So, it’s that time again… Panda is cooking up their famous Firecracker Beef for Chinese New Year – The year of the Boar. Man is it good.
Ok, so I just got my new springs. I ended up getting the High Techs from Tein. Here is the Matrix spec page on tein.com. Also here is a nice discussion over at Matrix Owners about the H-Tech Springs. I have NO idea when I am going to get a chance to put them on, but I will definitely do a writeup about it when I do.
Wow, this was the lineup when I was getting on the 101 heading home for the day. It was Awesome!
While spending the holidays up in Portland, I was able to hang out with a good friend of mine, Jeff Perrin. Yeah that guy, the Perrin in Perrin Performance. We had a good time hitting up the vineyards, doing some tasting, and bought some good bottles of wine.
I was then able to go down to the Perrin Performance shop and check things out. Man, I love that place. A bunch of really cool guys. Well the reason for this long drawn out story is that I got hooked up with a sweet new air filter. I just got a chance to install it. It took down the tone of the matrix, and now sounds nice and low.
Here are a couple pics, enjoy.
Just testing some new Moblog functions. And NO I did NOT take this photo, but it is pretty sweet.
Ok, so I installed my new CAI, and it is GREAT, except for one little thing. The filter hits the air pump and makes it a bit cockeyed. No function is lost, I just don’t like the way it sits in there. What I would really like to do it add on a little piece to the end of the CAI pipe and have it jog out and down a bit to get the filter away from the pump. Here are a couple photos to illustrate.
So, I am sending this out to my good friend Jeff Perrin, the lead engineer over at Perrin Performance. I will update when I come up with a solution.
Gray was a little tired on the way home from lunch. Notice the drool bubble…
Okay, so I got the light overlays on, and one more upgrade… NEW black wheels. This is just a teaser, more photos to follow.
Ok, so it is about that time (well, a little past that time – 37,491 miles to be exact), for the 30k Scheduled Maintenance. Check out the Toyota details.
First I did an oil change with 4.8qts of some sweet Mobile1 synthetic 5w30, and a genuine Toyota oil filter.
Next, I drained the transmission fluid. There is a lot of talk about which fluid works best in the XRS 6-speed trany, but I wanted to give the Red Line ShockProof Gear Oil a shot (I will let you know what I think about it). Added 2.4qts of the ShockProof. Here is a GREAT write up about how to change the tranny fluid.
Third, I replaced the spark plugs with some NGK Iridium IX ones.
I have a new cabin air filter on order.
The last thing was to replace the air filter. SO… why not just replace the entire filter system with a new Cold Air Intake.
Here are some photos of the CAI:
Lastly, I rotated the tires and put it back down on the ground.
Okay so shot a couple of photo of the trix. Mostly because I ordered some new overlays for the lights and wanted some ‘before’ photos. I ordered some yellow fog lights and red tail lights from this site: Import Equipment. AWESOME service, he has made a good name for himself over at the Matrix Owners Forum. Anyway, here they are:
I will post some more pics after the overlays are installed.
