rider

Hopefully Toyota will buy the car from you when its finished for their museum. Will it ever be finished?

Its a common reported issue, the LED flicker that a LED dimmer is often given as a way to resolve the flicker. There are quite a few listed on eBay and they don't look too tacky so you could just bypass the current dimmer and route the wiring through the LED dimmer and hide that behind the dash. No one actually touches their dimmer switch, my one has been at max brightness for 23 years, so set and left would sort your flicker issue and have the dial illumination set to a level you are happy with.

You can buy 12V LED dimmer modules, whether they would run through or via the original dash dimmer is another question.

I had a blocked heater matrix in one of my old cars and it turned out that everything from the control valve (tap) had turned to a green jelly that would not dissolve in anything. There was only one solution to that, a new matrix, tap and pipes. The Supra though does seem to have air lock issues with the matrix and this thread may help you out. https://www.mkivsupra.net/topic/128626-heater-matrix-same-old-same-old/

I'll take the rear one pls. PM incoming

The price is the price and people can either buy at that or indeed any price or not buy. I recon its the auctions and top end importers (who will have to back any car with consumer guarantees or a warranty) that are setting the market price and I'm not aware of any factory original TT6 jspec car that has sold at auction in the UK yet for near to a £50k hammer price; though dealers are regularly listing at that price level. Dealer backup and warranty has to be worth something on an old and very expensive car to fix. If you want to test the market, pitch it into a classic car auction with a reserve price. You'll find out the real market price that way and avoid any tyre kickers on the way.

The Toyota p/n is 84999-70009 with 5 bulbs total in the unit. I bought a set in 2017 for £29.60 + VAT + delivery. The bulb specs are 14V & 1.54W.

300Nm is a whack on torque so you would never be able to gauge and a bit. Just go to the max and it'll be good enough.

I do think that my car is probably unique being the only one to actually get itself driven in Japan coming over in 1998 at under 2 years old with 27,780km on the clock that was then changed to a zero miles display. i do have the original km display, so if anyone wants to refresh their car make me an offer.

Its a simple form and fee to sort that out. The only proviso is the plate has to be older than the vehicle onto which it is assigned. The donor car will then revert back to its original pre private plate registration. I did it from a company vehicle onto my Supra before I sold the company truck. https://www.nationalnumbers.co.uk/faq/how-transfer-number-plate-vehicle-to-vehicle.htm https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registration-numbers https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-to-transfer-or-retain-a-vehicle-registration-number

I clocked one of my fathers cars with the wheels rather than display that I had 'borrowed' when he went on holiday for a month. He came back to a car with slightly fewer miles then when he left but he never noticed. Maybe I should seek out some penance for this misdemeanour as I never did tell him? Mileage adjustments and how easy it is to perform them is why I always regard any mileage on any old car as just a random set of numbers that may or may not reflect in the cars overall condition and it is something that can only be corroborated by an unbroken paper trail. A total rebuild throws that condition correlation straight out anyway, so why not reset to zero? It is actually something that is quite common to do with classic cars that have had major work done on them, one of my old cars was reset to zero by a previous owner after they did a very expensive (relative to the value of the vehicle) bare metal respray and a new engine was added. Its never bothered me as I wouldn't have a clue how many times it has been around the clock in over 50 years.

I do like using YouTube videos to walk through on any first time jobs and this is the best I have ever come across for a dash removal to get to things like the instrument cluster or climate control unit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEtfJhVbiyM&ab_channel=TheSupraRegistry I tend to rip good Tube videos as protection should they be pulled or deleted. I use savefrom.net for that

To start afresh you should be able to just replace the EEPROM chip (usually a 8 prong chip) with a new one. You can reprogram the chip and there are lots of howto guides online using laptop and freeware software. There must be some car traders around who would help you out with that.

Seat belts became recently another discontinued item from Toyota for the Mk4 Supra and they do (particularly with the drivers belt) tend to snag, sag and fail to retract easily as they age. This could lead to an MOT issue if the belt retract has totally given up. Seat belt performance slowly degrades over time due to a combination of dirt and finger grease on the belts making the fabric sticky and the coiled tensioner spring also loses its full power as it ages. I copied the attached pdf copy write up on how to re-tension a Supra seat belt many years ago from a 93-98 section of a US Supra forum. It looks, with a picture by picture step process provided by the author, to be as good a fix as you are likely to get this side of discontinued OEM belts. There are now retailers offering new belts for sale that they have identified that will fit the Supra, our very own Keron being one. The current option does not have seat belt light off capability so a terminal or wire bridge is required to overcome that. Pending a direct drop in belt option then re-tensioning is an easy cost free option to try that could fix any retraction problem or postpone the time when a replacement is required. Of course, before attempting a spring tensioning its always a good idea to try cleaning in hot soapy water, drying and then lubricating the belt with silicone spray to see if that fixes any sagging non-return issues first Supra seat belt tensioning.pdf

I hadn't run a we buy valuation for probably 10 years, when it was valued at £650. Today, so long as the car has a full service history, no damage, runs perfectly and is in generally Steller condition we buy any car will give £150. It shows how difficult it must be for insurers to value the cars. £150 though, scrap price is £175.

I don't think I'm quite in appreciated territory, more cost free motoring over 23 years. This rising price is a curse for longer term owners, it encourages you to drop £thousands on the thing tarting it up which you would never do if it was scrap yard fodder. Then, after you spend £thousands you do become a lot more precious over taking it out; that underside might get some dust or worst splashed dirt on it. Every puddle in every pothole becomes like navigating a minefield where you know one is going to get you. Its pure mental torture.

Mike did say he was going to set up a formal valuations team as part of the forum subscription services then I could then tell you what its worth Until then, the hint is £40k could well be a bit of a bargain price. But, you need to know more about the car for a fuller and proper valuation like service history, what is the underneath like and cars that stand for years can develop issues that wouldn't occur with more regularly used examples. Its an inexact science, more a combination of all things Supra that will lead to a pitch perfect price. The best way to test the market is to auction the car with a proper auction house (as in not eBay) as with Supras it's the dealers and auction prices that are running up the market price. Private buyers are more playing catch up.

Showing as still available from Toyota for around £1,000. Even 25 year old used ones are now going for silly money so I'd probably just buy a new one if I was in need of one. Mind you, the new ones Toyota are selling are probably 15 year old.

I don't see many Supras out and about in or around Shropshire but there was a black one with massive FMIC and TRD wing at the Onibury railway crossing around 1530hrs yesterday heading South as I was heading North on the A49. It looked to be a well cared for example. Its probably the first one I've seen on the roads in probably 5 years.

There is a write up somewhere (it might even be on this site) on replacing the bulbs and the buttons are just a prise out and push in replacement. Nothing is cheap though. I've stashed a load of spare bulbs and from distant memory they were around £5 each and the button set was a phenomenal £60. You can still get everything from Toyota. I've also got in stock a male block as they are know to break when you remove the CC unit from being a bit brittle after 25 years. That wasn't cheap either.

I've often written about peak Supra (price) and we are approaching what I have regarded for many years as the probable peak of the market before the demand for all but the very best examples begins to slip for a good many reasons from demographics of buyers, affordability, sustainability as parts dry up and fuel availability. We could even see hydrocarbon powered vehicles all but outlawed from towns and cities by Labour cosmopolitan authorities backed by excitable Green councillors to improve air and noise pollution. So, if money talks to you, its not going to get a great deal louder than it will in the coming two years and its always easiest to sell just a little bit before the market peaks.

if I were in Mikes shoes I'd be taking up Rics very generous offer and slapping a big SOLD sign on the thread.

The import TT Auto is top of market at £30k so you should be able to find ones comfortably under that price. NA's you probably recall those at £2k, well there isn't much around for under £10k these days with most now looking at the £15k price point. So, unless you crave the NAT power then you might find the TT auto is the best way to go and it'll only go up nicely in value over then next few years whereas converted cars are a bit more of an unknown in that regard.

When I replaced all my suspension with new OEM arms, OEM bushes and also new Bilstein shocks finished up with new wheel bearings I think I could say its riding like a new car would (except maybe for the coil springs which are still the original ones) and the ride became a lot smoother and quieter over rippled surface dressed roads than it was before the entire 100k mile setup was renewed. Comparing the new to old parts though the only differences I could physically discern was with the two rear diff bushes that appeared to be quite a bit softer than their new replacements. Its probably near on impossible to replace the full setup with new OEM parts now unless you put the call out and strike lucky combining parts from several sources. There are a few of us holding some spare OEM bushes but putting a full set together would be a major task these days, although some parts do still remain available from Toyota which would ease the task. Maybe if you identify your wear points and go from there or just go for a poly bush setup. As evinx says though, small wheels and decent tyres can make a massive difference. So if you are running 18" wheels first shop stop should be to try the car out on 17" wheels.

You can still buy these from Toyota and after 25 years its probably best to buy new ones with intact springs and clips while they are still available. https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/4260314320