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Auris 2008 1.4 D-4D Some old pics soon i will post the updates... On pics my car has BC BR series coilover kit, MTEC discs Black with Mintex brake pads, K&N air filter, HID kit 6000K H11, HID kit HB3 6000K, fog bulbs HID kit H11 3000K, 7x17 alloy with 225/45 17 Continental SportContact 3, chip from Italy, and ICE (I will post the updated)....

i have decided that i do not like the standard steering wheel in the SR180 so had a look online to find that Toyota do their own nice looking leather sports wheels. http://www.shop4toyota.co.uk/product/Sports_Leather_Steering_Wheel_PZ439-E9171-01 but at £244.08 i decided to shop around. i ended up searching for the part number on ebay and came accross an irish trader (3207 feedback 99.5% positive) who was selling a brand new wheel (see pic below) for €12.99 and postage to uk for €35.00 which totals to around £40. seemed legit so clicked buy it now and hopefully just saved a few quid. if it is a copy then it looks pretty much bang on to me so for £40 cant complain. but i do wonder why it was listed so much cheaper than the £200 RRP... who knows... heres the pic from the ebay listing: (item number 111443258946)

There's no harm in shorter service intervals, and esp. with a diesel I'd not leave it longer than a year/10k as the oil has to deal with a LOT more crap than a petrol engine does. (One thing that always freaks petrol drivers out is how quickly the oil in a diesel engine goes black ) Regular oil changes with good quality oil is especially important on D4Ds as a lot of the D4D engines have chain driven cams, and regular oil changes are ESSENTIAL for keeping the chain in good condition! Low RPM isn't too much of a problem for the turbo, but it's still a good idea to give it some long/hard journeys regularly to burn off soot building up in the DPF and EGR, and also to burn off any crud building up on the injectors. Using better quality fuels will help there too (We find V-Power diesel tends to do a fairly good job of cleaning the injectors and reducing soot output as it burns more cleanly). The turbo is pretty hard wearing and, unlike petrol engines, diesel exhaust doesn't get hot enough to cause it damage through overheating - Even after a hard motorway burn, the slow speed drive after coming off the motorway and into town/residential areas is enough time for the turbo to cool down. The bit to be careful of are things like e.g. coming off the motorway into a services - In that situation the turbo won't have as much time to cool down so leaving the engine to idle for a bit longer is recommended to let the oil circulate and cool. I had a mate who was always frying his turbo because he lived off an A-road and would just pull into his driveway and switch the engine off. The oil would stop flowing and would just cook off under the heat, crudding up the oilways in the turbo until they blocked up!

6k is a bit excessive!! Its not a high perfomance car running silly BHP its a 2.2 Diesel Rav4. i will be following normal service intervals and letting engine warm up and cool down

this is a common problem with the switch.usually no need to replace it.just clean it as i have done.conrad has given very good instructions on this.look up indicator switch problems.

80% + of premature turbo failures are due to lubrication issues. It's vital to use a quality engine oil of the correct grade and to adhere to recommended intervals for oil + filter changes. Allowing a turbo to spool down by letting the car idle before switching off serves two purposes. Firstly it minimises oil starvation to the bearings whilst the rotor is spinning at high speed. Secondly it allows some cooling in order to reduce degradation of oil. Some owners always allow around 30 seconds idle before switch-off. This can obviously only do good but the really important times to allow some idling time before switch-off is after a fast run or after a long uphill climb. Turbos are finely balanced machines and lively driving or hitting rev limits will do no harm.

On my manual 57 plate 2.2 Tourer I used to overall get ~ 45mpg over the Summer & ~42mpg over the Winter. Variable of course per journey according to roads, traffic etc.- best ever was~57mpg. Your T180 will do noticeably less because it has the DPF with 5th injector & of course more power. Looking at the manufacturer's figures the T180 should be quicker than your old Honda so it's either down on power, rewards a different driving style or it's perceptual that it's slower rather than actually being slower. You could always stick a tuning box on it which would affect the style of power delivery as well as actual power output but that should also be declared to your insurer if you do so & may affect your premium.

Went early Christmas shopping today and took the IQ for that very reason. And yes, there was one tiny space in a tight corner that nobody else could get near to. The IQ is a cracking city car and parking is no bother. Obviously it would be no use driving over fields to a gymkhana like that big Kia would be. Horses for courses I guess.

... or the right click doesn't know what the left click is doing