An Iq Called Toya

[craggle]

Hi David

I bought it through eBay from this chap.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161105586405

The bar itself worked out at £207.15 and I paid the import duty at the same time as eBay seems to be able to do that now so it saves some time when it arrives in this country.

Import duty and postage was £82.93 so the total came to £290.08

Not cheap I know but I wanted one ever since Taz posted pictures of one and I tried some places in the UK to get TRD items but this is a USA, TRD item and no one seemed to import them. I'm guessing they don't make them now either seeing as the cars are not being made so thought I'd get one while I can.

I'll fit it soon and let you know if I can feel any difference whatsoever. :)

Craig.

[tarquin]

Brilliant!!

David

[craggle]

Well, Such a nice day yesterday it seemed rude not to spend some time with the iQ. :)

This is something I've been wanting to do for ages now and I think the results are well worth the effort.

After a fair bit of research and measuring of badges in the local Toyota dealer I found that the rear Badge from a new Yaris is the same size as the rear Badge on the iQ and the front Badge from a new Prius is the same size as the front badge on the iQ.

Who cares you say, well, both the Prius and the Yaris are available as hybrid vehicles which means they both get the lovely blue Toyota badges.

With some careful pulling the rear badge is removed from the car, The area is all cleaned up then de-greased with panel wipe and the new Yaris badge is stuck in it's place. Even the pins on the new badge line up with the holes in the boot lid so it's a direct replacement.

The front badge is a bit more involved as it's supplied on a black background for the Prius so I carefully unclipped and removed the chrome part and the blue printed sheet from the backing moulding. Masking tape was then applied to the surface of the black plastic backing, the holes were marked on the tape then this was transferred to the recess on the iQ bumper. Once the three square holes are drilled and trimmed out with a scalpel the new badge can be clipped in place.

The plastic on the bumper is thinner than the black plastic backing plate so I removed the front bumper from the car and applied some quick drying epoxy to the pins on the back while holding the badge in place with clamps. Once refitted to the car you can't see the adhesive and it's a more positive fixing than the clips alone.

What do you think?

Craig.

[craggle]

And....

The TRD rear anti-roll bar was fitted following the instructions provided. It was pretty straight forward to be honest, fitted perfectly and the new front roll bar bushes were fitted as well.

Only trick on the rear bar is to make sure it's centralised across the car as it can be slid side to side in the axle bar mounting before the clamps are tightened up. I used a tape measure and measured from the bar to the wheel rim to get it centred, seemed to work.

For the front you just jack the car up, take the wheels off, remove the little plastic panel over the roll bar, undo the 4 bolts and lift the bar up to slide the old bushes out. Clean up the area and the brackets, grease the bar and slide the new bushes into place then bolt back up.

Very easy fit with minimal tools required but it does make a difference. Car now seems to lift less on the front under acceleration and cornering is definitely flatter and the car does feels tighter and more predictable on the corners. I also had bit of a drumming sound over bumps but that has gone so now wondering if the front anti-roll bar bushes were getting worn anyway and the replacements have made the difference.

Not a cheap upgrade but if you do buy one, you will notice the difference. :)

Craig.

[tarquin]

Excellent work Craig. Whats the cost of the new badges? Please

David

[craggle]

Hi David

I found the front Badge on eBay and paid £18.78 for it plus 3.99 postage. Not sure how much they are from the dealer though, didn't enquire.

The rear Badge I got from the local dealer and that was £22.90

Not cheap but my badges were getting a bit tired anyway, the front one had sustained a stone chip and the chrome plate on the rear one seemed to be peeling in a couple of places so fancied changing them anyway. :)

Craig.

[tarquin]

They look great!!

David

[craggle]

Well, Another mod took place today.

Well, Fitted today, it's taken some time in the planning and build of it.

In my previous cars I've always enjoyed changing the radio unit to something a bit better, Keep up with technology, better sound quality, more options to play with etc. but the standard, built in CD player in the iQ always felt a bit basic to me. It's very built in though so what can you do I hear you cry, Well, Read on.....

I purchased another radio unit from an accident damaged iQ on eBay for £40. It came complete in the plastic housing with the radio unit still fitted to it. An interesting thing to note is the radio behind the plastic housing is a standard Din size radio so I bought myself a Pioneer CD, DAB, unit and fitted it to the same brackets as the existing unit, Even the screw holes lined up. I then cut the plastic housing and made a new plastic fascia surrounding the radio and fibre glassed it all into place.

After a few coats of filler and lots of sanding it was painted a similar grey to the old unit and fitted into place.

It seems to work fine except I can't find anything on DAB at the minute? I got a steering wheel control adapter too so they still work and it sounds much better than the old unit. I have more photos and have the part numbers of cables, adapters etc. if anyone else fancies having a go.

Craig.

[craggle]

Result, Took the radio back out to investigate the lack of reception on digital radio and I think I hadn't plugged the DAB aerial socket in fully. Gave it a good shove and it clicked into place and all the radio stations appeared. They sound pretty clear too, never listened to DAB before but the quality seems very good. Will see how it goes when driving. :)

Craig.

[iQ-Chris]

Wow, Craig. That's amazing. What a professional job. The finish is perfect and I don't think anybody other than an iQ aficionado would realise it isn't a factory fit.

Does it sound much better than before?

Chris

iQ² ☆ black with red leather ☆ upgraded interior lighting ☆ white backlit dashboard/switches ☆ auto-folding mirrors ☆ smart entry ☆ auto-locking doors ☆ chrome exhaust ☆

[Soeley]

Excellent job there Craig, well done indeed. It is an idea I toyed with when I first got my iQ (nearly 4 years ago now), but to be honest I am quite happy with the sound. It is much better than my wifes Grande Punto anyway.

Good work though, well worth the effort :)

[tarquin]

Excellent!!! Work Craig. One question. Does it have some kind of data out to feed the oddometer window to display frequency and presets etc

David

[craggle]

Hi David

No, The digital display next to the speedo cluster no longer displays any radio information. The top section of the display is now blank like it is when the radio is switched off. The lower section still displays the MPG, Trip miles and clock as before.

The steering wheel controls work as before except on the old radio you moved the joystick on the wheel left and right to skip forward and back a track and you held it left or right to skip the album on a CD recorded with MP3 files.

Holding the joystick over though now makes the track fast forward or rewind rather than skip the album. Preferred the old function myself.

Do you know anything about DAB aerials? The radio comes with a stick on the screen DAB antenna which I have stuck horizontally across the top of the screen. Reception is somewhat dubious? I'm thinking of changing the roof aerial to a split FM / DAB amplified one but not sure if it will improve matters?

Craig.

[tarquin]

The original aerial is already pre-amped. The original aerial is used from 522khz to 108mhz although it isn't really an arrial but a nominal length of wire coiled helically under the rubber. If you look at the installation instructions for the DAB add on, you will see its a taped on aerial on the screen. The frequency is around 220mhz ( old 405 line black and white TV frequencies). Check on line for your area for DAB reception in and around your area. To be fair i dont like DAB i prefer to stream the stations i like from all over the world rather than having someone select the ones they think i like due to them paying the most for the liscence

David

[tarquin]

The trouble with DAB is like the old days of mobile phones which were analogue in transmission and you could still hear the other party until they faded into the distance. Now with didital mobile phones, as soon as you drop below a certain threshold, it simply cuts off. FM Radio (analogue) is listenable to the very end, whereas DAB has a preset threshold and cuts off dead so you cant hear the artifacting noise of poor bit rates caused by low signal. In a poor coverage area. The stations will keep cutting out and re-connecting all the time. The government want everyone off the "FM" band so they can sell it hence pushing DAB. Infact the quality isn't even up to CD quality. Remember you will NEVER beat Analogue Radio or TV for quality using Digital techniques. Hence people are returning to vinyl.

David

[craggle]

I have a fairly varied selection of vinyl and a good old Technics SL1700 turntable. Bought some new vinyl recently too, latest one was Pink Floyd's Division bell, Sounds fantastic on brand new vinyl.

All I need now is a valve amplifier.... :)

I have ordered an external replacement DAB / FM antenna for the roof of the car. It seems to come out very well on most on-line reviews and tests I could find so will fit that later in the week and see how it fares. Many reviewers say the small stick in the window aerials are not very good on reception and to be honest, I didn't like the look of it in the window. The roof mounted version will look far more original.

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_DRA-6003_FM-AM_DAB_car_aerial.html

According to DAB coverage sites we should have good quality reception so I think a new antenna will assist.

I'll report back once it's fitted. :)

Cheers

Craig.

[vox]

Hi Guys, I'm still here.

I had a DAB radio in my old Smart car. I made an aerial out of an amplified windscreen aerial stuck to a strip of perspex. This was mounted under the front panel (what would normally be the bonnet)

vertically with a slight lean back as that was the only way it could fit. A Smart front end is all plastic, so a good signal was able to get through. Of course, the IQ is mostly metal, so unless you get inventive, I can't see how an aerial of this type can be fitted. DAB aerials need to be vertical with a slight rake as on the windscreen to get the best possible signal.

The amplified roof aerial should fill these parameters and hopefully you will get DAB stations. Don't expect too much, DAB is very patchy and you will probably get that horrible burbling sound, or nothing now and again. Best of luck with it craggle, when it works, it sounds very good.

Vox.

[craggle]

Well, Never thought fitting a new aerial would be so much work but after dismantling half the interior of the car to get at the underside of the roof aerial I managed to remove the old one and fit the new Kinetic DRA-6003 DAB antenna.

This involved running a new DAB cable, a new FM cable and a small power cable from the aerial to the back of the stereo. The power cable is connected to the ignition controlled live supply to the radio and turns on the inbuilt amplifier when the car ignition is turned on.

The difference is incredible! I found lots more stations than I had before and now reception is perfect as far as I can tell. I drove home from my parents house where my tools and garage are to my house and Absolute 80's didn't break up or drop out once! :)

Not a cheap aerial at £50 but money well spent for decent reception.

Craig.

[vox]

Nice one Craig,

The good quality roof aerials obviously work well. My old Smart has a toughened glass roof, so a decent aerial was out of the question. the plastic bit at the back was too small to fit one there.

[craggle]

A mixed weekend of highs and lows....

First of all the good stuff. I fitted an under-seat sub to compliment my new stereo. It was a fairly straight forward install, A fused lead from the Battery to the seat, a remote power lead and an RCA cable from the head unit to the seat as well. My new head unit has sub outputs on the back so no need to tap into the speaker connections.

The sub itself is about tissue box size and it fits very snug under the drivers seat and I used self adhesive velcro on the back of it to stick it to the carpet. There is a small control unit also velcro'd on the centre console which allows you to adjust the volume and the cross over frequency but once it's set that could be hidden under the seat as well to be honest.

It really makes a difference without being overpowering. You're not going to win any sound-off competitions with it but as an addition to the standard Speakers, it really makes a difference.

Now for the low bits, As I was fitting the sub I walked around the back of the car and noticed some dirt on the rear corner of the bumper. I tried to clean it off and discovered it's been scuffed by another car! I used cutting polish on the area and it cleaned a lot up but still has two areas through to the black plastic underneath. Fortunately the bumper itself looks undamaged, nothing has been moved and the mud flap underneath is undamaged so just the paint. I've contacted one of these smart repair companies to see if they can re-paint the area for me.

Craig.

[Soeley]

Nice one on the Sub, Not so nice on the bumper :(

Is the Sub just for more base?

[tarquin]

Lets hope you haven't got any loose fillings Craig. Gutted for you withthat bumper mate

David

[craggle]

Yes, The sub is just for the low frequency sounds so bass only. It has a built in filter that filters out the high frequency so the speaker cone only gets the low bits.

If a normal car speaker is going to distort it will do it at the low end of the frequency so hopefully you can reduce the bass on the door Speakers and let the sub take the load.

I'm not really one for driving around with the windows down and the stereo blaring away, just like a bit of bass occasionally.

Craig.

[tarquin]

Looks good Craig

David

[craggle]

Small update

The car has been booked in with a local smart repair company to have the scratched rear bumper re-painted. I had a go at disguising it myself with paint but no, it's still very obvious so decided to pay the £100 to get it done properly.

I had a headlight bulb fail the other day so as I carry a spare I replaced it soon as I noticed it and then looked for a replacement bulb. After reading another thread here I decided to order some GP Thunder 9012 (HIR-2) 8500k bulbs from eBay and fitted them this evening.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161368279587

They are very blue in comparison to the old bulbs. I haven't driven the car yet but will be interesting to see what the difference is like and if I constantly get flashed by others. The pattern looks the same as the original ones which is good but just the colour has changed.

I'll report back after I've driven a few times in the dark.

Here is an image of the fence in front of my parking space with the new bulb in the right hand side and the original bulb in the left.

Craig.