brickpaver

Thanks Gary, Yep, those options were my first thought and may very well be my next move,... ONCE i find out how to remove the speedo/gauges cluster first of course and then get in behind for a look. Thats where Ive wondered if the same year 2011 SR5 dash would drop straight in....and plug atraight in. (IF I could find a SR5 cluster of course and even that has been a hopeless task so far). Apparently there IS a way of connecting up a dimmer switch in to the purpose included blank spot on the lower right of the dash but I've yet to find that one out. I believe that some of the wiring loom, including ths dimmer, DOES have blanked off wires,..blanked off for the SR but naturally used in the SR5. (70’s Ford used to do that between their Falcon 500 and their Fairmont models.) I'll see if I can remove the dash cluster. Cheers.

My apologies for bringing this topic up again. I raised it in here about a year ago but so far, still no success. The instrument cluster in my 2011 SR is almost impossible to read at a glance in daylight and even running on daytime headlights in the hope of reading the speedo or odometer at a glance is also next to hopeless, taking a good few seconds to re-adjust the eyes after looking out the windscreen . The speedo is so recessed in to the cluster that outside daylight puts the whole thing almost in to its own shadow, despite the vehicle lights being ‘on’ in an attempt to mame things brighter. No dimmer adjustment either with the fixed setting being only about 2/3rds brightness. For the life of me I will never understand why Toyota let such a comparably expensive vehicle be sold without having either a brighter fixed dash illumination, a brightness control (it has neither of these) or a decent cluster illumination setup, such as IS in the SR5. Toyota have apparently finally ‘seen the light’ in their 2014 and following models and HAVE given the SR a decently illuminated dash, not before time either because the previous SR models are next to useless in daytime. Does anyone know of a simplified method of either making the dash lighting much brighter or if the 2014 (or the SR5) dash cluster will interchange with the 2011 model. Cheers........Lance.

Thanks Gary, that gives me a bit more insight. I don't have a problem in driving as slow as necessary if road conditions require that. As someone else has said the same thing to me as well and if I have to get down to crawl speed then I will happily get down to crawl speed. I did three trips last year between Kalgoorlie and Karonie (117 k’s each way) and apart from a rougher stretch on the last 30 k’s to Karonie, it WAS a fairly easy 60 to 80 kph road. Ive never been any further east than Karonie and when I got asked if I'd like to join one or two other Hi-lux’s (4WD’s) on this trip, up from near Cocklebiddy to Haig and then along the trans road to Kalgoorlie next March, I virtually jumped at it,....explaining at the same time that I only had a standard 2WD Luxy, to which I've been assured that taking it slow where necessary will avoid any dramas. The photo is my hilux on the trans access road, about 80k’s out fom Kalgoorlie in 2017 At least a convoy of three is better than a lone treck of one and I don't think I would do it on my own anyway. I do have truck tyres on the ute, the same tyres as my Kal to Karonie trips last year and I have two spare wheels as well so I would hope that they would be adequate. Fortunately too, is the advantage of having Telstra towers right along the transline, as well as at Cocklebiddy, should mobile phone contact be needed. Weight will be down to a minimum. Couple of blankets. Spare wheels, tools, other spare stuff, waeco frudge/freezer and cooking stuff, should cover it......I'll come back to Adelaide then on the bitumen. 😄 Cheers Lance

I don't know if this is a normal sort of thing but is it possible (or advisable) to fit a lift kit to my 2011 Hilux SR 2WD. I’m going back over to WA next year and planning on some dirt travel from the Eyre Highway at Cocklebiddy, up to the trans railway line and then to follow the trans access road i to Kalgoorlie. i know that the trans access road is okay for the ute, having done some of it three times last year but rge track between Haig diwn to the Eyre Highway at Cocklebiddy is somewhat unknown at this stage, even though some have told me that it's okay if it's taken carefully. I just wonder if a lift kit would give me a maybe necessary greater ground clearance. Cheers. Lance.

As far as I can see, it appears to be a ‘stand alone’ unit...separate to the radiator itself.

I have the 2003 Avalon Vxi, ..the model below the Grande apparently with all the bells and whistles except the sunroof and the GPS dvd/radio. Everything else in this car is absolute peaceful luxury and I wholeheartedly concur with you in singing its praises. Its only just hit 148,000 k’s and I just LOVE driving it.......now to your question. I have a 17 foot Jayco poptop with a tare weight of just over 1200 kg and by the time we minimally load up for a family of four, that weight will sneak up to between 1450 and 1500 kg. In spite of having had the Jayco for six years now, circumstances have been that we have only taken it away three times from our home in Adelaide. to Mt. Gambier,..Pt. Pirie and Broken Hill. I do have a transmission cooler on the Avalon which I always believed to be standard, even though the car never had a tow bar or electric brake controller on it until I had them fitted,.... but now after reading the previous replies here, I’m beginning to wonder if mine may have been fitted by the previous one elderly owner,.....I will never know. The point however is that the Avalon towed the loaded van beautifully, including the continual climb up the Mt. Barker Road to Crafers before the road began to level out again. I never got below 65 kph going up that hill and the overall fuel average over the entire return trip was still 17 mpg (I still calculate in the old imperial mpg method)..quite good for towing that weight behind me but then, once we were up on a steady 80/90 kph, the van towed like it was on rails, as if it wasnt even there. No harm to the trans and of course no overheating either. The same positive outcomes also applied to the orher two trips away. The Avalon performed to perfection and smooth quiet comfort,....the ideal long distance tow vehicle.

Thanks for the reply Ashley. i think that by the fact that ALL the lights and dash lights go off and then back on together, I can safely rule out the globes and fuses themselves, particularly as it’s only the high beam doing this occasional off / on again hiccup. Battery terminals are fully tightened, as are the alternator connections as well. I do know that an overloaded headlight relay will cut lights out but Ive had this car 7 years, nothing has been changed with the lights or electrical system, other than a brand new alternator being fitted 2 years ago and everything apart from these three instances spread over about 2 or so weeks works perfectly. It’s going to be a frustrating elimination process trying to find the cause because all the obvious search points have been eliminated and as I said, paying an auto electrician $125 an hour to search the obvious, doesn't do a lot for my limited pension bank balance. My last resort will of course be an auto electrician but in the meantime, I will just have to drive around on low beam.while I keep searching. Cheers Lance

Just in the last few weeks when driving at night in my 2003 Toyota Avalon and when I have gone from low to high beam headlights, there has occasionally been a one second pause of no lights at all (including dash lights, which would also include thepark lights) before high beam has flickered once and then come on,....and stayed on. I have been able to go back to low beam quite normally but when I went to high beam again, the same one second and flicker delay repeated itself again. I live in country South Australia and because low beam seemed okay I just drove the rest of the way home on low and parked the car, intending to look at it or find someone the following day For the following couple of weeks however, the problem didnt show itself and the headlights behaved quite normally between both beams........but that was until last night as I drove the dark single lane Thiele Highway between Kapunda and Freeling,...I went from low to high beam again and suddenly ALL the lights went off, which is NOT good at night on a black country road and suddenly unable to see a single thing and to see if there was anywhere to pull over off the road. i was starting to worry, when the headlights suddenly came back on again, to low beam so I drove the remaining 17 k’s home on low beam. Ive wriggled all the wires around this morning but with no effect and I cant imagine there suddenly being a fault in the steering column stalk that houses the high/low beam switch. Does the Avalon have factory fitted headlight relays because a ‘relay fault’ would be one if my first thoughts on a cause but the fact that I lose ALL the lights at the same time when I hit high beam, seems to kill that theory. Surely the parkers, wouldn't be affcted by a headlight relay. I’m trying to avoid going to an auto electrician and be up for $125 an hour for him to go ‘fishing’ fir a fault. Cheers Lance.

Thanks Conrod. I did actually have the same thought, that there would be taped up wiring in back there somewhere. I need to gently remove the dash and have a look. Cheers

Thanks Hiro, my gut feeling was that the next size up might go some way to correcting the speedo. Now if someone who has done it can perhaps tell me that 16” wheels will in fact fix it without causing any side issues, I will start looking for a set of 16”s straight away,....probably a set of mags. Would I be correct in assuming that the SR5, in sitting higher off the ground than the SR, has a different suspension setup and 16” wheels, in which case, would SR5 mag wheels fit straight on to my SR. Cheers.

Conrod, the bullbar in your photo looks just like I visualise a good bullbar should look like,....unlike the ‘genuine’ bars that I’m referring to that appear to have a much lower front section when sitting on a standard size cab. I’ll try and find a photo that I have of the one that I fitted and then removed again. I forgot to mention before that my speedo is already out of whack by 7 or 8% so I am constantly using my GPS speed read to make sure I don’t tempt a speeding fine by overcompensating. I live out in the sticks a bit so when my speedo reads 100kph,..my actual speed (via the GPS) hovers around 93kph or if I’m up on the limit of 110kph (GPS)..my speedo reading will be nudging 119 to 120kph. Im not sure which way this would go and understanding that a change of wheel size (say from 15” up to 16”) would alter the speedo reading somewhat,.... would that alteration bring the speedo back closer to a true reading or would it go the other way. T.I.A......Cheers.

I have just made a second unsuccessful attempt to fit a genuine Toyota bullbar to my 2011 Hilux. Last year I purchased a good s/h bullbar with all the fittings and fitted it to my Hilux and while it looked nice and neat afterwards, It did appear to look a bit too low in the front of the vehicle,..almost too front heavy,...so I took it off and sold it again (for a nice profit). A reputable towbar and bullbar retailer told me afterwards that I must have had the 4WD version,..inferring that there was a different and slightly different bar for my SR 2WD and that I should hunt up one of those. He of course quoted me the price to supply and fit a brand new one (genuine) but the price of that frightened the pants off me. Today I went to look at another genuine bullbar which while it was the exact same design, it was supposedly a bit smaller so therefore SHOULD hopefully be what I’m looking for,.....unfortunately it wasn’t smaller, it was in fact the same size as the previous one so it wasn’t going to be any better. Now my question is,...would I achieve a better result if I had bigger wheels, say 16” or17” in place of my current 15” standard wheels or should I look around for a different type of bullbar that suits the vehicle. I intend doing a few more trips across the Nullarbor to Kalgoorlie, Perth and back over the next few years and apart from the advantage of having a decent bullbar, it would also give me somewhere to hang my pair of very bright 9” Cibie Spotlights, in place of the comparatively ‘average’ 7” Hellas that I’m currently using. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers,.................Lance S.

Well I’ve tried three Toyota wreckers so far and NONE of them have a cluster out of any later model Hilux’s or Klugers, in fact none of them were able to offer any advice either so I’m still stuck on the bottom.

I do have a Tekonsha controller in my car and towing a 1.3 tonne poptop van, I have had no dramas with it, which is why I wanted to go with the same brand controller in my ute. I do of course understand the need for it to be fitted correctly and if it isn't a straight forward procedure then I would not even think of attempting it myself. The other option that I do have is a controller bracket supplied and fitted and wired up, to the ute where all I would need to do then is simply unplug the controller unit itself from the car and plug it in to the bracket in the ute. I've had a registered Tow bar and 4WD company quote me $180 for this,. supply and fit. That is obviously the way to go if for safety reasons, I don't try to fit it myself.

I want to fit a Tekomseh electric brake controller to my 2011 hilux, which does then present two or three questions. DO I get it fitted by an auto electrician at some of the strangely hidious prices that I've been quoted, ($150 to $225 labour only) OR,...do I fit it myself, using the presumably included wiring diagram. I am personally tempted to fit it myself seeing as I am assuming that it shouldn't be too difficult as long as I 'follow the bouncing ball'. Thirdly,... is there an 'ideal' spot under the dash to mount the unit, as I've been told to be aware of air bag bits and pieces under there. Cheers. Lance

Just a quick question as I'm planning a trip in April across the Nullarbor to W.A. and return, towing a 17 ft Jayco poptop behind my 2011 Hilux dual cab (104,000) klm).. The unladen caravan tare weight is a shade over 1200 kg but by the time we toss some gear in there, it'll probably hit close to 1400 kg. (ish). Add on about 300 kg to 400 kg combined people and 'other stuff' weight inside the ute and that's about the total weight over all.......apart from the ute itself. Does anyone know if the 2011 (auto) has a transmission cooler as standard and if not, should I have one fitted,....or is one even necessary. We'll be doing about 8,000 klm's over the whole trip and probably not exceeding 90 kph anyway. (100 kph limit when towing anything in W.A.) We do have another two Toyotas that we can choose from for the trip, one is the wifes 2008 Kluger (200,000 klm)with electric brake controller and the same question re: a trans cooler ? or my 2003 Avalon VXi (140,000 klm) which is fully set up for H/D towing, including a trans cooler and electric brake control and drives like a silent dream. Thanks in advance for any advice. Lance.

I have a 2003 VXi (which probably makes no difference to the problem in this case). My interior light suddenly won't come on when any of the doors are opened and neither does the left front door courtesy light come on. (Right front door courtesy light still works though and the front map lights both still work). Is it just coincidence then that both these lights seem to have stopped working at the same time, which to me would almost certainly rule out two blown globes at the same time as being the cause,......or,......are they in fact maybe both under the same fuse. I've only noticed it tonight so I will be checking the fuse block tomorrow but just wondered if the two lights are in fact linked through the same fuse. Thanks. Lance.

All I can do now is regularly look at the master cylinder for any signs of leaking or loss,... but at least the warning light is working normal again so that should be my first warning if anything shows up in the interim.

All tinally sorted out. Had the car up on the hoist for the service so git them to drain and change the brake fluid,....bleed the brakes of course and,.....problem solvered.! Apparently the fluid that came out wasnt all that flash but after the change, all went back to working perfectly.

Thanks Hiro, that actually makes a lot of sense and is right along my own line of thinking. I am a bit surprised however that the Toyota spare parts bloke didn't seem to have this bit of information in one of his reference links on his computer screen or in his own general knowledge,....oh well, maybe he was new to the job and this was only his first week of learning the ropes. The car is actually due in for a service in two days time so because the fluid hasn't been changed since I've owned the car (the past 60,000 k's, I suspect that a brake fluid change wouldn't go astray at the same time as the service. Just might fix the whole problem. I'll post the results after it's all done Cheers Lance.

I have a 2003 VXi Mk 3 (lovely motor car), currently 136K but for the past 2 years (20,000 k's approx) I have had the brake warning light coming on and off at different times but more often during or after turning a corner and then straightening up again, when the warning light will come on betore a corner, go off as I turn the corner and then come back on again once I'm going straight again,..... or sometimes the other way around. For all intents and purposes, it's like a 'moving fluid' is triggering an on/off switch but the only fluid here is in the brake fluid reservoir, something that I checked several times from the very first time the light began turning itself on. Naturally I continue to check that the hand brake foot pedal is always right off because both foot brake pedal and low brake fluid level are indicated through the same warning light. It is obviously only a connection problem and not a safety issue because everything still works as it should. A mechanic check has clarrified that as well. There are two wires that run to the side of the master cylinder reservoir which I assumed would connect to a switch that I coukd replace, assuming that to be the cause, but after much searching at a Toyota spare parts desk, the bloke there could find nothing in his parts book to indicate a replacement part and even his own visual check of my car couldn't tind anything either. .The 'problem' now is that for the past 6 months and even though everything is still working fine and the brake fluid level is right up (no visible leaks anywhere) that warning light is not going off but staying ON the whole time. Any ideas on where to look now would be greatly appreciated. Lance.

Thanks for all your help. First chance I get, I'll get myself down to one of a few Toyota wreckers that we have here in Adelaide and see what I can scare up. They could probably also give me the precise information on what will fit and what wont. I'd LOVE to put a Kluger cluster in there and hook everything up but that maybe asking too much. Thanks again, I'll post the results of whatever I find out so as it might help someone else down the track. Cheers 🍻

Having never done it before, how fiddly is it to remove or get in behind the dash cluster. If your later SR has the brighter cluster and the SR5 naturally has the brighter cluster,.....and for that matter so does my wifes 2008 KXS Kluger have a brilliantly lit cluster, which comes straight on with the ignition and illuminates virtually everything, as if every single number and pointer has its own globe..........with all these apparent 'options', would a full swap be possible, in which case a visit to a Toyota wreckers might be in order.?

Would a Toyota spare parts dealer be able to add any information perhaps via a Toyota workshop manual.?

Thanks for those replies. I see that they are earlier dates,..2008, 2009. etc that cover the subject. My SR is 2011so obviously Toyota still chose not to have this rotary dimmer switch seemingly until your 2013 model. It will forever baffle me why it was never fitted right from the start. One of those earlier replies made the point by asking the question, 'why would anyone want to dim these dash lights anyway' and of course he was perfectly correct,...because the damn things aren't bright enough to begin with, they seem to be set fixed at a point about 2/3 to 3/4 of full brightness,..which was the the main point of my question,.....to get them to be a whole lot brighter, particularly in daylight or sunset and then the odometer to be brighter at night. I just hoped that a dimmer switch (as I called it) could also make them brighter. Then back to the other part of the original enquiry,... Is there ANY other way of making them brighter, even if it means a fixed method of some sort like brighter globes or brighter illumination from in back of the dash or removing whatever the part is that sets the current brightness level and so allowing the fullest light wattage. Conversely then, would a 2013 (or later) dash cluster go into a 2011 as a swap and still hook up to the existing connectors on everything.