_Chris_

As above, you need to measure drop in the Earth return as well as the positive feed. Ideally measure the voltage across the bulb at the bulb, and the voltage across the battery - or better still on the alternator as this is the source of all electrical power when the engine is running. Measure from the large output terminal on the back to alternator body. The voltage drops come from cable resistance (which doesn't usually deteriorate with age), resistance from connections (which is usually the worst deterioration with corrosion - particularly the Earths as these go through the steel body) and resistance from the fuse(s) and switch or relay contacts. If you do run new cabling, use well over-rated cable and components (apart from fuse) as these will have a lower resistance. Minimise the number of connectors used and use good quality gold plated ones. Make sure the fuse is at the battery end of the cabling, and ensure the wire doesn't run over any sharp edges, hot items, or near moving parts. For a given resistance, power is proportional to voltage squared, This is why a small drop makes a big difference.

There's nothing fundamental about Ethanol that will require complete new engines, especially at 10%. It can be more corrosive, although fuel suppliers should add corrosion inhibitors to counter this. Worst case, it may require new fuel lines and maybe some other fuel system components. Not a complete engine. It has a higher RON so no need for fundamental engine changes to avoid detonation. While blended with petrol it is likely this will replace other RON boosters and overall RON will remain the same. The most likely problem is that it needs a slightly richer mixture. If the fuel system can't accommodate this automatically it may require some aftermarket changes, the simplest being an adjustable fuel pressure regulator to increase pressure slightly. On the other hand, Photosynthesis which is fundamental to all vegetation growing converts CO2 to Oxygen. Like most things in nature, there is an equilibrium with plants converting light, water and CO2 to Oxygen and food, then Animals consuming the food and oxygen and converting back to CO2. Reduction in vegitation is just as harmful as production of CO2. They should tax chainsaws as heavily as cars.

Ethanol has a higher RON so detonation shouldn't be an issue. It also requires more fuel/air ratio for correct mixture (stoich AFR 9% pure ethanol, 14.7% petrol 14.1%E10). When running open loop,this will result in running slightly weaker. Closed loop, it should be within the range allowed for automatic adjustment by the ECU. The biggest danger is on turbo cars which are mapped with very little safety margin. Standard mapping on the GT4 is pretty rich when open loop anyway so it's only likely to be modified ones with tweaks to weaken the on-boost mixture. (ECU's / adjustable FPR etc.). I accidentally filled up with some in France a few years back on a GT4 with aftermarket ECU. I was running open loop and on the weak side for the cruising cells for ecconomy. It basically felt very flat and misfired a bit on some throttle settngs. This went away when I increased the master fuel setting a little. When I filled up again I was able to drop it back..

AS far as I'm aware, the only self learning on the later ECU's is idle RPM and knock retard. You are referring to open / close loop mixture control. On the GT4's it only goes to close loop for idle and cruise, I suspect the same may be true on the N/A versions as there are power gains from running richer on full throttle and the regulations of the time only required accurate mixture at idle and light throttle. I presume you are thinking of trying to run weaker on cruise to gain a wee bit of ecconomy ?

Good to see a car with some history being looked after, Have a good holiday.

Were those in a marine engine from a shipwreck ? I suspect they were fitted in 2005 in the Ford factory.

Don't use WD40 as it will make rubber seals swell up and eventually disintegrate. You can get proper lock spray, or find a penetrating oil that is rubber safe.

The laws are very complex regarding taking items to repay debts, and contravening these can be a criminal offence, or at the very least can lead to a large compensation claim. Effectively any items taken that aren't owned by the debtor are stolen property, this may even apply to goods taken without court documentation. Bear in mind that a company and the company owner is not one and the same.

There are many types of LED. An old fashioned pure LED would probably go pop with the current passed by a relay coil, but nowadays many leds come with series resistors (which would stop the relay pulling in) or high power/high brightness which would probably work in the diagram shown. The safest bet is to get an LED rated for 14V (12V) or an old fashioned led plus a series 1K ish resistor and wire in paralell with the relay coil. As far as permanent power, you may have wired to the normally closed contact, and then not have sufficient current topull in the relay. It is also possible that the relay is wired correctly but has insufficient current for the load and the contact has welded together. Amplifiers usually have large capacitors which pull a very high current for a short time at power on, this is renowned for weldingrelay contacts. Another safety issue is that you should have a fuse next to the battery with a rating no higher than the wiring it is feeding. i.e. if you have used 50A wire, then the fuse should be rated 50A or less. This is so that if you get a short in the wiring or any other sort of overload, the fuse will blow before the wire catches fire. You can use lower rated fuses in the fusebox and then run thinner wires from there.

If it wasn't limited to celicas, I could mention the copper pipe over the snapped gearstick on my old escort. It got me home, and worked so well I didn't rush to do the job properly. The cops weren't impressed when they pulled me over one day though.

Have you tried driving it with the traction control switched off ?

As long as the bellhousing is held solidly to the engine, it shouldn't have an effect on the clutch. The biggest danger of mixing up bolts is a short bolt where a long one should be may pull the tread out, if a bolt is too long it may go tight before it's actually holding anything, and this is what may cause clutch issues. If these links work, it should be the Toyota workshop manuals for the gen 7. Dropbox are discontinuing public link sharing so I'm trying google. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1egIA8cOCXVNlp5ZVpMWmc1MWM https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1egIA8cOCXVMERSSjAweVZhVWc

I'm not familiar with gen 7, is it normal for security light to fkash with an engine problem ? Assuming no, it sounds far more like a poor connection causing electrical power loss. Most likely with the clutch swap a connection has been left loose (e.g. earth strap or battery), a plug not pushed fully together, or something shorting to earth, e,g, nattery left loose or loom left rubbing on engine or body. Also, check all the bolts are tight holding engine to gearbox, and clutch cylinder bolts. These loose would cause inconsistent bite point and kangarooing described. Unless you are an experienced mechanic, don't try removing and refitting the engine. Far more likely you will just ruin the car or end up with a pile of parts and no idea how to put them back. It may be an idea to take the car to someone experienced and familiar with the car such as AMS. They are far more likely to spot the problem.

I presume it was the output wire then ?

If you mean M6 thread (10mmAF) then yes. All the other (low power) wires go via the plug.

If you mean the wire was getting hot at the big ring terminal on the back of the alternator, this is a fairly common problem and is due to corrosion causing a poor contact. Heat is generated when you have a high resistance but still enough connection to get some current flowing. (power = volts x amps - with no voltage drop (good connection) or no current (open circuit) there is no heat ) The problem becomes a vicious circle as the heat produced by a slightly high resistance joint accellerates the corrosion. The solution is to follow the wire back into the solid loom housing that goes over the cam belt to where there has been no heating, cut the wires at this point then join on new wire & eyelet connector. Use wire (copper part) at least as big as the original and either ensure good quality crimp connections or better still solder & sleeve. (I often strip the insulator off the crimps after and then solder as well, then sleeve) Soldering will avoid corrosion in the copper being a problem, but it also makes the wire brittle so better not to do this where there may be vibration / flexing.

I saw this & thought of this thread.

It's backside covering as there are items they can't inspect e.g. brake lines.

Absence makes the farts go Honda.

The gen 7 is a very differently engineered car to the earlier ones. Much more like working on my clio or pug. Look at VW reputation, especially the VW 1.9TDi engine. In less than a year £2K in garage bills (didn't have time to do it myself) and it still overheats at speeds over 60, or uphill, or towing. A lemon is a lemon, and all makes have them, usually due to previous owner abuse.

Not true. The vast majority will undo with fingers once they've been cracked & done the first 1/2 turn. Unless you have a very unlucky one that's been kept at the seaside.

I've bought them for as little as 'free to a good home'. Mostly, you pay for what's left on the tyres. For some reason, people seem to think they must be rubbish because they're standard. In practice, there are very few aftermarket wheels better in respect to strength, weight and airflow over the brakes.

Well, it's just over a year since my last celica running broke it's gearbox and joined the line of dead celicas outside my workshop. Work pressurs and personal circumstances left me with no suitable time to be able to do the work needed to get any of them back on the road. Anyway, thanks to a gearbox from TCB and some effort from BEK my red auto gen 6 went back on the road yesterday and went straight into service today on a site run over to Bideford & back. For the first time in ages I really enjoyed the drive without the frustration of being overtaken by the caravans up the hills. Hopefully Ezzy will be joining the fleet later this week, again thanks to a lot of floorpan & sill reconstruction work from Bek. Huge thanks Bek, You've made someone happy today

As far as I know it will be in eeprom which will last decades.

Either you didn't tighten it, or someone else came along and loosened it. Oil on the threads is good as it helps the bolt tighten up properly. I always put grease on threads when re-assembling things, both to ensure torque is correct and also to make future servicing easier as the threads won't be rusty.