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Old 09-07-2022, 03:08 AM   #1
Carpento
 
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Drives: 2006 Yaris
Join Date: Feb 2022
Location: The Netherlands
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My 2006 Yaris (Carpento)

Let me show my Yaris as well

I bought my Yaris in february this year. I had to find a new car as my previous one (a '99 Subaru Impreza Plus, with the N/A 1.6 liter boxer) turned out to be worn out in many aspects. The very honest specialist mechanic advised me not to invest any single euro into it. Well, I took his advice for granted and started searching for a successor. After some comparisons between different cars I went looking for a 2006(-ish) Corolla. However, the second hand car dealership where I had bought all my cars so far did not have any Corolla available at that moment. I know the owner quite well and after some casual talking he asked me if I would like to test drive the 2006 Yaris he had received in shortly before.

After some persuasion I made a test drive and was pretty surprised how well that little car drove. The rest of the story is easily guessed

When I bought my Yaris it was on 17" alloys, in matte black. Given the fact that I almost never like black alloys, especially not when they are quite on the large side, I knew what step to take first: find decent rims. From my previous car I had 4 Vredestein Quatrac all-season tires in 205/50 R16 left over (only a year old, no more than 15k kilometers driven). So the challenge turned out to be: find nice rims which are 6J wide and fit the hub size and bolt pattern of the Yaris. That was easier said than done. Anything I was able to find which came from a Yaris only was 5J or 5,5J wide. Shopping at the larger models of Toyota did not help much either: most of them have a 5x100 bolt pattern.

I was greatly helped by somebody on a Dutch internet forum (not primarily about cars) who bought a rusty 2003 Corolla T-Sport to swap that engine to his MR2 project. The body and other parts went for sale and that way I got hold of five fairly immaculate 16" rims which fit the Yaris perfectly. Needless to say that those provide a more comfortable ride and I like the looks a lot more.

After that first upgrade (or maybe downgrade, depends on your opinion) I went on to the next tiny issue which bothered me. The gear knob of the Yaris tends to wear out. The paint rubs off after some use and the than uncovered plastic yellows incredibly fast. Super ugly but the most gear knobs I was able to find on scrap yards faced the same issue. I think that has to do with the fact that Yarises are most used for city traffic, involving frequent gear changes, and therefore heavier wear on the gear knob. Luckily I found a decent gear knob of a crashed Avensis. That has a dark grey color but I like that even more, it matches perfectly with the heater controls in my car. And it fits in without an issue.

With the rims of a Corolla and the gear knob of an Avensis I spotted some trend: mounting parts of other Toyota models I continued that trend by swapping the wiper stalk for one of a second generation Prius (to add the dial to set the wiping interval).

The car dealership where I bought my car had an anniversary which was celebrated with an open day for all customers, complete with some demonstrations. One of that was a demo of spot repair being done. For that demo customers could sign in to have little dents fixed for free (for the sake of having something to show, obviously). I took part with my Yaris and therefore got rid of a nasty dent in the hood and some parking damage in the left passenger door. For free, so needless to say I was happy enough with that.

The most recent upgrades had to do with the audio system. The integrated audio is pretty OK in terms of sound quality but lacked a carkit, no modern media storage, and so on. After some searching I went for a Sony XAV-AX5650 head unit.

But never be satisfied too early. My Yaris steering wheel lacked the controls for voice and calls. No wonder, as the original head unit did not have those functionality at all. I could have swapped the wheel with one out of a Yaris which actually had the controls on the right side too but those wheels are quite rare and (after some research) I went a different route. How about the wheel of an Auris, with 9 buttons in total.

Next challenge: find an Auris wheel with all the controls (in the Netherlands lots of Auris were delivered without phone controls as well) including an intact airbag. That's the tough part: it seems in the Netherlands Toyotas only get to the scrap yard when totaled. And totaled cars most often have their airbags popped out, unsurprisingly. Nevertheless, I managed to find one and that appeared to be a perfect fit. With the Sony head unit steering wheel control is easy to get working. You can assign the buttons to the functions of the radio super easy so that saved me a lot of headache. Only thing was that the DISP-button did not respond. After some investigation I understood why. That button is strictly seen not for audio control. It therefore connects to a different wire in the loom. That particular wire is not connected in the Yaris so I took out the soldering iron and a 2ct resistor to connect it to the available wires. After that the DISP-button was working with the head unit nicely. (I assigned it to 'Source select' however).

Latest addition is a reverse camera, which is connected to the head unit. I took the extra mile and added a three way switch to be able to activate the camera manually, shut it down completely or have it being switched by the reverse light. Furthermore I added a tiny PCB with a delayed relay. This keeps the camera on for a few seconds even if the reverse light already is off. Very useful when you need to manoeuvre a few times. I think I will replace the camera with a better one shortly. Mainly because of the current viewing angle being a little too tight and night performance being somewhat poor. On the well known Chinese sites I already saw some examples of cameras integrated in the rear plate lighting assembly. That looks nice to me, so I think that will be the first next upgrade.

In the future I would really like to have cruise control installed but with the European ECU that's not as easy as it is with the US ECU, unfortunately. Maybe I will use an aftermarket set but modify it to use the original Toyota stalk, to keep the looks (somewhat) OEM, as far as that is possible after all my part swaps :P
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Last edited by Carpento; 09-07-2022 at 03:28 AM.
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Old 09-07-2022, 04:12 PM   #2
sh0rtlife
 
Drives: 2007 5dr canadian import
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stupid question but can you use the canadian ECU to get CC?..guess it would really depend on what engine youve got
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Old 09-07-2022, 04:13 PM   #3
sh0rtlife
 
Drives: 2007 5dr canadian import
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wait a second...

i see 2 power window switches and yet..youve got 4 windows..so which ones are power the fronts or the rears?
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Old 09-08-2022, 05:17 AM   #4
Carpento
 
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Drives: 2006 Yaris
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Location: The Netherlands
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Originally Posted by sh0rtlife View Post
stupid question but can you use the canadian ECU to get CC?..guess it would really depend on what engine youve got
I have the 2SZ-FE engine (1.3 litre Petrol). I think that was never sold in Canada, or was it ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by sh0rtlife View Post
wait a second...

i see 2 power window switches and yet..youve got 4 windows..so which ones are power the fronts or the rears?
The front windows are the powered ones. For the rears you have to set yourself to work, turning them up and down manually. I'm lucky to be always seated up front
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Old 09-08-2022, 10:06 PM   #5
sh0rtlife
 
Drives: 2007 5dr canadian import
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Location: pacific north WET
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Originally Posted by Carpento View Post
I have the 2SZ-FE engine (1.3 litre Petrol). I think that was never sold in Canada, or was it ?


The front windows are the powered ones. For the rears you have to set yourself to work, turning them up and down manually. I'm lucky to be always seated up front
honestly i love the manual windows up front....the issue is that when wanting the rears down..or even open just a little its quite the chore to deal with them at speed

but the sight of the switches made me realize i dont need all 4 to be power..i could just use a 3dr switch plate and prius motors on the rears and be done with it

as for the 1.3 yeah that never left europe..however.....id bet you could get an ecu off ebay from just about any country for a reasonable price
heck i wonder if a tuner can "unlock" the CC
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Old 09-28-2022, 08:07 PM   #6
Flubby
 
Drives: 2015 Yaris
Join Date: Aug 2022
Location: Florida
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carpento View Post
I have the 2SZ-FE engine (1.3 litre Petrol). I think that was never sold in Canada, or was it ?


The front windows are the powered ones. For the rears you have to set yourself to work, turning them up and down manually. I'm lucky to be always seated up front
I miss this
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Old 10-26-2022, 07:57 AM   #7
Carpento
 
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Drives: 2006 Yaris
Join Date: Feb 2022
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carpento View Post
I think I will replace the camera with a better one shortly. Mainly because of the current viewing angle being a little too tight and night performance being somewhat poor. On the well known Chinese sites I already saw some examples of cameras integrated in the rear plate lighting assembly. That looks nice to me, so I think that will be the first next upgrade.
At least, that turned out a little bit different.

You might buy something like this:



Easy enough, but I do not like it so much.
  • As the single bulb is exactly in the center the designers of this bracket decided to move the camera some bit to the right. I have the tow hook visible on the rear view camera and I know I could not stand that being (although just slightly) off-center.
  • The single bulb does not provide very much light, just sufficient. However, in The Netherlands you can choose to have plates with plastic lettering attached to it (instead of just a stamped aluminium plate). Those letters are sticking out quite a bit, leading to shadows, and therefore a less readable plate in the dark.
  • And if that's not enough yet, with this bracket the camera might throw a shadow on the right side of the plate, as it partially obstructs the lighting.

So, what to do ? I was not able to find any bracket which addressed these issues, left with no other choice than making one myself.

Ordered two LED-lights destined for a first-gen Aygo and the better camera I already wanted. Then took out my calipers and went crazy on measuring the existing OEM bracket. After that I spent quite some time in Sketchup and set my 3D printer to work:



Not much to my surprise the first version did not fit good enough so went through the process of measuring again, editing the design, print a next prototype and repeat until satisfied (in the end I printed 6 or 7 iterations). The final design was printed in ASA (Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate) which is a type of plastic that is more resistant to heat and does not detoriorate due to UV light.



And the final result:



Yes, those LED-lights are insanely bright. Let's say the camera does not really need night vision

It is too bright to my liking but solving that is not so easy. Weirdly enough in The Netherlands there are no rules regarding how bright your plate lighting might be. The only thing is that it may not be blinding and that is not the case. On the other hand there are a few rules prohibiting covering or painting the mandatory lights on your car. Otherwise I could have tinted the units to dim them a little bit.

But I think I will leave it this way
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Old 10-27-2022, 02:01 PM   #8
sh0rtlife
 
Drives: 2007 5dr canadian import
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: pacific north WET
Posts: 1,025
so the trick is to add a layer of thin white transperant plastic in there..it will "dim" them but not tint them...and it gets around any laws regarding "paint and tint" as it can be considered part of the lamp assembly

i useualy use something similar to ultra thin lexan that comes in a matte finish..but you can use lexan and sand it with 200grit..it will difuse the light and take the "edge" off of them being crazy bright..sign companys have empolyed this trick for decades

you just have to figure out how to open up the assembly to get it between the led's and the lense
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Old 10-30-2022, 08:10 AM   #9
Carpento
 
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Drives: 2006 Yaris
Join Date: Feb 2022
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by sh0rtlife View Post
so the trick is to add a layer of thin white transperant plastic in there..it will "dim" them but not tint them...and it gets around any laws regarding "paint and tint" as it can be considered part of the lamp assembly

i useualy use something similar to ultra thin lexan that comes in a matte finish..but you can use lexan and sand it with 200grit..it will difuse the light and take the "edge" off of them being crazy bright..sign companys have empolyed this trick for decades

you just have to figure out how to open up the assembly to get it between the led's and the lense
Could have had been an option but I am totally not sure how these units are glued together in the factory. Getting them open might break them and even if I managed to get them open undamaged it would have been questionable if I were able to glue them back together so that it would hold and be water tight as well.

So in the end I went for painting the lights with special paint for this purpose (Motip Backlight Spray) and put on quite a few coats. When the lights are off the units look almost completely black but with the lights on at night the result is not too bad. It still is a bit brighter than the original single bulb but it does not look so much overdone.


Image is clickable for enlarged view.
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