Patto-

Well too bad its gone. Hope that guy enjoys it. oh well still got to wait for the bank to give me money anyway, hopefully i'll find another 5 speed by then.

I found this one: Stagea_on_Carsales It is on the coast and with a 5 speed. Are there many others with 5 speed? Is this an average price? I thought Stagea owners would be older but it seems that many are in there 20s. (I'm 22) so at least my mates shouldn't pay me out for driving an old farts car. One of my mates reckons he wouldn't buy one if you couldn't take the roof racks off. But he drives a commodore so he has bad taste anyway.

Finishing uni soon and looking to upgrade to something better than my R31. Considering a Stagea just because they are fairly unique. I hardly ever see one here on the Central Coast. So the questions are: 1. does the four wheel drive make them much more thirsty for fuel than say an r33 gtst? 2. Are they much slower than an r33 gtst? 3. Is it cheaper to insure, as they have four doors and I assume would be in fewer accidents due to the older age of stagea owners? (no offence) 4. Can those roof racks be removed? will this leave ugly holes in the roof? Sorry if these have already been posted, i had a look around but found nothing.

^ similar thing happened to me although at slower speed. Old lady changed lanes on a roundabout while I was right next to her. Side swiped my back 1/4. As if that wasn't bad enough, while at first she admitted fault, when I tried to get money out of her she said all sorts of things like - the quotes are too high, i'm in the middle of another insurance dispute can you wait a few months. Eventually she realised I wasn't going away and accused me of being on drugs or alcohol at the time. It was 10 am on a weekday. Finally I threatened legal action and sure enough she made contact with her insurance company quick smart. (Sorry for going a bit off topic, felt the need to whinge to someone)

That is one quick VP. My mates got one and it is fast but not that fast. Though he says he has raced an NA R33, and beat it without too much trouble. I think it was an auto. His VP is a manual with just extractors & zorst.

Yeah I went to Bunnings once looking for that kinda stuff. Couldn't find it and asked a guy for help. He asked me what it was for and when I told him he just looked at me like I was a f*ckwit and directed me to rubber grommets which I had already tried b4. That was when I ended up buying the self adhesive foam. They r usually much friendlier and helpful. Although he was about 60 so he probably didn't fully understand about subs. Anyway, thanks for that, i'll go back and try and find some of that stuff and give it a go. If anyone else has any ideas don't hesitate to post them.

You might want to get rid of that bird shit, it can do permanent damage. I wash my car at least once a fortnight. Usually use car wash places as I haven't been able to master washing using buckets. I swear i need so many buckets I would use less water if I used a hose.

I tried some self adhesive foam strips on the number plate. These said they were for outdoor use but when I wash the car or it rains, they tend to come apart leaviing little black specks everywhere. Have you had this problem? Was there a particular brand you used?

No it wasn't. A 3.5 magna would cream a GTS. No Doubt.

I reckon you should get a 3.5 V6 Magna sports. You can find good ones for about 20 grand. They have either 5 speed man or 5 speed tiptronic auto. I have driven the tiptronic auto and it goes like the clappers. My mate had a 3.5 executive with 4 speed tiptronic and that was no slouch either, Im sure it would beat any commodore V6. As matter of fact they are so quick, some guy on another thread reckons it would beat a R33 GTST auto. Doubt that its true but it illustrates my point. Only downside is FWD, though many people don't consider this a downside. They are also comfy and have japanese build quality and reliability (even though they are made in Adelaide). Besides, if you live in NSW you won't find a car that is much quicker that you are allowed to drive on your P's. Once you get off your P's you can then trade it in for nice turbo skyline.

What are the best ways to get rid of vibrations from your subs? I have two 12inch JBL subs which make just about everything vibrate. Including the boot lid, bumper, plastic thing between the lights etc. (It is an R31.) I have been told to put Pollyfilla expanding foam behind the plastic thing between the lights however this will mean I will never be able to get it off again. It also solves only part of the problem. Would like to know what other people have done to fix this problem in their cars regardless of what they drive. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Just about any parts from a jap r31 should bolt straight on. As long as wheels are four stud with i think its 114.3(? correct me if i'm wrong) offset they should fit. As far as I know all turbo skylines from r32 onwards are 5 stud.

Would be reliable and comfy but would not have much balls. Would get beaten by many commodores.

I still learning to use this so I hope this works speedlimit.bmp

Airbags are useless. Your seatbelt stops your head from hitting the steering wheel. That is why they are called SRS airbags, Supplementary Restraint System. They supplement the use of a seatbelt. The only reason they are in cars is because stupid americans don't wear seatbelts. Also the more airbags a car has is a useful marketing tool. In fact there has been a lot of research which suggests that airbags can actually be dangerous in a crash. I am only talking about driver and passenger airbags, not side impact airbags which have had no bad press that I'm aware of. Here is a link to some info on the danger of airbags: Dangers of Airbags

"I'm looking to purchase an R31, but I have no idea as to which model is good, and would meet my budget of $5000, I can go a little bit higher than that but i'd rather not. So any suggestions of what models to look out for, and what specific questions related to the car that should be asked e.g. "Was that radiator replaced, as most models have had problems". etc stuff like that, thanks in advance!" Make sure you get a compression test or at least a dye test on the engine before you buy. Just about any straight six with an alloy head will have head gasket problems at some point in its life, anywhere from 100-300k kms depending on how its been driven. Check for rust or dampness in boot, and check all seals around car, my R31 leaked like a sieve when I bought it. Don't worry about the radiator being replaced, my R31 sits at about half way on the temp gauge, goes up to 3/4 on a very hot day. It only started doing this after I replaced the water pump, however I have had it checked by different mechanics and apparently theres nothing wrong with it. Therefore I doubt changing the radiator will have any effect. The only problem with radiators I have heard of is in VLs in which the radiator sits lower than the engine, and if people don't use the bleed valves properly they get air in their cooling system which leads to overheating. This apparently is not really a problem in R31s. As far as a particular model to buy, in my opinion they are all good, just depends on what you are looking for and what you like.

I haven't had much experience with N/A rb25s, but i know for a fact VTs are very slow, too bloody heavy. Just about any other injected commodore will beat them, especially VS as it has ecotec engine without all the weight that the VT has. Although being a manual it would most likely be a fair bit quicker than the auto VTs that I have seen. As far as reliability goes, I had a VL with 220k on the clock that had a new problem once a fortnight. I now have a R31 with over 315k on the clock, and never had a problem I couldn't fix myself. Depends a great deal on how the car has been treated in its lifetime.

I thought I saw it somewhere recently, 2DMAX magazine says: turbo timer is outdated now that most turbos are water-cooled, as the timer kept engine running to cooldown the core of the turbo. This was to stop the oil burning and forming carbon which often blocked the lubrication passages. Better oil technology has also made them unnecessary.

I'm sure a turbo timers are not illegal. Saw one on an older model turbo-diesel Jeep Cherokee. Owner of the Jeep said it was standard. Also said newer turbos don't need them for some reason. Have also been told that that allow the turbo to cool slowly, if they cool suddenly it is a bit like putting hot glass under cold water. It cracks.