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in the plant game ive seen a lot of botch jobs, if its not cable ties holding stuff together its safety systems bridged out, warning lights with tape covering them ( not even bothering to remove the bulb) , rags packed under oil leaks, grease packed inside transfer cases etc instead of oil due to the oil leaking out, cataloy applied and smoothed over scored hydraulic rams to help retain the seal effectiveness, nuts and bolts instead of proper hardened pins holding steer linkages etc together, chocolate block connector holding together broken control cables, duct tape holding seat bolsters together, bad wiring like scotch locks or twisted and taped wires, the list is endless yeah its rough out there and ill stop there as i dont want to give bad habit solutions to anyone

I'm now on 72.1 and covered 550 miles, the tank is on about 1/4 and range is showing 163, thats a whopping 713 mile range. My 2018 Auris Hybrid just did about 520 mile range when brimmed. I will be filling the tank tomorrow, will advise fuel put in and new range 👍

I've just taken delivery of a 2019 Corolla Design 1.8 Hybrid TRK. TRK indeed! The dealer suggested that if I couldn't use the useless tyre repair kit, I instead use the breakdown cover if I have a puncture but in rural Scotland that could be a very long wait for a repair. I was quoted silly money from the dealer for a space saver steel wheel so I found the wheel geometry somewhere and it's the same as an Auris Space saver. So I purchased the Auris one and it fits both the wheel studs and under the boot floor. I placed the order on Friday at 4pm and delivered via DHL the following Tuesday. Purchased from The Wheel Shop. https://www.thewheelshop.co.uk/toyota-auris-space-saver-spare-wheel-17-and-tool-kit.html Don't forget you'll need the retaining bolt.

Yes soldering would be ideal but wiretaps or quick joiners would work.

Goes into the car right behind the bumper, best thing is to take the bulbs out of the rear lights and tap into those wires and connect them to plug that goes to the bumper loom.

Paul? I meant to add, replay could be via the infotainment screen too, with PIN security if considered necessary. Regards Pete

In episode 40 of #TheCarinaJourney, I change a side light bulb lol..

yeah, but modern petrol cars do not make much noise if driver drives slowly even i can suprise people with my old 2002 yaris 1.0. Artificial sounds of Hybrids and EVs are anoying and will couse people to be annoyed with them as case off caravan park people there are quite tolerant of cars driving by if they drive slowly, but this artifical sound is anoying as hell

socratez, you were talking about cheap fixes, and checking earth connections and disconnecting the battery. Just throwing my penny into the post pot. When you disconnect the battery take the battery out, as I found an earth connection under the battery which can be cleaned and greased. Also clean the connector to the valvematic controller and then grease it with dielectrics.

This happened to my Avensis l took the handbrake apart for nothing all that was needed was a good hard drive in 4th gear ERG cleaned o with a good roasing .No more lights. Car perfect.

you should be able to get the speaker cables from the B pillar , there wont be many cables in there so will be easy to trace the speaker ones.

it probably doesn't like S$%&^(*)Ihorpe either (but who does! 🤣). Ooh, it really didn't like that! A large town ~25 miles to the east of Doncaster whose name starts with Scun.

Hi, in such a case with extremely short journeys any car except full ev will not be suitable or be healthy for the car. If charging is a problem than I see a small engine petrol car as the best option for that job( Aygo, Vw Up, Mitsubishi Colt, Fiesta, Polo, Yaris etc) something that its small and has around 1.0 3 cylinder engine. These are ideal, they sounds and feels like chainsaw, hairdryer, and more kind of appliances but they do fit the bill perfectly. Easy warming up, easy cooling down, relatively low fuel consumption, fun to drive( manuals most of the time) , and easy and cheap to maintain. And whenever you need a larger car for example you can rent one for a day or two and job is done. You don’t need to move a 1.5 tons of steel when you can do same job with a 900-1000 kilos machine. Due to the nature of your needs the hybrid will not be as efficient and numbers will be very similar to one of those small cars I gave as examples. Regards

Apart from a bit of a wheel scrape after a idiot cut a corner she is doing excellent, handles and grips very well and 57 MPG when doing long trips in with regular short ones to work, definitely a long term keeper, wash time for her tomorrow it's been over a week lol, look after her and she will look after you which you do so well with yours 👍

Well I have posted my photos in another post. What these images don’t clearly show is that the clear coat is starting to peel away. i am going over the car more thoroughly this weekend. ‘I know that the plastic aprons that came with the car are still in place. The apron under the car has become detached at one point so I plan to put the car up on steel ramps to reattach the apron also I plan replace burnt headlight/fog light globes and I think that the Car will be ready to go. But I am going to have to balance that with other family commitments and the financial constraints. Having driven the car back to Victoria, some 850km, the steering feels tight as does the suspension. The engine has run smoothly the whole way and idles smoothly. I put 98 octane in her. Cruise control works. As does aircon and heater, Dempster front and rear are functional. Braking and handbrakes appear fine with no noise/squealing. Brake pads on the brakes are still fine I believe. Rims don’t have cracks in them. Just have to save up $900 AUS for car rego. 180 for the road worthy cert. and car insurance... $350.00 for 3rd party fire and theft. I wonder if Toyota will sponsor me??????? LOL!

My first ever car was referred to as a Mini, but was actually an Austin 7, made in 1960. I bought it for £15 on new year's day 1974 when I was still 17 (only 3 years older than the car!). It had been heavily botched by previous owners including a metal plate riveted over part of a wing to which one of the (external) door hinges was bolted. It had been hand painted with a paint brush, in grey. When approaching a right turn on a damp day, I was braking quite gently as I started to turn the wheel when the car rapidly spun across the opposing lane (luckily no one was around or it could have been nasty - it had no seat belts and original Minis were not known for doing well in collisions)! I decided to put the Haynes manual to good use and check the brakes - the front drum brakes both had shoes 1¼" wide, as did the left rear one. The right rear drum contained 1½" shoes, clearly giving harder braking and explained my unintended imitation of a handbrake turn! I don't think MOT testers had rolling roads those days, so there's no telling how long it had been like that, but it could so easily have been disastrous. A few months later I took a hump back bridge slightly too fast, and the door hinge broke away from the riveted plate, revealing it was 90% rust. I drove it to a scrap dealer who have me £10 for it (and a lift home) - not bad though, 8 months motoring, 8,000 miles for £5 depreciation and a set of brake shoes (which I think cost about £6).

Sorry, have to disagree. I retired last year after 30+ years in the automotive industry, most of it spent designing automotive electronic/mechatronic systems. Done work for most of the big players (Lucas, Bosch, AP, GM, JLR etc). Last few years working overseas, mainly as a consultant to Chinese. Some systems are a great boon to the driver (ABS, ESC) whereas others are a pain in the backside (EPB). I have some idea of the failure rate of these systems. The first EPBs were developed by Kuester of Germany. Other companies like Aisin followed their lead. All the cable-pull systems are very similar and IMHO are a pretty lousy design. Basically there will be a pair of conventional rear calipers with parking brake applied via cables.. The cables then disappear into the actuator box. Actuation is achieved via a brushed DC motor which pulls on the cables via a turnbuckle-and-screw arrangement through a set of plastic reduction gears (and usually some kind of overload clutch). A PCB inside the actuator box contains the microprocessor and motor drive circuits. There are several variants of software and hardware depending on model/year. These units fail for several reasons: 1. Sooner or later the brushed motor wears out. 2. Seizure of the cables or calipers causes the drive mechanism to be overloaded (sometimes you can hear the overload clutch squealing). Damage to mechanism and/or burnt out motor. 3. Failure of the drive circuit (particularly the switching relay which basically wears out). 4. Water damage to the PCB. The best thing you can do is check that calipers and cables are all moving freely. As a minimum a yearly check that the rear calipers are sliding freely and the pads are not sticking in the carriers, and cables moving freely with rubber boots intact. If you do have an actuator failure then maybe see if you can achieve a repair. I know of one company who can repair Kuester units (Blue Chip Autotronics), maybe worth asking if they can do anything with the Aisin units (which are v. v. similar).

There is no simple answer. You are looking at two potentially very expensive repairs. I would be inclined to go to a Toyota dealer and ask for diagnostics. The Valvematic controller failure seems fairly common. If you jet washed that area of the engine then that could be the cause - but you say you didn't. Breakers are unlikely to want to sell the Valvematic seperately from the engine. And a secondhand unit could have limited life left. I think a new unit is the way to go. The demand is high and you can buy them direct from dealers in Japan at a discount - but long shipping time. EPB fault could be due to water ingress - but seems to be a common failure. Another stupid piece of technology ("hey, let's replace this £15 cable and lever with a £1000 system of motors and microprocessor")

Hi and welcome. Please feel free to give us a try for insurance if you like. If you wanted to PM me some contact details I'd be happy to arrange for one of my quotes team to give you a call back. Regards, Dan.