Hiro

3 hours ago, trentmeyer23 said:

Assuming manual gearbox?

There are shift forks which attach to shift rods. You could pull the shifter out and look at the shift rods.

Being mid-engined I imagine it'd be a remote cable-shifter, so getting access to the top of the box to check linkages might be a bit hard (depending on where they are on the box).

Quick check, does reverse still work?

So far my experiences with eBay LED neowedge bulbs has not been positive, if any more blow in my dash I'll be trying to get OEM first

On 2/21/2017 at 2:44 PM, Alex Red said:

PS In addition, after every rain I get the driver door leaks. Is it harmful to have water inside the door after every rain, or it will not affect anything? like sound system, etc? 

Where is the leak inside the door?  You'll always get water leaking down past the weatherstrip/bailey channel in to the door cavity as it would be impossible to seal and still allow the window to move up and down freely.  The door cavity will have a plastic waterproofing sheet separating the outer skin area (window glass, outer door handle, lock mechanism) from the inner skin area (inner door handle, window winder/switches, speakers etc), and holes drilled in the bottom to allow the water to drain out (these can clog over time if your car gets dirty all the time or you regularly park under trees).

13 hours ago, Whatzizname said:

Hey Hey guys, I am new here, and new to the car ownership scene, as of December 1 last year i became the owner of my first car, a seemingly stock (minus roof racks) Manual 2006 Toyota Corolla, however as i experience this car more, the more i think it isn't completely stock. okay so questions be coming!

1. So first things first, i get told this all the time so i am asking actual corolla owners, is 120,000km on the clock just out of a corollas break in period? because when i bought this car it had 119,873 on the clock and since then i have put around 3000 more kms on it

2. does anyone have a video or sound clip of the stock exhaust note of a my model corolla? I heard mine for the first time riding in the back of it the other day and it seems to have a much deeper note than when sitting in the front allows you to hear, yet it looks like it still has the stock muffler, it just doesn't sound like other corollas i have heard driving past or near me

3. is it normal to spin the front tires on flat ground? like it feels so much easier to spin the tires than other cars, so easy that i sometimes do it accidentally setting off from a stop

4. it it normal for the car to sometimes not go into reverse after starting it?, sometimes after the car has been parked for maybe 14-15 hours or more, the car will be hard to put into reverse, like it feels like it gets stuck on something, you can tell its not fully in because the gearbox doesn't make the *thunk* sound it always does when shifting in

5. so my clutch pedal squeaks when applied and the gear linkage i think squeaks when going into 1st, 5th and reverse, but no other gears, i dont mind the squeak, but how would i go at fixing it if i ever decide to stop it squeaking? i know my way around cars as much as a guy can get from YouTube, but have never really messed with anything physically so its essentially starting from square 1, and don't want to pull stuff out only to find a more convenient, less pulling apart way
 

6. how low does the idle normally get when the car is warm and at its best, because sometimes it feels a little rough

7. how how quickly does the car normally accelerate and how powerful does it normally feel? to me my car feels very zippy, like it has power in all 5 gears, and of the 20 something cars i have driven in the past, only 2 other cars have driven like this, a stock 04 Toyota echo and a turbo converted 05 Subaru liberty

that is all i thinks i have haha, i have lurked on this forum in the past when my dad owned a 06 Aurion AT-X and you seems like pretty cool guys, hope to hear from you soon!
 

1) It depends on the life it has had.  Treated well and serviced regularly, yes 120k is nothing for a Corolla, but if it has been neglected or thrashed for 120k it may not have much life left before major components need fixing.

2) I've found hatchbacks always sound boomy especially when sitting in the back seat, the boot acts as a big reverb chamber for both the exhaust and tyre noise.

3) Check to see if the tyres are worn, old or they are pumped up to ridiculously high pressures.  Any FWD can spin the tyres if launched aggressively (especially with an open diff) but it shouldn't be all the time.

4) If you're having trouble getting in to reverse, shift in to first or second and then try going back in to reverse.  No synchromesh on reverse means that if the dog teeth aren't perfectly aligned they'll struggle to engage, so shifting in to another gear will index the shafts slightly and improve alignment 

10 minutes ago, churnedprism said:

Hi campbeam

Thanks for the information. I think I may have confused the timing chain with the fan belt. The fan belt is the belt you can see if looking over the engine (mounted on the left), and the timing chain would be concealed. Is that correct do you know?

Many thanks

Correct, timing belts/chains are almost never exposed on stock-standard engines (some people do remove timing covers to show off adjustable cam-gears etc).

And for all the cardigan-wearers out there, the ultimate in car-mod minutiae - upgraded windscreen washer jets.

We all know that the 90s jet-type Toyota washers suck - two piddly streams of water concentrated nowhere near where the wiper blade starts, so you're guaranteed a couple of screechy dry sweeps with the blade before they actually start cleaning anything.  Enter the 5th generation Camry to the rescue!  Toyota switched to a resonance-chamber fan spray with these models, and the results are night and day.  Not only that, but they clip straight in with no modification required (there's enough slack in the stock hoses and 90 degree fittings to compensate for the different barb orientation, I've got some 4mm hose offcuts if I ever want to tidy it up)

Upgrade yours today!

If you or the next owner isn't too concerned about fashion then you can fix it for even less than that, just buy a box of thumbtacks from Spotlight and go to town.

To fix it properly you need to remove the headlining completely from the car (which'll involve removing A/B/C-pillar trims, dome light, grab handles, sunvisors etc, the hopefully squeezing it out a door without bending the backing, otherwise you might need to remove the front seats or even the windscreen - don't laugh, it HAS to happen on some cars), then remove the cloth and get the backing board sanded smooth to remove the old foam, then applying spray adhesive and a new piece of foam-backed cloth.  It happens on pretty much every car eventually, as has been said it is a combination of heat/time/UV degrading the glue and foam holding the cloth to the board, the foam then disintegrates in to the classic sticky "orange snow".

1 hour ago, trentmeyer23 said:

The seats look mint!

The 111 seats don't look quite as sporty as the 101 seats but that's mainly due to the headrest shape and the fact that it's a one-piece base rather than a 3-piece - they're just as good (if not better) in support (although lacking lumbar adjust), and are a tonne lighter to boot

A two-part update, separated by ~3 weeks

Part 1: My recently-installed fog lights decided to quit working just before Christmas (to be fair we don't have fog in summer anyway but I just like using them, even if it's illegal), figured that either the switch had gone bad (it was buzzing instead of switching them off even when they were working) or the globes had blown (could well be the originals from the 90s still in there).  Had some time yesterday to investigate (the benefits of work shutting down over the break, 3-week holiday yay :D even if I had to burn 7 days of annual leave to get it), started with the switch and the relay but they all seemed fine, so figured the globes had gone - jacked up the front of the car to change them (and find out what size they are so I could get some cool yellow fog-breakers), only to find the shared ground wire for them had detached its solder and broken free

Since it wasn't my solder job (and I have no idea whether I still have a soldering iron or where it might be), I drove over to my mate's house (the one who did the wiring) for a quick patch job.  15 minutes later and they were all fixed, plus I switched switches with him as his never buzzed (figure it's a tiny short in a contact inside).  Then figured we'd swap over my old AE101 Levin seats for his spare AE111 Levin ones as my driver's side one had collapsed significantly and the bolster foam on the right thigh area had worn through to the rebar.  The drive home was soooooo much more comfortable, even if I was sitting a little bit higher than normal and no longer had lumbar adjustment.

Part 2: My birthday-present-to-myself arrived a little early, and even though it was stinking hot on Saturday (and I ended up with a bull-ant sting to the face because he crawled on to my sweat towel) I couldn't be bothered waiting for cooler weather to arrive.  Now that I've got a USB input on my headunit (and I haven't needed cassettes since 2004) there wasn't much need for the double-din cubbyhole any more, and since I love collecting the JDM options it was a no-brainer

Enter the Toyota Original Accessory Multi-Box and For Your Life Scene spring-loaded drawer (got to love Japlish...)

Next weekend will hopefully be exhaust-fitting time and maybe a trial-fit of the 275mm SS twinpot brakes now that my ST204 pad carriers have arrived

MWR website says that it's 1/4" longer than stock

If you've got cash then buy stuff that has unlimited shelf-life but you're guaranteed to need in the future - things like oil and air filters, spark plugs, windscreen wiper blades etc etc.

I've changed the topic to reference the fact that we're talking about a power steering hose, most people will think of the radiator when you say "upper hose"

I'm fairly sure some cars run the radiator fan constantly whenever the air-con is on regardless of temperatures, to combat the extra heat being placed on the system due to the A/C condensor ejecting heat straight on to the radiator (since it is usually placed directly in front of it).

Might be worth checking exactly which fans you are hearing turn on and off, some cars have the air-con fan mounted on the front of the condenser (push-type) and others have a second one mounted to the radiator next to the radiator fan (pull-type)

Up up down down left right left right B A Start.

In reality, a lot of traction control systems are never really "off" even if you press the button and the light comes up - often they will re-activate above a certain speed or in particularly bad conditions, same with stability control etc.  However, there is often an over-ride to this, and as @Jordanlove91 mentioned above holding the button in for 5-10 seconds should kill it completely.

Still better than the Aurion hokey-pokey tap dance sequence...

On 1/21/2017 at 8:22 PM, trentmeyer23 said:

I wish you had told me. I need a set.

These are the ACV36 ones too, with the fan spray rather than the twin jets

@trentmeyer23 I could always just swap the old Corolla ones in to the Camry and give you the second set, not sure the wife would notice as long as they work (they currently do not)

42 minutes ago, trentmeyer23 said:

I generally only use the UAE option if it is not available elsewhere or I am doing a large order which makes the shipping worthwhile. From memory it starts at around the $40 mark whereas the via Australian warehouse option starts at $9.

I got 4 windscreen washers, both Australia and out of Japan they were ~$27 each, UAE was $12.  So a $60 saving right there, and shipping was only about $10 difference all up - the advantage of buying small, light, expensive things.

I bought stuff from Amayama literally last night.

Word of caution though, the UAE prices are almost always lower than Japan but shipping is slower and more expensive.  In my case though the savings on the item significantly outweighed the difference in shipping.

14 hours ago, Steve said:

You cannot go wrong with a celsior. Very reliable.

Only issue i can remember is maybe the dash lights and the odometer being faulty. I think. I had to delve into my brain archives :)

And like the Soarer of a similar vintage the air-con LCD screen loves to bleed.

2 hours ago, trentmeyer23 said:

Just don't take fast right hand corners...

This was a very well maintained car, so as I said, don't push it too hard.

The bottom-end equivalent of 52-Card Pickup...

2 hours ago, trentmeyer23 said:

The FSE used in the the Mark X made quite a bit more power than the Aurion, from memory it was up around the TRD power figure at the crank.

The engine isn't new as such, just new to our market. .

Technically it's not even new to the Australian market as the Lexus IS, GS and RC350 ran the FSE, just new to Australian Aurions...

5 hours ago, kobbsno10 said:

Lads any idea of the make of these rims and if they can be bought here?

OZ Superturismo, any decent wheel/tyre shop should be able to get them (a quick Google shows that at least Beaurepaires and Jax sell them).  Not exactly cheap though (~$500 a rim)

11 hours ago, trentmeyer23 said:

I thought I wrote AAI, but it appears I had AAMI stuck my head.

Being married to someone who works for Suncorp does have it's perks...

11 hours ago, Squalled said:

Also I might like to add some info about my mates old AE92:

It was originally a base model with a carburetor 4A-F engine rather then the 4A-FE fuel injected engine. He bought the car with the swap completed and the engine running perfectly (i.e. people usually have issues with the VVT cam not engaging correctly). The swap was done in Canberra but I don't think the engine was ever registered to the chassis.

The car itself had fairly wide wheels, lowered fairly low on coilovers so it did stand out. Again he never had any issues with the police as the engine was literally stock (had the standard 20V plenum and intake setup along with the standard extractor/header). The only modification engine wise was a cat back exhaust which was fairly loud.

It also had the standard drum brakes on the rear which he was planning to upgrade to disks but never got the chance. In saying that, the car still had good braking ability.

Paulo by any chance?

On 1/5/2017 at 7:58 PM, DAY50K said:

Got a letter recently from Just Car insurance saying as of this year they no longer will insure cars and upon next renewal a quote will be provided by Shannons. Let's wait and see how much :)

On 1/5/2017 at 1:38 PM, footy7777 said:

Just rang AAMI and they now insure Estima Aeras. To insure comprehensively for $14,000 cost me $879. I already have home & contents with them, so saved me a bit, compared to Suncorp who cost $975 for $15,000.

On 1/5/2017 at 8:07 PM, trentmeyer23 said:

They are both underwritten by AAMI anyway.

Well no, technically Suncorp owns all the brands (AAMI, GIO, Suncorp, Just Car, Shannons, plus a few others) but all the general insurance products of those brands are underwritten by AAI (not AAMI)