Toysrme

Eh, the information in the FAQ isn't correct. The 3vz's iron block, along with the way it's routing of the internal cooling passages is signifigantly over cooled. A lot of times they will bearly crack open, and not come close to opening the factory 190-212*F thermostats while they are cruising. You can take a multi meter to the CTS. It's spec is 2,200-2,700 ohm at ambient (50-80*F), 250-350ohm (170-200*f) with the engine warmed up and idling. That being said, sounds to me like you had a defective thermostat put in. Happens probably 25% of the time a new thermostat is put in a car. Be it the wrong thermostat, or the part simply doesn't work. That goes for OEM, and non OEM parts. Just one of those things. Go figure.

Well there isn't any mechanical differances. They suggest 32 all around just like JDM, Asian market, AUS, and NA ones do. They're just the only ones to recommend that because it's the only place where it's legal.

There is no “one tire pressure” good for all cars.

Does it even try to go in gear? It sounds more like the selector mechanism has broken. I've run across that problem more than once. The Neutral saftey switch could also be broken. That has a tendancy to happen. I would try pulling the gear selector switch out the outside of the transmission to find out if works before you go pulling the transmission.

Not bad? Looks good.

Tire pressure! Good reminder, that's the most important thing on this list, and we all forgot it! hahahahaha! Toyota/Lexus of Europe recommend 38psi all around for long highway driving, and driving above 90mph. I just run that all the time. Better gas mileage, and 32 is too low anyways. :\

One of the unique featers of ES's is frameless windows. Why mess that up?

They're a normal one piston caliper. Pop the top of the res off and C-clap the piston into a retracted position. Don't do more than one at a time, or you'll push fluid out of the res. FWIW take a short piece of hose and put it on the bleeding nipples. Put the loose end in a clear container with brake fluid in it. Open the valve and bleed it by pushing the brakes in slowly and holding it at the floor a few seconds. When you let off the brake, normally it will suck air back in. It can only suck in more fluid that way. if you're not old, you can use your rear view mirrors, and hang your head out of the car to see when you're done bleeding. Make sure while you're bleeding you don't suck all the fluid out of the res.

Plastic screws.

husker just add water. I wouldn't be running a 50-50 mix of coolant in a warm climate anyways. I would tell you to change the transmission fluid, but it won't matter. The fluid doesn't overheat just cruising around for hours on end. (unless you're towing) I would suggest doing two things at some point shortly after you get there. 1) Change the differential fluid! Unless you, yourself changed it. It's the original fluid, and was probably worn out a couple years ago. A 22 hour trip isn't going to help that any! :D 2) Start replacing the power steering fluid. This can be done with a turkey baster by sucking it out of the res and replacing it with fresh fluid. Both take Dexron transmission fluid. Might as well buy 7 quarts and drain the transmission pan too! =) Anytime I take a long trip, I throw a 1L bottle of water, and 1 quart of oil in the trunk for good measure.

Depending on the trim piece (I've never looked at that one). They're all held on by plastic screws, push snaps, and double sided foam tape. Anything will hold it on. Just make sure if you're going to use a glue, that you prop something heavy up against it to hold it in place while it sets.

A block sealer won't fix a blown head gasket. Don't even try. For the record, you're getting severly ripped off. The entire engine gasket set (With asbestos head gaskets i.e. stronger than what Toyota put in) Off Ebay for $120. A waterpump costs another $75. Timing belt another $25-35, 4.5 quarts of oil, 8.9 quarts of coolant, $20 for new head bolts. $7 for new spark plugs. The actual labor can be done start to finish by someone that knows their way around an engine in around three-maximum four hours. That's assuming they take their time and set the engine & cams back to tdc to set the timing. You can have a new (used) 3vz-fe (USDM, or JDM) swapped in for less than $2000 if the mechanic is honest. Freight shipping on such items is normally around $50-$75 to go across the country. We had this discussion earlier this month in Toyota Nation. The actual cost of a mechanic that's not ripping you off is $1000-$1400usd. The poster's local Honda dealer won out at $1298.00 USD. Also, there are three reasons why Toyota headgaskets are notorious for being a weak link: 1) The torque on the head bolts is in the typical range, but not enough for the engines themselves! Instead of the stock 25 lb-ft, turn 1/4 turn, turn 1/4 turn. Tell your mechanic to put the bolts straight to 50-55lb-ft. 2) US government outlawed the use of Asbestos in the gasket material in the late 80's. Making for weaker gaskets. 3) The transverse (fwd) mounted engine's are tilted at far too much of an angle, just to fit them under the hood. Between 35* and 30* depending on the car! If you've ever wondered why it's always the rear seals that go first (rear main seal, rear head gasket, rear valve cover gasket), there you go! If you're worried about the bolts being over torqued, I did testing on my own used bolts. No bolt stripped, or showed signs of stripping, while all snapped in half between 95 lb-ft and 115 lb-ft. I digress. From now on when they quote you, you are armed with the fact that it should not cost over $1500. If they are quoting you near, or over $1500 you need to ASK them what they are going to change. Find a nice, way to hint that you know there are less than $350 in parts for the job required. (unless they are doing extra stuff) and that trained mechanics (Toyota or not) should be able to complete the job in four hours at most. I would link you to a gasket set, but there isn't one on ebay at the moment. (Probably just sold one). Normaly you can hit them by trying Camry, ES, gasket, 3vz. I definately think you should buy the gasket set, and take it to the mechanic. That way they don't rape you on the cost, AND they can replace gaskets as they go. (You don't get stuck with old, or broken gaskets. Most of the intake ones are paper, and can't be saved)

Considering the facts 1) even baked on high-temp paint will BURN off the first hard use, or long use of the brakes 2) the pant scrubs off easily under the thousand pounds of pressure that is applied to the brake pad I think the company you googled to find that answer is full of C***. They must have the special kind of paint they put on the SR-71, or space shuttle type applications that withstands a few thousand * F like nothing. That or they're experianced in 60's and 70's brake pads when the glue couldn't even hold them together under heat.

Ya I wouldn't mess with that.

Doesn't matter if you paint it or not. The pads clear anything not welded on to the rotors instantly. Silver works best for the rotor hats if you want a stealthy, clean look. Otherwise black is a good color. I baked on two coats of Duplicolor high-temp Aluminum (silver) on my Brembo's a year or more ago. Still looks good. Like I said, the pads scrape/burn the overspray off instantly, and it leaves you with an ultra pimp cut-off line! Because almost every rotor you can buy is mainly iron, they all begin rust within a few min after being wet, or raining. The pads scrape that off when you brake. *follow the directions* Otherwise the paint will degrade over time. That means painting, then baking in an oven for the specified temperature & duration.

Load of dung. Stick with what the OEM uses. Cheap NGK or Denso plugs.

The one under the plug? The allen wrench one? That's the idle air bypass screw. I highly recommend leaving it be as it's quite sensative, and only affects idle.

I'm sure this has been discussed to death if you search. Why are you changing it for sound / looks? Personally I'm a borla +spiral resonator fan. Nothing sounds like it! Just be ready to pay some money. Even on ebay!

You can't do anything. 1mz-fe is a distributorless ignition, and uses a MAF. You'd have to buy something like an SMT piggyback to change ignition timing and work on the MAF signal some. To anyone doing it, the mileage might increase very slightly, but the ECU is still using the o2 sensor to control closed loop mode. (Under 75-80% throttle) So the same amount of gas it still used.

I agree with branshew. Unburnt fuel creates a blackish smoke. Coolant/water is the only thing white that comes out of the tail pipe.

The ratio in the steering wheel lock is different between the ES / windom and the rest of the camry platform. So something is mechanically different. But, you should still be able to use RHD Camry parts, but it might feel a little softer.

Back in the day of the US manditory 55mph that ruled. IMHO that stopped applying long ago. Taking the f150 to work, there is 15 miles of 70mph highway, then another 10 miles of 50mph driving. Gas mileage increases on an all highway tank. I took a long trip to Kentucky up I-65 in december of '03. Going up was spent with the cruise control well north of 100mph (minus nashville) in the very early hours of the morning. (leave work, after midnight take girlfriend to a concert in lexington) Gas mileage was virtually the same as the return trip, which was done around 80-100mph (starting from the bowling green vette plant) Stow the comments. This is for example purposes only. There is a point where mileage flips between very little load on the engine with a slow speed, and a higher fuel useage with the running time is shorter (takes less time to get somewhere). It's the same deal with wondering if X gear ratio is better than y gear ratio. Obviously, the less the engine is turning over, the less fuel it uses. Not as obvious is that there is a higher load on the engine, and you use more fuel per revolution as a higher gearing... The v6 ES / Camry platform is the perfect example. Everyone get's in seeing the v6 around 3000mph at 70mph and assumes this is very high. Yet they don't realize that becase of the lighter load on the engine, it uses the same amount of fuel in practice as any equivilant car / engine in it's class turning a lower rpm. (read VQ30 Maxima)

This isn't so much about performance as adding on some highway gas mileage.

You can get little kits to recharge, and test the level for $30-$40 usd at autoparts stores. I've done it on two cars, there's nothing really complicted about it. Ya plug a gauge on the low pressure line, and it tells ya how you stand. Normally they tell you to add X many recharge cans to bring it up to spec. You can normally return the gauge and stuff for a partial refund, but it's such a cheap tool, and the refill cans are also cheap; it's something you can hold on to. It's probably going to happen again on some car you own! I would do it yourself on the freon. It's not complicated, nor particularly hard. Draining the fluids is not rocket sciene either. Changing the rear spark plugs is a complete pain. You normally need various extension's, some swivel sockets, and a flexible extension (flexi-shaft) helps also. Unless you want to take the upper intake off... A lot of people here would tell you to take it in somewhere, but to answer the question. Yes you can do it if you want to. Probably wind up being a weekend project.

Toyota tunes everything very conservatively. They run very rich (too much fuel, way more than maximum performance is achived at) and loose power from it. You simply leaned it back out (less fuel, closer to where peak power is achived)