birdie

Anyone done this recently? I'm considering doing this now... I'm going to be keeping my car for a couple of more years at least... so I'm wondering if anyone has supercharged their Camry recently? If so how much did it cost roughly? (US exchange rate has to help right?) Is this something you can do yourself if you have a bit of mechanical knowledge and experience? or is this something you need to get a performance mechanic to install and tune? How hard is it to find a TRD supercharger these days? and how much?

I was having troubles with my car surging, and running generally rough at idle and not under load... (like going down a rise). It was fine under power though... Now I had my car serviced at Toyota today, and they found a couple of vacuum hoses disconnected, and one had to be glued back onto the air-box... it explains the problem now that it was to do with vacuum and reason why it was fine under power... Now they also said the VSV valve was faulty (which I googled and found to be vacuum switching valve)... Now they quoted me $515 to get the part from Sydney and replace it (so labour and parts)... now I got a price for the part is only about $155 and I can get it cheaper again through my dad's trade account at Toyota. So I'm wondering why its so expensive to fit the VSV... is it really time consuming or hard? Or is it a job my dad and I could do? (dad used to do a lot of the mechanical work on their cars, utes, and tractors when we lived on the farm...) The part number is: 90910-12174 The car is a 2002 Camry Sportivo, 1MZFE V6 Manual...

I tried my iPhone on one at the local Toyota dealer after posting this last year, and I couldn't get it to recognise my iPhone via USB... I wondering if it was that it didn't support the newer iOS version? It worked via Bluetooth but no song title display, and you had to control the iPhone playlists via the iPhone. Anyone had any luck with this one recently?

Ok, I have got a 2002 Camry Sportivo (V6, Manual) (MCV36R), and soon after getting the car I removed the factory 6 disc in dash stacker and installed my Pioneer Single DIN headunit from my previous car... now this works fine, but it doesn't have bluetooth and doesn't look very factory. Is also has a fairly small screen... So I played around for a while with a carputer, I had bought a new dash surround and custom molded in a 7" touchscreen for the carputer. I also bought Centrafuse (software with GPS, media support, etc) but then just as I was ready to install the carputer I discovered Centrafuse doesn't support the iPhone... big deal breaker for me... so i've gone back to just the Pioneer headunit I've got, which does work with my iPhone via the Pioneer iPod Adaptor, but it dosen't charge it... Now I've also been looking on eBay at the Chinese double-DIN GPS/DVD/iPod/etc headunits, but for me none of them seem to have a consistant interface, they all have a different interface for the GPS and the audio system, etc, so that's turned me off the idea of them. So I was thinking after being in a friends new Kluger and discovering that it had iPod support, that maybe i should look at getting a newer genuine Toyota Headunit, and upon investigation, it appears I can get a genuine Toyota headunit (PZQ60-00051) which has a 4.3" colour LCD display , 6 disc in dash stacker, bluetooth, usb, ipod, and rear camera support... Now I'm wondering if anyone had one of these headunits, or has experience with them? What is you experience with how well it talks with the iPod/iPhone? Does it read the playlists directly from the iPhone? and does it display the Song Title on the screen? I've seen someone has managed to mod one to move the USB port to the rear of the headunit, and add RCA outs for connecting to an amp: so that's a couple of my questions answered. I guess my final question is, does anyone have one that they have upgraded from that they want to sell?

A while ago my sunroof started to rattle, but Toyota fixed it when they did my service on my car, but its rattling again, and its a while until my next service is due, so does anyone know what needs to be tightened to stop it rattling?

Hmm, the guy looked at the King catalouge yesterday while i was there and he showed me that they had lows and super lows... but i didn't see if it mentioned only being for the front or rear... so what are you saying? are you saying that I would have super low' in the rear, and lows in the front? Well its not the bodykit cracking, just the paint... it could have been a dodgy respray job from when i had to get my car fixed up after buying it... long story, but basically I'd owned the car for about 5 mins, was leaving the house of the person i'd bought it from and a stupid lady in an old commodore backed out of her driveway without looking behind her, and back straight into my drivers door... so yeah i had to get the door replaced and they resprayed a the front guard, and the rear door, and i think they did the front bumper as well... and i haven't been 100% happy with their attitude and the job they did, so yeah that's probably why the paints cracked of the lip so easily...

Well I got my new shocks installed yesterday, I went with the KYB Excel-G shocks. So I got the 4 new shocks, new bump stops all around, a new rubber boot for one of the front shocks, and a front wheel alignment. Total of $1175 fitted... The guy told me my rear passenger shock was completely stuffed, you could push it down fairly easily but it was hard to pull back up, aka rooted... and the bump stop was non-existent on it... and the other rear shock was well and truly stuffed too, and the fronts were stuffed as well. Definitely a noticeable difference in the handling and ride now... A lot smoother and quieter :) The car is sitting higher now though, but the guy said they will settle down over a couple of months. And he checked what springs I have and they are King Lows, not super lows that I originally thought... (they were already of the car, so I had no idea)..

Well I got my new shocks installed yesterday, I went with the KYB Excel-G shocks. So I got the 4 new shocks, new bump stops all around, a new rubber boot for one of the front shocks, and a front wheel alignment. Total of $1175 fitted... The guy told me my rear passenger shock was completely stuffed, you could push it down fairly easily but it was hard to pull back up, aka rooted... and the bump stop was non-existent on it... and the other rear shock was well and truly stuffed too, and the fronts were stuffed as well. Definitely a noticeable difference in the handling and ride now... A lot smoother and quieter :) The car is sitting higher now though, but the guy said they will settle down over a couple of months. And he checked what springs I have and they are King Lows, not super lows that I originally thought... (they were already of the car, so I had no idea).. Now just to fix the couple of rattles that I have (one being the sunroof) and get my car tidied up again... I need to get a few parts resprayed on my car... The rear bumper needs doing, someone has clipped my bumper in a car park at some stage and didn't leave a note, my front body kit lip has got the paint cracked and has fallen off in a couple of spots (probably due to hitting stupid high concrete blocks at the front of nose-in car parks around town (some of them are way too high ) and I have a new rear driver's side door handle to get painted as the one on the car broke one day and the back part of the plastic where it pivots broke... And while I'm at I'll get my bonnet resprayed to fix the stone chips and a couple of spots where a had a bird crap eat through my clear coat So that's the next on the list of big bills for my car (hopefully my last too)... :(

Why the new bodykit? What's wrong with your original one? Please don't get those mag's, you'll make me too jealous... :-P S/C and nice mag's... you're not allowed :P What size were you planning? I'd love a set of 19"s on mine...

But weren't you concerned about paying a little bit extra for proper shocks for you Camry? If that's the case, are you even willing to put the money in for a supercharged setup? These S/C's are rather rare at the moment. The SC is a want... and it is not something i would actually be getting short term... we've got too many other bills to pay and loans to repay before i can seriously consider a SC... If i'm completely honest with myself... by the time we can afford a SC for the Camry (plus the rest of the gear to do it properly) I'll be probably wanting to upgrade to a new car (maybe a TRD 3500SL)... but doesn't mean i can't dream, and hope to win the lottery (impossible since i don't gamble at all) to pay of our loans (wife's car loan, and wedding loan are the main ones)

Andrew, out of interest what are you getting rid of your KYB struts for? updgrading? what to? what sort of $$$?

Thanks man, but most of the research and hard work was done by our (Brisbane's local) Camry king Dave. Can you PM me your email please? I'll take some pictures of the bay tomorrow in detail + descriptions for you. I'll PM you my email address too, I've got pretty much an identical car... Man, V6, 02, Sunroof, High Spoiler, Lowered on King Springs, I just NEED the S/C :-D

Long time since an update... Been slowly making a bit more progress on my carpc... the screen mount is just about finished... been trying to make it perfectly smooth (had a couple of tiny pin holes i had to fill with spot putty) and its nearly ready to paint... got some silver paint mixed to match the climate control surround... and will also repaint the door handles (interior) as they have lost a bit of paint in its life... mainly from fingernails i'm guessing... I've also been working on a mount for my Pioneer CD player for down in front of the gear stick... I've got to make fibreglass face for it so i can mount the cd player... If anyone's interested I can post some photos of my progress so far... Also on a sad note, a couple of weekends ago, I had to pull out my Focal speakers from the front as they are playing up... :-( the drivers side one was making a distorting sound with bass (most noticeable with male's speaking), and when i pulled out the passenger side as well it seems the coil in it is seized inside the magnet... so I've got to price getting them repaired versus getting them replaced :-( So back to the stock 6x9"s in the front doors for now... Also got stuffed shocks atm, in the process of getting quotes to get them replaced... leaning towards KYB Excel-G stuts at the moment...

Here's my car btw: http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23883&st=0&p=349385

Ok, I've been around town for a few quotes... Toyota wanted $1157.25 for genuine struts (and a bit less than a $1000 for trade), just for the struts... not fitted... Went to a local suspension place, they use KYB shocks, and recommended them, he recons they will handle the lowered springs... He wanted $200 per stut, plus $70 for the bump stops, labour of $195 and $60 for a front wheel alignment, so a total of $1125 fitted... That's for the KYB Excel-G shocks I'm pretty sure (the quote doesn't list the model, only the part numbers: 334424, 334425, 334426, and 334427)... Does that sound reasonable? AutoBarn has Monroe shocks for about $150ea, or the KYB shocks for $180ea plus $20per pair... so they end up same as the suspension place... but they also said that the KYB Excel-G shocks aren't actually lowered shocks, and that they are the standard shocks? but I said i knew someone that has this combination and they said well you are probably ok...

OK I have a 2002 Gen 5 MCV36R Camry Sportivo V6 Manual, and when I bought it had been lowered, with it appears King Springs. Now earlier in the year I had 5 people in my car, plus a boot full of luggage (including a moderate sized sub box), and when I was driving between Bundaberg and Childers (I live in Bundaberg), I bottomed out on the rough road (sound of the tyres hitting the top of the innner plastic guards..., only on the rear though... And since then I noticed a bit of a knock in my rear end of the car, which i'm sure is from the suspension, now when i had my car serviced last time at Toyota they told me that I need 4 new shocks, but because it has lowered springs, I would have to go back to standard springs if i wanted to use stock struts again... (Hmmm I thought... The car has done 160,000kms on the stock shocks... I'm sure i can do it again) and they are saying no if i want to keep my lowered springs then i need to get lowered shocks from pedders or such, and if i do get the standard shocks they will just wear out again... (hmm again, they have done 160,000kms, so of course they will be worn out) So I'm wondering should I just get standard shocks again, and be done with it (I can get the standard shocks at trade price as dad has a trade account with the local Toyota)... I'm likely to have upgraded before I have done another 160,000kms... Or should I go for more expensive lowered shocks to match my springs? Has anyone else had any experience with this?

Didn't the Gen 5s get it here? Or that just the 2AZFEs? I wish!!! No its only the 4cyl Gen5s that have the VVTi...

Nice that makes me want one even more now.. maybe next year when my wife starts full time work (she's just about finished her second degree at uni, so she'll be able to start full time next year... so we'll have a bit more cash flow then). I think my wife will actually let me get one... she was surprised when i told her how cheap they are... BTW: that $2500 would be USD right? most of us are Aussies... (hence the 3K price...)

Yeah 3K is damn good... considering custom systems are $5K+ often up $10K or more... I've got the manual anyway so thats not an issue... :-D :-D

Oh wow The car as it is in those photos is how i bought it from the lady i bought it (private sale). Its called the TRD grille... You may be able to get it from a toyota dealer... or you may need to source one from overseas.

Thanks :-) Its in pretty good condition... that was the day i bought the car (which is now about 2 years ago) and also you can't see in those photos the driver door... I had owned the car for about 5mins and i was just leaving the place i bought the car from and went down the road a bit did a 3 point turn and was about to take off and then some stupid b#### reverses out of her driveway without looking in her old crappy commodore and reversed straight into my door... Luckily dad had gotten an insurance cover note for it and i was able to claim in on my insurance and the lady had no insurance so she had to cough up about $2500 to the insurance company... so i got a new drivers door and the drivers side of the car repainted... but i still have a minor issue with an air leak somewhere near my mirror but i haven't been able to identify exactly where it is... as it only happens about above 80kph so its hard to look when i'm driving... and then i've got a couple of minor scratches from shopping car parks :-( damn people can't be more careful... but when i wash and polish it, it still comes up looking like that... its just a shame i don't have the time to wash and polish it enough... (also now that i got married in July) the flat i live in with my wife doesn't have a garage for my car so it sits outside and gets filthy... Yeah it is... i sort of like it cause its different from the rest of the camrys i see driving around... but i definately wouldn't have put it on.. i'd prefer to get a small lip spoiler for it to go for the luxury look..

Here's some photos of my 2002 Camry Sportivo V6 - Manual. Details: - Factory optional Sunroof - TRD Grille - Sportivo High Spoiler - Toyota 17x7" Vortex Mags - King Super Lows (I believe... They were on the car when i bought it) Audio: - Kicker 12" L7 sub - Response 820w Monoblock - Focal 165KP 6.5" Front Splits - Pioneer DEH6850MP Carputer (in Progress - not installed yet... nearly there) - 7" custom molded in-dash screen - 1.8Ghz Pentium M CPU - 1GB Ram - 120GB 2.5" HDD - USB GPS - USB Bluetooth - USB WiFi - Centrafuse frontend with Aussie maps. Photos: Mods I'd like to do: - TRD Supercharger - Leather Interior - 19 or 20" mags I love this car: - Maybe a different rear lip, something like this: I love that car..

I have 2002 Camry Sportivo - Manual V6... I'd love to get it going a bit better... I was considering the TRD Supercharger kit for it... I have seen them installed on right hand drive vehicles... what is involved in doing this? any tutorials? Also any ideas on where i could get one? And other thing is... how strong is the 1MZFE? ie... can you safely run more than the stock 4psi? I saw a video on youtube of one running at 7psi and made about 255whp... Nice :-D That'd be enough to get it up and going ;-D

So according to that spec sheet they can do a 15.5.. i wonder if that is the manual or auto time??? cause if its the auto time you could take a bit more of that... Also that lists the magna times as around the 15.2 or so... i know my cousins have got theirs down to 14.5 basically stock... so i'm fairly confident the Camry (in Manual) should be at least low 15s...

I was thinking it would be quicker than that... Considering I got a 16.6 out of my 97 Corolla Seca... and the Camry is definitely quicker than it... Also considering the TJ Magna's are similar weight and a slightly more power (about 160kw) and i've got cousins that have them and they got theirs down to the mid to high 14s... I'll have to put it down the strip myself and see...