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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Well I'll be dammed


Paul Booth
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1. Got my nose off and stripped down ready for a plastic welding of mounting holes (Bwuuhahhhaaaahhaaa! chance to play) a filling and a painting.

 

Well it appears I have one of them thar powered air dams on the front of my Supe (no, I didn't know I had one but it does explain Tim's distant mutterings as I was trying to get into it and leave).

 

Well, another gadget to bugger up. I guess I'd better know how it works, now I know I've got one.

What's it supposed to do and how do I test to see if it does that?

 

2. On another point. After I took the nose off, I could really see that there's small fronted, but very think, radiator that looks very much as though it's in the air system (front right side, behind indicator). Is it supposed to be an intercooler?

 

3. Any reason why the standard air box, with it's front mounted air ram can't be modified to take the business end of an induction kit?

 

 

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2. On another point. After I took the nose off, I could really see that there's small fronted, but very think, radiator that looks very much as though it's in the air system (front right side, behind indicator). Is it supposed to be an intercooler?

 

Thats it, the stock intercooler!

 

 

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Yes it's an intercooler. And as Ash will tell you, when you fit an FMIC like the HKS type S you can rework the piping to put the induction unit in place of the stock intercooler (once removed).

 

The front lip spoiler is what I assume you mean by "powered airdam". Using the control on the dash board you can lower the spoiler whilst parked by turning the key to full electrics on and pressing the down button - the light will go green when its down - make sure auto off isn't pushed in. Now walk round to the front of the car and take a look.

 

When driving about about 75 KPH or MPH (can't remeber which but look at the light next time your driving at that speed and you should see it either flashing or showing a steady light....make sure auto off is not depressed!!!

 

It's all documented in the Owners Manual which costs about £7 from Toyota.

 

But obviously if I've totally mis understood what you were referring to I expect you can ignore me completely.

 

As for point 3 could you please gove us a better idea of what exactly you mean.... do you just want to fit an induction kit inside it? If so isn't it just a case of getting a circular drill bit and some new piping? I've never really looked at the standard unit as it didn't come with my car.... so I'm shooting in the dark per say....

 

Laters

 

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Quote: from Alex Holdroyd on 8:44 pm on July 7, 2001[br]Yes it's an intercooler. And as Ash will tell you, when you fit an FMIC like the HKS type S you can rework the piping to put the induction unit in place of the stock intercooler (once removed).

 

The front lip spoiler is what I assume you mean by "powered airdam". Using the control on the dash board you can lower the spoiler whilst parked by turning the key to full electrics on and pressing the down button - the light will go green when its down - make sure auto off isn't pushed in. Now walk round to the front of the car and take a look.

 

When driving about about 75 KPH or MPH (can't remeber which but look at the light next time your driving at that speed and you should see it either flashing or showing a steady light....make sure auto off is not depressed!!!

 

It's all documented in the Owners Manual which costs about £7 from Toyota.

 

But obviously if I've totally mis understood what you were referring to I expect you can ignore me completely.

 

As for point 3 could you please gove us a better idea of what exactly you mean.... do you just want to fit an induction kit inside it? If so isn't it just a case of getting a circular drill bit and some new piping? I've never really looked at the standard unit as it didn't come with my car.... so I'm shooting in the dark per say....

 

Laters

 

Now see it's like this. If I had any switches or lights which gave me a clue, finding it wouldn't have been such a surprise. No switches and no lights. Next.....

This is going to be a fly by pant's seat problem, I can feel it in my bones.

 

The advice on using the pipework for the stock IC addressed my issue re getting cool air, I think. I'm still curious as to whether you could use the stock filter casing as the casing for an induction intake.

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So do you want to lower the box into the drivers side air intake.... but wouldn't that be like lowering a box into a box.

The other thing u can do is put a feckin great hole in the bottom of the air box and the metal filler below and force air into the box in its normal position. But a: its better to do the FMIC change and induction re-route and b: u might reduce the airflow to your standard FMIC - which will have a detrimental affect on your power levels. Having said that if you do go for the big hole approach the whole system should if funnelled appropriatly should creat a kind of forced induction at speed as the air will be rammed into the box faster than it needs to use it.

 

But I'm no physics guru so I maybe wrong on this point.

 

As for the front spoiler.... think you need an expert to wire u up some controls. The connecting wires should be linked into the ECU as its a speed related item.

 

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Quote: from Alex Holdroyd on 10:41 pm on July 7, 2001[br]So do you want to lower the box into the drivers side air intake.... but wouldn't that be like lowering a box into a box.

The other thing u can do is put a feckin great hole in the bottom of the air box and the metal filler below and force air into the box in its normal position. But a: its better to do the FMIC change and induction re-route and b: u might reduce the airflow to your standard FMIC - which will have a detrimental affect on your power levels. Having said that if you do go for the big hole approach the whole system should if funnelled appropriatly should creat a kind of forced induction at speed as the air will be rammed into the box faster than it needs to use it.

 

But I'm no physics guru so I maybe wrong on this point.

 

As for the front spoiler.... think you need an expert to wire u up some controls. The connecting wires should be linked into the ECU as its a speed related item.

 

Using the stock IC pipework to fit an induction system in the driver's side intake is fine for when I get my BIG IC. In the meantime, I was wondering if I could route a Blitz induction system (for example) into the stock airbox to give it access to ambient air.

 

Who's played with the adjustable road miller?

AAAASSSSHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh!

 

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I've established I do have a metal tube that runs across the front of my Supe and it has a motor on one end.

What I don't have are any switches or lights on the dashboard to indicate the presence of a powered air dam.

 

Does this mean anything to anyone?

 

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Paul, you should have a switch (under the head unit) that controls the spoiler. It's the right-most one of the three. If not that's pretty weird, if I may say.

 

Yours,

J

 

 

 

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No switch, no lights. You want to talk weird?

 

My personal opinion is that it's f****d and the switch was removed to hide the fact.

 

I'm going to the Supe schematics now and I'm gonna get to the bottom of this.

If I find out I'm correct, I'll make my opinions as to what and where I think what happened public.

 

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Okay, I know the car basically inside out. And, to me, it sounds pretty weird that you have the spoiler and the motor but no switch.

 

But that's just because I never came across this problem before. Moreover, I use the term "weird" very loosely. I don't mean to sound offensive.

 

Please do not jump to conclusions as there have been many instances where the J-spec car has had options and/or components fitted, prior to importing into this country, that people haven't come across before.  

 

You need to check if you have the ECU. I mean, it might be that a previous owner in Japan has attempted to fit the auto spoiler and then given up. Okay, that sounds remote but stranger things have happened.

 

Yours,

J

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Hey, I just realised I'm almost at 200 posts.

 

Seems like my member is gonna feel extra fuller tonight.  :biggrin:

 

Yours,

J

 

 

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Well, for the moment I'll keep my own counsel but I remember some relevant mutterings which I didn't understand at the time and now mean something.

 

When MKIV.com comes back on-line, I'll go through the schematics and assert a manual test through the local loom.

If it works locally I'll go back to the ECU output and attempt to drive it from there. If that works, I'll attach a monitor to the ECU output and go for a spin along a nearby dual-carriageway and see what the monitor says.

 

I'll come back with the results and see where we go from there.

Hell! it might be working OK. I don't get around the front much, once I get above 60mph.

 

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Here's wishing you every success in solving the problem.

 

I can email circuit diagrams tomorrow if MKIV.com don't have what you need.

 

Yours,

J

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Okay, I know I mentioned it first but let's just keep my member under wraps, for know, until we see how it works out.  :)

 

Yours,

J

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Right! The powered dam/spoiler works a treat, well its motor does and the wiring loom looks original.

I'm thinking, from the mutterings Tim was making, the ECU probably packed up and the switch was removed to conceal the whole issue.

 

I was surprised how little it moves. Does this provide any real benefit (Tim certainly didn't seem to think so)?

 

Now I'm on the cadge. Does anyone  have a spare/unused spoiler ECU and/or dashboard switch (this explains the small switch connector in that area which I couldn't figure)?

Anyone know of anyone breaking a Supe?

 

Ash says I can get a switch from Toyota for not-too-much but I'm guessing the ECU is not going to fall into that category.

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ECU is only available special order from Japan. So they are basically saying it's not really available. They could probably get one but the cost would be astronomical. The switch is about £50.

 

Many of the J-spec cars have the spoiler fitted plus all the UK's have it. I guess, then, a scrappie will be your best bet.  

 

Do bear in mind that if you are thinking of fitting an FMIC then the active spoiler motor will have to be junked anyway.

 

Yours,

J

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I don't know exactly. I assumed it was to satisfy the largely "feature driven" US market but Branners reckons it was not fitted to the Yankie cars.

 

I have driven my car under all kinds of conditions with the spoiler-blade fitted and not fitted... I never noticed any difference quite frankly.

 

Yours,

J

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Interestingly, although we think of the US markets as being gadget driven, the Japanese are actually the worst in the world for gadgets.

 

Where else in the world could you find a box used exclusively for designing and printing custom greeting cards, to quote just one example I've come across.

 

(Edited by Paul Booth at 7:47 pm on July 11, 2001)

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