mr_grumble2010

Ive been an avid reader of the Aurion postings since my wife and I picked up our new ZR6 Aurion two years ago and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I watched it drive off for the last time today. The wife found another man and proceeded to take the aurion as part of the "fair" settlement that us men seem to get with separations /divorces these days. Was told that the value if the aurion was equal to that of the Toyota Echo, boat and camper trailer and that was the way it was ! Going to be great fun towing a 1.5 T boat /camper with an 230k Echo ??? Anyhow, thanks to all that come to my rescue on numerous occasions with issues with the aurion, just hope now it s**ts itself in a big way, although I'm pretty sure it won't :/ Steve

Running power with signal isn't always the best thing to do, but shouldn't invoke a hiss as interference from the alternator is in the form of an alternating signal, hence it usually being a hum or whistle that varies with engine speed as opposed to a hiss which is purely noise. If its through all speakers, then the common point is the head unit. I wouldn't expect pioneer to be making that much noise though ?

I refuse to be part of that statement where you say I am right. My personal opinion is that DRL LED strips that try to copy the Audi layout look stupid. 1) Because only Audi can truly pull the look off properly in my opinion. 2) Because the design of the Audi DRL's are such that each LED is separated and can be distinguished from quite a distance. 3) Because the Audi DRL's are integrated and not just slapped on like an accessory. Any other form of DRL like the Philips ones regardless of how they are mounted just would seem out of place as well in my opinion. As for improving safety.... whatever makes you feel better in supporting your decision. I doubt it is going to make you any safer on the road. I have to agree on the above staements too, there's nothing more annoying, (to me), when you you see copy-cat mods, particularly from European vehicles. The DRL fitted on Audi, BMW etc look ok, nothing special imho, but now the aftermarket craze haz kicked in, they bug me. Just spotted DJKOR's avatar.....minds gone a little blank now

"with a burnt MP3 CD we got as a wedding present." Geez, I've heard of people being a little tight when it comes to wedding gifts, this one takes the cake !

Let's just say cheapest isn't always best ! For years I had house and cars with AAMI because they were cheap. That was until I had to claim. The incident involved me hitting another vehicle, but was actually due to the other party, something that I was able to prove to AAMI. They however saw it as too hard to fight for me and simply pinned the blame on me. Then I needed the repair done. Didn't allow me to take my vehicle to where I wanted, instead it had to go to this backyard operation because they severly under quoted everyone else. The result, a crap repair that saw me return for warranty work at least a dozen times. Switched to NRMA, costs me approx 15% more, but I have the choice to send my vehicle to whoever I choose and they are more than happy to listen to anything I have needed from them. Even supplied an A-Class Merc while the Aurion was away !

Consider the resale value of the vehicle as well. A prospective buyer later on down the track will pay the extra for an unmodified vehicle which comes standard with spoilers etc than what they will for a base model dressed up as a look alike. If it's the extra $$$ that's putting you off a Sportivo, then why don't you simply delay your purchase by 6 months and get what you really want when you have the a available funds. Sportyness aside, the Sportivo's do appear to be classier looking IMO, however at the end of the day it's your own requirements that you need to satisfy, so simply buy what suits your needs, if it's an AT-X then that's what you ought to look at.

The family and I just returned from a weekend up Nelsons Bay and the entire way back the missus complained of an anoying noise coming from the glovebox area. Personally, from where I was sitting the 'annoying noise' was comming from the passenger seat , but it ended up being the passenger rear seatbelt vibrating against plastic trim in the back. The job of tracing noises in vehicles has got to be one of the biggest pain in the jobs that exist, depending on how you have your head turned, they move about the cabin. These days, I announce an award to the kids to whoever finds that noise first gets a prize, goes double if they can fix it too :P

As is mine

Yep, mine does the same. Always wondered why, but don't see it as a problem.

I wouldn't even contemplate having a cracked alloy repaired, I'm sure it can be done, but without having them x-ray'd afterwards you would never feel sure of the end result. Mine simply have deep scratching around the outer lip with minor scratched on the "face". After being quoted $250 to have the one alloy repaired, it's not worth my while doing anything with it. Might use it as a hose reel out in the garden !

Cheers for all the suggestions, I'll give a few a call Monday and see whether it's viable to have it repaired.

Now that I have our vehicle back from the repairer after it's encounter with a Sydney rubbish truck, I have the damaged wheel which was replaced sitting in the garage. Might be nice to have another spare. The damage is only light, more or less "gutter rash" type damage. Can this be repaired ?

Yes, it would appear that your right on that one Dauphin3 :P I rarely rely on the audiable warning and certainly never look at my cluster when reversing, so I could have easily been wrong, which I was. After spending 2 minutes reading the car's manual, it does state the sequence in which the system operates I picked up the car yesterday after being with Toyota for the day and the audiable sequence now operates in the correct manner. I asked the service rep what was the cause, but because it was late, they'd let most of the junior mechanics go for the day and he wasn't able to find out why. The sensors look the same, so I really don't know what they did ?

Yes the vehicle's a facelift ZR6 and I 'assume' that both the front and rear sensors would be the same item ? To look at both front and rear sensors, they look identicle in every way (except for the way they work in my case) So I would expect from what you said that if I had the sensors from the accessory kit installed by mistake, I'd be able to spot the difference between the front and rear sensors. So it looks like I have the correct sensors installed, yet suddenly they operate in reverse :P Beats me ! I don't really care all that much as I don't use them anyway, I only rely on them to tell me if anything is directly behind me where I cant visably see.

Well thats odd Because mine has recently come back from the panel shop where the rear bar was replaced and mine too work in reverse now. They start beeping continuously and the closer you get, the lower the rate of the beep, which is not how the front ones work. The indicators are too also working in reverse, max bars then as you get closer, the bars drop away. I asked the panel shop today and they said they had the same trouble with a Prado recently. They only replaced the sensors on mine and they swear they were genuine factory sensors, so maybe they replaced them with the accessory kit ones ? Does that mean that the factory units are not avaliable through Toyota parts ? Car goes into gert serviced tomorrow at Sydney City Toyota, so I'll pose the question to them and see what comes out of it.

I've only recently had mine back from the smash repairers where the rear bumper was replaced. I did notice that the sensors were not the same as the factory ones, however I have not yet tested them out. Maybe they have been replaced with an after market type which operate slightly different ? I'll check mine out this arvo !

" absorbing idiots"........ Haha Gota love the iPhone predictive text, should have read "absorbing odours"

It is going back to the repairer. Usually a full detail is all part and parcel of their service. The exterior had been washed (very quickly by the look of it), however the interior was covered in dust and you would think a quick check for overspray would be done on every car prior to being picked up ? Just as long as the repair itself was done well, the rest can be sorted next week. Any idea how to rid the paint smell inside the car ? I used to enjoy the leathery smell inside and now it's an overwhelming paint smell. The wife sometimes puts a bowl of baking soda inside the fridge when there's an unwelcome smell inside, something about the baking soda absorbing idiots. Wonder if that's worth a try ?

Well it's been almost 4 weeks since it happened and finally got her home last night. Went over it with a fine tooth comb and the repair itself seems to be very high quality, nothing out of place and paint matches perfectly. Only down side, is the rest of the car is now covered, bumper to bumper in overspray and the interior leather is coverd in dust. Going back down Tuesday for clay blocking (2nd time since I've owned it !!)

:o :o :o :o My life's not worth that !!! The last time I "borrowed" something of the missus, I came very near to wearing it. Where is it written that Tupperware CAN'T be used to degrease in ???????? Anyway, I will see which one is nearest to the length required. At a guess, I'd say one was with Aircon and the other without. Cheers....

Have very noisy drive belts on my 2001 Echo (2NZ-FE). I have ID'd the Power Steering belt as '3PK850-R34-7J, however the Serpentine belt has no markings to identify it with. Does anyone know what the correct belt type is (with Aircon) ????

I never intended on filing a Police Report on the incident because the damage was relatively minor and nobody was injured. Our local panel shop here on the Central Coast have been great so far. They along with CMT rentals fixed us up with a nice little 'A' Class Merc whilst our car was in the panel shop. Other party were found to be responsible, so the claim went through nicely, they even get billed the $250 / day rental costs on the Merc for 3 weeks We're due to pick it up next week hopefully. Feeling very nervous, don't want to see ANYTHING out of place, no mismtch paint, no ripples, nothin. Wondering whether I'm setting myself up for a fall here Anyway, when she's returned, I'll post the outcome, till then I have to put up with the Merc (as gutless as it is)

I have a good local panel shop that in the past have done excellent work for me, so I'd like to think that it'll come back as good as new That get's me thinking.... Should it not come back as good as new, what's my position then ? Lets just say, the repairer do their best and it just doesn't come back to orig cond for whatever reason. Do you think I could push for compensation of sorts ??

Between $8-10k damage. Apart from the obvious damage, wheel / Tire to be replaced as well as the alignment of the wheel is out. The thin section of the rear quarter panel I was concerned about will be replaced as the entire quarter panel (which extends up and over both front and rear doors), so thankfully no bog required Whilst the guy at the time took responsibility, the company he works for called me this morning asking for my account of events. Seems the truth either by him or his employer has now been a little misaligned with what actually happened. They wouldn't divulge their view of what happened, just that "Your (mine)story doesn't match that of our drivers". Let the damage speak for itself, surely any asessor worth his weight should be able to tell by the damage that I was run into and not the other way around ???

The thought of body filler doesn't thrill me, however up till now not much of this event has thrilled me. New cars never feel the same after they've visited the panel shop :( The claim shouldn't t be a prob. The other guy was accepting of blame at the time, so unless he suddenly becomes creative with the truth, there shouldn't be a prob.