Hiro

No offense to the original poster, and no I haven't watched the video, but wow I never would have guessed that a FWD soft-roader designed as a family wagon would have trouble on an off-road 4WD course Why also is it that people buy Landcruisers/Pajeros/Patrols etc (ie genuine 4WDs with off-road ability) for the school-run yet buy soft-roaders for off-roading and then complain when they don't go far off-road?

Make swans and tyre-swings out of them.

Agreed, the Gregorys manual goes into sufficient detail to remove the existing factory head unit, and it's got the wiring diagrams so you can wire up an aftermarket one too. Fairly simple to do actually, you pull the knobs off the HVAC controls (ie the fan speed, temp, recirculator and director), then grasp the panel on the ridge between the top and bottom HVAC controls and pull gently - it should pop off. Once you do that, reach around behind and disconnect the rear demister and hazard swich, and then remove the panel - this will give you access to the bolts holding the head-unit in.

I always laugh whenever these sort of reviews come up, because all it does is just make us Toyota enthusiasts sound like the Ford and Holden fans - vehemently defending our product whilst blanketly bagging the others. And saying that there is barely an issue which goes by without some kind of Falcon or Commodore-related story, they ARE the only two fully Australian-designed and built (with small exceptions) cars, and are or have been the best selling cars in the country for the past 30 years. All the talk of "kickbacks" and bias is most likely nothing more than a bit of Aussie patriotism.

Started to do a long-overdue oil change on the Celica yesterday, but then it started raining and I had to abandon it (fortunately didn't get far enough in for it to render the car undriveable). Would have done it in the garage but that space is permanently taken by the Twincam which we _really_ should get around to parting out and scrapping.

Slightly less talented (but still pretty good), but waaay cooler Please wait a few seconds for Video to Load!

If you want to make the air-con in an Aurion look good, try a Mazda 2 (the first ones, not the swoopy current ones). My parents have one, and on hot days it's like ****** on a bushfire. The vents do put out cold air, but even on full the fan isn't that strong and there is a metric football field of glass area for the sun to just beat down on. Another analogy would be like trying to cool down a greenhouse with one of those little toy battery-powered fans.

There are two series of the AE112, the bug-eye and the normal ones (bug-eye came first). I'm fairly sure the bugeyes are single-bulb (which would explain the H4) and the later ones are twin-bulb (hence the HB3 and HB4). Best option is to remove the bulbs first and take them in to match against in-store stock.

Timing? Then again, a lot of engines don't like being loaded up at low RPMs, which is the whole reason behind having a gearbox (shift down a gear to get it into the powerband)

Let me guess, Megacruise? Spotted several TOCAU members, or at least cars which were obviously TOCAU in origin, but since my background is mostly Twincam and Toymods, it was hard to match cars/plates to usernames (except the ones which were the same as each other:P)

Handbrakes always click if you pull them up without pressing the button, it's the ratchet inside which holds the lever on. just like how the pedals on a bike click if you stop pedalling whilst the bike is still moving).

Gave it a quick wash on Saturday, drove it 400km round-trip for Megacruise on Sunday, and now it's back to the work commute.

So do you think the red marker fluid should be visible on the rack to concertina area (here shown in the pic) if there was a rack seal leak or even a power steering pump leak? Just black oil is evident, a portion is wiped off by finger near the middle area. Other indicators that there isn't a power steering DOT3 leak problem are 1) no stains of any kind on the garage floor and 2) no drop in the power steering fluid level since the car was bought one year ago. Model is Toyota Corolla 1991, 4AFE engine. If you're still uncertain about the colour, take the power-steering reservoir cap off and look at the colour of the fluid - it will be noticeably red and any leak will have that same distinct colour (PS fluid doesn't turn black like normal engine oil). If there is black oil turning up here, then I'd say you've got an engine oil leak from higher up, quite likely from the back of the cam-cover.

We generally stop at North Head (Manly) for about half an hour (sometimes more if the idiot JZA80 sheep decide to take the Cross City Tunnel), and then again for about 5 minutes at the "drag-strip" on Mona Vale Rd just before the turn-off to McCarrs Creek Rd. No real guarantees about times that we'll be at each place, however, best bet is to get the phone number of someone going on the cruise and ring them to find out where they're at.

Yes, power steering fluid leaks will be a dark red colour (kind of like port or sherry, but don't drink it :P )

Australia never got the Avensis (neither did Japan, for that matter - it's a Euro only car), just the Avensis Verso people-mover. Our model range jumps straight from Corolla to Camry (the Aurion is a V6 Camry with a nose and tail facelift).

*double post

How do you feel about your rear-end being re-sized to the same diameter as that of the exhaust pipe? Illegal, highly defectable, stupidly loud, and most of all incredibly stupid (if it is going to be driven on the road that is)

It isn't solely up to the driver, but neither is it entirely up to the car either. It is a combination of the actual performance characteristics of the car, the driver's ability in general, and the driver's intimate understanding of the car itself and how to extract the best from it. A good driver can drive a crap car fast. A crap driver can drive a fast car slow. A good driver can drive a fast car very fast. Get my point?

Have you checked your oil level lately? The oil-pressure warning light will come on under hard cornering etc when the sump is very low (ie below LOW on the dipstick).

I doubt it mate.. seriously The XR6T's 4.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine is making 270 kW BUT!.... it loses 10% or more thru the drive train tp the rear wheels... 270 - 27 = 243kw... And TRD is 241kw with a loss of about 2% to front wheels technically it will be up to the driver and traction to see who wins... The advantage comes with the understanding that front wheel drive vehicles drive the steered wheels, which means a driver can utilize the power transmission to the steered wheels to prevent/reduce a skid - something a rear wheel driver cannot. The engine is also located over the driven wheels, improving traction somewhat. However, traction is lost to the front wheels in hard launches, due to the weight transfer to the rear wheels, which is why a rear wheel drive vehicle has an advantage on the drag strip.... Having driven both, I think the power to weight ratio in the TRD is much better so id like to prove it... any one got (or know of) a XR6t in Sydney thats willing to go for a run??? Love my TRD :D You're on crack if you believe anything of what you just said. Firstly, FWD cars lose a LOT more than 2% power between the flywheel and the wheels. And RWD cars lose more than 10% too - the figures normally come out at around 10-20%. And neither of those cars are making peak power numbers at launch RPMs either - a car with 200kw can beat a 300kw car off the line simply by having it's power down low, if you've ever driven a Toyota with a 4AGE and compared it to a 7AFE you'll know what I'm talking abot - despite a 15kw disadvantage the 7A can launch better and be quicker down low due to the better and fatter torque curve, but once the 4AGE hits the powerband it pulls away. And as for FWD cars being able to "power out of a skid", remember that every bit of grip being used to accelerate the car cannot be used to turn it. Applying the power in a FWD car when out of control will simply increase understeer. And as for the weight being over the driven wheels to improve traction, whenever you are applying power you are shifting weight to the rear of the car (ie under acceleration) and thus removing weight from the driving wheels - the only time you get weight shift to the driven wheels in a FWD car is when you are on the brakes, and if you shift that weight too quickly mid-corner you will create snap or lift-off oversteer, something from which it is very hard to recover from.

Took left-rear caliper, rotor and hub out of the Celica to try and change the wheel studs so I could put the spacers on.....needless to say the car is still in pieces and the studs still haven't budged

wait how bout people who previously owned a toyota but drive sumthing else now how bout them heheheh ..they get their tyres slashed or get their car lifted LMAO WHAT DUDE i thought this place was for fun, and cruising, and driving, not competiotion of cars OMG how gay Err dude, I think he was joking...

Technically they don't "leak" water, it is condensation from the air which builds up on the evaporator coils inside the dash - because of this, there is a drain/vent tube to the outside of the car to drain off this condensed water. Run the air-con on a hot day, you should see a puddle of water underneath your car between the crossmember and the firewall on the passenger's side of the car, look above and you'll see the vent tube. And yes, it is perfectly normal, nothing to worry about. If it _didn't_ leak, then I'd be concerned about water building up inside the air-vents and causing rust/electrical problems/leaks.

Apart from condensation from the air-con vent pipe, you should NEVER see ANY fluid of any kind leak from your car. In a well-treated and serviced car the water-pump should last several changings of the timing belt (I'm coming up to 320,000km and the water pump is still original), but in a mistreated one it can go much earlier. Unfortunately, due to it's position it is a bit of a pain to change (and expensive too) unless you get it done same time as a timing-belt change, which is why I suggest checking every single coolant hose you can find in the area, as they're cheap and easy to replace.