RelishGTP

i've got a touring series Gen 4 camry. As far as i have researched it has some kind of upgraded suspension over standard. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me exactly what the difference is please?

It's sports suspension for the Touring.

I think the Vienta's have upgraded as well but not for sport for comfort instead

I'm not sure if the struts themselves are any different, possibly a bit stiffer and better quality however the springs are stiffer and lower ride hight a bit.

Anyway aftermarket gear is avaliable and in most cases better quality than oem suspension whether it's base model,sports or comfort so it's a bit of a moot point really.

fair enuff. my car has king springs. as i'm second owner i do not know full history. the springs weren't pointed out to me as a 'feature' of the vehicle when i bought it. anyway I highly doubt these were stock (could be wrong), but i am scratching my head a bit as to why they were replaced since the ride height doesn't seem any different from stock ?? surely toyota oem would have been better than woeful saggy kings..?

Well they were probably replaced because the originals were shot...what year is your car and how many K's has it got.

Also you can get king springs that keep normal ride height,sports low and super low so it just depends on personal preference.

I replaced my springs with King's Superlows a few years ago and was pretty dissapointed with the result as they came reccomended, However what I didn't know at the time is that my struts were completely rooted and couldn't controll the springs at all.

A year later replaced the struts and stayed with the same set of King's now she rides perfect,nice and stiff to throw around corners but still smooth as for comfort.

King's are way better than oem, Toyota springs are soggy as and all the people I know with Tourer's on other forums have aftermarket suspension some being King's others being Coilovers.

Chances are and speaking from experience you need new struts if your suspension is soggy and you already know your springs have been replaced with something better.

i've got a touring series Gen 4 camry. As far as i have researched it has some kind of upgraded suspension over standard. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me exactly what the difference is please?

It's sports suspension for the Touring.

I think the Vienta's have upgraded as well but not for sport for comfort instead

I'm not sure if the struts themselves are any different, possibly a bit stiffer and better quality however the springs are stiffer and lower ride hight a bit.

Anyway aftermarket gear is avaliable and in most cases better quality than oem suspension whether it's base model,sports or comfort so it's a bit of a moot point really.

err

why am i the only one getting around 8-9L/100km? any1 here with the old non vvti engine getting those figures?

what i usually do is fill up till full, which is 70L (not sure if its 70L usable or 60L usable with 10L on red light) and reset the tripo. ive done this time and time again and i always achieve more than 750km with 40%highway and 60% suburb/city driving. been using vpower for 2mths.

ive achieved more than 1000kms with 80Litres whilst drivin up 2 lakes entrance.

You and me both.

I get around 750km to the 70L tank (rural driving) when I give it stick and blast the A/C, and around 1000km on smoother conservitive (dull) driving.

Either way great economy for a V6, I do however only ever fill up with Vortex 98 though so that probably helps the cause.

its kind of hard getting excited about the camry, my avalon is as dull as watching grass grow but i love her for being so darn reliable.

And engine so smooth...

My GTP Sportivo and I disagree with you about the watching grass grow thing.

And believe me you can mod the hell out of a Camry to get some more excitement out of it.

A few examples spring to mind... got boost.

Even the lesser amount of mod's done to mine get a lot of surprised reactions... she performs better than most would think.

Before you start to inspect your wiring there is a large chance that the door switches are getting stuck.

Open all your doors and if the light is still inactive make your way around the car and give all the door switches a good push a few times.

After 13 years or less of people slamming doors on these switches they often get a bit sticky and just need to be lossened up a bit.

My 97 sometimes has this problem,however after playing around with them for a while the problem has pretty much dissapeared.

What model gen4 is it?

Sedan or wagon?

Does it have a power antenna or not?

If it's a power antenna it'll need either a new mast or moter, or possibly a wiring fault.

If it's a manual antenna it's probably just a bit seized by weather and age and will need a forceful yank.

Or just pull one of a wreck and replace it.

That's exactly the point most of the posts have made.

It would be a much easier and would give a better result to start with quite a solid build V6 as a base than to mod an I4 in a huge body.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a thread around somewhere on how to change the colour of the screen (prob' TN).

From what I read it seems like a lot of hassle for a stock unit.

Your best of just getting an aftermarket CD player.

Believe me even a base model head deck of any good brand will outperform pretty much any oem deck in any car, and if you shop around it'll only cost like $100 bucks give or take.

There is however this but it aint cheap and good luck importing it to Aus.

http://www.toyotaparts4u.com/index.php?mai...products_id=112

Drop in a manual tran' for one, not a lot of power to be gained from an I4 auto that's in a larger body.

Extractors and a full cat back system would help a little.

Also clean out your intake.

Even with all those things you won't see a massive gain in power or anything cause as previously stated it wasn't built to be fast.

You could drop in a turbo but that's big big dollars and you still wouldn't see a huge amount of power over a V6 (There's a lot of threads around and most seem to only be getting up to 250 hp) wheras the V6 runs around 200 hp stock.

If your looking for real power out of that car swap in a 3SGTE from a Celica but again big dollars.

Hi all;

My Touring wagon has a full size alloy wheel spare.

Did all the Gen 4s come with a full size spare?

Was a space saver spare ever used?

(I am thinking of switching over to a space saver spare, to allow me to fit a small subwoofer in the spare wheel well)

Yeah they all came with a full size spare only difference is some were steel and some were alloy.

Those space saver wheels arn't really ideal for driving on, their only designed to get you to your nearest tyre shop when you've had a flat and you can't really drive at any sorta real speed on em when doing just that.

I wouldn't reccomend it.

I did mine about six months ago and payed around that so it's not to bad mate, although I payed a bit more because I instisted on using a performance kit as opposed to an oem one which you may want to consider doing yourself.

It's a big job so make sure you do it right the first time.

A lot of the cost comes down to labour cause a whole lot of stuff needs to be dropped out just to get to the transmision.

Oh and I noticed on your list that the rear main seal of the gearbox hasn't been mentioned and you should be sure to replace that as well,it will only cost around $50 extra and it would be insane not to get it replaced.

Another thing to consider is not replacing the master or slave cylinders at the same time.

These are external parts and although it's reccomended to have them replaced with the clutch you will not save on labour by doing this at once.

You can simply wait for them to die in there own time and replace them when needed.

I didn't do mine with the clutch and they're still going strong.

JDM means Japanese domestic market.

As in the car you have was built for Japan whereas ours are AUDM and built for Australia.

The Camry in that picture hasn't got a Sportivo grille,It's a TRD grille or a knockoff one.

It seems to have a pre-facelift kit on it so the one you need would look a bit different anyway but that still doesn't tell us if a JDM facelift Camry is the same as ours and therefore may or may not fit.

I know for a fact that the 20 series Camry body is slightly different in Aus than Japan or the US.

Hi, all.

I`m for the first time here.

I need your help guys, I live in Russia and I have camry acv30 2005, I bought it in japan I would like to buy sportivo body kit for my car. But in russia there is no sach us kits, could you recomend me any on-line shops, ore dilers which sell this kits.

I use Yahoo to find, but it not help me find .

Best regards.

Australia is the only country to have Sportivo models(as far as I know anyway).

They're probably all sold by now but you would have to contact Toyota Australia and have them search through dealers untill one turns up.

Either that or do online parts requests through different Toyota dealers in Australia.

I'm not sure on this one but you may find the JDM Camry to be different to ours as well seeings as ours is an ACV36 not an ACV30 so I can't be sure if it would fit or not.

Also be aware that there is two different Sportivo kits for the 36 series and by the looks of it you need a facelift kit.

The other one will not fit without modifying your bumpers and that's if it is the same as ours anyway.

Need some advice - have just inherited a 1997 Vienta v6 from my late father. He used to change the oil and filter every six months, car has only travelled 45,000kms. I drive the car to work two days a week and is not likely to travel more than 5,000km this year but I don't want to sell it. The car is very sluggish, I was told to use high octane petrol and Nulon additives to help. The car has not been serviced thoroughly for years, it is immaculate but I fear a thorough service will cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions?

Allways sad to hear a fathers passing, his car and service habits speak well of him...

How fortunate you are to keep his memory so alive by tacking over care of his much loved car...

Toyota is so advanced, there is not much to do to keep it in good order... power should be quite strong.

Importantly, oil and filter were in good hands, change every 10K klm or less, say 12mnths..

Air filter is important, & very easy for u to change... get a genuine unit.

Spark plugs probably don't 'need' changing... but why not freshen them up with newies... post a how to 4 good advise.

Fuel filters... Again post for advice... I never changed on your model :)

If these couple easy things don't help, post again,

now they have been done we can move to having your O2 sensor checked, cheap and easy... it may be sluggish.

And have your 'codes' read at the same time... will indicate some existing prob, not immediatly obvious.

Both the above checks can be got for free by mechanics with the equipment, just by asking them.

Nulon is a good internal component protection and anti friction measure

and the different fuels will not make much diff to performance...

but cars do need plenty of air, and good spark, and good engine management...

After that we're looking at 'draging' disc pads, half flat tyres, or a boot full of bricks, ( unlikely) but weight is not wanted.

Do what you can yourself, we will help you, learn your dads car... it's all pretty easy.

Let us know how you go... cheers.

Others that know more than me should chime in with advice...

it's a good project.

Grab a K&N high flow air filter for it they are a bit exy but it'll be the only one you will ever need to buy for that car as they are non disposable.

Best thing to do for any car is clean out the intake to gain econemy and power.

After that just normal service with good quality parts and product and the car should well last you for years to come.

Also highoctane petrol will help to make the car have a bit more kick to it and aslo better econemy in my experience however the change will take a little while as the ecu has to adjust itself to do this.

Hope this helps

Just did an oil & filter change myself, used Nulon Oil Flush first, then Castrol GTX3 oil. Added a Nulon oil treatment, Nulon Octane Boost and a K&N air filter. It has had a dramatic effect on performance and smoothness. Many thanks for the advice on the K&N, well worth the extra money. Will only be using premium unleaded from now on.

The mechanic my father used had put some sort of gel on the sump plug to protect it. It was easy to peel off with a screwdriver and has left the plug in pristine condition. I went to an AutoPro shop to see if they had something similar and they said it was the first time they had heard of someone doing that to a sump plug. I think it is a great idea but am not sure what the mechanic used (he has since retired). Any ideas?

Oils wount make it go all that much better, oil is oil is oil

How dirty was the old filter, was it brown or full of dust,

did u bang it upside down to see what come out...

because all u done so far is replace the a/filter... to account for al the extra gooo.

and some fuel additve but not injection cleaner... these 3vz are easy to please.

Well his old filter may well have been fine but replacing it with a high flow filter will always make a car more responsive.

His injectors probably wouldn't need a clean either cause his car has only done 45 anyway, however the Nulon fuel additive I use when I can be bothered cleans injectors as well as raising RON so hopefully the product he got does that as well.

The Nulon oil treatment (exy stuff) is gold, they reckon they drove a Holden for over 1000 ks with no oil just there product and was all sweet.

It's a bit pricey but well worth it, makes an engine run like new.

So yeah 3VZ and 1MZ are really easy to please, you just have to take care of them.

Go with Whiteline for that one champ.

On your car I'm pretty sure the stock rear sway bar would only be 11mm which is next to nothing, same as mine I think.

You should be able to get a 18mm one from whiteline for around $220 shipped or something like that.

you'd also need to get new bushings to fit a larger rear bar.

http://www.whiteline.com.au/

Iv'e just had most of that work done front and rear on my gen4 two weeks ago and my bill was less than half that.

Although I didn't need to replace the strut top mounts or any engine mounts and i went overboard when it came to putting in bushes ,some of the old ones weren't dead yet but I wanted to replace them with much better Superpro ones anyway (kinda while ya down there lol).

Also had my wheel bearings done around a year ago with way better than stock parts for around $250 I think it was.

Labour for all the suspension work a coupla weeks ago cost me $340 including GST & wheel allignment.

I reckon if you keep shopping around you should be able to cut that bill in half.

Good luck with it mate.

Hmmm... a Gen 3 with a 1MZ engine... I like the sound of that!!

Yeah mate they are a very nice car,Rare as hens teeth though.

The only one I have ever seen was at the dealership where I bought mine years ago.

It was a toss up between the gen3 or gen4.

The gen3 was a lot cheaper than mine, but was totaly thrashed inside and out,engine as well so I ended up getting the gen4 after some barganing for the same price as the beaten gen3.

I still wish the gen3 was in better condition though as that's the car I actually went there for.

But after all the gen4 is a nice car too so happy as anyway.

I wish my engine idled properly on cold start!

I dunno my Cam only ever kicks to around 1400 on cold start and then drops to around 700 in under a minute

Yeah Ariel, you needa clean out the IAC valve... I did it on mine, I have a DIY on Camcrew somwhere too - easy done. Did it to Davey's too, fixed the idling issue also.

Yeah right that might explaine a few things actually.

I was gonna look into oxygen sensor and a few other things as well next service (in a coupla weeks).

Thanks for that bro

Need some advice - have just inherited a 1997 Vienta v6 from my late father. He used to change the oil and filter every six months, car has only travelled 45,000kms. I drive the car to work two days a week and is not likely to travel more than 5,000km this year but I don't want to sell it. The car is very sluggish, I was told to use high octane petrol and Nulon additives to help. The car has not been serviced thoroughly for years, it is immaculate but I fear a thorough service will cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions?

Allways sad to hear a fathers passing, his car and service habits speak well of him...

How fortunate you are to keep his memory so alive by tacking over care of his much loved car...

Toyota is so advanced, there is not much to do to keep it in good order... power should be quite strong.

Importantly, oil and filter were in good hands, change every 10K klm or less, say 12mnths..

Air filter is important, & very easy for u to change... get a genuine unit.

Spark plugs probably don't 'need' changing... but why not freshen them up with newies... post a how to 4 good advise.

Fuel filters... Again post for advice... I never changed on your model :)

If these couple easy things don't help, post again,

now they have been done we can move to having your O2 sensor checked, cheap and easy... it may be sluggish.

And have your 'codes' read at the same time... will indicate some existing prob, not immediatly obvious.

Both the above checks can be got for free by mechanics with the equipment, just by asking them.

Nulon is a good internal component protection and anti friction measure

and the different fuels will not make much diff to performance...

but cars do need plenty of air, and good spark, and good engine management...

After that we're looking at 'draging' disc pads, half flat tyres, or a boot full of bricks, ( unlikely) but weight is not wanted.

Do what you can yourself, we will help you, learn your dads car... it's all pretty easy.

Let us know how you go... cheers.

Others that know more than me should chime in with advice...

it's a good project.

Grab a K&N high flow air filter for it they are a bit exy but it'll be the only one you will ever need to buy for that car as they are non disposable.

Best thing to do for any car is clean out the intake to gain econemy and power.

After that just normal service with good quality parts and product and the car should well last you for years to come.

Also highoctane petrol will help to make the car have a bit more kick to it and aslo better econemy in my experience however the change will take a little while as the ecu has to adjust itself to do this.

Hope this helps

I wish my engine idled properly on cold start!

I dunno my Cam only ever kicks to around 1400 on cold start and then drops to around 700 in under a minute

Hi, this might be a little unusual however is anyone interested in swapping complete leather seats from my Gen 4 98 Grande for cloth seats? The seats are front and rear, electric front, rear has three headrests and centre armrest, all good condition except some wear on top part of drivers side and one very small mark on rear. Wanting to swap for biege cloth seats, I guess suitable for someone who loves leather and has the VXI model which came with cloth? Not sure though if that model has power seats, open to suggestions. My two small dogs go slip sliding all over the place (they HATE seat belts) in the back seat and seat covers just dotn cling/grip to leather, they just dont. Love the car, dislike the leather, only way to get a sunroof in the Gen 4 (some lower spec models optioned with it but very rare) was to get the Grande but unfortunately came with leather. Thanks.

Mate I'll swap you for mine anytime.

However mine are grey.

Give us a yell if your interested.

Hey all.

Just been wondering lately if a gen4 V6 muffler could be retrofitted to a gen3 I4.

The reason I'm asking is that I will be soon to get a sport muffler for my gen4 and my mates gen3 has a shot one so just curious if anyone knows how easy this would be to do ??

I'd give him my old one and know that both have a side intake which is a good start but also on that note would the V6 muffler maybe be to big for the I4 and give it soggy back pressure??

Of course anything is possible if you could be bothered wasting time and spending the money but this may be a almost direct fit like the gen4/gen5 muffler.

Thanks guys an gals.

I know motor 3vz is the same but what 'extras' as standard do the different models have...

I would like climate control... instead of juggling the 'heater' with air on...

I read the V- touring has firmer suspension...( but still needs a r/ bar)

And does anyone know the kg weight of these cars...

Petrol consumption is largely to do with driver habits...

I really like these cars, I have 3 now... a v6 manual a Vienta Auto and a nice 2.2 auto, boy is that good on fuel.

the manual is great fun but the Vienta is sooo nice and quite and pretty goey as well...

Now I'm looking for the right combination and modifications to suit me...

Also within the gen3 series is the 97 Vienta Touring.

This car comes stock with cruise,black leather (stearing wheel ,gear boot & shift knob ,handbrake), Sports suspension , ABS , Duel airbags ,cd stacker rear spoiler ,upgraded trim throughout and front and rear power windows (possibly other things I'm forgetting about to).

However the most important thing is as far as I know this is the only model Australian gen3 that is equipped with the 1MZ-fe as opposed to the 3VZ-fe.

These cars are pretty rare as they were released during the crossover year of gen3 to gen4, however theyre worth hunting for.

ahh thanks mate...does that mean the cars over there badged as camrys r cheaper..even tho they r aurions?? coz here the camrys cheaper than the aurion by 10gs....

Hhmmmm I couldn't really say cause I'm not overseas but I would seriously doubt that it's cheaper anywhere else cause of a different name.

V6 is always more expensive than I4 due to the engine costing more to build in the first place and also when dealing with Camry's, V6 will have upgraded brakes sometimes suspension stronger gearbox and so on all of which costs more money.