Kesawi

I have dealer fitted front and rear sensors - didn't get a manual with them!

Where abouts in the cargo section is the switch to turn off the sensor when towing???

I read in another forum somewhere that it is in behind one of the small panels that can be popped out either side of the tailgate.

It would have been nice for Toyota to add a dash switch for the rear sensors too, but then I guess they don't have too many blanks in the car.

For those of you interested in how the front sensor work, I've attached Toyta Manual below.

I don't have rear sensors and therefore don't have the manual.

toyota_front_corner_parking_assistance_system_owners_manual.pdf

Also, Alpine are now selling their portable navigation unit in Australia which slots into some of their head units. This would give you the advantage of an in dash unit and a portable unit.

Nothing looks as well integrated or will be as easy to operate as the Grande system.

Unfortunately judging by the Alpine Owner's Manual the unit still requires a window mount and the features are pretty limited and basic when compared to other portable units in the same price range ($849RRP).

Being able to connect the navigation system through the head unit is nice though, but for the total price a dedicated in dash unit would probably be marginally more. If you wanted the same look and didn't need the portability you could hide the alpine under the dash somewhere as it will operate through the touch screen of the head unit.

How do I go about removing the dash panels?

I purchased a new KX-S AWD plus front & rear parking sensors. After picking up the car i noticed that they replaced the down hill assist button which was next to the snow button with the front parking sensor button. There are a number of other blank buttons that they have could chosen but they to chose the connected DAC button. Clearly the installer was not very bright.

Has anyone else come accross this?

Not very keen on getting them to rip all the covers off again to fix this, but i guess there is no choice (although i'm unlikely to ever use the down hill assist button).

All my blanks were in use and the installer was smart enough to ask me where I wanted the switch put. He ended up cutting a hole in the panel where the seat heater controls are to install the switch. Looks good and works fine plus still have DAC.

Call the installer and ask him to do it properly.

I was going to respond to each of your points, but it's probably best to avoid a potential flame war as the in-car vs portable debate has already been covered in many other places :)

I'm happy to agree to disagree.

4. I have purchased a Garmin nuvi 255 GPS which aside form the cables is pretty good and has the additional benefit of TMC for less than the cost of teh upgrade.

I don't know why anyone would by an expensive in dash unit these days when portable GPS units are so cheap and offer superior features as far as the navigation is concerned such as:

1. Cheaper map upgrades (or free upgrades if you're inclined to obtain a copy illegally)
   
2. Regular firmware upgrades.
   
3. RDS-TMC traffic data for Brisbane, Melbourne & Sydney.
   
4. Redlight and speed camera locations. Most vendors offer updates, and some even offer live updates for mobile cameras.
   
5. Speed limits and warnings on some maps.
   
6. Ability to take it with you to another car.
   
7. Ability to make user corrections to maps such as with TomTom's Mapshare
   

In order to hide the cables I had an extra 12volt socket fitted under the dash for $160 so that the cabling runs hidden and not across the dash (See pictures below). Granted, and in-dash unit is much neater but you loose a lot of functionality. There are that many alternative mount kits for GPS units these days you can pretty much put it wherever you want if you don't like it sitting on the window.

If you want the flash double din stereo and blue tooth for your phone, then just buy a head unit from pioneer, alpine or kenwood (+ blue tooth module if required). Should be able to get a setup for under $2500 including GPS and you have a far more capable setup for far less than the $4000 Toyota Satnav option.

I just checked. It is.

Thanks for the help.

Had front parking sensors fitted to my Kluger and when I arrived home I noticed a plastic panel sitting in the foot well of the 2nd row seat behind the driver. After looking under all the seats I couldn't work out where it came from.

Part number on it is:

ASSY 55607-48150:(RHD)

55642-48040

Top of panel

Bottom of panel

Any assistance greatly appreciated

Spoke with the installer, turns out the rivets are just there to align the bars. Not sure why they're needed as it seemed to line up alright anyway. Took the barrier out myself just to make sure. Lower bolts are a pain to undo with the allen key.

If anyone has an aftermarket Milford Barrier I'd be interested to see whether it was identical to the Toyota one.

If you do get in a very slippery situation how do you turn off the traction control?

I have a 4WD KX-S and I can't see the button anywhere.

The button should be by your left knee below the steering wheel in a recess.

After owing several vehicles with black plastic dashboards I've noticed that after sitting in the sun for a while they become extremely hot and radiate a lot of heat. Despite running the airconditioning the radiated heat can be unconfortable, not to mention increased a/c usuage. Does having the dash mat deal with this problem or do they still radiate a lot of heat?

I've also just purchased a Kluger with genuine cargo barrier fitted and noticed that it is also difficult to remove without damage (much more so than the one I had in my old Subaru Forester, which I could remove in 2 minutes). For some reason the lower anchorage bars have been riveted to the plastic panelling. To the dealer's credit they did leave the allen key in the glove box so I could undo the bolts. This still doesn't help with the rivets. I also can't use the cargo blind which is annoying. Is this the same with other people's installations?

Has anyone had a 3rd party Milford barrier fitted? I know the genuine version is made by Milford anyway so I wouldn't have thought they would be different, but the picture on the milford site (where the upper bars come from the middle of the cage) differs from the genuine version shown on the toyota site (upper bars come from top to bottom).

I've queried the dealer as to why the cargo barrier was installed in a manner that effectively made the 3rd row of seats redundant. Response has been come in and talk to the installer, which I shall do so shortly.

Well I finally picked up the car last week and I must say the nudge bar definitely makes it look better, and also accommodates the driving lights well. The parking sensors are on back order so still not sure how they will work yet. Unfortunately by adding the lights and a hotwire 12v outlet I've taken up all of the spare blank accessory positions on the dash so nowhere to fit the kill switch for the sensors. The kluger seems to have far fewer blank accessory points than the US highlander (refer video inToyota Guide site).

I've had a demo KX-S AWD Kluger with 6000km for 5 days now, and have done ~200km in peak hour traffic around Brisbane. Lowest average has been 13.2L but is now sitting at 13.7L. Unfortunately I'm having to fill it up with regular undleaded as I'm on a company fuel card and they won't provide premium. :(

Depends a lot on your luck on the day I think. Also bargains are usually around for previous year models in Jan Feb.

Never by an ex demo until you have investigated how cheap you can get a 0km one. Then, if you still want the ex demo use the lowest new price as a base to start bargaining on the demo. If you can't get at least 5% (preferably 10% depending on the Ks) off it's not worth it imo.

Oh, and you'll always find someone who got it cheaper no matter how good a deal you get. So after you buy just stop looking otherwise you'll never be happy/satisfied.

No point crying over spilt milk. It was comparable to other demo vehicles I'd seen listed and significantly less than what I'd been able to find new. Managed to get it down a little from what they were asking. Lesson learnt for next time though. Can't wait to pick it up once the extras are added.

Appreciate your feedback

I don't think you did bad at all assuming you're getting an 09 build. Tho there is no difference between 08 and 09 from what I've heard, just resale value. Thus the 3% price rise. This is the time of year to get a bargain as dealers/manufacturers are keen to sell last year's stock. Tho you probably could have got an 08 KX-S for 3 or 4 grand extra. If you want extras try auto shops like expresstinting, tintacar, etc.

I thought I was getting a great deal on a KX-S AWD demo model but from some of these posts it sounds like I could have bought a brand new model for the same price. Wish I'd found this site earlier, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Thanks Kesawi, we are on the same page but I don't think I'll be needing driving lights any time soon. Maybe in a couple years tho.

Pity there's no way to mount them on the grill so as they don't protrude behond the bumper?

Speaking of the parking sensors how much were they from the dealer? I had a quote from an auto shop they would instlall front and rear sensors and frong and rear speakers (that beep) for about $700. They are user adjustable too so you can set them to start beeping from 2m to about 30cm. Dealer fitted ones work the same way? Do they put in 2 speakers or more? Can they be easilty adjusted by the user?

I've only had the front sensor fitted as I figured the reverse camera will give me a good view of the back anyway so why pay the extra. You may want to ask the question in this thread which contains a discussion on the issue.

I won't collect my car until Friday so I don't quite know how the dealer fitted sensors work. I did find a document at the following link which explains how the Toyota sensors work on a particular US model (not a Kluger/Highlander):

http://www.brockandbecca.com/files/fj/Tech...king_assist.pdf

I'd like to be able to adjust the sensitivity to substantially less than the 50cm given in the above document or the 30cm you've given above. I think 50mm would be more realistic for those tight spaces. If the alarm starts going crazy at only half a metre then I'll probably end up ripping it out as it will drive me insane (I have an ability to parallel park in extremely tight spaces that are only 300mm longer than the car I'm driving).

Cost for the front sensors only according to the sales contract and excluding discount is $478 +GST +Stamp Duty

Forgive my ignorance as I've never bought a 4WD before. As I see it, nudge bars don't provide any protection if you hit something like a kangaroo. It just seems to be useful as a place to mount extra lights. Am I missing something? So I don't see the point of them as you can get cheaper, lighter light mounting solutions. I'm probably going to buy a KX-S soon and just trying to see what justification there is in getting a nudge bar.

Thanks.

I was of the same opinion when I originally placed the order for my KX-S. I did the sums as nudge bar =$700 extra, insurance excess = $450, so just pay the excess in the event of a collision and pocket the difference. The dealer offered me a universal light bar to mount the lights, which uses the number plate mounts. Details can be found at http://www.oztion.com.au/vshops/item.aspx?...amp;shopid=4610

After examining the licence plate mount on the front bumper of the kluger form the outside, I wasn't convinced that the light bar would mount through to the chassis at this location and would be only supported by the plastic bumper bar (someone who has actually pulled the bumper off the car may be able to clarify this). The dealer recommended against mounting anything other than small lights from the bar, and also not to install the bar if I was to drive over bumpy surfaces regularly.

Another consideration was that I am also having front clearance parking sensors fitted to the vehicle. The sensors are adjusted by the dealer to make allowance for the nudge bar, but they could not confirm whether the sensors could be adjusted to the light bar.

Finally the Queensland Transport Motor Vehicle Modifications booklet (which can be found at http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/resources/...r_vehicles2.pdf) states on page 10:

The light bar protrudes from the front bumper and I thought that it may be considered an illegal modification. With a nudge bar the lights should not protrude from the front face of any bumper. It could be argued that the steel bar of the light bracket represents the front face of any bumper, but then the same bar could also be a bracket (Insert standard legal disclaimer here about not being legal advice, etc).

So in the end I chose to go with the nudge bar as it:

1. Provided a much sturdier mount for the driving lights than the alternative offered by the dealer
   
2. Allowed me to mount decent sized driving lights
   
3. Was compatible with the front clearance parking sensors
   
4. Appears to have fewer issues with Queensland laws on vehicle modifications.
   

If I didn't want decent driving lights I probably wouldn't have purchased it though.