GShadow

SATORI893 it could very well be that the factory head unit just can feed enough power to your speakers, factore head unit is only about 18watts. With low power fead to your new speakers u could damage them.

Weather shields perform a great function …. They make heaps of wind noise!!!! When I bought my second hand 2008 Aurion they had been installed, I was amazed at how quiet the car was after removing them.

Sure do... using my hands only. With just enough fingernail, you can grip it with enough force to be able to pull it out. Done it numerous times without a single mark. I recently replaced the basic Toyota head unit with the Toyota display head unit, main reason for replacement was the use of USB sticks and bluetooth. Got the head unit from ebay $200 and the head unit surround from Toyota $30, I also bought plastic panel removal kit from supercheap auto for about $12 made the job a bit easier. The new Toyota display head unit is a bit buggy, sometimes does not display USB folder options and sometimes does not display previously called numbers through bluetooth. Anyway during my search for the best way to remove head unit I found this youtube vid and it seam the easiest way to remove the head unit. Worked for me, you just have to watch you don't drop the head unit retaining bolts during removal and install. Oh and don’t get so excited like I did and put the new head unit in then all the other bits back together only then to realise you forgot head unit retaining bolts! Luckily this method is so easy there was no stress to open it all up again.

Any info on removing parcel shelf would be great as I also will be replacing speakers at some stage. Thanks

I have used the $30 plastic ones and I believe they did save my car. Apparently they are susceptible to how they are installed, must be horizontal and have a good clean air flow so can't be mounted too close to anything behind or the flow could be disrupted. At 110km/h I could hear a slight whistling through them. I fitted them before a trip from Melb to Qld with lots of inland side trip and I love late night driving. Anyhow, on the trip saw lots of roo's mostly beside the road. One morning just before dawn I came around a left hand blind corner doing about 110km/h, the corner had a steep embankment about 3 meters high with a property fence at the top. As I came out of the corner and just as the side wash of my headlights showed it there stood a kangaroo at about 25 meters off (yer at 110km/h), something to do with the timing of when and how the kangaroo took off I know it was the 'shoo roo' that did the work. That kangaroo took off up that embankment like I have never seen a roo move before. Years later I did see a kangaroo move very similarly and that was because my blue healer was hot on it's tail, haha. Damb dog went crashing through the bush for 20 minutes before coming back, no amount of shouting would stop him not while he was having that much fun. Some one pinched the ‘roo shoo’s’ off my car in a surfers paradise car park, I made sure I bought another pair before heading on country roads again. The scariest Kangaroo experience I ever had was years ago in about 1995 and with out a 'roo Shoo'. I was on the Stuart Hwy heading to Alice Springs somewhere past Coober Pedy. The sun was just coming up and one of the grandest sunrises I had ever seen only I couldn’t take my eyes off the road. Every couple of kilometres there was a dead roo on the road and there were BIG REDS jumping all over the place, on the road, over the road and beside the road (yer I should have pulled over, young and dumb). The fastest I dared drive was about 40km/h maybe 60km/h even then I was dodging, breaking and swerving, it was crazy. I was thinking how the F do you get so many dead roo’s on the road, didn’t take long to find out. A road train passed me at about 120km/h and yep he didn’t stop for nothing! Man, what a clean up it would have been for that Roo bar!

Update Update Update . . . Just completed another 205km, toped up the gas tank from the same pump I used last time so the measurements should be very accurate. This time the 205km was all suburban traffic driving no freeway and lots of heavy footing, always first off at the lights, impatient overtaking and getting up to speed quick smart. 205km used 26.8 litres, close enough to 13.4lt per 100km. If you factor in the way I drive that’s pretty good, when driving hard I was using 13lt /100km on premium petrol. Current prices Premium petrol 151.9 @ 13lt = $19.75 LPG 53.9 @ 13.4lt = $7.22 What about E10 sh*t 133.9 @ 13lt = $17.40 (more likely use more than 13lt of E10 per 100km) There is currently only 2.5c per litre excise on LPG and will increase every year till 2015 to total 12.5c per litre. The petrol excise is 38.14c per litre. I know gas and petrol prices will be different in 2015 but I’ll just throw an extra 12.5c onto current LPG prices and see how it looks. LPG with excise 66.4 @ 13.4lt = $8.9 What about the most expensive LPG I can find in Australia happens to be Darwin 92.9! where ULP is 151.9 (hey same price as premium fuel in Melbourne). Darwin LPG 92.9 @ 13.4lt = $12.45 Anyway you crunch the numbers LPG is a winner in my wallet

Installed a $3.00 boot light upgrade and it only took 5 minutes to install. It's a 48 SMD LED, I got the warm white (it's not that warm) just coz I didn't want super white. Got it here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150675727866?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 Can also search eBay for 'T10 dome light'. The light I got seems to be about 3 to 4 times brighter than original and the install is completely reversible. Step 1: Removed the original T10 bulb cage, open the cage to access the bulb then there are two clips to press together either side of the bulb. The whole cage will then come out. Step 2: Unclip the plug at the back of the cage. I found the wire very short but just enough to deal with. Step 3: Clean the area well around the hole where the cage came out of, I used an alcohol wipe. This is where double sided tape will hold the new light on. Step 4: LEDs are polarity sensitive, if you plug it in and it does not work then reverse the direction you plugged it in. The 48 SMD came with 3 adapters but to make a clean install I just bent the adapter joining plug into a V shape and then gently used pliers to bend to tips of the V strait again. Bending the wire in this way made it easy to insert the wires directly into the plug that the original cage plugged into. Use electrical tape to secure the plug and wires together. Step 5: Tuck the clip and wire back in and stick the new 48 SMD light into position over the cage hole. Your done! I found the double sided tape to be very strong, if I ever remove the SMD light I expect to be scraping off remains.

Anyone else find it ironic that the culture in which cows are sacred is also the primary producer of leather? HAHA nice observation. On a world scale Indian leather is not considered very good leather. Treating / conditioning auto leather requires specialised products, auto leather is bonded differently to household / clothing / saddlery leather and the incorrect treatment can destroy the leather in the long term. I would think Mothers should be good. I use Bowden's Leather love. Don’t try to cut corners on leather conditioning products! Also as leather in a natural product it can have flaws that my not have been obvious when new but can show up through wear

Hi, Does LPG affect the engine life? Does Toyota recommend the LPG convertion? Thanks Hmmm, some big questions you are asking there. LPG is a high octane fuel and a cleaner burning fuel it will actually reduce wear and tear on engine components. The system being installed must be a good one from a reputable dealer. As I mentioned earlier I have had installed the flashlube kit as LPG does not lubricate as much as petrol does, but modern engines are designed for less lubricating unleaded fuels anyway. Go ask a taxi company, there engines are doing 400,000 + Km on gas, my 2001 Camry on the older less reliable venturi system has done 150,000Km on gas and the engine still idles and sounds as smooth as the day it was converted. The suspension and other components are a different matter. Toyota does not recommend converting the Aurion to Gas and you could lose warrantee on engine and component directly related to the engine. Some Toyota models are listed as ok to convert; you can find them here http://www.toyota.com.au/faqs If you ask me using ethanol fuels would be much more damaging to the engine than LPG

Just as SirNed said, it is in with the petrol filler. Added a photo of filler

4300k HID globes will be warmer white, standard incandescent globes are about 3400k where as 6000k will show a blue/white. If you ask me I would not fit anything over 5000K unless you are fitting it for the bling factor only. 4300k will actually be brighter than 6000k, as the globe gets whiter it diminishes in actual light output also 6000k will not reflect off the black road surface very well and you could get annoyed from it over reflecting from reflective signage. Just out of interest underground miners do not use LED lights even though they use much less power and will only use filament style lighting as LED is too white and cuts down their visual depth perception. Another thing to think about is the whiter the light the smaller your pupils will open, with your pupils contracted you will lose sight of darker objects not directly lit by your headlights. Ever sit around a campfire an night, you can be looking strait into that warm fire light then turn away any your night vision is hardly affected or will return quite quickly, that's because your pupils are less contracted due to the warm fire light. Once again its about our eye sight development over several hundreds of years sitting around camp fires. Taken form Wikipedia: 1,700 K Match flame 2,700–3,300 K Incandescent light bulb 4,100–4,150 K Moonlight 5,000 K Horizon daylight 5,500–6,000 K Vertical daylight, electronic flash So how many of you think the colour of a camera flash is nice 6000k? It tends to be cold and flat. For me I would think moonlight colour temperature would be idea for night driving. We are talking about night vision not day vision, our eyes have developed naturally to use moonlight to its best ability so why not use our eyes as they have been designed? 4300k all the way ;)

OK, added some photos. Just filled up the gas tank again after doing 102km, I used 9.76 litres costing $5.25. Every petrol station has different pressure pumps and filling will vary depending on the incoming gas pressure. Next time I will try to fill up at the same petrol station and that will give me a more accurate measure. If this is close to correct and I used 10lt of gas for 102km I will be wrapped. About 40km of that 102km was freeway driving so a 60/40 split. Yes about $5.00 for 100km I should be able to drive to Adelaide or Sydney for under $40.00. Now for the install: You will see in the photos a valve saver installed, this is a upper head lube and was an option I asked for and is not fitted as standard, this helps lubricate the valves and maybe help the engine run a little cooler, fill once every 10,000km or so with valve saver available at nearly all auto parts outlets. Cost about $15 for 1 litre and one bottle should get you about 15,000km. It’s not fitted as standard as installers don’t believe it is necessary in modern engines. I have only just reinstalled the boot floor board holding the tyre tools and the boot carpet and it sits so flat no one would know there was a gas tank there. I have to revise my previous guess that the donut tank sits 2cm to 3cm higher than a spare tyre, it only sits about 1cm higher.

Picked up the car today, the people at LPGAS Lilyday are really good. Nice and tidy install they also threw in a puncture repair kit consisting of green slim and a small compressor. The donut tank does not sit up as high as I thought it would, sits 2cm maybe 3cm higher than the spare tyre would so there is almost no noticeable loss of boot space. However I was informed the Injection system uses higher pressure than the older systems and I would only get about 48lt usable gas out of the 60lt tank not the 52lt I used to get in my older Camry. The system starts on petrol and switches seamlessly over to gas once the engine is warm and the revs are on a decrease, it will also automatically switch over to petrol if the gas runs out. At idle I can manual switch from gas to petrol and you can not pick the switch, no change in revs or engine noise absolutely seamless change. Can also manually switch fuels while driving just best done while the revs are decreasing. I can pick no change in engine power from gas to petrol, the car is still a rocket when I want it to be. Only catch so far is when I first went to fill the tank, the tank was only about a quarter full and I need it full to start working out the mileage, any way went to fill the talk and it would not accept any more gas. I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to try another pump, about an hour later and 50km down the road I had time to try and fill again, this time it filled no problems taking 32lt and costing $17.00. I called LPGAS Lilyday about it not filling and was told if it continued to be a problem bring it back when it suited me. I hope it was just the stations gas pump and not the tank cut off valve sticking. I know some ppl remove the 80% cut off valve so they can fill the tank to 100% and make sure they drive for a decent distance before stoping. The 80% cut off is to allow for gas heat expansion. Don’t think it’s a good idea to remove this safety feature I’m also sure it would make it unroad worthy but I sure wish it would fill to 90%. Will know my first gas usage in a day or two and will submit my claim form for government rebait of $1250.00 on Monday. Once I have time will upload some photos of gas cylinder and engine bay.

Where did you get your Orbital Direct injection system and for that price! and it's liquid injection too!? WOW. I got quotes from many places and $4k was the running price for vapour injection add another $1000 for liquid injection. Although most places when pushed on the liquid injection recommended against it as the technology is still new and they all said there were still teething problems with it. I originally wanted liquid injection for the extra power (apparently only slight if any improvement in economy) but shied away because of extra cost and installers not recommending it.

A Buff Hamster: No change to engine for my conversion nor my 2001 Camry. The vapour injection requires a second set of injectors in the head, a converter to change the liquid gas to vapour and a CPU to interface with the Toyota CPU. New engines that are designed to run on unleaded should not require changes in head gaskets or valves. Unleaded fuel does not have the lubrication that lead used to offer in leaded fuel.

I am writing this to give others considering converting to gas some inside information and possibly some tips on the way. I dropped off my 2008 Aurion ZR6 with 26,000km for conversion to gas today, will pickup late tomorrow. I will be filling in the details and experiences I go through with this conversion over the next few months. The system being installed is a vapour injection system with a toroidal (donut tank) in the spare wheel well. The usable litres in the tank will be 52lt. The car will start on petrol and once the engine reaches operating temperature automatically switch to gas, if the gas tank is empty it will automatically switch to petrol and of cause I will have the option of manually switching to gas or petrol. When running on gas the lt/100km dash display will not work nor will the distance to empty. Once switched back to petrol the gauges will operate as usual. I previously had a 2001 V6 Camry converted to gas with a donut tank, virtually no loss of boot space. I say virtually because the donut tank does sit a bit higher than a spare wheel so it does take up a little space Concerned about punctured tyres and no spare? In the eight years I had my last car without a spare tyre I didn’t have a flat, I always carry two cans of inflate and seal stuff so the only time I would be in trouble is with side wall damage. I have had to use the inflate and seal cans but it was for a mates car when he managed to puncture two tyres at the same time, he had one spare tyre and I donated a repair can for the second puncture and he was on his way. The conversion is not cheap $4000 but with the price of petrol and the fact that I have a heavy foot it will pay for itself within two years. For me it’s not about the time it takes to pay it off, its that when I fill up on LPG it will cost me approximately $30.00. I expect the $30 to get me 370km around town (about 14lt/100km) and freeway should be 10lt/100 maybe less or 520km to my $30.00. On petrol at $1.55 per litre 60lt = $93.00 and I would get 500km around town and 750km freeway. At the moment I get about 12lt/100km on 98RON (premium fuel) I only use premium. Yes I can get closer to 10.5lt/100km if I drive like a grandma, freeway driving I get about 8lt/100km. Around Town 370km: Gas $30.00 Petrol $47.70 Saving $17.70 every 370km Freeway 520km: Gas $30.00 Petrol $65.00 A whopping saving of $35.00 every 520km I am only guessing the gas consumption from my experience with my Camry and from what I have read and been told about vapour injection. Will give exact gas usage after my first gas fill up. Will report back in a few days

I thought you weren't meant to use high beams when other cars are present? You can only use high beams when the car is further than 100m in front of you. Ever had someone driving behind you on a country road within 400 meter's with their high beams on? It's not nice, I tend to pull over let them pass and show them how it feels with my high beams burning into their eyes reflecting off there mirrors. There just isn't enough people in society these days with common sense.

I've heard horror stories about Pedders, really wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even fit them. I've got much the same issue but my car has crappy aftermarket wheels (will be replaced in time) so I just put it down to that + poor alignment. Might have to invest in this part from Fulcrum. Having 100,000 kay old control arm bushes replaced should probably be considered preventative maintainence anyway... Hi all, I have had my 2008 ZR6 with 25,000km on it for 3 weeks. It had a bad pull to the left problem so I found all the info I needed from this forum and with that info started calling around to get quotes and see who knew what they were talking about. Ended up getting the local Pedders to look into it and they installed a front camber pin kit and a front alignment (no rear alignment needed for my vehicle anyway). They told me the front right wheel camber was out just over one degree, left side was almost spot on. Without the installation of the camber pin kit you can't correct the one degree fault. The reason I chose Pedders and paid a bit more than others quoted is because the guy at Pedders knew what he was talking about, so just ring around and go with the one that has dealt with the problem before and knows what they are talking about. Which pedders did you go to GShadow? I'm in Vic n the Pedders I went to was Ringwood. pedders in Lillydale gave me a better quote over the phone but for me Ringwood was closer.

I've heard horror stories about Pedders, really wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even fit them. I've got much the same issue but my car has crappy aftermarket wheels (will be replaced in time) so I just put it down to that + poor alignment. Might have to invest in this part from Fulcrum. Having 100,000 kay old control arm bushes replaced should probably be considered preventative maintainence anyway... Hi all, I have had my 2008 ZR6 with 25,000km on it for 3 weeks. It had a bad pull to the left problem so I found all the info I needed from this forum and with that info started calling around to get quotes and see who knew what they were talking about. Ended up getting the local Pedders to look into it and they installed a front camber pin kit and a front alignment (no rear alignment needed for my vehicle anyway). They told me the front right wheel camber was out just over one degree, left side was almost spot on. Without the installation of the camber pin kit you can't correct the one degree fault. The reason I chose Pedders and paid a bit more than others quoted is because the guy at Pedders knew what he was talking about, so just ring around and go with the one that has dealt with the problem before and knows what they are talking about.