Some 07 Camry SE questions...

[costanza]

1- Can you do anything to change the color of the dash lights from blue to green? Is the blue color from the bulbs or is the plastic tinted blue? If the latter, would yellow bulbs result in green color?

2- Will these 06 Lexus GS300 wheels fit my 06 Camry SE?





3- Does the 07 SE Camry have a modified "sport" transmission ECU as compared to the other non-SE Camrys?

4- If my objective was for my rear wheels to stick out about 1/2" more than they do, what is "better", getting wider rear wheels/tires (resulting in staggered setup), or using 1/2" spacers on the rear wheels (where all 4 wheels are the same width)?

Thanks!

[sigmund]

1. Not really sure if Toyota uses colored bulbs or if the color is from the plastic. My experience with other cars in the past is that the bulbs are usually clear and the color comes from the plastic. If that is the case then bulb covers can be purchased & placed on the bulbs which will change the color of the dash lighting.

2. Those wheels should fit the Camry.

3. As far as I know the transmisson is the same for all Camrys with the v-6.

4. A staggered setup on a fwd car will increase understeer and thereby make the handling worse. I'm not a big fan of spacers myself. I would just recommend getting wider wheels all around. An 8.5" whhel with 35mm offset will fill the wheel wells out nicely.

[costanza]

Thanks for the response.
I prefer not to put wider wheels on the front because the stock tires' outside edge is already lined up with outside edge of the quarter panel. I can't stand the look of front wheels so wide that they stick out. Unfortunately, the stock rear tires don't line up with the edge of the quarter panel and look like they should stick out a little more. The body kit makes this look even worse. Are spacers a no-no?

Thanks!

[Epsilon]

You're going to create more undsteer in your car. For FWD application the wider wheels should be upfront. This allows increase grip at the front and allow more rotation of the rear since FWD cars have horrible understeer already. RWD cars run a staggered setup to inhibit oversteer. If you are going to run staggered on a FWD car, you are not going to be able to turn well at all, especially if your driving wheels have a smaller contact patch than your rear wheels.

Wheel spacers increased stress on the wheel bearings, spindles, and knuckles leading to premature wearing. Also, remember that because of the fact that the spacers bolt onto the hub and then the wheel bolts to the spacer, this will cause you to have to torque two times more than usual. The most important thing to remember when purchasing spacers is to carefully measure things out ahead of time so that you can purchase spacers that are no thicker than they have to be.

Why not just get a lower offset for the rear wheels to make them stick out more?

[Camread]

Why not just get a lower offset for the rear wheels to make them stick out more?

exactly. you don't need wider wheels if you're only looking to achieve a slightly wider rear

[sigmund]

Originally Posted by Camread

Why not just get a lower offset for the rear wheels to make them stick out more?

exactly. you don't need wider wheels if you're only looking to achieve a slightly wider rear

True you could do this but you just have to try and make sure the backspacing in the wheel is as close to factory specs as possible otherwise you will cause increased stress and premature wear to the wheel bearings. There has to be a proper balance between wheel width and offset. So if you increase offset without increasing wheel width you will end up with the wrong backspacing and will probably decrease the life of the bearings. If that is an acceptable trade-off then go for it.

[Camread]

if the offset is the same for both front and back, couldn't you just go up a tire size?

[costanza]

I wasn't aware that you could get the same wheel in different offsets.
I guess what I'm trying to wrap my head around is that how does the wheel bearing "know" if I'm using a 1/2" wheel spacer or if I'm using a wheel with an offset that makes the wheel stick out 1/2" more? The pressure on the bearing would be the same, yes? The mass of the wheel/tire would be in the same place in either scenario, wouldn't it? Does a 1/2" spacer create THAT much extra force/pressure on the bearing?

Either way, the more I look at the rear of my car, I think if I was able to push the lower corner of the body kit that is at the back of the rear tire, closer the the car by about 1/2" or so, I might be satisfied. As it is, it sticks out too much and makes the tire look like it isn't out far enough.

[JSM1284]

Originally Posted by costanza

1- Can you do anything to change the color of the dash lights from blue to green? Is the blue color from the bulbs or is the plastic tinted blue? If the latter, would yellow bulbs result in green color?


Thanks!

You cannot change the dash color, it uses an electroluminescence type lighting background for the guages. This is the same type of lighting found in lets say an Indigo Watch, you know, where the whole face lights up at the touch of a button.

[costanza]

But what creates the light? Are there any bulbs involoved? If I place a tinted cover over the bulb, wouldn't that alter the final color, or not? If nothing else, I want to tame the overly bright radio/climate lights.

[JSM1284]

There are no bulbs, It is electroluminescence.

Electroluminescent (EL) devices are actually lamps. They emit light, but they are unlike any traditional lamp. Instead of creating light by heating a filament --- as in an incandescent light bulb --- or by charging a gas field --- as in a fluorescent or neon tube, EL relies on phosphorescent materials which glow when exposed to a small electrical current.
El lamps are cool, low power and emit a soft light without any irritating glare. They are invariably very thin, almost like ribbons or sheets of paper, and they can be produced in a variety of colors.
The source of light is a phosphorous mixture which is spread onto a transparent, conductive ITO film and then covered with another thin sheet of conductive material.


In most EL tape configurations, electrical power is usually provided through copper or aluminum foil conductors. In EL sheets, panels or other applications, different conductive materials can be used depending upon design requirements.

Terminals provide connections for electrical supply and can be located anywhere along the length of the copper or aluminum foil. In the custom pattern sheet, several dozen terminals are placed around the edge of the sheet to provide connections for customized applications.

Alternatively, electrical feed wires can be connected directly to the foils with adhesive tape, solder, screws or clamps. Care should be exercised when making connections to avoid electrical shock and short circuit hazards.

Specially designed power connectors can also be used to attach electrical feed wires to an EL tape.

Power is supplied through a small inverter. In the simplest application DC power is fed from an adaptor, plugged into a source of household current, to a single inverter. The inverter then converts the DC power to the appropriate level of AC power for an EL application. The brightness of a display can then be controlled by adjusting the frequency of the AC power.

Animated or flashing displays require a driver to operate. A driver is simply an inverter connected to an IC chip which is then connected to several different EL sheets, panels, tapes or decals. As different lamps are illuminated, they produce an animated effect.

Animated effects include flash or blinking where one or more lamps light up intermittently. When done in sequence, the human eye will detect movement in an image.

Other effects include stacking up or stacking down where an image incrementally becomes filled with light, or incrementally becomes dark.