DJKOR

Of course you can go with stock shocks, but don't expect to get the same life/performance (and I'm not just referring to aggressive driving performance) out of them as you would with shocks that are designed for lowering springs. Just because you are currently at 160,000km, this doesn't mean this is how long your original shocks lasted for. There is a difference between worn out and completely worn out. It's like saying your tires can last twice the distance if you wear it down well past the minimum tread depth. Your stock shocks could have been worn well before 160,000km. At the end of the day though, it's your car and you can get what you want for it.

You mean these? I've always assumed they're just that - a cover. So if you have the 'clear' hybrid lights, you clip these over them for a different look. I was under the assumption they are the chrome surroundings only. If it was a cover, can you imagine how much ugly bulk that would add to the already bulky facelift lights?

Well put it this way. If your washer fluid concentrate contains 1.2% ammonia, then when you dilute that 25mL into 2000mL of water, you will end up with about 0.015% ammonia per 2L of washer fluid. I wouldn't be concerned about that.

Okay. This is where things are getting interesting. So I went in to pick my car up just then and since it's a new shift, the original service advisor I was dealing with is not currently there. Now according to the paperwork, it says "HAVE ORDERED STEERING SHAFT". The guy I spoke with when I picked it up is only aware of what it says on the paperwork, so as far as I can tell, the shaft has not yet been changed. Prior to all this, I remember reading how everyone says that the new intermediate shaft makes a fairly noticeable difference. I am a bit sceptical to that statement. So with that in mind, I was ready to thoroughly 'test' it when I got it. But since the paperwork states that it has not been done, I was expecting it to all feel the same. So I got in the car and slowly started to drive. Now the interesting part. I could not hear any knocks from the steering and I swear it felt more 'direct'. So if the intermediate shaft has not been replaced... then I guess this shows that most of the changes in feel that have been reported must just be the placebo effect. During my entire drive from Toyota to the office, I was really starting to wonder if anything at all had been done and how well my mind is playing tricks on me. I got to the office and reversed into my parking space. Now usually I get some pretty serious knocking noises nearly every time I park here so this was the part I was waiting for to really test it out. To my surprise... no knocking. Now it is really a WTF moment. Now stupid me forgot to inspect the intermediate shaft before bringing it in, so visual inspection for me isn't going to be of any use. I still had a look up there anyway trying to look for a part number. I did find one, but upon further research, it seems that it's not the one I'm looking for. The part number I found is for the "COLUMN ASSY, STEERING". Interestingly enough though, this does not match up with the part number that my research has found. According to my research, the part number for this should be "45250-06510". The sticker on mine however shows "45250-06520". If anyone in the know (Adamsy, GSV40R, etc) could possibly help out here, that would be great. Is this a revised part, and if so, why would this have been changed when the fault mentioned in this thread is the intermediate shaft which is different to this part? I am really confused and I won't really know anything more until I speak to the person who was dealing with my car.

Spotted Ash (arc) on Ipswich Road heading inbound at around 8am this morning. You wouldn't have noticed me because I was in a POS Hyundai getting a lift in to Toyota to pick you my car. Damn your Aurion looks damn hot while on the move.

If it were me, the thing that would be stopping me is the lack of turbo.

Not quite 'both'. You have the two outer lights that are mounted on the rear quarter panels and two inner lights mounted on the boot lid. So a total of 4 lights. Just for reference, when I had to purchase one outer rear light from Toyota 2 years ago, I had to pay $600. Now the price has dropped down over the years, but it's still expensive. To change all 4 lights, I would be expecting a figure around the $1000 mark. If you want the facelift lights, there is only one place really to get them online, and that's from the site I showed. They have the standard red ones, which are no different to the red ones on the facelift (clicky), or the hybrid ones which are similar to our all-clear ones, just with a blue tint and an extra red section (as shown in my previous link). If you want the all-clear ones, good luck finding them online. You may be waiting many months with no guarantee of a set ever coming up on eBay or anything like that. Otherwise, if you just replace your busted one, you could either buy the replacement one direct from Toyota, or you may find that it would be more cost efficient to get that set online that I linked to above.

Tail light covers? You are aware that it's an entire tail light assembly right? You will have to purchase each individual light if you want to change them over. Expect to pay around at least $300 per light from Toyota or about that much for the entire set of Thailand Hybrid tailights like seen here: http://www.rstyleracing.com/index.aspx?ProductID=Product-090816200455242

^ Oh god. That is so disturbing and wrong... but I just can't stop laughing.

It's good though that the Fast and the Furious phase didn't last for too long. I completely agree with you there. There seems to be a lot more emphasis around modding for style and looks more than for sheer performance. Yes the performance modifiers still exist, but it just doesn't seem as high of a priority if you get what I mean. Slightly off topic, I remember watching this thing on Discovery about the some really powerful old school Shelby's which put down WAY more power than modern cars without a single ECU.

Now to convince him to go FI.

Today I dropped her off at Southside Toyota so she can get her 45,000km service. Kinda funny in a way because her last dealer service was on 24/03/2010 and that was at 18,361km. Anyways, the warranty is going to expire tomorrow so I figured I would get one last dealer service and take advantage of the $120 service cap whilst at the same time, bringing up the steering knock issue which luckily started in the last month or so. More details about all of that are here: Aurion intermediate shaft spline Anyway, I called them up just then (because they have a tendency to not really call with updates during the late shift) and they said they will need the car till tomorrow morning around 7am. So I really hope this is because they are in fact fitting my new intermediate shaft... otherwise I'm not going to be happy.

A bit of a thread revival here. I just dropped my TRD off at my service centre of choice for it's final major service (45,000km) since the warranty expires tomorrow. Talk about leaving things till the last minute Anyways, I told the service advisor there (same guy I've always dealt with) to check the steering shaft since I'm getting that knocking issue. As with last time when I was telling him about it on my Sportivo, he acknowledged what I said indicating he is clear about it being a known issue. He said something along the lines that he will check this first seeing that the warranty expires tomorrow and that he's have it replaced if they have any in stock. Interesting that he would phrase it that way considering that they haven't checked yet to see if it is definitely the issue. So I guess that there may be a chance that I get myself a new intermediate shaft, and if that's the case and they have one in stock, I won't be getting my car back till the morning. I guess we'll see what the word is later tonight.

Talk about a f*cking small world. Some time ago I had a conversation with a guy. Details were in the following post: The plates are to do with names. Olga, Fred (I think), and Anthony... the first two being his parents and the last being him obviously. As for 69, he mentioned that 64/67 (or whatever his birth year is) wasn't available, so he settled for 69 instead.

I found the combination of slotted DBA 4000's and QFM HPX pads to hold up quite well on the track and they went cooked or anything after heavy use at a track day. To give more clarification, this is what Andrew is using as well... not the stock Aurion pads and rotors. I would have to say that the stock Aurion rotors and pads are shockingly bad when given a good hard run... but what do you expect realistically. Give them a few (and then several more) mountain runs, and you will end up with something like this:

I was firstly going to say the following: - If I still had my Sportivo, that 6-pot brake upgrade looks tempting...only thing is that I don't think I would personally trust the 'K Sport' name on it. When dealing with something that is meant to stop a 1.6 tonne mass, I would certainly want something I could trust. Then I looked again at the product and have the following to say: - I don't really think I would call this kit an improvement. Sure it is a 6-pot calliper, but the stock Aurion rotors are already 11.65 inches, so if you got this kit, you would be decreasing your rotor size. Damn. The TRD is only 12.8 inches.

From my experience with decals and cars, whenever I have seen them removed, there has always been some form of fading on the painted surfaces surrounding the decal. Did you have any issues like that e240? Maybe it's more to do with the QLD sun.

Nice idea. But the question is... how are you controlling it?

Has your Satnav DVD spent pretty much it's entire life inside the head unit? I have seen cases before of a perfect new disc being scratched over time just from being in the disc mechanism under normal use. How old is the disc as well just so we can get a better idea. I'm not sure what Toyota is like in dealing with this, but I would imagine that if the disc has never really been removed from the unit, I'm sure there could be some way into talking them into replacing it for you with minimal to no charge. If you are returning the damaged disc, you aren't essentially getting a second copy to use elsewhere. But I've never had a factory nav unit, so I don't know whether damage like that, despite the use, is classified as normal wear and tear.

And just a note as well for the original question, both the 595RS and the KU36's don't come in a 19 inch size suitable for the TRD... well that's what the data on their site says.

What type of answer were you expecting? Were you expecting to hear that people who actually have a sense of modding have actually fitted them to their brakes and obtained more 'street cred' by fooling others into thinking they have Brembo brakes? Personally, the answer I gave is what the question deserves. It's like going onto a bodybuilding forum asking how to do spray on abs because you can't be bothered to get a real set. And in answering your question, it was actually easier to put up the facepalm pic and make the post I did than it was to give a proper answer because in all honesty if I was to give my real answer, well... I don't want to go there.

I don't want to be rude, but I can guarantee that this is what everyone that reads your post is going to think: Edit: You could have saved yourself from now looking silly by doing a search. Fake Brembo Brakes

Well once upon a time, Sony were actually at a loss for every PS3 they sold. Not that I think that accounts for the difference in price, but I guess if they can get extra money for it here and there... well it's extra for them.

Those aren't my thoughts. You don't want to hear them. Trust me. Here's a starting point: http://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/product_info.php?products_id=1192