What’s the story Morning Glory?

It was meant to be a halfday trip to Ipoh that lasted nearly a whole day. I was done early in the morning, leading me to explore the delights of food around Ipoh, guided by a blind bat of a passenger seat driver, and some friends on the phone.

I was told that there was “very nice Ipoh sar hor fun” somewhere in Ipoh town “near a Kurnia building with a big sign with big mirrors inside”. Um… can you say confused? Following the vague directions, I ended up off Jalan Panglima. You’ll understand in a bit why the name of this road is engraved in my brain.

We drove around the streets, seeing a couple of coffee shops but no “shop selling Ipoh sar hor fun with a lot of people eating it”. We stopped by the side of the road and passenger strolled down to take a look. Nothing. So, we hopped back in the car and took another round.

After 3 times going around the same few streets, I put my foot down and said “Call Mr. X who so cleverly took you here last time!” Mr. X obliged with the directions, talking us through as I took to the road one last time. But wait. That building looks familiar. So does that shop. OMG! We were at the same place for the 4th time! AND IT WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!

Aiyoh aitelyu! Can die ok. So I got out of the car after parking and said “This had better be excellant sar hor fun!” Too bad it wasn’t. But here’s where things get exciting.

After lunch, I got back to my car and got in, turned the key, heard the engine crank, put the gear in reverse. Nothing.

Puzzled, I tried again. This time, I noticed that the reverse sensor did not beep and that the engine had died. Somehow, I could crank it, but the engine would not run. Ok, let’s not panic…. I whipped out my phone and called the trusty Toyota Assist for the second time in as many weeks. This time, they told me that as my car was still under warranty there was nothing they could do except arrange for a tow truck to tow my car to the nearest Toyota Service Centre. OMG! Tow! My poor baby strung up like a pak cham kai as PE said!

You know what was the first thing that ran through my mind? The manual. You see, as I said before when I was reading the car manual for want of better reading material on hand, I read that the car must be properly towed using those things that support the wheels, and not the cable and hook contraption so often associated with tow trucks for it might damage the car. The trivia you retain in the 5% of the brain that you use eh?

But as you can see, the tow truck driver evidently was well versed with the Toyota car manual too, for he used the wheel support things! Hehe… Lucky for me, my car was stuck in a parking lot. The most worthwhile RM0.30 I’ve ever spent on parking for instead of getting half an hour’s worth, I got over 1 1/2 hour’s worth of parking!

I got to ride in a tow truck all the way to the Toyota Service Centre not too far away. Jalan Panglima was where it happened, opposite Restoran Sin Lean Lee and Sifu Kopitiam. That was the directions I gave the telephone operator. How to ask me, a stranger to Ipoh to tell them where I was?!

As we approached the Service Centre, I had another heart stopping moment, for there was a slope downwards and at one point, my car was balancing on only 1 wheel! Again the most incongrous thought flashed through my mind. Wasn’t it horses who only had 1 foot on the ground at any one time when they run? It was purely to keep my heart from stopping, I assure you.

I dropped off the keys, described my problem to the service people and sat down to wait. about half and hour later, one of the service people came up to me and told me the strangest thing:

Service person: “Your car is ready. It was an emo problem.”
Me (in my head): Emo problem? My car was having an emotional breakdown?! Excuse me? I’M the one having an emotional breakdown!!
Me (out loud): Um… Emo problem?
Service person: Immobilizer - Immo problem.
Me (out loud): Oh Immo!
Me (in my head): Bugger how can you expect me to know your techie terms?!

Anyway, ya so they got the car running, identified the problem as being an “immo” problem and told me I could run along back to KL to my regular Toyota Service Centre to get the immobilizer replaced.

Fast forward to the next day

I went to my regular service centre. They told me my car was not having an “immo problem” but it was a strange disease they cannot identify despite doing a full diagnostic. The thing was, my car is already running and not displaying any signs of trouble so they can’t trouble shoot something if there is no trouble.

*confused*

Maybe it was just an “emo problem” after all eh?

Finally, here’s a tip, courtesy of the Ipoh Toyota Service Centre:

If a similar problem happens, where you can start your car engine but it won’t run, and its an immobilizer problem stopping your car from starting, remove the negative terminal of your car battery, wait 30 seconds then replace. It should start like a charm then. But only if its having “immo problems”

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