apologize to you readers out there. I have been extremely busy with life these days. Over the past month or so I have been occupied with traveling and a whole bunch of stuff. I was in Penang early last month. I was also in Raub, Pahang thrice. I was in Fraser's Hill twice. I was in Ipoh once. I was basically everywhere except in front of a computer typing out stuff.

In between all of that traveling. I had to work. I had cars to service. I also had to chill out with friends to talk about man/boy stuff. In short, writing has taken the last seat on a very long bus filled with countless of other activities that requires my time. I sometimes wish time does not fly as fast as it does these days. It my be age catching up and suddenly overtaking yours truly as I find my self trying to do so many things in a week.

Now back to the topic of cars. I seem to have acquired a fleet of cars over the past couple of months. Those that are aware would know that I have to maintain a 2005 Subaru Impreza 1.6 TS, a 1998 Proton Wira 1.6XLi which I had inherited from my late-father, a new 2011 Suzuki Alto which was bought for my mum to use and a 2010 Perodua Myvi 1.3 SE which the Missus uses.

The Subaru has been a very reliable workhorse and recently had its cracked front windscreen changed. I have no issues with the car and it has only left me stranded once due to a leaking water pump hose. But throughout the seven and a half years of ownership it has performed admirably and at times punches above its weight.

The Proton Wira is like any 1.6 automatic Proton Wira out there. Very cheap to maintain and very dependable. After sorting out its overheating issues it has been a decent, albeit a slightly boring ride. But if you just want a dependable Klang Valley roundabout which is light, economical and practical with some decent tech - multi-link suspension, a 4 speed autobox with enough punch to cruise at highway speeds at a relaxed gait, an old Proton Wira is totally acceptable. Don't expect it to be anything else though.

The Suzuki Alto 1.0-It has been to the Suzuki service center twice in the last 6 months. This is because somehow, the service booklet suggests that you service it every 3 to 4 months or 5,000km. In order to keep its warranty intact I am doing just that although it hasn't crossed 4,000km to date. The reason this car was chosen over a Perodua Viva or another Myvi is that  it drives better than both and my mum likes the way it looks. I like the way it looks. My mum takes it to be shops in front of her house and to a few places in and around her neighbourhood. I have a warranty claim to make from Suzuki thought, the key cylinder at the steering column is a little sticky and according to Suzuki, a replacement cylinder is in order. A rare occurrence according to Suzuki. So rare that it has to be ordered from India, the place where the Alto is made. Sometimes, you get issues with cars that aren't made by Proton (this little statement is for those that think you can't get issues with cars other than Proton). Now aside from that, everything has been peachy with the tiny Suzy.

The Perodua Myvi is trusty and dependable. The Missus isn't complaining about having to drive a car that has consistently headed the Malaysian car sales list over the past few years. It may have a trashy ride and a slightly hollow feel to it but it serves its purpose and competently does what its supposed to do. Its looks do not offend me (unlike the Proton Saga BLM) and it is nippy around town (which is very important when traffic is bad these days). Coupled with the mods I've done on it. It's actually quite good to drive.

And then comes the surprise.....I've added another one to the list. A brand spanking new Mercedes Benz C180 CGI BlueEfficiency. Yes folks, I've basically decided to satisfy my lust for the three pointed star. Expect some sort of write-up on it soon. If my hectic life allows me to do so.

This article has taken its sweet time hasn't it? One reason why this has taken so long is that I decided to thoroughly sort the braking issue completely before I come to any conclusion. And the little Perodua Myvi 1.3 that the Missus uses now has really, really, really good brakes.

Prior to this the Pink Myvi had brakes. Or some semblance of Brakes in my opinion. It would stop at speeds below 80km/h but at the Malaysian speed limit of 110km/h, the Myvi would basically take its sweet time in trying to slow down. Those that tried jamming its brakes at speeds higher than this would find out that it has terrible response time due to a whole lot of dead travel (this means that the brake pedal travels a whole lot before achieving some bite) and when it does, it just takes its time in slowing down. This is quite bad if you want to come to a dead stop as soon as possible. So with dead travel and lack of bite, the Myvi is actually a terrible car to drive fast. Even the Missus agreed with this statement. Hence the need for an upgrade.

In fact there could have been a need to upgrade the whole car into a Mazda 3, a Ford Fiesta or even a Suzuki Swift but this path wasn't chosen due to the fact that we chose a Myvi because the Missus' driving skills were totally rusty and the Myvi was the most affordable small car to fix small knocks and dings whilst she improves her driving. And now, almost two years down the road, she seems pretty adept in driving around town. But one cannot just sell off the car right now as it wouldn't be economically prudent as a car bought under hire purchase to sell the car less than halfway through the loan arrangement. One would need to settle at least half the term if not one would end up paying the bank for the differential sum. And it does give Yours Truly an excuse to do lots of mods on Malaysia's favourite hatchback. Sensible mods, mind you.

And so to the brakes.

I did some research on the brakes and came up to the conclusion that Perodua uses the worst sort of front brake pads that one can possibly imagine. I suppose the material used, aside from being dirt cheap, must be made from something that isn't abrasive or that has friction. Brake pads need friction to generate grip and if it does not grip the discs, a lack of braking power happens. And so a change of pads were in order. I was recommended a set made by IMP, the chaps who sell the IMPROVE brand of shock absorbers. Maybe Perodua should get better suppliers.




Secondly, the stock Perodua Myvi discs are purportedly weak too. According to some parts suppliers the front discs (rears are drums) tend to warp after 20,000km of use. This did not happen to our Myvi but since I was doing this write-up, I may as well get a new set of brake rotors (discs). And the cross drilled, slotted and ventilated rotors from AR Racing were chosen. It looks good and would actually help deglazing the pads every time the brakes are used (in anger). Do not ask me who are AR Racing. Aside from these discs, I don't know what else they produce. The discs were recommended by a veteran parts supplier and I took his word for it. Isn't that usually the case?


Now after the two upgrades mentioned above the brakes were so much better than before. There was bite when you wanted it. Prior to this if you did an emergency brake the Myvi would just cruise to a halt but with this upgrade, the Myvi would actually dip its front end forward due to increased bite from the brakes. Braking from 110km/h to 80km/h must have been cut in half as you could actually feel the seatbelts bite into your shoulder. And the noise from slotted and drilled disc rotors is interesting too. Like a generator powering down, going 'hmmmmmmmmm'. Like the Death Star before blasting a planet to smithereens. This mod actually adds from character missing from the Myvi too.



One problem that is still lacking is the brakes still suffer from dead travel. The new pads and brake disc rotors do not solve this problem. I was then recommended to try out IMP's new triple layer braided brake hoses. Steel braided brake hoses are nothing new to those how venture into the realm of motorsports. Most track cars end up having this as an upgrade for two reasons - one is that the steel casing does not allow the brake fluid to expand sideways (as the rubber hosing is soft and flexible) when it gets hot due to repeated hard braking and secondly, it adds to brake feel as like before, it only allows the fluid to travel in one direction instead of trying to expand everywhere else. Of course, one needs to buy good brake hoses as sometimes, while steel braided hoses are good, the joints where it screws to the brakes and piping (to the servo) may give way. The IMP hoses seem pretty solid and I was recommended to give it a shot. Do note that none of these mods were given to me for free.  I bought all of the upgrades with my own pocket money. I have to say that I'm extremely happy they work.


And what happened was that the Myvi's terrible brake feel and dead travel was almost gone. There was very little dead travel and the brakes are easier to modulate. You could feel the brakes already working as soon as you start pressing on the pedal.

These mods are essential to most Myvi owners who want to drive their cars fast. Note that there is a saying that very good brakes can add as much as 20hp to a car on the track. Why so? It's because that you can brake later and deeper into a corner. Imagine if you are in a car that has better brakes and another similar car in lesser brakes. You can actually brake, for example 10meters later than the other car. This means that if you're travelling at 100km/h into the corner, you're still travelling at 100km/h for another 10meters over the other car whereas the car has already slowed down to, say 80km/h by then. Imagine doing this over 10 laps. You'd be pretty much ahead of the similarly powered but lesser braked car.

So there you have it folks. The total and very effective, non-overdosed (i.e no need to change to oversized calipers) brake upgrade for the Myvi. I managed to drive to Ipoh and back via the highway and also the non-tolled roads. The brakes were wonderful on the highway and wonderful on the narrower and more challenging Federal roads. The stopping power is there, the brakes bite more immediate that before and there is more feel in them too. What more can anyone ask? The three items, brake pads, disc rotors and hoses cost somewhere in the region of RM800.00 without labour. Very affordable and very effective. And it looks pretty standard under the stock Myvi wheels.

Now that the brakes are settled, next comes more performance mods. But don't rush me. Perfection takes time.

Links to Parts I and II can be found here

Those that follow this blog via Facebook would have seen the picture above two weeks ago. So technically one should click on the 'Like' button if one wants to see new stuff slightly ahead of time.

Stay tuned people. More 1st Generation Myvi tuning coming up. Anyway, part 1 is here. Part 2 is here for those who are lazy to search through the whole blog.

And to start off the month of February we take another look at what can be done to one of the most common car in Malaysia - the Perodua Myvi. Note that if you owned one or intend to own one, you would be similar to a whole lot of Malaysians who own different variants of it (probably hundreds of thousand people including yours truly) and there is nothing really unique about it even if you spend thousands of Ringgit on it. So what you need to do is make it more drive-able instead of focusing too much on cosmetics. That's what I would do to a car that is really common - a nice compact supermini, with decent packaging and ample poke for the highways (but again I state, its no sports car).

So aside from stating the obvious above, what should you do to improve its driveability? Let's start with more affordable mods, this time to the induction system of the car. Note that this basic mods also apply to the latest, 2nd generation Myvi too.

One simple mod that in my opinion is necessary is to the air-box entrance of the Myvi. The thing about the stock car is that the inlet tube basically sits at the right side of the engine bay right behind the headlights. There is no direct cold air feed to it and it basically sucks up hot air from the engine bay. Hot air is less dense that cold air and this means that the Myvi will actually suck in less air on a hot day or during traffic jams than on a cold day. And even on a cooler day, it would still suck up hot air that resonates from the engine as it gets its air from inside the engine bay. Get it?

So what it really needs is something to shield the intake from hot air or something to direct cold air to the intake. I have decided to feed the intake with cold air by using a flexible plastic hose (which you can buy at most performance parts shops in the Klang Valley) that I simply made fit (not a proper fit) one end around the original Myvi intake tube and adjusted and put the other end through the hole found at the right side of the engine bay (which leads to the right fender of the car). This tube is slightly directed deep and slightly low into the fender. Not too low as you may drive through floods and whatnot.

This simple tube allows the air intake to suck air from an area that is cooler than the engine bay. I chose to use just the plastic flexible length hose instead of with the alloy ends for the stealth look as I didn't want to mount the intake to the bumper. Note that because of this there is no 'ram-air' effect but I do not think that such a thing is necessary for a car like this. It isn't a track car and if you look at the standard air-box, which is located transversely but the throttle body is located vertically and facing downwards, ram-air would not help by much.

So does it work? I honestly don't actually know but what I can say is that it does feel very slightly more preppy during when accelerating through heavy traffic. It still doesn't feel like driving on a cold rainy day, but it is slightly better nonetheless.

Now since we are at the intake section, the next mod that you can do without spending a whole lot of cash is a drop in or replacement air filter upgrade. Six clips will open the air-box and you can get your hands on the stock air-filter. I chose a UTR washable replacement air filter to replace it. The reason I chose this over the venerable K&N air filter was that it is cheap. It costs half as much as the K&N and works just as well - 1bhp increase to the Myvi.

This figure is according to my friendly neighbourhood parts supplier - Mr Tee of Sykt Multi Industries, located at Paramount Gardens, PJ. How he got such figures is that some of his customers have too much time and a lot of money as they will dyno their rides after every little 'upgrade'. He however adds that the K&N will actually last longer than the UTR filter as that really lasts over 5 years whereas the UTR may give up the ghost in 3years or so. You pay for quality. Remember this. I on the other hand have too many hobbies (shoes, watches, bicycles, cars, travelling etc etc...the list is endless), hence me being cheap when it comes to modding the Myvi. At least you readers get to find out whether the cheaper parts work or don't. In this case it does.

Throttle response is slightly better when you first drop it in but after a day of driving you won't feel any difference. This plainly shows that 1 measly bhp will not get you all excited for long. But at least you don't have to change the air filter often. So there you have it. Another two affordable mods for one of the most common car owned around these parts.

What's next you may ask? I'd have to say brakes. The stock brakes actually suck big time. A full stop from 120km/h takes too long a distance. Trust me. And anytime I see a Myvi going more than 120km/h I worry about them.  In the Myvi you cannot SLOW DOWN quickly enough at speeds in excess of 120km/h. If you tell me your Myvi can reach 180km/h, I believe you. But can you stop properly at 180km/h? You actually cannot. Trust me on this.

On that bombshell we end this article. The next step for the Myvi is upgrading the braking system before we go to more power upgrades.

Note: You can click here for the first part of this series.