[How much does Toyota actually know about their cars?]

Having worked for a toyota dealership within the service department i can hopefully shed some light on this. Most (not all) of the service representitives have had little or no experience in actually working on vehicles and only have access to select information on a computer in front of them. if you want the best advise from a toyota dealership you need to speak with the guys that actually work on the vehicles day in day out. As for the guy who stated they didnt know what an ssiii was, im not at all suprised by this as a uk dealership have very limited info to jap spec vehicles and will have likely only dealt with uk spec models. But some lucky dealerships will have a representitive thats has actually worked the trade and know thier stuff But to be honest it was very rare we saw any kind of celica come in for any kind of servicing so its no suprise that a lot of dealerships dont have the info or experience readily available. You go in and ask about the gt86 however and they will likely be more clued up

When it comes to skilled automotive engineers in dealerships there is a catch 22 present. They will only employ young people with qualifications in the automotive area, e.g. BTEC 2/3 or NVQ 2/3 in Vehicle Maintainence.

But spend a couple of days round your local colleges Automotive workshop and you will realise a fair few of the lads who do those courses are not pushing IQ's of 150 And the lectures are prone to teaching a syllabus which is geared to pass rates which is not challenging their top students - pass rates supply funding in the modern FE college.

Quite often, the lads who are quite experience before they start college drop out through boredom, more often than not they have been doing all the stuff they cover at college with their dad, uncle, brother etc for years.

No one can do 2/3 years at college, then from nowhere be any good at fault finding. Yes they can drop oils, change brake pads, put an exhaust on, change a spring, swap a wheel bearing, fit a CV joint etc - some better than others. But they have not had some fantastic experienced mentors to work beside year on year - that is where good mechanics often come from.

It takes decades of challenging jobs to become good, and that isn't decades of servicing and wear n tear parts replacements.

There are some good guys out there, but I think they are a minority in the industry. I hope I have not offended too many garage workers here

True however i know for a fact toyota will take apprentices rather than letting them loose straight out of college. they usually shadow the most experienced guys for at least 2 years before letting them loose by themselves as well as having to attend toyota specific college courses to allow them to be trained to thier standards. But even then the not very experienced bit still applies because again not much experience in fault finding

However that was just at my local dealership, others may vary

[HID Headlights - Everything you need to know // Legalities of HID's covered.]

You can get 'R' versions of HID's. For example, H7's are for H7 projector type headlamps, but H7R's are for H7 reflector (hence the R) type headlights.

The difference is that the H7R versions have a shield over the bulb to stop upward glare, but you need to do your research before purchasing!

yeah, this might be worth looking into, cheers will troll the gen 6 forums for a bit and see if anyone has done this before

[HID Headlights - Everything you need to know // Legalities of HID's covered.]

Tried that, still blinded the Hell out of people and made driving at night , well, lets say..... interesting. the beam pattern goes all over the place. With the lights adjusted so the main pattern of the beam was pointing down very close the front of the car, I was still illuminating reflective road signs well over half a mile away

thats a shame as i love the look of hid's but cant afford 200+ for a set of projectors

[HID Headlights - Everything you need to know // Legalities of HID's covered.]

My 6 failed it's MOT last year on HID's. Incorrect light pattern and lose ballast packs. (not cable tied or screwed down to anything). so i changed the bulbs back to standard ones for the MOT. After the MOT I just swapped the std's back with the HID's.

I'm running 6000K in the dipped beam and have had a few people say that the lights are exceptionally bright, not High beam blinding but just very bright as if the lights are adjusted incorrectly.

Could you use the hid setup but then have the adjusters on a lower beam setting to lower the beam?

[HID Headlights - Everything you need to know // Legalities of HID's covered.]

Just a few questions as this thread seems to be mostly gen 7 :-P I would love a set on my gen 6 unfortunately have reflector type headlights :-(

Has anyone fitted a set to a gen 6 with reflector type headlights and how was it? We're they blinding other road users? As long as they are OK with that I can always swap them back come mot time not a problem.

Secondly, what fitment is required for a gen 6?

I was looking at the 6000k ones ideally :-P

Any help on this subject much appreciated :-)