|
I've mentioned my cars a few times in various threads and figured that I've done enough to the little shits over the past few years to fill a thread of their own. I've been running a facebook group for a while and have posted every few days (more like once a week if I'm lucky) with various things that I've done to my herd of Soarers over the last few years. Most of it is aimed at Soarer enthusiasts, so rather than copy/paste it in or just link to the group, I'll make a lovely attempt to provide something remotely interesting. Ok, on to the Soarers.... Back in 2006, I was into two kinds of cars - '90s Japanese sports coupes, and American V8 muscle cars. It didn't take long to find out that there was only ever one V8 sports coupe to ever come out of Japan in the 90's: the Toyota Soarer. Originally a competitor for the Nissan Skyline, the third generation model was developed in the late 1980s along with the Celsior to launch Toyota's 'Lexus' brand in the USA. The Lexus SC is the sister car to the Soarer, and shares an almost identical chassis, but the cars themselves are remarkably different in many ways, and as usual with exported designs in the 90's, the Japanese kept all the good bits for themselves. There are 5 Soarer chassis codes, in addition to the SC300 and SC400 (which I won't really mention again, because I know very little about them other than the parts which the share with Soarers). The 'original and best' third gen Soarer was the JZZ30. This came with a 1JZGTE engine mated to a A340E 4-speed automatic. This was the fastest and most desirable Soarer, it had optional TEMS (which provided varied damping force), and was available in 5-speed manual form. It later received a VVTi version of the engine with a single turbo. The manual and single turbo cars are by far the most valuable Soarers. The older automatic cars are worth less than their engines, and are often bought to be broken for parts. The JZZ31 was similar to the SC300, with a 2JZ-GE engine. This is regarded as the 'poverty spec' car, by far the cheapest, but also the lightest and most economical. There were 3 Soarers available with the 'all new' 1UZFE V8 from the LS400. They are mostly similar, with the main difference being the suspension type: The UZZ30 was similar to the SC400. It features coil spring suspension, leather seats were optional, as was the premium entertainment/navigation system which featured the 'Electro Multivision', or EMV, one of the first touch screen based entertainment systems to be found in a road car. The UZZ31 was the most common V8 Soarer, it has air bag suspension and many more things (such as leather seats) as standard. The UZZ32 was flagship model, costing 8 million yen in 1991 (a small fortune). It is the most advanced model which features fully active hydropneumatic suspension and active 4WS. It's one of the most advanced suspension systems ever put into a road car. Only 872 of these cars were produced, the second shorted production run after the 2000GT. It gets almost every 'option' box pre ticked, including some hilarious things such as sonic wing mirrors which physically shake rain water off. I decided that the UZZ32 was the one for me! At this point, I had only just bought my first car, was in university, and had no mechanical ability whatsoever. Fortunately, I had plenty of time to figure it all out - finding a UZZ32 for sale is somewhat challenging... Six years later, a white '32 appeared on eBay. I had just changed jobs, had space, time and money to tackle a project car, and was sick of daily driving a Ford Mondeo. I thought 'gently caress it' and bought it sight unseen from a seller who lived 200 miles from me, but who agreed to deliver it to my door. What better way to learn about cars than on something old, hard to find parts for, and stupidly overcomplicated? The photos below are from the advert, and were all I had to go on along with a good description of the car. Little did I know that 3 years later I'd have a driveway full of rare Japanese coupes, and garage full of poo poo for these cars.     The UZZ32 is now somewhat of a collector's item - with only 872 of them it's easy to track them by chassis code, and there's a group of people who spend way too long trying to track down each one of them. I'll update this thread as often as I can (I work odd but challenging hours at work). I've got two years worth of photos and story to write up, the challenge will be finding stuff that is interesting and relevant outside of the Soarer-nerd circles. For those who are interested in the suspension system on these cars, there's a few good websites dedicated to them. Here's some reading material: Overview of Toyotas design for this system. Goes quite in-depth. Teardown of a hydraulic suspension strut Teardown of a nitrogen accumulator - used instead of a spring. In the mean time, I know there's a few SC's about in AI, so please feel free to share pictures and depressing stories. Holy poo poo this was a long OP.
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2015 23:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 07:27 |
|
|
Didn't you buy a SC300 to strip it down for racing? If so, you picked the perfect car. They are over 500kg lighter than the UZZ32!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2015 23:34
|
|
|
Those door hinges are right up there with the Phaeton trunk hinges in the nonexistent 'top 10 best hinges' award. It's a clever design that moves the door forward and twists it back on itself so you can actually get out of the drat thing in a parking lot. They are under a huge force from the weight of the door, though, and the needle bearings inside them often collapse, which leads to the door dropping slightly and scraping the front fender as it opens  All SC400s are auto, Toyota never sold a UZ series engine with a manual (much to everyone's disgust). The auto box is considered part of the engine - they share the same ECU, etc on almost every car. They do work very well together. It's a good auto box.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2015 23:46
|
|
|
There's about 200 UZZ32's that we know of left in the world. I've got 2 in my driveway, plus a parts car that lives in a junkyard that I can "just take whatever you want whenever and we won't charge you" because I've thrown so much money at them. I've worked on plenty more. I just passed up the chance to buy a third for next to nothing, but it needed work and I couldn't bear to break it for parts. There's about 40 ECMs in the car, 3 miles of wiring is probably quite accurate. This thing has separate modules for things like 'hydraulic engine fan control', 'mirror vibration control' (on top of the normal mirror controller), 'power steering flow solenoid control'. The stereo system is 5 separate modules, not including the touchscreen and its separate computer. ABS, TRC, cruise, all separate modules. Even the gauge cluster performs critical functions (it translates the speed sensor readings). But the TCU is built into the ECU so that's a plus! There is a weird CAN-style network for the entertainment subsystems, but only for their control from the touchscreen - they also have between 30 and 60 wires each for all their inputs and outputs. What's great is that there is no standard colours for 12v or ground wires at any time. And there's always the chance that the guy making your loom ran out of 'red with a black stripe and 2 silver bands', and used some plain green instead. Makes it fun when trying to follow wiring schematics (which are all in Japanese anyway!) If you think that's nuts, wait till we talk hydraulics. The UZZ32 is hydraulic crazy - the only non-hydraulic thing that the engine drives is the alternator and distributors. It has an external hydraulic fan, two power steering pumps, a variable displacement pump for the suspension, hydro boost brakes, and of course a torque converter. There are 5 different hydraulic fluids in use under the hood. The UZZ32 engine has a huge timing plate to hold all this crap, making timing belt changes a nightmare (it's a 2 day job on this car). Edit: My driveway a few months back when the green one arrived: 
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Aug 20, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Aug 20, 2015 01:26
|
|
|
They do suffer from capacitors wearing out, for sure. I must have replaced hundreds of capacitors between my two cars. I know someone who has replaced every capacitor in his UZZ32, around a thousand in total. I get the feeling that the UZZ32 was only produce to show off what they could do, and test whether the things they introduced would work in future vehicles. Some things were a success. My fathers 2012 Avensis has an almost identical 'car info' screen on its touch screen, which I find amusing. The engine still lives on, having evolved into the UR series V8. Some things were kinda seen again. I think a few Toyota SUVs got semi active hydropneumatic suspension, with the Citroen 'ball' style accumulators. A few Lexus cars got electric rear wheel steering - which is a much better idea than the all-hydraulic-but-with-an-electric-motor-and-a-steel-cable-from-the-front-steering-rack-to-both-work-together-to-operate-the-valves system. Some things were quickly forgotten (shakey mirrors, anyone?) The styling generally gets positive reactions - the cars are rare as hell outside of the US and are quite the head-turner. Nobody seems to like the separate high-beams in the front bumper - a solution is to fit HID high/low beam units in place of the standard headlights and fiberglass over the high beam holes.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 20, 2015 10:22
|
|
|
Slow is Fast posted:Are you going to be digging deep into restoring the systems on the car or do they largely work. I started off slow and got steadily deeper into the abyss. Right now I'm covered in suspension fluid, as is my driveway and garage floor. This seems to happen once or twice a month, with various fluids. One of them mostly works, the other is turning into a giant hole which I am just pouring money and hydraulic oil into. I'll write some updates (backdates?) later tonight if I get a chance. I originally wrote loads of updates for my facebook group, but will combine a load of them and gloss over the nerdy poo poo to get you guys up to speed. Edit: missed this Slow is Fast posted:I know the 3000GT had active suspension and active aero and 4 wheel steer and all this other crazy poo poo and a a result, it was one of the few cars to have LESS features every year as a result. Did these fancy tech barges hold up better? The 3000GT/GTO is on my wishlist, I will own one of them someday! And yes, it will be a VR4 with all the good poo poo (earliest facelift was in 1994/5, those were the last ones before things got cut). I used to own a Legnum VR4 which has a similar drivetrain, that thing was brutal. The UZZ32 gained a few features - about 80% of them were made in 1991, but 1992 onwards cars got heated seats and an outside temperature sensor. 1994+ cars got R134a gas in the AC system and benefited from the general Soarer 1994 facelift. But there's only about 60 of those. They stopped making the car in 1994 and the last one was sold in 1996. It was most likely a financial disaster for the company considering the amount of R&D that went into them and the low sales. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Aug 20, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Aug 20, 2015 18:34
|
|
|
For now I would clean the foam out with warm soapy water, then use bicarbonate of soda (baking) to kill off what is left. I would dry them out inside (garage or greenhouse is preferable) once I was sure that the mould had been scrubbed as much as possible.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2015 00:32
|
|
|
Don't sell it! In fact, buy more! I know of a guy in Australia who has 6 UZZ32's and many more Soarers as well. The road outside his house permanently looks like there's a club meeting going on. I'm not sure why anyone needs that many of the same freaking car, but since I'm part way there myself, I'm not in a position to comment.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2015 19:15
|
|
|
OK, update time. Let's get you up to speed on what I did to this loving car in the first year of owning it. This post is not really in chronological order, it's in 'this is the order that Imgur uploaded the photos' order. I've glossed over parts because I don't want to spend a month posting about loads of things that I did last year. I also did a load of other things that I don't have pictures for, such as rebuilding the brake calipers, removing and painting a million tiny hose brackets, flushing the transmission fluid and coolant (not together). Found a gently caress load of PO fuckery-ied wiring. Ripped all that poo poo out and started fresh. The original stereo setup includes the EMV unit, EMV computer, tape player, CD stacker, amplifier, subwoofer amplifier, and radio tuner. The tape player and CD stacker were missing. I pulled the tuner and extended the antenna wires to the tape player location, where I installed a shallow stereo unit (standard sized ones don't fit neatly - they bump the airbag computer). The amplifier is in the trunk, as is the connections to all the speakers. I ran a set of wires from the stereo to the trunk, and used AW11 MR2 stereo adapters to connect to the speakers. I used these adapters again to power my stereo (the adapters themselves are useless as it's a totally different car, but the plugs fit perfectly, as far as I know, these adapters are the only source of Soarer male stereo wiring harness connectors)     Figured out how to wire the aux out from my stereo into the stock subwoofer amplifier, and trick the acr into turning the subwoofer amplifier and antenna amplifier on with the radio. Pulled the interior apart to run those wires neatly alongside the stock wires.  Repaired my broken EMV. Bought another EMV and repaired that as well. At this point I had 2 working EMVs (I now have 6, and run a side business in repairing them). You just gotta be able to solder capacitors.       Got upset at my cracked door cars. All Soarers have them. Got me some uncracked ones and fiberglassed the poo poo out of them to hold them together. They ain't ever cracking now. Threw my cracked ones in the garbage.       Also did this little dash piece, which seems to snap easily.  Melted my broken window regulator tab right back on that fucker. Those things are expensive to replace as a unit.  Got some sweet BBS wheels from a Nissan Z32 non-turbo. Same fitment as a Soarer with some spigot rings. Cleaned those bitches up and threw some Hankooks on 'em. Love the wheels, love the tyres.     Mounted the LED for my aftermarket alarm to make it look stock. Found the only set of non-cracked Soarer centre vents in the history of the world not really, those things are pretty loving hard ot find though, and fiberglassed the poo poo out of them.   Broke a wheel stuf. Went crying to AI about what to do about the rest of my studs. Got told to change all my studs. Changed all my studs.  Stripped and painted my janky-rear end wiper arms.  Stripped and painted my janky-rear end hood struts.  Wiped some snow from the front fender.   Found out why the aftermarket reversing camera wasn't working. Pushing wires into the connectors is rarely the answer... AW11 MR2 stereo harness adapters is definitely the answer though!  Fiberglassed a broken spoiler mount that was making the spoiler go bwumpbwumpbwumpbwumpbwumpbwump on the highway and slowly destroying my paintwork.  Changed the parking brake shoes as the parking break didn't seem to work no matter what. It still barely holds the car in P/D when pulled as hard as I can, but now I know the shoes are good!  Cleaned the crap out of the windscreen cowl, cleaned up the disgusting wiper mechanism   Found some wood trim for the EMV, ashtray and shifter surround. This stuff is rare as hell!  Took apart my cruise control actuator to try and stop it jerking. It moves between 1 and 4 mph per click on the stalk. Turns out it's the mph converter loving with the car - the cruise control takes readings from the dash and the ECU to determine speed, and since these are different by 1.6x, it gets confused as gently caress.  Found a UZZ32 in a junk yard. Drove 3 hours and ripped all the UZZ32-related bits from it, Including all the suspension bits, both steering racks, gauge cluster, loads of ECUs, all 4 accelerometers, yaw sensor, height control sensors, and loads of general bits.        Fiberglassed and re-chrome-painted my side repeaters. I have clear repeaters on this car, these are apparently rare/hard-to-find/expensive, so I fixed mine up rather than look for new ones. Stock ones are orange, which look fine, but not so nice on a white car.   Had a hydraulic shop modify a banjo bolt to take a pressure gauge which they also built up for me. Soarer suspension pumps should produce a constant 1720psi, a ~50psi deviation either way will cause the system to malfunction. The pressure can be adjusted via a set screw on the pump that is a huge pain in the rear end to reach. Tiny adjustments will have drastic changes in ride comfort/firmness. The 'can' pictured here is an accumulator, fluid enters and exits through the bottom, the top is filled with pressurised nitrogen gas, and a set of copper bellows sit between these two to dampen pulsations from the pump. There are 8 accumulators total in this system, this is just one of them. It's also a really convenient place to measure pump pressure, and since you've taken the plastic arch liner off, you are right there to clean the suspension fluid tank filters and magnets.   Polished my headlights with Plast-X. These things normally go cloudy after about 6 months so I put some  headlight tint on to protect them. You can get that poo poo in clear so it's perfect for protecting your plastic lights.  Windscreen got cracked 'cause the seal failed and rust built up underneath it. Cut that loser out, ground back the rust, painted it, had some guys fit a junkyard windscreen. Went for a bronze tinted screen from a poverty-spec Soarer (Soarer 'class' can be determined by windscreen tint colour, but only the biggest Soarer losers on the planet know this). The bronze fits my tan interior better than the classy green tinted screens. My UZZ32 is now a sleeper among stock-looking Soarers.      Admired it in a parking lot  Held my passenger side mirror on with tape for a while after the clips broke. Used some of that 'gently caress you nails, its all about gluing your house together now' stuff to reattach the glass. Still good 2 years later.  Stripped my spare suspension struts and put them into storage just in case I need bits I needed bits    Crashed it, hosed the front bumper. Cable-tied that thing together (using white cable ties for a professional 'JDM drift stitch' look). Also cracked the suspension radiator. Drove 200 miles home with no power steering or active suspension, having cut the serpentine belt for the suspension and power steering pumps (had no tools to release the tensioner). Changed the suspension radiator. Got covered in hydraulic fluid (this happens quite regularly). Used most of a roll of shop towels (this also happens quite regularly).   Changed the oil like 10-15 times as I do 30,000-50,000 miles per year and the engine calls for a 3000 mile interval. Official Toyota oil is the cheapest 10W-40 I can find at £13 for 5 litres. Official Toyota suspension fluid, on the other hand, is the most expensive poo poo, at £60 for 5 litres.  Took some pictures of it looking pretty!    So, yeah. That's that car. Coming next: I buy another UZZ32 and we do it all again.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2015 19:54
|
|
|
I drove the white car for a few years until I got offered a job in the Caribbean for 6 months (which was pretty sweet). The week before I returned, I got drunk and browsed eBay. There was a 'toyota soarer v8' on there with minimal description - just a list of faults. Fortunately, even from the lovely cell phone pictures I recognised the UZZ32 engine bay. I slapped a drunk £1000 bid on it and flew my rear end home a few days later. Turns out, the lovely eBay ad worked in my favour, and for a moderate three-figure sum, I won another loving UZZ32. I took a train up to Leeds and proceeded to drive home on the jankiest tyres known to man,on a car with inactive hydraulic suspension and very questionable steering, with no 4th gear and a wing mirror held on with parcel tape. Oh, and the battery is named Jack, apparently. Here's some photos from the ad. At the time I didn't even notice it had some '90s Rays wheels on it  This thing was a mess, and had it not been a UZZ32, I'd have parted it out right away. I didn't have the heart to break a '32, so I spent the next 3 months (and more, its still unfinished) making this pig my daily driver.            
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2015 23:08
|
|
|
Yeah, there are adapters for those systems, the EMV-equipped cars have the audio components spread out all over the place, and I've yet to hear of a stock, complete harness for those.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2015 08:40
|
|
|
OK, so I get this thing home around the end of May and spent an hour or so looking over it.  Headlight full of condensation. This happens all the loving time and nobody ever has a good solution to fix it other than 'check they are full sealed, check the vents arent blocked, and make sure your undertrays are fitted'.  Some damage to the clearcoat  Driving 100 miles home with a parcel-taped wing mirror was really something awful. The noise of the tape flapping around was unbearable.  These tyres are apparently legal, having passed inspection recently.  Some random aftermarket single-point parking sensor. Of course it doesn't work, and is now just a big fuckign hole in my bumper.  This cheap lovely 'L' badge swings hilariously as I drive along, scratching the paintwork.  'Engine electrical' fault on the barely working combination meter. Speedo reads 0 when travelling above 40kph. Lol  Structural tape to hold the overdrive button down, allowing me to use 4th gear on the highway.  Jack the battery. The brown tape came into play after I stopped for fuel and couldn't start the car. The terminals were bent out of shape and wouldn't fully tighten.  An old, crusty engine bay.  Dry-rotted and cracked boots on most parts. Old, brittle hoses everywhere, a broken oil cap (who does this?) and a rusty brown serpentine belt.     Rotten carpet on the bottom of the door card. This door card is split, as usual on these cars.  Pulling the interior revealed a poorly installed drivers door lock, with maskign tape holding the connectors to the door shell (right next to the holes that they clip into), and no weather shield.   And after removing trim below the steering wheel, I was greated with one of the shittiest alarm installs I've ever seen.     So far, the list of issues: Brake fluid leak Broken wing mirror lovely alarm wiring Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph 'Engine electrical' fault Broken drivers wing mirror Rear badges all lovely, hole in rear bumper Tyres are hosed lovely alarm install EMV screen does not work (naturally) CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Interior is filthy, some parts are cracked. Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels rock hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2015 17:50
|
|
|
track day bro! posted:You dont do repairs on other toyota ecu's do you? I'm too lazy and cackhanded to solder new caps on mine when they go. Can do, it's the same procedure for most ECUs. Send me a PM, I'm away until the 26th with limited internet so might not reply right away
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2015 12:50
|
|
|
Nocheez posted:Except that green POS. You should have put that pig out to pasture! I'm too far down the well to be saved! All I can do now is throw more money into this piece of poo poo. Ok, so, here's some things I did to fix up this car. I'm going to try and post a load at once over the next few days to get up to current events. Swapped the broken mirror mount with one from a spare mirror which I bought because I needed the vibrate/heater parts. This required re-pinning the connectors which was somewhat tedious.  Mirror = fixed! Stripped down the broken EMV. Found the backlight tube to have a broken wire. Not sure what the function of the wire is, maybe a trigger wire for the tube. I can't repair this, so I pulled another EMV unit out of my pile of fixed EMVs.    All good.  Removed the window tint. The rear glass left behind a shitload of gunk which took several hours across a few days to remove. Pro tip: oven cleaner dissolves the glue better than IPA, mineral spirits and acetone, smells better than gasoline, and doesn't harm the heater/antenna wires.   Stripped the interior. Jet washed the carpet, mats and headliner. Cleaned all the leather and vinyl parts. Treated the seats with some leather restorer.     Found a hilarious soldered-over fuse. These are normally expensive but fortunately I have a complete fuse box from the junkyard to pull from.  Pulled the ECU, replaced the capacitors to try and fix any phantom 'engine electrical' issues. This didn't fix the issue but some capacitors were leaking so it was worth doing before they caused more problems.   The engine electrical issues were to do with the TPS and the right-side cam position sensor. The TPS tested fine, and just needed some adjustment to line up the internal idle switch.   Removed that lovely Lexus badge. gently caress you, PO.  Also ripped out all aftermarket wiring, putting the car back to stock. Then re-wired the rear foglight to one reversing light (I prefer it to the dumb add-on lights that everyone seems to put on imports) and fitted a red lamp (this is road legal). Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph 'Engine electrical' fault for the cam sensor Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper Tyres are hosed CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels rock hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Sep 28, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2015 20:57
|
|
|
Next up was the other 'engine electrical' fault. This was error code EFI 13, for the right hand cam position sensor. I spent a long time trying to track down the source of this error. It can be caused by: Faulty sensor Faulty ECU Faulty wiring Misaligned sprockets (the engine will run pretty well if one cam is off by one tooth, and the 1UZ is known for jumping teeth during hard use). While pulling the engine covers off, I found a hilarious aftermarket spark plug wire - this was not even terminated at the distributor end, and was just shoved into the rotor cap.  (also note the large chopstick being used to confirm #1 TDC) Here it is next to an OEM wire.  No idea how to read plugs for age, especially these Iridiums, but there was oil making its way up the ceramic and these things are meant to be changed every 100,000km. This car was at 101,000km and I had a set on my shelf so I changed them anyway.  I spent the next few hours swapping out the ECU, swapping out the sensor, metering the sensor, checking all wiring, checking timing again and again and doing everything obvious. After much searching, I found the cause of the issue - the reluctor ring on the left hand cam sprocket was missing entirely. This ring contains a single tooth which triggers the sensor on every revolution of the camshaft. The ring is on the rear of the sprocket and cannot simply 'fall off' - this ring was purposefully removed and discarded! Left:  Right:  You can see a 'good' sprocket on the left, and my sprocket on the right.  I ordered a replacement sprocket (along with many other parts), and mentally prepared myself for the 2-day timing belt replacement that lay ahead of me. Parts haul!!  Parts included: Replacement door card (as I mentioned previously, these often crack. Uncracked ones are expensive, and I use fiberglass to reinforce them to keep them uncracked! Cam sprocket and OEM plug wire Some new drivers door seals as water was getting in - turns out these weren't needed as mentioned below) Some trim bits to replace cracked interior trim Replacement window switch (the one in the car only goes down....I learnt this the hard way at 70mph, 40 miles from home). The ever desirable flip-down cup holder (this thing is useless for any 'modern' sized cups, but it looks cool). Badges!! Set of 16" BBS wheels with not-poo poo tyres to replace the Rays wheels with ever-so-poo poo tyres. I found the source of the drivers door leak - no weather seal at all! A piece of thick polyethylene bag and some butyl tape solved the problem!  (I also tidied up the wiring that was previously held on with masking tape) Fun fact, I am the owner of the last ever weather seal for a Soarer or SC in the world. I attempted to order a pair from Toyota and was given only one - there are apparently no records of any more in stock and they are no longer being produced. My one came from the US. I keep it to use as a template. The de-gunking of the rear window continues - this was a very uncomfortable job!  Finally managed to remove the centre security caps from the wheels to try to track down the suspension fluid leak  Found a split boot on the front left strut - not an immediate concern but this will let in dirt that will break down the external hydraulic shaft seals. More concerning is the oil patch on the front splash tray - the main suspension valve body is mounted behind the plastic vents, and is generally a pain to repair.  Also the brake caliper is partly stuck on. Cool I'm away from home for the next 2 weeks. Up next, I change a cam sprocket! Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph 'Engine electrical' fault for the cam sensor Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels rock hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. One torn suspension boot Front left brake caliper is sticking Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Oct 15, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2015 01:00
|
|
|
Haha, sounds like any other TT Soarer that's been passed from lovely PO to lovely PO. It's amazing how much you can fix on these cars simply by cutting out all the aftermarket poo poo that people stick on them and then repairing the stock wiring!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2015 21:18
|
|
|
Time to change that cam sprocket. The front of the 1UZ engine on the UZZ32 is unique. It has a large aluminium front cover which covers the timing belt and is used to mount the suspension pump, alternator and AC compressor. It sits on long studs which forces you to slide it forwards about 6 inches before removal. This requires the radiator to come out. The radiator fan is it's own small hydraulic system, with tank, pump, motor, and hilariously its own radiator (this is a car where the radiator cooling fan needs its own radiator). This requires removing the tank, hoses and high pressure line, none of which is accessible becasue gently caress you Toyota. After that it's the standard affair of removing the trans cooler lines and radiator hoses and then half an hour of cursing everything else in the front of the car for stopping the radiator from coming out. Finally:   Pro tip: felt pens make the perfect tool to block the transmission cooler lines.  After that, it's a fairly simple process of removing bolts to gain access to the cover plate. The crank pulley bolt was removed using the 'long breaker bar under the chassis rail then bump the starter' technique, rather than the 'stuff a length of rope into a cylinder' technique which many 1UZ owners use. You can see how much of a pain in the rear end this is - the piles of hydraulic hoses in this picture are all in the way of the cover plate and need to be dropped down by a few inches to allow it to clear. The PS hoses, PS flow divider (splits the high pressure fluid between the two racks), and pulsation dampener all also need to be relocated downwards to allow this plate to be removed.  Remarkably, I only managed to strip one bolt in the whole processes. Unfortunately it's also the only left-hand threaded bolt which needed to be removed. I knew it was a LH thread but it bound up partway out, and would no longer move in either direction. It finally came out, taking around 4mm of threads with it. 30 minutes of blow torching and wire wheeling later, and this bitch is clean, and there's still plenty of threads left for it to bite onto.   With the cover plate off, its's a 5 minute job to replace the sprocket, followed by an hour or so to time this piece of poo poo. It usually takes me 2 or 3 tries to get the timing to line up after releasing the hydraulic tensioner - it's common for the timing to look fine, but for it to actually be off by one tooth, which isn't always apparent until you apply tension.  You can see the cover plate here during reassembly. You can also see the hilariously unnecessary power steering hose which travels across the engine bay twice for no apparent reason - the two ends of this hose are mounted right next to each other. My guess is that it exists for ease of construction and installation.  The radiator was original, and V8 Soarers are known for blowing radiator top tanks at around this age, so I bought a new rad and stuck the old one on eBay (as it's still fully working). My other '32 has had the same model of aftermarket radiator for 7 years, and it' s still going strong,.   After 3 days of work (working from around midday until 6pm), the car is back together and running with no errors! Excellent Next up, a bit of work on the interior, and dealing with the gauge cluster and speed sensor. Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels very hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. One torn suspension boot Front left brake caliper is sticking
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2015 21:43
|
|
|
One item on my list that was somewhat of a priority was the torn suspension boot. These rubber bellows prevent dust and dirt from contacting the chrome shaft and oil seals which form the hydraulic portion of the hydropneumatic suspension. When dirt gets in, it is ground between the chrome shaft and the oil seals, scoring the shaft and tearing the rubber seals. Once the seals are damaged, suspension fluid can leak out, ironically this fluid eats away at the material the dust boots are made from. The new dust boot degrades rapidly and the cycle continues. Once the shaft is scored, it requires regrinding and hard chroming back to spec. Getting these boots changed as soon as they show signs of failure is important! Here's how one changes a dust boot. The process takes about an hour, and can lead to significant amounts of mess and lost fluid if not done correctly. First, we jack up the car, taking the weight off the strut in question. The strut is bled of residual pressure (held by the nitrogen accumulator which forms the lower part of the strut - this acts in place of the spring on conventional suspension).  This fluid is green - stock fluid is light red/pink, and goes green over time as it ages (presumable form oxidation). Once it reaches this dark green colour, it is generally time to replace the fluid. I will be doing this later once the other suspension problems are fixed)  The lower portion of the strut unbolted from the lower control arm and lifted by hand to push any remaining fluid out. The allen bolt on top is then used to seal the strut off from the rest of the system - this bolt is also used during servicing, if it is not desirable to bleed the fluid out.  The lower hose clamp on the dust boot is loosened, the boot is pushed up out of the way, exposing this steel ring. The ring holds the bump stop, the drain holes are there to drain any liquids (not that there should ever be any in there)   A 36mm Land Rover fan clutch wrench is thin enough to loosen the chrome shaft from the accumulator body (lower, larger black item in this picture)  The accumulator is removed, along with the steel ring, bump stop, and whatever is left of the dust boot.   The chrome shaft can be inspected for wear. The large bronze coloured nut can be removed if necessary to service the seals and other internal parts of the strut.  A new dust boot is overnighted from Japan, fitted with the original top hat (used to prevent dirt from entering the breather holes), and fitted to the strut.    The accumulator is replaced.  The steel ring is replaced, the dust boot is reattached, and the job is just about done!  The car can then be lowered to the ground, and the strut can be refilled and bleed with the engine running and the suspension in diagnostic mode. This strut will collapse as it has no fluid, usually pinning your jack in place. The allen bolt is unscrewed, allowing fluid to enter, and the bleed nipple is loosened to allow air to escape. The bled-out fluid can be recycled. A short drive (to allow the car to recalibrate the height of that shock) followed by a quick re-bleed with the car idling is all that's left! Much easier than changing a loving cam sprocket. Fortunately, this job cost me a total of £0, as I was given a few spare dust boots a few years back, and I replaced any lost fluid with old, used fluid in preparation for a full flush. Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels very hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. Front left brake caliper is sticking
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2015 20:45
|
|
|
The Soarer is mostly identical to the SC300/400 One of the ways in which it differs is that all Soarers have an awesome digital dash which looks sexy as gently caress when it's all working. However, a common problem on these cars is a failure of a few capacitors. There are two failures: either the ones which power the vacuum-fluorescent display for the upper/main section (containing the tach, speedometer, fuel, temp, etc gauges), or the ones which power the inverter for the fluorescent lamp which acts as a backlight for the shift position indicator, odometer, and natural display. The problem usually occurs when the car is cold - the dependance on temperature plus the known lifespan of early '90s electrolytic capacitors makes the diagnostic process that much easier. That, and many people have already documented the repair!  Here's a crappy picture of the gauge cluster from my other car, which is fully working and looks great!  This is the amount of crap which is in the way of removing the gauge cluster. The VFD is mounted horizontally in the top of the unit, and projects downwards onto a mirror, which reflects the image towards the driver. There are non-silvered areas of this mirror, which allow the turn signal and other warning lights to shine through. These lamps, and the LCD displays along the bottom, are located on the back wall of the unit, in the same place as every other car. This arrangement results in a very deep cluster, and the removal process requires removing the steering wheel and dropping the steering column by a few centimeters to prevent the sharp metalwork of the column from scratching the tinted plastic face of the cluster. Note that the centre console has to be disconnected and moved rearwards by a few inches to gain clearance to remove the trim around the steering wheel. This in turn requires removal of the glove box and trim on the passenger side. I can now get a gauge cluster out in around 15-20 minutes from a complete car - the first time I tried, it was almost 2 hours!  A shot of the rear of the cluster. This thing is a large triangle shaped object which is awkwardly weighted and is just begging to roll off the workbench at every conceivable opportunity. The LCD panels inside are very fragile, rough handling can often result in failures of the LCD units.  I don't have a picture of the mirror (it is rather impressive), but here's an inside shot looking into the top of the display. The VFD units hide behind tinted plastic.  Here is the same PCB as removed from the cluster. There is nothing wrong with this board, it just looks cool and I wanted to share it. The problem capacitors were located and removed. There are around 50 electrolytic capacitors in this unit, many of them are surface mount.  This capacitor has leaked, and damaged a nearby PCB trace. This is common on early 90's Japanese cars. Old Toyota ECUs are especially vulnerable - ECUs with failing capacitors generally don't show any symptoms until the electrolyte eats away at nearby traces, by which point the damage is much more severe. If you look to the top left of the C216 square you will see some bare copper with a black gap in the centre, where the copper has been eaten away.  The trace could be repaired, but due to the small scale, a more robust solution may be to run a wire in place of the trace. The trace in question connects the AIR BAG lamp to one pin of the interconnecting ribbon cable inside the unit. This is easily bypassed with a thin wire, which can then be stuck to the PCB. A working AIR BAG lamp is a requirement to pass the annual safety inspection in the UK.  There is also one common transistor failure. I'm not sure how or why this fails, or if mine is bad, but for a few pence it is worth changing while I'm this far into the cluster. After replacing the failed components, the cluster live again! So many problems on these cars are caused by aged capacitors - there are over 1000 of them in total inside this car (someone has done the hard work of listing them all, broken down by PCB, which is very handy!) Unfortunately, this did not fix the erratic speedometer reading, which stops working above 40kph. A new sensor fixed this issue! The sensors aren't cheap, even Chinese ones, but aren't too difficult to change - they are in the standard location near the rear of the transmission. The Soarer has two speed sensors for road speed, one for the ECU and one for the dash - in the event of the ECUs sensor failing, it will use the dashboard sensor instead. Clever girl. Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels very hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. Front left brake caliper is sticking
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2015 00:08
|
|
|
If you're handy with electronics (basically just replacing capacitors) and you remove all the PO fuckery, then 99% of the electrical issues can be repaired for very little time or money. These older Lexus cars were so well built, with such reliable mechanicals but with so much electronic poo poo, that the cars have managed to outlive their own electronics. Which is great for me, as I can pick up cars with hosed dashboards, TVs, ECUs, etc for very little, and repair them in a few days. I'm currently scouting for a top spec GS450h, these seem to go for between £5k and £10k for the 2006-2009 models, but are starting to suffer from failed/burnt out battery packs, which is a £4k repair. I'll snap up the first sub-3k hosed car I can, and will repair the battery pack (normally just individual blown cells, plus significant corrosion on the internal bus bars). As for how these cars drive, great question. The answer is 'not like anything you've ever driven before'. The hydropneumatic suspension is very soft, the car feels floaty to drive, with very little feedback from the road. The steering is extremely light, especially at low speeds, due to the dual PS pumps and a speed-sensitive pressure valve on the rack. They are somewhat unnerving to drive at first, I didn't feel comfortable having so little feedback from the road until I was used to how the car handled. Once you get used to it, you realise that your inputs are mere suggestions and that car is rpetty muhc driving itself. The rear steering joins in the party whenever it feels like it. Using a yaw rate sensor and various G sensors dotted around the car, it will work automatically at high speeds to counter cross-winds, it will allow the car to 'crab' sideways for high speed lane changes, and will work with the traction control system to prevent (minimise) any sliding in the rear end. These cars are pretty undriftable, once the car senses a loss of traction in the rear and the rear end sliding out, the rear steering rack will attempt to straighten the car. Depending on your speed at the time, this may work out fine, or may just leave you with an oversteer which is difficult to handle. The car corners like a dream. There is zero body roll whatsoever, the car has a G sensor and a physical height sensor (attached to the lower control arm) in each corner. The cornering ability of this car is much higher than the other Soarers, despite its weight, the system works well to apply maximum force onto each tyre. The suspension pump uses a lot of power, figures of up to 40hp have been quoted. There are high pressure accumulators in the system to meet sudden demand. The pump is automatically regulated at 1720psi and works to keep these accumulators ready for action, as well as provide additional fluid when needed. The car struggles over bumps in the road, attempting to level the car as each axle drives over the bump. Humpback bridges are a special challenge. Taking any kind of bump at speed will normally cause the system to think 'what the gently caress', and struts will end up at their upper or lower limits of travel quite rapidly. These cars are cruisers and are not meant for harsh or reckless driving. The worst side effect is felt when pulling away. If you want to move off quickly, you generally apply power, and the car squats at the rear, giving extra traction to the rear wheels. The UZZ32 will fight that squat, reducing traction and robbing engine power to do so. These cars accelerate well from 10-140mph, with a top speed of around 160 but in the past I've been beaten off the line by a non-ST Fiesta! As the height is adjusted by the computer, the ride height can be changed by changing the length of a threaded rod (turnbuckle) which joins the LCA to the height sensor on each corner. The adjustment needs to be identical on each corner, or your car will not ride flat. Still, this is easier and cheaper than changing out springs! The car has a NORMAL/HIGH switch - I have lowered my car by a few cm, the HIGH setting takes it back to slightly higher than the stock NORMAL position. I have not scraped the bottom yet! The ECT (transmission) NORMAL/POWER switch changes the shift points, makes the kickdown activate a lot earlier (pretty muhc as soon as you press on the gas pedal) and holds gears until redline when accelerating. On the UZZ32 it also firms up the suspension. The hydraulic valves for each corner are standard spool/shuttle valves. These need to be kept in constant motion when the system is operational to prevent static friction from holding them in place when subtle changes are required. This results in a requirement for a very slight motion from the suspension at all times, which is only noticeable when the car is stationary (as the valves are in constant use anyway when the car is being driven). Due to this, all UZZ32s 'breathe' when stopped at traffic lights, with the car slowly bobbing up and down. It's quite adorable. These cars are very 'throwable'. Once you get used to how they drive, you can just turn the steering wheel where you want to go, hammer the throttle and trust the car to sort itself out. On country roads in the UK, this car is an absolute menace. Here's some media from the internet on the handling/cornering ability of these cars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS-ysvO2hMc Jeremy gives it a positive review despite not knowing the make and model of the car. He attempts a high speed corner at around 55 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnDs6Fjz_7Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2QV_PaUWhs Just for fun, here's the suspension test sequence.   Edit: A SC400 owner drives a UZZ32: http://planetsoarer.com/UZZ30/UZZ30.htm This magazine article sums the car up pretty well: http://planetsoarer.com/HPIUZZ32/hpiuzz32.htm quote:Turn in to the first right hander and it sits flat goes around; nothing to it though at 30km/h. Peter urges more throttle. This time I add 20km/h to the signposted entry of the left/right flip flop and am mildly surprised when the tight controlled nature of the chassis has no problem with recovery and changing direction. Hmmm. Hope that's helpful? Feel free to ask any specific questions about whatever. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Dec 24, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
I hope so. I'm using all Panasonic capacitors (it was that or unbranded/generic), and have bought the not-cheapest units, which claim a 3000 hour lifetime. At an average driving speed of 40mph (I generally only do highway miles, it's rare for me to drive into a city at all), I guess that's 120,000 miles. The original capacitors were all Nichicon, which are also highly regarded, and have lasted over 20 years. I would not be surprised if I got the same performance out of these newer ones. I'm not sure how much electrolytic capacitor technology has changed in the last 20 years!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2015 11:34
|
|
|
Ferremit posted:I think its less the technology has changed, and more that most of the manufacturers aren't using a stolen lovely half finished completely useless recipe for their caps. This occurred later - from 1997 onward. With most capacitors in these cars lasting 20+ years, it's safe to assume that the failures are due to the capacitors reaching their expected end-of-life, and not due to any defective capacitors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2015 14:16
|
|
|
Most likely a combination price, complexity, higher maintenance and service costs. It has reappeared in other cars now and then, it's currently available in a few Mercedes models. Citroen has been using hydropneumatic suspension for years, and they still do, but this is not truly active - it is just variable dampening of hydropneumatic shocks with the cute balls on top. The Soarer was unique in that it also merged active 4WS into the same system, allowing the car to do pretty much whatever the gently caress it wanted. This was Toyota's halo car, it cost around $100k in 1991 money, and subsequently, only 872 were ever sold. Mercedes markets their similar product as 'Magic Body Control'. This is a fully active hydraulic system, very similar to that found in the UZZ32. No 4WS intervention, but it does use cameras to detect road surface changes, and pre-emptively adjusts the shocks to meet bumps at the correct time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Body_Control#Magic_Body_Control Many other manufacturers are using 'magnetic ride' type "active" suspension (really just adjustable damping rates for regular coil spring suspension. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagneRide
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2015 21:22
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:conventional suspension has finally achieved the same comfort level at a much lower price and with lesser maintenance costs, thanks to progressive spring rates (one of the big advantages of air suspension) and magnetic ferrofluid dampers. Thanks for the excellent reply! This quote pretty much sums it up.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2015 21:24
|
|
|
They hit 25 years old next year, so you can bring one in for cheap (seriously, they sell for less than $1000 in Japan), and it will be mostly ignored due to all the mad tyte RHD JDM skylines and 10-second Supras which will be appearing at the same time. It is a truly great car. Anyone in the US who has driven the SC300/400 can testify to the build quality and overall performance, the UZZ32 just takes it a few (hundred) steps further. The touchscreen is awesome, unfortunately the radio only tunes to Japanese frequencies (79-90MHz), the TV is analogue only (no longer used in the UK) and again, Japanese. The GPS is Japan-only and navigation CDs (the car has two, each with its own industrial CD player!) were only available for Japan. Basically this thing is a very fancy AC controller and trip computer. I still love it though, it's the centrepiece to the interior and makes an adorable beep. The touchscreen is not a true touchscreen - I guess the technology didn't exist in the late 80's. It's an array of infra-red LEDs and opposing photodiodes positioned just in front of the polarised plastic which forms the face of the unit, and through some software trickery, it can use the combination of broken light paths to place your finger on a 11x9 matrix. Can't be beat for reliability, though!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2015 22:49
|
|
|
If you're in the UK, they are very cheap. Unless you want a UZZ32 for *reasons*, I'd recommend a more "normal" Soarer instead. The 2.5 turbo (JZZ30) Soarers are the most popular, and have a 1JZ motor (inline 6 which should apparently make a comeback).
|
|
#
¿
Dec 29, 2015 01:14
|
|
|
They pop up on eBay from time to time. I wouldn't really recommend any of the UK Soarer clubs for anything. Feel free to send me PM with any cars you may be interested in - I know all the Soarer models quite well and know all their common faults/check points. They really are a great value car. Very well made, as good as they look. Downside is the weight (between 1350kg for the base model 3.0 and 1750kg for a UZZ32), fuel economy (30ish mpg for most models, 25-27 for the V8s, 20 for the UZZ32), and insurance (highest group, plus it's an import. I pay £400 per car per year). Servicing is cheap and parts are plentiful if you know where to look and are happy doing the work yourself (and you're posting in AI, so...). Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Dec 29, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Dec 29, 2015 02:43
|
|
|
Cakefool posted:What size is the screen, how much depth do you have behind it and how does it communicate with the rest of the car? I've found a load of pictures which may help answer these questions. The screen is roughly 6" diagonal. There is next to 0 depth behind it - the unit backs into the heater box/rear seet feet ducts, and sits on top of the airbag computer and gyroscope (UZZ32 only).  The center console with the EMV removed.  An EMV mounted with no center console The EMV unit is built of 3 components: The display (black metal box with plastic fascia), the computer (silver L shaped item with a few folded PCBs, similar to a regular Engine ECU), and a cassette player below it which also acts as the input selector and some controls for the audio system.  A shot of the rear of an EMV - this one has an aftermarket loom attached, most likely a NTSC-PAL converter for the TV to be used in the UK.  The rear of a unit with its wiring loom removed, sitting on the bench. The cassette player and computer are visible.  A display (left) and computer (right), separated If you are going with a custom audio system, you can remove the cassette player, stereo receiver (under the rear seat) TV tuner (ditto), antennas and their amplifiers (etched onto the windows), CD stacker, and amplifier (in the trunk) You might as well also remove the navigation computer and navigation CD players (and the GPS antennas) since you're butchering the system. You will need to build your own harness to power the speakers, the inputs to which is in the trunk (of course). The stock subwoofer amplifier can stay, and can receive a standard line (pre-out) level input, with a switched +12v to trigger it (the aux out for motorised antennas on most aftermarket stereos works well for this). Communication with the car is mostly old school analogue, with independent inputs from things such as parking brake, stop light switch, etc. It has a rudimentary bus (labelled TXM+/- on the schematic below), which I believe is for control/sync of the entertainment systems. There is a dedicated connection to the HVAC computer. The strip of heater controls above the screen is not electrically connected, it just mounts on the same fascia and plugs into the HVAC computer with its own cable.  A schematic which I started to translate myself, along with connector reference. This is not yet finished - I moved onto other things and forgot about it, but it does show the complete wiring layout of the UZZ32 entertainment system The EMV touchscreen system was limited to the UZZ32, and was an option on the UZZ31 (airbag) Soarer. Other Soarers got a standard (but still fancy) heater controller, and LCDs bleed out on all of these which is a shame. They got a 2.5-DIN stereo below, of varying quality. These stereos contain the audio receiver and amplifier, making the change to a normal car stereo much easier (on EMV equipped cars, the antenna wires and stereo power come out below the rear seats, and the speaker-level wires are in the trunk). Most people change these out for a double DIN stereo with minimal wiring fuckery required.  EMV Fascias, including one (rare) optional wood finish (actually lacquered, hydrodipped plastic, but in 25 years nobody seemed to notice until I tore one apart). The cassette player on EMV cars is single DIN, and the side mounting bolts fit most standard stereos. You often need to inset an aftermarket stereo so that it clears the ash tray. A normal 160mm deep (all CD/DVD units) will not fit, as it will hit the airbag computer. You need to go with a 'mechless' stereo. Not a problem for me as I stream everything from my cellphone over Bluetooth, and also use the stereo as a hands-free kit. Bonus! An EMV display teardown for all you nerds out there. I strip and repair these as a side business. I have 7 units on a shelf right now, and buy every single one that I come across (90% of the time, they are broken). I also do an exchange service, selling working EMVs in return for broken ones.  An EMV unit with the rear cover removed. Visible is the DC-DC converter (upside down on top), backlight inverter (far left), main PCB (main PCB). The white plugs connect to the small PCB visible in the background - this controls the 'touch screen', and sits behind a small plate, outside of the rear cover (as it needs to be disconnected to remove the fascia)  With the DC-DC converter removed, the main PCB is invisible. These house many variable resistors, and are 'tuned' to each LCD. It's a good idea to keep LCDs and PCBs together as a pair. The settings are quite confusing, and trial-and-error is employed (nobody has any reference of what the adjustments do).  With the fascia removed (and that old, perished foam cleaned off), the LCD is visible. This surface is very fragile - any pressure will result in dead pixels. If it gets dirty, then you'd better hope that IPA on a Q-tip will clean it. They are Toshiba screens, with the sub-pixels arranged in a honeycomb fashion.  Main PCB removed, showing the backlight inverter and housing.  A backlight under test. These are fluorescent tubes, they are dimmable. This one has failed - it only glows a dim blue, not bright enough for practical use.  A failed backlight. These cannot be repaired, and are what I dread to see when opening an EMV. I have 4 complete units that are fine other than their backlight. Others have had great success in commissioning LED-based backlight panels form China - and with simple electronics, the original dimming function can be modified to dim a LED backlight.  Most of the components of an EMV display under test. The fascia (and touch panel) and LCD are missing from this photograph. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Jan 1, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2016 21:27
|
|
|
some texas redneck posted:GM did something similar, except with an actual CRT, on some Buicks in the late 80s. I believe it was the Reatta and Riviera. Sorry, I missed this post before! This is freaking awesome. It being an actual CRT adds to the cool factor. It's 80's as gently caress and I love it. Leopard print and gold rings in the video too. Perfect. It does have some definite similarities to the Soarer EMV unit - I wouldn't be surprised if there was some 'inspiration' taken from this design! Edit: BEEP BEEP! Would drive me loving nuts.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2016 21:39
|
|
|
It's been done before with custom made backlights, with proper diffusers: There are companies in China that will churn these out to your custom size and brightness, or you can buy larger ones of a standard size and cut them down (loving carefully). These mount in place of the original backlight, the space which was once occupied by the inverter can house a PWM controller. The metalwork can be recycled, and a plastic frame can be purchased or 3D printed to hold the backlight panel. Here's a before and after of a unit which has been converted:   Here's a 'wall of fail', from another website, showing what other 'automotive electricians' have attempted in the past.     
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jan 1, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2016 21:46
|
|
|
88h88 posted:I should stop looking at these, particularly when you can pick up a V8 version for just over £1000. Yup, and most of the common problems are pretty minor and easily repaired. Since you're a goon, I will offer you free tech support!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2016 22:20
|
|
|
The one you linked to looks OK. It's a 1992 so has the heated seats, which is nice (my 1991's didn't have that). No spoiler looks a bit goofy, I had a Soarer with no spoiler and I prefer them with. Shame about the exterior damage. The other faults (drivers bolster, cracked vents) are common, you'd do well to find a car without those problems (funny enough, I'm about to wreck a car that has neither of those problems!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2016 00:35
|
|
|
There have been almost no mods to these units. Someone did release a chip which would translate a few of the menu icons. What you are suggesting would mean gutting the whole unit and adding a modern screen and pc which retains the original controls, right? That would be awesome, but the relatively low number of these cars remaining makes it unlikely that anyone would put in the effort. It would be great to have a modern system in there which can stream music and videos over 4g, connect to my cell phone via Bluetooth, etc. The current unit runs the heating system, so that would need programming. The entire entertainment system would need to be removed, as a pc can replicate everything except the amplifier.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2016 17:34
|
|
|
Yeah I know, that was what I was replying to
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2016 19:54
|
|
|
Yeah I think that's the problem . I think there are only few people left who own one of these cars and does not want a mad tyte JDM double DIN dvd player. And most of those people are going to be the 'has to be original numbers matching ' type
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2016 09:45
|
|
|
Plus, most of the core audience are either guys in their 50/60's, or guys in their early 20's who just wanted a £1000-£2000 JDM coupe with a 1JZ or a V8 and can't afford a Mk4 Supra.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2016 19:05
|
|
|
gently caress, I need to post more updates about this car. I've still not caught up to the present day. So...I tidied up the wiring inside the door that was head together with masking tape, and replaced the weather seal inside.  I reinforced the door cards with fiberglass, just as on the other car (this is a good thing to do).    I replaced the broken tab on the window controls (a common failure). A junkyard gave me a free donor as it was cracked elsewhere. Some solvent cement and fiberglass to reinforce and it's stronger than ever.   I pulled the speed sensor (the car has two, this one is for the dash, and is a backup sensor for the ECU). The shaft seal had failed, and the sensor was full of ATF. Shouldn't make a difference as it's sealed with epoxy, yet a new (good) sensor fixed it.  A larger job was the suspension fluid leak. It was leaking from the valve body - an aluminum block with 70+ dripped and capped holes, carrying suspension fluid at pressures between 1720 and 2100psi. These do not commonly leak, but when they do, it can be a pain to repair. These things are hidden in the front left wheel well, under the bumper, where a washer bottle would often go.  I began by measuring fluid pressures at various points. This doesn't really help find the leak, but will tell me if the unit is healthy and worth servicing. This unit looks fine.    I found the leak to be coming from one of the pressure holding valves. These valves close when the car is stopped to prevent it from sinking to the bump stops when there is not a constant supply of fluid. They are held open in normal operation by fluid pressure which is switched by a solenoid valve, and are essentially an on/off switch for the suspension system. There are 4 of these (one for each cylinder), an they are situated on the side of the unit. Fortunately for me, the leaking one is on the side that I can access, as removing the unit is a messy, expensive ($110/gal) and time consuming process. Unfortunately, there is a front bumper in the way:  The valve is held in with a 19mm allen nut (it that's what it's called? 19mm hex on the inside, required a trip to the store to buy a set of these in 1/2" drive)    The valve removed from its housing. A large spring is left behind. The section on the right (3rd o-ring) is the moving portion of the valve. You can see the damaged o-ring on the left - this seals the unit from the outside.  Fortunately I have another complete valve body to pull an o-ring from, most o-rings in this system are random sizes, and I don't bother to keep them all in stock.     Once this thing is reassembled, a quick test to verify that my 2-hour o-ring replacement has been successful. While the bumper is off, this is a good time to check the filters and magnets in the tank for cleanliness. First, a pressure test on the pump to ensure the system is running at the correct pressure:   Then 30 minutes of fighting difficult-to-access bolts and hose clamps to access the filters.   Everything was surprisingly clean, so $60 of fluid later, the whole thing was back together and running.  While the bumper was off, I cleaned the inside. Water and dirt collects in the front splitter and it's nasty as poo poo when you disturb it while under the car and it all rains down onto you. I drill a few 1" sized holes in the bottom of the splitter to let this stuff drain out.  One final job was to repair the idler pulley for the suspension pump, as it was starting to make noise.   Done! I also tackled the broken overdrive switch. This is held in place with a "[" shaped clip, which is conveniently the same size as a regular staple, only with shorter legs. A few seconds with a staple and some wire cutters produced a replacement. Done! I didn't take and pictures of the brake work - I replaced the old brake lines with braided hoses for a Mk4 Supra (exact same part for a Soarer, thanks Toyota!) as one was leaking, and purchased a caliper rebuild kit for the front left caliper. One piston was stuck in there good, and required some significant force to remove. The pads on the car looked new all-round, but the pads on this wheel were already over half-way gone. Once rebuilt, the caliper actually works as intended, rather than having one piston always-half-on, and the other working. Still to do: Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Active suspension feels very hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2016 16:32
|
|
|
The work they did was pretty cool. It looks as though they did a complete replacement including controllers for the fan and vent motors, along with their own display. They only seemed to re-use the front panel. It would be a lot harder for me as to retain the touch functionality (actually a matrix of LEDs and photodiodes) system does not exist in any modern devices - trying to convert the output from that panel would be very difficult. A conventional touch monitor would not work as the plastic front 'glass' on the EMV units would get in the way. There is very little clearance around this to mount a monitor flush to the front panel. The actual LCD sits about 5mm behind the plastic. The only solution would be a non-touch LCD with an external touch panel. Regardless, I love the quirky old late-80's LCD, even if it is not as functional as a modern system, it is certainly more impressive. I run a dateless license plate on my car, and so far no passenger has even come close to guessing the cars age after seeing the tech inside. As for irreplaceable parts, the entire suspension (pump, struts, valve body, computer, G sensors, gyroscope (actually a vibrating pendulum), front and rear lower control arms) and steering (front steering rack, front slave rack, cable system, rear steering rack, rear hubs, computer, yaw rate sensor, pump, steering column with integrated steering angle sensor) system is unique to the 872 UZZ32s. As is the alternator, AC compressor, timing cover, oil filter mount on the engine. The longblock is the same as other 1UZFE motors, with one less stud near the oil filter. Replacement engines can be fitted provided that this stud is removed, although the complete front end will need to be swapped over. The ECU is unique to the UZZ32 as it communicates to other systems, but you can mount a UZZ30 or 31 motor to a '32 ECU and vise versa, depending on the chassis. LS400 motors would need a Soarer loom, as the wiring is different at the ECU end (4 plugs on the LS400 instead of 3 on the UZZ3x). Soarers do not have EGR, so the upper intake manifold would need to be retained (trivial) if an LS400 motor is used to replace a broken UZZ32 motor (rare, 1UZs are pretty unkillable). The display binnacle, rear subframe, washer bottle, PS fluid reservoir are unique to the UZZ32. The EMV, sonic mirrors, reversing camera, hydroboost ABS brakes are all options on the UZZ31, but standard on the UZZ32. This makes them easier to find.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2016 15:29
|
|
|
I have 3 more cars worth of spares, I'll be fine! You missed this gem just a few weeks back! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262221408462 Seriously, though, go for a UZZ30. Regular coil suspension, but all the other goodies that Soarers have. Much better economy and loads more power than the '32, which is a bit of a boat by comparison (for you US folks, the UZZ30 is pretty much a RHD SC400 that was only built until 1993 so missed out on VVTI and the 5-speed). The '30 is hard to find, though. Most V8 Soarers were '31s, which are fine until the air bags fail. But then you just put Supra suspension them and remove the air system and have a blast. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jan 20, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2016 15:20
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 07:27 |
|
|
Just go for one with a decent body, a not-delaminated windshield, and if you're lucky, some dumb simple mechanical fault that pushes the price way down. A friend bought a £400 Soarer from ebay with 'wont charge the battery SPARES OR REPAIRS BRO', car was mint, and a £100 alternator later, and he has a great car. If you're not a huge V8 fan (though these are great engines), then maybe look at the UZZ30. They are lighter, have the equally-legendary 1JZ turbo engine, but have less 'toys' (no leather, no shaky mirrors, no EMV screen, etc). Don't worry about turbo problems too much - most people go for the 2fast2furious mad tyte drift thing with these cars and whack a huge turbo on them, so stock turbos are plentiful. Note that the V8 Soarers are old-insurance group 20 (the highest), plus they are imports. I pay £400/year for each of mine with Admiral. I'm almost 30 and have 9 years no-claims though. I bought my first Soarer just after I turned 25, insurance was about £800, which isn't too bad. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jan 20, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2016 16:41
|
|