Hiro

Already got The First Decade pack, so only really missing CnC3 and Red Alert 3

That's the problem, you don't feel like you've endangered anyone's lives but playing "games" with other drivers who have ****** you off DOES endanger lives, and not just your own. Chances are the person who cut you off didn't think they were doing something dangerous (or just wasn't aware), but it is clear from an outside observer's point of view that it definitely was. Any internal observations will be biased to try and justify your means.

Exactly - what is more endangering to you and your family? One person cutting you off once, or you continuing to harass them and drive like a ******wit (who is no better than they are) for half an hour afterwards?

I guess when I read that (I was working at the time), I read it in a bit of a hurry and thought in my mind that Steve meant it was okay, as in he has killed the bot, etc. Having a look, it seems to be posting still. Because Steve possibly couldn't have brought this thing upon us all (surely right ), I am thinking one of two things: 1) It hacked his account to post that reply, or 2) Because the bot has mod status, deleting/banning it is a little bit difficult. I like to think a little deeper... plus this bot is getting in the way. I'm guessing that it's like the RSS news-feed bot Fry, except that one actually posts useful info :P The intent is there, but the application is terrible. Personally, I think it should be removed, if only because the chances are pretty high that we'd already be checking out eBay/Carsales etc when we are looking to buy a car, plus almost (haven't checked them all out) all of the ads posted have been for cars in America.

Warm air can hold lots of moisture, cold air can't. Basically you get cold dry air from the air-conditioner mixing with warm humid air inside the car. This causes localised temperature drops around the initial stream of air, which drops the amount of moisture that air can hold, thus this moisture forms as condensation/mist. Once the temperature and humidity of the cabin approaches that of the stream of air coming from the vents, the mist disappears. Same physics (but with some different mechanics) behind why your windscreen/bathroom mirror fogs up, and why you can do dragons breath in cold weather.

Think that's bad, try an auto Astra. Had one of the company cars the other day for a trip to the mines and I swear it has put me off autos for life (not that I was particularly keen on them in the first place) Out of curiousity, what you in Newy for?

You failed physics in high-school, didn't you?

It'll be 5x100 without looking it up; Toyota never really did a PCD of 114. Just about every large Toyota made after the mid 80s has 5x114.3 PCD, including widebody-onwards Camrys etc. Hell, even the new Corolla has 5x114.3. The T-series Celicas and the SV21 Camry are about the only Toyotas with 5x100. And as for 4x114.3, that'd be pre-X8 Cressidas, all RWD Corollas bar the KE1x and KE2x, all RWD Coronas, and most likely some more too. And I think the ZZW30 MR2 (aka the MR-S) has 4x100 PCD, not 5 stud.

Umm, there's no such thing as a 4-cylinder Territory, they only come with the straight 6 (either N/A or turbo)

In NSW at least you can knock up a stat-dec (and get a JP to stamp it) saying that you were not driving at the time, and identifying who you believe was driving at the time of the offence, and the system will then re-send the fine off to the person nominated in the stat-dec. Only problem might be the time-frame, as this really should have been done at the time that the fine was received, not a year later. I remember having to do this a couple of times when the g/f's car was registered in both our names (mine first) and her parking tickets were getting addressed to me.

Wow, a low-fuel warning light......my 1988 Corolla has one of those (but it doesn't work), as does just about every car ever made since the introduction of electronic fuel injection.

Torquing doesn't mean over-tightening, it means tightening to specification. If you look at pretty much any factory workshop manual, it'll have a torque spec for just about everything - from something like 120Nm for wheel nuts, to 5Nm for the screws that hold the dash together. Sump plugs are usually around 25Nm, and its a much better idea to use a torque wrench to get it right than to guess by hand, because what "hand tight" means to you, might be completely different to what it means to me - even the same person can change depending on how tired they are etc. Have you ever gone to undo a tap you did up the day before and said to yourself "Damn, I turned that tap off tight!"? And yes, having a suitable washer is also important. Trust me, I know the meaning of torque, and have done up and loosend enough bolts in my cars to know the effects. Yes, the workshop manuals will give torque-values for even the smallest bolts and nuts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you _need_ to use a torque wrench - most bolted connections in a car are not torque critical, and as long as they are "tight" then they are fine. However, some bolts can be damaged very easily by over-torqueing, and when you mention the word torqueing to an inexperienced person they often assume that it means a big fat torque wrench and lots of arm strength. Spark plugs are an excellent example of this, as are sump-plugs - there is a torque specified in the workshop manual, but they are are job that most people will attempt without a manual, and both will very easily strip threads (often with devastating consequences) if you tighten them much more than just nipping them up with a socket or spanner.

...or just torque your sump plug properly next time :P If you "torque" a sump plug you'll potentially strip the thread - it only needs to be slightly more than hand tight, the washer should deal with the rest

Pretty sure Hiluxes come from Thailand now...

If you pull the dipstick out, wipe it clean and then re-insert it, then pull it out and check the level (which is the correct proceedure for checking oil level), then a warm car will read a _lower_ level than a cold car, as the oil has not had a chance to drain back into the sump.

Work backwards from the speed the car is physically travelling to the speed/rpm that the dash cluster is saying. Lets have an example (be aware there will be some rounding errors): 60km/hr = 1km/minute, = 1,000m/min = 1,000,000mm/min So the car is travelling at 1 million millimetres per minute. Now, the wheel is rolling along the road at this speed, so to work out how many revolutions per minute the wheel is doing, you divide the speed by the circumference of the tyre (think of a piece of string wrapped around a cylinder - take one "loop" and stretch it out along the ground). If you have a 205/45/R16 wheel, one revolution is approximately equal to 1856mm. So, 205/45/R16 wheel on a car travelling at 60km/h is rotating at a frequency of approximately 539 revolutions per minute. If you multiply this by your final drive and gear ratios, you will get the RPM that the engine is running at. However, since we are talking about the speedo, the gear ratios and final drive are taken out. So we have a car travelling at 60km/h, with the driveshaft spinning at 539rpm. This is a linear relationship, and can be summed up as X rpm/kph as a calibration constant. The speedo will measure the speed that the driveshaft is spinning (usually a sensor on the output shaft of the gearbox) and convert this with that calibration constant to the speed displayed on the speedometer. This calibration constant is set from factory to match the standard wheels and tyres fitted to the car. Now if you go and modify the size of the wheels and tyres, the speedo does not know that the overall rolling diameter (and thus the circumference) has changed, and still uses the calibration constant set from factory. So if a wheel/tyre combo is 3% bigger in diameter than the stock size, the speedo sensor in the gearbox will read a rotation speed 3% smaller compared to stock (a bigger wheel rotates less for the same travelled distance) but assume that it is still correct and thus display a speed on the speedometer 3% smaller than what you are really travelling at. Thus, if you have wheels with a rolling diameter bigger than standard, your speedo will read "slow" (ie the car will be travelling faster than what is displayed). If the rolling diameter is smaller than standard the speedo will read "fast" (the car is travelling slower than what is displayed).

Yet another reason why the very big and important differences between MAFs and AFMs should be highlighted...

Awk... Another question, why do u have that MASSIVE az canon on ur car?? Doesnt it sound a bit HOW YOU GOING?? lol!!! i see alot of young ppl with big canons on there car n there auto, thrashing it around n it sounds SILLY... i especially hate the sound of a v6 auto commodore or falcon... But i guess u like it so thats all that counts hey?? Trust me, you're a bit late to this party...

That would only affect the outside of the outboard tyre, whilst the inside of the inboard tyre will be unloaded. Even but significant wear on both shoulders traditionally (and is most likely) to be tyre pressure-related - camber will cause either the outside or inside alone to be affected, and toe will cause "feathering" of the tread (due to constant forces slightly off the axis of the main tread channels)

Drove it to Sydney, then up to Wisemans Ferry and back out to Calga on a Twincam cruise, then back home

Tried increasing your tyre pressure? Worn shoulders on both sides of the wheel but usable tread in the centre is a classic example of tyre pressure being too low (on the contrary, if tyre pressure is too high you see wearing of the centre whilst the shoulders stay untouched)

Also remember that there is a good chance that the car has been running in the workshop whilst not travelling any distance, which will screw up consumption figures...

Official figures (as in those from car reviewers since manufactures don't usually have such figures) can vary because the person driving may not launch off the line to the best the car can handle. This can easily affect the time taken to cover the 1/4 mile... and it's this which usually results cars achieving better times down the 1/4 mile than what may have been published. Plus no two magazines/websites test figures the same way - you have variables such as number of people in the car, directions run, wind-speed, track temperature, actual track used, timing used (stopwatch, Correvit, G-Tech, track timing etc)

buy a haynes repair manual for the car. best think i did being the case hardly anyone here has a AE101 and AE102 i'll let u know if its got anything on removing the door upholstery and fax it to u, just shoot though a message with a fax number to send if i find anything. I know the Gregorys manual has the procedure in it. It's basically the same as any other car though - remove the arm rest and door handle, pop the circlip off the window winder (if you have manual windows) and remove the winder, then slowly pry the door card away from the door panel (it is held on by maybe 2 dozen clips around the perimeter, go easy so as not to break them or the cardboard). Only bit I can't remember off the top of my head is whether or not you need to remove the cover on the inside of the rear-view mirror.

Fixed the P/S leak on the Celica - most likely what has happened is the guy who did the timing-belt change didn't connect the hose back up fully, causing a leak past the hose-clamp. Looks like it will need a new hose in the near future anyway, but it will do for now