legend_of_lazz

I was pulled over for having my fog lights on one night and took the opportunity to ask the cop about the legalities involved in having under car lighting. He said as long as you can't see the actual tubes you are fine as they are not a distraction when just a glow. They do have to be a colour that is not blue, red or white (emergency services colours), purple (QLD Transport) or orange (Warning and Hazard Lights). Other than those they can be anything and can be in use while driving. The cop also went as far as telling me ideal placement and how to get more glow out of them for a better look and recommended green for my cyber green Aurion. He seemed to know what he was talking about and was genuinely nice about it so I've ordered a set for s**ts and giggles. I'm pretty sure what he said is correct even if it only applies to QLD but then again I saw a fully marked police Aurion sporting 6000k HIDs. Who knows.

Wow that looks really great. I was thinking of repainting mine to cover the light scratches but I'm loving that look. My question is, is it removable without much difficulty and would it leave a stain or anything on the original plastic? I want to return my car to stock when the time comes to sell so I don't want to make any permanent changes.

Alright so finally some closure on this topic. Last night I headed to the Townsville Drag Strip on my own just to have a few runs. It turned out to be a good night. The first race I had was coincidently against an XR6. Now I didn't manage to film this run as I arrived before my friends with the camera and Townsville doesn't have time slips apparently or times displayed, they are simply announced. I ran a total of 3 runs against the guy in the XR6, the first run we both launched well at the same time and it was very close up until about 120km/h when my car seemed to have just a slight amount more power than his. I ended about 2 car lengths ahead. Again, I am unsure of the exact times as I have no time slips to go by. The second run was very bad, I launched really badly and ended about 4 car lengths behind him, but did start to close the gap around the 120km/h mark. The third run against him was a much better launch on my part with another win slightly ahead. My final run against the XR6 was reported as 14.5, so not quite at Daryl's level yet, but with my sub and spare out of the boot next weekend, I can hopefully improve. I managed to get a few videos of the night, some from inside the car and a few from the grand stand. I'll post them later. All in all I had a good night and was surprised a few times that I managed to get a faster time than a HSV Clubsport and two Monaros. Hopefully next Saturday night, I'll get out there again with my mate from work and close this for good.

Alright, I can be bothered trying to coordinate this any more. I'm going to contact the Townsville Drag Strip on Monday to find out how I go about doing a few runs and I'll head there on my own. I don't think I'll get a particularly great time at this stage with my stock Sportivo tyres and my 28kg sub in the boot. I'll take it out when I go for a run and see what happens.

Unfortunately not. I know I really should have, but we had nothing I could use in the house and I had already had a few beers by the time the headlights were ready to install so driving was out of the question. I have ordered a replacement set just in case so whatever happens will happen. I've just had a look at going about it this way and unfortunately my hands are really quite big. There's no way I'll be able to do it without removing the bumper. Oh well.

Okay thanks for that. I'll give that a go if I ever need to do it again. I was pretty keen to get the bulbs in and I touched them quite a lot so I'm thinking they'll die pretty quickly. Time will tell. I'm also gonna replace my parkers and fog lights soon as well to LEDs so chances are the bumper will have to come off again.

Hey guys. I've searched the forum a few times but haven't found anything so apologies if this is a repeat, so just wondering if there's a way to remove the headlights without taking off the bumper? Reason I ask is I have just installed HIDs and am wondering if there's a faster way to change the bulbs in the future if need be. Thanks for any help. Adam.

Good to hear the handling has improved a lot. It'd be great if you could post their receipt. They gave me another quote for $2000.40 today over the phone. Extreme Coilovers: $1600.00 Fitting: $290.40 4 Wheel Alignment: $110.00 I suppose that does make things a bit easier to swallow. Where abouts did you get yours done?

Wow nice job. What did they originally quote you? How much do they improve your handling?

I was quoted $2200 here. I'm really considering this as my 21st present to myself.

Yeah I'm thinking of going for the Pedders too or maybe the BC that keep appearing on eBay. Fulcrum couldn't give me a straight yes or no whether they'd fit and said they'd need to take off a leg and send it away to check it out. I can't afford the time off the road and $3500 just seems like a stupid amount of money to spend. That's almost 15% of what I paid for my car and I can't justify that until I buy a house.

Yeah I'm thinking of doing the same thing here. I'll put in a call to Toyota here and get a quote. From your experience Daryl, do you think the TRD set up is the way to go or a set of good coilovers. I'm looking for the best handling possible.

Places like Repco and Supercheap Auto will do it for you if you have the paint code.

Just a quick update. Everything's now working. I went back to WOW today and asked the guy there about what is happening. I also told him about the single output for the sub. He said I would need a Y RCA cable to add sound to both channels. I got home, plugged it in and sure enough, the sub is working very well. Thanks again for your help Daryl. You saved me a lot of frustration, time and money.

Alright, so after talking to the guys at work, they said I should check my ground. So I gave it a bit of a sand and tightened everything up and now the amp is running. However, maximum volume with everything and no output through the sub. Progress is progress I suppose but I'd really like this thing to work.

Yeah I'm pretty sure I've tapped into the right place. I'll have to have a look at the fuses tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that's the only issue. If not I'll take everything apart, take pictures everything because I may not be explaining it correctly and it may be a simple set up issue. If we still can't get at it, I might have to book it in at WOW so they can have a look at it. I was just taking a look over my amps manual, and everything looks to be ok. The information about the Protection LED states "When illuminated the amplifier is in protection mode due to any of the following fault conditions. Short Circuit, Thermal, Output Short, DC Offset." If there was a short or some other issue, would the Protection LED stay on or flash for a second they way it does? Until tomorrow, thanks so much for your patience. If you ever have any trouble with Telstra, let me know and I'll sort it out.

To the red wire going into the cigarette lighter. Sorry about the last post, I was a bit off when I explained the problem, it was actually the red amp protection light lighting up. The green power light doesn't come on at atll.

Alright, so everything's now plugged in. I turn the car on, the amp light comes on for a second and then goes dark again. My soldering work was good, all my connections are good and all fuses (inline and three in the amp) are okay. I have no idea what's wrong. It happens every time I start the car so I don't see how it could be a fuse problem. Thanks for your patience with this, completely and utterly new at this. If only everything was as easy as the head unit replacement.

Ok, so do I tap into the positive? Or could I just tap into something in the boot or a bit closer considering my amp is in the boot?

Ok thanks again. Everything's connected and it looks like it's ready to go. I connect my battery, turn the car on and the amp's power LED doesn't light up. I go back and check all connections and it all looks good. The fuses are all fine as well. I've had a look in the instructions and between the + and ground on the amp, there's a hole labelled REM. The instructions state "This connection turns on the amplifier and should be connected the the remote turn on lead from the Head Unit. If one is not available a switched 12V source must be used." So I've had a look at my head unit and I don't think it has a remote turn on lead, so how do I install a switch here? There is only one hole. This aside, I am all done.

Ok thanks for all the info. The car's in pieces, the wires are all running to the appropriate places, the last thing I need to know is: on my head unit, there is only one output for the sub. Where does this plug into as the amp has two RCA inputs? Thanks again.

Thanks a lot Daryl. I am completely new at working with audio in my car. How do I run my cable through there? Do I pull that out? And where would the cable come out?

Could someone take a photo of the grommet please? I've had a look around yesterday and haven't been able to spot it.

Thanks for the clarification. I've never done anything to do with car audio before. Once I get completely set up I'll post a step by step setup guide here. So thanks again. That's a work in progress. Who would have thought it was so hard to coordinate 14 or so seconds of your life? I will update the second it gets done.

Hey guys, I’ve done a speaker upgrade from stock to 4 Polk Audio DB691 6x9s paying $229 per pair hoping for some extra volume. There’s been an increase in clarity but not a great deal in volume. So I guess it may be time to go for an amp. My question is my “Auspack Update” head unit has RCA outlets to 4 speakers and a sub so do you think it would be worthwhile trying to change from the regular speaker wiring to RCA running to the back of the head unit? Will it make a difference in volume or quality at all? If not I guess I’ll have to buy an amp. Secondly the guy at WOW told me that these are pretty much top of the line speakers. Is this true or have I been told a fast one? Thanks. Adam.