Ah Beng-fied My Ride!!!

Don't worry, it's not gone to the dogs yet.



I had my rear spoiler and the LED 3rd brake lights replaced at the authorised accesories shop yesterday. As i've told you all, a segment LEDs were burnt (5 to be precise) and they gladly replace the whole spoiler unit instead of just the LED light.

So, while i was there, i browse through the shop.

As usual, there will be a lot of ah beng stuff at any accesories shop. Things your car won't need and things your car need.

As for me and my years of driving (13 to be precise, legally), i can't live without:

1. Good sound system
2. Good Tinting
3. Good Horns.

The existing single disc player that comes with 4 factory fitted speakers were decent enough for now. I still have my amps and changer safely tucked somewhere. Infact, i have a Nav/Sat system which i'm still trying to find an installer that could hook it up and make it work! So, item 1 was sorted.

The tinting i had was given free. It's worth only about RM250, so there isn't any magical paper that was stuck on the screen, but i paid a bit more for a slightly better tint that does the work as fine and as well, within the legal limits of course. It is not V-Kool or any Kool, but it works. Heck, even V-Kool doesn't promise your car interior to be any cooler under the Malaysian Sun. But i guess i didn't want to spend anohter extra 600 on top of the 250 for a supposedly better tint. Rules of thumb for me is to at least get paper that will not discolour (that would mean avoiding anything GOLD or SILVER).

So, i ended up getting the blue hue tint.


White background used to show coloured tint

And finally, Good horn.

Now, we all know that stock standard horn on most cars are crappy. With exception of the locally made Perdana that comes with good horns, the majority of the other cars are crappy.

I remembered when i was driving my old kancil, a chicken actually crossed the street, stopped and actually didn't budge from the middle of the road. I horned and the chicken nonchantly walked across to the other side.

Gave a whole new meaning to the joke "Why did the chicken cross the street" eh?

So, the very same day, i paid RM70 for a Hella TE12, or known as Twin Horn or to the Ah Beng, BMW Horn.



This is a 400hz/500hz harmonic horn able to blast 110dB(A) at 2 meter distance.

Obviously, When i saw the same chicken again, even blasting from the horn while the bugger was at the road side was enough to give me my last laugh.

It was when wifey bought her car and i decided that she shuold replace her puny sounding horn to a mean sounding one that i was enlightened.

Anyone heard of Stebel horns?

I had a electro-pneumatic horn installed in wifey's car. It's nasty.

Stebel Nautilus is a twin compact horn that churns out 560hz/630hz sound at an ear piercing 115dB(A) at 2meters distance. Go to the link i gave and look for PRODUCTS->ELECTROPNEUMATICS->NAUTILUS SERIES. Now, see the sound icon at the bottom? Press it and you'll know what i meant. The chicken would die of heart attack.

but i didn't have the chance to test it on the same chicken. Maybe that chicken has seen better days and ended up in someone's chicken rendang 3 years ago. You know what they say about "ayam pencen" and good rendang....


Bad Ass Kick Ass

Stebel Nautilus is hard to find. Infact, i can't find it anymore after going back to where i installed it.

Back to the horn issues. As i said, i was browsing through the accesories shop. And i saw they sell Stebel, apart from FIAAM and Hella Horns.

Like a sucker, i went on to look at the Stebel Horn.

It was priced at RM70 incl installation and the relay/wiring. Almost 40 percent cheaper than the Nautilus which cost RM120 to fix (but that was worth every single freaking sen!)

There were 2 types of Stebel they have. The normal looking Hella-Lookalike TM80 series which looks like this



Which has a spec of 410hz/500hz harmonic sound blasting 112dB(A) at 2 meters distance. Slightly better than Hella. And because of the higher low end noise of 410Hz, the sound produced in harmony are sharper than the Hella.

Then i saw Stebel Magnum 2...

And that bowled me over.


Marketing ploy...

It claimed to be the loudest compact horn the market ever seen. Blasting a good 115dB(A) at 2 meter, which essentially same as the Nautilus(which weight 2 times heavier). The harmonic frequency is 410Hz/500Hz and it's louder...

OK, that's the Kiasu Ah Beng side.


Almost same as Hella and other fake BMW horns sold nationwide...

Anyway, hearing is believing.


Magnum 2 somemore...

Stebel Magnum Series. PRODUCTS->ELECTROMAGNETICS->TM80 MAGNUM
and press the sound icon...


Magnum P.I. Do they use Stebel Magnum???