More DIY guides if you want them
 

Since I have had my car (back in September 2012) I have done various DIY projects and documented them.

I will go to the effort to upload them providing there is enough interest from the members. Examples are:

1. Fitting an oil temp gauge that fits in place of the driver side (RHD) speaker grill (temporary and completly reversable)

2. Fitting an HKS oil cooler (Tech's way not HKS method). This however spans some 19 pages so there will have to be a huge amount of interest to justify the effort and basically carries on from the oil temp gauge doc.

3. Upgrading the rear speakers, because they are totally USELESS!

4. Fitting an LED glove box light......, just because I wanted one.

Just state which one you are most interested in.

I vote for all three!

I would really appreciate the oil cooler install. could you post some pictures?

Simple instructions for a glove box light:

Remove stereo surrounds + adjacent plastic slab.

Remove the 4 10mm screws for the stereo, pull stereo out.

Locate the dimmer and ground wires in the harness for the stereo.

Tap each wire and connect something like one of these to the respective wires.

Most of those strips come with a sticky side so you can stick it where ever you'd like.

Now when you turn on your lights, there will be a light in the glove box. If you want it on all the time, tap the 12v instead of the dimmer.

Job done.

Did mine differently and works independent of the lights. Only requires ACC or ignition to be on. Plus I installed a switch so the light switches off automatically when the glove box is closed. Only requires the removal of the glove box itself to fit and the dash panel above it. I didn't have to remove the stereo.

Looking at my poll I have running, the oil cooler is leading so it looks like you will get your wish.

Oil Cooler... will be getting this done eventually.

"Teaser" pictures of the above projects:

Looks great! Give us all of them. The community needs more people like you.

Thanks. looks like the cooler is streaking ahead and was about to upload it as a zip file because it is a large document. (19 pages) I will go through and compress the pictures to get the size down. Stay tuned! I will upload the others first because they are smaller.

Attached is a zip file of how I installed the HKS oil cooler to my GT86. It is not a step by step guide, but I think it is still well explained enough to give you a "heads up" on what your in for.

Use it as a guide and you may want to it your own way. If you do, then you should upload and share with us what you did and why.

I have not installed it as per the HKS instructions because I don't agree with where they want you to place it. To my way of thinking there is not enough air flow, which is what I did what I did.

The cooler has been in for 2 months now and the hottest temp on track so far (in the summer) is 100deg C. I have also found the car to idle and just generally run smoother when the engine is warmed up on the road than it did before. Typical road use temp is between 80 - 90 Deg C with a combination of normal and spirited driving. The water temp has not been affected either way regardless of how you drive.

Hope you find it useful or at least interesting.

Here is the document for the rear speaker upgrade. This is not for the faint hearted! It requires some cutting of your inside rear panels and some soldering, but in my opinion the effort is worth it. Plus you don't need to spend a fortune if you want some better sound. If you are an audio purest, into amps and sub woofers, then don't even bother looking because this is not for you.

Hi Tech,
Your ZIP files appear to not be correct as impossible to open (error message)
Please verify as your work is very interesting. Thank you

Just checked, by downloading the files from this forum and they open fine. These were zipped up using the built in ability in windows 7. Once opened they contain pdf files which can be displayed in Adobe reader.