Two Questions From New Fortuner Owner

[Mobi]

I recently bought a "nearly new" Diesel Fortuner (4k on the clock), and am delighted with it. It's in a different class the Ford Escape that I previously owned.

I have had the vehicle serviced as it was 6 months old and asked them to fix the airbag light as it wouldn't go off. They ignored my request when they did the service, and I had to ask them again to look at it. They took the car back, checked it for about 10 minutes and told me they would have to keep it for 2 days to fix the problem - the reason being that they would have to check the whole wiring in the car to find the fault. They assured me there was no danger.

Strange to tell I had a similar problem wiht the Escape after a couple of years, but they fixed it in about 1 hour.

Are they saying they must keep it for 2 days to put me off having it done - or would it really take that long? 2 days would be very inconvenient.

I like the stereo set up with the remote on the steering column, but the speakers don't have much oomph - especially the base. My wife's Jazz has better sound. Does anyone know if I can upgrade the speakers and get better sound, or do I have to replace the whole stereo unit?

Thanks for any advice.

Mobi

[Bung]

The airbag should be a straight forward repair but they may need specialized testing equipment which they don't have at that particular dealer. Maybe try another dealer? Are you up country? If the light is on it will most likely not work, the system has many sensors and any fault with one of them would mean a faulat light.

Any car stereo store can upgrade your speakers and I have seen good ones that will fit exactly into your existing spots in your fortuner. look at getting an amplifier installed at the same time. This will be the main reason you don't have much "oomph". Keep the original "head" unit as they are fine but they will try and sell you something else of course!

Let us know how you get on, I wouldn't mind upgrading the stareo on mine!

[Gary A]

I had the same problem with my Tiger. It is not a straight out thing. I does require a dealer computer to reset the air bag and they did try that. It didn't work. They ended up tearing most of the panels off the interior and finally found a connector had popped off near the driver's side seat belt retractor. It took the best part of a day to find the problem. I was quite surprised that my bill was only 321 baht. It was fine after that.

Note - A Toyota mechanic told me that if I disconnected the battery for ten minutes and then hooked it back up, it would reset the air bag computer. I tried that and it didn't work.

Edited August 21, 2006 by Gary A