bazz54

You are joking? Most un-cool!

I think the risk with getting one made is that you don't know what you will get until you've got it it, and then you may not like it, though I guess that would be true of non-OEM mild steel too. That's why your SS was interesting, but obviously Alunox may be a hard to do trip.

This looks to be what I would loosely group as an "underseal" type of product. That is to say, it is something along the lines of an oil or bitumen type goo that can can be put on top of paintwork and may offer some additional corrosion protection. I've used such things in the past but not for a very long time (except for the insides of cavities). I tend to believe that if you have a really good paint system in place, they don't do much for you. They are all permeable to oxygen and water. In fact, I think they tend to conceal areas where rust is trying to make a come back, as it always will. So Waxoyl, Dinitrol and stuff like this generally don't interest me.

You have to ask what is the chemical basis of the product? Rusting is an electrochemical reaction which is now very well understood scientifically. Similarly, the electrochemical routes to stopping (or at least impeding rust) are well understood. The big paint companies (e.g. PPG) have research labs in different countries with lots of scientists working on this; when it comes to bridges, oil rigs, ships, rust is HUGE business. So, where do these Lanoguard products fit in to the scheme of things? "All that glitters, is not gold".

I think it's hard to say what to do to the inside of an old tank. I have heard of some people putting citric acid solution which will nicely remove the rust and leave a clean(ish) metal surface, which you could then coat with... who knows? How many products have a long track record with E10? If the inside looks half-decent, I think I would be inclined down the route of "If it ain't broke..."

Seems to me that the problem with old fuel tanks it that it's difficult to know just how good or bad they are (internally) when you get them. I bought a USB endoscope inspection camera off ebay for peanuts which is very good, but I've never used it in tank - might be handy. Quite what the future olds in the new ethanol fuel era remains to be seen, but it may well prove hard on fuel tanks. I've never bought any products from Frost; suspect that they may be over-rated and over-priced. I was underneath my Gen7 last week and spotted 4 spot welds on the tank which I guess hold the fuel filter (or something) inside, and the spots showed the earliest signs of corrosion, so they got zapped with zinc phosphate.

That sort of info can be found in the Autodata CD's. Expensive to buy... but can you get a 30 day free trial???

I think we've gone from "just in time delivery" to "just too late". Lots of people stopped working it the height of Covid, and are now reluctant to return. Then there are all the pinged people in self lock down. I've had grocery deliveries for 12 years from Ocado... but not this week, or next week, or maybe even the next week

In theory, they are legally obliged to show that the system does not leak before they refill it. That is because the gas is a powerful green house gas and there are tight restrictions on allowing it to get in to the atmosphere. So they put on a vacuum pump, pull out anything that's left in there and wait to see if they get a good vacuum showing no leaks. But quite how sensitive the test is to very small leaks is hard to say. The oil gets injected in to the system as the new gas goes in. In the past, AC specialists had a variety of kit, but increasingly they all seem to be using pretty much the same highly-automated units, but I'd still much rather have a specialist do the job than some bloke at one of the chains.

The driers are full of beads or small pellets of what are called molecular sieve and these filter out water vapour from the system. Water gets in because it can diffuse in through the rubber hoses, then it can start and corrode from the inside out. Except for the Gen7, the cars I've had all had a sealed unit drier with the sieve inside, but the 7 must use some kind of re-fill pack? An AC system in good condition needs a regas about every 4 years and I take the view that I'm happy to use a good professional, usually charging ~£50(?) to do it. A pro will take 30-45 minutes to do the job (anything less is worrying). Be sure to check that you get leak-indicating dye added.

That coloration looks more like a straw temper film due to heat, but it's not present on the sloping sides of the cat which seems odd. Why would all that pipe have a temper film; so far from the welds and I doubt if exhaust gas temps would be high enough to do that?

I'm really surprised, looking at the size of those O rings; they all seems to be non-standard sizes. Both the i.d. and the cross sections all seems to be unique fits. So, not 10.0 or 11.0 mm id and not 1.5mm cross-sections. So, is it really the case that a 10.6 x 14.16mm ring is something unique to Mr T. There are kits of AC O rings for sale on ebay, but they all seems to be standard sizes. I wonder what independent AC specialists do?

I wonder what the mark-up by the Toyota dealers is? I wanted a refurb kit for the front caliper a few weeks ago and the local dealer wanted £102. Got some genuine Toyota parts via ebay for £26.

That's all good; the Gen7 is never described as a having too much torque. As for sparrows farting at cruising speed on a motorway; it must have been a motorway resurfaced by exceptional workmen the day previously. You could put an electric motor in a Gen7 and it would still be noisy on the motorway. I went to my mate's garage a few days ago for my pre-MOT and he reckoned my exhaust will get through; so my Yorkshire gene is baulking at the idea if replacing it before it is absolutely necessary .

No; genuinely, the "Edition" models was something I only found out about when you told me last week. I recall Gavin Lewerne saying that the box ratios on the 140 (different from the 190) raised some interesting questions about which actually drives better, but I've no interest in fighting arguments over it, but I will simply state that the pre-face is the best-looking car , and if the 140 is the best driving car, that's fine . Please keep us posted on your new exhaust - my time can not be that far way and I'm not really that keen to pay Mr T's prices for a mild steel. The MoT is in 2 weeks time; think we're OK. Re 'they can take their time over it', so are they making the components which will be "pulled together" when you go in to have them fitted?

Good point! But as we all know, it is one area where some "margins" seem to be acceptable. I wonder if Alunox has a good noise meter?

So it's legal on sound level, but does that mean it could still be noisier than the OEM?. Personally, I think the standard Gen7 is noisy enough (though mostly road noise), so stainless is appealing, but don't want want any more noise. Sorry to ask but is the Red edition a 140 or 190; suppose it has to be the latter ? My 140's exhaust has lasted a long time, but will need replacing one day.

I smeared it thinly over the piston seal before inserting it the bore (though with brake fluid on the piston) and also on the dust cover that protects the outer end of the piston.

I don't think red rubber grease is silicone; isn't it made from natural plant oils? Replacing the disc after the caliper rebuild, I wiped off all traces of the old copper slip on the hub and disc...and then put on some nice new copper slip, and the same on the back of the road wheels. For the caliper rebuilds I used red grease in contact with the rubber (but wetted the pistons with brake fluid), and used a syringe and a needle to put ceramic-filled silicone grease down inside the slider bores, so that deals with metal-on-metal contact. The thing that struck me is how tightly the rubber gaiters grip on the slider pins. I started off using some pattern parts, but then got some Toyota parts and found the gaiters to be about the same in the way they resist motion of the sliders, and that was using Toyota red grease too (Toyota's is actually pink!). MoT time soon, but looking good at 19 years old .

Did you miss the bit about the road wheels needing to come off before the disc can come off? And that would require the five wheel nuts to come off before that and that's when you'd notice the handling getting awkward.

I had my front calipers off for total 're-buildings' last week. It always amazes me that when you take the road wheels off, and the calipers off, there's nothing at all holding the discs on; as long as there's no rust, they just slide off the studs. I'm fairly sure that on every other car I've had the discs are held on by some means. I'm not complaining - I recall times when taking the the discs off one car was "just a bit hard" .

I wouldn't do it.

Thanks for that Ams; as soon as I have time to take the existing ones off, if I need to replace, I'll keep that in mind.

Well, my pre-face 7 must be on 255, so going to 295 should make a "noticeable difference". Let me see how the current ones clean up; I think I am being lead in to temptation here .

No, I have never given that a great deal of thought. Is your thinking that if somebody needed to buy new calipers, big ones (and the appropriate disc)do better than little ones? If you do upgrade, does any change need making to the brake balance?