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We usually have a big meet, but unable to do one this year. I will look at setting up another big meet.. we around 70 Alphards turn up. quite a sight to see. Small meets are welcomed as well

In case you wondered...... The strange switch is to turn rear fog lights on Of course it is, why did I not know?? It does however cure the problem the garage had of replacement of the fog light bulb, !

Ohh… been on this planet for 37 years and forums still pose a challenge for me. I have a hybrid…it’s the auxiliary coolant pump.. managed to change it today. Had to remove the inverter to get to it but it’s done now. No more coolant leak. I will change the details on my account. Appreciate the reply.

Contract mechanics he is in Southam google no. Say lee recommended him he very busy guy but he is a very good mechanic great with all imports

Beaware, they are nutters to get out.

TVM Nev 👍

Erisin make aftermarket stereos. Some specific vehicle fit, and some generic fit.

Awesome, thanks @skippy992 - exactly the info I was after. My importer says that if they replace the Headunit with their typical CarPlay system, I'll loose this functionality, but I'll gain HD reverse camera, HD screen and HD roof monitor. Or they can install CarPlay software and keep the all the rest of the tech as-is. Need to decide if I'd actually use the side/front camera - I can see them being useful but parking isn't exactly as tight as it is in Japan here where I am in the UK!

Just as a foot note to last post I wouldn’t bother replacing the head unit as I have the GL so premium sound system fitted I just added a CarPlay unit so keep all the features of the original system video cameras etc just stream the Apple CarPlay unit to Aspare Fm frequency works great only cost about $69 here in Australia made in china of course has sat nav as well so retained all the original Head unit features which are really excellent shame to go to all that expense and loose some of the steering wheel controls when replacing the original head unit only I fitted my apple car to the dash with strong 3m tape so no damage to dash then fed cable down to the cigarette lighter plug.

The button you’re referring to switches the front and side cameras on the screen when the car is in reverse pushing it again turns the rear camera on again. i have the 2008 series 20 so I use this if your in reverse but want to see the side and front cameras handy if your reversing but want to see the side camera display. i also have the front camera turned on auto so it displays when car slows to 4kph or less you can set this on the screen using the far right icon on bottom of screen then shows Auto. see pictures hope this clarifies the use of that switch.

Thanks! I’ve seen this manual referenced a few times on this forum. I’ll certainly pick one up once I get the vehicle. And thanks for referring what that button does. I also think it’s some sort of 360 camera option, but I wasn’t aware this was even an option back in 2011. It may all be moot anyway as my importer will be replacing the head unit with a CarPlay system, which I imagine would be incompatible.

Hello there newbie! I would second the recommendation for the "JPNZ" owners manual, I bought one before we got ours! Auto Jap Spares were where I got ours, via ebay. In the meanwhile, from that very manual, the description of that button is - "Wide View Front And Side Control", whatever that means as there is no further explanation. But my guess is it's related to the car having the 360 degree camera system, and the button perhaps alters the view shown on the screen. Cheers, Nev

Welcome Arron worth buying the English translated handbook will tell you what the buttons do

Hi Chris, Check your header tank (the rad system one) and see if its low, bring your van up to temp (with the rad cap off) then sqeeze the pip going into the header and see if you get air bubbles.

Hi I'm offering my Alphard for a reluctant sale. Vehicle is 2008 2.4 seven seat in white. New MOT and service. Only serviced with genuine Toyota parts. Converted to MPH approximately 83000 miles. Original Export certificate and BIMTA certificate available. Undersealed on receipt into the UK. Regularly serviced in my ownership. Good overall condition, refurbished wheels this year Android stereo with reverse camera. Located in Waterlooville £6000 Ono. Photos available on request.

You could start with a 'We will be at this pub / park / whatever on this date between times - hope to see other owners for a chat.' If you find somewhere to keep yourself occupied for a few hours and see what happens. Only a thought.

Just a thought - the rear has it's own air con system. You can set it by pressing the 'Rear' button on the dashboard heat controls - circled on my 10 series. i know it's basic but I thought I would check. Press the button and then set temp and fan speed etc. for the rear.

Hi Kevin! Yes, just run them at what's on the door plate, perhaps plus a psi or two. Which will probably be around 36 to 38 psi. And for almost all cars! It's not a racing car, it really won't make any appreciable difference. There's plenty of other posts here, and everywhere for that matter, discussing the pros and cons of a bit more pressure in them. Less rolling resistance, less grip to the road etc etc. But a little bit won't hurt! Cheers, Nev

Thanks Nev, I'll go and have a search around ebay.

Blueprint good

The video i found was of a guy changing his aux water pump on a prius+,he removed the scuttle panel to do it. When i looked in my engine bay and imagined what access I would have without the scuttle panel, the answer was bugger all. Little bit mortified to work around the Hybrid system with no safety training but followed common sense and came out alive. I will be honest…this car is so cool I dont mind learning how to fix it.

Bit late to the party, as normal! On ours, the converter (Imperial Leisure in Poole) fitted the chip as standard at time of conversion and provided the paperwork and method to calculate the correct mileage. A CarVX report was obtained by the last owner and confirms the mileage (in kilometres at time of auction), which matches up with the converters paperwork, so quite reassuring. Ours is showing 64k on the odometer but the first 50k was in km, so has done 14k in miles in the UK on top of 31k in miles in Japan...so only 44k miles in total, not bad for a 21 year old vehicle! MoT history is showing miles as per the odometer and they won't recalculate based on paperwork or show anything different. I vaguely remember discussing this with my father, who was an MoT tester, many moons ago when a friend imported a car from Australia and I'm sure he said they are only allowed to put down what they see on the odometer as miles, or kilometres, at the time of the test. If you have paperwork from the converter and get the CarVX report I don't think you will have any problem with this when selling, and I say this as a very recent buyer! Cheers, Chris

There is certainly a bit of a back to it. I hold the disc with a pair of adjustable pliers so I can push and turn easier. I also hold the head of the pin in place with a single finger, just to stop it sliding backwards as you push it from the front. I would always recommend getting a shoe fitting kit when changing these, just so you have a full complement of clips and springs etc for when one inevitably ends up somewhere in the neighbours garden..

Well spotted Neville his profile wrong as well if he has hybrid won’t get the correct help

Hi there! That is the inverter pump for a Hybrid. Do you have the Hybrid model? Your info says you have the standard petrol, so that pump obviously won't fit. No matter how hard you try! And this is the wrong section of the forum for a Hybrid.... Cheers, Nev

Welcome Sam

Hello all! Been lurking on the forum for a couple of weeks, so thought I had better say hello from down here in sunny (well at least for today) Dorset. Sold our motorhome as we wanted to downsize to a campervan which we can use as an every day car, as a day van and for slightly longer camping trips. Looked at the obligatory VeeDubs, to keep "the boss" happy, but no surprise that they were over priced and over rated. Also the owners seemed to think they could just advertise and sell them without any effort on their part and not bothering to check everything was working and not even showing the van a cleaning sponge, let alone actually clean them, eugh! Went to see a very local Alphard at a small high-end dealer. Liked the conversion and loved the van but there were a few problems that needed sorting. Off to see another Alphard down in deepest, darkest Dorset (Weymouth actually), which we ended up buying, yipee! Lovely chap the previous owner, local Dorset man, happy to help and answer any questions. The conversion is by Imperial Leisure Vehicles in Poole, so a strong Dorset theme is developing here! Driving home it struck me that the actual base vehicle put every other motorhome, campervan or car we have ever owned to shame. It's only done 44k miles, 31k in Japan and the rest over here since it was imported in 2018. Sorted out the radio reception, DAB and FM, by throwing out the cheap USB adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter socket and the cheap, poor quality, dash cam will be following very soon. Pioneer head unit now works perfectly, even if it is a little basic, but as long as we have music we're happy and it does sound quite good. Fitted a "proper" rear fog light switch, that matches the rest of the switches. Retrieved the switch lock button from under the carpet (fell out while trying to figure out the radio reception problems) and found two more hiding there, so we now have 3!!! Bought a JPNZ english language owners handbook off Amazon, just in time as it looks like they are now sold out. New dash cam arrives later today, Wolfbox 900 Pro, mirror with built in front dash camera and a separate rear camera which will help as you can't see much out of the back with the rib bed in seating position, although this will make the current Toyota front and rear cameras redundant (no problem as front not connected and rear isn't that great a picture). Looking forward to getting out and about in our Alphie. Cheers all. Chris

Some traders fit an electronic chip that converts the input signal to the speedo/odometer from kmh to mph. They also black out the K on the speedo so it just shows mh. You should have had some paper work confirming what the odometer reading was before and after the chip was fitted. Going by your figures, you have done 12,000 miles, is that correct? It could be a problem to some people as they might think the odometer has been fiddled with. For your own peace of mind, put your chassis/vin number in on the CarVX site, pay the fee approx £20, they will then email you the auction report showing the odometer reading at the time of the auction plus any damage, recalls etc. Some chips can fail and cause various faults with warning lights etc.

I use a guy in Southam his name is Simon contract mechanics he rebuilt my 3.v6 engine because I got ripped off by a local garage stamped my service book but never did the service it seized my piston rings burning lot of oil Simon knows his stuff and very genuine worth the travel .

Hello Paul I’m in Coventry if you need part no.s or help just ask

I'm a new owner of an 2013 Hybrid and i'm just searching relevant inf and documentation ref my model, so far i have the attached, if anyone else have any other, please share you never know when you need it maintenance-schedule.pdf auto-service-repair-manuals-and-wiring-diagrams-pr.pdf toyota-alphard-vellfire-em2441e-overall-electrical-wiring-diagram.pdf Toyota-ALPHARD-VELLFIRE-EM2441E-Relay-Locations-pdf.pdf Alphard-2-Vellfire-20-2008-2015-fuse-and-relay.pdf CAMSHAFT-VALVE-TOYOTA-ALPHARD-VELLFIRE-HV.pdf ALPHARD-VELLFIRE-Service-sheet.pdf hybrid-vehicle-dismantling-manual-for-ath20.pdf Alphard-20-Manual-pdf.pdf

So, in the end I opted for the expensive one, however my advice at the moment is to hold-off buying any alternate HU for the Hybrid version, unless others have had a better experience. Initial issues are: 1) the at the replacement facia has cut-outs for the non-hybrid gear selector and indicators so needs cutting / modifying to make it fit. 2) first trial fit (without mod to facia) is the car emits a continuous beep when I try to lock it, so looks like there maybe an interaction with the central locking / factory alarm - no time to look at this further at the moment, 3) Factory 360 camera not working, but this may be my fault / not hooked-up correctly

It looks like the HU Ombak has is a Mekede Tech model - probably a DUDU 6 or 7. Mekede also own a software development company so are usually ahead of the game for updates etc. This is the brand I've been looking at as they advertise it covers the original HU functions, so ordered the 10.36 inch model from their UK Amazon store (for less that it cost to buy from AliExpress....) they contacted me and offered a better 11" unit C/W with fascia and real buttons/knobs, but it turned out to be nearly twice the price (@£1079), so will re-order the one for £569 (which is the same size as Ombak's), and order the correct fascia from AliExpress (circa £24). Note: (only) if you have the 18 speaker sound system you will also need a combined MOST and CANBUS adapter which range from £90 to £120 from AliExpress. The DUDU7 models have a USB C port on the back which can feed an external display/touch panel - plan is to feed the roof monitor via this: will see how that goes.

Hello, Neil. I got a 2010 vellfire a few weeks ago, with the 18 speaker system and factory roof monitor, no 360 cameras. This Tesla style unit was plug and play, made by navirider, from Ali Express It came with a hdmi out socket. The retailer provided a small black box, that converted the digital hdmi to 2 analogue RCA's. I then connected a standard single RCA lead from this box upto the roof monitor. Retailer also provided a breakout lead, which plugged into the roof monitor, and the original connector then went into the other side of the lead. It had an RCA cable coming off it. I plugged my RCA extension into it and it all worked, initially mirrored the display, but with help from the retailer and his engineer on WhatsApp, found out there was a hdmi assistant built in. With this enabled, you can have a video coming out the back, whisky your satnav or whatever is showing up front It was completely plug and play. Only one fly in the ointment: the rear camera won't work. I have another on its way. But, steering wheel controls work. Also, there is some canbus interface : a display pops up with which door/boot has opened, in reverse, despite the current blank picture (!) the parking sensors show up with proximity lines, and the steering guide lines are dynamic, so once I get a camera in, I won't have lost anything. I intend to do this with a wireless transmitter/receiver kit, as I did on my estima. There are a few small issues : you can only drop the rear monitor with the remote. It's buttons are very limited, obvious, so volume, next/previous video, is about it. One of them goes from normal to wide 1, followed by wide 2. This button finally got the display on the monitor full screen.

Ben Hau appears to be able to offer an 11 inch head unit for the Series 20. Please search YouTube if you have an interest.

Hi lovely people. Purchased a new sliding door mechanism/cables from kohaku.shop.They are a Japanese company trading through eBay. It took six working days to get to me. Not a bad price and excellent service. Fitting went well, a bit of a squeeze to get the cables up to the hinge. I supported the bottom of the door and slackened the hinge this gave me a bit more wriggle room. Hope this helps someone in the future.