Hiro

Because that's what they are worth? Redbook value for a 2002 V6 wagon is around $7-10,000, depending on the model, and they were $30,000-odd new, which is pretty much bang-on 1/3...

I choose not to believe that statement for several reasons: 1) New Scientist is British, not American (my dad has been a loyal subscriber for over 10 years) 2) There is no "July 2010" edition, New Scientist is a weekly publication (see above) 3) You can search New Scientist articles on their website. No results come up for the above topic, especially not in July 2010 4) If they actually happened, the tests were conducted by the manufacturers, not an independent third party, thus results could be biased 5) The only increase to fuel feed you could see would be due to hydrostatic pressure....except that the hydrostatic pressure you'd get at the bottom of a 50cm-deep fuel tank (most tanks are flat these days) would be about 0.5PSI (water is about 0.433 psi/foot of height, petrol is about 0.75 relative density). Typical 4AGE fuel pump puts out about 75 psi, regulated at the rail to about 35psi. Thus, 0.5psi of hydrostatic pressure does **** all to a pump which produces almost 200% of required pressure.

Dang, Rota don't list the Linea Corse on their website any more......why do I have to have such good taste in wheels....

A lot of older laptops don't have fully-powered USB ports either (ie they have enough to power a mouse or keyboard, but not enough for a full hard drive or external optical drive), so external hard drives etc often need their own separate power brick + cable.

I would more inclined to say that it isn't caused by negative pressure inside the tank because in the sealed system of the fuel tank, the vapour pressure will maintain either an equilibrium or positive pressure. Fuel caps normally have a one-way valve in them anyway, so they draw in air as fuel is consumed to stop vacuum forming in the tank. Positive pressure is more likely to occur due to heating of the tank (either due to proximity to exhaust pipe or simply ambient conditions) which causes the gases in the tank (either vapours or air) to expand, pressurising the tank - this pressure is relieved when you crack the fuel cap (the one-way valve is designed so that it doesn't release vapours into the atmosphere when the cap is closed).

Very nice, I'm a big fan of LMs....speaking of which, which copies are they? Genuine LMs are ridiculously expensive and I doubt I could justify the cost, but replicas/copies are fine in my books and easy on the wallet.

Yeah, especially for something like a PowerFC which is a complete factory replacement-style ECU. Put a false-floor in your centre-console and hide the hand controller there and everything looks completely stock.

You mean polished aluminium alloy. You don't make wheels out of stainless steel.

Capacity when referring to a dam is usually in relation to where either the flood gates sit, or where levels are designed to sit to maximise usable capacity but minimise evaporation, hence why you can have a figure significantly above 100% during flood times but still not overflowing. Wivenhoe can hold up to ~220%, but it isn't supposed to hold anything above 100% for more than a week (one of the reasons why they opened the gates and are doing timed releases with the tides now before things get worse).

Except that cars don't have gravity-feed fuel systems, and the fuel pump provides much more suction than a full tank would provide pressure.

Probably the reason why the car feels faster is that you're no longer driving around like a granny hawking the fuel gauge to get every last kilometre out of the tank before you fill up....then, once you've filled up, you're worry-free and can floor it with glee.

I've got aftermarket extractors, but the O2 sensor is in basically the same spot. You can just see the 2-bolt flange for the O2 sensor on the right hand side of the extractors, on the middle two pipes before the collector (on the stock headers it is after the collector, and pointing straight towards the front of the car)

Doing the strut nut up whilst the strut is in the car makes it a lot easier (and less likely to rotate the shaft too as it should key into the strut top).

Resonant vibration in heat-shields etc is a very distinctive noise, and tends to only occur at narrow rpm ranges, so it should be fairly easy to diagnose.

Does it sound like a rattle or a vibration? Do you still have the heat shield on the distributor?

Load rating is unrelated to size - the number corresponds to a maximum kg load (in this case, 91 is 615kg per tyre) And the letter is the speed rating - W is a 270km/h rated tyre, Y is a 300km/h tyre.

I'm leaning towards O2 sensor more than anything else.

Their website is down ;-; Christmas/New Years break, they're open again on the 5th. You sure? I emailed info@amayama.com and my email bounced back saying email doesn't exist. Their website was up and running before the Christmas shutdown, try emailing Justin direct (justin@amayama.co.jp), or wait until Wednesday/Thursday and see if the site comes back up, could be doing server maintenance/migration in the downtime.

One quick thing, and it may help others, but the LS400 is a Celsior, the V8 Soarer is a SC400 (if you're using Lexus terminology). Fairly different cars, even if the engine is the same.

Sounds about right, I get roughly 8L/100 in the 102 (it's manual), but most of my trips are at least 20 minutes long and involve 80/90k zones, so I can easily see an auto 7A getting 10L or so in stop-start CBD-style traffic. And overdrive would have very little if nothing to do with fuel consumption around town, it's a myth/throwback to the days when cars had seperate overdrive gearboxes - overdrive in a modern auto is simply top gear, and most transmissions will stop it shifting into o/d when the engine is cold or when road-speed is too low anyway.

Their website is down ;-; Christmas/New Years break, they're open again on the 5th.

Get in touch with a mob called Amayama if you can, they can hit up Toyota Japan for some stuff that is next to impossible to get here - they managed to get me a fresh-out-of-the-mould FXGT front lip for instance, delivered to my door from Japan for about $150.

Haven't been on a TOCAU cruise in ages, put me down as a tentative +1/+2, decisions on whether to take the 102 or the JZZ30....

One small thing, the 31st is a Monday.....

Holden haven't made the Monaro in years....and if you're going back that far, then a decent percentage of Holden vehicles won't be Korean, they'd actually be European, ie Barina, Vectra, Astra, and some Japanese ones too (Frontera, Rodeo/Colorado, Jackaroo are all rebadged Isuzus, although the last of the Rodeos are Thai-built).