Steven

Interesting. If you don't mind me asking how much did this kit set you back? You might be able to source some Akebono calipers from ebay to suit those brackets, though postage might be a bitch considering the weight of them

The Australian 4 cylinder Camry uses the same brake caliper as the Aurion, as they're both sourced locally from PBR. Due to the design of our calipers, you can only relocate them if you were to upsize to a greater than 335mm rotor. I'm in the middle of a rotor upsize with a relocation bracket, to a 320mm rotor (or 323mm will fit too) using the Gen 3 Camry twin piston caliper. This is virtually your only option here with locally available parts. Your rotor and bracket MIGHT suit the twin piston caliper however it's impossible to tell without seeing it in person. At this time though that rotor is only useful if you go the twin piston option (or import a set of calipers from taiwan)

Down with the flu at the moment and decided to keep myself busy by playing with the car. Below is what I came up with This is the basic shape of what my new intake snorkel will look like. Essentially it makes full use of what space is available for an over the radiator cold air intake where the factory snorkel is sadly very restrictive (most likely to increase air velocity, however as I'm using a pod filter now bulk air is where it's at). The mold is shaped to make use of the factory mounting bolts and also to match up to my heat shield exactly. Currently trying to figure out whether ABS or fibreglass would be the best material to tackle this due to the complex shape.

The WRX mostly uses the bonnet scoop as a means to cool the over-engine intercooler (and not terribly well either). Not sure about ruining the aerodynamics, but most probably would ruin the aesthetics for sure. Cars with scoops generally have them included in the design phase of the car, hence most cars that get them added later just appear tacky (to me anyway). I can't see it ruining the intake system at all, but I do believe the gains would be minimal at best. I previously read an article in a car magazine (which shalt not be named) that did some rigorous testing on N/A intake systems and found systems that feed directly from the cars exterior actually get a boost not too different from forced induction at high speeds. However to put this in perspective, that "boost" was about 0.4psi and that "speed" was over 120km/h. Props for thinking of innovative ways to get more performance from the Aurion, but unfortunately a scoop just has too many cons to be viable solution in terms of looks, performance gains and aerodynamics.

That power graph for the original dyno seems a little fishy to me, certainly the power output of the original TRD should be more consistent and smooth than that.

My car's name is "the car with no name", as it's mysterious like me (take for example it's fuel consumption, which seems to follow no logical pattern what so ever)

I'll come out for a bit before work

The close up of my own face whilst working on Andrew's car scared the bejeezus outta me

Are there any other problems once you have the car started? Reason is a few ideas I have below which won't necessary show an error code but could cause starting issues- Fuel Pressure A dying fuel pump might take a moment to properly prime the fuel lines to the correct pressure for the car to run. A means to test this is to sit the car on "ignition" for a few moments without trying to start it, as this will prime the lines. It might also cause the car to run lean under high RPM situations which can be dangerous for the car but I suspect the Aurion would detect this and throw a code (and cut the revs). Faulty Spark Plug Heavy carbon deposits, incorrect gap or even a cracked plug can cause a variety of issues with cold starting and never throw a code. Under most situations a faulty plug would reveal itself as a slight miss under load, however if the miss is only slight there is every possibility you could easily miss it (although in most cases I'd find it difficult for an experienced mechanic to miss it) Blocked or partially blocked IAC valve This valve is essentially what gives the engine air to start and idle when the throttle body is closed, and poor air flow here would make it hard for the engine to get the correct Air/fuel ratio to start. I must admit though with the electronic throttle on the Aurion I'm not 100% whether it even has such a valve, but once started it would mean the ECU could open the throttle slightly in order to keep the idle up. All speculation Bad Fuel A favorite of mechanics everywhere to blame the fuel when they can't figure a problem, bad fuel is in reality a very low likelyhood especially given you buy your fuel from a major retailer. Although bad fuel cases exist the controls and testing in place by major retailers to prevent being the liable party for an engine rebuilt or other mechanic repairs is fairly extensive, not to mention the fines they may incur from Government testing agencies should they fail for any reason. In most cases where bad fuel is the problem, the cause is actually crap in your fuel tank which mixes with the fuel regardless of where you fill up. This is more difficult to test, however precise emissions testing can sometimes detected traces of unknown substances being burnt by the engine and it can also result in your plugs fowling up quickly or finding an unknown residue on them. The quickest test though is to install a new fuel filter, as they're relatively cheap and if you do have crap in the tank this should give you a window of time in which such crap cannot get through to the engine and hence you'd find your problem solved. Hope this helps.

what exactly is the problem, ie what are the symptoms.

where are you located

It's not like your wheels would have remained dust-free for much longer anyway :P

RE: Drivers getting around dusk without headlights on Very simple reason for this, and I've observed indian cab drivers tend to be particularly bad at noticing it. Years ago your dash lights wouldn't turn on until your headlights were on, so you tend to have that in your face reminder when you started driving at night and couldn't see the speedo. Modern cars of course tend to have these lights on whenever the ignition is on so if there is a bit of traffic out there or your in an otherwise well lit area it's not immediately noticeable. DRLs may help true, but this is mainly a bandaid solution towards what amounts to poor driver attention and/or training in regards to modern cars and traffic conditions. I still don't buy the whole "adding DRLs for safety reasons" bullocks, as this thread is about adding DRLs to your own car rather than supporting them being introduced as a mandatory feature. If you really feel you need DRLs, maybe you fall under the category of drivers who should pay more attention to what they're doing <_<

Intake all you tend to gain is noise (but damn sexy noise at that). Some debate exists for exhaust though, people here have achieved very low 14 1/4mile runs with the car virtually stock, and those with full on custom exhausts haven't shown to do much better (despite having dyno sheets showing a large improvement). You'll probably find though that you'll be stuck with just getting a catback exhaust due to the lack of readily available options for headers and "Y-pipe" merges, so this will essentially limit any change to noise only in all likelyhood.

That "module" sounds like a Relay, hardly worth their asking price, even if it were solid state. I wont comment on drls otherwise - theyre not my cup of tea but each to their own horrible ways

heh, Your avatar, general car appearance, and post count just came together :P

Not buying race seats. I just need to check the mounts and the plug for the airbag + electrics (if they are separate). Even the facelift Gen5 seats are still cloth but more shapely for spirited driving. +1 for leather being bad for cornering. Fortunately my wide keister is held in place by the centre console and drivers door. The sx6 seats in fabric are the most grippy seats you'll find without getting up to TRD spec, unfortunately they're still rather flat and none too bolstered. Also I doubt they'd be very easy to find second hand in decent condition still being fairly new (although if you find a wreck drop me a line as I need to do some scavenging too) Getting your current seats retrimmed and rebolstered may be a more economical exercise - if you don't go leather then this works wonders to keep the price down. As a reference a few years ago I had one of my commodore seats (base exec) built up to be a Leather HSV coulson style seat for about $600. I reckon that would comfortably do both your fronts if choosing fabric AND you could get some custom embroidery too!

Aurion Combined cycle - roughly 9.9L/100km Camry Combined cycle - roughly 8.9L/100km Being a smaller, 4 cylinder engine the general consensus is that the Camry would yield better economy, but the 2ge-FE in the Aurion is a very efficient engine with a very capable gearbox so the end result is usually less clear cut. I would favor the Aurion, simply as it's a much nicer drive all over and can produce some very good fuel figures when driven properly - close enough at least to put it within spitting distance of whatever the Camry uses.

Only mods are to the electrical system for things like the sirens, anti-theft etc, and it all gets ripped out. No performance mods aside from what the sportivo comes standard. If it's blue then yes it was never a marked patrol car. More likely used by any number of the plain clothes sections. Things to look out for are mainly drill holes in the trim pieces where they mounted the equipment. Also worth removing the back seat to check for needles/drugs/knives etc. Also don't think they've been looked after. The QPS mechanics do what's in the log books, and only ever stray from that if something needs fixing (badly). I would personally suggest steering clear of it but I can't deny the possibility either of a car being given to cops coming back still in fairly A1 condition.

Def some skillz there. I call photoshop though, I can tell by some of the pixels and having seen a few photoshops in my time

Very nice. Def keep us updated on how you go developing mod wise

Looking very good and definitely loving the bags. Any other big mods on the horizon?

Painted my rear brakes to match the new front setup

I only stopped cause I'm out of mixer. I need to get to the shops somehow so I can finish it

yep we shouldve gone that way from the start. BTW I'm halfway through that bottle FYI