Hiro

2000 model, sedan or liftback? They're imported so parts might be slightly harder/more expensive, but it's still a Corolla so shouldn't be too bad. Other good thing is that the entire range got the 1.8L 7AFE so there's no issue re. engine choice, and the chassis is fairly similar to the AE10x series.

Not really bubbly, fairly typical 90s design - not too boxy, not too curvy, in my mind just right. Sedan Seca There was a facelift at around mid-'96, nothing huge changed apart from cosmetics and some body wiring. As for which model to get, try to avoid CSi as they only come with the 1.6L 4AFE and drum rear brakes - the Conquest (which I have) is the next step up and will include include power mirrors, power windows if you're lucky, air-con, remote central locking, the 1.8L 7AFE and disc rear brakes. Ultima sedans are practically impossible to find but have all the fruit, auto-only unfortunately. Best model overall would probably be the "sporty" RV Seca, you get most of the fruit as well as improved suspension, better seats/steering wheel and a few other things) Timing belts are done every 100,000km, so be on the look-out for someone trying to unload one cheap that's just before the next scheduled change. If you do need to get it done it's around the $300 mark, nothing too expensive and any competent workshop can do it. Other issues to look out for are oil consumption - fairly common problem amongst the A-series especially if it wasn't run in/looked after properly), but if you do oil-changes every 5000km and use a 20W50 or the like then you shouldn't have a problem. Apart from that there are the usual FWD things to look out for (CVs/balljoints), and the springs/shocks will most likely have lost some of their performance, once again depends on how hard a life it has had. Rust shouldn't be an issue (a BIG improvement over the AE82 and AE92s which can now resemble swiss cheese if not taken care of)

You know what the 45 refers to? It is the height of the sidewall as a percentage of the width. So a 215/45 tyre is 215mm wide with a sidewall height of (0.45*215) = 97mm. The 205/45 tyre has a width of 205mm and a sidewall height of (0.45*205) = 92mm.

I still need to work out which nights etc I'll be down for, haven't booked any accommodation because it'll probably cost as much as petrol for the round trip each day :P Does prevent me from getting on the sauce though.

'97 AE102 sedan - 320,000km (may actually be more, can't remember) '88 Celica - 220,000km-ish

There is a major step-up in quality between an AE92 (89-93ish) and an AE101/102 (94-99ish), as well as space. In my mind, the AE101/102 series is an absolute bargain these days, if they've been looked after then they'll run forever like any other Corolla, they're common as muck but not that desirable so good clean examples are easy to find, parts are still reasonably cheap as they were the last Corolla model to be made in Australia, and I've got one :P If you have the option, make sure you get the 1.8L 7AFE though, there's negligible difference to fuel consumption but power and driveability are much better. And also get manual if you can (they can be hard to find though, lawn-bowling grannies don't normally drive stick), the autos are slugs (even though they're 4-speed).

Going to jump back on the Red Bull bandwagon again, but I have a gut feeling that Webber isn't going to make it 3-in-a-row Turkish GP Team: Red Bull Drivers: Webber, Vettel Pole: Webber Fastest: Rosberg

CANBUS is a distributed logic/control system (which reduces the load on the ECU as it allows components to talk to each other directly without the need for the ECU to act as a host controller). This means that along with general power transmission there is a lot of data traffic flowing all around the car, which probably generates noise in the system and causes the HIDs to flicker - normal halogen/incandescent bulbs are probably not as sensitive to fluctuations or are slower to react to it so they don't flicker visibly. My guess is the conversion kit acts as a filter to clean up the power signal to the lights, thus stopping the flicker.

Or, if you're short of time or attention span, here it is in picture form Series 1 4AFE Series 2 4AFE Bigport TVIS 16V 4AGE Smallport 16V 4AGE Silvertop 20V 4AGE Blacktop 20V 4AGE

Altezza motor = GenIV 3SGE blacktop BEAMS, and is a RWD north-south motor, which is not conducive to east-west FWD mounting. The MR2 motor is a GenII 3SGE or a GenIV redtop BEAMS, and whilst it is east-west they are TALL, WIDE and HEAVY. Neither would be suitable swaps for a Yaris.

The S.Drives on my AE102 are a couple of mm off the wear indicators on the fronts after 30,000k, but the rears are barely touched - rotating them this weekend so should get another 20,000k or so from them :D

Might actually help if you mention _which_ license you are going for. Some of them are as easy as being a member of an affiliated car club (MG Car Clubs are normally good ones) and filling out a form and a cheque.

The fact that it appears to be directly about the exhaust would contribute to no puddle. Dripping water onto hot exhaust = steam/evaporation, not puddle on ground.

F1 cars are currently 2.4L V8s, previously 3.0L V10s by the way. And they can rev that high because of their bore/stroke ratio, not the fact that they are V8s. In the '80s there were 1.5L 4cylinder turbos that could still hit 12,000rpm with ease. It has to do with both the engine and the gearbox. The gearbox should be matched to the torque characteristics of the engine to ensure that you have correct spacing between the gears, top gear is tall enough to allow efficient cruising but also allow acceleration. For two identically sized cars with the same rolling resistance and drag characteristics but with different engine capacities (take a Camry and an Aurion), the 4-cyl car will produce significantly less torque and thus need shorter gear ratios in order to provide the same motive power (for instance overcoming aero drag to maintain cruise on a freeway), whereas the 6 will have better torque down low and thus can utilise taller gearing. One reason why 6th in a V8 Commodore is geared for a trip to the moon, because it has the torque down low to keep the car moving at that speed at only 1300-1500rpm-ish.

"Firing your boss" is slang for quitting.

I really need to get my posts up... lame thing is that there is bugger all going on in the yaris/celica boards :( It's not all about post counts, it's about the contribution you make to the forum and the community. Granted, if I added up the post counts on the 6 Toyota forums that I am active on (7 if you separate old and new Twincam) it'd number somewhere around 12,000 (with the bulk being on Twincam, Toymods, here and Rollaclub), but it's not something I go out and chase. And if you think the Yaris and Celicas are underappreciated, try owning an AE102 :P Not cool enough for Twincam (they prefer SXs), too new for Toymods, AE82OC and Rollaclub, and not a Celica for Ozcelica.

1,454 posts (1.08 per day), but I make them count :P Well, except for this one, which is as useless as a one-armed man in a juggling competition.

the only thing that will regularly be run when the car is not running is the headunit, as i watch movies while waiting to pick the missus up from work (approx 20-30mins max) thanks for your input Hiro :) Do you use the speakers/amp etc when watching the movies? Or is it headphones? If you're running the full sound system for half an hour a longer-rated battery would probably be a good idea (deep cycle too, they handle big discharges better), wouldn't need to be "bigger" (ie higher CCA) though.

Are all those enhancements to be used when the car is off? Or only when running? If the latter is the case, then you don't need to upgrade the battery, as the alternator takes care of all your electrical needs when the engine is running (whether or not the alternator is up to the task is a different matter)

Please tell me you're not serious.... A 3.5L V6 at 3000rpm pumps approximately 875 litres or air per second (very quick back-of-the-envelope calculations there, so there may be some errors). You don't get exhaust gas "hanging" around in the engine, so the whole idea of expelling "old" gas and replenishing it with "new" gas is quite hilarious. Yes, some of the exhaust gas from the previous revolution is retained in the cylinder (it is quite hard to expell 100% of it), but it is minute in comparison to the amount that gets drawn through each revolution, and gets mixed in with the fresh gas, burnt, and exhausted on the next cycle. If you care for an analogy, imagine the engine is your stomach. You eat food (fuel and air, the intake stroke), it gets digested in your stomach (combustion), the stomach absorbs the energy into your system (power stroke), and then you expel the waste (exhaust stroke, use your imagination :P). Obviously you can't expel 100% of that waste in one go, so some of it will get mixed in with the next lot of digested food, and will mostly be expelled on the next cycle. You are constantly ingesting new fuel, and constantly expelling waste - the system is almost entirely flushed each and every cycle, so eating faster (kickdown) isn't going to magically improve the quality of the digestion and expel this great amount of "old" waste that was "hanging around".

Fumes in cabin usually equals leaky exhaust or leaky boot/hatch seals. I'm guessing that whatever cleaned out the engine also cleaned out some deposits in the exhaust, which now leaks (flex pipe perhaps?)

Changed the front pads on the 102 over as they were down to the wear indicators, basically made two good sets out of the original Toyota pads and the Greenstuffs that I had swapped in, should be enough to last me a couple of weeks until I can get a full new set. Was quite alarmed at the tyre wear too (really should have got a wheel alignment done after I put the shocks and springs in), next chance I get I'll rotate the wheels F-R as the rears still have massive amounts of tread, they've only done about 30-35,000k too. Then decided to try and fix up the speaker wiring in the ST162, managed to get sound back to the front left but in the process lost the connection to the rear right (don't you love DIY wiring jobs.....), so we'll only have fronts for the cruise tomorrow....assuming that the fronts don't cut out on us (seems to be quite finnicky at the moment, will often cut to only one speaker unless you position everything just right

You've never driven Macquarie Pass then....you wouldn't WANT to do 120 there. 80 is bad enough (not that we condone those sorts of speeds, since the limit is 60). GoogleMaps the pass (the whole thing is on Street View) and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks will give that a goo. What are the chances for cams and p..ce there? Cheers Cops don't really bother with Mac Pass because you're lucky to get out of second gear inbetween the hairpins, plus there's no room to pull people over etc or have a patrol car parked by the side of the road. They'll more likely sit either before or after the pass and catch people doing runs.

And the point of a shift-light on an auto is......? And with a 4.0L supercharged V6 in a 4WD, the need to rev it out isn't exactly paramount. Sorry, had to be said.