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Just buy a bottle of cheap pH Neutral shampoo, and mix 1 part shampoo in 5 parts warm water. Shake a bit to fully mix then fill windscreen washer reservoir. Alternatively, give a good 1 second squirt of shampoo into reservoir when it's empty, or up to 1/2 full, then top it up with water. It'll get mixed up nicely when you drive because of the twists and turns and bumps on the road. Works for me, plus there's also the nice smell the shampoo leaves behind too. :D

Wow, that's a bargain!.......... NOT. :P

Or..... a Skoda Superb Wagon TDI (Elegance Spec). Costs slightly more than a Presara, but oh boy... it's schweeeeet. :P

I gotta say I only use manual shift if I'm coming down a very very long hill descent (eg when descending from the hill ranges east of Perth). This is so I don't ride the brakes all the way down the 2 - 3km descent. Alternatively the other way to use engine braking is to set your cruise control speed about 10-15km LOWER than the speed limit, because once cruise detects you're 10km over your set speed, it automatically downshifts and tries to slow you down. I find this method actually works a treat by tricking the cruise control to manage the downshifting for you. :P. Only drawback is you gotta plan ahead! and set cruise BEFORE hitting the descent or else it won't work.

Well... I spent years collecting music albums (LEGALLY btw - spent a tonne of money on them too ) and have recently encoded all of them into MP3s to store on my NAS and have them accessible via DLNA media server for listening whenever I want to. With about 17GB of music atm, 4 x single layer DVD's (at roughly 4GB each) would allow me to put just about my entire collection into the Presara. It would probably take months to cycle through all the tracks, but hey that's ok! :P

The Presara does have an 3.5mm AUX jack where you can plug your ipod/mp3 player. It's just behind the cupholders in between the front seats, next to the additional 12V power outlet. Unfortunately this will only be for audio, so you'll be fiddling with your ipod/mp3 player to change tracks. It'd be nice if it had proper Ipod connectivity AND a USB port though.

Sunroof Overall, nil problems at all. You'll get a very very very very VERY fine, incy wincy miniscule, invisible bit of water mist come through the sunroof seals for a split second if you go into a touchless carwash and you have the very high pressure water jets blasting over the sunroof as it passes over the car. You only notice this if you have the sunroof blind retracted and you're staring directly up through the sunroof as the jets pass over. You'll only notice this if you're really really really looking for it, otherwise it's a non-event. Otherwise, no water seepage/penetration is seen or felt even under the heaviest torrential downpours. It's pretty awesome looking through the sunroof in these kind of big a$$ torrential rainstorms while stuck in traffic. The seals on my sunroof get a good workout as I have it open or lifted when it's not too hot or when it's fine and not raining in winter. Even with this moderate/heavy use, the seals are working perfectly and there's no leakage, moistness around the inside edges of the sunroof whatsoever. Even if there were, I think this would be considered an unusual occurence which would be addressed under warranty (3yrs from first delivery) anyway. USB There is no USB port in my Presara (MY Sept 2010). The only downside is the stacker in the Presara only has room for 4 discs and these discs can be (at most) 4 CD's of MP3s. It would be great if it could've been 4 DL DVD's of mp3s. Now THAT would be something! Or how about 4 BLUE RAY discs of MP3s. EVEN BETTER! That's probably just being silly now. Anyway, the vehicle itself is an absolute joy to drive and is very very comfortable. Cheers, BB

Is that the same for the Presaras, DJKOR? If they are the same speakers, they sound pretty good. There's nothing better than cruisin down the street with Boney M, The Bee Gees and Barry Manilow pumpin out at full volume....

Salut Terry, Bienvenue sur le forum Toyota Aurion. Vous avez une voiture très beau! Ce forum est une excellente ressource pour les renseignements sur votre Aurion. Puissiez-vous avoir beaucoup de miles de plaisir, de conduite agréable dans votre nouvelle voiture. Meilleurs voeux, BB.

Oh great... Another punter who's discovered how great Aurions are. Aren't we trying to keep it hush hush to avoid EVERYBODY knowing how awesome these are?:P Otherwise we won't be able to buy one next time because of the huge waiting lists! Congrats on the buy though. This is a seriously good car I'm already thinking of getting another Presara once the novated lease on the one I have is up.... hehe.... I'll probably put the one I have atm for sale sometime in Oct 2013 or thereabouts. Cheers, BB

Hey Aaron, from personal experience, an auto wrecker would probably be your best bet if you don't want to spend the money for a new replacement. Find one in the Yellow Pages (try to go for one that appears reasonably reputable). If they don't have it in stock, they'll have access to a national wrecker's parts database and can locate one and let you know which wrecker's got it. All you gotta do then is to call the wrecker who has the window, and pick it up or get them to ship it over. You'll need to arrange for fitting yourself though. I broke a side mirror on a old old old mitsubish|t. I got in touch with my local Jap wrecker, and he went on the national database and found that there were ONLY 3 available in Australia (at the time). I had a full side mirror assembly shipped from South Australia to WA. Cost me $70 bucks including freight, but hey it was worth it to get a monkey off my back. $400 for a rear quarter window is steep....... VERY steep. OUCH Cheers, BB

Whatever it is... it's sounding like it's going to be expensive.... really really really expensive.

I think a light bulb moment would be appropriate right about now.... heh heh....

You can do a systems check online. Yes, you can. But the operator has access to more functionality and can better see if everything is working as it should be or not. The online system check didn't tell me my backup battery is dead. It just said my vehicle's battery has sufficient charge. Not very helpful info, I'm afraid . When I first activated the Toyotalink service, I was informed by the operator that it's a good idea to push the Toyotalink button once a month and get the operator to run a systems test. It sorta makes sense because the last thing I'd want is to not test it once a month, leave it for yonks, and the one time I need to use it, it doesn't work.

Final outcome :- So, I went to pick up my car at about 3.30pm today. It's ready and is 100% working now, they said. I asked what was wrong with the Toyotalink. They said the battery pack wasn't accepting charge and was dead so they replaced it. I then asked why would that have occured. Get ready for this. They said that in the previous service, they had done a "software update" on the Toyotalink, and on SOME Presaras, it can cause the battery to not charge. I'm like, W......T...... F....? :blink: . Then they said, they've also updated the "software" and have tested the system extensively (they later told me this "extensive" test involved driving round the block ) and the indicator stays green now. What's this "software update" sheet? I smell BS. The cynic in me is thinking the more likely scenario is when they diddled around with the Toyotalink last time, they somehow didn't secure the battery connection so after a while it loses contact thus not enabling the battery to charge. The Toyotalink system still works because it'd be running off the car battery, but the backup battery is offline. Anyhoo, it seems to be fixed. I just need to go contact Toyotalink while in the car and have them run a systems check. BB.

So, here's an update :- Dropped it off at City Toyota in Northbridge at 8.45am today. Customer service guy (a very polite, helpful fellow too btw) gave me the paperwork to sign, got the keys from me etc etc. The one thing I did NOT expect was him saying the car won't be ready for pickup until 4.30pm today . Yep, this is despite him telling me himself that it is a straight warranty replacement of the backup battery. Don't get me wrong, but does it really take that long to change the backup battery? What do they need to do to get to it, take the entire rear end off, disassemble the the suspension or something? Or, does the new battery come with airtight seals and requires high end precision robotics to align the interface and reset the computer systems + calibration with a geostationary satellite uplink? Yeah.... nah, I didn't think so. It's just a friggin battery pack FFS.:o So, unexpectedly I won't have my car for the whole day today. With site meetings to get to, I'm stuck with using one of the sportswagon pool cars instead. Gawd, I hope at the very least one of them has got a full tank of Fuel... . BB

Just had a thought. If I start diddling around with the Toyotalink box, that's a deal breaker in terms of the warranty. Maybe the best thing is to just keep hassling Toyota each time the battery dies until the NCW runs out......... After that do the battery mod (assuming if I'm keeping the car and WANT Toyotalink, that is). Hmmmmmm..

Thanks DJKOR. :P NiCd? WTF.. C'mon.. It's an MY10 (Sept) Car.. SURELY they'd have Li-Ion cells ...... I haven't used NiCd batteries since my high school days...... (and that's a long while ago....) The NiMH convers sounds intriguing though............. Hopefully the how to's been posted in a previous thread. Time go thread hunting.....

I'm just wondering if anyone out there has had a Toyotalink backup batter fail on them? Does the backup battery get charged by the car's electrical system while the car's running? I saw my Toyotalink indicator go red and stay red about a fortnight ago. I pushed the toyotalink call button and spoke to the operator there who told me that all systems are good, except for low battery. I've booked it in to get looked at tomorrow. I think from memory the dealer changed the battery at the 15,000km service too, and 4,000km later the battery has dieded again? What's up with that? . Does this mean the backup batteries have to be changed all the time and they don't recharge off the car when it's running?? Surely NOT! Cheers, BB

Don't use HIDs for fog lights unless you want to blind everyone in front of you. If you really must get HIDs then get 3000k Yes the Presara headlight will fit in a Touring because they both have the same shape. Do you intend to get the front bumper for the washers and suspension for the auto leveling as well? That's why I was wondering about that. I only use the foggies when I am in a dark area or if there is a real fog but as I recall last friday we had a extremely bad weather driving and the foggies weren't bright enough to illuminate the wet road. Looks like I have to get a special globe that isn't a HID for foggies. I seem to recall reading somewhere someone used a nightbreaker globes on the foggies? As for the other one regarding Presara headlights, I assumed the Presara headlights comes fitted with washers and auto levelling. I didn't realise you had to get a new bumper for that. Looks like I need to get a brighter globe that looks like HID, I believe a nightbreaker one. I also read somewhere they were bright enough and close to HID level. Is this what they were talking about? http://www.invisions...pgrades/be-seen or http://www.osram.com...mily/index.html I think foggies are only ever meant to illuminate the area directly in front of you (from front bumper to say 10m ahead of the vehicle), and no further (that's what your low beams are for). I think the deficiency you've identified in the experience you described lies with the actual low beams themselves. I presume you have projector lamps with the standard halogen bulbs in them. Therein lies your problem. I've found projector type lens setups put out light that's less intense, but more focused. This is ok for clear night driving. However, in adverse weather conditions (rain/fog/drizzle), the effectiveness of these types of lights seem to be much poorer compared to normal reflectors/lamp setups. For your situation, It may be an idea to investigate whether there are higher rated bulbs available, and change the low beam bulbs. Combine that with, as a previous poster has said, upgrading the bulbs in your foglights. This is where your local auto shop comes into play. Hopefully the guy running the shop stocks various bulbs and can guide you appropriately. Who knows, this may prove to be a suitable solution and is so much cheaper than forking out for aftermarket HID kits etc. If this doesn't give a satisfactory solution to your lighting troubles, then you might want to get in touch with Metal13 to see how he's done his upgrade to HID, and where he sourced his HID kits from. You could possibly go Genuine Toyota (assuming you can actually purchase the HID kit and parts, that is) but you're definitely looking at big big big dollars here, so it's probably not worth considering. If you do ultimately decide to go the HID way, and if visibility and illumination is what you're after, you ought to go for bulb temps of between 4300K and 5000K as this is the temperature band where you get the highest output (Lumens). 6000K and above will look good (blue-ish light tending to purple) but luminous output is far lower. The light from these higher Kelvin temperature bulbs, because of the blue/purple bias makes it more difficult to distinguish features or obstacles in front of you. 4300K - 5000K will give you a very white, bright, luminous light with a very very very slight hint of blue tinting. Perfect for stark separation of features and obstacles and general illumination ahead of you. Modern day searchlights (think Police choppers, etc) use HID in this temp range. Also go for 55W or higher systems. 35W used to be the standard, but is now so passé especially considering HID technology has improved in leaps and bounds since HID first became available on high end Euro luxury vehicles. Again, my 2c worth. BB

ADR regulations also require you to have a headlight lens washer system installed too, if you're fitting aftermarket HIDs. Presaras have AFS (Automatic Frontlight System) which does auto level, and swivels the beam to see around corners as you turn. They also have headlight wash jets to blast off any muck/bugs etc. As for getting a ticket, in WA, it really depends on luck. You might get a copper who hasn't written up his quota of tickets. Not too sure about other States though. I heard the Eastern States really clamp down on these things.

Notice the badly applied silicone all around my ballasts? Goes to show I can't even trust them where they are. Also helps with reducing rattling and vibration. I did toy with the idea of completely encasing the ballasts in silicone, but wasn't sure if they needed to "breathe". Come to think of it, they probably don't because there aren't any vent holes in an HID Ballast anyway. I was also unsure if the silicone would hold up to repeated heating/cooling cycles in all sorts of weather. DJKOR, have you had to re-apply the silicone since you first put it on? Any issues with the silicone perishing? I have to admit I like the idea of basically putting the ballasts into a customised mould and fill it with silicone. Once cured there's no chance of any water ingress, ever! An over engineered solution? You betcha! BB

That statement makes me LOL: It is completely hidden under the plastic that goes on top: :(could of posted that pic a couple weeks back :( but again mine are down low and work well there with a couple tec screws lol Hope you didn't mount them TOO low. When I retrofitted bixenon HID's to my Landcruiser a coupla years back, I chose to install the ballasts just below the bullbar (for easier access and installation of upgraded wiring harnesses). Unfortunately, HID ballasts don't like being dunked or high pressure sprayed from driving through puddles or wet roads. Things to watch out for specifically are the screws holding the HID ballast assembly together. These are usually made of non corrosion resistant metal, and are the first to go. After a while, water seepage occurs, and ultimately shorts the ballast out. When it shorts, you'll definitely know it. Was out Ora Banda way in the Goldfields, during a torrential downpour, slippin n slidin on a track little better than clay slop and trying to get back to the bitumen before it got too bad. All of a sudden there was a huge bright blue/white flash from under the bonnet in the engine bay and an accompanying loud, explosive POP immediately followed by the RHS headlight going out (luckily I still had the LHS and twin HID Pencil/spread beams working ok). Good news for me at the time was at least it was a quick, single catastrophic failure with no resulting fire and all other electrics were working fine. So I continued on. Got back to Kalgoorlie, then and had a good look in the engine bay. The ballast was toast (exploded) but the failure was contained to just the ballast and both the harness and bulb were salvageable. I checked the other ballasts and found all had significant corrosion on the screws which held the assembly together. It seems the corrosion sets in over time, gradually getting worse until it gets to a stage where water/moisture manages to work its way into the ballast internals thus causing a short and subsequent catastrophic explosive failure. This may not be a potential issue for you though. The HID's I have on the Cruiser are 6000K 55W H3 Bi Xenon for the headlights and 6000K 55W H1 pencil and spread beams and put out a massive amount of light (lights up approx 1 km ahead when all are on). They're also a few years old now, so maybe technology has improved since then and there's probably better quality control with better seals and materials too. I have to admit that despite the susceptibility to corrosion of the screws, they haven't missed a beat. I've since remounted the ballasts as high as possible (currently just around air intake level). I have also arrested further corrosion by initial application of WD-40, then boat grease on the screws. Anyway, HID's are most definitely, unquestioningly the go, until something better comes along. I can't imagine driving at night anymore without HIDs. The standard Presara HID's are ok, though not super bright and are probably 4500 - 5000K. High beam is still standard Halogen (maybe future generations of the Presara will have bi xenons instead? ). I wonder what wattage are they..................? They are definitely not 55W that's for sure. Just my 2c worth. Cheers, BB

Hey Mate just thought I would let you know this affects everyone that drives an Aurion, what you are experiencing is 'torque steer' which is evident in most high power FWD cars, the reason having something to do with the left hand side drive-shaft being different to the right hand side resulting in a 'pulling' sensation (always to the left). Getting a wheel alignment would not really improve this at all !! This isn't torque steer. People have this problem. You drive on a flat straight road and your car will pull left. Check the FAQ section. http://au.toyotaowne...lignment-specs/ The only way to find out if it's torque steer or not is to find a flat section of road, shift to Neutral and let it coast. If it still pulls to the left, chances are ya gots an alignment problem! :P

No, we're being 110% serious Obvious sarcasm is obvious What's with the 200kW quoted in the specs by Toyota then? If it's 400++kW at the wheels, then Toyota must mean 200kW at the ...............?