DJKOR

True... but I don't think this is one of the usual cases where the ball is rolling after doing something like that. Nevermind. I guess I fail at making a laugh.

LOL mate. Nellie picked this Sportivo up back in 2008. I get that feeling that if they didn't begin in a hurry, they will not be happening anytime soon. Hehehe.

When it comes to cars... or anything for that matter, not getting the extended warranty is a risk I'm always willing to take. I guess you just have to weigh up the risks of things breaking vs. what you can save. I figure, I can save the cost of the extended warranty plus save on servicing costs by doing everything myself, so in the end, if something breaks, I can just buy the part with the money that has been saved and then fix it myself.

Well, I guess you have hopefully learnt your lesson then. This is quite true. The standard immobiliser/alarm combo doesn't have a glass breakage detector. If they want something out of the car, it's as easy as a broken window. Even if the alarm went off (or you have an aftermarket alarm with glass breakage detection), people still don't tend to care, and it doesn't take long to take stuff out of the car. My old Camry I've had to break into a couple of times. People just look at you and keep on walking while you pop the hood and silence the alarm. People just don't want to risk approaching potential thieves these days. Alarms and locks only stop honest people.

If you're so keen on skipping the brake fluid change, you should ask Toyota just how much you would save by removing it from your next service. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't save you much money. Respond to you PM as well, but still, you should ask for future reference.

He mentioned it was $210 for the standard 67,500km service, and the power steering fluid change was an additional $95. This seems about right. I think you will find that the $350 you were quoted is for the 60,000km complete service. $350 does sound about right for this service, but you can get it for cheaper as long as you ask around. I think my 60,000km service came to a total of around $205, but I had to provide my own oil, brake fluid, and told them not to do a wheel rotation/balance. I'm looking forward to my next service though. My TRD is still on the Toyota Service Advantage. $120 service FTW.

Have any of you ZRE boys put yours down the 1/4 mile yet? I want to see figures.

I don't really have a sound system that can push numbers so the only thing there that would interest me is the dyno... but I already have my numbers.

If you ask me, they are worth every cent. The way it affects the car is just amazing. And yeah, a set being the front strut brace and rear sway bar.

If you have the Autome unit, you should be utilising the 800x480 resolution. This will make the best use of your screen. In this case, using the image created above will not be ideal since it is of the wrong resolution. Why not just create your own image and use that instead. I just used a photo of my car that is in my Members Rides thread. I resized it to 800x480 and put it in the appropriate folder. This is written into the head unit. It's not particularly easy to change unless you have a copy of the head unit firmware, and if not, some electronic knowledge.

I got a set of them... but they aren't new. Got them from another member here (Brisbane members would know who, won't disclose otherwise) 2nd hand. Such convenient timeing as well cause I didn't have to order a set.

Yeah, couldn't agree more. Tinting is always something you have to have. When my last Sportivo got registered, it was in the tinting shop the very next morning. Just don't get a 15-20% tint. It looks f***ing cool, but is a real pain to drive at night with. You should come out to the meet this Thursday. I've finally fitted my footwell lights, now with the rears brighter than they were in my Sportivo. If you think your car glows, you should see mine Totals up to 186 LED's to provide my internal white illumination.

Unless you are doing some serious braking, I'd just stick with the normal service intervals for your brake fluid. If I recall correctly (without taking the effort to check my service logbook), I think the brake fluid intervals are 30,000km. So if that's the case, yours should be changed at your next service. Your brakes are one of the crucial components to your car's safety. I would just let them change it. It's also just to be safe since there is the possibility that your brake fluid could have a small amount of moisture in it since brake fluid is hygroscopic (water absorbing). Asking them not to do this wouldn't really cut much off from your service costs either, so I wouldn't turn it down. As for the PS cost, I don't know what the standard rates are these days though because I do stuff like this myself. I would imagine it wouldn't exactly be something cheap if done by Toyota.. but I don't know. You should just spend $40 or so on a 5 litre bottle of PS fluid (I use Fuchs ATF 4000) which I think was around $35 for 5 litres, and then just get your hands... and maybe your garage floor dirty and drain and flush your PS system yourself. If you do it yourself though, make sure you have quite a few rags handy. The process can be messy if you don't take care. Post edited: misread when the service was done.

To be honest, I was using that more of an excuse to hide my thoughts that I don't approve of Aurion's out there driving with a TRD kit on with no go under the hood. The fact that there are around 614 genuine TRD's out there makes me want to keep the numbers of them limited. At least with those replica kits, there are differences that help keep the real TRD's the way they are. Selfish I know, but that what I think. It's like the whole fake handbag business. It's that common that someone could be walking around with a genuine Louis Vuitton handbag, and you would just think it is a fake.

Today I drove her to Coffs Harbour. Got dirty from the showers on the weekend, and I didn't clean her because I was going to drive her here. Then there were numerous showers along the way, so now she is absolutely filthy. I'll be driving back in the morning, so I'm still not going to bother cleaning her, despite my massive desire to. Quite satisfied as well that she has the same fuel economy as my last Sportivo when doing interstate drives.

If you were to ask me, I'd be suggesting the Ultra Racing gear. That will give you some great driving pleasure. But then again, I really love to drive, so I guess it comes down to what your preferences are.

Most, if not all retrofit HID lamps will look like that on the rear of the base. It's just the way they are constructed. They will still fit in your headlight socket with no issues, but if you have a plastic cap that attaches to the rear of your headlight behind the bulb socket, then some drilling will need to be done on said cap. As for plug and play, it depends on the kit you get. Most commonly, they supply with the ballast just a normal power lead that is terminated into spade terminals. These just plug into the headlight plug, but for the best connection, it would be suggested to do some cutting and soldering/crimping. Some HID kits come with a power plug that lets you connect directly to the headlight plug, but it's not overly common in the meantime.

Does your car still come to a stop? I thought so. The colour of the brake fluid changed at normal service intervals is nothing to worry about. There are different colour brake fluids out there, and that one happens to be blue. The stuff in my TRD is the same colour as well (for now until I change it next weekend). Nothing to worry about there. As for the power steering fluid, it's not normally something that they include in the service schedule to change. For most people, they can get away with it not being changed, but that's for your everyday drivers. Some people say you should change it when you change your coolant, but in the end, it's up to you. Personally, for your average case, I would recommend doing a drain and flush of your power steering fluid at 50,000km-75,000km intervals at the latest. Even sooner if you really want to. ATF isn't overly expensive and when you fluid starts going dark in colour, it would be a good idea to change it then. This was mine at it's last change, old vs. new:

If it is just a single tip, I would ask around till you can get it done for about $50 or less. I had two tips removed and fitted for $60 in labour (tips cost $40 each) and that was with some decent welding as well. The labour shouldn't be expensive. You'd probably find the exhaust tips will cost the same or more than the labour.

Welcome back Nellie. How's the little man going?

THe thing here though is that the entire process is not overly efficient. Sure it does make a difference, but power still is wasted (not lost, power is never gained or lost) in the process. So in reality, it probably works out more efficient if you don't stop. ... but that's just nitpicking. The electric motor/s that power the car can be used for the opposite purpose. The battery is applied to the motor as a load and as a result, it makes the motor a generator. Because the motor is now turning and trying to apply power back to the battery, it provides a braking force to the wheels that are driving it. As a result, you slow down whilst the battery receives a charge.

If you are only going to change/put on an exhaust tip, do not even bother with a slide/screw on type. Do it right the first time. Go to any automotive store or even an exhaust workshop, pick out the tip you want, then get an exhaust shop to cut off your old one and weld on a new one. As simple as that.

Are you referring to one of the ones shown below: Presara headlight adjustment If so, did you actually make any adjustments on them? Because these should work in adjusting the headlights.

Most likely not, unless they are a really good dealer/mates, or if it is one of the genuine lighting kits that they sell as accessories for the new facelift Camry or Aurion. You Toyota dealer only really fits accessories that they sell.

You can certainly get replica kits but not the genuine parts. This is mainly my view, but details for genuine parts should only be provided to owners of TRD Aurion's that require them (ie. accident repair etc). Anyways, two replica kits that I am aware of are the following: R-Style Racing (Thailand): http://www.rstyleracing.com/index.aspx?ProductID=Product-091205070560328 Carmate (Australia): http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06TRDFB http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06TRDRB http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06TRDSS or http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06KSFB http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06KSRB http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06KSSS Personally, if I were to choose from those two, I would choose the R-Style Racing ones. The Carmate ones in the first set of links aren't actually shown in the photos, but from what I saw when they had the images posted before, they were a less accurate replica than the R-Style ones... much like the ones in the second set of links. Off topic: What is with the funky text formatting. Seems to be a common thing for you guys to post like that.