How to maintain and Diagnose Your Car's Transmission

Transmission problems are among the most time consuming repairs that can be done on your car. This is because in most vehicles, the transmission is embedded deep into the engine bay, and the engine itself, some of the under-carriage and steering, and other parts would have to be overhauled before gaining access to the clutch. This is why it's important to learn how to diagnose transmission problems at the onset.

Parts. Before you can diagnose transmission problems, it would be good to have an idea what exactly goes on under the hood (or under the car). Whether you have an automatic clutch or a stick shift, your car would have these parts. The bell housing is a conical metallic housing that contains the gears and axles. The gears are what "connect" the engine with the wheels. Transmission fluid or gear oil runs through the entire contraption to lubricate, and the oil filter ensures there is no damaging debris.

Now here are a few symptoms that indicate transmission problems, and which parts may need repair or replacement. Basically, two things would indicate you are having problems with your transmission. First is that your car's engine will start and run smoothly, but your car will not move at all. Secondly, your car might be moving all right, but it will be sluggish, as if the power is not being properly transferred to the wheels.

Check for fluid levels. Check the gear oil's levels, and you need to replace the fluid if it's below the minimum level, and if it's no longer viscous enough or if the color has turned into brown or black.

Check for filter clogs. Some problems might be caused by simple clogs in the filter, which causes debris and build-up to run through the gears. You can have your transmission fluid filter replaced at low cost. In fact, a change in gear oil and filter should be the first thing to do, if you suspect transmission issues.

Check for leaks. You might also notice leaks on your driveway or garage. Gear oil is usually dyed red, and so if you spot reddish or brownish fluid on the spots you usually park, then it is likely you have a leaking transmission. A car's gearbox is usually sealed, and there are only a few spots where it can spring leaks. You can also check between the gearbox and the engine, at the drain hole under the gearbox, the selector shaft (which connects your stick shifter to the gearbox), and the fluid filler tube base. If you spot a leak, then you need to have the gearbox looked into by a competent mechanic soon.

Sticky shifters. If shifting becomes difficult (for manual transmission), or if the car is jerky whenever the automatic transmission shifts up or down, then you would have to have the transmission checked. It could be a problem with the transmission oil.

Grinding sounds. It's normal to have grinding sounds when you shift into reverse. But when you're running at normal speeds, and you get grinding sounds, or if your car vibrates too much when starting from a halt, then you might need to have your transmission rebuilt or repaired.

Transmission repairs and rebuilds are costly, and could take a lot of time. Therefore, if you notice any of these problems, try to address them as soon as you can to avoid more hassles.

Lubricating Your Motorcycle Chain

A motorcycle chain is a very important part of your motorcycle. Keeping it clean and lubricated well ensures a smooth and trouble free ride. Lubricating also lengthens the life of your bike’s chain.

There are two types of motorcycle chain – an O-ring type and the simple roller chain with no rubber rings. Nowadays, most bikes come with O-ring type chains. O-ring chains have links behind each ring with lubricant trapped inside. Even with the lubricant already in each link, O-ring chains still need to have external lubricants to cut down on friction and keep the temperature down.

There are also many different types of motorcycle chain lubricants on the market. Motorcycle riders may have their own favorites. You will have to discover your own too, most probably by trial and error. Basically, there are just two formulations of lubricants that you will see: thick and sticky or thin and watery. The thick and sticky type sticks on the chain easier so the application part is worry-free. The problem is that it leaves white grease in between the O-ring links, which makes it harder for you to clean up the next time you need to lube your chain.

Lubrication is done best when the chain is still warm, so try lubricating the chain after a ride. Lift the wheel of the motorcycle off the ground by using the rear stand. Line some newspapers on the ground to catch lube drips and sprays.

Put the motorcycle in neutral and get ready to clean the chain with a cleaner specifically suggested for an O-ring type of chain. Spin the wheel slowly while spraying the chain cleaner. You should spray between the plates of the chain, too. Some people use WD-40 in place of chain cleaners, but keep in mind that it may decrease the life of the chain.

Using a metal brush, rag, old toothbrush, or paper towel, gently remove excess grime from the chain. This will create a clean surface ideal for lubricants. Be sure to reach all the sprocket teeth and chain links. After cleaning the chain, you will need to reheat it by making a short five-minute ride.

When the chain is already warm and ready, lift the rear wheels again like what you did in cleaning. Roll the wheel slowly while spraying the lubricant on the chain. Cover the entire chain, making sure to put enough lubricant between the plates. It is recommended that you spray the lubricant between the set of plates closest to you for one revolution. After that, spray some lubricant between the set of plates farthest from you for one revolution. You will not need to put lubricant on the middle part anymore as it will just spread naturally when the chain comes in contact with the sprocket.

Wipe off excess lubricant with a rag or a paper towel. Just let the lubricant set for 15 to 30 minute before driving your bike. You are guaranteed a smoother ride now that your motorcycle chain is lubricated.

How to jump start your car ?

1. Get a set of jumper cables at your nearest auto parts store.
2. Drive a working car either next to or facing the car needing the jump.
3. Open both cars' hoods. Make sure both engines are turned off. Make sure that the jumper cables reach both cars' batteries.
4. Attach one end of the (usually red) jumper cable to the positive (+) terminal of the UNWORKING car's battery.
5. Attach other end of that same (usually red) jumper cable to the positive (+) terminal of the WORKING car's battery.
6. Attach one end of the (usually black) jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal of the WORKING car's battery.
7. Attach other end of that same (usually black) jumper cable to a metal surface (ground) on the UNWORKING car.
8. Start the engine of the WORKING car.
9. Try starting the engine of the UNWORKING car.
10. Disconnect jumper cables in reverse order that they were put on.
11. Once the UNWORKING car's engine starts, let it run for 15-20 minutes so that the battery can recharge.

How to make your internet connection faster?

With the popularity of broadband Internet connections, most Internet users no longer worry about having to wait for websites to load. This was a big problem with slow connections like dial-up, but now, speed might no longer be an issue with most users. However, there might still be some who use slow connections, and even DSL or cable connections have different speed ratings, so some may still be considered on the slow end. Also, even with a fast connection, a user might be in the habit of downloading movies, music and other multimedia, and could use all the speed he can get.

If you are experiencing speed problems with your Internet connection, or if you have to make do with a relatively slow connection such as wireless, here's a short guide on how to speed things up.

Use a proxy server. Sometimes, even if your connection to your ISP is fast, the actual throughput, or effective rate of data transfer, is slower. This could be due to different factors, such as how heavy a website's design

is, the capacity of the website's hosting server, and how fast your ISP's uplink to the rest of the world is. If the problem is with the uplink, you can improve the speed by using a proxy server, as defined by your ISP.

This speeds up transfers because your ISP will save copies of HTML files and multimedia on its own server, so you don't have to access it directly from the source server all the time. This is effective for websites that are commonly accessed by many people on your own ISP, because once a file has been accessed for the first time, the ISP will serve the local copy of the same file, so the access speed is faster.

Turn off multimedia. If your computer is slow, or if it takes a long time before a website finishes loading, the site might contain a lot of heavy graphic files, animations and other multimedia. This is fine if you have a fast connection, and really want to watch the multimedia on the site. However, if you mainly browse to read text content, and if your connection is crawling, you can turn off loading of images, animations and movies. On Internet Explorer, this can be accessed through the Control Panel, under the Advanced tab in Internet Settings. Just uncheck the boxes for playing animations, sounds, and videos. If you really need to drastically improve speed, you can also uncheck the box for displaying images.

Move your cache to RAM Disk. This is a more advanced tweak, because you would need to know how to install a RAM drive. The cache is basically the temporary folder where your browser stores files when you access a page. In most cases, the cache goes to the physical hard drive. But accessing a RAM drive is faster than accessing a physical drive. Your computer needs to have at least one Gigabyte of RAM, though, and your RAM drive for cache would ideally be at least 128 megabytes in size. However, every time you restart your computer, the cache is cleared, because the RAM drive is reset. And therefore, the speed increase is noticeable only during a continuous browsing session.

Turn off background applications that access the Internet for updates. Applications that run in the background might sometimes be downloading updates and files over the Internet. Some examples are Windows automatic update, Adobe updater, and auto update features of some anti-virus software. These eat up bandwidth while they download update files from the server, and can slow down browsing speed. Set your updating settings to manual, or schedule these during times you are away from your computer, so the slowdown will not be noticeable.

Surf during off-peak hours. Lastly, slowdowns in accessing web-pages might be caused by network congestion, such as when a number of other users are accessing the Internet. This is especially true with some cable connections, where the bandwidth is shared by users in the same building or neighborhood. Try browsing during off-peak hours, such as after office hours, or early in the morning. With less people accessing, you have more bandwidth allocation to yourself.

Speeding up an Internet connection does not always necessitate upgrading your ISP subscription. Sometimes, you just need to do a little tweak or adjustment, to improve the actual rate of data transfer.

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Top 10 companies for Malaysian fresh graduates

Shell continues to strengthen its position as the company of choice in Malaysia after being named as the most popular graduate employer in the inaugural Malaysia’s 100 Leading Graduate Employers recently.

It was a result of a seven-month survey done by the GTI Specialist Publisher, a Europe-based firm which specializes in the publication of career surveys and guides to students and job seekers.

GTI has offices in the UK, France, Ireland, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and China.

The survey, which ended on September 2008, involved some 15,000 students who were studying in their final year in the universities across different countries including Malaysia, Australia and United Kingdom.

In the list dominated by foreign companies, Shell shakes off competition from Intel, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and HSBC Bank, which won their respective category - ICT, Finance & Professional Services, and Banking & Investment. Only 3 homegrown companies were ranked among the graduate’s best employers, namely Public Bank, CIMB and now the privately owned Maxis. The three occupied the bottom three in the top 10 table.

Apart from being the most popular company overall, Shell Malaysia also tops the engineering category, ahead of Schlumberger and its great nemesis ExxonMobil.

The top 10 winner of Malaysia’s Leading Graduate Employers 2008:

1. Shell

For decades, Shell has always been at the heart of many graduates and job seekers vying to have a fulfilling career not only in Malaysia but also in almost any other countries. A promise of lifelong learning, coupled with attractive remuneration package and other incentives make a job offer from Shell irresistible. Globally, Shell employs more than 100,000 employees and operates in more than 110 countries worldwide.

2. Intel

Penang is home to Intel Malaysia, and without doubt the world’s largest semiconductor company is a very much sought after employer. As one of the most popular manufacturing companies in Penang, it is perhaps one of the very few companies not very much affected by the continued economic turbulence hitting the northern state. Intel was founded in 1968 by two former employees of an American semiconductor firm, Fairchild Semiconductor.

3. Schlumberger

As one Schlumberger engineer put it during one of Shell’s career talks to graduates, “Schlumberger is probably the biggest company in the world among of those you’ve never heard of”. True enough, Schlumberger is presently the largest oilfield company in the world with operation in over 80 countries worldwide, and backed by more than 80,000 strong staff. The company supplies and provides solutions to other multinational companies in the oil and gas and engineering sectors.

4. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big 4 of the accounting firms, was born in London in 1998 after two British companies decided to merge their operation and created one of the world’s largest professional services firm. PwC is also the wealthiest company among the Big 4 firms, earning close to $30 billion in its 2008 fiscal year. Long hours of work may be your routine, but polished accounting skills are waiting in return.

5. Ernst & Young (EY)

Another Big 4 accounting firm. EY’s two main global headquarters are located in London, UK and New York, US. Today’s entity is also a result of merger, not one, but many. EY worldwide operation is divided into 5 different regions - America, Far East, Oceania, Japan and Europe (including Middle East, India and Africa). In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Ernst & Young as the 7th largest private company in the United States.

6. KPMG

Also belongs to the Big 4 clan. KPMG employs more than 120,000 employees worldwide with operation spanning across more than 140 countries. The word K-P-M-G represents 4 of its earliest partners who decided to form a merged corporation. KPMG specializes in providing professional services in a wide range of industries including construction, energy, government, education, healthcare, media, pharmaceutical and others.

7. HSBC

One of the oldest banking institutions created in the modern world, HSBC was founded by the British but commenced its first operation in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In fact, the term HSBC originated from its earliest name - Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Earlier this year, HSBC topped the Forbes 2000 list and was named the world’s largest company for 2008.

8. Public Bank

Public Bank, one of the country’s largest banking institutions, was formed by award winning entrepreneur, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow, who is acting as the company’s non-executive chairman today. Public Bank is ranked as the second most valuable brand this year behind Maybank. It was also voted as the Best Managed Malaysia Company by Finance Asia for the year 2008.

9. CIMB

For the past 10 years, CIMB, which is helmed by the Deputy Prime Minister’s brother, Datuk Nazir Tun Razak, has grown by leaps and bound and made its mark as the fastest growing financial entity in the country. In the process, it won many awards and accolades, including Malaysia’s Bank of The Year 2007, Best Investment Bank 2008, Best Private Bank 2008 and Deal Maker of The Year 2008.

10. Maxis

Maxis communications was founded by local entrepreneur, Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan, who now resides in London, UK. Ananda is also Malaysia’s second richest man after Robert Kuok the sugar king. Maxis was delisted from the Malaysia public exchange in 2007 after Ananda made a surprise bid to take full control of the company. As a telco giant, Maxis competes with Celcom, DiGi, U Mobile and Packet One.

[via : http://skorcareer.com.my ]