Hiro

I'm guessing she doesn't watch Top Gear.....

Umm, that's a Peugeot 205 T16... or at least a normal 205 or Gti modified to look like a T16.

Exactly, it's the "if I can't have it then why should you" school of ****erish idiocy.

It's just a ****** contest. If a car has a huge audio sticker then in the minds of most drivers, it must have a pretty big and loud system. This makes all the try-hard wannabes turn their sh*tty Xplod systems up to 11 to try and sound louder, and hence cooler. Same thing with exhausts, a big exhaust usually means a performance vehicle (on a good car, on a crappy car it usually means wog-box), so once again all the try-hard wannabes rock up in their Excels and Lancers and rev the crap out of theirs to make it seem like their engine is better and their car is faster. Some people just have to try and prove they are better than anyone else, even when they clearly aren't

I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe one of the dozen or so Bridgestone tyre centres in Sydney would be able to sell you some Bridgestone tyres yes, but you will be paying a lot more money. I disagree, the quotes I've gotten directly from Bridgestone for GIIIs and RE001s has been cheaper than Tyres & More and a couple of other places. Granted I'm not in Sydney, but I haven't found them to be a complete rip-off.

I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe one of the dozen or so Bridgestone tyre centres in Sydney would be able to sell you some Bridgestone tyres

Placebo effect. You're expecting there to be a difference so your body tricks you into feeling one. Same as a butt-dyno after a full tank of petrol.

They must go cowgirl style just to be safe? Hope they use a seatbelt... :P Gav. Either way, I'd be worried about the, errr, firepower, if you know what I mean.

I'm just wondering how, if he's that strong, all his wives don't have shattered pelvises.

Just get a ratchet and set it to the "loosen" setting. Just about every bolt, nut and screw in a car will be standard right-hand thread, meaning clockwise (looking at the head of the bolt) to tighten and anti-clockwise to loosen. Whenever possible, try not to undo things blind, it can just confuse things.

Well, my KX-S has just done 950Km. I checked the tyre pressure for the first time tonight. Probably drove about 4km to the servo and the road was wet so the tyre temperature should have been pretty low. They certainly weren't hot to touch. Every tyre was 50psi (345Kpa)! I set them all to 40psi and then went to the next servo a few hundred metres away to make sure the first one was't faulty. Sure enough it was spot on 40psi (what I had just deflated them to at the first servo). Does the Kluger come from the factory with 50psi or did the dealer do that? Pretty weired that every tyre was spot on 50psi. Perhaps the dealer puts it at 50psi for the first 1,000km for some reason?? On the other hand, it was built in Japan in November and complianced in December. It can get pretty cold in Japan in November/December so maybe the factory put in 40psi when it was really cold??? Could a 30 degree temperature difference equate to 10psi extra. Pretty sure I mentioned this before, imported cars have their tyre pressures set ridiculously high so that the tyres don't flat-spot in transit and when they sit at the docks. Usually the dealer should drop them down to a road-worthy pressure before they leave the showroom floor, but obviously some miss this.

I am sorry mate I do not clear what do you mean by ST204 As far as I know in Ausi we have two versions right SX and ZR I will look is there any sticker on place on the cam or Timing cover. But I first need to see where is the cam and timing cover is ST204 is the model series - S means it has an S-series engine (5SFE for an Australian model), T means it has the T-series chassis, 20 means it's the 20-generation of that model, and the 4 means it's the 4th model in that generation. SX and ZR are just spec codes. The cam cover is the metal cover which sits on top of your engine, and covers the cams (no surprises there). In this photo (sorry for the size, it was the best one I could find) the cam cover has 16valve written on it The timing cover is the plastic cover which goes over the end of the engine (accesory belt end, not flywheel end) and covers the cam gears and the timing belt. On the above picture, it's the black plastic cover at the left end of the cam cover, underneath the bright blue hose. Next to it is another black plastic piece which covers up the wiring loom for the alternator/air conditioner compressor etc, the sticker may be there as well All this goes out the window though if you have a ZZT231, which I believe was on sale towards the end of 1999. Does your car look like this: or this?:

If it's a ST204 it'll have a 5SFE, which has a timing belt not a chain, and thus needs to be replaced every 100,000km or so. Usually when they are changed there is a sticker placed on the cam cover or timing cover to show when the next change is due, if this is missing then chances are it hasn't been done. Could probably pop the timing cover off and see how much the tensioner has moved (usually they auto-adjust as the belt ages and stretches).

Actually, the HS is based from the Avensis, which is the modern Corona/Carina (ie between Camry and Corolla in size). We didn't get it here apart from the Avensis Verso people mover, but that's on a different platform anyway (Picnic)

Fair few of us drafties around it seems. I, however, have managed to keep my job, although I'm only on a casual (but still 5 days a week, 9-10 hours a day) basis until we start selling vehicles (our side of the company is almost out of development hell, other side is performing solidly despite the downturn)

C56 is a 5-speed, C160 is the 6-speed. Both have LSDs available. Which is it?

Somebody - Kings Of Leon I am so freakin sick of KoL, they were ok before commercial radio got their hands on them, now they're played to death and it hurts my ears to hear them, they're a band I can take in small doses, but not every bloody 30 minutes all day long.

Nothing strange about having a corporate face/style, look at Audi/Mercedes/BMW/VW etc, stylistically there are a lot of similarities between models, even between the smallest and the largest. It's all about brand recognition. You see a shape on the road, and instantly you know "that's a Merc", or "that's an Audi", even before you can read the badge on the boot lid. Lexus has this with the L-Finesse design language which is present on their current range. For an extreme example, look at Aston Martin. A V8 Vantage from afar looks almost identical to a DB9 and a Vanquish, especially if you don't know how to spot the minor style differences. Up close the size factor is more obvious, but still the overall design is very similar.

Most, if not all modern or semi-modern cars do this, it's completely normal.

can't imagine shortening the pipe making the air travel "faster", that's goverened by the diameter of the pipe and the amount of air being drawn into the engine. It will affect resonance however.... What is more likely to be happening is the short pipe before the MAF makes the air turbulent and screws with the readings. Extending the pipe improves the flow characteristics. Or, you can do as Bill Sherwood has done and straighten the flow by cramming the intake pipe full of drinking straws, as per his BEAMS AE86

Seat-of-the-pants dyno/drag strip can be very deceptive. When I drive my g/f's AE82 it feels a lot more powerful and probably faster than my AE102, yet mine has more power (and they're probably line-ball over the 1/4 due to the extra weight of the 102 and the extra revs of the 82). It's all in the delivery.

They are on completely different chassis.....there may be stylistic similarities between a GS and an Aurion, but underneath they are very different cars, bar the engine. Maybe you're getting confused with the Lexus ES (which we don't get here anymore), which is based off the Camry chassis (as is the Aurion).

Parent's Mazda2 had a rattle like this, wouldn't make a squeak when the car was moving in gear and the clutch was engaged (ie foot off the pedal), but when the pedal was pushed in you'd hear it, _BUT_ you couldn't hear it when stationary, for obvious reasons (input shaft to the gearbox doesn't rotate when the car is stationary and clutch engaged)

What width is the stock wheel? 6.5" or 6"? I had 205/45/16 GIIIs (the predecessor to the RE001) on a 6.5" wheel with no problems whatsoever, currently got 205/45/16 S-drive AS01s on the same wheels, also with no problems (and a bit more of a shoulder too)

Seen it at Borders as well, looked through it for the AE102 and AE82s, they list so much crap that I've never come across or even heard of, so don't be put off if it says your car is a lemon, you should be doing a lot more research than just _one_ book.