Full-Throttle

Lol! WTF Hiro?

It said "rapture" instead of "rupture"....

Ohhhh, it all makes sense now. I had no idea what the hell you meant, lol. In my defense, the image was from ClubLexus so I take no responsibility for the spelling error :P - http://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-2nd-gen-2004-2009/467236-certain-2007-rx350-needs-vvt-i-oil-hose-replacement-3.html#post5073042

Lol! WTF Hiro?

I just got home from work to find that my Alutec front strut bar had arrived from overseas so I was quick to put it on while there was still some daylight around. It took me a while to find a seller online who sells these particular bars but I managed to get directly in touch with the manufacturer and they were very helpful. I could have quite easily bought a white Ultra Racing bar locally, but I really liked the silver metallic colour of this one as it matches the engine cover and colour of my car, and the design/build quality look very impressive, so after parting with a couple of hundred dollars and a week of waiting this is the end result. Looking forward to giving it a test run on the way to work tomorrow morning :D

Oh my lord... 3 baby seats... That's nuts.

Great work on the car so far man.

Haha thanks man. I'll continue to keep the thread updated with any new updates ;)

Damn those Recaro baby seats cant be cheap!

Yeah they're certainly not a cheap car seat to buy unfortunately, but one benefit is that they can fit most kids up to 12-years old, so it's about 3 different car seats in one which helps to offset the price a little :)

You need a TV. :P

Haha, we have two fairly large TV's in the house and that didn't seem to help. Might as well cut 'it' off now. What do they say? Two's company, three's a crowd.....so four must be asking for trouble

Family sedan FTW! ^_^

Latest interior photos:

I wired up my Aurion Grande (Presara) auto dimming rear-view mirror today and installed a Novatek A118 HD dashcam. The rear-view mirror is the same type as in most late model Lexus models and the display dims to various different levels of brightness depending on the ambient light outside and if somebody has their headlights on behind you. Pretty cool thing to watch changing as it goes from crystal clear to a light blue colour depending on the light.

The dashcam I bought from AliExpress and opted for one that not only had a good resolution but was also compact enough to stick to the front windscreen without the use of a suction cup mount. The unit is tucked away behind the rear-view mirror and can be hooked up to the 'AV IN' port of my aftermarket headunit (sadly my RCA cables were a little bit too short after going down the pillar and under the dash, but I plan on getting a joiner to make it reach). It comes with a little plastic piece which hides the wiring, similar to the one for the rear-view mirror and when mounted the lens just pokes past the dotted section in the middle of the windscreen, so it gives a very OEM-like appearance. Due to the reflection off the glass you can't even see it from the outside of the car unless you go right up to it, so I took these photos using a polarizing filter in order to actually see it, lol:

Had some time today to take some new photos of the Aurion :)

I decided to install some King Springs 'super lows' today. Handling around corners is now so much better, with no real effect on ride quality. The rears came down 45mm from the factory height and the fronts came down 25mm (hoping that they'll settle to a slightly lower height after a few weeks). All in all I'm very happy with the outcome :)

That's not a stock TRD exhaust though.

I know. I wasn't referencing it in relation to the last few posts, but for the thread topic in general (aftermarket exhaust systems) ;)

I just came across this video on YouTube that was uploaded 1-day ago which could be of interest to you guys:

I got these aftermarket LED door lights in the mail today. They're designed to be a direct plug-and-play replacement for the original door lights and are a lot brighter and, of course, whiter B). Installation only took about 10-seconds per light. They fit a number of different Toyota/Lexus models, so if anybody is interested in getting a set for themselves here's a link to where I bought them: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2pcs-Super-Bright-6000K-White-Car-LED-Door-Courtesy-Light-for-Camry-Tundra-Land-Cruiser-for/32238275181.html

And a random shot at the gas station

Aahhh I see.

Well me personally, knowing that, I would opt for the TRD brakes when I do the upgrade.

Not having a job though does make it hard haha.

What colour are the TRD brakes?

The TRD calipers are red and are etched with the TRD logo (photos care of Google) -

Usually I'm not a big fan of stickers but when I saw these 'V6 DUAL VVT-i' stickers I just had to have some. They were originally for the 2009+ Toyota Landcruiser Prado with the 1GR-FE engine, but can be bought from an Australian seller on eBay very cheaply and in 10-different colours. I opted for the metallic silver (hard to tell in the photos below as they make it look white) and they go with the rest of the car nicely. I've only put the one sticker on the rear windscreen for now, but if I can find a suitable spot for the other one I'll use that too :)

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for someone! However the condition from the prospective buyer about sourcing a factory stereo and reversing camera to make the sale sounds rather strange. I can understand that they may prefer the OEM one, but I would tell them it's their responsibility to replace it once they buy the car. The factory reversing camera is somewhat unique to any aftermarket one as it has it's own plastic mounting bracket that goes through the metal in the bootlid, so if you didn't have one installed from factory you'd have to cut a rectangular hole for it and change to the factory connectors to suit the headunit. It all sounds like a bit more trouble than it's worth to be honest, and there's no saying that the guy won't bail out of the sale at the last minute, so if you do decide to go ahead with it I'd strongly advise getting a decent deposit from him first. Good luck with whatever you decide! :)

I got the VVTi oil line replaced today (the one on the back LH side of the engine) as over the last few days I've noticed a few drops of oil on the garage floor, despite cleaning it up every day, so after reading how common the problem is with that poorly designed hose/line I decided to get it checked out by a mechanic to diagnose it properly on a hoist - Sure enough, it was that infamous line causing trouble, so I ended up replacing it with the full metal line that Toyota brought out for the last of the facelift models and latest GSV50 shape, so it will never leak again. It cost me a couple of hundred bucks in labour, but it's a fair trade off compared to thousands of dollars for a new engine, so all-in-all I'm happy :)

These photos are courtesy of Google Images as a reference to the line I'm talking about:

One more very minor addition that arrived a couple of days ago - OEM style shank-type lock nuts. Finding lock nuts to suit factory alloy wheels was harder than I expected as most of the lock nuts on the market are made to suit aftermarket wheels, so lack the built-in washer and shank style flute that recesses into the wheel. After shopping around on a few international sites I finally managed to find a set on AliExpress, so these should help keep the wheels safer from any would-be thieves

Got my TRD center caps in the mail today. It's funny how the smallest things can sometimes make the biggest difference. Now, usually people would cringe at someone doing this, but in my defense the wheels actually are genuine TRD 18" Kappa's, and only some of them came with TRD center caps (which were rather bland looking), so these aftermarket caps definitely make it that little bit better :). The first photo shows the original center caps as a comparison:

I think the facelift cluster is much nicer - certainly makes it easier to read your speedo and revs.

I certainly agree that the speedo and revs are much easier to read on the facelift cluster (I guess a lot of people must have complained about it on the pre-facelift moddel, and something that took a little getting used to when I first got my Aurion) but it just looks so 'bland' in my opinion. Very generic and like every other late model car out there. The bright blue bands and floating numbers give the earlier cluster a certain 'wow-factor' that I just didn't get with the revised version.

Vertini Dynasty for sure.

I managed to get around to installing my front camera today. This is the same unit as my reversing camera except in matte black, and will help to get into my garage without hitting the wall with the front bumper (since the Aurion only JUST fits in today's modern garages). It gets activated by pressing the AV1 button on my aftermarket headunit. The hardest part of the install was getting the wiring through the factory rubber bung in the firewall, mainly because the RCA plug is much larger than an ordinary wire. So what I ended up doing was poking a straightened out coat hanger through on it's own first, and attached the opposite side of the cable to that and then pulled it back through into the engine bay. Should make life a little bit easier getting into the garage, when parking in front of high concrete car-park curbs/bollards and when going down steep driveways B)

I also decided to see what a facelift instrument cluster would look like, but I wasn't a fan so quickly swapped back to my original pre-facelift cluster:

YOU WILL REGRET IT........

Been following this car all over the net for years, I'd keep it because to any one else it's JUST a Corolla so finding top dollar could be hard, just saying, that's if you need it but again without knowing your situation I say KEEP IT, I wish I listened to my own advice :( Congrats on the Aurion as well, excellent choice indeed ...

Too late now unfortunately mate. The car sold 6-days after I listed it online. Fortunately I ended up getting what I wanted for it and the new owner absolutely loves it :). Thanks! Feel free to check out my Aurion build thread: http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/51519-my-06-toyota-aurion-sx6-sportivo/

A couple of very very minor upgrade this weekend. I decided to add a footrest pedal to match the original Sportivo brake and accelerator pedals. It was removed from a 98-05 Toyota Altezza (same as the Lexus IS200/300). I also swapped the original single factory metal horn in the engine bay for the alarm to a plastic snail type horn from a Lexus GS450H. Not something I hope to ever have to hear go off, but the sound now matches my 2x aftermarket Mitsuba Alpha horns behind the radiator grille, so if that doesn't alert me to someone trying to break in then nothing will

Since installing the steering wheel I've been wondering what the paddle shifters were off as they're metal with blue + & - symbols embossed into them, compared to the plastic paddles with black + & - symbols printed on them like every other Blade Master G steering wheel I've seen so far, but after some research last night I finally discovered that the paddles are from a Lexus IS-F and are made of magnesium! :o. It appears to be a popular, albeit expensive, modification in Japan for cars that have factory paddle shifters as the metal IS-F paddles can be bought brand new from Toyota. It's purely for aesthetics only as it doesn't make shifting any faster, but a small detail that I'm grateful to have B)

Speaking of aesthetics, I installed some headlight eyelids this weekend. I was on the fence about putting them on, but now that they're fitted I must say that I quite like them :)

Does the loom have an adapter in it to allow for a patch harness?

No, it ties into the main door loom unfortunately: