Kinks

My tacho one day decided to go crazy, when idling it was sitting around 4000RPM and as soon as I drove off it would bounce around between 7000 and 9000RPM. Tapping the dash behind the steering wheel made the needle fluctuate so it was clear something wasn't right in the instrument cluster. Plugs were all in firmly so the cluster itself was the next suspect. Since I managed to fix it here's what I did: Start with cluster out (there are plenty of other guides to get to this point): Around the edge of the cluster you need to unclip the plastic clips (arrows) - there are a bunch of them top and bottom of the cluster, work slowly and gradually unclip them all and the front will pop off. Careful about the reset needle for the trip meter, if you are agro with it you will damage it. Be gentle once you've got the clips undone!! You should now have a naked instrument cluster (oooh baby!) Flip it over and undo these 6 screws, careful as when you undo the last one the tacho will fall out. You should now have a naked tacho module (I'm excited) Here's a suspect capacitor, looks like it's had better days. It looked suspect, so I changed it. If you change it with the same value you shouldn't have to touch the adjustment pot (right next door). If you do need to recalibrate your tacho this trimpot will let you. Replace the capacitor with the same value of 15nF (replacement is marked 2A153J - the 153 means 15 with 3 zeros, in picofarads. 15000pF = 15nF). Adjustment potentiometer highlighted in case your tacho is now off - mine wasn't so I didn't have to touch the trimpot (I did anyway, but that's because it was there and I wanted to play with it). Put it all back in reverse order and your tacho will be less crazy*. I took a photo of 9000RPM for posterity, I hope my RB never actually hits this since it would not end terribly well (*statement is true if you have made the necessary prior sacrifices to the skyline gods. I take no responsibility for cack-handed, ham-fisted or butter-finger moves. If you end up in the emergency ward with burns from your soldering iron please tell me which ward you are in so I can point and laugh)

My tacho one day decided to go crazy, when idling it was sitting around 4000RPM and as soon as I drove off it would bounce around between 7000 and 9000RPM. Tapping the dash behind the steering wheel made the needle fluctuate so it was clear something wasn't right in the instrument cluster. Plugs were all in firmly so the cluster itself was the next suspect. Since I managed to fix it here's what I did: Start with cluster out (there are plenty of other guides to get to this point): Around the edge of the cluster you need to unclip the plastic clips (arrows) - there are a bunch of them top and bottom of the cluster, work slowly and gradually unclip them all and the front will pop off. Careful about the reset needle for the trip meter, if you are agro with it you will damage it. Be gentle once you've got the clips undone!! You should now have a naked instrument cluster (oooh baby!) Flip it over and undo these 6 screws, careful as when you undo the last one the tacho will fall out. You should now have a naked tacho module (I'm excited) Here's a suspect capacitor, looks like it's had better days. It looked suspect, so I changed it. If you change it with the same value you shouldn't have to touch the adjustment pot (right next door). If you do need to recalibrate your tacho this trimpot will let you. Replace the capacitor with the same value of 15nF (replacement is marked 2A153J - the 153 means 15 with 3 zeros, in picofarads. 15000pF = 15nF). Adjustment potentiometer highlighted in case your tacho is now off - mine wasn't so I didn't have to touch the trimpot (I did anyway, but that's because it was there and I wanted to play with it). Put it all back in reverse order and your tacho will be less crazy*. I took a photo of 9000RPM for posterity, I hope my RB never actually hits this since it would not end terribly well (*statement is true if you have made the necessary prior sacrifices to the skyline gods. I take no responsibility for cack-handed, ham-fisted or butter-finger moves. If you end up in the emergency ward with burns from your soldering iron please tell me which ward you are in so I can point and laugh)

I managed to fix my tacho which was bouncing around between 4000RPM and 9000RPM. I will see if I can dig up the photos I took and post a HOWTO thread in this section over the weekend (note that this is only a fix for the "over 9000" problem, a non-working tacho is most likely not making contact with the loom plug that runs behind the cluster).

that's a big boost change, get it back to your tuner for a run on the dyno otherwise you're playing with fire.

oil viscocity makes a huge difference to oil pressure. a 10W30 will be higher pressure when cold than a 0W40, but the 0W40 will maintain a bit more pressure when hot. pressure is simply a measure of restriction, it is a combination of the "gaps" in your engine that oil is forced through (larger gaps = less restriction = lower oil pressure) and oil viscocity (lower oil "weight" = less restriction = less pressure). the stock gauge is very slow to react so unless you can hold at a certain RPM for a while I wouldn't trust it.

1. congrats 2. letting a car idle for ages is bad for it, it's a lot longer runtime for the engine when it's not in an optimum state (cold) 3. start car, let it idle for ~20 seconds to let the oil circulate and then drive off gently. I stay under 3.5k if possible and no boost until it's warm. whoever told you to start your car and idle it for 5 minutes deserves a stiff backhander. you're not doing the car ANY favours.

3rd party property will often cover you for some small amount (eg $2500 or $5000) if you are not at fault and the at fault driver is uninsured. worth remembering, it doesn't fully compensate you for a total loss but it's better than nothing. check your policy to see what it offers, though.

Yeah carpark was chockas with everyone doing the shopping, not easy to find somewhere to meet during the day so night time cruises are better. A few of us managed to find each other and we left at 3:30, nice sedate cruise in the shit weather up to lucky's and gorged on pizza. no sign of marss though?? what happened there good to see everyone today

Hey Eric good to see ya at the pizza cruise, I have plans for the 20th (a christening ) otherwise I would be there! next time, gadget.

manifold glow reflecting off the burnout pad near the end... jesus. for when you don't just want smoke, but fire too.

Schu's not human tho!

big ups to the new team Is there a membership renewal form available for download? I got mine in the post a while back and damned if I can find it again. I'd say it's long gone. Could only find links for the new membership form floating around.

Further to this, learners and P platers can only do 90 and 100km/h on a freeway. The speed differential from 140/150 clicks to 90/100 is substantial, throw in a driver who is very inexperienced (and one numbskull who is speeding) and you have a recipe for a hospital trip, or morgue trip for that matter. Seen plenty of ugly things happen at much slower speeds than that, it's not worth it on the road. Want to go fast? Do a track day. Radar detectors.. another brain dead idea. Cop uses a LIDAR gun (laser) you are screwed anyway, and you deserve it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Marko screenshot for posterity as it will no doubt change soon (last line):

how's louise's form - earring in both ears. he's been growing a vagina for the last 12-18 months i guess he finally decided to make it official.

vettel had a broken anti-roll bar linkage, which stuck his left front in the air and explains the brake locking. poor bastard has been so unlucky with reliability this season, and he still qualified 3rd. hope he sticks it up everyone in the race

vettel looks like he's carrying a brake problem, 2 times his left front locked up well past the apex he shouldn't even be on the brakes then.

school holidays again??

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nati...r-1225870334712 I strongly suggest you get used to what your car has, and allow yourself some experience before you make a temporary lapse of judgement in a car with a lot of power.

your skyline has chlamydia. she's been a bad girl.

I'd like to present Exhibit A, a Ferrari Enzo that's been in a slight bingle. Notice how it's a road car and the driver's section has separated from the engine (carbon monocoque) thus dissipating energy. Driver not only survived but his only injury was a bloody lip. It's doubtful that a regular car with spot welded metal chassis (like our favourite Hyundai Excels that seem to have collapsible suspension mounts) would have been survivable in this kind of accident. Therefore the trickle down technology of F1 cars can be applied to road cars in the sense that sports cars can be made faster while still being (relatively) safe to have an accident in. You wouldn't expect a middle range car to have this kind of technology, the top end will always get it first.

+1 to nismoman and Roy's points. There is plenty that trickles down and makes a difference but the application for road and race is very different. You just need to have your eyes open to spot it, it's not like next year's lancer will rev to 18,000rpm and last about 600km before needing a rebuild but it might have traction control (lol), ABS, paddle shift, etc which had their roots in a racing formula. What about all the semi-automatic gearboxes now available in road cars that have two input shafts and 2 clutches, meaning the next gear is preselected for a quicker shift? Tell me that had no roots in F1!

Hamilton has been a good steerer but he is increasingly turning into a whiney bitch eg "why do i have to look after the car we're only at half distance". it's well known that at monaco the speeds are low enough that most cars struggle with brake temps because there is not enough forward motion to cool them. red bull fit a secondary air duct to their cars for monaco. Louise just doesn't understand the importance of car management.

Mercedes not appealing Schu penalty http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/5/10807.html There have obviously been some discussions behind closed doors about this, they are discussing 40.13 at the next working group meeting. On face value there were green flags shown. Green means race, and that's the end of it. The flags are the cardinal rule in motorsport and if the race was still under the safety car they should have shown yellow flags to the start/finish line indicating overtaking was not allowed.

+1 bellmouth. too many stories about split dumps fouling or having boost issues. bellmouth works great.