Squalled

Hahahaha Tony I love it! Despite the naming they use, they do have some great products like Wet Dreams, Happy Ending and I do enjoy their car washes and snow foams. But yes, it does make it awkward to tell people what you use to clean your car 😆

I've actually got one that I've been meaning to try so we'll see how that goes!

25% off some brands at Repco for this weekend. https://www.repco.com.au/en/car-care-panel/c/1862917923

At least 25% off some engine oils for 3 days at Repco. https://www.repco.com.au/en/oils-fluids/engine-oils-fluids/engine-oil/c/1862918079?cid=email-2021_09_02_3daysale&mkt_tok=NzI3LUJRRi04NjQAAAF_RMFi3rPkSYlZvU9a471DqWfcoRU1ZTXh-N1OBgrryvwhOsTNDqsPwRzdDaGYsNTAZH0rQ_8m6Y9nkmUY1mIo5RdaTePnWxTwrM_QIZ1a

I have literally every magazine I've ever got. Heaps of Hot 4s, Zoom, High Performance Imports, Street Machine, Unique Cars and a heap of others. They're awesome to read if you want to take a time machine. These reviews are worth every penny especially now that I've yet to see this particular issue on sale again. It had a heap of great articles in it too so other than the Sportivo article, it made for a great read.

Hey TOCA, Some time ago I purchased this magazine as there wasn't many released featuring the Corolla Sportivo upon it's release in May 2003. This July 2003 issue of Motor Magazine has an article of an early model Corolla Sportivo going over pricing, features, pro & cons along with comparing it to it's rivals of the time etc. These were the best scans I got with my scanner so some of the final works may be missing or partially cut off but I hope you get the idea. The article, like most about the car are quite harsh in regards to the power delivery and handling, which I do agree with some of it, mostly the handling side. Enjoy!

Curious, have you checked spark plugs and your battery as well? I've also seen when starter motors are on their way out they tend to make the crank times a lot longer than normal.

Autglym fans, 25% off at Repco for 3 days only. https://www.repco.com.au/en/brands/autoglym/c/1379177815?cid=email-2021_08_19_3DaySale&mkt_tok=NzI3LUJRRi04NjQAAAF-_Kf4_KaulTZrnK59P4NaSs2XQ5iYujB_cJT0dQH4a8osEtYP9HrcTUquBYrHRTFft5V1Vi1TkDAfQzH_aWv9UHCDgKoGRBc6D1qr5nIE

Weather has been pretty spot on lately, decided to give the beast a maintenance wash since I had some free time last weekend. Decided this time around to use 'Yellow Snow' since I haven't used this foam for a little while. Was mostly curious to see how well it would clean the initial dust and grime off on the new HydrO2 coating. After allowing the foam to dwell for well over 5 minutes I rinsed it off and pleasantly surprised to find that literally 95%+ of the dirt and grime had come off with the foam rinse. I had a good look around and still decided to wash the car properly seeing as there was still some bits of grime around. Was honestly one of the easiest washed I've done in a long time, had to use very little effort to remove the remaining crud and it was one of the quickest washes too. After the wash I found the coating to still feel nice and slick and beading fairly well on all the panels. I know it's only been 2 weeks since I applied the coating so we'll see in the long run if it can last to the 4-6 months I've seen around the internet. Overall pretty happy well the car presents these days. I think I'll eventually do a de-con wash and apply another coating of some sort when I have more time but with the HydrO2 coating currently, I couldn't recommend it more. I've seen some mixed things about it online but personally I quite like it so it's worth a try. If you're up for trying it, there are smaller bottles available at least so it's not to hard on the wallet. Stay tuned.

It actually can be dimmed when the lights are on so it's not too bad, I took the photo with my lights off so it is pretty bright. I'm the same to be honest Tony, they were only some cheap ones so I'll see how they are but I generally just my headlights everywhere these days which are still halogen. I'm completely again using HIDs or LEDs are headlights especially in headlights with halogen housings. They're just useless and blind everyone.

Realised the other day that I don't think I've uploaded an updated picture of my dash setup. With the Adaptronic ECU, it required a new lambda sensor along with an AFR gauge. So the Lufi gauge was removed and I don't really have any good places to put it so I will probably not use it again, maybe I might put it in my partners car but who knows. In regards to my cluster, the CEL is only there because of the ECU and once lockdown is over I'll hopefully be able to organise some time with Adam to get that issue resolved as there is a way to stop it from staying on. The temperature gauge is also off and reads quite low as you can see which is another minor fix by changing some settings via a laptop connected to the ECU. I haven't got the firmware just yet so I won't be able to correct that just yet. I also recently found my drivers side parker bulb had blown after having it for a number of years so I decided to bite the bullet and go for some LED parkers. I've still kept the standard halogen headlights and high beams as from previous experience, I don't like running LEDs other than as the parkers. They're nothing special, just some cheap eBay specials, not that the expensive ones do anything different. Waited until the evening so I could get a better idea of how bright they are. The pictures make it seem quite bright, I presume it's the angle I took them at because they were barely lighting up my garage door. So overall I'm pretty happy with this small touch, will see how they go and if I think they're a bit too intrusive to other drivers I'll get some new halogen globes again. Looking forward to when I eventually get some nice night shots after lockdown or if I ever get some actual camera shots. Stay tuned.

30% off Meguiars at Repco. https://www.repco.com.au/en/brands/meguiars/c/1379179342?cid=email-2021_08_11_Augcat&mkt_tok=NzI3LUJRRi04NjQAAAF-0Rk5hsZppXLwTLr1v3F3mQSCFPG6VFrxVNsILMtUlt9FYrD3rUvQN3lVWSNSPESstR8fkGve6hEozBDK-YcYpj-cORzDMepRCCzxgxCf

Yeah I know they're a bit of fun but they are pretty cringeworthy especially if you speak with someone about what you use on your car who has no knowledge of Bowden's, it usually can go one of two ways but thankfully I usually end up with the person in stitches 🤣 I'm looking more into some gear from Waxit for when I need to stock up further, at the moment I have plenty in the collection.

Good idea Tony. Bowden's has 30% off for anyone interested in trying/restocking some items. https://www.repco.com.au/en/brands/bowden-s-own/c/1887688507?q=%3Arelevance%3Alevel2Category%3A1862917930

Thanks mate! As far as I know, it seems most CarPro products work well with their ceramic coatings so at least it doesn't render a lot of them useless once you ceramic coat your car.

Didn't know this actually! How interesting, Would make washing a whole lot easier. Hopefully if it have the chance in the future when it's not too dirty. I did some videos of the usage and I just assumed that you could use it that way only if you weren't using a foam lance. I mean for my first experience using CarPro products myself, I can definitely say I'll be looking into a few more of their products in the future.

Finally got around to giving the car a much needed wash. It's been a little neglected these days with everything happening in lockdown and just running out of time on weekends because I somehow manage to find other things that need to be done. After a snow foam and 2 bucket wash, I finally got to use one of the new products in my detailing ****nal. After running out of Bowden's Happy Ending, I decided to give CarPro's HydrO2 Foam a go. So far I'm fairly impressed with it! The liquid doesn't have any nice scents or anything but it leaves the paint looking absolutely stunning with a nice glossy finish and the panels still feel as sleek as ever after a finishing foam. For the price, it's much cheaper than the Bowden's finishing foam and is also noted to last anywhere from 4-6 months on cars outside compared to Bowden's 2 months or so, which I'll hopefully see if this claim is true. The user experience is simple and straight forward, exactly like using any finishing foam in a foam lance and rinsing off once the panels are coated. Currently I can visit my partner during the lockdown, which is the only thing keeping me sane! I noticed some time ago there's a usually empty side street around and I thought I'd get some photo's when my car is clean. I tried to go one night but found the lighting to be pretty poor so with a beautiful day like today, I got some shots before heading over. As usual it rained ever so lightly this evening and looks to rain tomorrow as well so I'll get to see how well the coating handles the rain and get see some hopefully awesome beading. That's it for now, stay safe and stay tuned.

Nothing really exciting. With lockdown going on at the moment, I decided to get on top of some minor things that have been happening for a while. I ordered a new OEM style replacement indicator stalk as my original began having problems some time ago now where especially at night my high beams would turn on when I indicate. After searching online comparing I found a cheap enough replacement that appeared to have no bad reviews at all. Today I finally got around to replacing it. Out with the old and in with the new. After a lot of fiddling around with the trim I was able to remove the old one and replace it with the new one. Before putting it all back together I confirmed that all lights and switches are functional and found I have a dead parker I need to replace so I may end up replacing both with some LEDs now. The trim was put back on and another minor item ticked off the list. I have found some sites to get brand new guard liners from so I may end up ordering a new drivers side liner since I've not had one there for most of my ownership but I'll look into each site further to try get the right one the first time. Stay tuned.

The extended push rod does help with higher RPM shifts and it makes all shifting in general a lot smoother. In terms of the oil pan and oil pump gear set, unless you indeed on tracking it multiple times a year they will likely not be worth spending that amount of coin on. The oil pump gear upgrade is honestly only really necessary if you intend on revving higher than 8400 RPM but other than that, I don't think it's worth doing since it's quite a big job. That's just my point of view though, if you want those mods, I've known a few mates that have had them and haven't really reported any issues 🙂

Well any C series gearbox is quite fragile unfortunately. The gears themselves are quite small along with the teeth. From what I found out as well, the C series gearbox doesn't like flat shifting or constant hard/quick gear changes at high RPM. Not that I've done any serious track days but I haven't seen this to be all too true as I've had plenty of mates do track days with no issues.

I remember reading a thread somewhere on the net (could be here or on another Toyota forum) that the C series gearboxes don't do well in long the run with skipping gears although, I've never seen any real world evidence of it. I mean I have some mates that have done it no issues but I myself have never done it.

The problem with these MWR turbo kits is that they're designed for left hand drive cars. By the time you get the kit here shipped, you've likely forked out thousands and you'll need to spend even more to modify the kit to fit on your car. MWR still manufacture a turbo kit for the 2ZR but it's on back order until later this month so your best bet is to contact directly and ask about it.

Sadly I haven't got much information on the newer ZRE chassis. I would expect there would some aftermarket headers for them but they'll be a pain to find where as with the Sportivo there's literally 5 options that we can choose from. In terms of an exhaust system, I'd honestly go for a custom system. I mean the bolt on systems are awesome and you do it yourself at home if you have the knowledge and tools but a custom one can be done at anytime and by a professional too. I mean for a ZRE chassis, I reckon a 2.25" catback with a decent sized resonator and a good rear muffler will work a treat. You could always opt for a custom made header but this will end up costing a fair bit of coin to get a shop to do it unless you happen to find an aftermarket set and they can use that particular design and re-make it here. As far as I knew, 90dB was the limit for exhaust noise for newer model cars but it could've likely changed. Older model cars can have up to 95dB.

Thanks mate! Yeah if your based in cooler areas of NSW, it comes in handy in winter. First time I've used it since last year wasn't cold enough.

Spent last weekend doing some fixes. Earlier last week, I noticed that my drivers side headlight began showing moisture inside after over 3 months of the light being on the car. Thankfully the weekends weather was perfect and I was able to pull the headlight out and find some sections to add more sealant too which had seemingly changed since I originally did them. Let it set on the car and after some very cold mornings this week, some below 0 even the headlight has shown no signs of moisture again! Some rain has rolled through today so we'll see how it all pans out later today if it continues. Since resealing my passenger side headlight, I've had no issues with it either. Have finally got to use Bowden's Melt Down a fair bit recently. As the name suggests, it's a spray used to defrost parts of your car and it's safe on basically all materials. I've mostly just used it on my windows and side mirrors so far but it honestly works a treat! Some shots of -1 morning start earlier this week.