DJKOR

Everyone seems to have varying stories. I have a Midnight Express metallic tint and it doesn't affect my reception in most cases. The surface of the tint is not conductive so it won't short out the antenna loop on the rear window. It will however slightly affect the quality of the signal the antenna can pick up. It's nothing big though and in most cases you shouldn't notice it. From my testing, I did notice there were one or two spots around town where it was a little fuzzy when compared to before. But these were within car parks so it is acceptable. I never use my radio though, so I don't really care. Every case can vary though. Another note however. If you have an antenna mounted on your parcel shelf (I once had a TV antenna there), the metallic tint does a good job of blocking signals so that is one case where it will have an effect.

I better get started on my Will Kit then. It will be death by intense fear.

Good stuff. It's amazing to think that from the first photo they would be able to be cleaned up to such a good state. Nice work.

Yeah, they are, you just don't try hard enough. :P If your Adrenalins aren't slipping when cool Phil, you definitely ain't trying hard enough :P I've felt the silent slip of the Adrenalins with Gav behind the wheel. I was already feeling like death was on its way.... WAY before the tires slipped. I guess he drives it easy... in his terms Gav: Your driving still amazes me.

Sounds like you are making Assumptions. You do know what assume means? Reminds me of a good quote: Those who think they know it all are very annoying to those who do.

A tapping noise when cold that people claim is piston slap. The VVT-i oil line potential leak (the TRD has different shaped line, but still with the rubber hose). As well, there is the axle tramp issue, but being a powerful FWD it is nothing out of the ordinary. Then there are the interior rattles and creaks. My g** yes! They have some pretty beefy brakes. Not like AP Racing beefy, but much better than a normal Aurion. They are actually Corvette C5 brakes. I've had the change to hold a new front rotor and they have quite a bit of mass to them. They also seem really solid with decent cooling vents. The major disadvantage with the stock TRD brakes though is that to get their massive stopping power, the brake pads that come stock are pretty aggressive and as a result they eat up your rotors a bit more easily. Yes they are... in general. A fair few of the items in the TRD are normal Aurion/Sportivo parts. With them, price will vary. Some are shockingly expensive, some are shockingly reasonable. Anything TRD Aurion specific will most likely cost a fair bit, but the same as above applies. Some parts are reasonable. +1 mate. I love my Aurion and love surprising others with how well it can perform :P

Adding another post because that one above has quite a few quotes: After driving a TRD Aurion, I have to say the torque steer is more than that of the N/A Aurion, but it isn't really something that you can't adjust to. Maybe as well this was due to the fact that I was used to the torque steer of my Aurion before hand which made it less noticeable. The more your drive your car, the more you get used to how it handles and you then naturally apply just the slightest amount of anti-clockwise force to the steering wheel when you floor it. Over time, you don't even notice it. I tend to give my Aurion a boot many times during a drive and it just became second nature to compensate for the torque steer. My answer to that is in my post above. As a matter of fact, Elgin (Supercharged TRD) has a USB OBDII interface for his TRD when he had it and experimented with the gauges etc. Looked pretty cool.

This one seems to be questionable. It is said to be around 7 psi by a few people here and there but I would say between 5 and 7 psi would be about right. There are a few subtle differences such as oil line placement, an extra idler pulley, a nice transmission cooler etc, but apart from that they are basically the same engine wise if you took away the S/C. The ECU's are tuned differently but most likely the same inside. The injectors have been said to be upgraded over the standard Aurion ones. They just allow your basic OBDII monitoring. No parameters can be adjusted yourself. I'm waiting for a response from David (SupaTouring). He recently got a new set of tires after the original set had travelled in excess of 45,000km I believe. He has taken his on a few good mountain runs as well with that set. From keeping an ear on the boards, it seems that the only main issues tend to be your normal Aurion related issues, so nothing out of the ordinary. The 3500S comes with a red interior and the 3500SL offers a plum interior. I think the better phrase would be "leaves more to be desired". Enjoyment of your car all comes down to how well you can appreciate it for what it is. The only true review you can get is if you test drive one for yourself. Everyone has different opinions and may not reflect what you may think. You would be surprised I reckon. Goes even better around a mountain road.

Yes that is normal. The software is made to run on portable navigation units which have battery level monitoring circuits within. Since the car head unit doesn't really have that function, the software reads it as a flat battery.

All you need to do is copy over the iGO8 folder contained within the ZIP file over to the root directory of the included SD card, or any SD card for that matter. As long as there is room on it, you can copy it all over in addition to the other software. Then you just exit the current navigation software that opens when you press the NAVI button then enter the navigation options menu and browse through the folders till you select 'igo8.exe' as the software. Then you're done. You can use a different SD card if you want... it's up to you. With mine, I just backed up everything from the SD card that came with the unit to a folder on my PC. This way, if I kill the SD card, I can simply copy it to another and continue where I left off. Provided you don't erase anything necessary or break the card, there is nothing to worry about. They are just files after all.

If adjusting the headligh beam upwards does not help you out, there isn't much else you can do without hacking open the headlights and modifying the cutoff shield. That's just the design of projector headlights. In the meantime, just position the seat higher for her Surely that can bring her eye level higher than the cutoff.

They are a direct replacement. All you do is connect your fog lights to the harness that already exists there, put a relay into the fuse panel (fuse should already be there), then you're new stork is ready to work. As for cost, be prepared to pay something like $150+ for it.

So how often will you get to take it for a drive?

To program a new key and remote, my dealer charged me $45 for their time. As for the window tint, why not get someone else to tint it for you and skip the dealer. Most dealers get a third party to do their tinting anyway. You can save yourself some money as well.

Halo... as in the thing that goes above your head. I would guess a Halo car would be the most perfect one. Anyways in response to you above, I would say that it wasn't a case of "a manufacturer's biggest car should be...". It's just that the new Corolla doesn't quite perform like they used to. As a result, Toyota is pushing the Aurion as their powerhouse. It just happens to work out that way.

They will fit... just. I fitted an eBay set just like those to dharsh's Aurion. Definitely brighter.

Usually you will find them attached to the ducting right above the blower motor (behind the glove box). If you have the new resistor pack with you there, just take off your glove box and look around the blower motor area for a panel that looks just like the back of the new resistor pack. Should be attached by two screws.

HID lamps work by passing a low voltage (approx. 200V) arc through gaseous metal halide salts. These take time to vaporise and that is why most discharge lamps you find take a couple to a few minutes to 'warm up'. Most LCD projectors are a good example. Automotive HID lamps (and other fast starting discharge lamps) on the other hand start by an initial high voltage (approx 20kV) arc across the xenon gas in the bulb. That is usually enough to vaporise the salts within the bulb to allow it to then pass low voltage (approx. 200V) and still have reasonably bright light without the need to wait a few minutes to warm up. Your HID ballast does all this fairly seamlessly without you having to think. As the lamp ages, or possibly caused to the quality of the salts used by cheaper manufacturing processes, the salts may get slightly harder to vaporise. The flickering you see is the ballast going through it's 'ignition' phase where it is trying to get them to vaporise (ie. if it's not vaporised enough, it will quickly give it another 20kV pulse). In simple English, HID technology is not exactly as simple as it may look. No need to panic. Once it starts flickering during normal use, then you should.

The Aurion does have an ABS warning light. If you pay attention to your dash when you start your car next time, looking underneath the fuel gauge, you will see it turn on for a couple of seconds then turn off. This indicates the system is in working order. The only other time the light will stay on or come back on is when a malfunction is detected.

Yeah. I made a little boo boo. Obviously I don't really follow the Rolla that well

I have been keeping an eye on the Blade Master G for quite some time. A bit of old news, but some people find things out sooner than others though. I dunno. Their AWD Matrix (based on the hatchback platform) with the 2AZ-FE seems to be more of a winner for me I reckon.

Mmmm. Black TRD with tint... finally Shame I won't be there to see it.

I too find it amazing how people can find treasure out of such waste. That said, I'm waiting for the next kerbside collection because one thing I always see being thrown out are microwaves. I am in need of as many HV capacitors as possible for use in the Tesla coil I plan to make (yes Drew, I haven't got around to it yet) and microwaves are a good source of them.

One thing you need to remember though is that even though they have the facilites to be able to go through R&D fully, they also need to factor more than just performance alone into the design. Making a car such as this which can be sold in many markets each with varying conditions, the car needs to be made as a once size fits all. That means that if this car is sold to a market which can experience freezing cold temperatures, then they need to ensure that the throttle body receives a supply of coolant so that it does not freeze over. Even if such a design factor takes a slight bit of performance out of the equation (in this case, nothing... but still), then they have to do what they have to do. Another reason why I prefer to have my throttle body coolant bypassed anyways is because I don't like the amount of heat that accumulates in the throttle body which then transfers over to the DBW servo motor. Even though it would be designed to handle such temperatures, I feel more comfortable if it stayed cooler rather than hotter. This is more of a personal thing because I have had many electric motors live a shortened life due to excessive heat.

Sorry. That was my bad. It goes like this: OFF -> Preset Mode -> Freely Adjustable -> OFF When in preset mode, you can cycle through the three presets using the arrow buttons. Like I said, I don't use it often (have it set at 130km/h all the time) and I haven't seen my car for 10 days now.