Mikes 150VX - Yes, it's another silver Prado

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I don't have any decent photo's of the rack fitted, so these will have to do for the moment.



I'm pretty please with the rack. It's light but strong, which was high on my list of priorities. I think it looks good. I've got the option of removing the rack (leaving the anchors in place) without too much hassle. It comes with a wind deflector fitted but I've noticed that it makes a little noise when i get above 60kph, getting noisier the faster i drive. I expected some noise, but was surprised at how noticeable it is. I'm not saying that it makes a lot of noise. I just didn't have any basis for comparison. I found that the noise from me lowering my window an inch was greater than the noise generated by the rack.

As for the effect on fuel economy, it looks like i'm using between 0.5 and 1 litre per 100km more. I can live with that. The only reason i'll be taking it off is if i find problems with undercover parking. The highest point on the car is 2.08m. I plan on getting a 2 inch lift, so we'll see what happens.

Next update will be the new tyres coming soon. I've had 90,000k out of the grandtreks and they're shot.

Mike

[matt150 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close matt150]

Looking like a nice Prado Mike. There's nothing wrong with another silver one !

[VeeZeeSS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VeeZeeSS]

Great write up Mike... Good to see another VX too...

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Nothing wrong with a silver prado, most of the ones around my way are black. Having owned a black Celica in the past I will never have another black car. Sorry to any black Prado owners out there but they are way too hard to keep clean.

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

For almost a year now i've been agonising over what to do about new tyres. Do i stay with the 18's and accept that i'll have to pay more for tyres, or do i fork out some extra cash now and buy 17's? Do i import them from the US for 1/2 to 1/3 the price in Australia, or do i buy from an Australian seller and take comfort in having some sort of warranty. I had actually planned on importing a tyre and wheel combination from the States. I was just waiting for the Christmas period to pass and see how much money was left in the piggy bank.

Unfortunately my hand was forced when i inspected my tyres last week and saw a nail firmly embedded into the tread of one tyre. All 5 tyres had been rotated through 87,000km's of wear and tear. They didn't have much left in them and i couldn't wait the 8-10 weeks for new tyres to arrive from overseas.

I had been trying to decide between the Cooper AT3's, Toyo Open Country AT2's, and the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac's. The Cooper tyres are the only ones sold in Australia in the LT275/65R18 size i wanted, so my decision was made for me.

I called around all of the authorised dealers within a 30 minute drive. I was told that the recommended retail on these tyres is $698, but they were allowed to go as low as $522. I couldn't believe it. These exact same tyres sell for $221 in the US. How can it cost $300 more per tyre in Australia than the US, especially when our dollar is well above parity?!?

I ended up booking the car in with Goodyear at Springwood and paid $2650 for 5 tyres fitted, balanced and aligned. They were good to deal with. I had a moment of disappointment when they told me that the wheel didn't fit on the back door mount with the new tyre fitted. I sat there wondering what had gone wrong. I'd carefully checked this forum and seen that others had done it without the mounting spacer. In the end i went out and had a look. They were trying to get it on with the old wheel carrier housing still attached. The wheel fit just fine once the housing was removed. It does touch the back door near the number plate though, so i expect i'll end up getting a spacer. I'll take a picture of it once i get the car back from my wife (who seems to have all but abandoned her car).

The only other problem i've got with it is that the tyre does rub the front inside of the drivers wheel arch near where the bull bar cover plates attach. I think this is in part attributed to the poor workmanship of Jimboomba Smash Repair in cutting the wheel arch. I don't expect it will be a problem once the lift goes in (hopefully early January).

I opted to go with white lettering facing out. I figure i can black it out if i decide i don't like it, but i don't think it really bothers me.

We've travelled a few hundred kilometres so far and they feel nice. A little firmer than the stock tyres, but i wouldn't say that they were hard. Fuel economy has gone from averaging 10.6 to 10.7l/100km (unmodified was about 9.4).

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

This picture shows the front of the front right tyre at full left lock. You can see how with a little compression up into the wheel well, the tyre will rub with the plastic. There's only millimetres in it, but that's enough.



The back of the front right tyre clears without trouble, but there's still not much room. A couple of centimetres at best.



All the other tyres are fine.

I thought i'd just add this picture showing how far back the roof rack sits. It was something i often wondered (and worried) about when trying to decide what to buy.

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I've had a Projecta Typhoon portable air compressor for a couple of years now. Only used it a few times but i've been pleased with how well it worked. I last used it a year ago, and while it was running i noticed that the fuse holder was hot and the plastic was soft and flexible. I didn't think much of it until a couple of months ago when i lent the compressor to a friend. When it got returned to me, it was missing the fuse cap and most of the fuse. What remained of the fuse was a mess of plastic and metal that had melted into the fuse holder.



I searched around various forums and only found a few references to this problem, most suggesting that there was a problem with the ATS fuse holder running a 50amp fuse and that Projecta had addressed the issue by fitting larger fuse holders. The only DIY fix i saw was to buy a maxi-blade holder. Off i toddled to Repco and bought the fuse holder. I thought it was a bit big, but it wasn't until i got home and saw it against the original holder that i realised how much bigger it was.



Now i'm not sure if fitting the new fuse holder is a good idea. Is there a problem with the compressor if it's drawing so much that it's melting fuses? Will upgrading the fuse holder cause problems in other areas (will the wires melt instead)? The DIY'ers on other forums have not mentioned any further problems since doing the mod. Perhaps this is because they suffered a fiery, melty demise at the hands of their compressor.

I also thought it might be a problem with a resistor. Does anyone know where that might be located.

Can anyone shed some light on what to do? Can this compressor be salvaged, or is it time to buy a new one.

Mike

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

The ARB twin head/motor compressor comes with two maxi fuses (one per each with a 40A fuse). This is why mine is wired direct to the battery rather than cut the fuse out and run it off a fuse block like the other accessories. I would think that the fuse holder wasn't up to the job. According to the info I could find that was a 45A fuse and I wouldn't expect the original holder to cope with more than 30A without getting hot and bothered. Can you borrow a clamp meter and check what current it actually draws? The wires look a bit light on too. Have to say I would be tempted to rewire it with some heavier duty cable and the maxi fuse.

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I've just taken the rack off for winter. We won't be going camping for a few months and i wanted to see what the fuel economy was like. With AT3's, bullbar and empty roof rack, the car was using between 11.8L and 12.5L per 100km. It's now doing about 9.8 without the rack. That's a big difference, especially considering we're burning through a tank every 9 or 10 days.

Interestingly, i didn't see much of a difference in fuel usage between having the rack empty, or loaded up with camping equipment. I suspect this is because most of the driving while loaded is on the highway, compared with start-stop driving when it's empty.

Mike

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I was crawling underneath my car and saw a link attached to a connecting rod which runs forward from the right side of the axle near the right rear wheel. It looks exactly like the one in post #9 of Kakadaz's bumpstop thread (http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...l=1#post302482). Peterpilot suggests this might be a ride height adjuster for the airbag suspension. If that's so, why would it be on a VX?

There appears to be a couple of electrical cables which come out of the sensor. One runs forward (lost sight of it above the fuel tank), then one cable for each of the wheel/brake assembly. Could it be part of the stability control?

Can anyone shed some light on what it is/does and how it works? I'm looking at doing my own lift, but want to make sure i don't come across any surprises.

Mike

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

A couple of weeks ago i got a two inch lift with a Dobinson/Bilstein combo with Firestone Coilrite airbags. I decided to go with Zordo's because he's had great feedback from this and other forums. It was a bit of a drive for me to get to Upper Kedron from Tamborine, but i was there shortly after 10am. I'll say one thing for John. He's a fast worker. Within minutes he had the rear shocks and springs out. 45 minutes later and the rear end was all done. The fronts took longer, but still a lot faster than i expected. Before i knew it we were taking the car for a test drive, and about two and a half hours after i arrived i was handing over $2000.

I elected for the medium coils in the rear, and the heavy coils up front (i'm planning on putting in a winch soon).

John works out of his workshop at his house and, while he was more than happy for me to help, i felt like i was getting in the way so i ended up playing with his dogs.

The front coils each had a metal washer placed at the top to give a little more down travel. The clip was in the lowest groove.

I think i could do the job myself having now seen what was done, but i wouldn't have been anywhere near as fast. It definitely would have been an all-day job with a lot of cursing and probably some blood spilled. I was happy to pay John a couple of hundred dollars to save me the hassle, and i learned a few things as well, which is something I wouldn't have gotten if I took it to some other places.

TJM quoted about $200 more expensive, and and City Suspension was about $300 more.

There are two things i'm not 100% satisfied with though. The first is the mounting plate for the airbag hoses. It looks a bit hodge-podge. That said, i don't know if it bothers me enough to change it. We'll see.

The other is the lean. I didn't take any measurements before the lift, but the post lift heights are:

835 825
872 862 (half tank of fuel)

There's a perfect 10mm lean to the right. The car felt level when i drove away from Johns place. I went straight up to Double Island Point for a few days. When i returned 500k's later i noticed the lean. It's not horrible, just noticeable. What annoys me is that one of the factors for selecting the Dobinson/Bilstein combo was the flexibility to address this issue. I thought Dobinson made two different front springs to counter the post-lift lean. Failing that, the height adjustable Bilsteins could be used. Don't get me wrong, i love the new suspension and i wouldn't go with anything else if i had my time again. If i felt motivated i'd probably pull the fronts off a tinker with different setups, but at the moment i'm not motivated.

One thing i have noticed is that the ESC has been kicking in since the lift. For example. i used to be able to take the s-bend from Loganlea Road onto the M1 northbound at 60 without issue. Can't do that anymore.


Before lift


After lift


Airbag hose mount

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I also replaced the brakes a few months ago. I went with RDA slotted rotors and Bendix 4WD pads. I also flushed the brake fluid. I honestly haven't notice much of a difference during normal braking. I don't drive very hard, so perhaps the pads need to be warmer for me to notice any change. There has been one occasion where i had to plant my foot on the brake pedal. The car stopped very quickly. Certainly quicker than when i had factory pads and rotors.

The process of doing the brakes was actually a lot easier than i thought, though it did take about 5 hours. In my defence, i had two kids getting in my way.

I looked into replacing the plate under the bull bar which got dinged when i went to Fraser last year. Darren from TJM Brendale told me that the plates aren't sold separately, and that i'd need to buy a new bull bar. I might see if a panel beater can do something about it.

Mike

[Bawky Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bawky]

I looked into replacing the plate under the bull bar which got dinged when i went to Fraser last year. Darren from TJM Brendale told me that the plates aren't sold separately, and that i'd need to buy a new bull bar. I might see if a panel beater can do something about it.

Mike

Hi Mike, enjoyable thread!

I dare you to talk to the panel beater who fitted and painted your bull bar! Lol

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I did. We had some heated words where i questioned his ability and professionalism. He refused to make it right, then told me to "do what i have to do." So i called RACQ and spoke with them about my experience with one of their approved repairers, then took to social media and the internet forums to share the experience. Thankfully i haven't had the need to go back to a panel beater, but i'd probably just use one of the ones at Slacks Creek.

Mike

[matt150 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close matt150]

Mike that's a lot of lift in the front. I would keep an eye on your front universal joint angles. I don't like anymore than about 810/815mm lift in the front of a Prado.

Just my 2 cents from my experience.