Hey peeps, long time lurker first-time poster. Came to the UK for uni and stayed for the weather, perfect roads and absolutely no average speed cameras /s Back in my home country, my first car was a 2003 Toyota Yaris T-Sport which taught me everything I know about lift-off oversteer. The Yaris was superseded by a 2005 Ford Focus ST225 which made me fall in love with five-cylinder engines. The Focus had to go once I came over to study because student housing rates are ridiculous and nobody told me it'd be cheaper in a shared house (moved to a shared house after year 1). So, five years pass and the no-car withdrawals are hitting me hard, so for my first car in the UK, I went for something that was never sold here - a JDM barge. The Yaris was in the family for 10+ years and never broke down, so I'm hoping this Crown came from the same batch back in 2003.
Facts about the Crown:
1. Factory-fitted 1JZ-GTE (yay!) paired to an auto (boo!)
2. Despite being the size of Lichtenstein, it ways 1,600kg.
3. It has oscillating interior fans (not even a Rolls has that!)
4. My car has factory-fitted doily seat covers
5. It has a JDM infotainment system that greets me in Japanese at every engine start (best feature IMO)
6. 0-62mph is 6.5-7 seconds
7. Some Crown models came with adaptive suspension, a front passenger seat back that folds back so you can stretch your legs out from the back seat, a huge fridge in the boot and electric blinds (my car has none of these but less to go wrong is my silver lining)
8. Unplugging stuff on it arguably makes it better - unplug BOV = Zututu; unplug ETCS-i = better throttle response; unplug VSC = skids; etc, etc (everything is still plugged in, I'm a wuss)
9. Every fuel trip is fun because you get asked about it all the time
10. Better than expected fuel consumption - 35mpg motorway (about the same as the ST225 Focus did)
11. The Athlete model is supposed to be the 'sporty' one so they fitted it with slightly stiffer springs and fettled with the rebound rates. Nobody told them to uprate the anti-roll bars so it still leans like a very leaning thing.
12. The chrome door handles have been on all Crown models since 1955
13. The gearbox is the weak spot (350hp max from my research) but US companies can reinforce it to hold big power (for big money, unfortunately)
14. A GT86 factory LSD diff is an easy fit in the Crown with a couple of bolts being problematic, but cheaper from a breaker than most aftermarket LSD offerings
15. The MAF sensor is attached to the airbox (apparently only the latest 1JZ engines are like this) so no pod filter and you have very little options for cold air intakes and all of them £300+
16. Cruise control was an option on all Crown models from my generation AFAIK so my car doesn't have it and I really miss that on the motorway. Fun Fact: the Nissan Laurel (main Crown competitor in Japan) had laser-guided adaptive cruise control while most Crowns didn't even have a regular one.
17. It's Toyota's longest surviving model name - the first Crown came out in 1955
I could waffle on for hours so here are some pics:
Advice needed on:
lowering solutions,
mappers in the UK,
Air intake solutions,
advice on how to splice a switch to the VSC wire coming out of the YAW sensor under the gear lever,
alloy wheel suggestions,
anyone who reinforces A340 auto gearboxes in the UK,
someone who can share how the clutch feels on a manual conversion with a toyota box/bmw box,
anyone who's disabled their ETCS-i to share how it feels with it off
anyone running their 1JZ on something less than shell V-power - I was told Japan was a minimum of 97 so Im playing it safe
rough estimate on costs for a shop to wire in a subwoofer and amp that I already have
Any suggestions on mods both external and internal are also welcome!
Thanks for the attention!
Facts about the Crown:
1. Factory-fitted 1JZ-GTE (yay!) paired to an auto (boo!)
2. Despite being the size of Lichtenstein, it ways 1,600kg.
3. It has oscillating interior fans (not even a Rolls has that!)
4. My car has factory-fitted doily seat covers
5. It has a JDM infotainment system that greets me in Japanese at every engine start (best feature IMO)
6. 0-62mph is 6.5-7 seconds
7. Some Crown models came with adaptive suspension, a front passenger seat back that folds back so you can stretch your legs out from the back seat, a huge fridge in the boot and electric blinds (my car has none of these but less to go wrong is my silver lining)
8. Unplugging stuff on it arguably makes it better - unplug BOV = Zututu; unplug ETCS-i = better throttle response; unplug VSC = skids; etc, etc (everything is still plugged in, I'm a wuss)
9. Every fuel trip is fun because you get asked about it all the time
10. Better than expected fuel consumption - 35mpg motorway (about the same as the ST225 Focus did)
11. The Athlete model is supposed to be the 'sporty' one so they fitted it with slightly stiffer springs and fettled with the rebound rates. Nobody told them to uprate the anti-roll bars so it still leans like a very leaning thing.
12. The chrome door handles have been on all Crown models since 1955
13. The gearbox is the weak spot (350hp max from my research) but US companies can reinforce it to hold big power (for big money, unfortunately)
14. A GT86 factory LSD diff is an easy fit in the Crown with a couple of bolts being problematic, but cheaper from a breaker than most aftermarket LSD offerings
15. The MAF sensor is attached to the airbox (apparently only the latest 1JZ engines are like this) so no pod filter and you have very little options for cold air intakes and all of them £300+
16. Cruise control was an option on all Crown models from my generation AFAIK so my car doesn't have it and I really miss that on the motorway. Fun Fact: the Nissan Laurel (main Crown competitor in Japan) had laser-guided adaptive cruise control while most Crowns didn't even have a regular one.
17. It's Toyota's longest surviving model name - the first Crown came out in 1955
I could waffle on for hours so here are some pics:
Advice needed on:
lowering solutions,
mappers in the UK,
Air intake solutions,
advice on how to splice a switch to the VSC wire coming out of the YAW sensor under the gear lever,
alloy wheel suggestions,
anyone who reinforces A340 auto gearboxes in the UK,
someone who can share how the clutch feels on a manual conversion with a toyota box/bmw box,
anyone who's disabled their ETCS-i to share how it feels with it off
anyone running their 1JZ on something less than shell V-power - I was told Japan was a minimum of 97 so Im playing it safe
rough estimate on costs for a shop to wire in a subwoofer and amp that I already have
Any suggestions on mods both external and internal are also welcome!
Thanks for the attention!
)