Doughie

I've got 3M Handglaze which is supposed to do more or less the same thing i believe : it fills-in tiny surface scratches or "swirl marks". How long these swirl marks remain "filled-in" for i don't know. I Handglazed my car a couple of months ago (damn hard work BTW) and the swirl marks are back. I know that 3M have a whole range of products. I hadn't heard of Finesse before. Does anyone know what the difference between Finesse and Handglaze is ?

I found the posts back in Feb.2001 about Water injection. Chris Wilson mentioned a mix of methanol and water. think it was 50/50 mix. I've forwarded the posts to Martin for his perusal.

My car's was manufactured in January 1995 (i've even worked out that it was about the 15th of Jan by comparing the chassis number with a table of Toyota chassis numbers and the month of manufacture!). Martin's is a 1995 model too i believe. that right Martin ?

Reducing unsprung weight is a bit of a holy grail for sports and racing cars. Unpsrung weight is literally that - wheels / tyres / brakes / hubs etc. all the bits attached to the hubs that are not supported by the suspension springs. If the unsprung weight is as light as possible, this lets the wheels do what they're supposed to do which is to stay in firm contact with the ground as much as possible. Imagine if you had a wheel rim that was made of lead (i.e. v. heavy) and it hit a big bump at speed. The spring would compress massivley due to the huge weight of the wheel and the wheel would take longer to resume full contact with the road surface. It's like if you hold a dumb-bell out at arms length and try to move that dumb-bell's direction QUICKLY. v.v.hard as it's so heavy. so the lighter the parts of the car that are "unsprung" (wheels / tyres / brakes / hub) the better the springs and dampers can control the wheels etc. The other effect that a heavier wheel hasis that it has a large rotational moment of inertia, which basically means that it is hard to increase and decrease the rpm of that wheel. i.e. i becomes harder to rotationally accelerate and de-celerate that wheel which simply means that the car won't accelerate as quickly or decelerate (brake) as quickly. Top racing cars (& even exotic road cars) will have wheels made of magnesium as it's very low density stuff but still sufficiently strong not to buckle under the forces. I think even racing bicycles have magnesium wheels but it costs literally thousands of pounds.

Phil 5 uk codes for diffs ? not sure i understand. do you mean there's 5 different codes for 5 diffeerent types of diffs on UK cars ? i thought there was only 1 diff on UK cars and that was LSD (with the diff oil cooler). Interesting that Martin's is the same as mine "B03D". Also my transmission code is slightly different. it says "V160T". Martins' is just "V160" wonder what the "T" on the end of mine is ?? no web sites i've looked at mention it.

Martin I remember some discussion about this on the Big List. I now have 16,000 emails from the Big List on my hard drive, so will find the one's relating to additives for water injection tonight at home. cheers ps. but safe to say - don't use nitromethane

I agree entirely about the rattle being worse in reverse. Here's a little test : With car in neutral, step out of the car (obviously the car needs to be stationary at this point...), listen carefully and switch ignition off. You'll hear the rattle as the engine dies. Now do exactly the same BUT this time switch the ignition off with the clutch pedal depressed (with one foot on the ground outside so you can hear it properly. Result : no rattle at all. it's to do with the clutch / flywheel damper springs or something like that ....

Well the UK traction control may be better than the Jap-spec traction control but it's still crap in my opinion. So i pulled the fuse on it. It cuts in really very often with ANY rear wheel slip (like even over a cats eye etc.) and it's most disconcerting when the power disappears. The racelogic system is great I admit. but quite expensive. On the diff issue, yep Ian is right. The extreme case of a "stiff" differential is a kart which has ....no rear diff at all. It's a solid rear axle, and as such if you think about it, you wonder how it can go around a corner at all cos the outside tyre has to travel further but it's solidly fixed at the same rotation speed as the inside tyre. Chassis flex let's the inside rear rise slightly off the ground and this is how it gets round corners. It's also one of the reasons why they tend to understeer horribly in the wet. But i digress a bit. cheers

Hmm. It should go in smoothly almost whatever revs you've got on. 2000 rpm - 6500rpm. It sure shouldn't be obstructive. My 1st to 2nd change is a bit notchy and is the worst change on my box. But it goes in fine - just a bit notchy if you don't pull it straight back. My suspicion is that your clutch is not disengaging fully and this WOULD make it increasingly hard to engage a new gear. Is it EVERY gear this is happening or just 1st to 2nd ? If i'm going for it, the box responds well to fairly brutal / fast use. That's pretty much what is was designed for. Is the clutch old ?

UK spec owners i can think of : Eric Kasir Martin Fahie Gavin Loughton (??) check those VIN codes pls lads !

Hmm, ok, just found another site which gives this info so i could cross-check : http://www.ozsupra.qld.org/windows/mainwindow7.htm this ties in with the NZ site. they do both say that it's the last letter of that 4-character group (A or B) that signifies whether it's got an LSD. Only one slight hitch !! This is my full code from my VIN plate on my UK TT : 3L2 LF00 B03D V160T 1st group is colour ("Renaissance Red") 2nd Group is trim (leather etc.) 3rd group is Axle etc. BUT the last letter is "D" !!!!!!!! uhh ??? i definitely have got an LSD (standard on my car) and that's why i assumed it was the first letter of that group that tells me about the LSD. Can anyone (everyone ??)else post up there codes on the site so we can all compare ? particularly other UK owners as now i'm confused ! BTW, 4th group, V160T says it's a 6-speed manual. cheers

Paul The reason your inside rear spins up is because you havent' GOT an LSD !! On the VIN plate codes, bit that tells you about the diff is "A02B". It's the *first* character that says whether you've got an LSD or not. A = no LSD B = LSD so you haven't got one which will be why one of your rear wheels is spinning away power.

A lot of people think the bonnet vent is just that - a vent in the bonnet, but in fact it funnels air into an under-bonnet metal air scoop that directs the air onto the turbo housing (I believe). it direct sit somewhere useful anyway ! So to get maximum benefit, you need to get the bonnet scoop (a la UK spec like mine) and then also the funnel scoop to direct airflow to the place Toyota found most useful to cool. cheers

It's on your VIN plate under the bonnet, near the front right suspension strut. The chassi number will be at the top and at the bottom will be a number something like : 3L2 LF00 B03D V160T the first 3 characters signifies your Toyota paint code. cheers

OK Ash. i'd always wondered about this too. So when the boost guage reads +15psi, for example, that means it's actually force-feeding cylinders with 15psi ABOVE atmospheric pressure (about 14.7psi), thus total pressure = 29.7psi. is that right ? So at about 1 bar (14.5psi), the charge is actually about 2 atmospheres, and there effectively transforming your 3 litre engine into a 6 litre engine due to the volume of fuel/air being squashed into the cylnders. This is why compression ratio of turbo engines is much lower than highly-tuned atmo engines as otherwise at +ve boost pressure you would get pre-ignition. At idle rpm (800rpm-ish) when my boost guage reads -0.65bar (= -9.5psi) are the cylinders being filled with fuel/air mixture at 14.5 - 9.5 = 5psi ??

Hi Phil I was out at Goodwood all day Saturday, so didn't get chance to take any pics. BUT i've found a piccie of an HKS guage that's very similar to mine : http://www.tdi-plc.com/Technical%20TurboTimer.html under the section "HKS Guages", there are 6 pictures. Mine is v.like the blue-faced one in the middle. (but without the little yellow and green LED's). Also mine has a slightly thinner, silver rim, rather than the thickish white rim you see in the pic. does this help ? if i had a digi camera it would be easy ...

Alex Mine's a 6-speed and get various clunks from it too. I think it's just a characteristic of the Getrag 6-speed box and nothing to worry about. To be honest, the gearbox works better the faster you change gear. When you're pressing on, it just slots great. When you're taking it real easy in heavy traffic, you get the feeling the gearbox is telling you "I wasn't built for this stuff !" also a known issue (again nothing to worry about) is that the clutch damper springs rattle. This is most noticeable at v.low speeds in 1st etc. sounds horrible but apparently normal. Here's a quote from www.mkiv.com (www.mkiv.com/faq/faqtt.html) about it : "3. my 6-speed transmission makes a rattling sound at low speeds – should i worry? all supra 6-speeds seem to make that sound, which has been likened to shaking a bunch of ball bearings around in a coffee can. it is not a cause for alarm - all the 6-speeds make the sound. it is the flywheel damping springs rattling, not the design of the transmission dogs. if your transmission shifts smoothly and doesn't pop out of gear, don't worry about it. " hope this helps. cheers

The classic "get all your braking done in a straight line" is a good basis point to start with for track driving, but there is a technique called "trail braking" where you do use moderate braking right up til the apex. not HARD braking but moderate braking. This all depends on the handling characteristics of the vehicle, how tight the corners are, etc.etc. Generally in a road car, they're way too softly sprung (for a track) to entertain much trail braking as the weight transfer forward is extreme and this (as JB has found) hugely redcues weight on the rear, which leads to rear wheel lock up and off you go.... generally. If you've piled into a corner too quick (certainly on a kart which only has rear-axle brakes anyway) then you HAVE to get off the brakes when you turn in (even though you're going too quick) otherwise it's like handbraking a car - you'll spin. better to throw it in too quick and scrub off speed through oversteer. not the quick way to get round the corner, but generally you keep going rather than spinning to a halt.

Doh ?? you called?? yep i have the same HKS guage as Eric. Mine has a dark blue face and glows a different colour (pale blue i think but i can't remember ! it kinda blends in well with the other dashboard ligths though, and really looks rather classy). I haven't got a digi-pic thing, but i tell you what - if i've got any print film in my camera that's nearly finished, i'll take a normal pic and get it developed Sat. and then scan it in etc. bit of a palaver.

Yep just to back up what Eric said, we both have UK-spec cars (both manuals actually) and we both had de-cat pipes done and aftermarket exhaust (mine is a Blitz NUR and Eric's is an HKS Hiper), both had TRL FCD fitted. In this condition, Eric's boosted to 15psi and mine to not much more than 13psi. Even Leon was surprised. To be honest, knowing know with hindsight how "conservative" the UK's are in this spec, i probably would have elected to go with a 3" de-cat pipe, rather than the 2.5" pipe. I was warned off the 3" pipe with overboost stories, but it just shows how differently the UK cars react to these mods. Eric's car and mine now have other bits to get the boost up to 17/18psi levels.

C'mon Ibrar, what were the circumstances please? What boost were you running ? what revs ? What gear ? Ambient temp. ? When did you last change the oil ? Which oil ? Did you switch off when they were red-hot recently ? Any info like this that you can give may help the rest of us from having hte same unfortunate experience.

Er, yeah Eric Kasir had a ride in JF's Evo at a Box Hill meet a few months ago. I think he had a similar experience to you !! Actually i may get myself an EVO at some point in the future. they do sound like a hell of a laugh !

From mkiv.com on the subject of HKS fuel-cut vs.Greddy (Greddy is similar to Pete Betts FCD) : "The reason that the MkIV owners recommend the GReddy BCC over the HKS Fuel Cut Defensor (FCD)and the Free Fuel Cut Defensor (FFCD) is simple. The HKS unit reduces the signal coming from the turbo pressure sensor at a fixed percentage, which means that all the data coming from this sensor is corrupt. The FFCD fixes the value coming from the turbo pressure sensor at something close to atmospheric by capping the pressure input to the sensor."

A. because it's got so many stone-chips.

Groovy! - i'll give em a call tomorrow then. Picking up my car tomorrow avo after having the corroded wheels all completely re-furbed by Pristine. - Should make a vast improvement to the appearance. Only trouble is i'll have to polish the paintwork up now all the time... ps. Eric - your icon actually LOOKS like you !