Hiro

Some of my photos from the day - my car wasn't low enough or ZRE-enough for a personal shoot :P

Well only one can be the most boring :P

Many of which are Camry, Aurion or Prius based. Reliable but boring vehicles. Down here they're still predominantly Falcons and Commodores.....but the odd Prius and Camry are appearing

660km for me, but I knocked off ~150km of that the night before so it wasn't too bad. :P

For those still on their way we're in the Maccas carpark, and Pete's forgotten his phone so don't bother ringing :P

One of the best things about the widebody Camry was the cavernous boot....I remember a hiking trip to the Snowys with 5 people in the car and 5 85L hiking packs in the boot :D

We had that ages ago :P

Two words: Attention Whore

And since Little Pete finally posted his pictures from this year's '12 TOCAU meet, I've got another one to add Got a few little surprises lined up in the next coming weeks, need to get my wedding out of the way first though :P

You'll need a C160 from a blacktop AE111 Levin - should bolt straight up to the 7AFE block, but I'm not sure what combo you'll need to come up with for clutch and starter motor, as well as mounts (3 of the 4 engine mounts in an A-series are actually gearbox mounts, and I think one of the C160 mounts is different). Also, C160s tend to be a bit expensive The thing you'll find though is that the C160 isn't really that suited to the 7A, it's not a standard 5-speed with an extra tall gear added on the top, it's a close-ratio box so cruising in 6th in the C160 won't be much different to 5th in your current C52.

Sweet, I know who I'll be driving in front of...

1) Nix 19 2) flipsta24 3) ChrisZRE 4) Seby123 5) GTL05T 6) Y34HOK p.s. Thanks for posting it up on facebook Seby 7)jaay 8) Cappuccino. 9)sikwitit 10) Windsor (have work on Sunday, but I might come to the M4 meet) 11) LFT-00F 12) Hiro (tentative)

Find out what exactly is bottoming out. Some car park speed-bumps these days are so severe that the mudflaps of standard-height cars scrape if you go over too fast. Being a '90s model though, there is a distinct probability that if it is still on original suspension that it is completely shot - still roadworthy and the car might look right when sitting still however. Try bouncing each corner of the car and see how it responds - if it pogos up and down a few times then the shocks are stuffed.

Might actually be coming now, Cara's hen's night is the night before and I've been kicked out of the house for it so might as well make a weekend of it. Would be nice to go DOWN Macquarie Pass for a change too...

We're not talking about a full re-spray here, just touch-ups/repairs right? I got my FXGT front bumper painted when I bought it from Japan, colour change from black to diamond white (not metaillic or pearl) and it only cost me ~$170 cash (on the books). Didn't need it blended to the rest of the car, no cost for removal/install (I got it painted before I fitted it), the paint was a standard off-the-shelf Toyota colour, and the painters I used do a heap of work for Toyota as they are just around the corner from a dealership. Quality is perfectly fine, no runs, no mis-match to the rest of the car - could have been a bit thicker though as it has copped a few stone chips/scratches already but the bumper does bear the brunt of those anyway.

Hmm, the weekend before my wedding.....

I would describe those sort of things with words like "bland", "inoffensive" and "run-of-the-mill" etc etc. "Boring" implies it actually _makes_ you bored looking at it (a lot of people would argue that you would already have to be bored to look at a Camry for any length of time anyway). It is a car designed to be used as a tool, heart-palpatating looks aren't meant to be part of the equation. It is like looking at a cordless drill and saying that it looks boring, yet when it excels at the job it was designed to do. I find it easier to call a sports car "boring" in visual terms if it doesn't quite back up the performance credentials with a racy body; you are looking for excitement and coming up short, hence the boredom, but a normal every-day car is almost never boring. Actually, I tell a lie - the _ultimate_ boring car is one that is both uninspiring and lifeless to look at AND drive, such as something like most 90s Yank boulevard cruisers. Camrys aren't anywhere NEAR that bad.

I hate it when people call cars boring - that implies that the car itself is physically making you bored. Take any decent road and there should be no such thing as a "boring" car, in fact chucking a barge around corners at twice the posted corner speed can be much more interesting than breezing through in a car with on-rails handling

Still got the TRD strut brace?

From an unbiased point of view, it seems to be quite a high-performing oil (someone will always find it crap though, happens with every oil). However, it is ridiculously expensive, and totally not worthwhile for a daily-driven car unless you d/d a Lambo :P

In NSW you need to have a gear pattern displayed, either on the knob or as some form of sticker next to the shifter (like you get with the TRD ball knobs), it is a defectable offense (not sure if you'd get picked up on it at roadworthy though).

Something obviously has changed, becuase the Corolla never had the 18RG, or any R-series engine for that matter I had a Celica with an 18RG, from new........ Were you even born then??????????? Congratulations, you must feel so proud. Now, tell me again which Corolla had the 18RG? And while you're at it, which Australian-delivered Celica had it too (or was yours overseas)?

Something obviously has changed, becuase the Corolla never had the 18RG, or any R-series engine for that matter

Using higher-quality oil isn't a guaranteed fix for oil sludge (nor a guaranteed preventative). Neither is using a flush product. Regular servicing is and always has been the best solution, regardless of whether it is done by the owner, a mechanic or a dealership, with quality (now before you go off your rocker, quality doesn't automatically mean top shelf) As for the "bulk oil contracts", just because they buy it in bulk doesn't mean it is the cheap crap. They may use a name-product like Magnatec or GTX, or the oil company may actually produce a specific blend just for Toyota. This is perfectly fine for the vast majority of people who use dealership services, who use their car as a tool to get from A to B every day with a minimum of fuss. If run-of-the-mill Castrol etc is so bad, what about the multitude of home mechanics who buy GTX/Magnatec/Helix and do the oil change themselves? They're doing their own work, so must be awesome, but they're using the same oil as the dealership, OH MY GOD THE CAR IS GOING TO EXPLODE..... You mean they don't put Royal Purple in my dad's widebody Camry? Oh the humanity! No, of course they don't, and anyone who thinks that any mechanic (dealership or not) is going to put freshly-refined 100% premium single-malt decomposed dinosaur into your car is an idiot. The dealership isn't going to tender an oil contract based off the minority who treat their car as if it is made from solid gold and spoon feed it 100-octane. And the reason why you see those inflated costs for servicing and parts is that is how most dealerships actually make their money - the profit margins on selling the car in the first place is relatively low. The vast majority of the commerical world follows those practices - it is called the Gillette model, because you buy the re-usable razor blade handle at or below cost, but pay a premium for the disposable blades. Petrol stations do it too, which is why a bottle of milk is $2 at Coles and $4-5 at the servo, because they are only making a couple of cents profit per litre on the fuel.

oh I dunno, maybe the fact you are a troll who has not owned a Kluger let alone worked on one yourself????????? I'd class that as worthless in this thread ;) Last time I checked, your rant was about dealership servicing, not a Kluger. No, I haven't worked on a Kluger, but I consider myself to be interested in all Toyotas (and a supporter of home maintenance if the owner is capable), thus why I opened the thread. Ok, fine, I have never used an engine oil flush before doing an oil change on any of my cars, and haven't had a problem with sludge. As for sludge, it is most commonly caused by the oil being contaminated with water and dirt etc, which is why the manufacturer recommends more frequent oil changes if the car is driven regularly in dusty environments. Infrequent oil changes on their own aren't the cause, however they allow the problem to manifest. Happy now?