Sunday Togo Nama. May 8, 2011.
And after a rather eventful week for the world and me, what better way to unwind and refresh for the next week than to spend close to 5 hours on the Admiral !
And today it was the day for a thorough wash of the engine bay.
'Wet and Wild' ways of the Admiral:
From my experiences of the weekly cleaning and washing of the engine bay I noticed one thing from the earlier vehicle - Scorp. Even after 5 years and 113K KMs of running - I had not changed a single tube or hose. And all the hoses/tubea were very soft, pliant and supple. And whereas every other Scorp I used to see in the ASC even after 25 KMs used to have very brittle hoses/tubes. The long life of the rubber hoses/tubes on my Scorp could have been due to regular water washing is what I reckon. Some small point/s to keep myself motivated I guess - even it be wrong !
Even in my fight against global terrorism (read dirt) I have key allies. And let me introduce one of my key allies in the fight:
This KA ( a simple but dedicated ally) is deployed in many tactical routines and in 100 different terrains and scenarios.
A few shown here:
The vanes of the ECU box...
To routine stuff...
After use the ally is a little battle weary and is disposed off in a eco friendly manner. No, not taken back home for the family members to now use it as proper ear buds !
We shall fight this kind of terrorism anywhere it occurs, track the culprit, hunt him or her down and bring him or her to justice...
![Fleet Admiral Togo Heihachiro - Toyota Fortuner. Life Sails On...-8.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/long-term-ownership-reviews/541651d1692365386t-fleet-admiral-togo-heihachiro-toyota-fortuner-life-sails-8.jpg)
Has anyone here tasted pigeon soup ? Roast ? Fry ? Or any form of pigeon ? Planning to have a Pigeon food mela soon in the colony.
Sorry if I have hurt the feeling of PETA activists/vegetarians (I am, by choice, one myself)/pacifists/Animal Rights Organisations etc. But global/vehicle terrorism of this kind cannot be put up with indefinitely. We are duty bound to end the machinations and dark, evil designs of Al - Pigeona. And this we will.
This week showing you another minor design gem from the Admiral. This might be very common in the vehicles today. But compared to my earlier older gen Scorp, this is a leap for mankind.
And this is a very simple battery terminal (+ve) cover:
And why am I so kicked about it ? Because in my previous vehicle this was a moulded piece of plastic on the wiring harness. And once it broke/sheared off due to brittleness caused by heat etc you couldn't replace it unless you changed the entire section of wiring harness. And as I am particular about these items, I had to change the section of wiring harness once just for the cover. Cost me 600 bucks !
And so this design comes as a sheer relief. Small, but significant to me.
Has a little clip to remove it:
Easily removable. Especially when you remove the battery to clean up or otherwise:
Noticed the quaint design of terminal fastners - look at the bolt head - quite different from the normal ones found in other vehicles:
And Admiral is all fresh and glowing and ready to take on the world and the next week:
And now on to somethings I have been observing and mentioned that I'd list the items that are begining to annoy me or I dislike:
1. The biggest annoyance: Is that frankly there is nothing to get annoyed about ! Any other vehicle especially the Scorp one had a litany of items to be corrected by way of niggles etc and so your level of involvement with the vehicle was very high and therefore very engaging ! But this vehicle seems to convey - "Listen chum - just sit back, I'll do my stuff just don't interfere and we'll all be happy !". Makes you feel like an outsider. Touchwood ! And hope it continues for good. Typical Toyota others would sniff and pronounce. And I am experiencing it only now. To a certain extent it can get boring really.
So why did I use such strong word/s like annoyance/dislike etc ? To get attention, grab eyeballs - get high TRPs !!!
2. Some design improvements from a user perspective are certainly required. I had put up a list sometime ago - from the early days of ownership. Now those points were all at the touch, feel & sense levels and could have been as a result of a switch over from the earrlier vehicle. Like now I am rather comfortable and more with the seating position, thickness of the steering wheel etc etc. The points below are therefore purely from ease of daily use:
a. Some of the switches on the right console of the dash - next to the steering column are backlit and some aren't. The headlight leveller is so but the OVRM adjuster and dashboard illumination intensity controller are not:
![Fleet Admiral Togo Heihachiro - Toyota Fortuner. Life Sails On...-16.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/long-term-ownership-reviews/541668d1692365400t-fleet-admiral-togo-heihachiro-toyota-fortuner-life-sails-16.jpg)
The other night wanted to adjust the OVRM while driving in pitch darkness - pawed/fumbled below the dash quite a bit. And as Manuuj quipped (when I asked him to double check whether that panel was backlit or not) Admiral must have been left wondering about my dishonourable intentions after pawing him 'underneath' in the darkness !
b. The grab handles surely needs a redesign. The recessed, spring loaded, folding types would be the best. My son has this constant crib of banging his head on it every now and then:
The front passenger could do with just one (mid way between the current two) folding type. Wonder why two have been placed:
A better dead pedal please ! Arching of my foot is quite a bit with the current one when moving the foot to the pedal. I guess it should be at the same level as the clutch pedal:
c. The parking sensor is activated only when you switch it on. Wish it were automated - everytime you engage the reverse gear. One constantly keeps forgetting it and I don't like a switch to be left on - especially of there is a provision for it to be switched off. Quaint, but that's me !
d. Hey ! No USB/Aux port here. Son wanted to run his iPod off the system - couldn't and so...
e. This arm rest cum cubbyhole cover needs to be softer or padded. After market perhaps ?
f. Mentioned before - not so good quality of window beading. Works well but looks terrible.
Are there more ? Not sure. As time goes by shall update the list.
And till then, Aloha !
Have a great week ahead all of you - happy driving.