stevo1210

My brother recently got his P's, so we need to get him another car since he'll need one to travel to university in when he starts next year. He usually takes my car out to places. Mine is a 2003 Corolla, but as I also go to university at a completely different campus, the car isn't available to him and both my parents need their cars for work, plus it's my car so I don't want him writing it off or anything alike. Public transport isn't really an option as the university is on a completely different train line all the way out west, so it will take ages to get there, thus it's best if he goes by car. He likes the way my Corolla drives and feels, but obviously that's my car so he won't be driving it for too long. Anyway, I'm looking for something that has the same amount of performance and also easy on petrol and most importantly safety features. V6 is out of the question here because it's gonna cost an arm and a leg to fill up, plus he's a newbie P-plater so I'm not gonna let him go anywhere near a V6. So with his budget of under $5000, I was leaning towards an '97-00 EK Honda Civic, but maintenance costs and continual failures of the automatic transmission steered me away. So I moved on to look at the AE101R/102X series Corolla, but then I remembered why I sold my AE101... cause it wasn't very powerful and used more petrol than my ZZE122R when i worked out the fuel consumption figures. So, I'm down for the Toyota Camry because I haven't seen any major issues with them and also because the insurance is cheap with a Camry. Plus it has a 4 cylinder 2.2L engine and fits nicely into our budget. Now, what I want to know is would a 2.2L 1997-2000 Camry be suitable? He also asked if the Camry would be as powerful as my ZZE Corolla? I'm currently looking at the 2.2L CSi models and they don't have a drivers airbag as standard, but the conquest model on the other hand does. Would it even be merely possible to buy a cheap CSi and add an airbag to the drivers side? I have however seen a few rare CSi Camry's with a drivers airbag on carsales. Or would I be better off buying a conquest with an airbag? cause I've been told an airbag installation sometimes costs more than pay that extra $$$ for the next model up? Thanks.

I'm actually trying to wait for the sun/heat/UV/rain to destroy that new layer of paint because the old layer underneath is this beautiful metallic silver that looks like the machine finished stuff on my mum's Honda Accord. Or if I could find a way to remove the paint myself without destroying the old paint then yeah.

I got the new tyres today. They are Dunlop SP300 series tyres... also the same size at 195/60/R15 88H. My old ones were 88V but oh well, not that it matters to me anyway. At least these tyres are dated from late 2009 so I know they aren't old stock which my safety depends on. :) I'd also add that these tyres are really grippy even though it was pouring with rain today. :) I also got a set of chrome wheel nuts with these new tyres... even though I scabbed and saved my old original Toyota ones which they were gonna take from me. :)

one of my friends said they might've come off the 1998/1999 model Astra since they used the 4x100 stud pattern. looking through google images, that seems to be the case in my eyes.

So I finally got some alloys for my ZZE Corolla... since i'm a uni student on a minimum wage income flipping burgers, i couldn't actually afford brand new alloys, so these ones are second hand. I wanted something with thick edgy spokes so one day i wondered into the auto store to take a look and came across this set. in my eyes, they seem to fit my car really nicely. sure, they have a few blemishes such as gutter scrapes, but when i bought them i requested that the store repaint these... and so they did... with a spray can of metallic silver. if i'm not mistaken these may have come off a holden astra? but the astra has 5 lugs and this only has 4 and quite similar in pattern design! there is only one problem... the paint isn't very hard. some kiddies came over last weekend and they were bored enough to scratch some bits of paint off with their nails. i only found out when they came running up to me saying "look at my nails... they have silver specks in them" they sure did... and when i asked they pointed to my wheels... O.o but look, if this gets bad over time... out comes a bottle of duplicolor wheel paint and that should solve all my problems. :) but... today i discovered something. these second hand tyres are 7 years old and cracking on the sidewall. they are dunlop sport 200e 195/60/R15 88V. looks like i need new tyres like tomorrow morning? the tyre store that i'm going to has dunlop sport 200e's (japan made) for $135 each... these are good right? my steelies used to have falken ziex's (still have them under the house). i wasn't happy with these tyres caused they wore out too quickly, but in return were grippy.

The wheel placard sticker thing in my ZZE glovebox is missing after my brother cleaned the thing out after he spilt some coke in there a few years back when he was younger. I would presume he cleaned it out and took the sticker as well since there's only traces of it left... well bits of it really. Anyway, my problem is that I've upgraded to some alloys (finally after many years) with 195/60/R15 wheels and I don't know what PSI these are supposed to be pumped to since my originals were 14" steelies. They are currently sitting on 29 P.S.I which I think is a tad too low since I used to pump my 14" up to 36 or whatever it was. So what is the proper P.S.I for 15" wheels? I also have another question... since these alloys came from what I think was a Holden Astra? [missing badges] (got everything for $100 second hand w/tyres LOL)... is there a way that I can like stick a Toyota badge on these rims to make it look better i guess? or a sticker for that matter?

Yes ZRE152 headunit will fit. And are you talking about Guni? :P Peter. YES! That's the one I saw on eBay. :D

I actually have another question now... still with audio though. Will those headunits in the zre152r corolla fit in the zze that I have? I saw some guy on eBay with a Sportivo zze and he had a zre152r headunit installed! i'd prefer the zre152 headunits as they have an AUX input, bluetooth and also MP3 playback... and I can actually get my hands on these units!

Serious...? O.o Will they even explode if I set the volume to say level 1? I thought speakers only exploded when you cranked them up real hard? Cause a mate of mine is running the Eonon G2210A head unit DVD player GPS thing in his '97 land cruiser on the stockie speakers without an issue?

Just checked the connector this morning... it's not loose... it's sitting in the socket. It seems that the tip of my foot is hitting the grey plastic socket surround.

I was at the car audio place (again) and they said I must change to new speakers. Equating to like a grand in total or something close... I simply can't afford that on my current wage. The store said that as soon as the new Eonon head unit is installed, all the speakers would explode. They think I'm stupid haha. Bye bye store... Stevo shall do his own head unit install. My dash is in bits right now. I've managed to remove the head unit to locate the wiring loom. I just need an ISO harness now and it should be all good. :) Let'ssee if the speakers really do explode O.o

LOL we passed a few cop cars along the way and my balls basically whimpered cause I was worried about the alcohol bottles in the glovebox, back seat and whatever else was disposed nicely around the car. But we didn't get pulled over or anything so it worked out well.

Thats right, the cops were correct. After i relised the incorrect tyre size that was on the rolla i edited my post. He would have received a fine aswell for the defect but theres no use fighting it as its pointless. Yes he received a fine as well. As for attitude that night from what I've been told, he was his normal self... like me and you on any other day. He was calm and co-operative as in his mind A. he hadn't been drinking B. He thought he did nothing wrong as to the car. So the lesson for me is that my ZZE can't be modified at all... oh great. *Sighs* guess I can only upgrade to 15" alloys and not those 17" I always wanted. O.o Did someone mention washer fluid up there? What's that got to do with a defect? My fluid tank is always full of water (no detergent).

I'm gonna have a rant about a design flaw in my ZZE. My foot keeps hitting something in the foot well when I change from the accelerator to the brake. It seems to be some SCART port looking thing in the footwell. It's getting god damn annoying... is there a way around this?

Oh yeah... has anyone got the surround plastic fascia thing that goes around the A/C dials, clock, A/C buttons? It's the one that has that flap compartment which also has an ashtray slot below. Funny story... but my flappy lid hinge broke after forcing the lid closed when a stray CD was in there.

The 15" wheels shall be solved with some alloys so don't need them anymore. But I still need the facelift model audio unit (MP3 compatible version). NVM the tweeters... too much effort to install and wire them in. :(

Post-facelifts have 15" steelies, pre-facelift are 14" It depends on the pre-facelift year too. The pre-facelift models (Ascent only) after 2003 but before the facelift in 2004 have 15" steelies. My ZZE Ascent has 14" cause it's a late '02.

Damn just a 55 and a 50 in tyre size makes all the difference to the RTA. :( OMG. wait. my ZZE has 185/60 (or 65?)/R14 Falken Ziex tyres at the moment. Factory spec say 175/70/R14. Does that mean I can be defected too?!

The other night my friend got his very stock ZZE Corolla defected. Yes, I said defected. There were no engine or body (or bodykit installed) modifications at all which makes everything seem suss. Basically the cop pulled him over for a random breath test (which was all fine) on the Friday night and then another cop did a vehicle inspection at the same time... to look for those unforgiving turbocharger/supercharger mods us P-platers love to bits. :) All was well under the hood of his car since she was a stockie. Then the wheels were inspected. Tread was okay, no issues there. Then they had a quick look at that placard thingy in the glovebox. Largest tyre listed is 195/60/R15 (15x6J) *looks down at wheel*... Sportivo rims with 205/55/R16 tyres... Seeing as the 16" listing wasn't on the placard he was screwed. I ended up picking him up to his house since I live a few streets away from where the RBT was taking place at midnight. I was stunned because I thought anything from the factory was okay right? I went onto the RTA website today and it says "the outer diameter and wheel must not exceed 15mm of the largest wheel on the placard"... 15" to 16" is another 25mm... even with lower profile tyres. I told my friend to dispute this matter in court but I dunno how far he'd get. What do you guys think? I don't think it's fair at all.

I want to install a new head unit in my ZZE Corolla and I'm wondering if they make those darn ISO harness things that converts the current connectors into something that can be soldered onto without me having to cut the cables I have now.

I live around and work in Sydney CBD and I will say that parking is a pain in the ***** with my Corolla, so logic would tell me to get a Yaris. But I have a problem with the Yaris roughness on the road as I can clearly hear and feel the NVH when I drove my friends YRS the other day. The Corolla is quieter and larger, drinks a bit more petrol but very comfortable. The Honda Jazz my cousin has on the other hand is even quieter than my Corolla in some instances! I will also say that the Honda Jazz is a practical car which has like 12 cup holders and one touch fold seats which I loved. But it's really up to you and you need to test drive the pair and compare I suppose.

For the reverse sensors, I would highly recommend you go to Toyota and pay the $500 or so that they quoted me for me ZZE122R (should be the same for a ZRE) since the Toyota stuff is much much better than the crappy stuff they install outside. I obviously skimped the $500 or so, paid $300 to get them installed outside and I am less than impressed. The installers basically destroyed my interior while installing the thing. Also, the sensors I have are totally inaccurate sometimes. One time the LCD display said I had 0.5m to go, I then reversed just a bit more (while parallel parking) and nudged another Corolla behind me... result... paint in the rear bumper has crows feet now. :( But yes, highly recommend reverse sensors and also get them done at Toyota themselves.