Hiro

I don't see it as "JDM" either, but I also don't see it as rice (and don't give me the old "Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement" because that ain't what rice is). It is purely an aesthetic mod (as there is no problem with snow in Aus) and some people prefer the vertical alignment rather than horizontal.

Quoted For Truth - normally this forum cracks down on postings referring to illegal street racing or stupid behaviour etc, this topic seems to have slipped through because of the discussion about how stupid it is that formed when the dust cloud settled

You can't do it from outside, you _have_ to go in via the boot - either to change the globe with the light still attached to the car, or to unbolt the whole light assembly so you can do it outside the car. Do you have the owners manual? It will tell you how to change the tail-light globes with pretty pictures and all (one of the few serviceable parts of the car that Toyota tell you how to do). It is also just about the EASIEST thing you can service in a car, apart from checking the oil When you say "no dice", what is stopping you? The boot carpet? Iit is held in by Christmas tree clips usually, takes all of 5 seconds to pop off.

In the situations that I mentioned above, for instance. Sometimes it is better to hold a gear rather than shift up - this is why you might want to turn overdrive off when towing, because even though the speed might warrant top gear, the extra load that the trailer/caravan etc places could mean that the transmission will shift up, find that there is insufficient torque and then kick back down again, then shifting up due to speed etc etc, this is called "hunting" because the transmission is constantly hunting to find the right gear for the situation. In this case, it is better to turn overdrive off and just keep it in 3rd (if you have a 4-speed auto).

My mistake, but the manuals that crop up here do tend to be the American versions (my Celica Haynes manual is American, for instance). And remember that a lot of Wikipedia articles are written with an American bias too, which can both annoy and confuse us Antipodeans.

Why are so many people clueless about overdrive and what it does? All it is is another gear with a taller ratio than 1:1 (ie for cruising). If you turn it off, then the gearbox won't select that gear and you'll be stuck in a lower gear. If you want to relate it to a manual gearbox, imagine driving a 5-speed manual but never using 5th gear. You'll be doing higher revs on the freeway and thus use more fuel. In short, unless you're hauling a load, the engine is cold or you want to stop the gearbox from "hunting" (constantly shifting up and down), then leave overdrive on and just ignore it.

Haynes are American, and thus the dates they cover reflect American model cycles....

Saw a black TRD Aurion at work yesterday, didn't get a chance to see the number-plate but I haven't seen it around before, thus assumed it belonged to a customer/client.

1MZ didn't come in until the Gen4 Camry, which wasn't until late '97 or '98 (can't remember my Camrys that well, but my parent's one is a '96 and they still had the 3VZ back then). You might be getting your dates confused with overseas models (which probably did the switch earlier than us)

Changed the front pads on the ST162 - all went well until I was resetting the piston on the driver's side (had done the passengers side first) when I noticed fluid dripping from under the engine.... Hmmm, that doesn't look like water, has a colour to it...... No, no engine oil, it's too thin and not black enough... Not power steering fluid, that's red..... Not coolant, that's green or red (couldn't remember which).... Oh crap, it's brake fluid. Clucking bell. Since the new pads were significantly thicker than the used ones, and someone had probably topped up the brake fluid over the life of the pads (we bought the car with them mostly warn in the first place), when I reset the pistons it forced the fluid out the top of the master cylinder reservoir cap. Seeing as how I had no way of draining or syphoning the fluid out, I had no option but to keep resetting the piston and hope that when the pads were in and the pedal applied, the fluid level would drop back down a bit. And it did, but after I made sure to thoroughly flush the whole area of the engine bay with plenty of water (brake fluid being rather nastily corrosive to paint and other things)

I'd be guessing clogged or blocked radiator - if the thermostat is opening properly, water pump is functioning correctly, no coolant loss and the fan is running correctly then radiator is the most likely culprit.

But by building the Falcon in LHD over in the US for the US market, the fact that it is also built in Aus for us is completely irrelevant. We're not going to be taking jobs away from the US, if anything by having US engines we'll be creating jobs for them (at the expense of our own, unless we starting building the engines here too).

It's not like this is the first time this has happened, there has been a shadow over the Falcon ever since the AU, and every so-often you'll get the news that the Falcon is going, only to have it reversed several months later due to a government grant or Ford re-thinking their strategy. Remember the straight-6 was supposed to disappear but it got given another lifeline in the FG. As for Ford US, ever since the Crown Vic was struck off the list they have been crying out for another med-large RWD sedan, and the Falcon would be a perfect option - make it in LHD over in the US, use a Ford Europe compact V6 of 3-3.5L capacity, plus the new V8s as an option, and still keep local manufacture for RHD in Australia. Whilst the engine-plant will close, the assembly line will still run and we can still source local components. The fact that the Crown Vic cop cars are being replaced by a Commodore/Caprice, there is obviously the need for that kind of vehicle in Ford's ****nal. Whilst the Taurus is OK (the one we got was a dog), they need something a bit larger, and can also base Lincoln/Mercury models off it too (new Lincoln Continental = Fairlane/LTD here?)

Used to have same one too, until I replaced that vent with the JDM clock

Not cranking? Try clutch-starting it. If that works, then it's the starter or associated wiring.

It's an intake resonator, it connects to the underside of your intake snorkel just behind the battery underneath the fuse box - you remove it and the snorkel (as well as the airbox etc), and use the resulting hole in the guard to run your CAI pipe through. If you look at my photos you can see the hole just behind the battery where the pipe runs.

Congratulations on obviously not reading the thread and realising that VVTi doesn't "kick in", it is always active in some form (the first V stands for Variable, the i stands for Intelligent).

Intake air-temperature sensor, if you're going to get decent cold air from the intake you need to plug it back in, otherwise the ECU will be seeing a different temperature to what is really entering the engine (ECU uses manifold pressure, throttle position and air temperature to work out mass air flow into the engine and thus how much fuel to inject). Take a look at my photos, you can see the sensor and bung plugged back into the pipe about 30cm before the throttle body, just drill a hole in whatever pipe you end up using and pull the whole sensor, plug and rubber bung out of the airbox and insert into the new hole.

Can't guarantee it being defect-free, but it's out of the engine-bay and drawing cold air, just watch out for deep water (no it's not an AE112, but the AE102 has an almost identical engine bay so will still be applicable)

So two in the pink, one in the stink?

Careful with using the max pressure rating on the tyre, it's a "max" pressure and not a recommended running pressure. If you pump your tyre up to the max rating on the tyrewall you'll suffer a significant loss in grip as well as uneven tyre wear.

That sounds like you are jacking your car up and then using the stands on the one side of the car , front and back ? Or are you jacking the car up and placing the stands on either side of the front end of the car ? At which point of the car are you jacking and where are you placing the stands? .... just being pedantic. p.s. A mate of mine that works in the concrete industry was telling me how apparently in the garage of many new houses these days the concrete stab is quite thin ( some 8cm thick , from memory) , so if you were to jack up a heavy car , there is potential for the jack to break through the concrete under the weight of the car ! True or urban myth ? who knows. You'd be putting a stand under each side of the front of the car, to completely lift the front of the car off the ground. I call B/S on the concrete myth - the footprint of a scissor/screw jack isn't much less than the contact patch of a tyre, so you're barely going to be increasing loads. And for trolley-jacks, the wheels on them would crush (either nylon or rubber) before the concrete would fail. Whilst thinner than most slabs, 8cm is still a decent amount of concrete (recommended minimum is 10cm, and will still be on a bed or sand/soil etc, plus would have to have some kind of safety factor) - 8cm of wood on a solid bed would still be able to support the weight of a car.

It's not an "excuse", it's simple physics. Personally I fail to see the point of 2WD soft-roaders in the first place, if you want the high seating position and people-carrying abilities, then get a damn people-mover. It's not like they can justify it with "well I might want to go off-road one day" because they bought the model not _designed_ for off-road work. Or, in short, there is nothing wrong with the design of the 2WD Kluger SPECIFICALLY. It is an inherent fault of a niche market (2WD soft-roaders) which have an image which promises more ability than the vehicle itself can deliver. I bet that a 2WD Hyundai Tuscon (probably the stupidest car of all time) wouldn't be able to make it up the slope either.

All it boils down to is a small light FWD vehicle can get up a slope a large heavy FWD vehicle can't, you're looking at a difference in mass of about a tonne (roughly 100% the mass of the Polo) yet without a corresponding increase in traction - the Kluger will always suffer. I've been on forest trails that an old Laser or the like could traverse but anything short of a Landrover would have trouble with - being small and light is extremely beneficial, as long as you avoid the big holes/mounds and don't lose traction. Of course, put off-road tyres on the Kluger (chances are the test was done with normal tarmac tyres which are hopeless off-road) and have some variety of locking diff, and even a FWD one can go reasonably far. But put a FWD and a 4WD equivalent in the same circumtance, and the 4WD will _always_ go further.

You sure they dropped it? A lot of American TV shows go on hiatus over the Christmas break, and since the current season still hasn't finished in the US you're not going to see a DVD release for quite a while. In fact, checking the episode list the last episode shown in the US was Nov19, and the next one isn't until Jan21 (a standard festive break). More than likely, 10 will bring it back when the silly season is over and the US starts broadcasting again.