dave262

Why would the drive train need complete removal just to use the metal pipe over the one with a rubber join? Just taking a quick look at it from the side I can't see why fitting a proper metal pipe would take any extra time over the rubber one... The main concern I have in relation to the replacement hose, is if they didn't pick up whatever issue caused the leak in the original hose - then what's to say there isn't another issue with the new one? Having a rubber hose, with a clip on either end sounds more like three single points of failure - as opposed to a one-piece metal tube.

I just arranged a service for my Aurion due to the Intermediary Spline issue, as I have that exact "thud" feeling in the steering that just suddenly appeared as I pulled out of a petrol station a few weeks ago. I asked them about the oil line, and they said there is now an official recall for it from Toyota. When I asked about it though, they said Toyota has identified a fault in the rubber of the old hose - but Toyota will only be replacing it with yet ANOTHER rubber hose. I'd rather have one less part to go wrong than to risk it rupturing in 5 yrs time... Is it really too much to ask for a fully metal pipe, given the entire pipe doesn't need to flex at all?

Could also be poor quality fuel? I have found the responsiveness to be particularly poor when using no-name servo 91-octane (it was an emergency refill - normally only use 98 octane!). The gearbox does also have learning capabilities, so if you drive it like a granny much of the time it does tend to be a little more reluctant to take off or drop down a gear.

This was actually issued as a recall now? Last I heard it was just a "repair when it happens" type replacement...

I drive about half an hour to Patterson Cheney in Dandenong from my place whenever I want a service. Every time I go there, the car comes back cleaned, vacuumed and as good as new with all maintenance performed to perfection. I have never found even a single drop of oil or other fluids accidentally spilled like I have seen from local dealers. If there is an issue with something on the car, they go through great lengths to investigate it and even try to get a response from Toyota where required. Never had a bad word to say about this dealer...

If the metal line will void the warranty, why would Toyota even make or sell the part?? Not to mention that both ends of the pipe are attached to the same physical object... so where is the issue again? Gotta question which desk-jockey came up with that theory at Toyota!...

They don't do tyres any good either... drove all the way until the NSW border, and checked the tyres - all good. Got to Sydney and checked tyres again - they looked like I had been driving on sandpaper for a few thousand K! Simply terrible. Not to mention the road noise, lumpy ride and generally glaring reflection from the sun on the pale concrete! I think I would have to totally agree with DJKOR on that one...

Mine is the same as this too - I've had it downhill on a freeway get as high as about 130 and it still hadn't dropped down a gear or anything... if anything it still has very slight throttle too. Problem with the Aurion though is that at 130 the car still feels so smooth, that you don't notice till looking at the speedo!

The problem I've always seen with the fog lights is that so many cars out there seem to have them incredibly poorly aimed! If you ever see one of them coming up the hill towards you, it is quite frequent to get dazzled worse than from the normal headlights. I only ever use the foglights in the areas where there are no street lights, just so I can make sure I don't hit anything low-lying on the road (such as branches... bad experience!). The moment I am back into an area where there is more than one street light nearby, they go straight off. Saw a beamer get pulled over the other day along burwood highway for driving with foglights on - so they seem to enforce it in VIC too. Mind u... it was a modded BMW with HID in the foglights... so could have just been that!

It would definitely be interesting to know what they did... it is definitely better shifting. Just came back from a drive around mount dandenong, and I swear the transmission behaved just brilliantly. Previously whenever I would slow down for a corner, it would always drop down a gear too late (if using D), then take too long to change back up to accelerate - or just during take off from the lights with your foot down, it would reach 5500 RPM or so in first, then the lag would be so severe that u will get thrown forward in the seat, then back again as it changes to second.. not to mention the loss of traction due to the sudden momentum change! Sometimes these "intelligent" transmissions seem too intelligent for their own good I think <_<

Just had the car put in for its 30,000km service the other day (at 27,000km), and after having the car back for a few weeks - I have noticed that the lag between 1st and 2nd gear changes has completely disappeared! It's completely baffling me as it was the one single most irritating fault I had always found, in what otherwise is a great car. No matter how it was driven, whether in S or D, it always had that lag between those changes. Is it possible that after being reset during service, the ECU has simply not completely learned the "smooth" shift mappings that cause the laggy changes, or could something else be behind the change??? The only difference on my part is moving from Shell V-Power to the Shell 95 Ethanol...

Not to mention that it is a SAFETY feature and designed to contribute to improved handling... switching it off really just means you will just hop anyway rather than do burnouts. I seem to recall someone here mentioning that it actually improved their track time to leave it on? Either that or my memory is just skewed from another 11 hour work day and no lunch... <_<

The only thing I could think of is that potentially the restricted air flow could have changed the fuel mixture somewhat. Maybe appearing in the form of pinging, or VVT-I timing change or another mechanism attempting to compensate for the mixture? Just a theory, but the Aurion does have a fair bit of "tweaks" the ECU can perform on the engine in normal operation...

Love the third pic... the front looks quite mean, but at the same time has a bit of an "exclusive" look like a merc... Not a fan of the back lights though - the current ones are way better! Wonder if the body kits would be interchangeable? Or whether it's even worth the effort...

As the Aurion has a fully electronic throttle controlled by ECU, I'm not to sure whether holding throttle during starting would do much. When the car starts, it will automatically bring the engine RPM slightly higher on first start anyway - especially when cold. Even if the garage says the battery is okay, sometimes they can go bad prematurely. Maybe get the battery checked by an auto electrician to be sure. Some insurance companies will test it properly for free too. One of my cars used to take about 12 cranks to start... but turned out the battery had a faulty cell that had shorted out. Car takes only 3 cranks to start now.

Unless they had the TRD driveline in every model of the Aurion that can cope with so much power, having lift in an already well-refined and powerful engine would be quite unmanageable I would imagine. I'd rather see AWD in a new model than higher engine output.

Dunnoh about anyone else... but the "oil tank" title really had me tripped out! Never heard it called that before...

Not too sure how much Nitrogen would really do in tyres... given natural air has quite a high content of Nitrogen anyway. I'd rather spend the money on an oil change or something I think. Made it to and back from Sydney quite some time ago, but decided it wasn't worth replacing the tyres even after the long drives - and being led in a 300km circle by the GPS (TomTom really has no clue... sent me to Wollongong, then lost signal and sent me back to Sydney - ended up going the whole way back to Vic using the Melways instead!). Nearly time for the service I think though, as it's starting to run a bit rough - which is where my $50 will be going!

I'd always imagined having the coolant flowing through the TB was to assist with fuel vaporisation as the car warms up? If that is the case, I would imagine it is beneficial during car startup, but become a hindrance when the car is warm - as it is just heating up the air entering the engine through the ambient TB heat... Maybe something that would work better is a solenoid valve that shuts the flow through the TB as the car warms up?

Check the aircon pipe in the engine bay, which runs on the drivers side right against the edge of the car frame. I had this exact rattle that was annoying the s*** out of me whenever I started the car for about 8 months, and after about 5 visits to the dealers and being unable to reproduce the issue, I resorted to hunting it down myself. I eventually found the aircon pipe only clearing the frame by about 1mm and got suspicious. After 15 minutes with a giant blade screwdriver, I was able to bend the bracket slightly to clear the frame by about 0.5cm. Haven't had a single rattle since!

The process goes something like this: 10 minutes to completely vacuum the interior and dust down plastic surfaces 40 minutes to completely wash and dry exterior 20 minutes to wipe down door sills, door jams, hinge areas, boot surrounds, engine bay 10 minutes to clean interior and exterior glass 10 minutes to wipe down all wheels and tire shine So all up it can take me around 1.5 hours to completely clean my car. It sometimes takes less, sometimes takes more. It all depends on how dirty it gets. The interior doesn't get too dirty, but the door sills get quite dirty. In the Summer months, my fortnightly waxing adds a good 3 hours to my cleaning process. I love keeping my car clean though. That said, the interior surprisingly stays pretty clean with the windows down. It's not like a dust storm going through the car or anything. It's just habit for me. The moment I start the car, my immediate first thing to do is put the front windows all the way down. Anyways watersmj, to keep a response to the original question so as to not deviate from the topic much, try looking into tires designed as a touring tire. Those are usually aimed towards comfort which also results in lower road noise. Far out DJ... I like my car, but I don't think I could muster up the time or motivation to do something like that every weekend! When you're working 52 hour weeks, even 1.5 hours on a weekend is like precious gold! When I give mine a clean (approx once every month unfortunately :( ) it seems to just get dirty the very next day - or even the same night (rain etc - I have nowhere under cover to park it), so it gives even less motivation to do that more often *sigh*. Anyways... back on topic - I've had the Dunlop 300Es on my Aurion Touring for about 26,000km now, and they seem quite decent. Very quiet ride, and decent traction. Maybe they do wear out a little fast, and are perhaps a little bit soft, but usually there is a tradeoff between handling and comfort. I personally prefer comfort, and there is always the passengers to consider too - given Aurion is still a "family" car!

Out of curiosity - how does one manage to blow one outlet, then the other? They do have maximum ratings written around the outlets for a reason!

I'd love to know why they would create such a pointless pipe that has a rubber hose in the middle - given the pipe doesn't flex as it's all attached to the engine! I just found my Aurion has this same part, and there are already signs of the rubber pipe starting to become damaged. I might just get the part separately and have them install it at next service, or see if I can get it replaced under warranty as I have contacts in this particular dealer who might be able to help. I think it's simply too risky to just wait for it to occur... I don't want to be seen like a typical Holden or Ford that is seen constantly broken down on the side of the road with the bonnet up! Not to mention the mess leaking oil would create through the still-shiny engine bay :P I don't think going by what DJKOR has said that it is worth the pain of trying to DIY... I got the Aurion with the hopes that I would no longer have to do what I despise doing so much on the ancient old Mitsubishi Magna!

Might not be the easiest process, but in the end the transmission was designed to have a long service life with little maintenance. I'd rather have a transmission that needs less maintenance and low risk of overfilling than one which is simpler to change yet requires regular maintenance. You will find that a majority of Aurion owners here have had very few issues in terms of mechanical auto transmission faults, which is a credit to the quality of the design. I think a manual Aurion would be nice, but being a FWD - I think it would be impossible to maintain good traction easily with the amount of power, especially since even an auto is capable of easily losing traction. If the Aurion was AWD on the other hand... then manual would be a great option.

I had always thought there was a shift lock solenoid in place to prevent this? If it's anything like our old Honda Oddysey, it would lock the ability to change gears into P or R while the car was above 5km/h. Below this speed, you would hear a clunk as the solenoid would disengage. Does the Aurion actually have this? Too scared to go and test it myself!