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NJay

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Posts posted by NJay

  2. Posted · Report reply

    I have the varta 005L/D47 blue on my gen 7 Celica. Previously had the Bosch S4024 but as they are the same battery (literally down to colour and design of blue top) went for the varta as it was cheaper not paying Bosch branding premium lol. That car is fine as it's garaged (has to be due to mods and the fact it's sorned at the moment lol) so can be tricked charged as required. 

    I guess with a new battery I can put it on trickle charge once a week (not able to leave it on charge all the time) but was just thinking an EFB battery would cope better with the sat idle days better as even my two days commuting is all urban and barely covers the time needed to replenish it from that trip let alone the 2-3days sat idle so it's losing charge week on week without some form of trickle charging. The 5w solar charge was doing fine for the past 8months but lack of sunlight has put a stop to that

  3. Posted · Report reply

    Have been soldiering on with the AA 5w solar charger but as we've hit darker days, despite having solar charger in full view of sun light, it failed to start yesterday morning after just under a week

    Even jump pack didn't work lol

    Put the ctek 5amp charger on it for 90mins after which it started however, I think my battery is well past replacement. 

    So looks like some have chose the yuasa 3014 60Ah which intrigues me as on paper it is lower CCA (450 or 500 depending on which version you end up with) than the 60Ah 520cca one Toyota use? Someone else has gone for the Lucas LP072T 70Ah 620cca battery which is wider at 260mm Vs 230mm but still fits the battery tray.

    However, I've not seem anyone go for an EFB variant? Whilst not as good as an AGM they are better than a traditional wet battery at coping with deeper discharge. Given our current reduced usage (which to be honest isn't going to change as a mix of office/home working is here to stay at my work) then wouldn't these be better?

    Basically I have my eye on this one and wondered if it's worth it

    https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/enduroline/005r-efb/

    They also do an Exide EL605 but it's out of stock :(

    If EFB is on the cards does anyone else have any recommendations trying to hunt down EFB variant of our stock (005R) size of 230x175x225 or up to 260x175x225 of the Lucas 70Ah battery that also fits our battery tray?

    Cheers

  6. Posted · Report reply

    I've had the timing chain go on my Celica and that was months and several thousand miles after any work was done it on the engine. It only needs it to jump one tooth for the engine to sound rough but stil function but the tensioner could be keeping it just about in check and may only occur when a combination of things happen. Hard acceleration, engine braking, and just tips the ability of the tensioner to counter the sudden slack.

     

    DKG reacted to this

  8. Posted · Report reply

    16 minutes ago, 303 said:

    @NJay Thanks for taking the time to explain. The boost charger I have has USB / 12V in for charging (either any standard USB connection or off a car cig lighter when running) and USB / 12V out (for charging you phone etc. or running 12V peripherals) It's basically a big battery with jumper leads. 

    I'll have a look for a larger arrayed solar panel as well then, we probably don't get anymore sun than you do down in Hampshire.

    Cheers

    Sounds a bit different to mine 

    Mine has a short set of crocodile leads which I can attach to the battery terminals. The other end is a bespoke connector which plugs into a port of the battery pack. This is only used to jump start the car.

    it's basically an 8000mAh usb battery pack with a special socket on it for jump starting the car. So it does have a usb in (for charging the battery pack) along with a usb out for charging other usb devices. 

    It doesn't have the 12v aux out though that yours has

     

    The solar charger I have is the AA 12V Car Solar Battery Charger 4.8W. I had bought the 2.4w version (which is half the size) off of eBay but it was smashed on delivery so got a refund. Given that was £25 and the 4.8w version is £35 on Amazon I figured it was worth the extra £10 knowing it would probably come in a ridiculous amount of packing from Amazon....and it did lol

  9. Posted · Report reply

    The cigarette lighter is not live when the car is switched off so it won't charge through that. The usb socket goes to the head unit which again is not live and mores the pont is 5v not 12v. The alternative is to run a feed from the battery and fit another aux socket.

    However these boost chargers (I have one too) are designed to give a high amp short discharge kick when you crank the engine so I don't believe they can be connected and left as a trickle charger?

     

    As to ease of use, the odb2 port is quiet easy to reach when sat in the drivers seat. I come home, place the solar charger panel (it's almost A3 size lol) on the dash and then just reach under the dash next to the left of the steering wheel and plug it in without looking. When I need to use the car I unplug it and place it face down in the passenger footwell ready for next time

  12. Posted · Report reply

    7 hours ago, Lauren said:

    It's worth pointing out that the spark plug change is done on mileage, not age. A low mileage car that was 6 years old would not warrant the spark plug change. However, all those that have been subject to the valve spring recall generally had their plugs change as it was free to do whilst the engine was out and you only needed to pay for the plugs themselves. 

    It also worth pointing out that they appear to be changing them regardless at the 6yr serivce as i did not ask for them to be changed which is what others have also found.

  13. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, gazza82 said:

    Still on original tyres ... so over 30K ... but then I don't hoon it everywhere ...

    I am on 40k miles on original primacy tyres. They still have 4.5mm left on them lol. Might change them as I don't like they way they handle in the wet going around tight roundabouts as they lose traction with even the slightest application of power 

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Several of us have had the 60k/6yr service since Toyota changed their pricing structure and it includes the cost of changing the spark plugs (whether it's needed or not since mine had only done 40k lol). It now costs £395 (£316 if you've joined the 5yr+ club) but used to cost £600 for that service gulp

  15. Posted · Report reply

    12 hours ago, NathanT said:

     

    Thanks for the info. I'll contact the garage & see if they'll replace the battery since it's within warranty.

    Good luck

    I tried and was rejected.

    Told Toyota policy is that the batteries are not replaced under warranty if more than 11.5v and accepting charge. These cars don't start at much less than 12v which is already considered knackered by everyone else!

     

     

  16. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, Lauren said:

    Top tip for keeping AC working is to never turn it off. 

    Agreed.

    Never understood Turning it off for extended periods of time as the gas is used to keep the system lubricated. Turning it off drys the seals out allowing gas to escape costing more in the long run.

    Also, it helps demist windows quicker when it's cold (nothing wrong with using AC and not having the dial set to cold as it results in drier air) and keeps you cooler when it's hot. Given the UK weather that could be a matter of minutes between the two lol

  18. Posted · Report reply

    Hi Leonard found your thread in here too lol. I've replied on the other forum.

    The vlands come with two harnesses. an 8pin for euro market (high/low beam projectors plus led DRL clusters) like we have in the UK on all but primo. The vlands also come with a 6pin+3splice wires harness

    I believe the latter is for the FRS which has 6pin like your photo but from what I can tell they have main(high)beam filament bulbs where the UK have the led DRLs but I think in your case you have two bulbs (side and parking) where we have the led DRLs? These high beams have a lower voltage sent through them on the FRS and act as DRLs.

    So the question is where are your high beams?

    It may make a difference. Whilst the vlands come with a 6pin harness that will probably fit your connector you may have to do a bit of trial and error to see what lights up when it's all plugged/spliced in :)

     

    The UK primo has DRL instead of front fog lights so hopefully somebody with a UK primo can let us know if the vlands work on them :)

  19. Posted · Report reply

    Average mileage has dropped over the years. It's down to around 7600 according to government figures. I expect it will be even less this year lol

    However, I purchased mine at 2years with 28k miles on it. 3years later it's still under 40k miles so well within Toyota's expected 50k miles lol

  20. Posted · Report reply

    I have had this happen in our various Toyota cars. I.e. I had the most recent Android phone at the time in our family and it wouldn't play music via the HU in my Auris but worked fine everywhere else. Wife's phone which was older android and consequently older BT version worked fine. Read up the HU only supported up to a certain BT version so I guess the phone for some reason wasn't dropping down to match HU for compatibility to play music?

    What was really frustrating is that it did connect for contacts/phone so I could make and receive calls hence my belief something was going wrong in the negotiations between what the HU could accept and the phone downgrading to match that.

    Another case I found different phone and the sat/nav HU in my 15 plate gt86, it connected fine but whilst the song was playing (progress bar and track info updating) no sound each time it moved to the next track. I had to pause and then resume the track each time. Lol

  23. Posted · Report reply

    4 hours ago, Tim said:

    Oh ok, well I tried to turn to the back yesterday, then i read somewhere counter clockwise so I tried that today. But then I'll turn to the back tomorrow, thanks! And I'll make sure to let the WD40 soak for a couple hours.

    But! Watching the video, my key is turning way, way more?! :S Like, twice as far, with ease and nothing happens.

    I have one of these portable battery jumper packs that I use for my old mx5 to get it running. My plan was: Opening the door(somehow), opening bonnet, using jumper pack to start the car, give it a good drive on the motorway (not sure why, just felt like it), park it, open bonnet, close door, take out the battery, lock door, and then charge battery at home.
    I read a lot in here about the alarm going off. Why does that happen when you open it with the right key?

    Opening the door manually doesn't disarm the alarm. Only the keyfob either with keyless entry sensor behind door handle or button on keyfob will disarm the alarm. You somehow need to get the door open, pop the bonnet and put a car charger/car booster on it which is enough to disarm the alarm using the keypad. Don't try and start the car until the alarm is disarmed. Once the alarm is disarmed I found car booster (I have one of those 8000mAh usb ones that has a dedicated port to plug the booster cables into) was fine to start the car even when I had to resort to using key to open driver's door.

  24. Posted · Report reply

    They don't make it clear as found this

    Prices include all service parts as required for the given age/mileage, except automatic transmission fluid, timing belt and vacuum pump where applicable.

    Excellent, however it goes onto say

    In addition to these prices your vehicle may also require Maintenance Options. This is due to different servicing schedules with difference vehicles.

    Huh?

     

    So, given the amount of 6yr old or 60k mile cars surely we must have a few club members that have had the spark plugs changed since Toyota simplified the pricing structure ...

    ....or did you all get them done when in for a recall lol

  25. Posted · Report reply

    The problem isn't entirely the battery. It's our cars have a high drain (suspected to be the alarm, regardless if it's armed or not) compared to others. 

    Getting a bigger Ah battery just prolongs the problem occurring.

    My maths may not be right and too simplistic but if say you have a current drain of 0.1Ah (i suspect the gt86 is higher than that) and a 48Ah battery in perfect condition that could discharge all of its capacity then surely it is going to be completely dead (not even power to keep electronics going) in 480hours or 20days max? Given our batteries under normal use won't be fully charged ever then it will likely be less before it's dead and less again as cranking takes a level of charge higher still. Moving up, a 65Ah battery would be about 27days max but likely less than that.

     

     

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