Hiro

nah, im fine doing it. Unless its against the rules il do what i want :) Thanks mate. Necro-posting in threads that have been dead for years (and not necessarily contributing any more information) could be classed as spam. It also doesn't help you make friends, although there has been the odd occasion of it helping to cure a mild rash just behind the left ear.

In "classic me" fashion, I finally got around to fixing a problem that has been on-going for probably 2 years minimum....my fuel cap. So a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, my fuel cap release stopped working. Judging from my limited knowledge of Bowden cables, it seemed that the cable had stretched (was still attached at both ends but lever travel was insufficent to open the flap, and when closed the fuel-cap end of the cable sat several centimetres past the socket on the flap lever wheel. Because I could still open the fuel cap in a pinch by manually turning this wheel, I put it in the big basket of "I'll fix that one day when I get around to it", and it stayed that way for the better part of 2 years. Eventually, the Soarer stretched it's bonnet release cable (classic symptom of front driver's side wheel rubbing through the guard splashguard and wiring, price to pay for living the low life), I decided to kill two birds with one stone and order both cables at the same time. A quick consult of my Gregorys manual showed that it should be a simple case of unhooking the cable at both ends, tying a piece of string to one end and then pulling the cable through the car, hooking the new cable onto the string and then reversing the procedure. Whoever wrote that procedure should be shot. Not only did the cable refuse to budge when unclipped from each end, I had to pull apart half the interior (boot carpet trim, rear seat base, rear seat side bolsters, both B-pillar covers, both rear door jambs, drivers door jamb, driver's seat belt, driver's seat) only to find that the cable is held in place by 3-prong clips in no less than SIX separate locations. Not even Hercules could have pulled that cable through, and even if he did there would be no chance in hell of getting the new cable to clip in as it was pulled through, thus making the point moot. So an hour or two of swearing, scuffed knuckles and a front lawn strewn with interior plastics and seats, I got the new cable installed. Re-installed everything, only to find that the new cable still didn't open the flap (checked it for binding, checked it with the cabin lever moulding not screwed back down to the driver's seat mount, it all worked then, but when installed fully it suddenly stopped). In yet another "classic me" moment, I worked out that the old cable had not, in fact, stretched, but that a tiny piece of plastic clip had broken off the lever moulding, which meant that the cabin-end of the cable sheath was not anchored and thus half the lever travel was taken up in straightening the sheath. A quick visit to eBay sourced me a new cabin lever moulding (shared with the boot release), and 5 minutes later in the carpark the new unit was installed, with both fuel cap and boot release cable sheats firmly clipped in and operating smoothly, and for the first time in a long time I can now open the fuel cap without resorting to sticking my arm elbow-deep into the depths of the rear guard to manually turn the lever wheel.

Is your air-con turned on?

You can have two identical-spec cars that run differently to each other and neither is broken, simply due to manufacturing tolerances and variations in fluids, engine condition etc. In saying that, it would be worth monitoring the situation and if it gets worse then investigating it, but if it's not impacting the drivability of the car then it isn't really a problem, just a "quirk"

9 times out of 10, people who claim to be getting magic results from Royal Purple are suffering from the placebo effect - "I just spent $150 on an oil change, I must be getting awesome results", despite a $20 bottle of Penrite probably giving the same results. Unless you're running a finely tuned race engine that you regularly tear down and inspect/rebuild, and/or doing used-oil analysis after every oil change, you have no way of really "proving" that one oil is better than another. The Ruckus has the same 2.4L engine as a Camry, it's not a Ferrari. Good quality name-brand oil that matches the manufacturer's recommended viscosity will be more than sufficient, spending 3-4 times that on RP for maybe 1-2% gain (if anything) is folly (and certainly not worth the outlay)

4AGEs are renowned for revving to 2000-2500rpm when cold, to give an example (and they weren't consistent either) When you think about it, idle-speed control is actually quite tricky. Depending on the setup you've got a non-linear control method (wax pellet valve, bi-metallic strip, throttle butterfly on fly-by-wire etc), in-built delays/feedback, a constantly varying input (coolant temperature) etc etc, plus there are a multitude of additional factors controlling the idle speed (electrical load from the alternator, air-con idle-up, power steering idle-up etc). If the idle-speed can't sit bang-on the same number all day every day when warm (and they don't), why expect them to be any more consistent on cold-idle? The whole point of cold-idle is to bring the engine (and catalytic converter) up to temperature faster, as well as prevent additional loads from stalling the engine (a cold engine is less powerful than a warm one and more prone to stalling due to internal drag). Cars with finely tuned and controllable idle-speeds can run a lower cold-idle speed due to this greater ability to react to extra loads, older engines or ones with merely "satisfactory" idle-speed control will often just dump a heap of extra revs in to make sure it doesn't stall (go back to the old days of manual chokes on carbies, if you didn't pull the choke out on cold starts it would struggle and stall easily on a normal idle speed) And oil is up to pressure within a second of cranking, the system is designed with anti-drainback valves etc to retain oil in critical locations, it isn't like you are running a bone-dry engine at 2500rpm for minutes on end.

Good luck getting a different result elsewhere - cars in general these days don't seem to have the longevity and build quality of even 10 years ago - they are built to last the warranty period. To most people who buy cars on 3-year leases and then trade-in, this is irrevelant.

The website states 1-2 day turnaround on quotes, remember this relies on them being able to get confirmation of stock from Toyota as well as shipping quotes, so it can occasionally drag out.

ToyoDIY have removed their diagrams due to legal pressure from Toyota - the part numbers are still valid however, and there are other sites out there which have the pictures to go with the numbers.

So the saga continues - got the driver's side wheel arch wiring repaired yesterday, headlights are now a go (although the driver's low beam seemed to cut out again last night, quick check this afternoon turned out to just be a loose plug on the back of the bulb). Unfortunately, the dreaded bong has now appeared in conjunction with the catalytic converter light and the "Alternator not charging battery" katakana. Pulled out the Power FC hand controller and monitored battery voltages on the way to work this morning, whilst driving they were sitting steady at around ~13.8-14V, with the ignition off but the key in the ON position it was around 12V, but dropped to 10V briefly when starting (and starting has been difficult on the odd occasion lately). Thinking it might be new battery time but the fact that the "alternator not charging" warning has come on every time the ignition has been turned ON as long as we've had the car (but would go away on starting) makes me think it could be alternator as we've changed the battery in the past (when it died) and the warning didn't go away.....sigh

Asking someone to go up against Superdave or his old-man is a bit unfair :P

Last Active Dec 05 2011 02:42 AM Next time try not to bump a 2 year old thread, especially one by someone who hasn't been back to the forums in those 2 years...

Actually an SX ZZT231 would probably be faster than a ZR, same engine and slightly less weight :P

Have you had a wheel alignment done? If everything is straight and true with the front of the car (wheel alignment, no chassis damage etc) then you can take the steering wheel off the spline and rotate it so that it lines up properly then re-install it.

Kluger is now US-sourced, and the Yanks aren't that big on diesels in anything smaller than a Dodge Ram (hell, I don't even think the US Hilux/Tacoma has a diesel option)

'95? That'd make it an XV10 (widebody), which all had power steering standard...

Thanks Hiro..I will do that. I know that fuel economy will be bad for short distances but what is the min a camry altise can give for short distances? So do you think my car's fuel economy is acceptable? Thanks, Mc Assuming you actually are putting in 35L for that 220km, you're getting 15-16L/100km, but if you're just saying 35L because it is half of 70 then you're probably putting in something more like 30L, which would be 13.6L/100. Factory urban fuel consumption figures are 12.4L/100, so you're not that far off. Fill the tank up, reset your trip meter and then drive around on your normal routes for a good ~400-500km. Refill at the same service station and record the litres you put in and the kms travelled and then come back to us, otherwise it is all just asusmptions and guess-timations.

Fuel gauges are inaccurate and not necessarily linear - you can't assume that the halfway mark is actually half a tank in volume (especially since "E" doesn't indicate completely empty). Always calculate fuel economy based off the actual litres you pump into the car to fill it up and the distance travelled since the last refill (ie trip-meter). Also, you're doing a relatively short distance in heavy traffic with an auto - your fuel economy WILL be bad regardless.

Straight from VSB14 http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_regulation/bulletin/vsb_ncop.aspx Thus, a spare wheel which is a different size/offset/width to the normal wheels fitted is perfectly legal, as long as it is a true spare and not used as part of the normal tyre rotation, and also that

Sure they're referring to wheel/rim diameter and not overall rolling diameter?

Engine braking doesn't suffer from brake fade either...

Tyre sizes are spot on, less than 0.5% different. Unless Queensland has some weird backward rule regarding spare tyres, there is no reason why that shouldn't be legal.

Who "advised" you? Sounds like complete baloney considering plenty of cars come with space-saver wheels that are smaller than the factory fitment - the key is keeping rolling diameter the same, so as long as your 14" spare has the same overall size as the 15" mags then there won't be a problem.

There's not really anything cheap that you can do to a 4AFE that will give you noticeable gains - intake/exhaust is the standard and may net you ~5kw at the wheels, but past that you're into custom-land and looking at big dollars. Anything worthwhile that can be done to a 4AFE can also be done to a 4AGE, so whilst it may not make the most financial sense now either buying a halfcut or selling and buying an SX/GTi model will benefit in the long run. Apart from that, handling can always be improved and will give a bigger smile on your dial than engine mods will - better shocks and lowered springs, sway bays, nice 15/16" wheels and good quality tyres will make the world of difference in the corners.

As far as topping-up the radiator or coolant overflow bottle is concerned, if you're not 100% certain of what coolant is in the engine just use distilled water (or even tap water if you're not completely anal or your local source isn't liquid calcium). The quantity you are adding is relatively small in comparison to the volume of the whole system so the dilution factor will be minimal (just don't do it over the long term as you'll eventually reduce the concentration too low).