rider

Was it still there in the morning?

Maybe those that are closer can buy the food and drinks I think its best if the OP were to just to set a venue at the start of the thread and put an inviteout. Then people can just say in or not in. Bearing in mind half the in's won't make it then if there is insufficient interest just cancel.

I've been hard at work today on my teenage 6 speed TT Surpra that I've now owned for 14 years. Buffed in paint restorer and topped of with a polish. The car still looks good for 16 years though to be honest came across a couple of minor rust spots. I think I'll hold off the respray for a few years yet.

Looks like Nic's the wheel man. Thanks for the useful breakdown. Can I just reconfirm one thing. The +50 offset applies to the import Supra and not the bigger brake UK model. Just need that putting to bed for my import then I should be set to go shopping. thanks again.

This is probably going to look like a numb nut question to many but I'm struggling to find an article to give me a difinitive on this. I have a stock jap import running 17 in BBS alloys on 225's front and 245's rear. They could do with a refurb but I got quoted £600 for a polish job whoch I thought was way too much so looking instead at buying a new set and selling the BBS I have. I'm trying to figure things out so I don't end up with a set that dont fit so here are some questions. 1. The stud pattern is 5X114.3, I figured that one out. 2. If I go for larger rims, say 18 inch then presumably I need to come down 10 or so on the profile otherwise the spedo and milometer will be way out? Am I correct with that assumption? 3. I believe the standard offset is +40 for an import but I can't track down confirmation on that, is that correct? 4. If by going to wider rims, say from 7J to 8J does that change the offset? 5. Does anyone know a web site that lists what width tyre goes onto which width wheel? I think my BBS's are 7J and 8J but thats me guessing as I haven't had them off for a while to read the markings on them. Currently I'm running on 40 profiles and with the roads around here I probably wouldn't want to go much lower than 35's and retain a spine. Hopefully thats my numptyness over for today but any assistance will be gratefully viewed.

Whats wrong with standard Toyota Super White 040. I still can't polish my car outside without wearing sunglasses even though the paint is 16 years old. It looks cool, I don't look quite so cool.

Are you certain the rev guage is reading the correct value as 300rpm is very low to maintain a steady tickover. Does the rpm increase by 300 when you engage the air con? It's easy to check if the guage is reading OK if you don't have access to a tachometer by running at a set speed in gear the rpm to speed will obviously depend on the gear selected and whether its an auto or manual gearbox.

This is an old thread that I'm kicking up but it may be useful to the yellow lens issue to recount my own experience. I bought a lens refurb kit off ebay and tried it on an old lens that I had exchanged several years ago due to it being strongly yellowed. Upshot was it came up pretty good with finger application (no hours of grinding and polishing). The kit had two bottles of treatment followed by polish. The treatment bottle smelled very familiar, Brasso I thought. So I reached for the cupboard and grabbed an old bottle that has sat there for years, same smell and same colour. Off I went to do the second replaced lens and yup it worked too. So a simple finger (in a surgical glove) work in with Brasso followed by ordinary car polish restored the yellowed lights to a very good clarity, I'd estimate 90% of original from a pretty deep yellow. If the Brasso had been mechanically polished into the lens surface the finish may have been further improved or possibly the lenses may have suffered abrasion. I'll leave that for someone else to check out.

I think it comes down to what you class as low miles. My TT6 import is about to turn 16 years old and did 27k km on the original dials and has 85k miles since converting in 1998. I've owned the car since 98 and figure 102k miles is pretty low mileage at 6,000 miles a year average. The last 10 years have averaged more like 3k to 4k per year so with full synthetic oil changes at those intervals the engine feels and runs as good as I remember it did 14 years ago and this Supra did a fair amount of fun autobahn travel in the early years of my ownership. On the price front, those have firmed up over the last 3 to 4 years. There are lots of classifieds around for £8k+ but I'd value my car more around the £6.5k privately as a very good condition example with BPU (330bhp at the wheels when RR tested in 2009). Just bide your time as the very good ones are hard to find, in 1998 when all mk iv supras were still pretty new, I looked a 6 before buying this one and with 14 years of ownership and still enjoying it shows that care taken pays good dividends.

Dyes with a high red content in the blacks will not be colour fast and will fade with sunlight. Paints are colour fast so won't fade otherwise there would be a lot of musky grey cars driving around. The spray cans have a very fine nozzel and so can be dispersed or concentrated dependant on how far from the contact surface you are spraying. I've only ever sprayed fabric materials, not shag pile but I could imagine If you wear gloves then you can flex the carpile pile as you spray to get a good coverage. If I didn't have a black carpet already in my supe I'd go check the theory out myself.

I've used pretty much every make of tyre over the years and found Falkens and Goodyears to be best for longevity with Bridgestone best for road noise and grip so I assume they are a softer compound. Didn't like Pirelli's, wore out way too quick. So I usually keep buyer watches on Ebay for Goodyear, Falkens or Bridgestone used tyres and buy pairs or full sets when they come up with 6+mm pattern left. Usually works out about £40 - £50 a tyre when you aren't in a hurry.

The best as its the easiest way is to use a matt black spray paint. The standard stuff from places like Halfords works well. Its permanent and easy to touch up. Best of all though, it works a treat, can be done in situ and dries very quickly.

According to Wiki its fine "In 1993, GM released new Dexron-III fluid. It is generally backward-compatible with transmissions originally filled with earlier Dexron fluids or with Type-A/Suffix-A fluid."

On a side issue - yellowed plastic lenses can be restored quite easily and very cheaply. Brasso on the lens will restore the lens clarity to probably about 90% of original and follow it up with a normal polish. I tried this on the original light units I had replaced but kept and one was very yellow but came up looking clear again.

I'm with Tomgeer on this, it could well be a sticking piston. Does it grate more when you put the wheel on lock and go when you brake? If thats your symptons then I'd go for a sticking piston in your caliper.

I thought I'd check up what the old girl was worth so I ran the details over one of the buy your car sites and my gorgeous white Supra TT, 6 speed with BBS alloys came back at £685. I may as well skip the car and sell the BBS wheels.

You are close by to me, I'm in Shropshire. I've owned my TT 6 speed for 14 years so you can come over for a look and I'll tell you everything there is to know about owning and running one of these cars. Fortunately it's been all good, otherwise I wouldn't still have the car after 14 years. It's not for sale though unless I got an offer I couldn't refuse as I know I'd miss it.

That was pretty close. 51yr old TT import Owned since 1998 - 14 years Mileage restriction 7,500 (though it does more like 4,000) Shropshire Mods, all declared as admiral are renowned for being picky - Dump valve, wide bore exhaust and BBS alloys. Insured for £8k I've had 6 cylinder group 17 to 20 cars since I was 19 and insurance has always been £250 to £350. Mind you, £250 when I was 19 would buy about 700 pints of beer or 1700 litres of petrol so that'd be over £2,000 today. I really should sell it on as it is only used once a week but I enjoy it too much.

I've just renewed with Admiral, had a quote of £327 for the Supra TT but after shopping around got them down to £276 to renew on a protected policy. Thats with one at fault accident recorded as someone ran into the door of the car when it was stationary. It always amazes me how people never admit accidents are their fault even when they run into stationary objects. Without me having someone run into the car the premium may have been slightly lower.

From my fading memory the recommended service interval on pre 94's was 6,000 miles and this was raised to 9,000 miles for post 94's. That was a long time ago and I bet my last pound that if they were to spec in today's oils they would be at 12,000 miles. The viscosity recommendations went to thinner 0W 30 oils around the time the Surpa was coming out to cater for California fuel saving, lower your emmissions, laws that were being introduced at that time; where the car manufacturers had to show they were working towards improving fuel efficiency. The thinner oils were a quick fix way of adding a few % points to economy and their introduction was for no other reason. Generally, the thicker the oil the better the protection will be afforded at high temperatures so for thrash it nuts I'd go for a 40+ weight synthetic over a SAE 30 grade. The lower number which relates to cold crank properties is irrelevant in this country except on the occassional -20C nights when a 0W can have you cranking faster than a 10W. The only recommendation I have with synthetic oils, beyond leaving it in for the duration, is don't switch brands as seals swell in contact with oil and this does vary dependant on the base oil used. If you have used a brand and then replace it with something different that induces relatively less swell then you run a slight risk of introducing seal (oil) leakage.

There was a thread started in the supra chat section that somehow got side tracked into oil change interval and it did look like everyone has their own ideas on the topic but there was a lot of half truths and a few total myths coming up. I did a search on threads and there hasn't really be anything solely dedicated to this topic which is surprising as people seem happy to swap out £50+ worth of expensive synthetic oil every 3,000 to 4,500 miles as a preventative measure. I used to work in oil product development for an oil major and have a lot of experience in what makes a good oil and what breaks down a good oil. Up to 15 years ago all synthethic 4 stroke engine oils were based upon polyalpaholefins (unless for the Swiss lakes biodegradable market when they were ester based) aka PAO's. These are synthetic products that are chemically very stable and so maintained important physical properties for an extended period of time supported by an additive package, chiefly viscosity stability across a wide temperature range coupled with low volatility; both of which are related. Around 15 years ago synthetic oils moved to highly refined mineral oils for the base, basically a very narrow fraction that has high viscosity integrity (high viscosity index - aka. HVI)and doesn't contain light ends, meaning it retains it's viscosity. This switch to HVI mineral oils lowered the base cost by 65%, this left the oil companies very happy as the lower cost was never reflected in the price charged for synthetic oils. The longevity of oils is very reliant upon the additive performance as it is when these are consumed or degraded that oil breakdown can rapidly occur. In large industrial diesel engines the oil is often never changed, just filtered and additive booster packs added. Additive technology has moved on leaps and bounds in the last 20 years - since the Surpa was designed and that is why OEM's can now spec in up to 20K miles change intervals. So, when Supra TT's oil is changed after say 4500 miles you may as well package it up and sell it on Ebay as near new oil or have the oil companies smiling all the way to the recycling bank. The service interval on post 94 Supras is 9,000 miles and with todays oils 9,000 miles is nothing, no matter how hard the car is thrashed. Save yourself some money guys the oil companies don't need it.

I used to work in oil product development for an oil major and I can't recall there being any ester based automotive oils other than 2 stroke. Up to 15 years ago synthethic oils were based upon polyalpaholefins, these are synthetic products that are chemically very stable and so maintained important physical properties for an extended period of time, chiefly viscosity stability across a wide temperature range coupled with low volatility; both of which are related. Around 15 years ago synthetic oils moved to highly refined mineral oils for the base, basically a very narrow fraction that has high viscosity integrity and doesn't contain light ends, meaning it retains it's viscosity. This switch to HVI mineral oils lowered the base cost by 65%, though this was never reflected in the price charged for synthetic oils. The longevity of oils is a function of the additive performance and that is why OEM's can now spec in up to 20K miles change intervals. Additive technology has moved on leaps and bounds in the last 20 years - since the Surpa was designed. So, when Supra TT's oil is changed after 4500 miles you may as well package it up and sell it on Ebay as near new oil or have the oil companies smiling all the way to the recycling bank.

Just as a final note on this thread for anyone else suffering from banging pads there are apparently sprung clips that I need to replace behind the pads so I'm looking around for those at the moment. I did come accross an interesting post on the land rover forum on the same topic. The solution there was pack the pads in with lots of grease backing them and apply gaffa tape around the retaining pins. They are clearly a very rustic lot the land rover crowd. I did look for a post detailing how to work windscreen wipers with lengths of string but they don't seem to have thought of that yet!

That blue smoke puff after a 3 second start up is just like my turbo diesel truck - very embarrassing for you indeed.

Nasty wheels can impact the price a lot so I'd say either get them refurbed which isn't cheap these days at around £80 a wheel for normal paining and closer to £125 for diamond cut. My BBS wheels have cut rims that had blackening where water had go in so I got a few quotes that ranged from £350 for straight painting to £600 for the diamond cut refurb. All a little higher than I expected but I live in a rural area with not a lot of choice on where to go. I decided to spray the rims myself as the laquer hadn't bubbled or broken and although not perfect they look a hell of a lot better and I still have a lot of money in my pocket. So, it could be worthwhile you having a quick spray yourself and if it looks crap you haven't lost anything over getting a refurb done anyway and you would make your car more like a £10,000 motor which is top end price requiring top end looks and performance. This little wheel paint episode served me well as I then tackled some pitting on one wheel arch that I was quoted £350 to sort out by a body shop. Did it myself and I'd give myself a 8 out or 10 for the job, I still have the £350 in my pocket and improving at the paint front all the time.