DJKOR

Meh, not my money being spent on a complete HID setup. Either way, I've seen the result of HID questions over at the Toyota Nation forums. They usually get at least one per week. This question is bound to get asked again in the future. The answer is there to hope some genius doesn't come along and post another thread about it.

Most people don't bother changing their high beams and fog lights to HID. You will fin people out there that change their fog lights to HID, but you will find the high beams stay as halogen still. It isn't really economical to change your high beams to HID's because discharge style lamps have a longer life when they are operated continuously. Lot's of on/off cycles as well as brief usage times (such as when you flash your high beams) can wear the lamp out much faster. As for the fog lights, HID's will create a fair bit of glare for oncoming drivers, and probably isn't recommended. You can install some if you really want to however; it really is up to you. If you wanted the best performance, you should go for ones around the 3500K mark as they are a more yellow colour which is better in rain and fog. Whichever way you choose to go, the low beams and fog lights are both H11 style, and the high beams are HB3. Kit and quality wise, most people say 'you get what you pay for'. I have found though that the cheap kits on eBay are pretty good for their price however. I picked mine up for around $80 including shipping and they work great. I had a cheap set in my old Camry as well and it never failed. I figured, I'll get a cheap set and if it lasts, that's great; and if it fails badly, I'll get a better kit next time. The key to prevent shortening the life of your lamp is in the way you use it. Try and keep them on for as long as you can per use. If you absolutely need to turn it off for a short period and need to restart them soon, try an wait a minute, and when you turn them on, try and do so once the engine has started and the car is not moving, an give it about 15-30 seconds for the 'high voltage' (200V is actually considered low voltage; but most people don't care) arc to stabilise. Anyways, in respect to installing HID's in just the low beams, if you look around there has been some discussion: Has anyone installed Bosch HID conversion kit?, globe size, power plug etc.. and some discussion on the colour temperatures and whatnot over at: ZR6 Halogen Lights to HID 6000K Also, Aurion ZR6 has done his own write-up at: Xenon HID Kit Headlight Upgrade on Toyota Aurion

"where does the bus stop (i mean whats at the other side of the bus)?" - Even more confusion. The wiring from the steering wheel connects to something along the way (I'm predicting the dash cluster because of the display button and the importance of the speed sensor to provide volume adjustment to the head unit), which I couldn't follow it to because I wasn't going to rip my dash apart again. I can tell you however that it ends up at the stereo as just 4 wires, shown in the photo below. If you were to swap any wires here, I am more than sure that either the buttons will not respond, or something is going to break. When you have so few wires, to so many buttons, it's not just a simple wire swap anymore. Welcome to the digital age. That's why I only focussed my attention to the steering wheel side. For a situation like this, if you wanted to make any adjustments, this is where it's all going to happen. Click to enlarge:

Unfortunately it is not as easy as just swapping wires around. I had some spare time today so I pulled the controls out from my steering wheel, and just as I was expecting, it appears the buttons form part of a digital communication bus. It appears to work by modifying the dynamic resistance in a circuit formed over just two wires. The only way around it is to analyse the changes in the resistance and to swap some of those resistors around on the board to suit. It definitely is possible and I would most likely be able to do it myself if I had a need to, but for the everyday person, I wouldn't classify it as easy. Just click to enlarge: and while I was at it, I took a picture of the 'display' side as well (note that I don't have the other features shown on the board).

You can enable/disable the lock/unlock beeps, as well as the indicator flashes. Unfortunately, you need to use the Intelligent Tester to do so which is a real nuisance as you have to go to the service department every time you want to make a change. not sure about this, but on camry 05, u can do it yourself by using the car key and horn.. Have you got more information on this? If I get more info, I will try it out to see if it works. So long as it can be re-enabled because I quite like the beep. I reckon it sounds better than the chirp of standard alarm systems.

Like you said it all comes down to the way you look at it. For the majority of people however, I reckon having it like that in relation to the positioning on the steering wheel can be a bit of a nuisance. The main convention of things is to go from left to right. That's why sentences run from left to right, and things such as fast forward point to the right. Just from feeling the two buttons on the steering wheel, you would expect the one on the right would be 'next', just like the volume up is on the right as well. Each to their own though. In the meantime, if fixing this problem is not going to happen for a while, users will just need to get used to it for the time being, which may include using such logic as you have mentioned.

Yeah, it really is an awful design. I was amazed that it didn't break when I pulled the seat off. When you think about it, how often does the average car owner remove their rear seat? I guess little changes like that save money for manufacturers in the end.

The way the back seat is held down is quite shocking. In most cars you have a tab you can pull on to release it, but unfortunately on the Aurion it is just a matter of pulling the seat up with some force. There are two 'clips' that hold the seat down and it is best to squeeze your hand as close to the clip as possible and pull up. If you have larger hands, you can use a long screwdriver to lever it up. It's kind of hard to explain; but if you use a torch and look under the front end of the seat while trying to raise it, you will see what I mean. I have included a picture so you can get a general idea of where those clips are (I have circled them in red). Once that is out, you can remove the back rest portion of the seat by removing three bolts that are located near the bottom of the seat belts.

I've used 10% ethanol fuel once before in my old Camry, and will never touch it again. When I had a full tank of it in the Camry (a complete fill from nearly empty), the car was running less smooth than it did on regular unleaded and on a few occasions I had difficulty starting it, especially when cold. I had a remote starter on that car and it had so much difficulty in starting it with the ethanol fuel, because it needed a little bit of throttle. I would hate for my Aurion to be fed that stuff.

You would think that the data for that would be located on a non-volatile memory (doesn't require power) source since it is data that isn't always overwritten. Only data that has to get overwritten many times is usually put on memory that is volatile. It is just my assumption though. I wouldn't go disconnecting the battery just to test it. On a side note, I may not have the smart entry, but I still have the keys with the transponder chip. You would think the keys and remote would be the same basic idea as the smart entry when it comes to the immobiliser. When I was working on my car when I got it, I had the battery disconnected for a whole week and it didn't affect my keys or remote.

Isn't the ECU just a computer ? I would've thought turning off the ignition would reset it every time. I would think the battery would go flat sooner or later if the ECU was constantly on. Part of the ECU stores data that requires power to keep its memory. Yes, whenever it is connected to a power source it will always be drawing power, even if the car is physically off. The power draw however is rather small and considering the size of a car battery, it would barely be noticed. By the time that it would draw a significant amount of power to lower the charge in the battery so you couldn't start your car, the battery would probably be dead from its own "decay". The reason why you need to disconnect the battery for around 20 minutes to clear the ECU is to discharge the capacitor inside the ECU that holds a small amount of charge so that it can hold its memory when the power is disconnected. The capacitor is only sized to hold around that charge because there would probably be no reason to use a larger one.

Okay then, just got my car back from it's service. As I expected, the problem wasn't fully corrected. It has improved, but I have definitely seen cars stay in a straight line much better. It's always so hard to tell though as the roads aren't always the best. When I picked my car up though, I saw their internal service records and noticed that it had written on it "warranty limited - written off due to flooding". Doesn't really surprise me too much considering the car was, but I though they may not have known about it (my Dad has a flood damaged written off vehicle and still had warranty since Hyundai wasn't informed about the status change). With that in mind now, it probably may not be worth the trouble for me to keep chasing them up about it. I'll probably just take it into Fulcrum after I get a new set of tires.

Well I dropped my Aurion off this morning for its 30,000km service. I mentioned the pulling to the left issue to them, and they said that as part of the 30,000km service, they will do a full wheel balance and rotation followed by a road test. If they find that it is pulling to the left after that, they will do a wheel alignment. I mentioned to them to not to worry about it if they think they need to do a wheel alignment since I am aware of an issue that I have discussed with other owners. As I expected, the guy was trying to convince me otherwise and said not to believe what other people are saying about the suspension components causing the issue. He then started to go on about what will be done during the alignment, in which caster was mentioned in the process. Im pretty sure you can't just adjust the caster without additional components right? So to me, this sounds like rubbish. I ended up just telling him to go ahead with the alignment, which is an extra $55, and if the problem still exists (which I'm pretty sure it will by the sounds of things) I will keep going back to them until they fix it like they said they will. The problem is not to the extent that I am in a rush to get it fixed (it's something that I have adjusted to because of the way I hold the wheel), I'm just concerned about any extra wear that it is causing on my tires. Let's see how long this is going to take to get my local Toyota dealer to fix it.

Well I don't think Sydney is the MOST expensive, but it certainly is up there when it comes to costs like that.

The carpet in the boot is kinda grippy, but not to the way I drive. Mine is tied down with some jockey strap which is attached to a portion of the car body behind the "wall carpet" around the area of the wheel well. Stops it from flying from one end of the boot to the other like it did before. Makes it easy to remove should I need to access the spare tire.

In addition to the control panel, I'm guessing you will also need the temperature sensor which goes underneath the steering wheel. In the models that don't have climate control, the cut-out is there, just the sensor isn't. I also wonder how it will react without the appropriate dual zone components.

Good point there as well dannywss. As he said, for such a situation, it all comes down to personal preference. If you're not going for competition sound levels, you can get away with multiple positions for subwoofer placement. Another varying factor you will come across is your type of music. You may find that certain panels in your car resonate at different frequencies to others. Some songs utilise different ranges of low frequencies more than others and can make certain panels buzz more than usual when sound waves reflect off them after they have gained some amplitude. Like he said, you're just best to experiment and see what suits you best. I just provided my setup since that was my personal opinion (which is what you asked). Everyone has to right to do whatever they want and opinions can help give you a starting point.

Does the water come down evry once in a while? Coz i think I cleaned it but it seems to appear again.. Those clay bars are pretty good. If you can manage to remove the marks with one, follow it with a couple of layers of quality wax. I guess the best way in this case is prevention since I guess it's a slight design flaw of the Aurion.

I can understand your viewpoint about wiring directly to your battery. I have some things I do as well as a force of habit that some people find irrelevant, but I feel would have an advantage. Each to their own I guess. As for the sub location, I haven't really played around too much with the orientation, but in this setup (as well as in my old Camry), I have found that facing the front gives off the most vibrations originating from the rear parcel shelf area. I too find that having the sub facing the back gives probably the best results, but also facing to the side (from the furthermost point possible) comes pretty close as well. At this point in time, my subwoofer is firing sideways and towards the back; and I don't plan on changing that orientation either. It's hard to explain how its facing, so I took a photo instead. This has given me the best comprimise between vibration at high powers, bass, and usable space in the boot (which I rarely use anyways). I have recently removed my parcel shelf and layered some bitumen based sound deadener underneath which has reduced a lot of the buzzing and vibrations and have since then been able to put my bass up much louder.

You're definitely right on that statement. I was curious so I used the AAMI online quote and got two quotes. The only detail that changed between the two was the suburb. When I entered Brisbane City (4000) the quote was for $684, and when I changed that to Sydney City (2000), the quote went up to $1243.

Yeah, my first reaction was whether or not they had really swapped it. The bulbs that go on the headlight have a rubber seal on them. Once the bulbs are in, there should barely be any air getting into the headlight assembly. It is quite odd to get the same problem on a new assembly that soon.

In the meantime, you can get a brief look under under his bonnet over in his gallery: http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...si&img=2110

1) I started my policy with AAMI in April this year. My premium is $674 for cover up to $32,500 with rating one protection and standard excess (plus my extra excess that I get for being a younger driver). That was for all the features that came standard with my car (even though you need to select them as extras when getting a quote from AAMI) and for $700 in aftermarket audio. Some further information that I had to supply when I got my quote was that my parents are with AAMI (they have been for quite some time), and I have had no accidents in the last 3 years (rating one). Next time I get a Saturday or Sunday off, I will take their advanced drivers course which will get me a further 10% off my premium until I turn 25. I'm only turning 21 this year, so 4 years of 10% off will be better than nothing I guess. I get to do it for free as well. 2) I'm sorry but I don't quite understand what you mean there. Do you mean like depeciation or something? Even still, I wouldn't be able to answer that. 3 & 4) I considered using Bingle, but I thought I may just stick with AAMI. Unfortunately I can't really make any comments there.

I think it's fairly rare for someone to be fined in such a situation, but I have heard of it happening. I believe those cases are ones where you can definitely say they were speeding; like 150km/h+.

You have a good point there. All the video shows is your car running up and down a street. There is no way in which your speed can be gauged correctly. It's not like those videos you see on YouTube where people take a clip of their speedo and were also smart enough to include a shot of themselves as well.