fuel miser

I had both of my 07 presara low beam bulbs replaced under warranty. A bit over 14 months ago, 2 months before the warranty ran out. There was a faulty batch (toyota service guys words, not mine) which developed microscopic cracks which when the lamp heated up would allow then to open slightly and the gas would leak. This would create a pressure drop in the globe. Remember these aren't filament globes but are an arc type globe working under high pressure. This would cause the lamp to go out and if you turned them off then back on they would work for an period of time before going out again. Thanks to the use of my mobile as a video camera I captured this problem and showed it to the Toyota dealer and they had to believe what they saw, there is no way you can make this happen at will. Although at some stage there will be more failures occurring until complete failure. The local Toyota outlet replaced both as there was a "service" alert out about the issue. Also happened big time in the states. At the time I queried the price and was told $600+ for a globe, I queried how much a whole light assembly was but didn't get an answer. I know of another presara in town that had the same issue and got them replaced under warranty.

DRL's are added for other peoples safety, what will happen when there are more electric powered vehicles on the road. They do not make a noise at lower speeds (when the conventional motor is not running) although you can add a generated sound of a Ferrari, Lambo, etc to warn of your presence. DRL's add a visible presence that could avoid collisions with pedestrians, little kids who may not notice a car that is silent. I wouldn't add then just for looks, I don't buy into the big brother scene either or having your high beam running at half brilliance any different to than being a copy of the european cars that come from the factory with this option. I am old enough to remember when cars didn't have seat belts, babies travelled in cane baskets unrestrained on the back seat, large families travel in station wagons with 3 in the front - 3 in the rear seat and the smaller kids travelled in the rear of the station wagon - all unrestrained, on a Sunday you couldn't drink at a pub near where you lived you had to travel to a pub >20k's from your home to drink (and nobody was concerned about how much you drank) and then drive home. Times change and people embrace the the changes, why are DRL's added to a car that weren't factory fitted creating so much fuss. Are reverse cameras deemed to be a trendy gadget or a safety device?

Maybe, just maybe its the car battery. This may explain why both key fobs didn't work. Open the door with the key, hold the key fob near the start button (foot on brake)till it changes colour (probably wont if its the car battery) and then push the button to start the car. That's how to get a presara started with a flat key fob. The alarm doesn't go off either. Flat car battery, car wont do anything.

For the record I dont own a TRD but a Persara. Had my belt tensioner replaced last week, 100k on the clock. Make no mistake there will be obvious rattle which will get worse. If I put the car in R or D with park brake on and looked at the belt tensioner it was bouncing up and down (more than normal, as it does generally have a small amount of movement when the engine is running). I checked two other Aurion's a Sportivo and ATX with less k's about 45 each and they ran very smooth. The biggest clue was with the car running as above and at temp turning the air conditioner with the front wheels slightly turned it produced a loud almost continuous belt squeal. I took it to the local toyota car yard (I know these guys well) and they got the head mechanic to come out and listen. As soon as I started the car and put it in D he said it was the tensioner, turning the air conditioner produced the squeal. He also commented that they had replaced a few of them. Tensioner cost $420, new belt if needed $88 and about 4 hours labour. They replaced the tensioner only, put the old belt back on as there was nothing wrong with it. Since the replacement I have not heard the sound again, I have the old tensioner in the garage. He checked to see if it had a "Service Bulletion" out that may cover the replacement, but there is not one. They repeatedly asked me if the car was still under warrenty, but that had run out. I got the impression they would replace it under warrenty thou. Ask them if you still have warrenty.

Connections to Mayday unit etc.

Well here are the pictures of the backup battery and where it lives. I have also included pictures of the antenna and connections. Looks like I might have to do these separately.

I am pretty sure there is no Toyota Link in a Hilux or TRD. The Toyota Link web page doesn't list them as having the option. No Toyota Link, no tracking, if you disconnect the battery this triggers an alarm to Toyota Link and they ring the owner.

Well I finally got the call from Toyota link saying the backup battery was giving a low voltage alert. Having read the earlier posts and prior to starting to disassemble the car I rang the local Toyota service boys and got a quote for $72.00 for the battery. As this is the first replacement I will buy an original and use the old one to work out what I will need if I have to replace it again. As nobody has posted a picture of the replacement for reference, when I pick it up I will post one and the internals of the black box mounted under the parcel shelf showing where the battery actually goes.

Well actually it does. I talked about disabling aids, the topic asks if I wanted to buy a mod to disable aids. I said "I wouldn't buy it" Daryl talked about the advantage of having traction control disabled, I addressed his comment. I addressed the possible outcomes of an accident. Maybe not quite on topic, but something that a potential buyer should know. Maybe you should re-read my post. Always a joy to be involved in a forum where it's OK to have an opinion as long as it doesn't conflict with other. Lets praise the democratic society we live in that allows freedom of speech.

Lets say the biggest car making in the world are complete idiots. I buy car from them with just about every safety or drivers aid available and I think I know better. What will I do? I'll start disabling them because they are only needed when I am being lazy, cause I am a better driver that anyone else. One problem!! The person in the other car who isn't as good as I think I am, losses control and is all over the road coming towards me. What will I do now? I know in a split second I will (1) turn them back on, (2) loss control due to turning the wheel sharply, (3) brake hard not remembering the ABS doesn't work, (4) have no idea. Disabling the options you paid for, for any reason makes as much sense as disabling the airbags cause you have been driving for 40 years and never had an accident. I wouldn't buy the mod. Here's another reason what are you going to tell your insurance company, police, judge, because if they find out and you have had an accident and are responsible and you hurt or kill someone you are history. If you do this mod, do me a favor turn your hazard light on whilst you are driving around. This way I will know I may need to be more cautious around you. If you spin the wheel/s whilst entering a roundabout in the wet, you never had enough time or room to complete it safely. Traction control is designed for e.g aquaplaning whilst driving at normal speeds not for sprint starts.

It sounds like the IC cannot provide enough current to drive the transistor on. Look at the spec sheet. Having the base at the right voltage to have the transistor turn on is only half of the requirement it also requires the correct base current flowing as well. Look at the spec sheet. Put a "buffer" in between the IC and the relay e.g. opto-coupler, use a darlington transistor, from the IC output drive a small signal transistor which in turn drives a power transistor to power the relay. Look at the spec sheet. Remember to use a diode across the relay to avoid back emf destroying anything. IC's even a 555 would only supply 200mA (from memory) at best without an additional load handling transistor, with a CMOS IC the available current would probably be much less(from memory). A relay even a small one would draw more than 100mA. Look at the spec sheet As you load the IC output up the voltage will drop and there is a maximum safe current the IC can supply constantly without permanent damage.

If you are using SSR's to switch inductive loads (coils of relays etc) then you need to use a diode across the inductive load. DC on AC SSR (as they use an SCR or TRIAC) will not work reliably as they are designed to handle sine wave where you control the switching circuit on both sides of the sine wave. You would need IGBT SSR's Chances are that on DC it will turn ON and not turn off.

Here is a little info on the speed of the switching of SSR's. Get the one that can handle the current required. Reason is if you buy say a 5A SSR you will need to pass maybe 10mA or greater (check the datasheet for minimum current required to achieve the quoted switching speed). It sounds like you are passing bugger all current and relying on the voltage level to be passed to the computer. It should also be noted that you cannot use a AC SSR to control DC. IGBT SSR's can switch AC & DC thou, you are not likely to buy these at Jaycar, ***** Smith to cheaply. They are used in variable speed drives. Good quality DC SSR will have MOSFET's not transistors, this enables high switching speeds. See the specs below for typical MOSFET SSR's below. Input Min turn-on voltage/current 4 VDC / 10 mA Max turn-on voltage/current 32 VDC / 20 mA Min turn-off voltage 1 VDC Output Max on-state voltage drop at current output at 40ºC base plate temperature 1.5 - 2.2 VDC Leakage at 50°C 1 - 2mA Max turn-on output time, control input at >8VDC, DC Line at >8VDC 25 µsecond Max turn-off output time 25 µsecond Hope this helps, I built a DC SSR high speed gluing speed that could operate at 600Hz for placing droplets of glue along the side of multi part forms. To get to this speed I had to ensure that I always drew slightly more than the minimum ON current, by placing a resistor in parallel with the load. Unfortunately this will not help you as you are looking at the voltage level not sourcing or sinking current.

freedom of speech i dont actually have anything against you Daryl. you are more influenutal than most on the forum by your shear persistance in trying to help others, for that - well done and continue the great work. as a technical analyist I am aware of how much data is needed to get a valid result. I am a realist also.

Do live and drive in the city or country? If you live and drive mainly in the city with street lights, shop lights etc then the light may seem some what unimpressive. On the other hand if you are driving in darker areas you will find them sufficent. The RTA specifications in NSW say low beam only has to illuminate 25 meters in front of the car.