DJKOR

I figured I would post this before I walk over to the garage... again. This happens way too often for me. I really really hate it when I step into the car, sit down, press the Start button and realise that I don't have the key in my pocket. This Smart Entry is a handy feature, but sure annoys me sometimes.

Obviously some people just don't understand the VIP concept. That said, I only like the first one. The last two don't look so great, but I'm thinking that the bad photos have a bit of a part in that.

What's it like switching between the two cars

Fixed (well hopefully) a knocking sound coming from the rear of my car. The noise was noticeable when the rear was going over bumps etc. It sounded very similar to having the rear strut top loose. Unfortunately to get to that to double check on it (because I couldn't really narrow it down any further), the rear seat back had to come out. Now there are things on my car that I don't mind doing, but removing the rear seat back is not one of them. Well it's not so much the removal process... it's trying to fit it back in properly with all three top hooks engaged. Anyways, after taking it out so I could hear the noise better, I went for a drive and the sound was gone. I'm guessing it was something to do with the seat mounts so I put padded material around any contact points and made sure everything is tight. So far so good... but only time will tell.

Put it this way: 1) Advertising for sale on a forum as such will not really reach a large market. Even advertising on somehwere busy like CarSales can take a fair bit of time for a car to sell. If you don't get seen, you car just gets older and older losing value in the process. 2) A large percentage of forum users/members here are not on for the sole purpose of finding a car to buy. On top of that, those that are aren't always looking for what you have to offer. 3) At the end of the day, if you do advertise to a speciality group only, they will also know exactly what they are looking for/at and may actually notice that your car may not be realistically worth what you want for it when compared which other cars on the market.

1) My tires require replacement, hence why getting both a different set of wheels and near new tires would be a good option. 2) The tires I plan on getting (the 595EVO's) will be about $300 per tire. So for $1200 all round, and extra $400 for the wheels at the trade-off of slightly used tires would have been really ideal as well. Spending $1600 for the wheels and tires only to have to buy $1200 worth of tires as well isn't as appealing.

Personally, CarSales and eBay are about the only two places that I would immediately think of when searching for a car. That said, I would be a bit iffy about eBay mainly because of the whole way it operates which isn't really as efficient as CarSales. Advertising a car for sale in speciality groups like forums does not really gain a lot of visibility. When most people start thinking about searching for a car, I'm pretty sure CarSales would be one of the first places they will look. Places like the Trading Post, CarsGuide, etc don't really have as much popularity.. but people still go there. It's just if you were to only pick one avenue when it comes to selling, the most popular one would be the place to go for obvious reasons.

The process of sleeping in general doesn't make you fat, therefore sleeping in is no different really. It's what you eat in the hours before you do sleep that can cause you to gain weight in your sleep. Any food is fattening. Whether or not this affects you depends on what you do with that energy. Sleeping reduces your metabolic rate so for the period of time you are sleeping, you will burn less energy. Eating more than you burn is one way you will end up putting on weight. Sleeping in... well you do the math. We already have a thread for things like this: http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12899

Here are the ones I've spotted over the last few days or so that I have remembered: 28/09/10, about 5:35pm - A silver pre-facelift Aurion driving along Boundary Road, Coopers Plains (approaching the Beenleigh Road intersection). Why do I remember this one? It had one of those Merc type hood ornaments (but with the Toyota emblem of course) and it looked really, really stupid. Fail. 30/09/10, about 6:40pm - Michael (51DER) driving past Hoppy's. 01/10/10, 12:57pm - A Champaign coloured genuine GTP Gen 4 driven by some Asian chick going along Logan Road past the Logan Road/Springwood Road intersection. Apart from it being a little dirty, it was still a nice example of a GTP. 02/10/10, 1:58pm - A Sakana Siler facelift Aurion Sportivo going along Mains Road, Sunnybank. I also spotted you taking a photo of my car at the lights.

Grrrrrr. So close to being something I would buy in an instant. http://www.boostcruising.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=640103 Wheels look good and it has the type of tires that I'm planning on getting (595EVO). Unfortunately it has 235/35R19 tires on it instead of the 245/35R19 that I require.

About 40%. There is a 60% chance that you may go all Snorlax on us The chance of me offering a lift is 100%.

Actually to make a correction here, if you originally had 215/55R17 as is stock on the Sportivo, then if you step the width up to 225, you will need to get a '50' profile tire to keep your rolling diameter as close to original. So the tire size is actually 225/50R17. Depending on the tire you get, changing tire sizes like that can result in an increase of around $50-$100 or so per tire. Also as well, people always tend to think that just because you are putting wider tires on (typically with the same width wheel), you are instantly increasing your contact area and therefore grip. In actual fact, this isn't necessarily the case. Because your contact patch comes also comes down to the amount of weight on each wheel, by getting wider wires, you may increase you contact patch side to side, but because the weight has remained the same, you can end up with a reduction in contact patch from front to rear.

No need to double up. There is another thread already running. Tweak said on Boost that he has already posted it here. Toyota Cruise, Now with bacon (QLD)

The guys in the States that use the Eibach on their V6 Camrys say that they sag quite a lot in the rear. They have TRD springs as well which they say are just re-branded Eibachs, and funnily enough... they sag the same as well. The thing here is, buying local and going for Kings will more than likely give you the same drop as the Eibachs. You will probably have differences in spring rates etc which give them different handing characteristics overall, but judging from the style you are going for etc, you probably aren't going to be driving your car to the extent where you will be able to know the difference.

+1!!!!!! I was enjoying that it was exclusive to the Aurion boys. Damn you daryl :P Need to get out more and socialise with your neighbours.

More like the wheels spinning from too much power and him hoping to gain traction from the looks of it. Hmmm... tough one to add a video to from me, but for now (originally posted on the forums here by spillige): Edit: Just had to watch it again. That spool and flutter is just too sexy.

Oh man... I came across this in an older thread here. Definitely made me LOL:

This is what happens when you have no carbs to fuel your brain. I was mean to say it looked like a facelift but it's not a facelift.... but didn't exactly look like a pre-facelift either from a distance. ... I know what I meant. I think I need sleep as well.

To state that the traction is pretty poor in such scenario is a misunderstanding of the car's abilities. Yes the traction may not be the gratest when you try to accelerate heavily from a standstill, but what were you expecting from a FWD with a fair amount of power and torque? Personally, for the car it is, I think the traction levels are appropriate... not poor. Anyways, that aside you can get more traction from grippier tires. The common trade-off with this though is that you sacrifice longevity as well as cost efficiency. Grippier tires tend to be more expensive and are usually a softer compound and therefore wear quicker. Personally, if these are two factors that you don't really want to make sacrifices on, learning to apply the power smoothly and at the right rate can overcome that simple issue. You can find lots of information on different tire brands etc by searching both the Aurion forum here as well as the Wheels and Tires section of this forum. Also, if you were to use 17 inch wheels with a common width of 7 inches, then I would go no wider than 225. A wider tire does not always necessarily mean more grip as you don't always increase your contact patch, just alter it. As well, 235 wide tires on a 7 inch wide wheel is probably going to end up costing you more for pretty much no gain.

Time to turn this thing global. And post boosting free.

You've got it all wrong. Nangkangs FTW.

Well if it is that 'marbles in a can' sound that I am referring to (it's loud and can make people look at you like your car is broken), and your oil and filter was changed only recently... then you may well have a truly faulty VVT-i controller that is more serious than the usual cases. If it's out of warranty blah blah, then I don't imagine it being a cheap exercise.

Welcome mate. Good to see you chose the Aurion as the replacement. Great choice. Say what? Someone else must have gotten to it.

Great writeup Jeff. If you lived in Brisbane, I could have helped you wire them up to your dome light :P

When was the last time you did an oil and filter change? The knocking sound you get is related to the VVT-i controller as discussed in the following. An oil and filter change reduces it from occurring, but it is not technically a fix. Fixing it would be something that Toyota would have to do and good luck if you want to endeavour down the warranty path with that one. Rattle in start up And also here: http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22416&view=findpost&p=405069 I had my suspicion that it was caused by the VVT-i controller. I just thought it was something to do with not having much oil in there during a cold start and the internal mechanism knocking around because of no oil pressure to keep things 'floating'. My old Aurion used to do this but only when it was getting very close to 15,000km without an oil change. Once the oil was changed, the knocking never came back until it reached close to 15,000km again. I just figured it was nothing bad and explainable since it was quite a length of time without a change in oil. My TRD is now starting to do the same thing. Started happening as the weather got really cold. It has been 10,000km since the last oil change. I think this is indicating to me that it's oil change time. Funnily enough, this is about the same point where Dave also got the occurance: So are you able to explain what exactly fails more specifically? Edit: Is it the lock pin that fails? I'm just wondering if I was thinking along the right lines when I made the following post last year? That's what I'm thinking. It seems to be coming from the upper part of the block. It's similar to the sound of that intake control valve closing, but more metallic. It just has me stumped. Maybe it really is the VVT-i mechanism. When you see a video animation of it working, you can kind of picture how it can generate a knock/rattle sound if it doesn't have appropriate oil pressure in it. The mechanism is like this for those that don't know: Having a quick look at the service manual, maybe it ties in with the so called 'lock pin':