JJCRU23R

gday all.. today ive put back together the front of the rav4. I will be going to pick n payless tomorrow morning.. hope to find some decent replacement bits and pieces for my rav4. Im also on the lookout for anything about this generation of rav4 regarding lowering/engine mods.. any websites/resources/stores anyone can refer me to? its kinda slow going for me at the moment.

As you may be able to see in the pics, I've taken the passengers side fender, which I took a mallet to in order to straighten out the dent. Two minute job on the dent.. A good 15-20 minutes on my own undoing each bolt. After I took the front bumper off I was pleased to see minimal damage to anything underneath. The only things in need of repair or replace are the fenders which surround both front tyres, that support bar that is situated in front of the radiator and the passenger side headlight. The headlight works but since the 4.1 has taken a bit of a hit, two of the 4 bolt holes that hold the headlight down have broken off. If I had the cash I'd be able to take off the old parts and replace them with new bits myself. As for the rest of the little dents on the outside.. I'm thinking I should just replace the headlight before letting the professionals deal with my car. But yea it's nice to confirm no significant damage to the chassis!

Hey guys, I got a little bit bored today so for the heck of it, I took the tools out to see exactly what's going on behind the front bumper and check out the extent of the damage the 4.1 has taken to it's face.

Ok so I still havent gone to the panel beaters just yet. however, I did manage to successfully test out one of the things i bought this 4.1 for in the first place - the TOW BAR. its got a 7 pin plug on it, and luckily, so does my dads box trailer. I took a second pic from the side.... somehow the picture didnt save!? freaky. Usually I borrow my dads corolla or 100 series landcruiser to tow a load of junk to the tip since none of the cars Ive previously bought had tow bar (except for the Bundera, but then I never needed it back then). Anyways, on this very windy day we loaded as much household and backyard junk onto that trailer and headed down to the local tip. Dispite a few initial problems with the indicators they somehow fixed themselves and we were safe to go to the tip! One thing I really noticed about the trip was how easy the car still drove even with all the crap loaded on the trailor. It was seriously as easy to drive as if I had nothing towing in the back in the first place! On dads 1zz, when we towed stuff, you would really feel the engine pushing harder. Had absolutely no problems with the 4.1 this time around! Goes to show that I really got my moneys worth when I bought this 4wd! The only thing i got to complain about is the fee for dumping the junk. The prices have gone up heaps.. I used to be able to give them $50 or $60 on entry when they weight the car and trailer and get a fair bit of change, less than $20 after Id have dumped the stuff and gotten weighed on the way out. This time i gave the lady $60 on entry, then on exit, she told me I owed her 6-7 bucks more! WTF!

sPotted blue corolla.. TI71VO.. forgot exactly where but i certainly do remember the plates. EDIT - it may have been TA71VO... had p plates. was either in m4 or emerton within the last few days?~

Anyone live around menai? The owner of my old corolla conquest 2003 lives around there.. Wonder what's become of it since I sold it back in April!

Hey guys quick update. Registration was due and ive chosen to go for the cheaper (short term) option of 6 month registration. It costs about 20-30 bucks more over the year compared to buying 12months rego in one hit. Its convenient.. And im glad they let you do it that way. I'll need to pay CTP and the RTA again in march 2012 but at least I won't need a pink-slip until September 2012. I was meant to be going to the local panel beaters today to get a quote to repair all the dents, but my wife had other plans and had a gardener come and tackle the weeds in the backyard. Lucky I'm on holidays with nothing important to do so the panel beater will have to wait until at least tomorrow. Great day in western Sydney today! Ima be hanging with the kids at home waiting for the gardener to be done weeding out the backyard! Great being a high school teacher.. 10 weeks off throughout the year!

Double post- sorry!

Decided to put my old bundera's subs and amp into the 4.1! And the club sticker is thanks to Mish!

I'm considering a used JDM fresh off the boat type of car. My bank told me their rate was 10.99 over 5 years. Not going to make any serious moves for the next 6months to a year anyway, but I want to keep my eye on things like finance for when the time is right. Of course if I had the cash laying around (or the ability to save that amount in a short timespan) I'd do it! Actually, it would be interesting to know just how you can save up to/around 20-25k to pay for a car in full??? How do you do it? I'm renting, have a wife and 2 kids so it seems like doing that will take years.

This box is going into the 4.1 as is when all the wiring is done.

I know the speakers are cheap, but did you not see the car it's going into?! Lol! features of this car are no frills cheap but installed with the care of using much more expensive equipment, to ensure an enjoyable ride. I never bother going through all this work to have it break down on me. Btw it's a pain having to get to the rear speakers since you have to remove the lower bolts for the rear seat belts to ensure you have a clear view of the speaker. The original speakers are only 4". I'll be mounting these 4 way 6.5"s onto the moulded plastic, so the speakers will be seen when the rear door is opened. not my choice really, since the hole accommodating the 4" stockies aren't so accommodating to these larger speakers I'm trying to fit.

31st birthday update! Wife said shed buy my next mod, so i Was going to buy keyless entry to ease entering/leaving my 4.1, but the local attendants at Autobarn didn't know what they were talking about and the local supercheap didn't have a kit with decent install instructions and insisted on a pro to install, so I bought a few other things instead... the speakers are for the rears which weren't functional. I'm also going to wire up a sub in the back.. If you remember my silver corolla, I made a fiberglass box for an 8" kicker which moulded into one corner of the 1zz boot. I still got it. I'm planning on building another box to accommodate both the solobaric and the mono amp I use to power it with.. installation was cut short due to my birthday celebrations but I'm hoping to wake up early to finish installing the rear speakers at least!

Interesting. If youve seen my members ride thread about my rav4.1 you would see that one of the things I have planned for the car was to buy an aftermarket front bar from xracing. The '97 lights fit the frontbar, so I guess Id need to swap the indicators since my year models wouldnt suit. If its a simple swap (ie- the indicator lights are the same), I guess Id just use the indicator part and ignore the park light on it when the time comes.

Hey guys, just wondering for those particularly in NSW, when it comes to getting finance for a new or used car, which company/bank has given the best service/rates? Not that Im in a rush, Im only window shopping at the moment. Any useful info on who to look into and who to steer clear of would be appeciated!

hey guys, Im just wondering what is the extra set of light bulbs are on the front indicators of the facelifted rav4.1? 1996> indicator... 1997< indicator...

thanks jeffy, but im NSW.

i talked to a mate who used to work @ toshiba. he said that its most probebly the motherboard. If i can find the exact same motherboard, it is possible to swap it with another toshiba motherboard *same model of course* and it should work fine. found one for $215 including postage... the toshiba repairer website says its 330 to repair including hardware. the local computer repairer at rooty hill said the motherboard is fried and basically pushed me to have my files transferred over to one of their laptops for $100 + the price of one of their new laptops.

So all I need is a new motherboard? I see a motherboard on eBay selling for 200 + postage, exact model I've got.

FATHERS DAY UPDATE! Went with the wife to the local Autobarn and bought a cheap and ultra practical head unit for the 4.1! Excuse the stupid rotation, couldn't adjust it even though I took the shot with my iPhone the right way up. Anyways, this is the same headunit I put into my wife's corolla. I installed it a few months ago and I remember it was at least 10 bucks cheaper last time. I bought the Toyota wiring harness as well which made the install so much easier to complete. The most difficult part of the install was cutting around the facade that surrounds the head unit in order for it to fit. It's too dark to take a photo now but for only 30 mins work it fits perfectly and works awesome! The only bummer is no rear speakers since I'm sure they must have died years ago. Will check the size of the stockies and hope to search for decent rear (& front -maybe) speakers to suit. I'm considering wiring up an amp n sub too. I'll see if there's enough extra wiring in the garage to do it, but at this point I'm not too keen on spending the $$$ to do that.

It's probably not the charger. The thing I didn't mention before is I was at my parents place preparing stuff on the laptop for work when it ran low on charge. I didn't have my laptop charger with me so we tried out this universal charger with about 8 different adaptors and you can change the volts n stuff on it to suit... I tried it out and thought it was charging, but one of the green lights was orange.. Which was something I never noticed before. It didnt work since then! If I had only just waited til I got home

Here's the big windscreen chip- with my finger underneath And the tiny one under my finger-

Other updates.. I fixed the waterpiping under the hood so that I can spray the windscreen! 4 bucks! Also, dad happened to have a spare passenger side visor (of all things) from his 1zz sedan. Turned out to be a near perfect fit! Different colour, and because dad accidentally cut a crucial part of it off the end of the pivot, it had to be glued in and you can't rotate the visor to face the door window, but it still works! FREEBEE!

Also, I vaccuumed the inside for the first time today since buying the car, also wiped the inside of the windows and saw that there were 2 tiny chips in the windscreen, the larger of the two is around the diameter of a 5c coin, the other is really only about 3mm long. Went to the obrian website and saw a quote starting from $139 to repair.