Tony Prodigy

Hi Liam, Generally sellers will only sell you an uncut, unprogrammed and uncoded key and then you have to take this along to your local locksmith to have it cut and programmed. They will also need your original key to be able to complete the programming process as your vehicle will need to see this before it can allow the system to duplicate the second key via the OBDII scan tool. If you have a friend with a decent OBDII scanner tool with key coding capability then take it to him and just get the key cut whenever. If there was an easier way I'm sure the Ebayer would mention this. I'd advise to get one as soon as possible while your good one is still good, otherwise it will be more difficult to get one later. Is this the key fob you have ?

Hello and welcome Miriana. First, may I just say that you have excellent taste in cars. Owning an Aurion proves you are of high intelligence. Second, don't be shy in asking anything. There's no such thing as a silly question. We will try and help as much as possible if you ever need it. Cheers and take care

This is why I plan on keeping my Aurion long term. I just don't have the confidence in any other brand. By the way, Hyundai said that their car is still 'safe to drive',.... Yeah. Just don't park it in your house garage incase it catches fire and burns your house down and your family die. Park it in an open space

Lastly and most importantly. The contents. The Genuine part is on the left. Note the colour differences straight away. The Genuine filter media is a lighter colour than the knock off. The inside flaps of the box are also different with additional print and barcoding on the Genuine item. The o-rings for the Genuine come in a nice crispy clear sealed plastic with instructions and the blue strip printed on it whereas the knock off is in a cloudy much cheaper feeling plastic. The Genuine filter has the part number printed inside one of the leaves (not shown) and the other does not.

Now for the Packaging differences. The Counterfeit is left of screen. The Knock off uses a cheaper and darker cardboard and you can see how this bleeds through the printed sections of the white parts making them slightly off white. The Genuine box is a lighter colour and print is clean. The knock off box is slightly smaller too. Various differences as I rotate the boxes counter clockwise to compare. Also, the knock off says "made in Japan". The Genuine says, "made in Thailand" as per the video.

These pIcs are of the counterfeit Items Hologram. Note how cheap the foil looks and the holographic colours all try to light up in the same angle of light compared to the Original, the holographic colours are segmented in varying angles and much clearer too.

G'day Gents, I just finished watching a new video from The Car Care Nut and thought I'd share this important bit of information with everyone. This guy is 1000% bang on, so watch this video and see for yourself if you have any doubts about buying Toyota Genuine Parts. Having watched this, it prompted me to go out to the garage and recheck something. In the past I did buy some so called "Genuine" Toyota oil Filters and there was one left from that batch that I never used, just kept for comparison purposes for future purchases. I then got my Real Stash of Genuine oil Filters, pictured at the top of this thread and the differences were immense. Some of the differences shown in the video ring true. Here are some pics of the Genuine Toyota Hologram

Yep. They found the sweet spot for it. Another interesting bit of detail, if you already don't know, is that the current Gen Camry engine, The A25A-FKS & A25A-FXS uses 0w-16 !. This is a strict MUST USE viscosity otherwise you'll ruin it. This guy explains it well. Very interesting new technology too.

Hahaha yeah, I like that Robert. Buy bulk wherever you can and save big $$. Just a side note. Those fuel filters are now nearly twice the price I paid by the same seller

You're welcome Scott. I hate fraudsters so keep up the good fight !

5w-30 for the 50 at between 7 to 10k intervals for me. My car has just clicked over 127K and looking inside the oil cap there is not even a hint of discolouration and you can clearly see clean metal. The Nulon I've been using has been excellent. I may do an oil change in the coming weeks and make some notes then.

More than likely a bulk purchase of the cheapest oil they can get their hands on. I would put money down that it wouldn't be fully synthetic. It's fine. Does the job like Ryco and the rest of the aftermarket generics. If you can find Genuine Toyota oil filters at a good price, then get these, but the aftermarket ones are fine, especially if you're doing 6 monthly changes. If we come across any good Genuine Toyota oil filter deal we'll let you know. Good coolant for the Corolla but I suspect your modern Camry will use the Toyota PInk SSL (Super Long life) coolant. Check your owners manual because our Aurion 2GR-FE uses this fluid and It wouldn't surprise me if the Camry is the same. If they aren't providing fully synthetic, then you can always buy it and have them put it in when they perform the routine service. Semi synthetic is ok to use but you will get better long term results with fully synthetic oil. Super Cheap Auto, Repco and Autobarn are always having 30-40% off sales, and the rare 50% off, on various oil brands, so stock up while the getting is good like many of us do here. We have an established thread HERE for such announcements. Ebay can yield good value sometimes too. Just gotta have a dig around. Here's my little stash. Oil, Oil Filters, Fuel Filters and Air Filters I have to double up on parts because I also service my Dad's 50 series Aurion too.

Probably best if the O.P enquires with his specific build date to ensure correct fitment. You wouldn't think something as simple as a thermostat could differ from one gen of the same engine to another. Would be nice to see pictures to be able to compare.

Hey Scott, That totally sucks man. Have you tried contacting Ebay directly ? At the very least you should be able to get your money back for the dodgy injectors as per Ebay's buyer protection policy. Keep messaging the seller. Ebay will look at these and they will be in your favour. If you can't get any satisfaction for the engine compensation, you may have to seek civil damages. Can you prove the injectors are counterfeits ? Keep a copy of the sellers listing, document everything and get legal advice. 8k in the hole for buying knock off injectors being sold as Genuine sounds like fraud to me. I'd also check his feedback. You may not be the only one. Good luck mate and I hope you get a satisfactory outcome.

Excellent point. The O.P. only drives very short distances and 12 months is still a bit of a stretch even on fully synthetic. Oil is cheap so there's really no excuse to drag it out that long to save a few bucks in the scheme of things. It's detrimental long term. Having said that, I do agree that the fully synthetic oil is a far more superior product to the semi. At this point, we're not sure if the Scamserve shop offered fully synthetic oil and engine flush as the upsell. It's typical of a shop to pull scams like this. It is immoral but it's what they need to do in order to survive in this crazy world. We can only just say no and move on. Unfortunately some people aren't informed enough and will get conned, like my father did. They gave him the deluxe treatment and it made me very cranky after reading the service reports and receipts from his last few years of ownership. It's probably best case scenario. Too many variables exist to put your total faith in this. Stop start traffic in the real world is the killer. If the car was used on open highway daily then I'd be more inclined to agree and not knocking Mobil 1 oil either. it is outstanding in quality and never goes on sale for this reason. Testament to using a fully synthetic frequently. My Aurion is exactly the same too. Take the cap off and it still look new inside, not even the faintest sign of tarnish either and it's approaching 130K.

Yep that's correct Ashley. Owners of 40 and 50 series need to check part fitments very carefully even though they share the same 2GR-FE base. There are plenty of subtle differences.

That's pretty good value. Also, if you're an Ebay Plus member you get a further 10% off with code PLUSFY10 until 08/02/2021

Hey Rob. Good to hear they were able to recover the transmission at least. It will take some time before it fully recovers as the new fluid will take time to flush out all the impurities of the burnt stuff in there. I'd do a pan drain or a flush in around 6 months and inspect what comes out. If you still have the check engine light on, I wonder if the mechanic cleared the fault codes. Did you say you have a scanner ? If the codes are still persistent, it's then still trying to tell you that something isn't 100% despite it seemingly running close to normal. You will still have some gunk trapped in there and this is most likely what it is. If the car is running ok, just give it some time and the light may reset itself or try resetting it after a few weeks. That car has had a hard life and it needs some nursing back to good health. Be patient. Did you have the spark plugs replaced ? Did he also test the coils ? Was the MAF sensor cleaned ? If you have some basic tools and like to try and do the auto trans fluid flush we can help. It will save you some money and it will be an excellent learning opportunity for you if you plan keeping the car long term. Thanks for the update. Hopefully she settles down a bit now. Cheers

Hi Tommy. Haven't heard from you in a while. All is good in the Aurion world, thanks for asking. Excellent report by the way !. I'm glad you were able to find the sweet spot for oil choice. The Toyota engineers are a pretty smart bunch and who am I to challenge them ? I and most others here tend to follow their recommendation too. If it says 5w-30 on the oil cap then 5w-30 it is. The drag you mention with the 5w-40 is appreciated as these Toyota engines are built with a much higher precision than the Holden and Ford era equivalent. Those engines will run on virtually anything and not bat an eyelid lol. I somehow missed your last post. I like that tint gadget. Didn't know there was such a thing. Very cool ! Nice to hear from you. Take care mate

Yeah, more than likely the two might have different temperature ratings which would dictate the stem depth/height but the overall neck sizes should be the same.

Mine is approaching 130k and it's still original and honestly still looks excellent. I'm just a bit OCD as some of you know haha.. I'd be interested to see how long it does actually last but I'd hate for it to snap during a trip somewhere. Anyway, if the car stops, I'm only a phone call away..

My poor Dad got stung with this too. Arrrghh !! You're most welcome mate. Always happy to help if possible

I'm slowly putting together an inventory of spare parts as most of you would be aware of so I'm not faced with the possibility of an inconvenient breakdown and not having parts on hand. I purchased a serpentine belt just the other day and I must say that I'm very happy with the quality of manufacture of the Dayco product. It was a toss up between Gates and Dayco. I decided to go with the latter. Another interesting thing is the debate about whether to use a belt dressing or not. I think there is an argument as to what not to use on rubber and that would be anything solvent based, of course. Those of you who know me, advocate the use of 303 Aerospace on anything rubber and as such I will soak my new belt in this stuff to keep it nice and pliable and as this video suggests, make it last longer than the given amount. Serpentine belts are made with EPDM so are quite long lasting in their own right, but with the addition of the 303 I think it will complement it nicely to reduce both degradation and potential for belt squeaks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPDM_rubber

Complete and utter B.S. That manager is a scammer. Your engine is still new and won't have any sludge at this point so it's a totally unnecessary spend. These independents will always try to upsell things you don't need. It happened to my Dad and learning this had infuriated me to the point that I now preside over the servicing for his car as well as mine. Shameless mongrels. Let Toyota do it for you while you still have the warranty period then go find yourself an honest mechanic to take it from there unless you prefer to stick with Toyota. Just please do not follow the stupid log book service. Your 6 monthly oil change schedule is perfect regardless of kays.

I thought so. That is engine suicide right there. Exactly what I was hoping. It would be good to take it out on the highway occasionally to burn off some of that carbon build up. Constant short trips will do that. That usually is the claim for average highway kms not around town. Stop start traffic and short trips will yield 11-12L per 100 km. Give it a boot full occasionally, it won't hurt to clear the cobwebs.