nerdstrike

Congratulations on your Giallo! Not many are willing to commit to that bold a colour.
The gearbox responds better once you have some heat in the oil. That can take 15 minutes of driving at this time of year, at which point it is very satisfying to use. However, the synchros need some help - I think they're a bit slippy when cold, but diligent rev matching will make it much easier. Throttle blips are essential when coming down the box. Give it a week or two, then see if you still think it's problematic.
The headunit volume knob does loosen off a bit once it has been worked for a while, but yes, the headunit is a bit sucky. Sat Nav is quite bad, and loves to navigate down stupid roads, bluetooth connectivity is ok, and the standard speakers are a really poor use of cardboard. You will likely have to search long and hard for a headunit if you don't want to use inserts. Toyota's units overlap the sides of the double din mount, whereas most aftermarket ones don't have the oversize fascia.
Cruise control won't engage below 28/29 mph, and cuts out if you change gear. You push the stalk button to get the cruise control light on the dash, and push the stalk down to set it at the speed you are moving. After that you nudge speed up and down, or cancel by pulling the stalk toward you. Up on the stalk is to resume the last set speed. If you understand that and it doesn't work, the somebody needs to look at the electrics.
The boot lid has quite short and stubby hinges to rotate around and it's not particularly heavy, so it does need a bit of a bang to lock. If you're used to German cars, I'm not surprised you feel odd about it - Toyota has saved weight everywhere, so all the body panels are unweighted/flimsy. It's 150kg lighter than the equivalent Z4!
Enjoy your car!

There is a limit to what you can infer from the car's own sensors, but there are quite a few of them. It can help for diagnosing modest faults, but only if you put the car through its paces, and know what the graphs should look like.
Some examples:
MAF vs RPM can show air restriction, if a variable intake sticks. It can also show a badly behaving sensor on a nasty aftermarket induction kit The '86 has an Oil temperature readout, which is not reported on the dash Excessive LTFT can indicate a fuelling issue if all else is in order What we'd really benefit from is if we could add additional sensors to the canbus, but that's prohibitively expensive, hence the abundance of boost gauge pods and other such things which usually get hard-wired into the sensors.
Speaking as a software dev myself, I think the most useful thing you could add to the OBDII software readers would be better data logging and processing. Torque pro will log many sensors but it's hard work to get it to do anything with that data. Last time I did some logging, I had to take out the raw data and work with it in R to make any interesting plots. It would have been handy to be able to facet on full throttle condition.
I have also learned from poking around how Torque computes its display values that the sensor data is a hot mess when it comes to scaling/fudge factors and units.
The car does have inlet pressure sensors, but it's not clear to me whether that would give nice boost readouts with FI.

That would be because you're not dealing with Steven Eagell.

Oh boy, look at this Pullitzer winning entry:
"I confirm that a full explanat,We have carried out a complime,Replaced internal mirror,Carry out complimentary Vehicl,Your Technician today was Bria,Your service advisor today was, "
And the site doesn't work in Chrome.

Nooooo! It'll swallow all your time keeping it working! They're also disturbingly expensive considering the rust/metal ratio.
I second the notion of spare standard 17" rims plus some wintersport rubber. However a full Scottish snow-off will probably make your life very difficult. It is still a RWD car with not that much weight over the driven wheels. Only you can judge whether the conditions get bad enough that they're just not suitable for a sporty motor. It doesn't sound like your commute involves much other than main roads that would be cleared/gritted.

Shameful effort! Nobody stood around for ten minutes sucking their teeth, nobody fed anything under the wheels only to be fired out the other side, nobody sitting on the boot lip. You won't get far like that my son!

Shameful effort! Nobody stood around for ten minutes sucking their teeth, nobody fed anything under the wheels only to be fired out the other side, nobody sitting on the boot lip. You won't get far like that my son!

Shameful effort! Nobody stood around for ten minutes sucking their teeth, nobody fed anything under the wheels only to be fired out the other side, nobody sitting on the boot lip. You won't get far like that my son!

After the beneficent recommendations of those here, I ordered the IS165TOY kit (£130) made by Focal, along with a bumper pack of Silent Coat "noise isolator" foam from Audiovisual world. Shipping was prompt but package went AWOL, Audiovisualworld very quick to ship another after I informed them that I hadn't received anything. Annoying but all was well.
I took some photos, but in the end there were other photos of the same stuff on this very forum, so I've neglected to upload them.
On me:
I am a poor man's audio nut, liking classical, jazz and some occasional punk or rock. I've got some B&W speakers in my lounge and an amp to match, and my ideal instrument is 500kg of piano. I love it when the music grabs and involves. Not fond of massive volume but love quality. With that in mind, the GT86 is a dreadful place to spend lots of money on audio when I could be investing in my home setup instead! It's quite noisy, the speaker positions are a bit whack, and I like listening to the car as I drive. Therefore, I opted for the cheap-ass upgrade, as the default audio is truly painful to my ears.
Opinion on Toyota OEM system:
Barely tolerable, crashy treble, needs silly volume on the motorway to be enjoyable, and then it's exhausting. Headunit does ok, even over bluetooth, but doesn't do very well when you connect a different phone. That's what I thought before I took the door cards out and beheld the papier maché equipment they fitted! The tweeters look cheap, the rear speakers are like listening with your head under water, and the woofers... oh the woofers. They weigh next to nothing. I'm amazed they achieved as much as they did. Toyota obviously spent at least £3 on each of these.
On the Focal replacements:
The replacement tweeters are sturdy and much nicer than those they replace. Their better build unfortunately means they don't click fully into the speaker mounts, due to being a bit tall. I'm leaving them like that for now, but might want to look into more sturdy attachment.
The woofers are fibreglass affairs with more than twice the weight of the OEM. Much bigger magnet on the rear, a bit more depth to the assembly, but plenty of room in the door cavity. There is a foam layer where the mount fits around the cone which is very thin. I added a bit of extra material to make sure it seals properly. I'd have like something in kevlar or similar, but that would need more wiring, sourcing mounts etc. Lots more dosh!
A bunch of fittings are included in the box, but they're mainly intended for other Toyotas. The only bits you need are the wires (which only fit in one configuration) and the block which mates with the Toyota wiring.
On the fitting process:
Online videos quite informative in getting the lay of the land. I tackled the tweeters first. Nylon trim tools very helpful indeed! The dash material is weirdly spongy and very easy to scratch. Out comes the speaker cover with speaker stuck into it, now lots of swearing trying to release the tweeter cable. Likewise getting the tweeter from the grate is a forceful and made me nervous. New tweeter snaps into place, but not as securely as the original. Must be able to do this better!
At this point I had to stop and drive away to dinner. Just the tweeters alone made a big improvement to clarity of the audio!
Next to the doors. More action for the nylon tools. The door handle trims came away without feeling like they'd snap, but it would dead easy to scratch them. Door card needs to be pulled free from its mountings with moderate force. I found it easiest to start at the hinge side of the door and work outward. Then the whole card slides up and off its lip. Now comes the fun - unclipping the puddle light cable (easy), the window switch cable (easy once I used a large flat bladed screwdriver to release the plug), and the door handle/lock cables. I had to do this alone, but it would be a lot easier if someone could support the weight of the door card while you unplug everything.
If you take the door too far from the card without disconnecting the cables, they'll pull off the plastic liner which separates outside from inside. Driver's side is harder because of the mirror controls - that plug is connected in the most awkward position possible. Tricky on your own!
Speaker removal an absolute doddle, likewise fitting. I took some time to feed some noise-absorbing foam into the cavity behind the speaker, but didn't do the whole door because I didn't want to disturb the waterproofing - it had some moisture on it, so it has a purpose! Re-hanging the door card was nice and easy.
On the matter of sound deadening, dynamat etc.
While the tarry mass loading material provided by Dynamat or silent coat is useful for adding weight to a panel and damping resonance, I felt it would add both a lot of cost and weight to the installation. Some people suggest roofing material, but that will stink out your car with tarry odours. Don't go there! Yes, the boot floor and door skin boom like a drum when tapped, but as above, I didn't want to mess with the waterproofing and wasn't sure I would realise the benefits. Maybe I'm wrong!
The isolating closed cell foam is for taking out higher frequency noise, and I figured it was ideal for dropping the ambient volume of the car on the move so I could enjoy the music more. I placed some in the door cavity, while mainly focusing on the rear wheel arches.
On adding sound absorbing material to the rear passenger space:
Unbolt seat. Just one 10mm bolt per seat! Makes those rear passengers feel all the more wanted as they lose sensation below their knees. Push down at the rear centre of the seat pad, where a single loop is hooked onto the chassis. This is tricky and took me a while. It doesn't help that you can't see what you're doing, and the seat is flexible. Now you can see the entry points to your fuel tank! Peel back door rubbers from top of door frame to the bottom, where you will have to lift the lip trim. It interlocks with the rest of the trim, but it comes up easily enough Unclip two trim clips that are behind the rear seat. You can do this by dropping the seat, or through the boot. Starting at the door, give it a heave-ho and pop the trim out. Force applied just right will pop one out, rather than trying to get them all at once. I found it easiest to pop the forward bits out, then half-drop the rear seat to release the rear portion and then slide it into the boot. You can also take the boot lining out to get to the rear part of the arch, behold the top of the teeny tiny rear suspension, and attend to some of the rattly wiring. You may now disable, or just plain remove the rear speakers and use them to occupy space in the refuse. and so the results:
Decent step up in clarity, especially the treble, almost to the point where it rather exposes the lack of mids, and the fact that you are much nearer one tweeter than the other. Once the system had run in a bit, these issues were less obvious, but I definitely get the feeling a second speaker on top of the dash would help with integrating the sound. There's plenty of low end, but obviously not on a par with a dedicated sub. Sound is still lost a bit at high speeds, but you don't feel so aurally violated by winding up the volume.
+ Very happy with return on investment, listening pleasure is up, it lifts it from "car sound" to "hifi".
+ Easy fitting, provided you have a good way to avoid scratching stuff, and a helper at times
+ Focal have some credentials in audio gear manufacture
- Still far from premium speakers
- GT86 cabin is a poor environment to install in, and would take proper wonga and time to sort out.
+ Subaru/Toyota snap-together design is pretty easy going for strip-down and refit of interior. It's nowhere near as involved as some other cars I've crawled around inside.
As for the sound isolation, it's still plenty noisy at speed but I think some road noise is gone, helping to expose more of the creaks and ticks of the other flimsy interior parts! I didn't do a superb job, and certainly didn't cover every inch with the stuff, but it has made a difference. I was foolish not to try a controlled measuring of the ambient volume on a known piece of road! Putting the sticky stuff in place is a time-consuming job, so I'd not recommend it unless you know that you need it, or are going for installation to the max! I'll refine my opinion over the next few weeks as I persuade myself it was worthwhile.
Who is it for?
Budget-minded people who can't stand the OEM audio setup. Maximum bang for buck, really very easy installation, no messing about. £130, job done. Limited extra weight needed.
Who is it not for?
People who must have banging choonz - fit a sub in the boot. People willing to get into the wiring, mounting cross-overs and supplementary amps. I reckon £300-£500 and some graft will yield another step up in quality. Think hard about adding a mid-range to the dash to compensate for speaker separation. This is what I would have done if I had more time and money to burn. People who want high volume - The standard mountings are flimsy, and many body panels are completely undamped. You should be spending time and weight on the full damping and isolation in all key panels. This will add tens of kilos. Full-time petrolheads. Rip it all out, swap out manifold and muffler for maximum brap brap bang rumble. You won't want that damped out with noise isolation!

Sump drain is indeed M16. I just use copper crush washers bought for a few quid on ebay. 22mm OD works fine. Im sure a standard M16 flat washer would seal but copper crush washers are cheap enough.
The diff and gearbox used the same flat washers on mine. I reused them but will replace next time I change the diff and gearbox fluid. 

Lucas, you're a bad bad man.

Tyres tyres tyres. They're the first thing to show when somebody fancies a drift, and also the first thing to be replaced cheaply.
Inspect their handiwork fixing the bumper, get your head down there if you can. Reject anything that looks like a bodge.
Check the rear view mirror. Some of ours have delaminated and the glass has dropped off. You can see what looks a bit like corrosion round the edges if it starts to go. Warranty replacement.
The car is pretty young, so not much else will be evident. Expect second gear to be tricky when cold, but if anything else seems off on the gearbox, flag it up.
Enjoy your new car!

For the record, I found heel-toe easier on the RX8 than this car. I feel the OP's position, in that it seems you have to be applying some brake pedal travel before it becomes reasonable.
Nevertheless, I am inspired to work at it in my morning commute!

Thanks Lowe. Nevertheless do keep an eye on the LTFT and see if it drifts slowly positive as the ECU compensates your gains away. I hope it's not the case!
AFR would give more immediate diagnostics, but you would need a base-line to compare against. The power band would endure longest without correction, as it doesn't get much chance to run in closed-loop mode up high.

The original Subaru unit couldn't make calls, it was one of the reasons for ditching it. So I've had to run a new mic, however if your GT86 has a mic already I'd use that if I were you, my mic install is okay but it is a bit aftermarket looking. I'd imagine you might need to cut it out of the Toyota loom when you take the original headunit out, but it's only 2 wires so should easily splice into a 3.5mm jack which then goes into the back of the Pioneer unit.
Not too much fiddling, just 5 mins with a Dremmel to make the sides of the plastic thinner. The Pioneer unit is bolted in just the same as the original unit so it's as secure as that is (arguably not massively as it is only 4 x 10mm to take out). I reused the original brackets but I did have to cut the very top off them to make them fit. The holes line up perfectly with the Pioneer unit and they go straight into the chassis not the wire cage that comes with it - I didn't use the cage at all.

For what it's worth, here is what the Apple CarPlay looks like:

It's actually a very nice piece of functionality BUT you do have to have your iPhone connected. There's another screen which also has the apps for things like Spotify so you can run that painlessly.
Overall I'm delighted with the unit and would recommend both in terms of looking right for the car and functionality, provided you don't need to play CDs and don't want DAB. As per previous post there is a unit coming out (possibly out now) which has DAB as well but it puts the price up.
As for sound: it sounds fantastic even with the stock speakers but I'd bought the Focal IS165TOY speakers so fitted them anyway! The Focals have a significantly bigger magnet on the back:

They weight a chunk more too (sorry Colin Chapman). What is astounding is just how light the stock speakers are!
They do add a depth to the sound which the stock speakers couldn't manage, bass is deeper and tighter. Now the system really does sound the pips! I know there are plenty people on here with additional amps and subs but I find myself wondering where you 'fit' this additional sound!?! I can get this system to ear bleedingly loud with no distortion; the bass is nice and acceptable - I'm not hitting the brown note and setting off car alarms but I don't want to.
I've been down the road of big ICE installs in the past and I'm not knocking it, just if someone like me is pondering what to do with their stereo and wondering what is 'enough', a decent headunit and some fairly cheap (they were only £119) speakers and you're away. I didn't bother with the back speakers, save your cash.
I also bought some lightweight Dynamat but I've hardly used any up, I did the doors, threaded a sheet about the size of an A4 piece of paper through the speaker hole and covered the bit of door around the speaker, but that's it.

Maybe it's my old ears but I don't drive along thinking the NVH is terrible; it doesn't sound like a particularly refined car but frankly I hate that all what we used to call feedback has been dialled out on modern cars. I've thought about lining the boot, but there's already some soundproofing there and it seems to do its job.
 
In conclusion - I bought the car to drive and enjoy it. I like that it is 'under' powered and 'under' tyred; the handling is sublime and it looks great so I don't want to change a thing about it. But even I had to concede that the stereo was dreadful, but I believe for ~£500 I have purchased a whole new system which will give all but those with robot's ears a high quality audio experience.
 

"turn right up this bolder-strewn canyon". Not sure if I want to sink more money into the somewhat unreliable navigation system.

Sometimes I feel like bugs gravitate towards software testers 🤣
 
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
 

The Automatic is stronger IF you can keep it cool. Remember HP doesnt kill gearboxes, torque kills gearboxes.
Manual (Aisin AZ6) has a maximum torque rating of 250nm
http://www.izb-online.com/uploads/tx_tnmexhibitordatabase/uploads/AISIN AI company presentation.pdf
Remember, the AZ6 (derived from the J160/RA6x) is in the s2000/rx8/altezza/mx5/s15 so gernally low torque 4 cylinder engines.
Automatic A960E has a maximum torque rating of 300nm
http://www.atspareparts.com/toyota-a960e-transmission.html
A960E has been in many V6 lexus applications.
Also here's a great blog from Lexus that mentions the evolution of both transmissions.
http://blog.lexus.co.uk/lexus-gearbox-transmissions/

For reference,
Stock OEM Factory alignment
        SERVICE DATA (2013 FR-S)_SPECIFICATIONS_ ALIGNMENT _ HANDLING DIAGNOSIS.pdf
Front:  Camber: 0 +/- 45' (0 +/- 0.75°) (Right/Left Difference: 0°45' (0.75°) or less)
        Caster (Reference): 5°54' (5.90°)
        Steering Axis Inclination (Reference): 15°31' (15.52°)
        Toe (Each Wheel): 0°00' +/- 0°11' (0.00° +/- 0.19°)
        Toe (Total): 0 +/- 3.0 mm (0 +/- 0.1181 in.)
Rear:   Camber: -1°12' +/- 45' (-1.20° +/- 0.75°) (Right/Left Difference: 45' (0.75°) or less)
        Toe (Each Wheel): C + D: 0°10' +/- 0°15' (0.16° +/- 0.24°)
        Toe (Total): 2.0 +/- 3.0 mm(0.0787 +/- 0.1181 in.)
But:
- it's ranges are too wide (for example handling noticeably differs with toe-in or toe-out by 0.2dg, and both extremes - "pass")
- it's understeer biased (which many don't like, at least on track), so worth upping front camber to be more then rear vs opposite bias of stock.
- it's within mentioned toe passing range, but worth on RWD car explicitly set slight toe-in for stability sake.
- if track use, even occasional is considered, extra static camber advised. MOSTLY for front, with "stock" 0dg camber. "Free grip" even on very same tires. On stock zero camber worth to have go mostly for first time, just "to have a taste", to feel oneself what (probably) needs to be improved.

Don't know if any one else has spotted this issue but a poor design in the metal plate where rubber weather strip sits holds water and rusts the metal work. This picture isn't my car but damage looks very similar. I've taken my car back to Toyota to claim on warranty. Awaiting verdict will let you know the outcome. 

Firstly, the good news is Toyota/Subaru have attended to sill problems I've witnessed on older Jap cars. The rippled coating along the sills should protect them from the worst rot. Waxoyl is only useful for cold parts of the car but does a pretty good job.
The things I'd be looking to protect are exposed components like the headlight levelling sensors. I also wonder about the metallic floorpan/heatshield under the engine and the sump, but those can be cleaned up and repainted fairly easily though.

Picked up my 14' TRD today.

I am in love. This car is so fun and you can enjoy it all within legal speeds! I am so glad I bought this. Now I actually see the hype. It's just so responsive and everything feels right. The only downside is my contacts won't sync with bluetooth and the stock speakers are a bit meh.

Nice tips sir

Well balls. I'm sure you can find something with a nice DSG to keep you happy.
Or you could get yourself one of these instead: