AurionX2

Wouldn't recommend installing noname hardware purchased off fleabay. Go for a proper headunit like Kenwood, Sony, Pioneer or Alpine with the Aerpro wiring harness and fascia kit that suits your car and you'll have a proper audio setup.

Good point Tony, will check the wiring. If it's related to temperature variation it could be anything, really.

Last Thursday evening, as I picked up my son from training (football training is back on, yeah!) we heard a ding sound in the dash, then CEL came on, then check VSC, then progressively went from bad to worse: headunit shut down, the clock started to dim and the dash turn into a Christmas tree. Got my son to pull over (he's on his Ls) *without turning the engine off*, got behind the wheel and limped it back home. Pulled up in the driveway, turned the engine off, tried to turn it back on, nothing. Dead, 6 months old Supercharge Gold Plus battery was dead flat. Tested the alternator on Sunday with a professional tester and got some interesting results: with the engine cold, right after starting it, the alternator would push 13.7-13.9V, which is in spec. As soon as the engine started to warm up it went down to below 12. Repeated the test with the battery from my wife's car, same result. So yeah, just ordered a new alternator and bought the drive belt from Repco, looks like this Saturday I'll be pretty busy...

Oh man, that Aurion looks fantastic. I really enjoyed the South Island holiday there few years back. Kiwi, you have some really great drives down there in South, I'd take that beauty on a day drive to Akaroa and back, that firm suspension should feel at home on those bends 😁

I'd say he'll wait a while 😁 why fix it if ain't broken? He's got the pump as cheap insurance, makes little sense to pull the existing one out if it does the job. Once it'll star seeping it's a slightly different story, but even then there's little danger to cook up the engine. Routine fluid level checks should pick up any coolant loss and listening every so often to noises coming from the engine bay should help to isolate the bearing noise of death coming from the water pump. I'm yet to hear of a Camry or an Aurion killing the engine because of dropping its coolant, they're pretty well engineered and can cop a fair bit of abuse.

Getting to the heater core hoses isn't that easy and even if I had an air compressor in the garage, which I don't, I think it's too much hassle just to have 100%, pure single vendor fluid, be it Toyota or Nulon. After the next drain and refill I estimate I'd get close to 95% Nulon, which is good enough for me considering the 2 years radiator drain cycle.

I think I'll stick with drain / refill for the time being and keep using Nulon. I plan to do it every second year and it's due next year in June/July. Doing a full flush is a bit tricky since you'll never be able to drain the engine block and the heater core completely and the makes the use of premix problematic, because you'll end up with a concentration that's not exactly 50/50. Drain the radiator and refilling it every 2 or 3 years is good preventative maintenance. If there'll be any failure, like the water pump failing again, or the thermostat sticking, will let you know 🙂

Check the battery terminals too and how clean the connectors are.

Tony, the water pump failed on my 2008 Aurion, it started leaking around 121.000k mark from memory and went completely one morning, 11.000k later. At the time the car had the original Toyota SLLC factory fill, but I can't blame it for the pump failure, I understand there have been some dodgy pump batches pre-2009. As part of water pump replacement service the mechanic refilled with Castrol, that's probably what he had in his shop compatible with Toyota pink. Right now the car nears 187.000k and, touch wood, the replacement pump - Gates I think - is holding up well on a Castrol Radicool and Nulon Premium Long Life salad, seasoned with Toyota SLLC leftovers 🙂 My wife's 2013 Aurion is still on the factory fill.

Toyota SLL gets a lot of praise and that's probably what I would have used if it wasn't for the water pump failure and the mechanic using Castrol. I'm now using the 8 years / 500.000k Long Life from Nulon, it was compatible with the frankenbrew I had in the cooling system at the time so I said, why not? Got it on sale, couldn't resist 🙂 Speaking of coolant change, that Lisle spill free funnel is absolutely amazin for bleeding the air out of the system.

Yeah nah, they're junk. Shell out $100-150 more and buy a decent unit from the likes of Alpine, Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer etc on sale. Got my Sony AX5000 for 450 during an Autobarn sale last Christmas, solid build, great sound on the stock speakers and AA integration. The problems with these cheap Chinese units are mainly the build quality and the lack of local technical support, which you'll need eventually. Your car, your money, but I'd avoid them.

My 2008 coughed up its water pump some years ago and the mechanic put in Castrol Radicool, then after about 2 years I did a drain and refill with Nulon red long life. Next year is due for another drain and refill, will probably stick with the same Nulon.

Hans, I haven't changed the factory unit on my wife's 2013 yet (it's planned, though!), but changed it on my 2008 with a Sony XAV-AX5000 and can't be happier with the result. You're absolutely right to look at established brands, I wouldn't recommend going for a crappy joying, eonon or similar, even if they promise you twelve cores CPU, the latest and greatest Android and support for zillions of apps, as a car headunit they're rubbish. Buy a proper one from Pioneer, Alpine, Clarion, Sony or Kenwood and it'll run trouble free and last much longer. Go on the Aerpro website, select your car and the desired headunit and it should return the components you need. Then go online and find the best price for the kit. Or go into an auto store, give them the details and see what they can do for you. If you're not tempted to diy you can also go to a specialised store like e.g. Street Sound Vision we have in Melbourne and check their offer which includes installation, shortlist the ones with good reviews and recommended by other clients, word of mouth goes a long way😉

If you feel like dropping the pan you should probably replace the filter, the gasket is a must. If not, just several drain and fills should be ok for your piece of mind. Some service is certainly better than no service.

Yep, looks like your dipstick. The drain plug is down the bottom of the pan, also on the passenger side. Check out this guy video, clear and concise: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZVof7fEcs

20ten, u250e should have a dipstick, from memory you'll find it on the passenger side in the engine bay and you should be able to refill through the dipstick hole using a funnel if it's the same as the 4 speed version. And that 33.99aud filter kit isn't Toyota OEM. Don't bother with it, for the filter and gasket I'd go with Toyota, try to get a quote from your nearest dealer.

Tony, I have never had a problem mixing oils, all I care about is the price per litre, everything else is marketing. Magnatec, Ten10 zinc, additive packs and you name it, it's all marketing, my cars couldn't care less about all that, all they care about is regular changes with quality filters and the oil should be in spec :) Great oil Shell Ultra. Speaking of oils, for people in Melbourne Bunnings in Vermont South has been selling for some time now all sorts of Valvoline products, including filters and oils at very good prices. Including the famous Valvoline Maxlife ATF for $34.99 which is compatible with Toyota WS and a lot of people swear by it. Think Maxlife is even made locally? For Synpower I've been using valvolinepromotions site, where you upload the proof of purchase and they send you a $20 EFTPOS card you can use anywhere. That's how I ended up buying Valvoline Synpower 5w30 and 5w40 for under $18 per bottle!

Is it OCD? That's after going through the Valvoline Synpower 5w30 and 5w40 bottles. Very good oil this Synpower btw. My wife's 2013 is on Nulon 5w30 exclusively, but on mine I put whatever I can get my hands on from the stash, almost always end up with frankenbrews from 2, sometimes 3 different grades or manufacturers. Damn 6.1 litres, whoever came up with this capacity :))

You should be fine with 5w40. On my wife's 2013 Aurion I'm using 5w30, on my 2008 I've been using 5w30, 10w30 and 5w40 and they're both just fine. Currently going through the Valvoline Synpower 5w40 bottles from my oil stash, then I'll probably switch to Castrol Edge 10w30. As long as you change the oil and filter on time you'll be ok with any group III synthetic oil, chase the sales and stock up when you feel like. And don't skimp on the filters, over here Toyota OEM from the nearby dealer here happen to be cheaper than Ryco.

If I could do it, anyone can 🙂 Here's the link to my post on this topic, it's on the previous page on this topic: There are heaps of other, much better documented articles on how to service the U660E POS, my favourite one is by far the TN topic here: https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/diy-2007-2011-v6-and-2010-2011-i4-camry-6-speed-auto-transmission-flush-with-pics.576361/

It might, that's a very brave call 🙂 If you want it done properly do the full pan drop, filter change and fluid flush. But few drain / refills should also do the trick. Since you haven't serviced the transmission yet you don't know anything about the fluid level, so regardless of the method chosen - drain/refill or flush - it's probably worth spending the extra time and go through the fluid check procedure at the first service. For subsequent spill and fills you can skip it and put back in the same amount you drained.

Yes, it will! Been tightening by hand the filter housings on my both Aurions for quite a few years now, did perhaps 8-10 oil changes and NEVER had any oil leaking past the o-ring! When it stops, it stops and that is it, done! Oh and I'm not a strong person, but I'm always making sure I'm positioned in such a way under the car so that I can apply just enough force without hurting my wrist or my dodgy back. For housing removal I'm using Ryco RST206, looks like the one to the left in your photos.

Thanks Tony, but I've got so many I need to get rid of them to make room for the stacks of toilet paper and tissues, everyone is hoarding everything these days and storage space is shrinking 😀 For these retainer clips the part code is 90467-07211

Imran, are you in Melbourne? I'm based in the NE suburbs and have a fistful of those retainer clips in my shed, PM me if you want 7 of them, it'll cost you the trip only.

The fuel light will come on well before you'd run your tank dry, so can't really tell how many ks you'd get on a full tank. But if your fuel consumption stays around 7.3-7.5l/100km, as I'd expect, you should be all good. My best ever figure on a long drive was 6.9l/100k, otherwise I usually sit in the low-mid 7s.