rad000

Could you PM me a link to pics of the specific wheels? Also a rough price? Price is sort've my main decision-maker haha. Was considering just getting widened steelies or something. Not really sure what offset my stock wheels even are.

Hi, I live in Melbourne's West and I've been a member of this forum since 2009. Figured I should make a ride thread seeing as I haven't yet. 1998 Vienta V6. It's my first car and has done ~368,000kms. Owned since September 2007. I know it's not amazing to look at but it's a bit of a function over form thing for me. I'd like it to look better but I'd rather it handle well first. I've gained a lot of knowledge from working on this car. Haven't really done much in the engine department besides general maintenance though. It doesn't really look like a Vienta anymore. The climate control is pretty much the only Vienta-ish thing left. Stuff done to it over the years: - lowered on king super lows on standard height shocks for that awesome bounce effect - YellowSpeed Coilovers 8/5kg - 20mm Whiteline rear sway bar - Front strut bar - Cat back exhaust - Slotted and drilled front discs - K&N panel filter - Clear guard indicators - Lower intake resonator delete - Corolla steel wheels (not a fan of the vienta alloys) - Rolled rear guards - 35% front/20% rear tint (pretty recent so only one pic) - Grandpa weather shield - White LED interior/instrument cluster lighting - Many miscellaneous worn parts replaced The rails currently sit about 7.5cm from the ground which is as low as functionally possible for me. I'm also thinking about getting some new wheels. They don't have to look good but I need lower offset on the rear to prevent rubbing on the coilovers. Currently got some positive camber fixing that which isn't ideal. Wouldn't mind a bit more grip either. If anyone has any wheel size/offset suggestions, please share!

I'm in no way technically competent in this area but I do know that on my climate control the air flow button triggers a motor that does the job of the mechanical switch. Also the screen displays the outside temperature so I guess there would be a sensor for that. It would also measure the interior temperature somehow to maintain the temperature set with the dial.There's a black knobby looking thing in my dash under the windscreen that I presume measures temperatures. No idea if cars without climate control have it. As I said before, I'm incompetent and these are observations and assumptions. Hope they helped somewhat.

Call a few wreckers. Someone is bound to have one

It is more than just the number of bolts. I'm not saying it is harder, just it takes longer - you have to physically remove the caliper, retain it to stop it damaging the brake lines, and the process of fitting the caliper complete over the rotor WITH brake pads fitted is more difficult, and the easier way you end up re-assembling it without the pads and then doing the pad change (or refit) afterwards. Thus, don't be surprised if a mechanic charges extra labour for the job (if you've got a good mechanic then they may waive it). The extra effort over all 4 wheels may equate to an hour's worth of extra labour, which at ~$80-90 an hour is not insignificant Yeah fair enough, point taken. I'm obviously not a mechanic and don't time how long things take to change at my own house haha. Ok let me change what I said before to I would only buy new discs if I was doing it myself or if I was getting a mechanic to change them due to them being absolutely ruined.

There is extra work to fit rotors if you're doing pads at the same time. There is basically no extra work to fit pads if you're doing rotors at the same time. Yes there is a difference.... If you're just changing pads then the caliper pad holder stay bolted to the hub (which prevents the rotor coming off) and the caliper piston housing pivots up allowing you to change the pads - you then reset the piston and pivot the unit back down over the new pads. Changing the rotor requires you to completely remove the caliper and pad holder from the hub. There's only one bolt of difference between pivoting the caliper and completely removing the caliper. It's not hard at all.

Hey nice car! I've got a gen4 in the same colour. Not sure if you've posted anywhere about this already but where did you get your headlights from? Are they retrofitted or a brand new unit?

i just buy new discs every time I change my pads. It costs like $80-90 for a pair of RDA front discs on eBay so I just figure I may as well buy them instead of getting them machined. I change them myself but I guess you could give the discs to the mechanic to install when the pads are being changed. There shouldn't be any extra labour required to change the discs over as they just slide on when the caliper is removed.

The dust boot is easy to replace once everything is off the car and the top mount is disconnected from the strut which will be happening anyway to put the spring in the new strut, so you may as well change the boot seeing as you have new ones. It wouldn't matter if you used the new bump-stop with the existing boot as they aren't really related to each other. From memory on my struts the bump-stop has the fat bit at the top.

I have the 20mm whiteline btr39 rear sway bar on mine. Have had it for 3 or 4 years and love it. I went back to stock (i think 17mm) for a couple of months and hated the way it handled compared to the 20mm. Definitely worth getting.

I've just hit 360,000kms in my 98 V6 so I can vouch for the reliability of the engine. Had it since 215,000ks and no engine problems to report yet except starter motor.

If you do change to lower springs, you'll need some decent shocks. I've been running super low springs and standard ebay shocks for about a year and a half and while it's a good handling improvement over stock, the ride is horrific.

saw private number's camry on the ring road. i have to say it's the best camry i've ever seen without any exaggeration. well done.

King Springs (Low) to suit toyota avalon. Brand new, never been opened. Part numbers: -KTRL-61SP -KTFL-103 Pickup only from Kealba, or Hoppers Crossing. (I really don't want to post these) $230 OBO

I'm going to change the shocks and springs on my girlfriend's avalon with ultima shocks and i noticed that they have the same part numbers as the MCV20R camry shocks. The springs i was going to buy were king lows, which do not have the same part number as camry springs. So i was wondering what the difference would be between camry and avalon springs to give them a different part number, when they are both going into the same shock absorber?

R.I.P auscam :(

removing the centre dash panel is really easy. it's made up of just the black border plastic around the head unit and the ash tray/cig lighter. i take mine off with a flat head screwdriver and pry it off (carefully) so the clips pop out. i pry sort of near the top on each side to start it off. once you've taken it off you should be able to access the head unit screws. it just pops back in after that and sits the way it always sits.

I know this should be one of the simplest things to change on my car, but toyota seem to have made it pretty difficult. i can't work out how to remove the tail light located in the boot lid. i've tried twisting it and popping it out with a screwdriver but it won't move. can anyone help? it's a gen 4 vienta btw.

oh wow thanks heaps! i was thinking everyone would say it's a stupid thing to do but now i'm glad i asked! thanks guys

say i had a set of 16" wheels and one tyre blew, meaning i had to replace it with a spare, and the spare wheel is 15", what effect would this have? i'm asking this because i'm thinking of buying 16" wheels and i have 15s at the moment, so there would be a bit of a gap between getting them and getting a 16" spare. my guess is it would be dangerous, but how dangerous?

i bought that exact sway bar through pedders and paid about $330 incl install. i have no idea if this is a good or bad price, but it might give you a price to aim to beat or something seeing as pedders is probably one of the more expensive places to go. also i had the RSB on my car without any front-end improvements for a while and it was fine to drive and was definitely an improvement over the 17mm

I know i've gotten off topic in recent posts but i just bolted on my strut brace today! i wouldn't have a clue what brand it is as i got it from some hong kong seller on ebay. but i only wanted something cheap and mannnn what a difference it made. i wasn't expecting much but it really has improved my handling. it just feels really stiff and tight at the front end, i can't really explain it. so i reckon this coupled with the RSB is pretty mad. i just need to buy new rear shocks now. one disadvantage i've heard about having a strut brace though is any side impact collision near the brace will make way more damage to your car as it's connected to both sides. makes sense. but i'm willing to take that risk i guess. also in response to what andrew said, i might want more from my setup but i think i'll be pretty happy with it at least for a while. i drove my car to its grip limit on a winding road a few months back and i had a lot of fun, then later on i find out my shocks were shot, bushes etc. but i was happy with it at the time so i guess this can only make things better! (i hope)

It certainly makes a huge difference going from worn shocks to new shocks, you'll definitely notice a difference when they throw the rears in. Biggest issue is, you'll notice how much you want a sportier shock once these are put in! yeah i was thinking i should get something sporty but they're way out of my budget. anything's an improvement from the 290,000k old shocks :P. i have a whiteline rsb and i just bought a strut brace off ebay. hopefully all together they make some sort of improvement in handling once the rear shocks are done.

i ended up buying ultima front shocks from ebay. $200 plus $16 postage. i tried installing them myself but i couldn't loosen one of the nuts so gave up because i'm a quitter and took them to brakes plus. they installed them for $110 so $326 all up for front shocks is pretty good i reckon compared to the $270ish each pedders wanted to charge. i can already notice the handling and ride improvement with just new front shocks. can't wait to do the rear pair!

i ended up painting the border and kept the badge chrome. looked good until i put the clear coat on. bad idea lol. i'm gonna fix it tomorrow if i can. also my door handles and mirrors are already body colour too! vientaaaa