Stealth

Mine's black.... I voted for white. LAst car was white and i got black for a change. Bad call i think. Like DJKOR said, the black hides some of the definition between the trims on the front and rear bumper and also the wing. Basically, i'd do a straight swap for a white SX6 (or ZR6 LOL)

Sounds like your syncromesh is buggered. Or your clutch might need adjusting or replacing. At excessively high RPM sometime the centrifugal force of the spinning clutch can also prevent it from engaging. This scenario seems highly unlikely in your case tho. I'm no expert, so that's the best i can come up with. Good luck dude...

A write off is when the cost of repairing the car exceeds the sum the car is insured for or the cost of replacing the vehicle (market value). One of the few exceptions is if the the car has severe structural damage. Something like the chassis is bent or broken some how. If your steering has been dramatically affected by a rear end collision, this might in fact be the case, and your car could be written off by the insurance company for this reason alone. It is extremely rare for a car with a damaged chassis to be repaired for safety (and cost) reasons.

No hard at all. But to paint plastic you need to spray it with a seperate plastic primer first, (no matter what anyone trys and tells you- Paint with primer in it, dont trust it). The primer will create a base for you to paint on. If you do not use a plastic primer, and just paint it straight up, it will bubble and flake. (paint will not stick properly). The good thing with plastic primers, is they dry really fast. So within a couple of hours you can have a fairly large object, primed 2 or three times. Alow half hour between coats. From there you just spray on your plastic paint (make sure it spray paint for plastics though). This is where you must spray evenly. The instruction on the can "hold a certain distance away" , you need to adhere to this, other wise you will have wet spots. (spots in you spray work that will seem shinnier in some areas, not consistant). Once you get them, you will chase your tail trying to get rid of them. Ive sprayed every thing from dashes, interiors, to scoops, spoilers. Its really easy. But if a item is Vinyl, use just a vinyl spray. If it is plastic, you can use one that says vinyl, plastic, blah blah blah. Vinyl moves alot more than plastics, expands and constricts with temperatures. The only problem you will really face, is trying to colour code. But as you said if you are matcing black with black, it would be a piece of cake, as it is a base colour. (gloss black paint would be fine) You will only get into trouble with your mixed colours, eg purples, orange, etc etc. very hard to colour match. Take your time, dont rush the job and it will come out even. Miss a spot in the first spray, pick it up second time around on the second coat. Never try spot spray, ( when you miss a spot and you try and give it a quick squirt in that area) it doesnt work = wet spots. Spray in a flowing motion and it will come out even. Always use a spray can. Dont use a paint brush, brushing it on would go on that thick and the end product would look like a pre-schooler did it. In the past ive always used the automotive cans at Autobarn called "K&H" brand is the one. Big 400gm cans. I just did a spoiler for a mazda i sold and i didnt even get through half a can, and that was after about 4 coats of each. They do plastic primers and the paint for plastic spraying. Their spray comes out nice and even and the nozzel never clogs or spits. Once you spray it, put it on your car and leave it in the sun to bake for a day. Then rub it with Armourall protectant to give it a real shine, protect the paint and also this will get rid of any mild inconsitances. Oh yeah when you spray it, hang it off something like the close line with a coat hanger bended into a "S" this is so once you start painting you dont have to touch it till it is dry. The coat hanger is good as if the wind picks up, it holds it ground, and you can hook the "S" on the back of the object, so when you spray it doesnt leave any marks. This will also allow you to move around the object to get a even coat. This will mean the only thing that can accidently get stuck to your paint job, if unlucky is an insect that isnt watching where he is going. Nothing worse that working out of your shed, painting some thing chocked on the ground the wind picks up and you end up with dust stuck to your paint. Overall if ya want to paint your grill gloss black, you will have no worries, and it will turn out like a professional done it. Black is really easy to work with. White, Silver other base colours also would be fine. Mixed colours, it will turn out dodgee, and i recommend a get a professional to do it. Sorry about the spelling, i cant be fu*ked spell-checking my novel - too tired. Hope this helps, good luck, Bondie. That helps heaps man, thanks for that. Looking at your pic, it look like you've got the grill i want to order and respray... The Lexus style grill yeah. You got your lip kit yet? Can't wait to see your pics dude.

Maybe this quick image will show you something. MS Paint FTW. From what I can see, the car is still level. Is it not meant to be like that and should the front of the car sit lower than the back? To me, having the car sitting level like that seems correct. Arh yeah, that correct. Almost every car has lower wheel arches on the back than the front. The car sits level but there should be less gap in the rear arches than the front. Go check a stock Aurion or any other sedan for that matter and you'll find the same thing. If you've got equal gap front and rear in your arches then the lowering has been done wrong... PS i like the Sportivo mags for sale in the background. Did you trade them in or something.

Little of topic but how hard would it be to paint a chrome grill black. Without the paint flaking etc? Yeah yeah, i know but i'm an amateur at this DIY stuff. I pay other people to do stuff for me but respraying a grill is hardly worth someone's effort.

Sweet and Sweet. It's on my shopping list.

Count me in. Got my CB ready to go as well...

Are all the wheel nut tight? Sounds like you might need a wheel balance. I traded a car in not so long ago. I got a flat on the passenger side front the day before the trade in. FWD car so i put the spare on and realized it was a slightly different size. So i drove the car home and swapped the equal size tires from the back to the front so the odd sizes ended up on the rear. The car drove like **** but i didn't want the gearbox/diff ****ting itself with the odd sizes on a front wheel drive. I traded the car in the next day as is with the flat spare in the boot... Could be something that simple, you never know how dodgy the guy before you was. You think i was dodgy? What's with my under size spare? I didn't do that...

FVCK THE POLICE http://www.speedingfineconsultants.com/

Now in answer to your question. From Wikipedia: Bear in mind that Toyota claims 204Kw from premium so the knock sensor seems to work the other way with premium fuels... "Higher octane ratings correlate to higher activation energies. Activation energy is the amount of energy necessary to start a chemical reaction. Since higher octane fuels have higher activation energies, it is less likely that a given compression will cause detonation. It might seem odd that fuels with higher octane ratings explode less easily and can therefore be used in more powerful engines. However, an explosion is not desired in an internal combustion engine. An explosion will cause the pressure in the cylinder to rise far beyond the cylinder's design limits, before the force of the expanding gases can be absorbed by the piston traveling downward. This actually reduces power output, because much of the energy of combustion is absorbed as strain and heat in parts of the engine, rather than being converted to torque at the crankshaft. A fuel with a higher octane rating can be run at a higher compression ratio without detonating. Compression is directly related to power (see engine tuning), so engines that require higher octane usually deliver more power. Engine power is a function of the fuel as well as the engine design and is related to octane rating of the fuel. Power is limited by the maximum amount of fuel-air mixture that can be forced into the combustion chamber. When the throttle is partially open, only a small fraction of the total available power is produced because the manifold is operating at pressures far below atmospheric. In this case, the octane requirement is far lower than when the throttle is opened fully and the manifold pressure increases to atmospheric pressure, or higher in the case of supercharged or turbocharged engines. Many high-performance engines are designed to operate with a high maximum compression and thus demand high-octane premium petrol. A common misconception is that power output or fuel mileage can be improved by burning higher octane fuel than a particular engine was designed for. The power output of an engine depends in part on the energy density of its fuel, but similar fuels with different octane ratings have similar density. Since switching to a higher octane fuel does not add any more hydrocarbon content or oxygen, the engine cannot produce more power. However, burning fuel with a lower octane rating than required by the engine often reduces power output and efficiency one way or another. If the engine begins to detonate (knock), that reduces power and efficiency for the reasons stated above. Many modern car engines feature a knock sensor – a small piezoelectric microphone which detects knock and then sends a signal to the engine control unit to retard the ignition timing. Retarding the ignition timing reduces the tendency to detonate, but also reduces power output and fuel efficiency. Most fuel stations have two storage tanks (even those offering 3 or 4 octane levels), and you are given a mixture of the higher and lower octane fuel. Purchasing premium simply means more fuel from the higher octane tank. The detergents in the fuel are the same, Premium does not "burn cleaner." The octane rating was developed by chemist Russell Marker at the Ethyl Corporation c1926. The selection of n-heptane as the zero point of the scale was due to the availability of very high purity n-heptane, not mixed with other isomers of heptane or octane, distilled from the resin of the Jeffrey Pine. Other sources of heptane produced from crude oil contain a mixture of different isomers with greatly differing ratings, which would not give a precise zero point." Also keep in mind our average fuel quality (or RON) by western world standards... "In most countries (including all of Europe and Australia) the "headline" octane rating, shown on the pump, is the RON, but in the United States, Canada and some other countries the headline number is the average of the RON and the MON, sometimes called the Anti-Knock Index (AKI), Road Octane Number (RdON), Pump Octane Number (PON), or (R+M)/2. Because of the 8 to 10 point difference noted above, the octane shown in the United States is 4 to 5 points lower than the same fuel elsewhere: 87 octane fuel, the "regular" petrol in the US and Canada, is 91-92 in Europe. However most European pumps deliver 95 (RON) as "regular", equivalent to 90-91 US (R+M)/2, and some even deliver 98 (RON) or 100 (RON)." So considering the above information and the claim of more power from the Aurion with premium fuel, it would seem that 91RON is the minimum the car can compensate for with the knock sensor...

Na man, that's cool. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion for sure. I just don't like when people imply that it's a total waste of money "without giving substantial evidence to back it up" for the other side of the argument. (You're not one of them, you give good advice) It's each to their own. I think the point of the forums is to bounce ideas of people, not have people impose their will and belittle other people because of their personal choices. When the manufacturer recommends the 91ron, then the burden of proof to go to something else might belong to those supporting the diversion from the recommendation, don'tcha think? Not when the basis of the peoples argument is whether or not the alternative is a worthwhile investment and it's a waste of time using anything other than the minimum required RON.

Please DJKOR Please... What's is that track you're playing one the second video. The on road demonstration of the SAT NAV function. That track goes off dude. I love watching the clip just for the bloody music. By the way, what did everyone pay for the Auspac DVD unit? I got a Quote for around $850 before the financial crisis hit. I assume nothing has changed in terms of ricing. Yeah, i can just email to find out but i don't want to keep emailing them back and forth to confirm pricing. I'm in the process of lowering my car and putting 19"s on it. The pricing for the tyre rim combo has increased due to the drop in value of aussie dollar. Hence the question of the head unit pricing. The Auspac DVD unit is my next planned upgrade. Then we'll see what the budget allows for...

and whats the drop of them do you know? Well, so far all i know is Lovells are Australian made and have been around for years. They seem popular with 4wd owners for doing lift kits on their cars and Ford owners (cos they're blue). One of the guys at my mates work has had them on his BF Falcon for 3 years and no problems so far. They're a round about 35mm drop and cost around $110 a pair. The only thing is, as with most mates rates etc, is that it remains to be seen...

Here's my break down dude, front springs 175.00 rear springs 175.00 fitting 210.00 wheel alignment 90.00 total 650 buck out of my sky-rocket. So far you have guys from brisbane, sydney, darwin, townsville, who got it done around the same price, which is a alot less than you got quoted. Stand-up for yourself, go in there and ask him why is prices are so inflated, and how does he account for it. If nothing happens and he tells you to bugger off, atleast your said your piece. And if enough people tell him he's a rip-off merchant, maybe he will re-think his busines stradegy and bring his prices down to acceptable level. Only the fittest will survive dude. Yeah, thanks for the info dude. I'm gonna see how i go with my mate first. But yeah, otherwise i'll let them know what i think of them. Besides, i still have the quote for the king springs (around $560) that i was keen on anyway.

Na man, that's cool. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion for sure. I just don't like when people imply that it's a total waste of money "without giving substantial evidence to back it up" for the other side of the argument. (You're not one of them, you give good advice) It's each to their own. I think the point of the forums is to bounce ideas of people, not have people impose their will and belittle other people because of their personal choices.

Well then, the breakdown was this: 2958 Sports Ryder Coil Spring $185.00 2959 Sports Ryder Coil Spring $185.00 Fitting $330.00 Wheel Alignment - 4 wheel $132.00 GST $75.64 Total $832.00 $132 for a wheel alignment???

Yeah, i've gotten something around that in Perth doing a long drive up the freeway etc. Got it around 7-8l/100km with the cruise set at about 109kph. The second i got into the suburbs again the average when to **** tho. I think the 98 RON is worth it for the extra 70c to $1.50 extra per tank. 98 RON isn't exactly a budget breaker now is it...

True dat... check this: TIP NO.7 - FRONTAL ASSAULT Front wheel drive cars have their own idiosyncrasies, not the least of which is that they tend to understeer. The big fix here, is to install a castor kit and to increase the thickness of the rear sway bar.

45mm drop.. You sure about that? Sounds good to me. I've been told the Kings will only lower my car by around 35mm. An extra 10mm sounds like a bargain. Speaking of which, would you mind telling me how much you paid? I went to Pedders after today work to get a price but they were closed already. I was quoted around $560 for the Kings. Anyway, I just got a quote from Pedders for $832. Seems a bit much to me. Has anyone had any experience with Lovells springs. I've got a mate at a tyre shop that can do them for me for half the price of the King springs. I hear they're popular with the Fords. I guess the point of the story is, if you're looking to lower your Aurion, there's a third option.

Lets not forget... 98 RON has a Research Octane Number (RON) of 98. It is a high-octane unleaded fuel that maximizes engine power and performance, as well as producing less pollution. It is more commonly used by imported and high performance vehicles 98 RON is promoted as providing excellent fuel economy. It has low levels of benzene, sulphur and lower aromatics and a sulphur content which is 10 times lower than the national standard for unleaded fuels. Research Octane Number (RON) is a measure of a fuel's compression performance and the RON rating given translates into the amount of engine power. RON requirements vary according to engine type. A knocking noise can occur in an engine when there is a mismatch between the fuel characteristics and the engine's design, particularly its compression ratio, resulting in pre-ignition (also known as 'pinging'). Many imported cars, and particularly those with turbochargers, are manufactured to run on premium unleaded petrol. Selecting fuel with the correct RON for your engine will prevent the knocking fuel effect caused when the fuel combusts in the compression chamber too early.

Thanks for the help. Sounds like changing the suspension won't make any difference then eh?

Well, there's your answer...

Ha ha, you forgot to update your avatar....

Yeah, i'm in Perth... We gonna post it back and forth...