IceMan

no boost gauge, stock RZ. Ice

Another angle. Ice

Further to my last post, is it normal for the rear suspension to be lower than the front? The car's been like this since I got it. Check photo 1 attached. P.S. excuse the hideous state of the car; damn farmers! Ice

Okay some quick fire questions then a couple of pics! Car spec first: Jap import, 1993, totally stock except for Bilstein shocks (optional Toyota), derestricted (though restrictor's come back on!), refurbished turbos, 50,000+ miles on the clock, HKS turbo timer. 1. My suspension rattles, especially the rear-right. It's not the boot rubbers! The rattle sounds like something lose and knocking and is faster in frequency than the suspension movement (i.e. on fairly smooth roads still get a lot of knocking; not relative to bumpiness of road). Toyota looked at the suspension and say the top mounts etc are fine so it must be something "inside the suspension". Would this include shocks? I'm not 100% suspension literate! Does this sound costly? Other corners are rattling a bit too but I do live down a pot-hole ridden track with lots of bumpy roads nearby too... 2. Boot rubbers are shot too, where can I purchase these? I asked Toyota months ago and got nothing! 3. Since I had the turbos refurbished the second turbo is now really late. You can hear the first (whistle) turbo drop off (with a bit of power loss) before the kick of the second (head hits headrest!). Is this normal? Can it be improved without replacing air filters/cats/etc? 4. The last thing's the hardest to diagnose. Around 3000rpm in most gears when gently accelerating (up a hill) the car can sometimes "sing" an "oooo" noise from the left of the engine bay. It cuts out above a certain rev range and is hard to reproduce... except when you don't want it (i.e. accelerate away from a traffic lights and the car goes "oooOO" which sounds silly!). Any ideas or pointers on which pipes to check (if it could be a split)? Photos preferred as I'm not au fait with the entire engine layout! Thanks for reading! Replies gratefully received on any area! Ice

There's an article in the Sunday Times Motoring section today saying that BP Ultimate and Optimax aren't much better than normal fuels. They got Superchips to test a gallon of each and found that they only got a 1bhp improvement at high revs in one test. They couldn't confirm whether the fuels were good for engine cleaning due to the short-term nature of the test however. The main reason was that modern engines electronics adjust for the fuel type but don't do much better when better fuel is added. Of course this test doesn't mention Japanese imports that are made for 100+octane fuel... I'm guessing that UK produced cars would be optimised for the 95octane level. Still I always thought that the claims of making a 1.8l feel like a 2.0l engine were a little off! Ice

I get a similar "ooo" it's from the left side of the engine bay and usually when accelerating gently in 2/3 (auto) at around the rev range that turbo 1 engages. Slightly higher and it stops. Had turbos refurbished not long ago and it was doing it both before and after. Ice

Just to add to the above: I got a wobble on early in my Supra's UK life(!) by accelerating gently after travelling over a muddy stretch of road. The Jap-crap tyres that were still fitted didn't help much either - so beware! Also I had a scare when over-braking on an off-camber corner over a blind crest with a lorry coming towards me - the back tried to shake free. How I survived I'm not sure but I'm sure the lorry driver was probably more scared than me (I could just visualise the potential damage in my mind!). So it's not just acceleration to beware of! Decent tyres are the biggest factor here however as with no or little tread left you're asking for trouble. I also tried mine in the snow and ice once. After failing to get anywhere due to wheelspin even at low speeds I gave up! Ice

If anyone here's added side-skirts to their car it's likely that they know something about this... Ice

As the topic says! My Supra is original Jap spec and has black plastic trin underneath the door sills. On the dirver side it's come unclipped at the front (I think by mud build-up, damn the countryside where I live!). It looks like the trim has to be slid in from the back into the clip however... so I undid all the 5 bolts holding the trim on... and was completely unable to remove it! So, anyone got any tips/links to diagrams/etc? It's looking like one of those simple yet PITA things to fix! Ice

My car always pulls to the left a little. I've had it aligned several times. Part of the problem is possibly that Toyota can't reach the ideal +5.0 degrees caster on mkiv.com's Lance alignment settings (they get 3.something). Ice

I'm running stock everything, so whatever that should be! These problems are annoying - I'm looking to sell the car not too far in the future (well it is 11 years old so I'd prefer a newer one!) and all these expensive issues hitting late in the day isn't fun! Ice

Another new development - the derestrictor seems to be active again - I can't top 120mph... Ice

I drove mine home "enthusiastically" last night then noticed one corner of suspension (rear-left I think) is now making a metallic creak/scrape sound occasionally instead of the deep low soft rattle that I usually get (that Toyota say is normal...). I wonder how different the Bilstein hard suspension (that I have) sounds to the stock suspension? I also guess it has something to do with having fatter tyres... Ice

I did a little acceleration in 1st earlier today (auto box remember!) and noticed there is a pull in turbo 1, then a lull (where the pitch of turbo 1 dies away briefly) before another pull which I assume is turbo 2... then I got near the redline and backed off! So it seems turbo 2 is coming in too late?? Still unsure/not happy about the frequent "ooo" sound in the left of the engine bay when accelerating gently in 3rd (D), auto mode as 1st turbo runs... Ice

Thanks for the offer, I'm in the North Devon region, not too far from Barnstaple. Whereabouts are you? Would your car sound different as it has a few more "toys" than mine? Mine's a 1993 so it's the same era as yours. Ice

Whew, finally signed up for this forum... welcome back me! On to my story... A few months ago after doing a 500 mile round trip I noticed the first turbo on my standard auto TT Supra (standard except for alloys/turbo timer/derestriction) was making a sad whining noise instead of a sharp whistle. Shortly after I discovered turbo 2 didn't seem to be doing anything at all. Toyota took a look and confirmed the turbos were broken. This was annoying as the car has only done around 50,000 miles and the air filter is intact, so something must have snuck through to break them from somewhere! After a short delay (due to a front puncture combined with a wheel lock that took replacement 5 wheel lock keys to remove!) I got the car down to Alan Jeffery's (the Turbo Technics dealer in Plymouth - http://www.enginetuner.co.uk). Turbo Technics confirmed both turbos were shot and refurbished them (just over £1400). I picked the car up and tried the results... Turbo 1 is now whistling again (more of a muffled whistle but I assume this is because the new blades probably aren't ceramic like the original ones!). However after that things get confusing. Turbo 1 reaches it's high pitch point (presumably where turbo 2 should engage) and the whistle tone drops briefly then picks up again. Turbo 2 seems to be doing something as the car accelerates more rapidly thereafter (with consistant accelerator pressure) but the old "whoosh" of turbo 2 is still absent (as it was when the turbo was broken). I also still get an occasional "ooo" sound (a bit like the turbo death whine) from the LEFT (i.e. non-turbo side) of the engine when low in turbo 1's range as I accelerate not too hard. Another (new) sound I have noticed is an occasional crackling gravel sound from the top centre of the engine when accelerating hard (which sounds a bit like the noise when you tap the charcoal cannister). I took it back to Alan Jeffery and we stuck it on the rolling road but the results were... inconclusive. Despite 3 guys sitting on the boot lip my massive 265/35 ZR18 Goodyear Eagle F1s kept riding up the rollers trying to escape! So horsepower output could only be rated at 240bhp without the car making a break for freedom! Checking the turbo pressure said the turbos were on 10psi(?) which is standard stock(?) apparently. So given all this, does anyone have any advice/things to check/tests to perform (note I am not an engineer!)? Also, who is now the nearest Supra expert closest to Devon (I asked this 2 years ago but things might have changed since then)? If it would help I could tape a digital dictaphone into the engine bay to record these sounds if it would aid diagnosis... Thanks in advance if anyone can give any advice! Ice

Did the old EFi fuses shuffle and after a 10 mile drive (to prevent it stalling in idle!) the acceleration generally feels smoother. Ice

and for those without a degree in engineering? Ice

I keep testing to try to feel what's going on but can't put my finger on it... In 3rd gear on quite low revs (2000rpm or slightly under) if I apply the accelerator fairly gently there's a slight shuddering sensation. I don't press hard enough to cause the gears to kickdown but it feels like it's having a slightly hard time applying the power for a second. Very hard to describe but it just feels ever so slightly unnerving. Any ideas? I'm going to try pulling the EFi fuses to see if that helps at all. Oh yeah it's a stock Supra Twin Turbo by the way. Ice

Yeah I guess I walked into that one I'm not looking to upgrade the car (yet) so I'm looking for a regular air filter really. I expect if I ask Toyota to buy one/fit it it'll cost a small fortune. So anyone got a helpful weblink? Cheers, Ice

The service seemed okay. £158 for an 'A' service. Oh they said something has been eating my air filter (maybe a mouse?!) - anyone got a good source for buying those? Cheers, Ice

Final question on this: are Toyota on the whole good or bad for servicing? Obviously there are horror stories on here that I have read but has anyone had good experiences from Toyota and hasn't been bothered to post as nothing went wrong? Living in North Devon I am a bit concerned as specialist places are likely to be 50+ miles away and I don't know who to trust. To get my alarm fitted I went to a place that Toyota, my family and a friend all recommended and they did an appalling job - the alarm kept blowing fuses as they connected it badly, the dashboard took some damage behind the faschia and the wire to the boot was so badly laid it could get caught in the jack! I had to tape down and tidy the wire and I'm still not happy where it tucks down the side of the seat rather than anywhere neater (but I can't remove the black panelling with the rear speakers in so I can't tidy it further). So can anyone give me any hope?! The Toyota dealership is new (clean), apparently services a few Supras and managed to do my front brake pads okay... Ice

Heh, I've read some horror stories on this board... however they replaced my front brake pads (after struggling with the Japanese microfiche to work out the parts) charging £113.47. So I'll see how it goes... it's quite a new garage and they do service a few of the local Supras so I'll let everyone know how it goes next week. Ice

Okay got the Supra booked in with Toyota for it's first service since I got it (about 6000 miles). I asked them if they needed any info to service the car but they said it should be similar to the UK spec car... Now I know that technically some things differ (turbo blades, battery terminals, brake disc size...) but from the purposes of a regular "small" service are there any important differences? I might take along the pages from the US service manual to get them to check underbody bolt tightness. Cheers for any advice, Ice

okay the clanking noise is now happening almost all the time and is louder than the stereo (!). It still isn't consistant (so I reckon it might not be suspension related). Anyway I thought I'd take out the rear-left speaker but I've been defeated... I can't figure out how to remove the large plastic panel around the rear speaker - the other panels were easy by comparison but the panel I want to take out seems stuck. I've undone all the screws I can find. Do I have to remove anything else such as ceiling plastic panel or rear-seat? Or is it a case of yanking the plastic panel and hoping it doesn't break? I'm confused and annoyed! Ice