12 hours ago, CraigA said:

Thanks for the posts, really useful info.

I'm also experiencing leaks after a heavy downpour. I've inspected the front sunroof and notice the seal around the sunroof is damaged. Does anybody know where I could pick up a replacement?

I've a 2010 Vellfire 3.5z, 8 seater.

 

Thanks in advance.

Or you could try amayama.com, either order the part direct or use the part number elsewhere. For mine the tube looks to be 6324958020 and under 20 UKP delivered, though it would probably take a couple of weeks.

Am I missing something? for a 7-seater there would be no middle seat.

>I had visions of sourcing donor vehicles. 

That is always an option, but not a cost-effective one I would say.

You can look online for breakers that are near you, and / or have a suitable donor, though my singular experience with a breaker was that they wanted to charge the same for a second hand part that I would pay for buying it from Japan. 

My advice would be, for any part, check with amayama for a part number and then search around for that part number - quite often you will see the same part used on other vehicles, which helps with the cost and availability.

Rear wipers, amongst many other parts are available - ebay, autodoc and others are normal 'go-to' locations.  You can use amayama for instance to find the correct part number for your vehicle and then either buy from them (takes a while for the shipping) or search elsewhere.

Alphards are still being made - though of course they are the 'modern' ones 🙂

Do some research and you will be reassured - for starters put 'alphard rear wiper' into the ebay search tool.

>Not sure why a wing would need taking off for a rear fog lamp repair? 

Most likely the rear bumper as it makes access to the reflectors easier - it's only a few clips and takes maybe 5 mins.

https://www.amayama.com/en/genuine-catalogs/epc/toyota-japan/alphard/ANH10W/36377/body/5553 is one source but you have to make sure you have the correct version, these are the options for mine. 

Start with https://www.amayama.com/en/, find the windscreen for yours and then search for the part number (56101-580...) to see if you can find it elsewhere.

You could also try the Toyota dealership in Letchworth to see if they can help - they seemed to be Ok with the idea of servicing mine when I asked them.

>And is it an mot failure?

You need to have functional front and rear fog lights to pass an MoT is my understanding.

As for the difficulty of replacing them it would depend on what you have - a picture of the rear lights would help with this as there are some variants:

a dual-filament bulb in the boot door

the lower reflectors can be replaced with active LED lights

a light slung below the rear bumper

I doubt it would be 45 mins to do if you know what you need to do, but I will reserve judgement until we have a better idea. 

According to my 2021 AA Camping and Caravanning Guide you could look at:

Bishop Monkton - Church Farm Caravan Park

North Stainley - Sleningford Watermill Caravan Camping Park

Masham - Old Station Holiday Park

Kirklington - Camp Katur

Knaresborough - Kingfisher Caravan Park

Harrogate - Harrogate Caravan Park

                  - High Moor Farm Park

                  - Ripley Caravan Park

                  - Rudding Holiday Park

                  - Shaws Trailer Park

I haven't been to any of them and this is from a 4 year old book, but maybe one of those will be suitable.

check the under-body holder as the cage won't fit a full-size tyre without some serious modification - though i suspect that getting some suitable thick wire and getting the bends right might work i don't know how it would be with hitting the ground when going up and down slopes etc.

I would start with Amayama.com, find the part number and see if you can get one sooner / more locally. Mine would be 86160-58051 which would be 73 Ukp from them. It doesn't look as though ebay would be much cheaper.

It sounds like the seat will need releasing from the floor runner - there should be a lever / slider to move to get it to release the seat. If you could send a picture it would help in understanding and suggestions.

The terminals on my battery connections were not tight so i ended up getting some lead terminal covers and cutting them down to fit.

Just got our renewal from Privilege, last year it was 632.25 and this year it's 523.80 - quite the difference. That's with a multi-car discount, 10k mileage 'allowance' and  breakdown cover. It has a 'modification' which is a caravanette, which was the closest I could find in the drop down list - though it's more like a van we can sleep in..

Just done the Adrian Flux website and got!:

Your Indicative Premium

£1374.54

You will need a low-profile mini (bottom left) fuse:

Looks like it's a 15A fuse in the passenger side - fuse no. 3.

What triggered this was an auto electrician saying that the indicator on the dashboard didn't work to show that the battery wasn't charging, but looking at the options I don't think that light exists.

By the looks of things I would have to rig up a 12v battery tester and test each LED to see whether it E'd any L. Judging by the labelling there are at least 92 of them - at least they have the anticipated current direction marked, so that's handy I guess.

Then of course there would be the soldering. I don't know which of the two options would be best - replace or put new LEDs on top of the existing ones.

Replacement is the reverse of course, though I may need to tweak the pointer positions, as the car was turned off I set them all to their home / zero positions

And that is the point that i gave up on identifying what dashboard bulbs didn't work as the sods are soldered directly onto the board. 

However I was able to take a picture of the dashboard with no backing so I could see all the lights I could have:

I don't think I have the VSC, TRC, AFS, Lane assist or the 'beachball on your lap' indicator systems though.

I DO have the cruise, and others though.

The underside of the board.

If you look carefully you can see the slender motor spindles for the 4 indicators.

VERY IMPORTANT

Before moving the circuit board note that there is a very delicate set of pins at the bottom of the board - i used a trim tool to gently lever the board free.

The circuit board looks like this.

Please note that there are no screws holding this in place - just a single clip in the middle that is just visible to the left of the black motor in the middle.

There is a connector on the left side that can be disconnected.

Hopefully yours will have a better focus than mine 🙂

You can then remove the indicator umm pointers? there must be a proper words.

I didn't do this - I removed the back panel and wondered what the noise of falling pointers was.

There are a series of 8 clips to remove the front cover - four on the top and four on the bottom, I released the top ones and then the bottom, but hey - you do you.

Congratulations - the panel is now out. 

You will see four screws that need to be undone (top left and right, bottom left and right) - once more my crosshead screwdriver was able to do these.