my new '06 highlander, ques and suggestions ?

Not trying to be a smartaleck but, most of your questions are answered in your owner's manual. Read through it and you'll be more enlightened on your wise choice of a Highlander. They got a "Most Reliable" rating for large SUV's on Consumer Reports. davidj92

It is not really necessary to drive easy. If you prefer to pamper your new Highlander, then drive easy until the newness wears off.

This is normal, it does not lessen after some miles. If you are worried about it, you can ask the dealer to show you another '06 Highlander for comparison.

Scotchguard works well, as do good fitting seat covers.

I am not an audiophile, listen to news radio most of the time so I am not a very good source for advice here.

The rear spoiler is more of a cosmetic accessory than a functional one although on our Sequoia, I've noticed that the rear window does have a slightly less dirty pattern that looks like an upside down windshield wiper sweep.

What kind of interior light are you looking for? If you are looking for a map light, auto parts stores sell ones with a gooseneck that plugs into the

12 volt socket.

Enjoy your new ride!

Not really "Easy", just don't do your imitation of Mario Andretti. You can floor it if you need to get out of the way of someone else or get up to speed on the freeway, but don't flog it continuously.

And on longer trips with a new car, vary the speeds constantly every few minutes, go hang out in the left lane at 75 for a few minutes, then slow down in the right lanes for a while, then go take the "Business Loop" surface street route through town and stop at the signals.

Don't set the cruise control and have the engine holding exactly

2,100 RPM for hours on end as you cross the entire Texas flatlands - that's bad for getting the rings to seat.

Normal to some degree on all cars. There has to be a little slop in the drive train, or it binds up. The Clunk is just the slop being taken up when you apply torque to the drivetrain, and you get another Clunk when you shift into reverse.

There are slip splines so the driveshaft can lengthen as the suspension travels that creates most of the Clunk, and a little slop in the U-Joints and between the gears in the transmission, transfer case, and rear axles. Sometimes curing the Clunk for a while is as easy as giving the slip splines a shot of grease.

What you have to listen for is when that Clunk starts getting a lot louder, most people get used to it through the years and don't notice changes. It might be a sign of normal aging, but it can also be an early sign of trouble that a mechanic should check out.

Anything you want - Scotchguard is good stuff, but buy a can and do it yourself - they want WAY too much money for it at the stealership.

Don't let them butcher the dashboard or the existing truck wiring harness installing the new radio - they have wiring adapters that plug into the truck harness, and mounting kits that fit in the existing dashboard hole.

If they cut up the car now, and you ever want to put it back to stock later to sell it (and keep your good radio bits) you'll be shocked at the price of interior panels and covers. You can spend $50 on a stupid radio surround trim, or several hundred on door panels.

You CAN find good speakers that will fit in the stock holes without a lot of trouble. They just want to sell you what they already have on the shelf and move the inventory. On the '84 truck the stock front speakers looked really odd, but a regular 4" speaker fits right in with a quick tin-snip snip to take off one mounting ear, and bending another mounting ear up about 15 degrees.

And stay with a major brand headend, they have realistic power ratings. If they start claiming 400 Watts in a dash mount headend, they're lying - yeah, 400W at 25% distortion. Any THD rating over 1% and you'll hear it, some people can hear far less. You want clean sound first, volume second.

Go look around at Camping World or any local RV Supply shop, a lot of what they have is 12-volt and very easily adaptable to cars and trucks with a bit of planning on how to mount it without butchery to your car's interior. And they have trained installers who can put them in without a lot of fuss if you can't.

I took the two stock dome lights out of my LandCruiser and put in triple units, each with a dome light and two bullet reading lights with #194 lamps. (And I added a matching rocker switch on the side of the front-seat light to cut off both dome lights like the stock units had.) Or you can leave the stock dome light and put the reading lights separate.

Make an aluminum or plywood mounting adapter plate so you can use the existing screw mounting points for the old dome light - and make reversal to the stock lights again easy without leaving holes in the headliner. Again, you don't want to find out how much it costs to have a replacement headliner installed...

Same goes with plugging tab crimp connectors into the existing stock dome-light harness socket to connect the new reading lights, or using "vampire tap" connectors, rather than chopping the socket off - you might need it again someday to hook up a stock dome light. ( And don't use over-long screws and go through the roof...)

If you want a light where there's nothing to mount it to, you can always drop the headliner and epoxy a piece of plywood to the body steel. Or make an aluminum strip stock bar that stretches across the gap and screws to the roof ribs on either side. Or both.

On my old pickup, I left the stock dome light over the rear-view mirror and mounted a double 15W Thin-Lite fluorescent over the back window - Lots Of Light. But I had to leave it in when I sold the truck because of the whole 'holes in the headliner' issue.

Need to do that on the Work Van, and no headliner to worry about...

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ha ha ... made me read the manual

i may be more enlightened but 1 answer out of 6 questions hardly qualifies as most

robb

with answers.

5k ?

to pamper your new

when i bought new honda 10 years ago it was recommended no hot rodding and not over 60 on Hwy for 1 st 2500 miles, it was difficult but i made up for it when i hit 2500 :) now at

197k

I plan to keep it a while so i just want to maximize it's useful life

shift into

suppose as tranny

you are worried

Highlander for

yea thats what i was thinking too it does not seem as bad now, i think it's probably because i drive a stick and i am not used to the auto tranny feel

3M Scotchguard ,

Scotchguard is what i am familiar with, just realized can do seat covers because i have the side seat airbags so seat cover become a hazzard, though i would have probably gone that route if i could

speakers

tinny no fine

speakers or setup ?

stuff ?

time so I am not a

neither am i unless audiophile is alternate name for "picky about your sound"

Factory installed

noise ?

functional one

does have a

windshield wiper

I just wnated to look cool or is it kool or maybe qewl well thats how un-cool i am

are looking for a

that plugs into the

i was thinking about the interior light factory option, lights up floor board space when you open door or turn on overhead or something like that for easier entry/exit and to see what if anything you may have left on floor or dropped etc.

it has been great so far

I highly recommend any one shopping for a car to rent/borrow what you are seriously looking at a buy , for a day/wknd/week, i probably would not have considered a highlander if i had not rented one for week vacation and liked it and have no remorse or surprises with this one (so far)

I've driven well over a hundred new Toyotas as company cars, keeping 40 or

50 of them to 12,000 miles. Several friends and relatives bought those cars from the dealerships I sold them to, and they had no problems with them. One recently got rid of one of them, an '86 Celica with 350,000 miles.

I never did anything special to my new cars, just got in and drove. In fact, every car is tested on a dyno at the assembly line. The first time the engine is started after the car is complete, it is driven on to a dyno and bout 15 or 20 seconds after it is first started, it is drivn to 75 MPH for a couple of minutes. The factory would not be doing that if it was detrimental to the car.

An automatic idles at higher RPM than a manual transmission so the "thunk" is more pronounced.

I consider an audiophile as someone who is pick about sound. To me, the problem with audio systems is that they tend to sound better as you spend more money. If you are comparing systems, the sky is the limit. Your best bet is to pick a price range and listen to several. Crutchfields has adapter harnesses so you don't have to butcher the factory harness, which can be close to a thousand dollars to replace.

In that case, the dealer-installed spoiler is probably good enough.

Bruce suggested a camper supply store for an inexpensive dome light. Auto parts stores sell a hockey-puck size dome light that you can mount under the dash if you are looking for an inexpensive alternative.

I have several friends with Highlanders, they are all pleased with them.

and thanks for feedback

you did get me to read the manual more quickly than i might have

robb

thanks for the replies, more below

350 k with no major engine rebuild/replace and just usual standard maintenence would be great and that longevity seems to be a selling point of those japanese cars

i have a friend who is the "only buy US mfg cars" type, and in the 10 year i had my honda they've been through 3 US mfg cars and now on 4th, maybe its operator error but its hard to invest alot of money into a car i can not rely on past 100-150k

[snip some]

thats what i will be looking for

thanks again for info and responses

robb

thats exactly what i was thinking about, i read the part in manual that says do not drive at single speed for long periods of time but never really defined long period of time; 20 minutes, 45 mins, 1 hour ??

but your suggestion seems good in my amateur shade tree mechanic, bailing wire engineer mind

probably not a problem then, per your first comment but... i'll keep watching (listening out) for changes and maybe compare to another new highlander we have lemon laws here that give dealer 3 tries to fix same problem

yes indeed, "Toyoguard (TY70) $699" one dealer kept trying to tell me (before dealer took delivery of car) that it could not be removed, and the option probably had not even been installed yet

apparently they scotch guard, rubber coat wheel wells, etch glass ?

booyah, been there, never go back

ah yes a mounting kit sounds exactly like what i need, do you know any brands that people like better than others ? or really hate ?

i am trying to figure out where Toyota puts those 8 speakers they claim to have in one of their radio option upgrades, i guess some panel replaced which has a speaker mount ( at least that was how it was w/my honda)

probably go pioneer DEH series 5500/6500, I installed a deh2500 in my wifes car (a simple drop in) it was better than stock radio but sounded much better than i expected

you modded a landcruiser, seemed like those rides had everything

and you've answered a question i was planning to ask about, those sorry rear dome lights. they put two bullet/individual lights in the front but the rear seat is just big dome, Toyota could have put some privacy reading lights there as well, so i will be looking for your recommended solution, hopeful;ly i can find something that will not require much fabrication to install

I am in that same camp of thought, i would rather take little extra time/effort so that i can revert easily

well for the '06 that will get a quick veto from the honey or long residence in the doggy house but i like thinking out of the box

Thanks for lots of good ideas to consider and implement

robb

If your car has side curtain airbags you can't use seat covers unless they are designed for the airbags.

My highlander does have side seat airbags , so i can not use seat covers, though was not aware they designed some for side airbags ??

There are some sheepskin covers that have "break-a-way" stitching so that they will not interfere with the deployment of the airbags

Scotchguard

You're a good Toyota owner, trying to enlighten yourself by self-help. For that reason you should be able to get a lot of help from this ng.

1. Breakin periods are usaullly appx 1000 miles. You don't want to go over

50 mph and no constant speeds during that period. A few hard or even full throttle accelerations up to that 50 mph are good as this helps rings and bearings to set. If you are as particular as a lot of others you may want to change the oil and filter somewhere between 1K and 1.5K.

1. I don't notice a clunk on my Camry but my Tundra does. Probably due to it having a driveshaft with U-joints. It's not unusually loud, if yours gets loud(er) I would ask dealer to check it.

2. Scotchguard is the only protection I've used and it's good. There are others I'm sure are just as good. Do you know a detailer you trust? Might have a suggestion.

That's the end of my expertise. :-) Good luck, davidj92