SATORI893

Hope the Corona turned out ok, I read an article years ago in Fast Four magazine, they rebuilt a 1976 Celica liftback/fastback, they spent 30 grand on it, their closing arguement was, you could buy a new Celica for the same amount but the one they had build would out-run, out-corner and looked better than the new model. Better sound, interior and features. I guess in the end you would have the car you love with eveything in it you would want and it would be custom. I paid $35,000 for my Aurion new, yet there is still heaps I spent on it to make it close to individual. If I had spent that on my Corona or my Celica, it would be a one of kind, with more custom features and more perfomance. And the addition of better reliability, new cars don't have much of a shelf life, you do a custom build up and you know everything that went into it, and you can work on it yourself. Some of the mods I did to the Aurion were pushing to void the new car warranty, if I waited the 2 years to run out I probably would not have bothered. I can see it from both sides, I had a new car with a warranty but I had to spend more to make it stand out, even so, older car get noticed more. Cheers.

Hi Seb, In my Celica I always wanted to put the 22RE, my father had a Hilux with the 2.7l, the gearbox was similar (W56 code number I think), I often thought that would be a good motor though not sure if it is more of or torque motor, but twin cam 16 valve efi, didn't look into it much more & now there may be heaps more options. With the one you are looking at, from memory if the shift pattern on the gearbox has reverse by pushing down on the shifter and sliding it up to the left ttowards the glovebox along side 1st gear, that is a Corona box that are not good on performance, if reverse is down and back towards you it is most likely the same box as the Celica. On the build plate in the engine bay if the transmission is a W55 or 57 then it is definately an alloy case Celica box, (the same one they put in old holdens behind 6 cyl & small V8s) You are right about parts, would be getting very hard to find, I only sold my 83 Celica because I could not get parts, especially body/trim parts. I would imagine mechanical parts would be getting scarce also. If you are passionate enough and want to modify it then it's up to you. If you are prepared to do a engine swap to something newer might pay to research parts for the rest of the car. especially grille, headlight, taillight and interior parts, unless you can custom make or modify from other cars to fit, you may have worn out or damaged parts you can't replace. Can get costly in the long run but if you are passionate and the money doesn't bother then go for it. LIke I said do some research, call Toyota and just see the availabilty on trim parts, you would be lucky to find one at the wreckers now. They are getting pretty rare, the last time I saw a Corona on the street where I live was about a year ago. When you cant replace something with a good condition part it can be quite a headache. Maybe a newer motor than the 22RE if you are going to do it, just for better availabilty on parts. Hope that helps and hasn't put you off, all depends on your budget and how much you are will to spend, anything is do-able. Graeme

Hi 08 ZR6, welcome to the site, That is interesting, I have never seen that notice before, mine in a 2010 model and the leather on the top of the steering wheel facing the driver appears to be bonded leather, it is sort of pealing off. Is it just wear and tear or has anyone else noticed this?

It looks like it is part of the 'Idle Up' switch system, it probably works on air intake temperature for cold starts. Best thing is take it to Toyota and see if a mechanic can look at it without booking it in. They may and probably will tell you to book it in and even if they look for free they will tell you it needs replacing, not sure if it's vital though. If that fails find an independant mechanic who is familiar with Toyotas and see if it needs replacing.

Glad it all went well, they look great!

If you haven't already, to go with your springs, Ultra racing strut brace and rear sway bar, for a relatively cheap mod my handling has improved nicely.

Not for the speakers I used, I just modified the plastic holder and they have clearance both from the glass and the door trim, I had to cut the trim on my 2003 Camry, I just used a stanley knife and trimmed the plastic back till it was flush with the rest of the back but the Camry door grills were different, the Aurion has a bit more room I feel.

I still mounted the control box in the engine bay beside the airfilter box and just ran the wire to go to the car lights into the cabin, behind the air filter box there is a rubber boot on the firewall on the passenger side, you will see a silver ECU style box on the drivers side of it with a large loom going into the rubber boot, if you shine a torch in there you will see too rubber tube extensions/nipples sticking out on either side of the large bunch of wires, if you cut a tip off one of those rubber extensions the tube does feed into the cabin behind the glovebox, these are also great for any other wires you may need to run from the cabin into the engine bay, amp power wire etc. In the owners manual there are the fuses for left and right low beams in the engine bay fuse box, you may be able to trace the wires coming off the fuses so you can get the power from that to turn them off. If you don't have a manual let me know and I'll put a pic of the fuse box layout from the manual so you know where they are. Not sure what you mean by fitting the wire inside the terminal on low beam, mine was just a blank end wire that had to be connected onto the park/lights positive wire with one of those scotch clips (those clips that tap into a wire to take power from). You should be able to just connect to the wire anywhere that is convenient on the line back from the connection at the headlamp.

I checked my manual, can't find a cigarette lighter source in the engine bay, the cigarette source I used was the one in the center console, I used the power to the light that illuminates the ring around it. I have the Philips 5 LED, I don't recall my control box having an LED light on it, had them a while now, I think it lights up to tell you you have got the positive, that's what mine had to be hooked up to.The only way anyone can tell you don't have them wired to park is if you have your fog lights on as well like in my pic but I had the over-ride switch I mentioned on, or off depending on how you view it.

I mounted my Philips DRLs in the same spot I think, mine in the pic are on with the fog lamps because I have a switch on the wire that goes to the lights to over-ride them turning off. You can hook them up to any light you want, low beam, fog etc, they are legally suppose to turn off with the parkers but you can run the wire from the starter unit to any 12v+ source. You could try to trace the park light at the fuse box though this would be lengthy trying to test each wire to find a positive from the parkers, you don't have to connect it right at the blubs like they suggest. I have mine to a 12v dash park light source, the cig lighter illumination if I remember correctly but I had to run the wire back into the car. I have seen cars with factory DRLs (Mercedes, Audi etc) that are still on with the headlights so not sure on the legal requirements now. So yes you could attach them to the low beams, just not sure if it is legal, I have heard of people being pulled up for having their fog lamps on during the day as that is illegal now, I only use mine in fog or rain to avoid being booked but not sure how picky they are with DRLs if they are on with the park lights.

The booster may have gone in the antenna, I have never seen aftermarket aerials either, maybe try a CB shop, they might have antenna boosters or talk to an installer maybe?

I was trying to find out if the antenna power could be used for an amp remote sensor, by your set up it sounds like it can but it could be taking too much power from the antenna's amplifier/booster, you could still use the antenna wire for the amp but use it to switch a relay on that gives the amp it's remote power from another source. I will be putting in my amps soon so after seeing the problem you are having I will just use the antenna power to turn on a relay in case that is causing the problem. I would leave the original antenna power from the head unit and put 12v accessory power to the amp remote if you want to do it that way, I wouldn't risk hooking an accessory 12v into the antenna booster, it might overload it. Is it the factory head unit? Did you do the installation? If it's an aftermarket head unit it could be using the remote out to power the antenna also.

Not sure if this thread will help or someone on it like xCalibur. http://au.toyotaowne...-a-tough-job-d/

Mine scrapes a bit, if I go into or out of a driveway too fast I scrub out and on some it doesn't matter how slow I take it I scrape, I always slow down for speed bumps but I on some of them I would hit if going too fast. Most barriers in car parks the front clears cause it's flat and I can take it slow and hear it if it hits before going too far. And my LEDs are just a strip stuck on the front of the headlight.

These are 120 x 94mm tips I had fitted when replacing the rear mufflers with 2.5" pipes so you can see how large single tips look compared with standard.

The Taiwan power folding mirrors I put on my car have 4 LEDs like that in them for the indicators but you have to buy the whole mirror as just the indicator part is different from the standard. I think Defyant changed his side mirrors to LED strips for the indicators. Try a search I am sure there is video or pics of them.

You have to take out the back seat, the base then the backs, 4 bolts along the bottom (check the manual to be sure) of the backs and just lift them off the hooks that hold the top, to get the parcel shelf cover out remove the 'C' pillar covers first. Just take the bolts out of the factory speakers and remove them, I put in Rockford Fosgate Punch 6 x 9s and didn't need a spacer and they fitted in the holes from the factory ones without modification and didn't need to use the bracket from the standard ones I just had to drill new holes for the new speaker screws. My speakers developed a rumble type distortion and the base was terrible, hoping it is lack of power from the standard head unit so I'm installing an amp to juice it up, you may not get that problem as my front speakers are a different brand (Focal) and they are great just running of the head unit but I am still going to add an amp them as well.

I could be wrong but the manuals are for the left hand drive Camry and both here and overseas have no indicator in the side mirror, Aurion mirrors are different because of that. When I swapped my mirrors over to power folding ones I could not see anything that 'hinges' out like it shows but I was only looking to work out the wiring for the glass adjustment motors so I did not look that hard.

Might be good to contact Toyota and see if you can get new clips, doubt it though, probably have to buy the whole thing, that's what they did with mine but my car was just over 1 year old at the time and in the 'all new parts' area of insurance. Good luck.

The problem with the belt moulding is they damage the clips when they remove them, even if they damaged it without removing it one from the wreckers may still have damaged clips and wont sit right, I had some panel work done on a scratch on my rear passenger door through my insurance and the panel beaters put the old one back on and the ends stuck up, the insurance assessor told me it needed a new one. Something to check on with a 2nd hand one. And from experience never trust someone who says they will pay you back after you have replaced it yourself. They are in the auto industry so they have probably fitted them before, I would be asking them to buy it and either they fit it or you get it fitted. You said the manager has offered to pay for it even though they haven't admitted it's there fault. I would be careful they don't just give you the $20-$30 and you get stuck with the balance. Remember it was your car they damaged and you shouldn't have to fix what they broke. You deserve a new one. Hate to see you get shafted. Hope it works out for you.

I upgraded my rear speakers and they do sound heaps better, they did develop a rumble/distortion at low volume so I am in the process of installing an amp as they are underpowered by the factory head unit and need a boost in watts. Sound quality was improved so it did make a big difference, I put in Rockford Fosgate Punch 6 x 9" 4 ways, these will be even better once the amp is in.

Would be possible in the bigger cities, problem is if it's in a wrecking yard some of the kit may be damaged but you could always just take what you can get. The wreckers where I live don't have any Aurions, they say they are rare or too new but then the population is not huge here.

High beam in mine is a HIR1 Low beam Discharge bulbs are D4S by the manual.

Map lights - T10 Boot - T10 Door courtesy lamps - T10 Side mirror blinkers - T10 (amber) Interior light - festoon 31 or 36mm not exactly sure Number plate lamps - T10 Front and rear turn signals - T20 amber Glove box light - T5 Shifter letters - T5 Shifter gate/slot - T5 Cigaret lighter/ashtray illumination - T5 Sun visor vanity lamps - T10.