tngster

when's the next :D

i washed my car today.. still mulling over installing RSB and FSB..

Pm me your number,

usually every thursday, around west side, but we're keen to go anywhere, :]

I tried PM-ing you but it said I can't send you a PM. Weird.

Loving that V6 mate...

hey guys, im new here. I'd like to come for a meet but i'm working this thursday evening. Darnit. Just so I know, where's is garage cafe?

Hey man, Welcome!! :DFirst of all, there are meets every week, if you cant make it we can change it to suit you one week :)Secondly, garage cafe is in north melbourne between lygon street and the royal melbourne hospital somewhere.. cant remember the exact address right now.See you around!CheersJustin

I think I know where garage cafe is. I study in Melbourne Uni right now so that location is actually perfect for me. I'll probably feel like a noob at the meets cuz Im driving a '96 Vienta Csi STOCK... I know how to drive fast, but I don't have the money to go FAST-ER.. LOL

hey guys, im new here. I'd like to come for a meet but i'm working this thursday evening. Darnit. Just so I know, where's is garage cafe?

Learn to DIY and invest in tooling. Saved a billyun dorrahs that way.

I would love to do everything on my own. However, I'm a temp resident in Melbourne and I don't know how long more I will have with my Camry.. but my friend does.. hmmm

Welcome to the club dude :] !

Come by to our weekly meets ;] !

Weekly meets?? Where? When?

Hey Everyone! I just bought my first ever car. It's a white 1996 Camry Vienta with 134,000kms on it and I love it to bits. It is my first ever car and so far, it's been an absolute joy to drive. I am looking to improve handling and performance on the car so suggestions are most welcomed! :D Drop me a PM, reply here, it's all good!

Here's a pic!

went to the workshop which did the roadworthy certification this morning. They took the car and put it on the lift. Head mechanic there took me around the car and showed me the bushes and told me that it wasn't going to be a problem.. he said that the front rear bushes had 'fractures' on them but it was normal for a car thats 16 years old. He moved the wheel around and stuff a crowbar through it and there was slight movement but not anything that would create metal-metal contact. Same for the other bushes that Ultratune pointed out. He said that I can replace it if i want but it's not gonna be essential right now.

Seems like Ultratune was just trying to make money... or trying to make my car ride a really stiff one.

only happens when its a cold start.. sometimes it doesnt happen. This morning was colder than yesterday morning, but it didn't squeal today. It did yesterday... LOL

Hi forumers... My 1996 Camry Vienta CSi takes a while to start in the mornings and then there's a shrill squeaking sound which lasts for 1-2 secs. Should I be worried?

I called the workshop that did the RWC cert and told them about what Ultratune said. They told me to bring it in tomorrow for them to have a look at it. (obviously it's gonna cost me money). They said that different companies have different interpretations of what is roadworthy and what isn't... I'm probably gonna lose money either way.. sighhh

I looked around at ebay and found that poly bushes are about 90-110 bucks for a set of four and normal bushes are only 20-30 bucks for a set of four. Service charge is PHENOMENAL here!

HAHA. well, i won't go to Ultratune for things like that. Only reason I went to ultratune was because I lived a 5 min walk away from the garage. Probably go to a workshop my mate recommended me in Rowville.

I did a major tune up at Ultratune today for $280. When I collected the car, he told me that I needed to change my front and rear bushes because they were "in pieces". He quoted $600+ for the job. Is that a standard market rate in Melbourne? Or should I get a second opinion somewhere else?

Thanks guys, I've left the car at Ultratune today for major servicing. Guy quoted me $280. Suppose that's normal. But if Kmart's servicing is cheaper and pretty much the same as Ultratune, I'll use kmart from now on.

I just sent my 96 Camry Vienta to the Ultratune around the corner from me at Brandon Park. Just came from RWC 2 days ago and the last service was 9 months ago.. at least that was what the seller said. the RWC is legit though. Guy at Ultratune said major service is $280 and mentioned that if the spark plugs needed changing, parts will cost extra. Kmart charges $199 for it's full service and I think it covers the cost of new spark plugs as well. Any thoughts on how services might differ? I sent it to Ultratune this time round cuz i didnt want anything to happen to my car. But if Kmart's service is the same as Ultratune's, albeit being heaps cheaper, I'll just send it to Kmart.

Thoughts?

Hi all, I just received my 1996 Camry Vienta today. It just passed its RWC and got some new parts from it. The previous owner said that the last service was about 9 months ago and since then it has only done <1000kms. Should I send it in for a standard service at Ultratune or would a basic service at Kmart suffice?

Listening to classical in your situation is WORSE.

Bass is easy to get and it's cheap (even if it is crap quality, which many don't seem to mind). Clean and crisp mid and highs are much harder to get on a budget.

I know, it's terrible. I spent way too much money on headphones and headgear before I bought I even thought of buying a car. I now realise that the money I spent on headphones could have bought me another car. LOL!

You do get what you pay for. $200 is not much. When you hear a good sound system, the more money you will end up spending.

Try SoundMaster.com.au ??

cool thanks!!

Can anyone recommend me a cheap sound system that comes with a headunit? My friend told me that he bought a cheap headunit from JBhifi in Ringwood and that it came with speakers. The people at JB were gonna install it for him but they found out that the speakers wouldn't fit his corolla '86.

I'm not looking to spend more than 200 bucks on it. I only listen to classical music so thumping and bass aren't essential. I do however need clarity in the sound.

Recommendations?

I guess there isn't very much I can do to the car to improve performance unless it's at the expense of fuel. Looks like modifications will have to be aesthetic now.

Cheers man.

I don't think CSi model comes with ABS and airbags as a standard so I'm gonna be driving like a granny. Any idea how often I should send it for servicing? When the car comes back from RWC checks and/or servicing, should I consider that to be one service and then count kms from that point?

Would servicing at any garage work or should I avoid Kmart and go for places like Ultratune?

Hi All,

I just bought a 3rd hand 1996 Camry Vienta 3.0 CSi from a private seller. It is due to arrive on Thursday. My deal with him was that I'll pay a really good price for the car and he'll send it in for RWC inspection (and servicing if required). I test drove it and it's all pretty good. The car has only 133,000km on it. Timing belt, spark plugs, distributor, and some other things were changed at 100,000km. As far as I can tell, there were no mechanical problems with it. I did notice that one of the side lights did not fit into the body properly. I reckon that problem is easily recitified with a firm shove. The car comes with a cassette headunit and I am gonna change it to a CD headunit the moment I get the car.

Does anyone know if the ECT switch on the auto-gearbox affects the performance by much? I noticed that when I switched it to PWR, the revs are slightly higher and the gear changes are too. However it isn't like an overdrive system on some auto cars I've driven before. It doesn't feel more agile...probably cuz the car is too heavy...

Because it's a pretty big engine and a pretty big car, fuel consumption is probably not the best. Is there any way to make the car more economical while also increasing it's peak performance? ECU tuning? engine add ons?

Hope you guys can help.