THOR Racing

The connector I removed was directly in line with the sidelights and at the same level (right at the bottom of the headlamp) Was grey in colour (aren't they all :-) ) A single 90degree turn unlocked the plastic clip from the headlamp housing and I pulled this out to reveal a long (5") rectangular shaped piece of plastic at the end of which the bulb was inserted. (about 10mm wide by 5mm deep) No dangling bits of wire or wire dissappearing into the headlamp. Remind me on Friday to take a picture of this with my camera if you're still stuck. I'm assuming all Supras are like this, mines a 95 GZ Auto Aerotop, if that makes a difference. regards Pete

>cool, I have a spare pair of blue/white W5W bulbs I'll have to fit >them now. Yes I had a pair free with my Philips Premium Xenon 9005's. Well one was knackered and you should really replace both at the same time :-) As a stroke of luck I also checked my sidelights and they were both blown (Heaven knows how long they've been like that!) and hey presto I'd just been given a completely free set with my above purchase. So I was happy!!! It's a squeeze to get them out but it can be done without removing anything. They're placed into a long stalk which screws into the back of the headlamp. Getting them back was tricker as it took, what seemed like, ages to locate the long stalk back into the headlamp in order to turn the locking plate into the back of headlamp body. Regards Pete

Multiple replies.... Alex >I only have a problem with the back light to the two knob controls. >And like I say when the weather is very cold they work fine! Sounds like a simple connection problem with your bulbs, also the bulbs for the rotary dials are connected to the main PCB by a small connector plug. I'd take it apart and remove all connectors and bulbs and then clean any contacts with a bit of emry paper or something (careful not to rub the PCB tracks!) and refit. That should sort you out. Darren, >What about the dash illumination level knob on the dash and the >door lock and window lock switches on the driver's side door panel? >Should those illuminate too? Mine don't... Haven't noticed my illumination knob lighting up so I can't answer that one. The door panel switches should light up , I think these are LEDs though. Never had call to remove them as they didn't go wrong. Sorry Regards Pete

This may upset a few people but they are ALL backlit when you turn the lights on. The LED's obvioulsly indicate which air-flow setting you have and what fan speed etc but the two rotary dials have backlit illumination and so do ALL the buttons!!! You're meant to be able to see them in the dark to make your choice easier ;-) rather than guesswork. They are little filament bulbs inside the unit so yours must all be broken. Toyota sell these for about £3 ish (don't quote me) each. Also don't ask for the part number as I don't have it. Take it apart and take the bulbs along to them. I actually replaced one members bulbs with RED LED's as he wanted a RED dash to match his red car, illumination was difficult due to the narrow angle of light from a LED verses the wide angle light from a filament bulb. But it was sorted eventually by high intensity LED's and a clever piece of tin foil to reflect the light around inside. Regards Pete

I think you'll find they are standard bulbs, I looked at powerbulbs.com and the one I think it is from memory is http://www.powerbulbs.com/bvsidelight.htm the W5W bulb. regards Pete

>You say 'should be tied up out the way', is that only if the downpipe >doesnt have the required hole or should it be tied up out the way in >all cases? The former John. Only if the pipe doesn't have a hole to stick it into. Basically it doesn't matter what you do with it so long as it's plugged in to the loom connector. Swing it round your head if you like :-))) Regards Pete

>Can you search down a part from the number with the CD's Pete? Yes or vice versa, search for a thing by looking at pictures and locate the part number. You enter your chassis and engine number and it filters out all the crap and leaves you with all the bits for "your" car! There are 2 CD's so something to cover the cost of the CD's, postage and me copying them, say £5 all in? I'm not doing this for profit so if someone else wants to take the copies and distribute them for less then be my guest. Regards Pete

You'll find the 9006 and 9005 have the same connectors just different beam/lens/lights characteristics. So A dipped beam bulb would fit into the main beam bulb connector so make sure you have them the correct way around. The connectors differ from the UK to Jap spec but both main and dipped connectors are the same as one another. Was that clear??? It really is no trouble at all to just slice off a bit of the plastic in the connector to make it dual fitment (Jap or UK) the locating tabs don't effect it's connection as there is a clip on the opposite side which still firmly holds the bulb in. Regards Pete

remember that many of us have the Toyota Parts CD's These are a lot clearer and easier to use. Try to get a copy of them. Regards Pete

>looks like the Supra file doesn't have a file name extension on it, >guess it should be html. I specifically made it without an HTML extension so I didn't have to keep typing it in when I gave someone the link. I can always make two copies or something. I'm not a WEB wizzard. >Do the differences betwen the bulb holders mean that the UK spec >bulbs won't fit? No, not unless you cut the locating tab out of the connector (attached to the wiring loom) I should have taken a picture of this as well I guess. Maybe when I next in that area of the car again I will. The lights shown are the Dipped Headlights (which are virtually identical inshape and form to the main beam headlights) The FOG's I've got no idea about as I've never actually had cause to take them out. The sidelamps are normal bulbs (I had the number at the weekend and have just fogotten it) but you can get these from any motor factor. They are all replaceable without removing anything! Regards Pete I know that one of the front bulbs (The sidelight or foglamp I think) is difficult to source, but you are talking about the main headlight?

Please find new sections on my personal web pages showing pictures of the odometer and conversion of the Jap sepc to UK spec by moving two surface mount resistors, active spoiler assembly (tray,arm and motor units), the headlight bulbs and how they differ from the 9005,6 standard plus pictures of my boot hatch rubbers (replaced at the weekend) http://www.trlperformance.com/supra sections "Speedometer Conversion" and inside at the bottom is the odometer stuff. "Active Spoiler" "Rear Hatch Rubbers" "Headlights" all in the "useful stuff" section Hope it's of some use to some people. Also if you're into bikes, while I'm here take a look at http://www.trlperformance.com/bikes.html , Terry Steele has some for sale. Don't contact me though. Regards Pete

If you are talking about the probe which is about as thick as a pencil and about 2->3" long which sticks into the lower half of the downpipe then this is ONLY a temp sensor and you can just tie it up out of the way or if you have an Apexi or Mongoose system just plug it back into the hole provided by there systems (Not sure about others) Now if the probe you are talking about is at the top of the downpipe near the exhaust manifold then this IS the O2 sensor and you shouldn't remove that. Having said all that the UK and US spec cars have a secondary O2 sensor in place of the temp sensor (that the Jap imports have). >When I was getting my car M.O.T.'d one of the guys said that the >lambda sensor will cut down the power output from the engine if it >detects too higher levels, Ummm!!!! The O2 (lambda) sensor is a device whos output is connected to the ECU indicating the amount of oxygen present in the exhaust gas. This is normally a voltage between 0->1V. This allows the ECU to modify the air/fuel ratio to achieve the desired goal (normally stochiometric of 14.7:1 for cruising and MOT etc or for WOT you'd need about 12:1) It doesn't cut down power in any way direct or indirect as far as I can tell. I'm not sure what they are saying there. Anyway. If you got an exhaust system that has a hole for this probe then you've no need to worry about it. Certainly my mongoose system does and the Apexi downpipe I had previously. Regards Pete

For fuel cut controllers visit. http://www.trlperformance.com http://www.trlperformance.com/vfcc.html Price is £60+VAT+pnp=£75 so cheaper than the HKS or Greddy equivalents. Regards Pete

This sensor is normally a temp sensor for the CAT and not an O2 sensor (Unless its a UK spec car) It can be left off and tied up out of the way, it's only there to protect the CATs. Regards Pete

The principle will work. By clamping the voltage input in the same way. This has been known for a v.long time. This is a limit REMOVER! however, so good luck! The accuracy of a zener diode is dependent of the operating current and temperature which creates unpredictability in the temperature coefficient and the zener voltage and hence the effect of the fuel cut removal. So on it's own it might work but you really need to control the current drawn. The user of course can fit whatever he likes. Pete Note: The VFCC is a fully adjustable (universal) device which also has selectable overboost protection, which raises the fuel cut to a new limit for your cars safety. This is the key advantage to the VFCC over the other products.

All, >Forgive me, I have had little experience of the AFR meters in question as I always thought attaching >one to the stock sensor bore no merit. Again, Pete, if you are listening could I respectfully ask for >some input here. Sorry for appearing not to respond but I cannot view this BBS all the time. I get sporadic bursts at looking and answering questions. >From what I can gather, the AFR meter is nothing more than a linear voltmeter that is optimised for a >range of zero to +1 volt. However, the output from a narrow-band oxy sensor, of the like fitted as >stock to the MKIV, is anything but linear. Correct. You understand the problem. The AFR is only linear for a small region around 14.7 >As such, the moment the A/F ratio drops a couple of tenths of a ratio down from 14.7 A/F then the >oxy sensor voltage will drop rapidly down to its low level output voltage which (from memory) is >typically 0.1V. Yep, something like that. It's about a 600mV change around the centre point of 14.7 , which is sitting somewhere near 500mV for 14.7 (Stochiometric) (so +/- 300mV) So anything say between 800mV and 1V is non-linear and roughly indicates rich (don't quote me if I've got this the wrong way around, I can't remember without the data in front of me) and anything below 200mV indicates LEAN (again sorry if I've just mixed the RICH/LEAN bit up) The general idea as I mentioned before is measuring the voltage from the stock O2 sensor gives you an indication of the state of the fueling. How good/accurate an indication this is should be investigated further. >But at 0.1 volt, wouldn't the LED's on the AFR meter be reading a full-on rich condition... even though >the true A/F ratio may be MUCH leaner than this at 14.3 A/F (say)? Could be, but the region isn't that narrow. Probably more like 0.1V == 13:1 But it's all a bit wooly. I've got a graph at hoe somewhere. Oh and the idea that it's a PB AFR meter is a little OTT. This is just a LED voltmeter really measuring the stock O2 sensor. They are all like this. This thread should be really named "Using the Stock O2 sensor for AFR measurements", using PB somehow indicates my device is question when it's really the validaty of using the stock sensor. The advantage I have is I can program the PIC chip inside to remap the O2 sensor output to expand the non-linear regions and compound the linear region. i.e. ignore most of the 200mV-800mV output and concentrate on the extremes. This may yield a better result, but would have to be checked against a reference then. I have got a circuit to control a 5 wire heated wideband O2 sensor (using a Honda Civic sensor) and I'll be making this up at some point. The AFRi device is not in question. It's a programmable voltmeter and duty cycle device (for the injectors) Pete

I must say that JA's argument was very valid. I was assuming that 14.7 was the ideal and forgot that in fact 14.7 is a compromise and is for efficiency mainly and not power. I have a graph somewhere showing this and yes around the 11's,12's is ideal for more power. I still think a simple device can give warning of impending doom but now maybe it should ONLY be viewed with a better sensor like a wideband sensor. More investigation is needed I think. It's a shame they changed the fuel mapping of the VVTI so much that it goes lean just above fuel cut. Have you done the exact same test on an equivalent non-vvti'd car? Ummm! Got me thinking now... Nice discussion. POete

I completely agree that $8000 worth of proper fueling/tuning equipment is a lot better than a £100 device to effectively measure the O2 sensor. However even the stock O2 sensor has the ability to measure accurately air fuel ratios which go above and below the stochiometric value of 14.7:1 The transfer function of the stock O2 sensors gives you a voltage vs AFR curve which is very very steep around 14.7. In fact very small changes in voltage can cause large changes in the output of the sensor. This is what you see when you observe the closed loop operation and watch the LED's (or voltage) pulsing up and down between rich and lean. That fact is that on my car the voltage never even hints at going towards the lean area as it's permenantly stuck at rich. If it was border line (close to 14.7) then the LED's would rapidly shoot down to LEAN and back up to RICH to warn me something was about to go tits up. If it ever got to show permenantly lean (i.e. I hope I've explained that well. To be more accurate then a wideband O2 sensor can be used, all these give are flatter characteristics and have a linear output for a greater range. I'd like Ash to discuss it. No need to talk about my device or his equipment (mines bigger than yours etc), we just need to discuss WHY the VVTi is going LEAN? in the first place. I've sent one of my units to Paul Whiffin (MkIV) and Terry Steele (MkIII) so hopfully we can have some other info on the stock sensored cars. It maybe my car has a dodgy fuel pressure regulator and that's how I've got more fuel. I know when I did the 12V fuel pump mod (which I don't recommend) that it was MEGGA rich and was using almost twice as much fuel. This wasn't the case for most MkIV's that tried the same mod. I admit that using the stock sensor is only good for showing general LEAN or RICH conditions, in fact you could argue you only need 3 LED's for this. But I did it this way so I can attach a more accurate Wideband O2 sensor. I don't agree that $8000 worth of equipment is any better at indicating the same general RICH/LEAN condition than the stock O2 sensor or WHY would Toyota have fitted it? After all that's what is for. The ECU cycles between RICH and LEAN for the SOLE purpose of averaging out the AFR to 14.7 ! I agree it's FAR FAR better at giving precise fueling details but no better at the simple binary result of RICH/LEAN. Now that was not a flame or any criticism of anyone just my professional opinion which I am entitled to. The reader is entitled to his own and I respect that. regards Pete

Thanks for your comments. >When will the LCD one be ready Hold on :-) give me a few weeks :-)) I've only just finished the LED one. The same SW should fit in the LCD version but the box design and manufature will take time. It'll look good and you'll want to show it off :-) Cheers

I'm currently at Hitachi on the Cookham Rd into Maidenhead. Call me on 07802 412969 I'll bring one with me tomorrow (Tues)

>So just so I understand, you have designed an Air Fuel mixture gauge, to >show the air fuel mixture running in the Supra. Yes, running in any car as all O2 sensors are the same. 0->1V outputs >How much is this gauge Retail will be £100. Remember it shows injector duty cycle as well. Plus it will have a dial to select the type of display you want, bar, dot etc etc. It looks crap now but the final thing will look the ticket :-) I'm also doing an LCD one for those who like numbers rather than lights. This will be about £150 I guess. There are other units out there so if you're in a hurry do a search on the web for AFR meters. Regards Pete

Yes it would be nice to read the article. I know most injectors only really like to handle 80% duty cycle and above that they are a bit stressed. Fitting a rising rate fuel pressure regulator or bigger injectors would be the key here. Pete >I read an article, I can dig it out if you wish, which states that Pintle >type fuel injectors which I understand are fitted to the Supra, are prone >to failures at 86-88%

All, I've designed an AFR (Air Fuel Ratio) and combined injector Duty cycle monitor unit. Although technically and functionally it's fine, it does look a bit dull. http://www.trlperformance.com/afri.html (imagine this in a rectangular box) Just two horizontal rows of 16 LED's (NOT 7 segment LED!!!! before you ask) Now, as a marketing exercise how would you like it to look if you were to fit it to your car? Does it need to be small, thin, curved LED's, circular? ramped? Etc etc Colour, general design features? What about other functional changes? A buzzer if the injectors reach 100% or if the AFR reaches LEAN or dangerous setting??? Anything would help me decide on how to manufacture the device. I don't want any discussion on the validity of an AFR sensor using a stock O2 sensor or "it'd be better with a wideband O2 sensor" etc etc, just the asthetics and functional changes. I am doing an LCD version with text and graphics so that'll please the non-flashing light brigade :-) But for those who love simple cheap devices and lots of lights in the car this is for you ! Cheers Pete

Can I just say that the operation of the TRL VFCC is not in question. It is it's use that is. The VFCC (in fact any fuel cut device) should always be fitted with the understanding that the car fueling will not be modified as the ECU is seeing NO change the rising boost pressure. That's it's purpose, to clamp the MAP sensor output level to just below fuel cut. Now on my MkIV at 18psi the fuelling is fine (as measured by my AFRi) Above that and you really should get the AFR checked out or fit an AFR device. This is precisely the reason why I designed in an OVERBOOST threshold setting. This is to allow you to set a max boost of 18.5/19psi (any more and the stock sensor cannot measure it) With this in place the you should never go lean as you should never exceed 18/19psi. You can of course remove this setting altogether at your own risk. Whenever you modify a car you should always check every aspect and be aware of the dangers (hence the reason you're on this list) The TRL VFCC (or any others) only serve to remove one hurdle, often replacing it by another hurdle further down the line. You never get something for nothing! I do agree that people should be fitting an AFR device to their cars if they intend to go beyond what the stock MAP sensor can read and consider other mods like FMIC or water injection as well as larger injectors etc etc. I'm not plugging my new product but I designed it (again for myself) for the purpose of measuring Injector Duty Cycle and O2 voltage. You can instantly see the AFR and Inj Duty to spot any problems. I do need a wideband O2 sensor so if anyone knows where I can get one quick I'll try that as well. The LED's just show a voltage between 0->1V so should cope with a wideband O2 sensor as well. If any of you have any issues with AFR meters, likes dis-likes etc etc then air them here and I can make some changes. Your opportunity to help design a product you like. I'll open this as another thread so I don't upset anybody about talking here on this thread. Pete

Have you checked out http://www.trlperformance.com/dsc.html and http://www.trlperformance.com/dsc This may help. You should have four wires I would have said? 0V, 12V input and output. Is it a metal unit? Maybe the metal case in the ground. It will certainly reqiure 12V power. Regards Pete