Alphard Club

Even though it has VSC warning doesnt mean its anything to do with that. I had same warning when i had a lamda sensor go on my series 1. Also that scanner looks good, it lists Alphard May see you about town sometime, i have a black 2008 20 series, i have only seen 2 others in Bournemouth so far, white and black.

are yours knocking around bends?

Rear cat is defiantly Elgrand. No Cat issues on the Alphard Undersealing is a good idea, but its not going to rust that quickly. I ran one for 2 years and not a dickie bird in the way of rust. Cost of undersalung is £200-300. I would look at Dintrinol and not waxoyl. Insurance will be more expensive, yes it's all down to the seats. One thing is if you buy a 7 seater, make sure it is exactly 7 seats. I make and fit carpets for the alphard and I find so many customers saying they have a 7 seater when its actually an 8. This will affect your insurance when it comes to making a claim, so good to get it right. If it has 3 seat buckles in the centre row then it's definitely an 8 seater. Servicing parts are mostly interchangeable. Believe it or not, a dealer can get any part you want. All they need is a Part number and all these parts can be ordered in. Just need a bit of patience as not a lot will be on the shelf. Saying that, I recently had a water pump doing, blue print did one for my alphard and local garage picked it up from the motor factors. Biggest issue will be panels and side glass. However, there are now quite a few breakers with these parts, i recently picked up a few items from a scrapped alphard. I would not worry to much, they are getting really popular now and parts will become more readily available.

Ypou need the Icarsoft scanner, here is a link to one on amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/iCarsoft-i905-professional-diagnostic-diagnosis/dp/B00P0YKMJK I had one and worked great. Solved the issue and sold it on. It even does live scanning too. These are easy to resell on You will find that you need JOBD as a lot of european OBD scanners will not work on Japanese imports. Probably find it's just a sensor, MAF, Lamda sensor etc. Do you have LPG installed?? BTW Bryn, I am local, shame i no longer have the scanner.

Just run around with 20 litres in, you will go through that when warming up and every now and then stick £15 in.

it will take a long time for fuel to go off. But i wouldnt run around on a full tank of petrol as for every litre of fuel is 1kg of weight to carry around. Yes LPG switches by itself, its seamless, maybe a slight jolt if it switches when accelerating, apart from that you never know it has swtched. LPG has a slight less calorific value so burns 10% faster than standard petrol, but it's still a good saving. However, has higher octane which is good. You will never fill a tank to it's full capacity, around 85%, so the bigger the tank the better. only dislike was the smell when filling up, The gas reminds me a smelly cabbages lol..

He usually has a courtesy car. Yes i had to leave mine, but I can tell you this guy knows his stuff and does a great job, he sent me pictures of the work as he went along. I also had the small fuel meter installed inside my ashtray so it was all hidden away. When it's low it beeps.

The engine will use petrol for slightly longer until it reaches its proper running temprature.

love the tailights and the chrome boot strip

On my 10 series i had a stag system, it was great. Instantly stopped having fuel anxiety as i was paying a lot less. Stag system is great, the installer from Profess Autogas could log in and make any tweeks via my PC, without having to make any trips to see them. My 20 series can fit a 95 litre tank but 2 of the 4 LPG stations around here have stopped providing gas and with the recent announcement that MFG (BP garages) will stop providing LPG at petrol stations soon made me decide not to get my 20 series converted. I now use the Alphard at the weekend and drive a small car to work during the week whilst fuel is at it's all time high.

2008 upwards in comparison to the first series 3.5 has 6 speed box 3.5 does not have rotating seats on the 8 seater model unlike the 10 series wich is a shame as the rotating seats are a cool feature. 3.5 engine and transmission i think is a smoother engine and gear change then the 10 series. Plenty of power. Car Looks slightly smaller on the outside but inside feels similar size to the 10 series. 3.5 economy is slightly worse around town but may do better on runs with it's extra gear. Rear seats fold up better, much easier to use. No need to change cambelt as timing chain

check out fuelly for owner MPG results https://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/alphard bear in mind the year as the 3ltr and 3.5ltr have different consumptions.

Great response here. We are enquiring with dates with the National Motor Museum to see what there is available.

Hopefully there is someone locally who knows the area

I know the feeling with the japanese radio, I use google translate to learn the keys, managed to eventually find myself around.

Invade, Love it... We have it floating acess the whole site, maybe I will edit my post to mention this

interesting idea!!

many thanks for the input.

Hi Guys & Gals It's official, the official event is now posted here>> I have been thinking about setting up a large meet for Alphard and Vellfire owners. I have quite a bit of experience with car meets and think it will be a good idea to gauge the interest here. So here are some ideas i have, please feel free to have some input. Location I have run many of a meet at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, I am going to be contacting them as it's been a number of years since i have run 100+ vehicle car meets there. They have changed slightly. The reason for this location is that it's on the M40, located between London and Birmingham, accessible from the south west, South east, midlands and east of the country as the motorway makes it a very easy location. Pre-meet Idea of running a small convoy from one of the service stations on the M40 both sides of the motorway (coming in london side and also birminham side) in to the event, which should make a cool impact and great photo opportunity. Museum Access to the museum (at a reduced cost price) and cafe area. Show and Shine Possibly look at show and shine competition for the most shiniest Alphard inside and out. Opportunity to win an award Meet up with the community As this will be our first event in this club, it would be great to meet other like-minded owners, get insight and talk all about each others Alphard. Campsite Invade (idea from Oldwellhouse) Mass Alphard Camper pitch-up before or after the event for those who have campers (i guess Tents would also be good too) So the main question is 1. Would you be interested in attending a meet near Warwickshire in September? 2. Do you have any ideas that could improve the meet? 3. Would joining a convoy in interest you? 4. Does show and shine competition interest you? Look forward to your comments.

i find i get reflection from the dash so having one of these will really help.

Welcome along mate

Wow thats amazing job, also cool to see 3 rear seats, given me an idea now Also, i had this idea of keeping the sunroof and adding a poptop without cutting the roof. use the sunroof to gain access.. wonder if that would work??

Rather than posting it externally we can create an Common FAQ section, something i have been meaning to do for a while and is on my mind to do soon as well as guides section for questions just like this.

Yes i have found these rattle too. I am going to make some pocket mats I can hear a pin drop a hundred feet away so squeaks are always annoying.

Here is a video that experiments the usage of materials in E5 and E10