_Chris_

Yup, it's cheating . You did see mine on Sunday though, and it wasn't far short of the second picture. It probably hasn't been cleaned since the Summer - it would normally get done for rallyday but I got a lift up this year. I've been leaving it as it needs a full machine polish and I haven't had time.

Could be sticky sliders or sticking piston. Stuck handbrakes are normally the shoe sticking to the drum and will release when moved, so unlikely unless it's a sticky cable (you'd feel this on the handbrake lever) Sliders are easy. Get them out, gentle taps with a hammer if needed (be careful not to squash end out) then clean up with wire wool or fine wet & dry (plus WD40, but avoid getting it on seals) Then re-grease thoroughly when refitting. Stuck pistons also freed the same way (hint - pump brake pedal to push piston out, if it's more than one piston then clamp non-seized one in) Clean up piston with wire wool & wd40. Remove brown gunk from caliper, but don't use wd40 / solvent as the seal will be destryed. Lube piston with brake fluid to re-insert - don't use wd40 or oil. edit note - it's worth clamping the flexi hose one the piston's come out past it's seal before the system empties (use a pair of mole grips if you don't have the official tool) and keeping the brake fluid topped up. This will save an awful lot of pain bleeding the brakes later - especially if you have ABS. You will just need to bleed the one corner. Open up the bleed nipple to let air out as you push the piston back in afterwards.

If the socket set was visible, that's probably what they went in for. Christmas is coming, a ready market for such things and people desperate for money. One common trick for breaking in is to force a small screwdriver in beside the lock and then push the lever behind up/down. Check beside the lock for a little hole. They tried nicking my sisters micra once like that - I think the Nottingham kids hadn't grasped the 'joy' part of joyriding.

Amateur

If you can, whip the battery out and take in to recharge. leaving it flat for several days, you might as well weigh it in now !!! It is probably also the most nickable thing for that very reason - £450 / ton for car batteries. Sounds like they were going to try & nick it but got disturbed.

Lpg ? I do loads of long distance runs and my gt4 is as cheap to run as my pug206 diesel. It goes wrong less often and has better support for tech. Information and cheap spares.

Have you done as suggested and removed plugs then try pushing in 5th ? Also, have you tried starting with the key with the clutch down in case it's gearbox seized ?

Should be able to push in 5th. did you have any water loss issues or drive through deep puddles ? If its not seized engine check the heavy earth from battery to engine and measure voltage on battery when trying to start. I assume It's not a battery relocation ?

And it's not too late to vote for wally of the year.

Both door switches ?

And you're still left with silly quantities of power going through the wheels you're trying to steer with !!!!! As above, best option by far is to buy a GT4 if you want GT4 performance. It will be cheaper too.

The 25 quid won't be deducted from the MOT fee though, so it'll cost you £65 total. Retests are normally free.

I think the key is that KNOWINGLY driving a defective vehicle is a much greater crime. There are certain parts that drivers are expected to check regularly themselves such as tyres and lights, but you are very unlikely to be prosecuted for a bit of play in a fig 8. The way I view it is that I rectify any safety related issues ASAP so that if I'm stopped I can't be prosecuted for driving a 'dangerous' car, then the cosmetic stuff (welding, emissions etc. ) and retest can be done at leisure.

And the late stages.

Upol is what the pro's I know use. I use the easy sanding / quicksand stuff as I'm lazy and only use it as a thin skim. If you're filling holes use the stuff with fibres in (used to be upol-b from memory) I always mix as per the video above, except I don't piddle about weaving from side to side, I scoop up in one direction and squdge back down at 90 degrees. ( in the video he scoops and squidges in the same direction so the weaving is the only way he can mix left to right ). Mixing by stirring with a stick is like whisking in cooking - it introduces air bubbles.

Always worth going round and checking all the critical bolts after a couple of weeks too.

It's very rarely the rubber that wears out on the standard suspension. It's normally the rod ends or sperical bushings (many people mistake the latter for rubber and replace with poly making the suspension softer !! ) People replace the ECU with a mappable one and end up with better ecconomy and more power. Seems like a win/win, however it has NOTHING to do with newer technology and everything to do with the mapping - it has had nearly all the safety margin taken out. One duff batch of fuel, or a bit of drift with age or temperature (it takes man years of mapping to get corrections right, if anyone thinks £200 for a couple of hours on the dyno gets a perfect map they're seriously deluded by the sales patter). A recent case was a well known 165 owner who fitted an AFR gauge and found his previously mapped PFC was running 12.5 AFR + on boost - very lucky not to have killed his engine. I can also think of at least one person whose engine went pop soon after fitting a PFC running right on the edge to achieve a target power. I'm not saying that people shouldn't tailor a car to their needs, but don't go into it blind thinking there is no downside to any modification.

I keep saying it, but Toyota spend millions in r&d creating a good compromise between performance, comfort, reliability and ecconomy. Yet people seem to think they can do better after reading some sales spiel. if you improve one aspect, you lose others. Polybushes remove the cushioning effect from road vibration so will inevitably cause more wear to spherical joints in the chain. Likewise lower profile tyres - these will also reduce the ease of controlling the car as they are less progressive and also have a greater tendancy to just let go when hitting a slippery bit. Too many times I see modified cars being broken because the owner can't cope with running them.

I'm considering making a Toyota OBD / OBD2 converter to allow the use of normal OBD2 tools on the celica (for real time info, not fault codes). If it goes ahead it'll probably be available autumn / winter time and cost somewhere approaching £100 finger in air. Otherwise, I'm not aware of anything.

As above, it will be immersed in petrol so will need to be petrol resistant. IMO use a piece of petrol hose as insulation, and make it long enough that if it drops all the way down the wire, the joint will still be covered - i.e. make the wire above the joint longer than below and put the tubing above while making the joint. DONT use sticky tape, the stick won't last 2 minutes. Don't rely on cable ties unless you use petrol resistant or stainless ones (the latter WILL conduct of course) Don't mount the wire in such a way that it can rub on any metalic surface and wear away the insulation.

Firstly, I would never even dream of running an engine without a substance in the bearings that is designed to lubricate and form a liguid layer between the moving metal bits. Sticking in something thin and watery can only cause rapid wear of the engine. If the oil is in poor condition then do the next change sooner rather than later. I wouldn't even waste money on 5L of oil for a few miles, use the proper oil (it doesn't cost a vast amount more) and keep it in there until the next change.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LPG-conversion-INSPECTION-uklpg-certification-old-new-systems-tested-/380648926003?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item58a071ab33

Not sure whether it has a warning output, I'd guess the spec will say. Most likely is a relay contact which you can use to drive a big lamp and a klaxon A word of warning by the way, once you've fitted the sensor, don't drive the car without the controller fitted and powered. Exhaust gas will damage an unpowered sensor.

Not quite unless you use an LC-1. On all others I've come across the conroller is built into the gauge so: The wideband sensor in the exhaust is wired just to the gauge. The gauge has a 0-5V output which you then feed to the ECU. You may need to download software from the gauge manufacturer and hook up the gauge to a PC to configure the output correctly. I would still advise using the gauge with the built in warning as above if you have a turbo engine. Going weak on boost means pretty instant engine failure.

p.s. I think this is it http://www.amazon.com/AEM-30-4900-Wideband-Failsafe-Gauge/dp/B007ZAQLF6 Manufacturer Part Number: 30-4900 http://www.aemelectronics.com/wideband-air-fuel-systems-15/wideband-failsafe-gauge-84/