Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Hopefully those gurus at TRD will find something that works, though.
http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyotahighlanderclub/lst
You may have to register first. then click on photo. I have posted several pictures with fender flares.
03bluestone
Yes. Due to the fact these kits still use the OEM light housing and reflector, which are not designed for HID, they do seem to generate more glare to other drivers. It seems the degree of sucess various from vehicle to vehicle, and from installation to installation. I was just wondering if any HL owners have had experience with these kits to share with us. From the reponsse posted here it seems not many have gone this route.
BTW, I have the OEM fog lights on my HL. IMHO, they are rather weak, illuminating maybe 2 feet of distance from my bumper. I may try to change out the factory 35W H3 bulbs and put in 55W ones. I know the increase current will not exceed the rating of the 10A fuse for the fogs. But I am not sure if the extra heat generated will cause any problem to the light housing. Any comments from experienced owners are welcome. Thanks.
Check out http://performance.autotoyotaparts.com/ Wide variety of kits including
Nitrous express kits for the V6 and Edelbrock's kits for the 4 cyl. with adjustable HP levels. Anyone want to risk their warranty and test one? Local speed shop has a 4 wheel dyno that I could document the gains for the K&N filter, TRD sport exhaust and NOS...if only I could get someone to sponsor me, how about TRD? This same dyno was used by my mechanic Jeff Hill, that races a 91' AWD Eclipse to 9.86@ 142MPH in the IDRC street class. He made 28 pulls in one session and got 650Hp to the wheels, ending when he broke the prototype flywheel in half. I would guess it can handle the Highlander. Does anyone think TRD has sold any Sport mufflers for the HL? Just waiting for a brave sole to try one and see if your other half notices the increased noise level. Probably sounds great since the engine sounds so sweet in the upper range under full load. This is the highest output from any 3.0L that Toyota currently makes, even ten more horses than the same engine used in the Avalon. The engine definitely has enough low to mid range torque, only runs out of breath right before redline, and always willing to rev quickly in a VVTi frenzy. Best part about the driving experience.
Any ideas will be much appreciated.
I want to remove that console and put in a 2002 model console...I know that there may be holes in the carpet....
Has anyone done this in Los Angeles?
A local dealership has declined to do it?
I haven't asked my Toyota service department in my area (SF Bay Area) if they are willing to install a 2002-style center console, but I know that the Toyota parts department is willing to sell the parts necessary for doing so. If you do find a service department that is willing to install it I'd be interested to know.
For those interested in installing a 2002 center console in a 2001 Highlander themselves, the overall procedure is:
a. Assemble the plastic parts into a console.
b. Secure three metal mounting brackets to the floor of the vehicle.
c. Attach the assembled console to the mounting brackets.
A detailed description of my experiences follows:
A photocopy from the Toyota parts department of the parts graphic for the center console was handy to determine, among other things, which screws went where.
At least the driver's seat needed to be removed as the panel in the seat housing the cup holders needed to be replaced with one that did have this housing; the protrusion in this panel does not coexist with the center console. Removing both front seats made working in the center console area much easier.
The existing cowling encompassing the gear shift assembly and the gear shift cosmetic panel were removed. The plastic panel adjacent to the gas pedal and the corresponding panel on the passenger side did not need to be replaced as these are the same on the 2002 model.
Assembling the console itself was very intuitive and straight-forward. The cigarette lighter and 12V outlet proved to be a little stubborn to remove to transfer to the new gear shift cosmetic panel, but otherwise there were no hitches. Interestingly, the position of the cigarette lighter and 12V outlet are reversed on the 2002 Highlander. As a result the harness in the gear shift assembly going to the 12V outlet had to be lengthened. A soldering pencil served to splice-in the required lengths of stranded 18-gauge wire to the two-wire harness. Another solution may have been to re-work the notches in the gear shift cosmetic panel so that the lighter and outlet didn't need to be transposed.
Holes were made in the carpet and the padding beneath where the three brackets were to be mounted to the sheet metal floorboard; the brackets were located by temporarily attaching them to the console and setting the console in position; the center bracket aligns with the center of the slightly raised ridges on the underside of the console tray. Oddly enough, mounting holes already existed in my 2001 Highlander for the center and rear brackets, but not for the front bracket. Drilling a couple of undersized holes and then forcing the screws through, effectively self-tapping the holes, resolved this issue. A pair of nylon conduits under the carpet housing cable harnesses that traversed from the gear shift assembly toward the rear of the vehicle had to be trimmed to prevent interference with the center bracket. With all this having been done the three brackets were secured to the sheet metal floorboard.
The final step simply entailed mounting the assembled console to the mounting brackets on the vehicle.
Swapping the panel in the driver's seat housing the cup holders with the 2002 counterpart was a chore. The seats were replaced, and I just sat there admiring that new sleek-looking console!
The installation was a bit more involved than the forgoing implies, but I'd certainly recommend installing it yourself if you're mechanically inclined, you enjoy doing these kinds of things, you are comfortable with a drill and soldering pencil, and feel the cost is worth it. I'm very glad I did it and am happy to report that the finished product is indistinguishable from the center consoles factory-installed in 2002's!
the dealer wants 500.00
I think that is too high
BTW, sorry Steve for recommending the competition but that's the only way I could help out Hugh.
Here is link that might be helpful in your research of tires. I'm sure there are other tire web sites out there, this one just happens to my in my bookmarks.
Hope it helps.
http://www.tirerack.com/index.jsp
Best Regards,
Philip
Any suggestions on what I can do now? Call the dealer?
I am a big surfer/cyclist and need all the interior space to haul my bikes,while my surfboards sit atop the car.Does Toyota have an interior bike attatchment as does the honda Pilot??
Thanks
Has anyone purchased mats from this company? Do they fit good without trimming? Are they worth the premium price?
In my opinion, they should be longer on the front by 4-6 inches. The drivers side comes to the heel of the gas pedal -- not to the top of the pedal. On the passenger side, they also are maybe 4 inches short on the front and do go around - not over the wheel hump on the right side. Likely not a problem for someone 5-8 or under, but someone taller who stretches his feet full forward can mud up the front wall of the area - or if they place their feet on the wall next to the pedals.
The rear cargo mat by Weathertech fits excellent.
Is the unlimited highlander pre wired for the fog / driving light?
If you really want adverse weather "effective" fog lights (ie 55 or 85 watts) you should consider a bull bar to mount them on. I have a pair of chrome ion-crystal PIAA 520's and they were very easy to hook up. I did not think the bumper hole mounting hassle, the tiny candlepower, and the high cost - were worth it.
Does anyone know the specs for the factory JBL speakers in the Highlander (Limited)? What's the max power they'll take, rms? Thinking about upgrading my speakers...deciding on whether to just keep them stock and get an amp for the mids and highs, or to replace them with some Boston Components...thanks.
For what its worth this was my first experience upgrading a car sound system. After listening to the factory system for some time I concluded that the factory speakers were pretty good and the amp was the weak link. This was confirmed after I hauled out my home amplifier and patched it in to substitute for the factory amp. However, after upgrading to the second Alpine model referenced above, although the front speakers sounded great to my ear, when I connected the rear speakers the sound quality became really distorted in the highs. I was initially going to just upgrade the rear speakers but then decided to upgrade the front speakers as well for consistency. I chose JBL GTO605C component speakers for the front and JBL GTO625 coaxial speakers for the rear (not that I was trying to keep the system JBL, it just ended up that those were the speakers that I settled on (okay, I was under a time constraint and a smooth talking 50s-something former hippy sound geek salesman talked me into them...)).
I installed the amp and speakers myself and it was quite an involved project. To gain access to the factory amp which is located under the carpet behind the rear seats I had to disassemble the entire lower half of the rear interior plastic panels and carpeted floorboards going from the rear seats all the way to the rear hatch including the large plastic panels covering the wheel wells. The new amp wouldn't fit in the location of the factory amp and so ended up installing it under the front passenger seat after splicing into the cable harness running along the bottom of the right side of the vehicle (I used the existing 16 awg +12V and ground wires instead of running new 8 awg wires for power that the amp's manual recommended). To make the speakers fit I had to remove part of the mounting ears from the speakers and mill the existing speaker housings. I used a hole saw (by hand) to enlarge the holes for the front door tweeters and glued the tweeters and the crossover to the inside of the plastic door panel.
The front speakers sound great but the rear speakers STILL sound so-so; I'm thinking of upgrading the rear speakers to the same type as the front. Also, although the highs sound great, the speakers have a harsh boomy quality in the low-end, probably since the amplifier is fairly powerful and 6 1-2" speakers aren't typically able to handle power in the low end of the audio spectrum with grace (for an exception to this see post "Aftermarket stereo" dated Aug 14, 2002 in this discussion group). To address this I'm thinking of building a preamp filter to shape the frequency response in the low end to compensate for the boomy resonance and possibly even extend the low-end cutoff frequency. If this doesn't help I may install a subwoofer although I resist this as I like the idea of a sound system being heard and not seen.
The Rockford Fosgate name you mentioned seems to be highly regarded at least at one stereo shop I visited. I'd expect the 500X to deliver very clean highs as the power rating is 65W per channel. Another excellent amp line is the Alpine V12 series (not to be confused with the lower-line Alpine V-Power series). crutchfield.com is an excellent source of information on car audio components.
In general I read you should go by how the speakers sound to you, not by how much they cost. I'd recommend auditioning the Boston Acoustics (since these are the ones you're interested in; sounds like you may have already done so), Infinity, Polk Audio and MB Quartz component systems and pick one of these if they sound great to you, or to try some other brands if not. Bring a CD that you're familiar with that that is representative of the type of music you listen to and that exercises the entire audio spectrum (lows, mids and highs). Play the music at a fairly loud level as you will tend to do this in the car at high speeds due to ambient road noise even though the Highlander is a fairly quiet vehicle. At one place I went to none of the speakers sounded very good to me; their head unit may have been driving the speakers directly instead of going through a separate amp, so you may have to shop around a bit. The ideal thing would be to audition both the speakers and the amp you're considering together). I made the mistake of buying speakers without auditioning them (the shop's patch panel was not working that day and I was under a time constraint). I'd be a little reserved about what stereo shop salespeople say as some have the reputation of pushing whatever they happen to stock.
I chose to keep the factory head unit as my impression is that it is very good in terms of sound quality and because I wanted to keep the dash looking consistent as opposed to buying one of those flashy high-end models that look like they belong in a Las Vegas casino. The stereo shops will typically push hard to persuade you to upgrade your entire system including the head unit, but this isn't necessary as this is based on the generalized assumption that all factory head units in are of poor quality and this doesn't apply to the Limited as its head unit is very good in my opinion, unless if you're spending several thousand to achieve an extremely high level of audio fidelity and have an extremely acute sensitivity to sound quality. Shops may also tell you that its not possible to upgrade the amp without also changing-out the head unit because of the proprietary nature of the connections on the factory head unit, but this is just plain nonsense as I and others have done just that. Typically they don't want to do this because it is a little bit more difficult for them. However, if you LIKE the idea of having a fancy-looking head unit with a lot of cool controls then by all means go for it.
I may end up adding a subwoofer if I can't clean-up the low-end with the contour filter I mentioned in my previous post. One thing I learned is that if you add a fairly powerful amp (say over 40W rms per channel), then to balance-out the sound you almost need a subwoofer as the 6-1/2" door speakers are too small to reproduce the lows at the higher power levels. But simply wait until after you have upgraded your speakers and amp before deciding on whether you need a subwoofer. One enclosed powered subwoofer system that caught my eye is the Kenwood KSC-WA62RC which is one of the smallest subwoofer systems I've seen; another is the Infinity BassLink. But once again I have no experience with subwoofers so anybody who has please chime in. In particular I'm curious as to whether the sound quality of a subwoofer is critical to the sound quality of the entire sound system, or if almost any subwoofer will do.
I'd be interested to know how your sound system turns out...
Thanks for the detailed analysis ! Does the factory amp have line-level inputs or speaker level ?
Thank You
It has line-level inputs.
Drockw
Before removing the door panels affix about 4" of masking tape to both sides of the inside black metal window frame where the frame meets the door panel as it is very easy to scratch this when the door panel is removed and reinstalled.
For the rear door panel in addition to unscrewing the door handle piece, you need to remove the black plastic holder (~1" x 4") in the armrest and remove the screw behind it. Then the panel should unsnap.
(For the front door panel in addition to the above you need to remove the black plastic triangular piece above the door panel adjacent to the mirrors (it just pulls off), and press in on the center of the beige/charcoal button in the door panel a few inches below the aforementioned triangular piece to remove the button.)
Good luck!
Drockw
rlambertinga