sashaa

I found this post actually: Seems that KYB Excel G are better than Monroe...

I've been told I need to change the front shocks on my 2000 corolla ae112 and want to do it myself. I want to buy good quality shocks but I'm not sure which ones to get. I've been looking at Monroe GT Gas, Monroe Monro-Matic Plus and KYB Excel-G. I've also thought about getting OEM shocks but not sure how easy they are to find and if they would be better quality or not. Does anyone have any recommendations? Cheers

Of course haha how about with all the lights on :)... Loving the green glow.

I'm back with the tutorial to bring back the ghost clock from the dead. I bought the Levine clock / AC buttons from Gumtree. It looks like this: It has a visible cross on the top, to the right of the numbers. The ghost clock on the other hand only has the vertical mark. Now, let's remove the dash from the car. 1. Remove the 3 AC twisters and the air (non)recycle knob to the right of the ghost clock. Unscrew 2 screws, one on the left and right most AC twister panels. 2. Starting from the bottom and moving to the top, carefully pull the dash away towards you, unclipping it. 3. Unplug the power from the ghost clock / AC buttons. 4. Plug in the real clock and check it lights up and all the buttons work, including the lights on the AC buttons. This will be a real pain to take out if it doesn't work in the end. 5. Unplug the 2 plugs (yellow and grey) and the light globe from the cigarette lighter / ash tray in that order. Yes the yellow plug does come off. The black knob connects to a light globe which I had trouble disconnecting but came off finally when the whole dash eventually dropped on the floor :). It helps to put the gear in reverse if you have a manual. Now you should have the whole dash disconnected. And are left with this: 6. (Optional) Unscrew the container while you're at it and clean off the 20+ years of dust and dirt. I had a squeaky container lid which I fixed with some oil on the coil/spring loops which sits on the left side. 7. Take out the ghost clock. This is a real pain. There are 4 clips on the ghost clock / AC buttons which you need to loosen by bending the plastic on the dash. The plastic should be pretty strong but be careful not to snap it. I got the top most clips holding the ghost clock out first from left to right from the point of view in front of the dash. Then afterwards the bottom two holding the AC buttons in. I recommend a pen lid or plastic watch band as every day items to help pry back the plastic. Be prepared for a 30 minute battle. 8. Swap the grey buttons on the ghost clock's AC buttons (right) with the black one's from the Levine unit (left). Otherwise, the black buttons won't match the rest of the dash. 8 9. Pop in the real clock with the grey buttons into the dash. This is starkingly easy compared to taking it out. 10. Put everything back in reverse order. Enjoy :).

Thanks Tony that video was fantastic. That led me to his other videos on the Corolla, in particular the "Corolla Interior Makover" Parts 1 and 2. Part 2 is where he puts in the clock (33:17-43:23) and discusses the slight differences between the ghost clock and real clock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCtc5F4fuhA Super happy now, I'm definitely going to try find that clock part online or at the local wreckers. And now thinking of taking the car apart as he did to clean it up hehe.

Yes you are right there is no plug for the black window. I am fairly convinced its just a filler bit of plastic although I was guessing that the same plug fed to both the "clock" and the A/C buttons. That image is a great find and I'm guessing that the clock there would have had buttons since the manual suggests it should: Btw here is an image of the dash cluster in the book with number 15 pointing to the (ghost) clock: Thanks for your help, I'm going to put my dash back together now... If anyone has the same car (Toyota Corolla Ascent Seca 2000 AE112R) with a clock please send an image of it from the front and behind.

That's possible, it just seems strange to put a shiny black oblong there in that case. Other than maybe it was more efficient for the manufacters to create the dashboard with and without the clock. Here's my dash cluster: I've pulled the bottom part out to inspect the "clock" or miscellaneous black shiny oblong. The radio is definitely the original one and it does have a clock in it (albeit it sets itself to 1:00 every time the engine turns on, which is another issue). It seems that the "clock" is connected to the A/C and fog buttons on the left of the dash cluster, as we see in this image: I've disconnected the power to the aircon buttons / clock as you can see above. Here's a closer image: It's not loose and I tried to take it out but couldn't. I also didn't manage to take off the dash cluster grey plastic to get a better image from behind since I couldn't manage to disconnect the cigarette lighter from its cables. If this isn't meant to be a clock at all I wonder if it's easy to put one in. It would be nice to have a clock there and/or fix the radio clock.

Hi Lance, I just bought the same car I believe (Toyota Corolla Ascent Seca 2000 Liftback) and have the exact same issue. There is a shiny area on the left of centre where the manual says a clock should be, but alas no time shows up. I think the clock may just need some souldering as I've seen online for the later models of the Corolla. But after taking apart the dashboard it seems that the clock is not so easy to take apart and is connected to the air conditioning buttons. I'm also curious how one was to set the time on these clocks if that was a clock after all. Just wondering if you made any progress in 2 years, I would love to have a working clock since the radio/cassette player clock resets to 1 everytime the engine turns on :P. From, Sasha.