HI New to TN 96 avalon xls

[sonic2wb]

Hello! First of all let me say WOW at the info at TN! its 3:30am and i have been reading this fourm for 5+ hours getting info on my first avalon!

OK so heres the deal, i bought this car

http://miami.craigslist.org/brw/cto/1795872569.html

price was $2500 i got it for $2200

its a 96 avalon XLS with 196K on it. the car has some minor issues but the body and interior are 100% it has leather and everything.

I have a few questions that I hope someone can help me with.

1. Exagust is leaking sounds like at the CAT -- I couldt get up under the car before buying it (i pray the cat is still there) I forgot to bring a jack to jack it up to check it. but its leaking car is loud.

2a. car has keyless entry and what i assume is a factory alarm?? has factory security light on dash that blinks.

2b. ARE the marker lights supposed to flash when locking car? ( i dont think mine do but my dad has a 99 and his does. I really want this feature)

2c. I want to install a remote start system into the car that will allow me to lock/unlock car and start it. Any suggestions? anything to bypass etc.....

3. only got 1 remote with it (already found info on this about getting another remote)

4. since the car has 196k miles on it what kind and weight do you guys run in these cars.

5. I have no clue if theres a owners manual lol radio says it has the anti theft crap in it. IS there a way to retrive the code out of the radio before i disconnect battery?

6. someone snaped off the power antenna, should i get replacement from dealer or get generic from autoparts store?

its almost 4am now im picking up car later on this morning didnt have second driver to get it today. Car runs great lots of power. Owner just put new windshield in it also. also came with 4 brand new tires. Also i found a wonderfull supprise in the truck! A full size spare! is this standared on the avalon?

Thanks and as i dig into my avalon i hope to become a valued member of TN

[gn2]

I've got a '95 Camry, but I've been looking at a LOT of Avalon's, they seem to leak at the flex pipe which is in front of the cat. Mine was leaking there, and had been brazed about 5 times already. I bought a replacement that was supposed to be OE direct fit, but wasn't a "major name", and it didn't fit without modification. If you do buy a new cat, buy a Walker or Bosel, save yourself some aggravation...

[robcam13]

normally the flex pipe leaks not the cat. i had a local muffler shop weld a new one in for 100$. some avalons dont flash the lights when you lock/ unlock with remote.i use whatever weight oil is on the oil cap.most toyotas came with full size spares in the 90s.things to look for ...valve cover gaskets leaking is common. if you have a clunk in the rear it is usually sway bar bushings.and see if the timing belt has been changed. good luck and welcome to tn.

[sonic2wb]

Thanks for the great info. heres what i have discovered so far with the car
(lol my wife says im spending more time with it than i am with her)

1. it is the flex pipe thats got a hole it it. whats the adverage cost of fixing this?????? i got a limited amount if cash also i have a wire welder maybe patch it for awhile?

2. The cig lighter in the car is broke pluged my cell charger into and it blew the fuse.

thats about it. we are going to be takeing her on our first road trip this weekend a 1600 mile round trip so we will see how she does on fuel

3. lol the light out dash light is back on (i replaced a burnt out bulb) but can find any other lights out?

thanks for the help!

[obrienc]

Picked up my avalon up for 200.00 lol its a 96 xls everything works and it runs like a champ.

[Jigg007]

The flex pipe on my Avalon has broken twice, cheap repair though if you go to the right place. I Have had a leak on the cat before, but it was a weldable hole, otherwise a $400 part.

I'd buy another remote on ebay, double check the FCCID though.

The lights on my 96 do not blink when locking the car

The car does come with an OK alarm system (blinking lights/ brakes lights, blaring horn) but the programming on it is really cool, like door locking conditions.

Fillimants in a bulb can be intermittent, so if you cant track down a problem bulb, just replace them all.

As far as the power antenna goes, mine never worked. My 96 XLS has the AM antenna in the rear window. I use this for the FM instead, and have had great results.

Weight in the car, like what? Oil weight? Luggage? I put 10W-30 in the car all the time. (yes the sticker says 5W-30, but i always have 10w-30 on hand!) GWVR on the car is like 3400lbs, with 900 being people/cargo.

I myself am 180lbs, and constantly have 150lbs in the trunk of electronics and other crap. My mixed driving is 21mpg, city tends to be 17-18 with the AC on, and 33mpg if I'm solid cruising at 55mph.

I've owned this car as my first, and I'm 21 years old, counting about $2000 in mechanical repairs for 4 years, and 55,000 miles of ownership, the car is currently at 240,000 miles
Spark plugs, wires, fuel injectors, cam shaft seals, timing belt, water pump, valve gasket, coils and struts. However, the things that NEEDED replacing were the fuel injectors (2 total) along with the cam seals and valve gasket. the rest are preemptive.

Next month I am taking my Avalon from Chicago all the way down to Florida, we will see how that goes!

EDIT: Oh, and I absolutely love this car!

[sonic2wb]

Well Well, Advenures in Avalon land.

Drove car from FL to NC (800miles or so) car did perfect! adveraged 27mpg!

got the FLex pipe replaced for $80 for parts and labor, The CEL went off after about 20mins driving after fixing the pipe. so I knew the knock sensor wasnt bad.


Well thats when the fun started! i noticed the cig lighter was loose a few days before the trip and thought "when i get to nc ill fix it in my dads garage" well after 2 days there the dam thing shorted and burned the wiring harness from the cig lighter all the way to the J1 juction box behind the passenger airbag( for anyone that needs to remove dash, THERE IS NO PLUG to unhook air bag from wiring harness so you have to unbolt air bag from dash and lay it in the floor. ( UNHOOK BATT and wait AT LEAST 60secs before messing with airbag)

All in all it burned about 6 wires and melted a few of them together. took me and my wife and my father about 4days to fix everything and even wire a new ACC plug for our cellphones into the car.

Also replaced belts, brakes and rotors on the front and changed the oil and tranny fluid and filter. I really like the drain plug on the trans pan on these cars! wish gm and ford would do this lol.

Also fix some issues we were haveing the lock/unlock switch on the front doors would unlock but not lock the doors. and opening the truck with the doors locked would set alarm off. and the remote would not open the truck. Turns out that the security box ( Lower pass side of dash behind glove box with 2 orange plugs) had been unpluged before and one of the locks was broke on the plug. so i secured it with a zip tie and it fixed the above issues! yay!

So so on the return trip back to fl the CEL came back on. we hit a pothole on the road when it came on. so after stoping to check everything the car was fine. so today we goto advance and they read the codes( I REALLY need a code reader) and its the same code p0330 the knock sensor on bank 2. so they guy resets the code for me since i knew the issue and the car isnt knocking lol. so we will give it a few days and see what happens.

I was thinking someone help me out here. the security box can flash the lights and shit when the alarm goes off. if i could find out which wires lock the doors could i not jump the one from the lock entergize to the marker lights? so it will flash on lock (this is all i care about)?

[Jigg007]

thats some pretty useful information you just shared. How did you know the orange plugs were the one?

I wanted to do the same marker light flash when the doors lock too. I would perferably use a relay that energizes from the lock solenoid, in order to flash the marker lights. Or maybe use a large enough diode would do the trick too.



Forgive the sloppiness, but this is how I would do it.

I dont know if the avalon uses positive or negative for the solenoid pulse, dosent change the hookup too much, just flop the relay coil connection to a +12 instead of ground

[sonic2wb]

thats a great drawing lol I was thinking the same way, does anyone know where the lock relay is?

the security box is labeled lol it says "toyota security" on it lol if you remove the glovebox and look toward the passenger door you will see it with 2 orange plugs. now if we could just find out more info about it.

[Jigg007]

Id identify the wire that goes to one of the door locks solenoids in the door, and just tap from that before it plugs into its connector behind the kick panel.

It might be more of a trick finding what wire coming out of the relay box is the one for the marker lights though.

[sonic2wb]

how about, I know this is probilly a long shot but how about the 4way button lol shouldnt be that hard to find out which wires get hot when u press the button. tie into door lock wire and then activate the 4 way switch not sure though. how do we determine if the door lock are plus voltage or negivite ( i dont understand this at all) maybe someone that does alarms could help us on this i mean hell a $10 fix compared to me installing a $100 remote start and keyless just the have the markers flash when i lock the doors. lol lets get this going Ill be the whipping boy and do it first, jsut for the fact that sometimes my car dont respond to the remote lol.

[sonic2wb]

ok after some digging around on the net heres what ive been able to find out. This is on a 97 avalon so im assumeing all this the same. Thanks to the guys over at http://www.modifiedlife.com/1997-toy...iring-diagram/
for the info
Locations for parking lights.

Parking Light Negative Wire (-): Green/Red
Parking Light Negative Wire Location: At Integration Relay. The Integration Relay, Is Located At The Bottom Of The Fuse Box.
Parking Light Positive Wire (+): Green
Parking Light Positive Wire Location: In Drivers Kick Panel, Top White Plug


location for Lock wire.



Power Door Lock Negative Wire (-): Blue/White (On Vehicles Without A Factory Security System, Use A Green/Orange To Lock.)
Power Door Lock Negative Wire Location: In Either Kick Panel


So heres the info someone point me in the right direction.

[sup_mario]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new car.