₦airaland Forum

If naija roads are anything near to what we have here in Ghana;
(1) Land rover defender, discovery ( and its descendant)
(2) Toyota land cruiser or fj cruiser
(3) Nissan patrol
(4) any Jeep especially the Wrangler ( but NOT the Compass!)

My personal favorites are the Defender and the 1997ish -2008ish nissan patrol. On a lean budget though, just hop into a subaru legacy outback and cackle maniacally into the sunset!

Ikenna351: Thanks.

I will likely be in Enugu next week or so, and I plan to do the trip with the Baby. I love the aggressive way it drives, including that loud impressive noisy engine note it gives while on high speed.

Hmm! Life can be very sweet when you take charge of your life by making the right choices and decisions by yourself. 505 V6 was my first dream car. Believe me, it feels really good when a dream is achieved!


Ikenna

True talk, that!

Spent the better part of my morning drooling through your thread! Amazing journey there! I must admit I've never been to Nigeria though; seems the roads there are awesome! Back here in Ghana, even the road linking the two principal cities (Accra and Kumasi) degenerates into an unpaved dusty hell at some points; a dusty hell I'll have to tackle this Monday in my '03 Ford Focus Wagon!

Beautiful pics too! Come to think of it, I've never really seen your 'baby' before. For me, there are only few things more desirable than a well kept old school car!- the recent models are kinda......a bit like light tea. Kinda looking into buying and restoring a 1989 Mercedes-Benz W126 SEC, when the Cedi stops fooling around.

Thanks for sharing! Cheers!

I don't really like the bland shape of the 07-08ish camry, especially with its weird 'nose.' However I can't help but gape at the modified camrys here, especially OP's and the lowered one as well. They look.......AWESOME! Good job people!

pragmatistm: The car is still 154k plus. I removed the MAF and cleaned it with carburetor cleaner this morning but yet to observe its performance.

CVT tranny oil was recently changed & I used the NS1 oil. I also cleaned the air filter by carefully washing it.

Where are the speed sensors located and what maintenance is required on them?

Carburator cleaner? That stuff is way too strong for the delicate electricals found in the MAF! There is a dedicated MAF cleaner, which you'll find if you look hard enough. Anyways, I had the same problems so i cleaned out my throttle body with carburator cleaner and cleaned my MAF with 65% rubbing alcohol, which was because i couldn't find MAF cleaner where I am ! (Kumasi, Ghana). That fixed my lag problem. Check out this link https://www.nairaland.com/1810830/good-news-modern-car-owners

Cheers!

Hello there! Op, from your posts, i'm deducing its the s-type you are after. Contrary to some posts here, its actually a very reliable car. ......HOWEVER; I must be quick to state that its also very fussy when it comes to maintenance, fail to maintain it accordingly and with recommended parts and it will very quickly transform into hell on wheels for ya. Its kinda cheap though.....that price is more apt for an x type. Get someone who is at least versed in german margues to look it over for ya (yeah, its not a german car but complexity of its system is quite close).

Well, good luck!

Wow....i must admit, those guys are REALLY good! That recent gen sienna looked like it was pretty much done for!!

I can only wish it was the same case for the structural integrity.

Good job on revealing this to us!

Well, I finally took the plunge yesterday, rolled up my sleeves and got dirty. I kind of expected a mesh that transverses the entire vessel, however i just got some transistor thing sticking up in the middle. That, coupled with the fact I never really found pure paint thinner forced me to go to the nearest alternative, rubbing alcohol. The amount i had was hardly worthwhile to fill the industrial size sprayer i had so I had to make ado with Q tips, which admittedly was quite risky. I managed to regain their former gleam 10 minutes and half a packet of Q tips later.

While everything was apart, i took the oppotunity to clean up my throttle body with some carb cleaner i had hanging around.

Results? Well lets see....a cousin of mine who drove my car before the maf clean, drove it afterwards and nearly crashed it when she started it from the base of a steep incline!! She wailed that the car was soo sensitive!! Needless to say, power and response is at its max! will check the fuel economy later though-havent driven long enough. Im sure it will be better though!

Well, Blustreak, saying thanks will not be enough. God bless you sooo much!!

Razmuhy: Thanks.
But how do one check/confirm that the thermo is bad/faulty?

Its pretty easy. put the thermostat in a pot of boiling water. If you have a thermometer, make sure the temparature is the same as the thermo's rating. At this stage, u'll observe the themostat opening. When its fully open, quickly transfer it to a pot of cooler water: it will resume closed position. Any observation otherwise these may denote a bad thermostat.

Hello! please you'll have to be a bit specific....there are various trims, with different fuel guzzling capacities. Is the camry you are interested in being offered in I4 or v6 flavour. for the c180, is it a kompressor etc...etc? The mpgs of both models overlap so this info is very important.

Cheers!

Shut up and take my money already!!

Apart from sheetmetal work, and interior configuration, both are pretty much the same car so you'll be getting pretty much the same value for each car: as far as your points are concerned. However one of the trims of the matrix ( i think its the xrs...please look it up) comes with all-wheel drive which sacrifices a little fuel economy. Awd consists of a more complex powertrain so it has more potential to cause issues than your typical bread-and -butter matrix too .

So i guess your choice boils down to personal desire as well as the conditions of the cars you're after. Good luck!

silvoice: thanks, u are indeed a good teacher, by using real life situation to esplain it.

You're welcome!

Well, I'm doing 120km +on the highway in my 2008 l4 camry se and come up behind this ford bus...to overtake? there's a blind corner up ahead noow! Then i think to myself...'ah! i overtake toyota v8 jux naw, abi ford be little pikin make I ovatake am fast fast' So you brace yourself and move into the oncoming lane to overtake. Wait, what's that sound in the sunroof? that must be your common sense escaping for its dear life! Brimming with self confidence sans common sense you floor the gas, only to meet an equally speedy Hummer 2..............

Thats overconfidence

OK so you're now driving a lion 406 v6 prestige and you catch up with a massey fegurson tractor doing approximately 10 km/hr. you want to overtake but all the grisly pictures of overtaking gone wrong cross your mind and scare u to death! So you make up your mind to stay put, never mind it being a straight road with no oncoming in sight; never mind it being a six lane dual carriageway, never mind the cattle in the tractor ahead spewing fresh diarrhoea on your bonnet! You're not overtaking!!

Thats under confidence.

Yeah, i'd be rather underconfident than dead. However ideally, common sense and experience should lead you to excercise a healthy amount of confidence and discretion.

The thermo is probably bad. Even in that case he should just change it, not eliminate it! those truck engines are hideously expensive to replace so do let him know!

For all you know, the mechs are probably aware of this, however all those failing engines bring them steps closer to dat tokunbo Camry they have their eyes on! It may be a conspiracy!!!

Thanks so much!! Shall make this my little project....as soon as i get some paint thinner and a sprayer! If its in your power pls add ways by which we can clean our air filter too! thanks!

Ps, is paint thinner basically turpentine?

cne010: My problem with these mechanics once there is a problem they can't fix they blame the brainbox.

So true! Working with both foreign and indigenous mechs, i noticed the latter tend to replace the brainbox much more. funny thing is that they just pick up one thats probably the same model....and it ends there!

Finally i'm back! i've been looking for this thread for some time now! Guess the breakdown, or whatever it was had its few advantages!
Congrats sienna! You really make my evenings quite interesting! I was wondering, have u done the engine swap already? If not, i wouldda suggested you do it before you throw on a paint job, especially one as expensive as the one you may be using!

Here in Ghana, mechs kinda care less 'bout aesthetic factors when such jobs are done.....however if you are really confident in your mechs, dont mind me!

Cheers!