Foss

I've not really noticed much difference, personally. But I drive with my volume up, so I don't feel gear changes, only the vibration of my subwoofer. :D How did you guys swap the direction of the lever in 'S' mode? Is it a soldering job or simply swapping plugs?

Ingres, liking the finished product. Are you gonna do the bits on the doors and passenger side dash too? Or around the steering wheel buttons? Leaving it long term shouldnt leave a stain or anything, from my experience, but I spose it depends on the brand. Some brands might. When I did my Lancer I bought some brushed metal vinyl out of the US from RVinyl. Left it on there for probably 12 to 18 months with no noticable residue or stain once removed. Took it off, cleaned up with a bit of metho, couldn't tell it was ever there. In some places it might cause a slight difference due to sun fade on the uncovered areas, but in the case of our silver bits you wouldn't notice, especially if you cover them all.

fixt. :P Sorry. Don't like it. At all.

That looks great Ingres. Noticed, though, that your cup holder lid is opposite to the rest? Deliberate? Would be good to see this mod take off. Be interesting to see some of the interesting designs people come up with. I've long been considering customising mine. I'm thinking a metallic black clear-over-base, with that narrow edgeing around the back little compartment/cupholder/thingy done in polished mirror chrome like the edging around the gear stick. I was also thinging just do it in the Diamond White the same as the outside, but I think that would be too much of a contrast with the rest of the dash. Decisions, decisions.

Cheers. 150mm is heaps. I'm only talking really short screws here - enough to hold a polycarb bracket and a single DIN HU. Is there much meat in that panel to screw into?

Have you ever known claiming warranty to be simple for anything? I know I haven't! It's probably not so much that they have to ask Toyota Aust if they could fix it - they can fix whatever they please. Its more likely they had to ask Toyota if Toyota would pay for it under warranty. For all they know, it could be a $20 part and an hours labour, or it could be a more serious fault, a new aircon system for you, and 2 days work. Nobody's going to do that sort of work unless they know somebody's gonna pay for it. Aside from the money side of it, there would be procedures in place for dealing with warranty issues. These procedures are not "yeah, we'll cover it chase it up later", they are "we'll find out if its covered and we'll let you know when we can fix it". It's called covering your a*se, every company has to do it, and the larger the company, the tighter the a*se covering procedures are. Extended warranty with the dealership? Is it still Toyota extended warranty? Also, if only for your own peace of mind, its worth looking into what 'Extended Warranty' means in your case. My folks took extended warranty when they purchased their '05 Camry (brand new off the showroom floor). Turns out that in their case "extended warranty" doesn't mean extension of the original warranty, but just powertrain warranty.

In sticking with the Nike theme... To make a side note, I'm thinking "just do it" would be a counter productive marketing slogan for condoms. Don't just do it! Put on a johnny first!

Another Prius incident Great timing, that. Also, 140kmph? Hardly a terrifying speed, is it?

If only warranty was that easy! What happens when you get something fixed under warranty is that Toyota Australia pays the dealership to fix the problem. If the dealership says "yeah that should be warranty" and spends an hour farting around fixing your problem, then Toyota Aust says "nah, we aren't gonna cover that under warranty", then the dealership has to wear the cost, because they can't very well charge you if they've already told you its a warranty job.

Hoping somebody who's had their dash apart can give me some info. Is there anything inside there on the passenger side, directly on top of the glovebox? Long story short I want to open my glove box and drill 4 screws up through the underside of the dash. I know the airbag is in the dash there, but I assume its right near the top and wouldn't be effected by a few screws?

Must be a US Camry thing. Possibly a premium audio upgrade offered over there, as danja said? As far as I'm aware, no such option was ever offered here, only the option to upgrade your head unit to a satnav unit. My ZR6 only had the standard unit. When I was upgrading my system, running the wires for my sub and CD stacker in the boot, the speaker wires all appeared to be run direct from the head unit to the speakers. Besides, the stock unit has no RCAs - the crappy 16 guage wire would be a pretty woeful way of connecting it to even a factory fitted external amp.

Easily?! How small are your hands?

Respray? :P

Headed back down to Hobart to pick up the Aurion after having the front bumper resprayed. Job well done by the bodyworks. Finish looks good as new. Heres hoping it stays that way. Downside... the bloody thing is covered in and full of dusty sh!t from the workshop. Good wash and interior detail on the weekend should take care of it. Why the hell can't panelbeaters put down plastic on your floor and seats, instead of trampling my mats and carpet with dust and crap?

Holy *****! Its saddening to see such a beautiful Aurion in such a state. Especially after all the time and hard work you've put into her. Good to hear you guys escaped without serious injury. Don't beat yourself up about the decision that caused it, what's happend has happened, and when we get behind the wheel we know that sometimes circumstances require split second decisions. Sometimes these don't turn out to be the best of decisions, but we can't get it right 100% of the time. On an upside, at least we know it deserves that safety rating.

That flat panel I've circled in red... that is the bit I assumed you masked off. When its all fitted in the car it looks like that whole console section is one big piece (except for gear surround and storage compartments), with part coated in the silver. Or am I wrong, and the part I've circled is actually a seperate silver piece that can be removed? Just remembered, the other bit I was thinking you must have masked was those little chrome bits on the compartment lids, or are they somehow removable?

Just as a thought, too... I wonder can you get defected for these if they aren't factory standard?

I'm keen as mustard to get angeleyes in my Aurion, I'm just not keen on cracking open my headlamps to fit them myself, nor having my car off the road for a couple of weeks while I ship the headlamps to Sydney to be fitted. I guess its gonna have to wait, short of finding somewhere in Tassie that's pro at cracking open headlights without stuffing anything up. Personally VF-X, I say go the LED's. The CCFLs look awesome, but personally I reckon the LEDs look even better, plus the extra life of the light is an advantage. LEDs = well hot!

I'm thinking you'd be best talking to an engineer. I guess that a high tensile pipe/tube would be suitable, that stuff has some hardcore strength, but I'd imagine there'd be a specific minimum diameter and wall thickness for what you want. But then even some aluminium is fairly strong (think scaffolding), and has the advantage of being light weight, which HT steel is far from being. Bohler Uddeholm has a fair range of high tensile stuff, and Ullrich or Capral Aluminium might be able to sort you if you go the ally way, but I'm not sure whether any of those sell direct to the public. All in all, though, I say an engineer would be the best to recommend an appropriate material. Why custom, anyway, as opposed to just fitting a ready made one?

What color clash? I can't see any difference whatsoever. Thats the paint I was telling Scoota about. Motion seconded. Definately keen to see how you masked it all off. I may end up doing a full spray myself.

As this is of interest to owners of Camry, Aurion and potentially other models with the same silver finish on their dash, I figured I'd post this here. While in Hobart the other day I stopped by the paint supplier that we buy all our paint from at work, to see if they could mix me up some paint to match the silver finish on my Aurion dash, for when I make my custom fascia for my touchscreen (link in my sig for details on my ICE project). After 10 minutes of comparing color swatches to the dash panels, we've found a color that looks pretty well exact. I haven't had a chance to test it yet as I left my car in Hobart for a few days to have work done, but when I get it back next week I will give it a burl and see how it goes. I'll call up my supplier later today and see if there is some sort of generic code or something for the color so I can post it up here for the sake of anybody who needs the color mixed. Also, if enough people want the paint I may be able to buy it in bulk for cheaper than you getting it mixed yourself, so post up and let me know, because if I get enough interest I will consider ordering a drum. Just note that neither the store nor I have any gear to make up pressure packs for you, so you will need some sort of spray unit. It is recommended to use a gravity-fed airless unit if you have access to one. Although i have access to one of these units at work, I'll be using an electric cup gun instead, because I have one at home and its easier to set up and clean than the work unit.

Took her down to Hobart yesterday to have the front bumper looked at where the clear coat is peeling. Left down there until early/mid next week for them to respray the bumper, so I'm carless for at least the next 4 days. But they are doing it at no charge, so I suppose I can't really complain. It woulda cost a lot more to pay for a respray, so I would have 'accidentally hit a roo' and claimed it on insurance, but thankfully it didn't come to that. On the topic of leaving my car in Hobart, I had to hire a car to get home. All well and good except that Budget won't hire V6 cars to under 25's, so an Aurion, Falcon, or Commonwhore were out of the question, and I was stuck with a Nissan Tida. In conclusion, Tidas are crap, and although I returned it to Budget when I got home, I feel it would have been more appropriate of me to have taken it up the bush and burnt it, so no other poor unsuspecting person has to drive that box of sh!t Tida again. I also got some paint mixed up at a paint shop I know in Hobart, in the dash silver. More on that in the Inside and Out topic I'm about to post.

Do you know PaintTech out Moonah/Derwent Park way? They're on Sunderland St just down the road from Pickles Auctions, on the opposite side on a corner. They are mixing me up some paint to suit. From the color swatches they had, we managed to find something almost dead on exact. I don't expect it to be a very noticable difference. If you swing into PaintTech, ask for Peter and tell him you want the same color he mixed up for Chris at Bellchambers.

The hair... the expression... its his long lost relative!

Stephen Fry. The funniest gay there is.