DJKOR

As much as it seems like a good idea, it all comes down to the dollars. Then it comes down to who will actually buy a full EV or plug in hybrid. I personally don't think the market here in Australia is large enough to consider pumping money into the idea just yet. Sure there is a large percentage of us that live close to the GPO, but the thing is, how many of those people would consider even changing their car to an EV or hybrid. Then you have the issue of parking. A fair amount of people that travel short distances are those that have to go into the CBD for work or study. The thing here is that parking is quite limited within the CBD. Sure you can save dollars by having an EV, but then you need to pay fees for parking etc... if parking is even available. Then there is traffic, etc. In the end, is the commute to work any better, or even cheaper? Personally, I would rather have the public transport network improved. Trains are by far the most efficient way to get from the suburbs to the city during peak periods since you have no traffic to worry about etc. So as long as these can be kept efficient, then this would be what I'd prefer. In the meantime, you just have to stick with an electric scooter if you want to go in that direction.

The links should work fine... they do for me.

Since I know photos don't really do justice, I'd be pretty sure that would look great in person. I quite like it. I think the extra tint/colour in the light makes it more 'compatible' with black than the all-clear ones the Australian facelifts use. At the same time though... something is a bit strange. I think it may just be the fact that it's like a TRD cross-breed

Today I put an LED strip in my glove box since the 1.2W bulb that was in there was quite pitiful. Then I fitted my front footwell lights which required a bit of effort since I was connecting it to the dome light circuit for a fade on/off effect. A pillar is non removable due to the curtain airbag so I had to work around that. Anyways, got the front footwell lights complete and managed to run the primary wiring for the rear footwell lights. Will put those in another day. Also while I was at it, I ran the cable for my amplifier's remote gain. Didn't have any 6-core when I fitted it, so got some from the office the other day and finally got around to running it. Edit: I decided to stop being lazy and ran the cables through my front seats and mounted the rear footwell lights. My LED's are now the way I want them.

Well you have provided yourself with two options here. You can either machine the surface which will give you the look (or close to the look) you are after, or you can paint or powder coat them, but this will not give you the same effect. Machining the surface means exactly that. The surface is the bare metal that has been worked to the standard that is required. It is then coated with clear to protect them and to prevent surface corrosion.

Sorry if I didn't spot you. Was so focussed on getting to the dyno since I was running a little late. Today I spotted: 12:57pm - On Ipswich Road at the Juliette Street intersection, a silver pre-facelift Aurion Touring (or AT-X with spoiler), with a Sportivo grill. Took me a couple of seconds to process what I was seeing. 1:10pm - At Jaycar Wooloongabba, a silver pre-facelift Camry Sportivo, 20 inch Advanti Seneka wheels, painted red calipers, lowered, aftermarket LED tail lights, and dual twin-tip exhaust. Looked f***ing neat. Edit: I knew it was someone here. It was you Rob. For those wanting to see this car, it's all here: Rob's '07 Camry Sportivo http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/rasoo/Car%20related/New%20pics%20lower%20Resolution/IMG_0357darkedgesmall-1.jpg 1:22pm - On the Logan Motorway heading off towards Mains Road, a white Camry Hybrid. Nothing fancy... just the first one I've seen on the road.

149.4kW at the wheels isn't something to be disappointed about. You are putting more power to the ground than most stock Aurions out there.

Well I reckon for my Sportivo, the dyno figure was quite inflated, plus my Aurion wasn't exactly normal so to speak. 209.9HP seemed a little high for an Aurion with not much done to it when most others were getting around the 197-200HP mark. So lets say a stock Aurion is 197HP at the wheels (this seems like a common figure), then that makes the TRD 33.75% more powerful than a stock Aurion

Works for me. If you want it sooner, I'm sure we can sort something out. Just unfortunately not tomorrow.

Well the thing is, the Prius and Camry hybrid... as well as other hybrid cars for sale in Australia, currently do not offer the 'plug-in' charging feature. Until such a hybrid is on offer, then I doubt anyone is even going to bother looking into the concept.

Thanks for the heads up. Damn YouTube. First upload failed and I guess the second one defaulted to private. Anyways, all fixed.

Today I finally got to see what my TRD is putting out at the wheels... before I go touching that y-pipe etc.

I will jump in before Andrew gets here. I won't post figures... he can do that. He was also checking the AFR's, so that's why the run may seem a bit different to your normal power run.

Well, since Andrew wanted to take his newly supercharged Gen 5 to the dyno to make sure it's AFR's are all good, I thought I would take this opportunity to put my TRD on the dyno to see what it is pushing out 'stock'. I say stock that way because I removed the snorkel at the front which I believe is a sufficient restriction on the supercharger to reduce it's output a little. Anyways, the dyno graph speaks for itself. For those that can see the picture or prefer horsepower, here are the figures: 196.5kW or 263.5HP at the wheels. This means that if the dyno chart for my Sportivo was correct (which I have my doubts about), then my TRD is 25.5% more powerful than my Sportivo. Damn my TRD is so quiet that you can hear the hum of the dyno more than the car itself :

I really don't MSN anymore these days. Just let me know when you want it, and as long as it's outside of work hours, I'm sure we can sort this out.

If you can promise me that you will try your best to make this work... http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27248&view=findpost&p=388639

If I was online just a little earlier, I could have saved you the hassle of asking again. I've got a original Sportivo grill... red in colour... in pretty good condition (only a couple of tiny stone chips on the front). Don't think I will be needing it anymore. It does mean a bit to me, so all I ask is that you don't screw it up

In my opinion I don't think that is anything you need to worry about. My guess would be that you had previously had water in your exhaust pipe etc (washing the car or rain can do this), and then before in the process of evaporation, the water will collect what is in the exhaust fumes and then settle them on the base of the exhaust pipe. Just what I would imagine it as.

This is the problem... I wouldn't think it is ECU related. The Aurion transmission still uses a mechanical shifter to engage and disengage the transmission. So when you put it into neutral, you are physically disengaging the transmission.

When designing a speedo, there can be anything up to 10% error (optimistic) in the readings given. Here it appears your reading is in the opposite direction though. To correct this though, they can either replace the speedo, or you can fit an aftermarket speedo corrector which modifies the input speed signal. One thing to remember as well though is that your GPS isn't 100% accurate when giving your speed. I wouldn't rely on just the GPS alone to give you an indication of how much your speedo is off by. I believe the Presara uses the speed signal as well to calculate it's speed (which is the same one that the speedo receives), but there is always the possibility that the nav unit may also be in error. There is no guarantee that changing your speedo will completely fix your issue.

If the locking pin does not engage when shifted into park, the car has to roll either forwards or backwards to enable it to lock in. The issue I was referring to above may be different to what you were experiencing. All I can say is that no transmission should engage when in neutral.

You simply buy a 'line out converter' also known as a 'high to low converter' and you can use this to connect your amplifier/s up. It taps into your existing speaker wiring and then converts this to RCA outputs which is what your amplifier needs. Some amplifiers even come with 'high level inputs' which bypasses the need for a LOC, but it all depends on what you get. I was running a sub in my Sportivo from the moment I started driving it, and it was a couple of months before I even changed the stock head unit.

These functions require you to go to your dealer since the parameters for these are set in the ECU. The only way to adjust them is by connecting their Intelligent Tester to your car though it's OBD2 port.

Well I used to, but these were mainly the parkers. It took a while before I found ones that can take the heat that is generated from the headlights. It all depends on which ones you get. I find the SMD type LED replacements have a higher fail rate than most others, but it's pretty much hit and miss I've found. Always from eBay for me. The last set I got seemed to last for ages on my Sportivo, so I stick by them. These are the type of ones I'm using in my number plate lights: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-194-168-T10-1W-Super-Xenon-SMD-White-LED-Light-Bulb_W0QQitemZ120546984229QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Car_Parts_Accessories?hash=item1c11290125 I think it's more to do with the cheap and basic way of making the LED's work on 12v. Most 12v LED replacements out there simply use a resistor as the sole means of current limiting which is required for the LED's to work. Because your car power can vary between 11.8v to around 13.8v, the LED's will be experiencing this as well. It's usually this constant fluctuation of power that ends up killing them since the resistors are only usually chosen for 12v operating voltage.

Technically speaking, yes any muffler will restrict airflow. The amount of restriction though is what matters in this case. The mufflers as designed will reduce the noise the car makes by presenting the exhaust gases with something to go through and this is certainly a restriction. However, this restriction may not have any effect at all to the engine. This is one of the reasons the Aurion uses a dual rear muffler setup. By dividing the exhaust gases between the two of them, any restriction caused by the rear mufflers will not adversely affect its performance. This has also been shown on dyno. During a dyno day here in Brisbane, an Aurion was ran with no mufflers and was putting down the same power as an Aurion with it's stock mufflers in place.