I finally found a buyer for my wife's 99 E300TD, and we promptly found her replacement: 05 Scion xB. Its pretty slick, super low mileage, and most of all we're both happy with it. She likes reliable things that get good MPG and hauls her stuff, I like things she can't break.
Now on to the mods...
Any suggestions? I already talked about a 1" drop but she doesn't want that. Anything obvious I should tackle as known problems/solutions?
See how happy she is?
curtis73 wrote: Any suggestions? I already talked about a 1" drop but she doesn't want that. Anything obvious I should tackle as known problems/solutions?
Most women don't like it when you refer to plastic surgery as blatantly obvious as that. You should really use more tact with those kinds of suggestions.
I have the same car. Mine came with lowering springs, which I promptly replaced with stockers. Rode too much like an oxcart. I found a TRD rear swaybar on ebay for under $100, and that took away the tippy feeling that stock springs and no rear bar gave. Looks like you already have low-profile tires, that's fine if she doesn't mind the ride.
Mine also came with a K&N Typhoon intake. I don't know if it's that helpful, but with it, I get 35mpg in town, which is a lot more than the EPA suggests I oughta.
I don't know what things you like but a cold air intake and cat back exhaust usually bump the performance and mpg a teeny bit, so that's a win win situation. Wheels look nice, color is nice so you are good there. Maybe some springs, sway bars and shocks, not to lower but just firm things up a bit. The usual stuff. I like the way it looks. I wouldn't mind one myself and actually like the boxy look. I like the Nissan Cube too.
These things don't have much suspension travel, so I'd be real careful with springs. Otherwise, I love my wife's. They're a great little "appliance" for running around in.We've done nothing but oil changes in 40K miles of use.Gas mileage is just over 30 mpg from new.
whats under the hood? is it the 1 or 2zfe something or other? Id bet 93celica would have some suggestions. I believe that motor replaced the dime-a-dozen 4 and 7afe that was out in prior generations of 'yota offerings. My AE101 corolla responded quite well to an exhaust header, axleback muffler (tasteful - not a fart cannon), advanced timing to almost 17° btdc (IIRC
), 10mm plug wires, a multipoint ground, a short ram intake, and denso iridium plugs. The lightweight wheels you already have will help a lot, as well as a slight underdrive of the accessories. I was probably pulling down 35 mpg combined at best as well, so no big bump in economy, but it did wake up throttle response greatly.
Ah, well, if SHE'S happy with it, and it's "her" car, don't touch a thing. Buy her a "wax/detail kit" as a congrats on the car, and "here, I'll leave it alone."
You will have bought yourself tons of permission to play with other mechanical toys in your garage
It's a 1nzfe motor, VVT-i, 1.5L, 108HP. It looks kinda like this:
although that's from oldopelguy's 2K5 xA, going into Dr.Linda's Europa. I also have a T25 turbo from a SR20DET to go on it with a eBay sourced Chinese log manifold that was $108 delivered.
triumph5 wrote: Ah, well, if SHE'S happy with it, and it's "her" car, don't touch a thing. Buy her a "wax/detail kit" as a congrats on the car, and "here, I'll leave it alone." You will have bought yourself tons of permission to play with other mechanical toys in your garage
+1
More budget for stuff you would enjoy on your car
Absolutely don't touch it unless she wants it!
exactly... it's her's. leave it alone
Yeah, been there, done that, I'm not going that route again. And, frankly, she stayed married to me, and even enjoyed driving her Frankeneon. But this time around, I keep her car clean and well maintained, and that's all.
Nice looking xB, though! Sharp just as it is.
4cylndrfury wrote: whats under the hood? is it the 1 or 2zfe something or other? Id bet 93celica would have some suggestions. I believe that motor replaced the dime-a-dozen 4 and 7afe that was out in prior generations of 'yota offerings. My AE101 corolla responded quite well to an exhaust header, axleback muffler (tasteful - not a fart cannon), advanced timing to almost 17° btdc
1ZFE is correct... and I don't know how good it is, but it came from the factory with a header. Looks decent.
Any suggestions on a tasteful exhaust? She and I are absolutely abhorrent of the sound of a 4cyl exhaust in any "performance" type sound. To us, the only way a 4 cylinder sounds good is if its in a Yamaha R6 at 13,000 rpms.
TRD makes a short shift kit that she might enjoy, and I'll look for one of those rear bars. She would appreciate increased cornering stiffness, but she's not a top-shelf driver... I say that because I want to avoid oversteer or anything that a run-of-the-mill gal isn't used to handling from a normal car.
I appreciate all the marital advice 
but she and I are doing this one together. Its her first mod-worthy car, so she's using my expertise and her desires and we get to work on it together. In the past, I did my cars my way and she drove stockers. Whenever she used my cars she hated my mods because they weren't what she would have chosen. But since we're doing this together, it will be her desires and my keen, finely-honed (amateur) engineering skills combined together for the execution of whatever she wants.
Just the thought of my wife on a creeper with grease on her face is more than enough to motivate me. Some guys get off on lingerie and perfume. I prefer flannel, grease, and gasoline on my women. 
racinginc215 wrote: Are there any mods so it stops looking like a toaster? If not two slices of rye lightly buttered then.
Big slices of swirly cinnamon raisin bread was what I had in mind.
Here is a link of Japan TRD goodies - some still available, some not - http://www.trdparts.jp/english/list_bb.html
There is a boost kit for it and the xA.... getting it might be tough
http://www.trdparts.jp/parts_trdturbo-plan.html
Oh, it's a stick. Good. For some reason, the current thinking is that weighted shift knobs are good. Not to me they aren't. I replaced the heavy stock knob with a lightweight resin one (Any Toyota knob will fit) and the shifting feels SO much better.
Google up an outfit called CorSport. They make shifter base and linkage bushings that allegedly take a lot of the slop out. For around $50 for the whole shebang, I'm about to find out for myself. Via TRD (or the aftermarket) B&M offers up a short shifter kit. It may be good, but for me, the stock shifter is exactly where I want it; any shorter would be a reach.
Look, it's an Echo/Yaris underneath. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but we're talking about economy car bones, not sports car underpinnings. There's only so much one can do without spending silly money for forced induction.
Buy her this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Who-wants-Toast-decal-sticker-scion-xB-xD-element-cube_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ50447QQitemZ220545396959
Call it good.
All kidding aside, we had a guy show up at an AutoX with one of these. He had spent a TON of $ on it and it 1. still wasn't fast and 2. still didn't handle all that well. From what I saw, I'd say stick to cosmetic mods. Toaster jokes aside, its really not a bad looking car already.
Definetly need this:
and at about a hundred bucks, a real bargain. That and a GRM sticker will get you 20 HP.
Yeah... I'm not thinking about this as a "motorsport" car, just some little improvements. She's finally interested in modding something so I want to support this as something we can do together.
On the suspension side, a bit more handling prowess would be nice - for me so I can enjoy driving it a little more, and for her because she's concerned about things like accident avoidance maneuvering and regaining control if its lost. She lost her Tercel (and got a broken nose) after hitting a retread on the highway. She and I are both convinced that if she were in something a little more substantial and stable she wouldn't have lost control and slammed into a cement wall at 60.... which was my original motivation for buying her the E300TD in the first place
On the engine side, a touch more combustion efficiency would be nice - for me so it might have a few more ponies, and for her because it might squeeze out another 1 mpg.
On the appearance side, she's going to put some decals on it, but otherwise it looks pretty darn good as it is.
On the interior, I'm going to make it a rolling media center. It has a DVD player in the back seat, so I'm thinking about a head unit with a USB and aux inputs along with bluetooth and XM.
Yo, 22 spinners. Yo.
So, she hit a concrete wall at 60 MPH in a baseline economy car and had a broken nose. Sounds pretty good to me, but yeah, better handling is always good. Consider whatever Koni is selling for toasters these days. If they don't have something listed, call the custom shop in KY and see what they can do. I know that the time a car going 60 the opposite direction spun out and crossed 3 lanes of traffic heading right for my Corolla, I was VERY glad I had dumped a grand in Konis and GC coilovers (both GRM advertisers), plus some sticky tires as I easily jumped to the shoulder and missed the car by inches. So, yeah, I'm there with the handling.
Dr. Hess wrote: Yo, 22 spinners. Yo. So, she hit a concrete wall at 60 MPH in a baseline economy car and had a broken nose. Sounds pretty good to me,
Amen to that. That little Tercel gave its life to save my girl. She had a broken nose and a sore ankle and her passenger had a broken finger from hitting the dash. Airbags deployed properly, seatbelts did the trick, good little car.
The front bumper was pushed back as far as the footwell, and the engine popped up like a zit.
i was always a fan of these but never drove one. its on my list of cars to own one day.
Can anyone give a review about em?
I spent money on two things from the dealership: an arm rest and cruise control. Both were worth every penny.
Beyond that I always wanted to install a sliding rag top in mine. The lack of a sunroof was one of the big factors that drove me to the MINI. I wish I had just cut a hole in the roof and kept the toaster.
oldopelguy wrote: I spent money on two things from the dealership: an arm rest and cruise control. Both were worth every penny. Beyond that I always wanted to install a sliding rag top in mine. The lack of a sunroof was one of the big factors that drove me to the MINI. I wish I had just cut a hole in the roof and kept the toaster.
Had an echo for a while, I installed an armrest from e-bay and cruise from jcwhitney(audiovox). The cheap e-bay armrest didn't last but you need one, so silly they made them without. The cruise was great but I re-mounted it in the engine bad because it was noisy. Had to have it pull on the actual pedal which was a little silly. A factory unit would have been great.
I also upgraded to delay wipers, that was easy. I found a crashed echo and swapped out the wiper switch, the stock was just a switch, the delay was the same switch with a circuit board. Plugged right in and worked great.
The engine is already pretty efficient, its something cool like 10.5:1 compression on low octane. Our echo had a dual stage muffler with a sprung trap door to open up more for power, stock. I would imagine a air intake or just drop in filter would give a mpg or 2. Not sure your gonna get too much more out of it without diving too deep.
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