Hiro Protagonist

4AFE/7AFE? CSi/Conquest/CSX/RV? These cars respond quite well to the standard handling mods - lowered springs and shocks, swaybars etc, plus some better rubber (don't go too big on wheels - 17s might look good but you sacrifice a fair bit of ride comfort). Engine-wise there isn't too much to do that'll give you big improvements apart from a turbo kit (which is a bit of work) or a full engine conversion. Body-wise there aren't many kits out there that look better than a squashed turd, the AE10x is an orphan in the aftermarket. Best bet is to keep it neat, tidy, and maybe bling it up a bit with some JDM extras (the one thing that there is tonnes of stuff out there for)

Something's not right - the GTi ran a smallport 4AGE but that picture shows a bigport (you can tell by the intake plenum, it has the TVIS badge on it).

A third option could be a leaking windscreen seal - AE92s are fairly well known for rust around the windscreen (often not always visible until it gets bad), if water leaks behind the seal into the A-pillar then it could funnel down into the footwell. Rip as much of the carpet/dash and a-pillar panels out as you can (within reason), sit in the footwell and get someone to spray the car with a hose, and see if you can see water leaking in somewhere.

The wiper arm is spring-loaded against the windscreen, which can cause the arm to jam on the spline if it is still folded down - try folding the arm up (as if you were going to wash the windscreen with a squeegee at the servo) and then pull it off that way, should be much easier (and don't be afraid to give it a bit of a wiggle and shake to loosen things up, WD40 could help too)

Wiper removal should be as simple as popping the little black plastic cover off the pivot point (if it has one), then undoing the nut and pulling the wiper arm off the spline.

Another place to look would be the firewall plenum - take the black plastic wiper-linkage cover off and look to see if the firewall is full of leaves and crud

Heater core would leak into the passenger footwell, not the driver's

I doubt those wishbone clips would be able to make enough noise for you to hear in the cabin, I'm afraid it is most likely something much worse.

Told you it's easy :P Still, at least you learnt with your eyes and your hands - reading a book and looking up stuff on the internet can only get you so far, hands-on experience wins every time. If you're going to be doing more home servicing/maintenance on the car, I'd suggest buying the Gregorys manual (#271, thats where those pictures came from). It has saved me a _heap_ of trouble in the past, and more than paid for itself in labour costs etc

No, don't touch A at all - that bolts the carrier to the hub, and doesn't need to be loosened. You remove the bottom B and loosen the top B, allowing the caliper to hinge upwards around the top B bolt. The very first time I changed my pads I made the mistake of undoing both the A bolts and removed the entire caliper/carrier assembly from the rotor and hub, which made re-assembling the unit over the rotor with the pads already installed extremely hard.

In the current state, then yes you'll need to remove one of the pivot bolts (which are currently attached to your caliper, circled in red) so that the assembly can be put back together properly - note that they are two-piece (the pivot/slide pin is the long bolt that goes through the carrier, and the short stumpy lockbolt is what locks the pivot pin to the caliper, so you'll need 2 spanners or a spanner and a socket). Unbolt the lower pivot pin and lockbolt from the caliper, and slide the lower pivot bolt (without the lock bolt) into the lower hole on the carrier. Then slide the upper pivot bolt (still locked to the caliper) into the top hole of the carrier. Then, hinge the caliper down over the pads (making sure that the piston is fully back into the caliper, and that the wishbone clips and shims are installed on the pads) - if the wishbone clips are pushing the pads out then leave them off until the caliper has just started to clamp over the pads. Finally, tighten the lower lock bolt to lock the lower pivot pin to the caliper The way that you have things disassembled at the moment is not how things are supposed to be done, which is why it is such a mess to get back together - ideally nothing would actually ever be completely unbolted from the car except for the pads themselves. These photos show how it should be done - if you can get what you have to this stage then the rest is easy. See how the caliper is still attached to the carrier via the top pivot bolt, and the bottom lock bolt has been removed (what you see attached to the carrier is the pivot bolt itself)

I'm surprised you had to completely remove the caliper, I've never had a trouble with the dust shields interfering with it when pivoting out of the way. You've made it a lot harder on yourself that way Try putting the caliper in just via the top pivot bolt, remove the bottom bolt and then pivot the whole caliper back over the pads and the carrier (it is easier this way than trying to slide it over before putting either of the pivot bolts back in). If that doesn't work, take the pads out completely and re-assemble everything else, then try the method I listed above, and if the dust shield gets in the way at all just bend it with a pair of pliers, it isn't that critical.

What is the cold idle rpm though?

You install the wishbone clips after you've put the pads into the carrier but before you both the caliper back over the carrier/rotor ie at THIS stage (just imagine the caliper still attached by one of the pivot bolts The first time you do a set of pads is always the hardest, you do everything the wrong way and it takes you half a day to get it all back together. The next time takes you 15 minutes, tops... Quick procedure for changing pads in a 101/102 (basically the same as any single-piston floating caliper) 1) Jack car up at appropriate end, remove wheel 2) Remove lower pivot bolt, hinge caliper up out of the way (note the pads and pad carrier stay in place on the rotor) and retain with a cable tie or wire 3) Remove old pads 4) Install new pads, clips and shims 5) Using a brake piston clamp, compress the caliper piston fully into the caliper (it helps to take the cap off the brake master cylinder at this stage, but look out for it overflowing and remove some brake fluid with a syringe if necessary) 6) Lower caliper over brake pads, re-install lower pivot bolt 7) Install wheel, lower car, and pump brake pedal several times to ensure piston is fully seated against the back of the pads NOTE: If you're doing this on the rear disc brakes, then you use a caliper socket tool rather than a clamp to reset the piston - the stock handbrake acts on the piston via a threaded rod, so you need to screw this back rather than just pushing the piston back in

What is the idle like when cold?

Here's a shot I took on the weekend at the TOCAU annual meet - it kinda highlights just how low the exhaust is sitting, and why it scrapes on any bump bigger than a strand of spaghetti

The fact that it has the 22RE and pop-up (rather than tilt-forward) headlights is enough to make it an RA65...

Do it Do it now

Something like that though you would expect to be a single knock whenever you accelerate/brake (ie whenever the engine shifts), not a continual knocking noise

"Keeping" it low compression (I assume you mean compression)? 4AFCs are already 9.5:1, hardly "low" compression

When you find something like that in a Google search, click on the green drop arrow next to the link (if it's there) and open the Cached version - Google has log-ins to a lot of forums. You won't be able to navigate any further without a login, but if you search judiciously enough then you can get enough info.

"OD" = Outside Diameter (since a tube obviously has an outside and an inside)

Which bit do you think it is? That looks like a completely different car anyway (certainly not a FWD Corolla)

They'll be fine - AE101/102/111/112 is all swappable (they are essentially the same chassis as long as you stay Macpherson strut, I know because I sold my old AE102 OEM shocks to a guy who fitted them to his AE111 to convert it to Mac strut). All the aftermarket coilover suppliers etc list the same part number for all of them. Main difference from factory isn't length, it'll be firmness (besides, the springs set ride height in a car, not shocks/struts). And you should always do a wheel alignment after removing/fitting suspension, regardless of whether you are putting new stuff in or not.

No difference between AE92 and AE93 (in fact some of the early SXs were AE92), and no difference suspension-wise between the hatch and Seca