Is the warranty of your giant good enough?

I lost access to the Internet for couple of days as my PC “died”. It started with the Vista operating system partition extremely fragmented causing excessive disk activities.

When I try to defrag the Master File Table and the partition using the so called boot-time defragmentation the defrag software somehow go haywire. When the system rebooted it complained that the windows loader was missing. Yeah big time mistake.

I had another partition running Windows 7 so I booted it up and it “senses” that my Vista partition is corrupted and tried to recover all the orphaned files. During the recovery the PC suddenly shut down by itself.

Pressing the power button doesn’t power the system anymore. Initially I thought it was the power supply unit so I took it out and indeed it has some burn smell emitting from the power supply unit.

Since it comes with 5 years warranty so that’s good and I took it back to the computer store when I bought it. Unfortunately the warranty claim cannot be processed immediately as they have to send the unit back to the dealer to get a replacement. This whole process will take one month!

So I bought another power supply unit and upon fitted it the PC still doesn’t want to power up. Another hour of investigation and I finally found the culprit. It was the new graphic cards that I bought a month ago. The moment I removed the graphic card from the motherboard, the PC immediately power up.

Again I took the graphic card back to the computer store and initiated a warranty claim. As expected the same one month waiting period apply.

If you have assembled your own PC lately than you would know that the latest motherboard from Asus/Gigabytes doesn’t come with any onboard graphic adapter. Without a graphic card, you will not be able to connect the monitor to your PC. I can either wait for a month for the warranty claim to be processed or my PC remained non functional during this period.

So I bought another graphic card (ouch) and reassembled the PC. Now I am back online and but still sore with the warranty system for computer parts in this part of the world. Apparently they favoured the seller rather than the buyer.

Their current practice is that if you return the part within 7 days, they will give you a one-to-one replacement on the spot. If you come back after 7 days, then they put the liability back to the dealer. Some even charge your some small amount for the delivery fees to send the part back and forth from the dealer.

This is the standard practice for most of the computer parts dealer in Low Yat Plaza. The main the reason they do this is to reduce their risk of carrying too much inventory just to cater for warranty claim. Given that some components like motherboard and high end graphic cards carry a 3 year warranty nowadays. They don’t want to keep stock for that long so they put this responsibility squarely back to the dealer.

My reading of the many posts in computer forums that the warranty claims in other places like the United State is much fairer. Most warranty claim will be processed within a week and the owner can get their PC up and running again. Over here we are at the mercy of the computer parts dealers and will have to fork out money upfront to fix our computer.

This reminded me that when I bought my giant, I only have one month warranty from my dealer. Luckily my giant was in good shape so I don’t have to make any claim from the dealer. I understand that some dealer gave longer warranty period but I think at least they will honour the warranty claim.

The most the owner will have to do is to leave the car for a day or two and then you are back on the road again. In fact I would imagine that the warranty costs for any fault parts on the giant will be much more expensive than those computer parts. Well I think the warranty claim for our giant is fairer than the computer parts!

Retrofit Doesn't Equal Original

I received several queries from my reader what are their options if the giant that they are looking at don’t have some of the minimum features I mentioned in this post.

I thought it would be a straight forward job to retrofit the missing features but I was wrong. Yes some of these features can be retrofitted locally but then it wouldn’t be the same like the original. I checked with my regular installer and it seems they are also providing the alternative solution meaning they can’t do the retrofit like those that come originally with the car.

For example if the giant that you are looking at don’t have the front camera, you can retrofit the front camera but then the installer cannot retrofit the front camera button onto the steering wheel for you. They will provide an alternative button somewhere at the dashboard in front of the steering wheel.

Similarly the installer that I frequent doesn’t have the know-how to retrofit the hands-free button onto the steering wheel. Therefore if a buyer wants to retrofit the Bluetooth function into the NFL model, he/she will have to find someone who is familiar with the wiring of the giant to do the retrofit. I have not come across anyone who can do this yet. One of my readers was quoted RM5K just to retrofit the Bluetoth function. I suspect the cost is so high because instead of retrofitting the button the installer is changing the whole steering wheel with one that comes with the button.

Another reader also highlighted that he is worried about the quality of the power door that is retrofitted locally. I don’t have experience on this but I think the worry is genuine. My understanding from my regular installer is that the retrofitting kit is fully imported from Japan. However I am not sure of the quality of the installation.

I have seen quite a lot of earlier batch giant from circa 2002-2003 doesn’t comes with any power doors. Also many dealers would like to entice their buyer with model that have twin power doors. They may retrofit the unit that don’t come the power door at the driver side to make it a twin power door model. Therefore retrofitting power door is a niche market and I believed if the installer has done enough of installation job they will get it right.

I know it is getting harder to find a unit that has all the features that you are looking for and you may be looking at the retrofitting route. As long as you have no issue with the result there are installers who can do the retrofitting job for you.

Location of Fuses in Toyota Alphard

In previous post, I mentioned that one of the ways to check for problem with power door is to look at the fuse. Where are all the fuses located in our giant?

There are several fuse boxes installed in a Toyota Alphard. The main fuse boxes are located in the engine compartment. The location of the fuse boxes in the engine compartment is slight different between the 2.4L and 3.0L model. On the 2.4L 2AZ-FE engine model, it is located on the right side of the engine compartment as shown in the photo below.
On the 3.0L 1MZ-FE model, it is located in the middle section on top of the engine.

There is another smaller fuse box below the larger one as shown in the photo below.
This is for the 2.4L model. The 3.0L model has the same smaller fuse box in front of the radiator.

There are two more fuse boxes located under the dashboard, one is on the driver side as shown in the photo below.

You will have to unhook the smaller coin box from the dashboard before you can have access to the fuse location which is located deep inside the dashboard.

The other is located behind the glovebox at the passenger side.


Again you will have to unhook the lower glovebook before you can access to the fuses located next to the aircon filter box.

Now that you have located each of the fuse boxes, you’ll need to identify each of the fuses within the fuse box to ascertain which one controls which component. The following tables show the fuel name, the ampere and the description of each fuse. The diagrams before each table list the location of the fuses within the fuse box.

Main fuse box (in engine compartment)

	Fuse Name	Ampere	Description
1	SLC	7.5A	VSC
2	H-LP (RH)	15A	Headlamp high beam (RH)
3	H-LP (LH)	15A	Headlamp high beam (LH)
4	H-LP (RL)	15A	Headlamp (RH)
5	H-LP (LL)	15A	Headlamp (LH)
6	RAD NO.3	25A	Audio
7	HAZ-HORN	20A	Hazard Light, Indicator Lights, Horn
8	EFI	15A	Engine Computer
9	RAD NO.1	15A	Audio
10	ECU-B	10A	Meter, ABS, Power Window
11	SPARE	15A	Spare fuse
12	SPARE	7.5A	Spare fuse
13	ETCS	10A	Electronic Toll Collection System

Secondary fuse box (in engine compartment)

	Fuse Name	Ampere	Description
1	ABS	25A	ABS
2	ALT-S	5A	Alternator
3	DOOR NO.1	30A	Door Lock

Fuse Box at driver side

	Fuse Name	Ampere	Description
1	STOP	15A	Ingition Light
2	GAUGE	10A	Engine Computer, Power Slide Door, Clearing Sonar & Park Sonar
3	CURTAIN- RH	15A	Electric Curtain - Right Hand Side
4	CURTAIN LH& BK	25A	Electric Curtain - Left Hand Side and Rear
5	MIR HTR	10A	Mirror Heater
6	CURTAIN	5A	Electric Curtain
7	WIP	25A	Wiper
8	AC 100V	15A	Accessory Console Center
9	P/W RH	25A	Power Window
10	ODB-II	7.5A	Dignostic Connector

Fuse Box at Passenger Side

	Fuse Name	Ampere	Description
1	S/ROOF	30A	Moon-roof
2	DEF	30A	Rear window defrost
3	FOG	15A	Front Fog Light
4	DOME2	7.5A	Room Lights
5	VSC	7.5A	VSC
6	P/SEAT	30A	Power Seats (3.0L only)
7	BACK DOOR	30A	Power Boot
8	AM1	7.5A	Engine Switch
9	RR FOG	10A	Rear Fog Lamp
10	P/W LH	30A	Power Windows - LH
11	DOOR	30A	Door Lock
12	DOME	7.5A	Room Lights
13	TAIL	10A	Rear Tail lights
14	PANEL	10A	Switch illuminator, Aircon illuminator
15	ECU-IG	10A	ABS, Power Slide Door, Cruise Control
16	RR WIP	10A	Rear Wiper
17	A/C	10A	Aircon, Audio
18	DEICER	30A	Front Wiper Deicer
19	SLOPE	7.5A	-
20	SEAT HTA	10A	Seat Heater
21	INJ	15A	Engine Computer
22	UGN	10A	Engine Computer, SRS Airbag
23	MET IGN	7.5A	Meter
24	ECU ACC	10A	Shift lock, Door mirror, Audio
25	CIG	15A	Cigarette Lighter
26	P/POINT	15A	Accessory socket

Please note that the above write up cover what I know on the fuse locations for the new facelift model of 1st generation Toyota Alphard. Other model may have different fuse locations.

PS. Phew. This is the longest time I ever took to write a post because the formatting I have do for the table HTML code outside of the blogging platform.

PPS. A reader was asking where exactly is the fuse box on the passenger side. I am away at the moment so I can only attached a schematic diagram as a reference. I will take a better picture of it location when I am back.

Toyota Alphard Power Door Problem?

One common problem most often reported by Toyota Alphard owner is that the power sliding door stops responding to the buttons that “tell” it to open, or that pulling the handle outward the door doesn’t slide electrically.

The step to investigate this problem involves the following sequences.

If you are handy in troubleshooting yourself, first check the fuse then check if there is power at the motor when the buttons are operated, then check for power at the buttons, then for power at the fuse. Look closely at the wires at and near the motor and the button and as far as you can follow them, look for obvious problems, loose connections, look for frays where the wires take a bend or go through a hole or are near anything moving. The problem can have many possible causes such as a poor ground, loose connection, frayed wire, bad switch, blown fuse, faulty relay, blown motor, or possibly even a problem with the mechanical aspect that opens the door.

Phew, that's a mouthful.

Well that's the steps the service personnel would have to go through. We mortal just operating the doors probably don't even know how to start.

If you do not want to handle the thorough investigation stated above, then try a reset. The power sliding door can be reset simply by disconnecting the battery, reconnect the terminal (which reset the power door), turn on the power door button and press the open/close button. If this does not fix the problem then you have to look at other area like door’s motor, cable etc. A worn battery might not deliver enough power to the driving motor so you might want to check the condition of the battery when you have a power door problem. At the minimum change to a 60Amp or higher battery, if you have other equipment like ICE that drain you battery.

If all else fail, please check with your mechanic :)

What Options Should You Choose for Toyota Alphard?

In my previous post I mentioned that it is very rare to find a full spec Toyota Alphard as the number of such car is very limited, unless you opted in for a full spec MZG (of course at a premium). If you can find a high spec AS/MS typically it would have most of the important options covered in this post. If not then the potential buyers may have to opt for a lower spec giant like an AX/MX/MZ. Even then at the minimum the buyer should choose a unit that has as much option as possible so that he/she doesn’t have to fork out more money to retrofit one or more of this option later.

When I mentioned at the minimum it should have at least a single power door at the passenger side, original head unit, sonar sensor, front and rear camera, and ideally with multifunction control at the steering wheel.
Power door (or power slide door as the manual called it) is very important as it ease the opening and closing of the heavy door. Ideally you should use the button on the dashboard or the button on the remote control unit to operate the power door. If not then just pull the handle once and let the power module slide the door to open or close. One should never pull or push the door with force as it may damage the power module. If the option is there one should preferably go for twin power doors. The extra power door will comes in handy if the family has small children or elder who will have difficulty in pulling the heavy door on the driver side (assuming they have to enter from that side). Also with twin power doors, you can use the remote to open whichever side that allows convenient access as you approach the giant. I find this very useful especially when I have to park my car at the road side where one side of the door is not accessible as it is next to some bushes or side wall.

If you have bought a unit with single power door (normally on the passenger side) and you want to retrofit the power door kit into the driver side, the current price is approximately RM5,000.00. Therefore if twin power doors are important to you, choose one with twin power doors fitted to avoid this cost.

The sonar sensors help you to gauge the distant between your giant and the surrounding object. The peeping sounds, the flashing indicator and the flashing image on the HU all helps the driver to judge how safe is the distant of the car from surrounding object. I know many owners have bought their giant without the sonar sensor. It is quite expensive to retrofit the aftermarket sonar sensor hence I would recommend potential buyer to choose one that comes with sonar sensor.

The front and rear camera provide the visual aid to the driver on the “distant” of the car from objects in front or the rear. In conjunction with the sonar sensor, the driver has ample sensory and visual image of the safe distant of the car from any objects in front or the rear. Do note that the camera and the sonar sensor only can “sense” or “see” the objects in the same level of the sonar sensor/camera. It will not help in situation where there is high hanging object above the front/rear bumper. This is especially tricky as many of the basement car parks are not designed for MPV with the height like our giant. I know some owners either scratch their roof or reversed into some piping hanging from the ceiling.

The multi-steering control function on the steering allows you to operate the head unit or use the hands-free function.

Some AX/MX will come with sunroof/moonroof. This option is really a decision of the owner to consider whether it is useful in our kind of weather condition. Many will opt not to take it as many will hardly use the roof on daily basis. If you have a unit that has sunroof/moonroof, do remember to regularly clean the surrounding of the sunroof and the rail so that it is not clogged. If it is clogged water may seeps into the car from the sunroof.

On very rare occasion, some AX/MX/AS/MS/MZ will come with power boot. Again this is a convenient option if you use the boot often. With a press of the button on the dashboard or the remote control you can open the boot remotely. Again you can press these button or the button on the boot to close if electrically. Not many owners will choose to retrofit a power boot but there are accessory shops that cater for this niche. It cost upward of RM8,000.00 to retrofit the power boot.

Hope this post help you making your choice on what minimum options to go for.