Limeymk1

Call me picky on their terminology but an 'altered' system would, in my mind, be one that has been cut or drilled to induce more noise. A custom system isn't an 'altered' system it is a replacement of a different design and you haven't 'altered' it in any way.

Track days are about as much fun as you can have fully clothed. I've driven at Bruntingthorpe, Elvington, Llandow, North Weald and my all time favourite Anglesey (several times). All the track days I've been on have been well organised and I've only seen one 'incident' which was due to an idiot in a BMW arsing about and planting his car in the pit wall. As far as binning it I think I've spun my car on the majority of track days but never sustained damage, at Bruntingthorpe I think I lost it at near enough 60 mph and spun 3 times accross the grass. That was the fastest I ever lost it, most of the time you're not really going quick enough to travel too farr off the track unless you're being a prat. I've not heard a single good report of the JapFest track experience at Castle Coombe, too many idiots on the track.

I'd also check the wire to the temp sensor is secure. I'm not 100% where it is on a Gen 5, probably on the head somewhere, it will have a single wire going to it. A sudden loss of temperature on the gauge will generally only occur if the signal is lost or a big air bubble comes and sits over it. Thermostat symptoms tend to be variation of temperature with revs if it's stuck open (increased revs = temp reduction), if it's stuck closed then the temp will just go up as you run the car.

Vince has some left that he'll be selling for the same price as the group buy we recently did. Have a look on the group buy forum.

As above. You may need some filler primer in places if there are any stone chips or scratches, so you''ll need to spray the chipped area and sand flat a few times until the chip is flush with the rest of the paint. If you really need to remove all the paint back to bare metal then Frost.co.uk do abrasive wheels for a drill that will remove paint without scoring the metal underneath.

Been pulled twice: 1st time doing a ton on the A3 many moons ago in the MR2. C'est la vie on that one, I was late, peed off and had a ****** in a Jag up my backside. No excuse I know. 2nd time was in the middle of the night in Coventry in my Gen 5, I was doing the speed limit but I was still doing it round the roundabouts. Lol The cops were very pleasant and just advised me to calm it down a wee bit.

Did he calibrate the meter before and after the test was done?

One point that made my self and my boss chuckle (our dept does noise surveys) is in the requirement for a clear area within 3m it includes people. Adding a tripod/stand to the kit that the police will have to carry around to monitor to ISO standards.

Just had a read of the ISO and there's a good few points for the PC measuring the noise to get wrong and nullify the results. 1. the area of testing (as pointed out earlier) 2. Calibration of the device pre and post measurement (do they know how and do they remember to do it) 3. Windspeed, if there's any wind do they have the appropriate gear to measure it and if not how do they know it's under the specifies max of 5 m/s (inc gusts). 4. "The rotational speed of the engine shall be measured with an instrument meeting the specification limits of at least ± 2 % or better at the engine speeds required for the measurements being performed." Is this counted as the stock rev counter? The rev counter on my MR2 is not that accurate and I'm not in the habit of carrying my laptop for a direct reading from the ECU. I wonder if they would have a hissy fit if you filmed the process of them checking the exhaust noise and used it in evidence for your defence. This ones good for me: "Caution should be exercised when measuring rear- and mid-engine vehicles because engine and cooling-fan noise can prevent accurate measurement of exhaust noise." The induction noise of my V6 is pretty loud. Lol

I've not had any direct experience but my ex resprayed her car out the back of our garage under a gazeebo. It was a bit of a nightmare for her with rain & bugs being a real problem. Got a good finish in the end though. http://s533.photobucket.com/albums/ee335/Limeymk1/Jay/ It was done with cellulose based paint for the white and ol' Halfrauds stuff for the black roof. The compressor was only a small one and cost about £100 new, Devilbiss 75 gravity fed gun and the most important of bit an inline water trap. Only big issue she found with celly is that it is pretty inflexible when cured so will crack if plastic bits get bumped and flex. If you're going to do it in the garage do make sure you have some decent ventilation and wear the correct RPE for the job.

The replacements that I got for mine (HEL hoses) ran from the inner wing to the caliper.

I've got a big ol' tub of random Toyota bolts & screws, I'll have a rummage and see if I've got any that match this evening. How long are they & how many do you need?

Last engine I flushed with Wynns engine flush sprang oil leaks all over the place.

I have a 45 degree 63mm ID hose that I bought in error if you need one, it's a decent length. Can't remember if the ST162 has a 64mm throttle body or a 70mm like the ST202. Shaun's spot on. I should really stop skim reading, I missed his post and repeated his advice. Doh!

I think in an enclosed system the filter is going to be the main restriction to airflow and will be the 'rate limiting step' so to speak. If you don't want to go to the expense of an enclosed system I'd be looking to move the filter as far from the engine as possible and adding a cold air feed of some sort. I'm not sure how effective heat shielding would be as the air round the filter will still be hot if you see what I mean.

I think the biggest difference is going to be the change in the length of the inlet system, a filter stuck right on the throttle body is going to reduce the low end power. May help with top end HP but you don't spend a lot of time up at 6k rpm normally. I've found the best results are with an enclosed cone filter with a good total length of ducting. Still makes the nice noise as well.

Nearest track to you is probably Anglesey, it's a corker of a track. It's recently been redesigned (4-5 years ago), the surface is good and the run off decent. Some of the corners are a bit technical, depending on the layout for the day, but you soon get the hang of it. You can see the layout on Google Maps, look for Aberffraw and switch to satelite view. It's right on the coast, can't miss it.

My MR2 failed it's MoT due to noise. I blip the throttle a bit at 2:05. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBSaL8HJkFs