Hiro

Timing chains do not have set replacement schedules - they are "life of the vehicle" as long as the tensioners and guides are in good condition, but can still fail etc, and you replace them if you start to hear rattling. Plus modern timing chains are often double of triple row, making them significantly stronger than your typical bike chain.

Woohoo, managed to get the 102 wheels polished today, along with cutting and polishing the right doors and front guard, leaving the bonnet, front bar and left doors for tomorrow, along with giving the engine bay a bit of a spruce-up. Here's hoping the rain holds off

Last year just about everyone apart from the Supra club and a couple of the Crowns were under cover, the carpark extends underneath the cinemas so as long as the movies aren't packed there will be plenty of room - it just means that everyone will be stretched out and lighting will be poor, but at least everything will be dry.

The other thing to consider with car fuel tanks is that they usually aren't that deep (apart from ones mounted between the boot and the backseat) - they are wide and flat. So the difference between half a tank and a full tank might only be 5-10cm of depth.

Well, managed to get _nothing_ done on the AE102 today, running out of time before Toyotafest but should get it all done as long as the weather goes my way tomorrow and Sunday. Instead, spent the morning ringing aroud tyre shops to get some fronts for the ST162, found a decent set for a decent price only to find out when I dropped them off that the front left had buckled (which would explain the leak), hopefully the new tyres (still sitting in my boot at the moment) will seal better than the rock-hard 6-year-old Eagle F1s and the tyre won't leak too much, otherwise it'll be sent off to _hopefully_ get re-rolled. Don't like my chances of getting a single 5x100 17" Momo Twin if this one can't be repaired though....

Creaks and moans would lead me towards springs, you can always take the shock out and manually move the rod up and down to see if the noise is there, or at least bounce each corner and listen carefully to try and isolate the location of the noise.

Finished cutting and polishing the roof on the 102 yesterday, today will be the doors and front guards, tomorrow the bonnet and front bumper. Today will also be hunting around for tyres for the ST162, 215/40/17 doesn't seem to be a "cheap" size though (just need two fronts to get us through for a couple more months)

I remember the first MegaCruise I went on where BigPete brought his Dominos Pizza delivery Yaris..... LOL was there any free pizza in the boot or only left overs? :P Nah, although I do recollect that he brought Dominos brownies to one of the monthly meets (wasn't there myself though)

I was referring to car fuel pumps, and running car fuel tanks dry, not servo ones. Car fuel tanks don't have a "water level" because unlike underground tanks, car fuel tanks are subject to significant mixing almost all the time they are running. Sure, stuff will settle to the bottom when the car sits stationary for a while, but the instant you go around a corner you have plenty of sloshing, completely destroying whatever layers had formed. As such, the fuel pickup sits at or near the bottom of the tank (often in a separate baffled or recessed area to help overcome surge problems, but they can still occur) And that is also why fuel filters are removable, serviceable, and replaceable. You are supposed to check them regularly and replace/clean them when they get clogged. And the damage that occurs from a clogged fuel filter is significantly less than that which may occur if those filtered particles made it to the injectors and the engine. If you drive for more than a short distance with a clogged fuel filter you're an idiot anyway.

Load of crap. The fuel pump ALWAYS sucks from the bottom of the tank (as that is where it sits), so if there is sediment there it _will_ suck it up, even with a full tank. This is why you have fuel filters, to stop that crap getting into the engine. Generally you're recommended to not run below a certain amount because of the possibility of starving the fuel pump (even with baffled tanks, this can happen), as well as the high-pressure EFI in-tank pump relies on the fuel to lubricate it (so if it runs dry too much the pump gets rooted). If the pump starves long enough you'll get a significant reduction in fuel-rail pressure, and that can make you run lean, which is not good for the engine (nor the catalytic converter either)

Steam - Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye

Agreed, Freeview is just a marketing term for the extra free-to-air digital channels, the price difference between the Freeview-capable tuner and the one without is most likely because one is an older model and is on run-out, whilst the newer one has the Freeview label (without having any "new" features). As for EPGs, it is dependent on both the tuner AND the channel. My $1500 Panasonic 37" LCD has an awesome EPG (will do upwards of 1 week in advance), except that Prime never displays shows more than an hour or two in advance, and Southern Cross Ten has no EPG listings at all (but Southern Cross Ten Newcastle DOES). One thing that pisses me off though is that I have 5 Prime channels (Prime Newcastle, Prime HD, View 1, View 2, View 3), and the three View channels are all identical What a waste of bandwidth.

As far as i know, Glock already has a contract with Toyota next year. Cool, i like Glock,he came good towards the end of last season but nothing much this year,but didnt he get fastest lap on last lap a couple of rounds ago?commentators were impressed but too late, and i totally agree with you on Trulli's qualifying,he is good and hope he stays Fastest lap doesn't mean that much these days, with the engine restrictions the leaders will often back-off during the last dozen or so laps and consolidate positions (except for Hamilton, who if he isn't in first pushes until the end and then crashes into a wall), so it is often the midfield who end up setting the overall fastest lap during the last few laps as they push for a points finish.

Today is going to be car-washing time, wind has died down but the sun is still out (but not too hot to preclude clay/cut/polish)

I remember the first MegaCruise I went on where BigPete brought his Dominos Pizza delivery Yaris.....

It might be good practice on eBay, and in general, but I have seen genuine TRD products and packaging with obvious Japlish translations on them, and they were being sold by a reputable Toyota guy (Al Palmer, for anyone in Sydney) who personally brings back a bunch of TRD merchandise and parts every time he goes over to Japan.

This was the view outside our bedroom window this morning (no colour adjustment either)

Subaru have always prided themselves on being slightly outside the box though. To them, AWD across the entire range is a selling point, hell they often hinge their entire marketing campaign off it, it is that much a part of their image, same with the boxer engine (with Porsche really being the only other company to have done anything good with them in recent times). Although even Subaru is moving away from some of their brand images (mainly frameless windows) in the quest for improved quality, cost and NVH.

It may have been easy, but for them they figured the main market for these cars wouldn't be those wanting AWD so for cost efficiency, they chose FWD. Plus weight, fuel consumption, servicing costs, no market etc For the most part, a family sedan that will mostly be used either in the city or long cruising highway trips, AWD is not needed. If it was a back-road corner carver, or a high-mounted weekend-away offroader, then AWD would be of use. Australia doesn't have the problem with snow that Japan does (which is why almost every Toyota has an AWD version in Japan only), so the extra grip is mostly wasted on non-sporting or offroad cars.

My thoughts exactly - the hardest/longest bit is bleeding the fuel system, after that the rear seat just pops off and the fuel pump cover is right there.

Now there's the thing.....I don't know the history of the SDV10 I bought recently. 228k on the odo and the usual scrutiny tells me most of the normal logbook timings have been followed, but just how does one 'take a look' at the timing belt? That's an engine out job isn't it? Take the upper timing belt cover off and look at the belt, if necessary jack the car up and turn the engine over by hand (ring spanner on the crank nut, with the transmission in neutral) to check all of the belt.

BMW concepts have been going downhill since the Vagina.

I'm wondering if Flavio "deliberately" said something like that to try and make it look like the accident was actually an accident - kinda like "gee that guy is crap, good thing we want to get rid of him" as opposed to "nice crach, it may _just_ have saved your position in the team for another year"

Japlish. You'll notice that even the genuine TRD oil caps are spelt "oil fillar"

I got negligible difference when I put mine on (stock 3-point from an AE101 Levin), but there was a fair bit of body roll stock both in the suspension and in the lack of bolstering in the driver's seat so it would have been quite easy to not notice it even if it is there. Now that I've got the suspension done the front end as a whole sits a LOT flatter, and I reckon the strut brace has something to do with that.