LordBug

Damn, they look really good. As Defyant said, makes the car look totally different. Gives it a beautifully subtle visual "oomph".

As I understand, the electrics are a direct match. A tip given to me by my Toyota mechanic mate is to get the window switch panel from a Presara, because that apparently has the auto window functionality on all four windows. Be glad you didn't damage the side skirting, I asked him about the price on a new one (Believe a tyre place managed to take a big chunk out of the front part facing the front wheels on one of mine), $500, ouch.

Are you able to take a photo of the work done?

A quick & easy test to eliminate the belt is to grab a cheap white candle, or a bar of that yellow soap, or a bottle of graphite powder dry lube, and apply it to the ridged side. If it's glazing on the belt or on a pulley, or a pulley out of alignment, this will stop the noise (Temporarily as I've found for my own) whereas no change at all will indicate something else. I did also find that gently pushing the belt a little to one side or the other whilst it was running (Using something firm an non-grabbable) altered my own noise, which suggests I have a pulley slightly misaligned somewhere.

Now that I'm back in my old job, I only get to enjoy my baby one week out of every three. Which means at the moment, fuel consumption is averaging 17.7L/100km. So very totally worth it.

Haha, if I (had a money tree) to embark on such a path, I'd be trying something like 10~12psi, was only stating my curiosity that there's apparently the same charger (body only?) putting out a heck of a lot more pressure (Already knew that we've got a tiny pulley). The silliest ideas are the ones that get trashed before even being discussed with ones peers!

And on top of that, don't ICs introduce some pressure loss, so the benefit of cooling would be negated by less boost. My current "I'd like to dig up some treasure so I could try this idea, mainly to learn things" musing is installing some lower compression pistons, replacing the charger with one with a bit more boost (Am scratching my head though, came across an old post by DJKOR where he said some other car had the same charger putting out 20psi, wonder if that's related to the screws & lobes), sacrifice some low end torque to get (my two days of trying to get my head wrapped around it all) high end gains. _If_ the ECU is able to learn all this and play nicely. I'm really glad dreams don't cost anything :P

My latest mod is a squealing drive belt. I'm pretty sure that chirping noise shaves two seconds off my 0-100 speed :P But in all seriousness, it would be nice (dreaming the impossible dream?) to see lists of mods and relevant power/time graphs.

Have you tried using photoshop or something to put them on your ride? I'm almost scared of saving up to buy new rims, as you said, too many nice choices out there!

I did a bit of granny driving for a smidge to see how low I could get to once, 8.4l/100km I think. Last break I went the opposite way, and with many foot-flat and forgetting to shift S from 4 to 6, I still only averaged about 16l/100km.

Glad to hear it got fixed :)

A quick way of testing if it's only the belt and not any pulleys or bearings is to get a candle and let it be ground into the belt on the ridged side. This will provide a small amount of a lubricating effect (Not to the point of letting it slip) which would show if it's the belt at fault (by stopping the noise) or if it's a bearing somewhere (noise continues). Bit of good reading on http://www.gates.com/brochure.cfm?brochure=1026&location_id=540 I'm currently suffering from a very brutal scream at the moment, and with the weather being as lousy as it is in Perth at the moment I can't really get in and see if everything is straight. The candle wax trick did silence mine, for a short amount of time.

Damn, mine is the same, doesn't hold against backwards roll :/

If you're game, I'd suggest looking in the CV. When the noise starts up, does it change pace as you change speed, or is it constant?

What octane fuel do you normally put in? 91, 95 or 98?

I'd prefer non-use of the horn over the multitudes who: Cut you off Tailgate Drive ten under the limit Don't let you merge Wander over into your lane

Taken the spark plugs out and had a look at them?

Hey guys, sorry to be one of those ancient thread bumpers, but just thought people might like a tip on a source of the strut brace. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/260800639043?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Seller public_racing, happily took my best offer of $100US. Received it today, a lot faster than expected, as he'd informed me that it wasn't kept in stock, they ordered direct from UR and it had to be manufactured. Came via DHL, online tracking et al. Appears genuine. Easy to install (A breaker bar is your best friend). Very impressed at how notable a difference it makes. Now to save up for the RSB. For $100, you can't not do it. Again, sorry for the bump, hope it's helpful for some.

Here's the one you might be thinking of: Otherwise, try a Toyota dealership, ask them nicely if they'll do it for free. When I had my mech mate do it, he just plugged in the Toyota magic unit and did it through that, took a minute or two. To learn softer driving, well, drive it softly I suppose. See if it'll learn off using cruise control, I know my economy is at its peak when I avoid the pedal and just use the stalk.

Yay dyno! Sounds like we all want a video of it before then though, any chance of a quick clip over the weekend? :)

Nice! Don't suppose you'd be willing to put it on a dyno? :) Also, mind letting us in on the cost?

Just throwing an idea out there, but would resetting the ECU so it has to relearn from the start help? Talking to my Toyota mech mate, he's going to reset my transmission ECU for me tomorrow so that it'll learn my driving style, which will hopefully be a lot more responsive than what it currently is (Learnt off the previous owner). At least, that's how he tell me it works. I'll chuck the question at him when I see him anyway regarding the motor ECU, or to just leave it learning what comes at it. But if you like plugging stuff in, to at least see what's going on, I totally recommend buying a bluetooth elm327 OBDII doohickey. I was stoked when I found the socket in my TRD (Had bought one for my previous car), because couple it with the app Torque on an Android device, and you get access to quite a bit of info (But no, you _cannot_ change anything with it. Look but no touch). Has a module that reports back HP generation (Stuffed if I know where), so that might be a fun thing to at least see if there's changes before & after mods.

VIPZR6, they are indeed the factory rims. A few more days driving, and another little oddity that I'd noticed every now and again is still there. Sometimes it feels like a wheel is out of shape/has something stuck on it, because as you drive you can feel the bump each time it goes around. Guess I'll go to a tyre place to see if they can check the rubber, at least that'd be one thing to clear up. Wish I'd been a bit more with it when I had the balance and alignment done, and thought to ask then. DJKOR, very glad to hear from you, from my searching since purchasing this beauty, the results have shown you to be a veritable tome of information :) I'll note down the Hawk pads, and do a bit of thinking about genuine vs DBA rotors come the time. Another question whilst I'm here. A crazy thought, but does anyone know if you can swap sections of interior from other models/years? There are some interior touches on other models that I personally really like the look of, and if I could customise my girl to be very much mine, then I'd make plans for it. Exhaust and sway bars are the main things to be done in the near future though.

Hey guys, I recently became the owner of the '07 TRD Aurion #293, and absolutely loving it. At some point I'll pop the wheels off to judge how long I've got before I need to do the pads & rotors, but I'll put the question out here now - To any TRD owners, have you found that over the years that aftermarket pads & rotors are better, or that genuine ones are the go? I spoke to a mate of mine a bit back who's a mech for Toyota, and he was really insistent that aftermarket gear isn't as good as genuine. Seeing as how the threads about brake upgrades are a few years old now, I trust there should be some good solid experiences to compare against his belief. Now, a smidge of a problem with the car. I'm getting steering wheel shakes only when accelerating, but not all of the time, and it happens with varying styles (Easy/moderate accel, hard accel), typically over 30kph. I've just gotten home from having a wheel balance & alignment done, and it doesn't feel as though there's been much of an improvement. I'm curious if anyone else gets this (Aforementioned mechanic mate has said that it's common, because of the suspension system for a high powered FWD), because my very bad memory of hiring an Aurion five years back remembers nothing of the sort. Cruising, no shakes. Deaccel, no shakes. Did a search, and nothing I've found really seems to relate, so hopefully someone has had experience before I have to start worry about mystery troubleshooting. Cheers ~B