mr_grumble2010

I had mine done recently in 'midnight express' from Tintacar which is a metallic film, no difference in radio reception AM / FM. I would imagine if there were a difference, it would be more noticable in fringe areas with questionable reception to start with. Steve

If you're in Brissy, I'd be happy to have a look at it sometime. I have spare stock suspension here we can play with if we find the problem. Short of flogged out bushes and weight differences, the suspension should be exactly the same. My 1999 Echo was very smooth and soft on the stock suspension. Affraid not, Sydney way Bushes seem ok when I recently swapped out the struts / shocks, weights are near identicle, the only components not changed are the factory springs Springs usually sag and make the suspension get softer rather than harder Slower bumps seem to be fine, it's just the short, sharp bumps that are more noticable, enough to make EVERY bit of plastic trim inside noisy as buggery !!! Steve

Both sets of tires are within 3 psi of each other (31-33psi), both run identicle shock / struts and appear to be the same spring, so I can't put my finger on what could be causing such a harsh ride in the earlier echo

I have a 2001 Echo and I have family that also have a 2003 Echo. I've found the ride quality between the two vehicles to be vastly different, mine is very rough in comparison. I have just changed the shocks in mine to see whether they were to blame, but found it to be equally as rough. I know the shocks between the two Echo's are the same, so I suspect that the springs may be different between a 01 and an 03 Echo. Can anyone confirm this ? Steve

A speaker is just a load (coil) across an output, nominally 4 ohms. There is no way that the wiring can reduce this load under any circumstance except if the two wires were shorted together creating a load of <1 ohm, which will in turn produce no sound, no matter what the volume is set to. Drivers in low to medium end equipment don’t have short circuit protection in their final amp stages, they just stop working……. An interesting experiment to rule the speaker / wiring theory out would be to play with the Balance and Fader to one by one move the audio output to each of the speakers, each time repeating the low volume / High volume routine and see whether this cutting out only happens when one particular output is placed under load. My guess will be the radio that’s the culprit…… You probably have what’s known as a Dry Joint in the Printed Circuit Board, where the solder joint that electrically connects legs of components to the Printed Circuit Board is not bonded correctly. Very common and usually a bugger to troubleshoot as there can be 1000’s of these joints on a Printed Circuit Board and usually heat related, as the board gets warmer, the metals in both the tracks and solder expand, making contact again. Everything cools again, things shrink and consequently, opens the circuit again. If this is the case, then throw away the radio and get yourself another

The change-down lag was the biggest bug-bear I had when I climbed into our new ZR6, it felt like you just sat there motionless forever whilst it decided just how far down to engage the cogs. It's taken three months to adjust my driving style now to cope with it (or avoid it). Your going to have to pre-empt the gear change-down and manually knock it down cogs to avoid the delay. I've also found that you can bias the accelerator just before you need to change down, which seems to let the ECU know in advance what your about to do, seems to cut the delay down by 50% or so imho. Steve

I was thinking of the fuel issue for a while. Although this vehicle seems to be very sensitive to fuel types, I can reproduce the aircon fix with almost any mix of fuel. Esentially, I agree, AC should have not part in the engine performance, however, I cannot make the ecu link after pouring over the schematics

It's just an observation that I've made over the years, any sort of lubricant will stop a squeek, however a grease, like I said, will trap particles of dirt and grit on the surface your trying to lubricate. Imagine the net result over a year or two with the bushing containing a greasy, gritty lubricant, I'd expect your bushes to wear faster. If your blessed with being able to get right to where you need to apply the lube, I use standard dry lube you pick up from decent bicycle outlets, usually costs around $20 for a small 100ml tube. Just shake the stuff (it's liquid initially) and throw a few drops around and smear. It soon dries and leaves a film of dry lube. If you can't get right onto where you need it, then I have seen aerosol applicators. Same deal, spray, dry whammo If you really really want to use grease, then just use a marine grease, it's waterproof and won't wash out with the first big puddle Steve

Having come from a 4wd background, these sort of 'noises' were a weekly event that in most cases were a simple fix. Arm yourself with an aerosol can of DRY lubricant, one of those ones with the little hose that lets you get into tight spaces. Climb under the front end and find all the rubber / polyurethane bushes that secure swaybars, control arms etc and spray liberally in and around. Eventually you should find the cause and when you do don't apply grease ! Ever applied grease or oil to a bicycle chain ? Sounds great at first, but every bit of sand, dust, etc sticks to it eventually getting into places it shouldn't. Same for your car, grease will just trap dirt, mud and other crap into places where it'll just accelerate wear. You should be able to get a bit of dry lubricant up into the spring seats, however I've never heard these squeek, just bump Springs are just springs, by themselves they can't squeek, possibly they replaced the upper spring locator when they did the original work with their own brand of CRAP , wouldn't have thought so at such a young age. Hope this helps..... Steve

I mean no disrespect when I say this, but by reading your post it would suggest that you don't have a terrible lot of experience with DIY automotive repair (and I don't claim to know it all either ), however, if you really don't know what your doing, you ought to leave it to people that do. It's so easy to really stuff things up and it can cost thousands of $$$ as a result. Having said that, I also think it's a good idea to get hands on and not have to solely rely on professionals to carry out regular maintenance. Taking on what you can handle's the secret.

At first glance at the title I admit it looks like I have absolutely no idea what it is I'm talking about, obviously the aircon makes a difference to engine performance However, my issue is a little more involved than it first appears..... I have a 2001 1.3 echo that has now 160k on the clock. It is such a beaut little car, runns well and costs bugger all really. I do all maintenance myself since 80k and seem to have a pretty good handle on what the car needs, but I find that occasionally, every 1-2k, economy reduces slightly from a tank average of 5.5l/100km to about 6.5-7.0l/100km and at the same time, acceleration is a little rough, with slight flat spots across the rev range, particularly at low rpm, ie 1500-2000rpm. Additional to the normal servicing I carry out, I have tried the following to narrow down the cause without success. - Plugs - air filter - cleaned the MAF sensor - cleaned the throttle body - checked for air leaks - injectors serviced - in-tank fuel filter replaced - injector cleaner - swapped out all (4) ignition packs with another echo I had given up on finding the reason why when I began to notice that after my wife drives the echo, it seems to be ok again. I quized her on what it was she was doing different, she doesn't drive it all that often, prefers the Aurion ZR6 to take to work and the only thing I could come up with was that she uses the aircon often, where I rarely use it. Noting this, I then waited until the poor running started again and hit the aircon for 30 min on the way home one day. The next day, all was good again. I've been able to reproduce this time and time again for some time now My question is, what link is there between engine performance and the post effects of having the aircon on for a while. I personally can't see it, I originally thought that the clutch on the aircon compressor may still be engaging occasionally, thus effectivly having the compressor load on the engine all the time and by cycling the aircon on / off, possibly disengaging the clutch, but from what I've checked, it seems to be ok. It feels as though the engine runns better after having the aircon on ?????? Any thoughts ? Steve

X2 They really have their s**t together and know what customer service is.

Wow, don't some people take things to heart Look, if it upsets you so much that I opt for using the Mobil 1 product, then my appologies, your free to use whatever, as am I. My comments were not directed at you in particular, I couldn't care less what other people do to their vehicles, whatever makes you happy After running plain Penrite and Castrol mineral oils in a Landcruiser and an XR8 and witnessing first hand the amounts of sludge left behind over 100K+ then switching to a synthetic in a Pajero since new, same conditions etc, the difference is obvious. I don't care about opinion, it's over-rated, if something has worked for you in the past, you'll tend to stick with it.

Just an update to be fair to Sydney City Toyota, I had the 15k service carried out this morning and before I could say anything about the oil issue, they offered to reduce the price of the service down to $80 because I was suplying my own oil Pretty good considering the capped service was supposed to be around $130. Highly recommend Sydney City Toyota, best service I've come across from a dealership. Steve

I spoke to Sydney City Toyota this morning regarding offsetting the service costs seing as though I'm suplying my own oil. Their response was that I'm welcome to do so but as the service is a capped service, they cannot remove anything from the schedule......just add to it <_< surprise surprise. However if I were to supply them with an empty 5L container, the're happy to let me bring their oil home with me for our Echo Also, I enquired about whether they themselves offer a synthetic option. Other Toyota dealerships may offer this but not Sydney City Toyota, they just buy in the regular 5W-30 engine oil, brand withheld (as cheaply as possible too I suspect). Managed to pick up Mobil 1, 5W-30 for $68 / 5L. Pain in the but needing 6.1 L for a full oil / filter change. I was tempted to just but a 5L and a 1L but figured I'll be needing more later, so picked up 2x5L Another thing I did stumble across was anyone in the Sydney area that uses / wants to use Mobil 1, there is a guy on ebay (GL Lubricants) who imports Mobil 1 direct from the US at very reasonable prices, $65 for 6 US Quarts = 5.7L I'd have picked some up but couldn't get there between now and tomorrow morning.....next time Steve

Yes, I was interested in the Penrite SIN purely due to it being an Ester base rather than a base oil with aditives. The other important factor was that it had to be reasonably easy to get my hands on, neither Motul nor Elf were available at my local outlets and I just don't have time to be racing round chasing oil every time I need a service. Only other reputable name I can get good supply of is Mobil 1, I can get this in 5W-30 at less than $90 / 5L. I can also get the Caltex synthetic, but I've had issues in the past with numerous Caltex products, so I would prefer not to visit that again. I will call Sydney City Toyota in the morning and enquire on what their 'branded' synthetic oil is and whether the fixed price service cost can be offset accordingly should I provide my own engine oil. Thanks to all for your offerings..... Steve

The Aurion goes in for the 15k service on Wed and as part of the service, I intend on supplying my own synthetic engine oil. Looking at the Totota viscosity recomendations for the Aurion, it states 5W-30. My brand choice in oil (Penrite SIN) comes in; - 0W-50 - 5W-60 - 10W-70 I know that the two number terms indicate certain viscosities at those temperatures and that the initial number is important for start-up lubrication, therefore my initial choice would be the 5W-60. As the Manufactures specification indicates 5W-30, I'm not sure of the consequences, if any, of the higher temp rating of the 5W-60 as opposed to the 5W-30. Steve

They seem to have addressed the dash rattles but our facelift model still has an annoying plastic squeek from somewhere around the gear lever shroud. Gives me the $%#@&'s Sometimes there, sometimes not. Bet it not going to be there come Wed when it goes in for it's first service ;) Thinking about dropping a bit of dry lube down the cracks and see if that makes a difference if Toyota can't amend.

I'm guessing the State Debt Recovery Office contacted our local Toyota dealership today regarding their false declaration. We received a call from the Dealer Principle this morning asking for us to meet with him to discuss the matter. It was on the way home (and we were curious what had changed since our last encounter), so we called in. Seems State Debt Recovery dept have every intention on persuing the mater with the intention of fining the dealership and/or the individual salesman. The Dealer Principle was keen to distance the dealership from the salesman's actions, so they intend on terminating the salesman's employment and leaving him with the fine to deal with. They did say the fine can be up to $100k in some cases. This all took place with the salesman in question glaring through a glass wall in the next office, knowing exactly what was coming. Ended up walking out as they were still not interested in making amends ($$$). One last wink to the salesman through the glass on the way out, classic, thought the top of his head was going to explode Sydney City Toyota sounds like it might be my best option, is close to work and if they can turn the car around in 60 min, that's tops !!!

Whats your opinion of them, any good. Do they take onboard any problems you may have at the time with the vehicle and actually do something about them ?

I'd like to avoid both our local Toyota dealerships (as their both owned by the same people), but that then creates a bit of a headache as far as servicing's concerned. We're an hour north of Sydney and getting the car to a sydney dealership, leaving it there all day then getting back there to pick it up again is a real PAIN Anyone in Sydney know of a Toyota dealership that services in the evenings ?

After being refused a face to face meeting with the dealer principle who wasn't in the slightest interested in our views on their "customer service" and not even a murmer of an appology from anyone involved in the sales area, my wife and I thought we'd not hear anything more on the matter. However, we received an email this morning from the State Debt Recovery Office legal department. Informing us that after we submitted evidence to suggest we had not actually taken delivery of the vehicle at the time of the infringement, that we were no longer liable and that they would appreciate our assistance in possible prosecution should they find evidence that it was an intentional misuse of a statutory declaration on xxxxx xxxxxx Toyota's behalf. I need to book in for a service very soon, wonder if I can get it in before they get the bad news Steve

she's a bit low aint she, wont make it over my man boobs :P

If your logic is true then what's the point of making 100's of different engine oils? You might as well put cooking oil into your car if it makes no difference at all. You bet it makes a difference, particularly the synthetics vs mineral oils. Ask anyone that maintains a fleet of vehicles, engine's run on synthetics will sometimes be pulled apart to reveal little or no wear at all, largely due to the use of synthetic oils.

Boxerboy is on the money, $/km, the're pretty well pound for pound with one another. I found with my last vehicle(that was designed with a min octane rating of 95), that it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that economy of premium wasn't all that great, but in fact I found that it was my driving style that adapted with the use of premium, ie I liked the additional 8kw and tended to use it more The big advantage is the additional cleaners that are in Premium. If switching from regular to premium, don't expect to see full effect of either power or efficiency for at least 3-4 tanks, ecu has to adapt to the increase in octane and make the necessary adjustments.