Church

nerdstrike: £2k/year even on reliant robin?

Maybe less then that. Maybe up to 0.5. Amount may also change due different suspension front and rear, with mcpherson front, multilink rear. I was never considering lowering (at some point rather opposite), so don't take my worlds on range/value as given as i didn't pay much attention to what people had in configuration i never intend to use. Still, if one goes for suspension changes for some performance/handling change/upgrade, i'd rather get also camberbolts (cheap) and rear lca-s (less cheap, but not killing sum). I love to have suspension alignment exactly how i want it and even on both sides at that unlike stock with different grip bias to my liking and very uneven sometimes even in new cars.

Increase in value. More negative that is (IIRC OE camber front was 0, and rear -1.2). Think what happens when tire is pushed up till end. It doesn't go vertically up keeping it's orientation, rather it rotates/pivots around center of lower center arm inside mounts/bushings, with top of wheel going up and to car centerline. Hence some negative camber increase when lowering.

Due lowering, camber will increase by some 0.5-1degree naturally due geometry of suspension. If you are ok with resulting camber you can just ask alignment shop to dial in toe as needed. If you want more even, or back to stock alignment even on lowered car, or some specific alignment for specific uses (eg. for track), it's probable that you will need to adjust camber. There is no camber adjustment stock on twins, only for toe. Cheapest way to add it for front is camberbolts. In rear - aftermarket adjustable rear lower control arms (cheapest are stock-like clones like SPC/Eibach/Whiteline) (well, theoretically rear camber bushings are of cheaper price, but they are PITA to adjust and resulting longer adjustment time in shop will eat saving).

There are not much NA bolt-on kits that can be easily converted to turbo. Then again there is still supercharger option. My advise would be to simply go out on some trackday with stock car first. Then get as passenger in some NA tuned and FI tuned (or as driver, if you manage someone to let that). THEN do decision. My own choice would be NA + performance suspension mods for more camber (and maybe even without boltons, just eg. ecu tune + drop-in airfilter), with almost all money going to fuel/tires/pads/for track itself. Imho it's best to pay for making self better driver and having more of actual go-fast fun, then halve or leave even less then that of budget for driving itself, spending most of money on making car faster. Even more so if making engine more powerful will wear heavier all the rest in car & will rise costs elsewhere too, brakes, transmission, suspension, clutch, etc., asking on upgrades or much sooner replacements for those too, unlike in NA car. Crashes also may happen at higher speeds, thus less margin of error, less forgiving, higher risks, more expensive repairs. Not good for learning :). If there is spare budget, +oil cooler/BBK/struts or coilovers of low budget range. But most of money - on track wearables and just drive, drive, drive Funny, but i'd think more of forced induction in daily driven only car. If there is no real track fun, then at very least some push in straight line as poor substitute. Luckily i discovered how fun track can be before that and got new addiction

It's not "running out of volume adjustment". It's just that stock speakers (which still can playback even louder even with just stock headunit) at mid or loud volume levels distort sound too much. One can run more capable speakers without less forcing them beyond quality loss. I'd sometimes wish for Toyota to choose different approach to stock audio setup, instead of multispeaker one with useless rear speakers and small tweeters plain stereo setup, but of more capable & of better quality speakers.

IIRC speakers are same. Headunit differs.

Oh why they couldn't fit simple turning knob for volume. Two button volume control better then touch-screen controls, but still nowhere near blind reach/use usability of classic turning knob . Only place where buttons work well is for steering wheel.

thetyrant: what i don't like in Ohlins kit - it already is far from low budget kit. Pitty they simply discontinued original kit, instead of keep selling it alongside softened updated kit. Throwing different springs on it makes hard choice for budget-minded. As for damper travel .. imho KW ones (and RCE based on those) had even more travel then stock, no?

Potential problem with CSG spec Flex A might be - their valving probably is modified more for track then for street. It may work fine in "getting more track performance then what one pays for", as i recall CSG guys posting that they applied their experience with more upscale tein SRCs, but i have suspicions that daily driving compliance may suffer. Firmer? Possible, one should check rates specced, but if more comfortable then "normal" Flex A? Less susceptible to bottom out due firmer rates is just part of a picture. From other potential issues might be warranty & maintenance, as i guess that to perform any work on CSG spec A-s one will need to ship back overseas to them, not to some local Tein shop. At least that was case with RCE Tarmac-s, even if KW is one that made them, KW cannot service them directly. For street comfort .. i'd probably look first at options that will work with stock rubber top mounts. At least even on stock shocks camber plates for me introduced unbearable NVH issues making me switch back to rubber top mounts, so i guess, it's possible that . Ohlins, KW V1/3, RCE Tarmac 0/2, Bilstein B6 and so on. And preferably without any lowering. There is no free cake (at least in low budget offerings). If one lowers, for reduced bumpless travel one needs to firm rates. That doesn't sound to me "comfort/compliance oriented". So is lowering for looks/wheel gap or in whichever wording that is reasoned really-really THAT must-have thing? Or if it's must have, one should just bite the bullet and live with cons that choice according one's priorities bring. Or if one decides that good ride without bottoming out matters more then lowering, why not rise to stock height back?

I actually don't get this aswell, why to remove profile and all posts one has made. It's doable, but why? If one decides to not visit anymore one can always just never visit/never log in. And if one does that for some privacy reasons, one can change to some fake email registration address and remove any personal info in profile.

You took pics of damage to your car. Browse through them, maybe among them is also car of her / it's reg. plate?

That's what UK insurance companies say. No such thing as rising premiums if not at fault @LV. And if my experience counts any, all from my friends/relatives/colleagues, if happen to get in accident, drive much more carefully during time after. Not more nervous, more carefully/attentive/with larger safety margin.

For one completely not at fault to have insurance premium rise .. that seems SO wrong with insurance over at UK for you guys :/

"if you impact gun the top nut .. it trashes the seals and causes the dampers to leak." Hmm, but i recall exactly using impact on top nut as advised by Vorschlag on camberplates to tighten that nut for coilovers & pillowball camberplates. https://youtu.be/2bab6x47CSs As if not properly tightened, bearing may clang and soon go bad, and if using other ways to prevent shaft from rotating, then it may get scraped and thus also damage to coilovers.

What? You want to say that TRD fuel cap won't make car faster?!! Blasphemy!

Lucas@PartBox: but then again adding turbo (not supercharging) muffles sound quieter.

1) Supposedly titanium should be lighter for same weight, 2) but it also often means double the price due higher material and harder to manufacture/weld costs, and more probable droning, exactly due thinner walls of tubing/muffler/resonators. There is little to be had performance wise from catbacks, so most choose by sound tone/loudness to one liking. So imho you should decide/clarify on what you want/expect, and choose which exhaust according that. If weight, then i guess Ti exhausts might be a choice .. but one will save a lot for eg. going single tip exhaust or even for single tip muffler-less track pipe. For sound volume/quality .. i'd certainly wouldn't get one without "listening it first". And more then preferably - in person (eg. going to some meet and trying to find someone with exhausts which one is interested in. Or with sound that one likes), as even something like youtube recordings do very shitty job to really show how loud some exhaust is or isn't and if it drones or not. Given higher price of Ti exhausts, if one will get lemon, not to one's liking, will hurt financially much more. I'd also be weary with other views on what's good or bad exhaust sound wise, as it's VERY subjective thing, both what is tolerable or not loudness wise, and what tone/sound one may like (or not).

Of course there are exceptions, and some dealerships are better then others even for non-standard requests/non-stock parts/more quality work. Even more so, i'm speaking of my personal experiences with official dealerships in other then UK country :). But still, i've heard complains about official dealerships of other carmakers too from my collegues/friends/relatives, so that was some generic impression i had arrived to based on personal experiences where i live.

Alignment rig alone by itself is not sufficient. It's just the tool for a job. There need to be competent workers to operate and doing right asked/wished job with it. Dealerships for example also have alignment rigs. But what good in it, if many dealership people are used to 1) only stock alignment, and refuse or don't know how to do non standard alignment if you wish more performance oriented for example, or if you have aftermarket parts, adjustment of which has own specific, which is not documented in their "official documentation/manual systems" 2) "stock alignment" often means also imho too wide allowed yet still passing ranges. 3) by chance at least from my experience dealerships also charge more Hence why good suspension (or in general "tuning") shops/workers are needed/preferable that both are more familiar with non standard stuff or non standard customer wishes and also often do more quality job (in nutshell - dial asked alignment more precise). To me dealerships are worth only for official warranty job/work/regular maintenance so that it is documented to keep resale value and eg. some bodywork/paintwork repair after crashes

Probably several hacks or shady garages may help pass .. but what interests me as to why for OP & Cerastes stock cat didn't work like for others. Heck, IIRC in some cases, though narrowly and maybe not by first try, but some passed even with aftermarket "high-flow" 2ndary cat. Now i cannot tell to others that leaving stock 2nd cat is 100% sure way to pass. My guesses were that either exhaust/cat wasn't heated up while waiting for test or stock cat being damaged or underperforming for whatever reasons, but would love to find out real reason/culprit. 3rd guess, is maybe if car engine idling w/o load lets cats cool off too much. Out of curiosity, Rob_86 & Cerastes: were emissions tested prior or after all the other tests like lights/suspension and so on? And others, who passed with header+catless, at which point of MOT inspection emissions were tested? Damn, need more statistical data of results & order of testing to even start drawing any conclusions

There shouldn't be much difference between catless aftermarket headers with relation to emissions imho. Not sure about ecu tunes though, as for those in some for usability/quietness reasons there might be cold starts tuned out. Though then again not sure if there is much difference between having cold starts or not if header is catless, but 2ndary header in downstream is much further from cylinders, and not sure if there would be difference after engine/exhaust are properly heated up. Rob_86: i wonder if TD may advise something in relation to MOT .. Meanwhile maybe even more emission test printouts of passed MOT with catless header may find way in here for more comparison? (and maybe also shortmention of which header/tune by whom)

I've heard several times mentioned in UK twins forums, that TD header+tune is good combo offering price/performancy wise. More then probable that they should also have most experience with tunes for their own header. See no reasons for getting tune separately and for extra cost, if their header is considered.

Hmm, IIRC many passed with stock 2ndary. How old your car is? Might there be some burning out of cat insides by age or abuse (eg. like using some "poping/cracking" ecu tune which may damage cats)? Or if it's 2016, from which testing station expects stringer emission numbers due it being supposedly EURO 6 emissions vehicle? Anyone from UK that had passed MOT emission tests with only 2nd stock cat willing to compare numbers from his printout to theirs?

You hadn't told what cats are still on your car left in addition to aftermarket header? Do you still have cats or went for full decat of both cat removals? Or stock frontpipe with stock cat? Or some aftermarket frontpipe with so-called "high flow cat"? If later, then it's often game of luck, with some pass, with some not, after all, right name for "high flow cat" would be "less effective less cell count cat" named high-flow because that sounds better, not because it's some magic cat that performs better then "normal cats". Emission cleanup efficiency exchanged for less flow resistance. With warmed up 2ndary stock cat most should pass emission test with ease. If 2ndary cat that's left is aftermarket "high-flow" one, put back stock frontpipe. If you didn't pass with stock secondary one, imho there might be some issue with it for it to not work at expected efficiency. Then you are at choices of getting somewhere replacement stock catted front pipe (hmm, no clue, where/how to get it for less at UK, some breaker yard with partout of totaled cars? some part-out classifieds at forums?), or eg. for MOT put stock catted header back to have at least primary cat working at full capacity.