pixel8r

heh real nice. i fail to see how a boost issue MUST be specific to it being a manual. It could be, but surely we who own (or have owned, as in my case) an s2 RS4(V) can at least offer to help. The boost solenoid is not complicated at all. Its just bleeding off pressure in order to lift the boost pressure by 2psi after 4500rpm. I'm not sure if this is how it works in the manual versions, but this is definitely what the solenoid does in function. The vacuum lines just plug into different points on your intake, and also the wastegate actuator. The wastegate actuator then just measures the amount of pressure in the vacuum line. It will open the wastegate when pressure reaches 5psi, and will close it when its below that. Bleeding some pressure off as the solenoid does, will cause the wastegate to see LESS pressure, and thus stay closed a bit longer. If you bleed too much pressure off, by bypassing the solenoid and using too wide a hose, the wastegate actuator may never see 5psi and will stay closed, resulting in "unlimited" boost as mentioned in an earlier post. This is bad. When the wastegate is closed, the boost pressure keeps building up. When its open, it stops the boost pressure from continuing to build up (ie. because the air is now escaping), and the boost pressure may even fall a little (as it will with a stock engine). A common problem with these cars is that the wastegate sometimes can get either stuck open, or the spring may weaken and it will creep open rather than staying closed right up to 5psi. In both cases, it will not build boost or may build boost slowly or just slower than it should. Hope this helps.

oh? I thought they could only use these systems as LPG only, due to them essentially sharing the same injectors (do they? maybe i'm wrong there too. i got the impression it pumps liquid LPG through the same fuel lines as well). Now I'm more interested in these. Only question that remains is what this means for safety compared to a SGI LPG setup. LPG needs to be pressurised in order to remain in liquid form. As soon as any pressure was released in the fuel lines, all the gas would vapourise and expand...which sounds nasty to me. I'm sure they've thought about it, but I'm still keen to find out what happens when things go wrong (with both systems). LordMidol: There would be a lot of variation with regard to expertise of LPG installers. Since all modern SGI setups require a separate ecu, I cant see them still being in business if the units themselves were that unreliable. The tuning can apparently be tricky though...so thats where the expertise of the installer plays a big part. If I were to get LPG installed, I'd be looking for an installer with experience in performance and custom setups.

Is it true they are required to keep the auction sheets by law? and also are you as the buyer permitted to view them? I bought an s2 a few years ago from a dealer, and when I asked about the auction papers they said they dont keep them. Months later I was told they are required to keep them. I have good reason to believe the kms wouldn't have matched what the auction papers said...which would explain the secrecy.

Does the manual one not run the boost solenoid then? otherwise what does the solenoid do in a manual? In the threads relating to the boost solenoid earthing trick, it was discovered that bypassing the solenoid altogether did not have the same result as earthing it. Something to do with the solenoid still having a restriction in it even when its open. If you bypass it by joining the hoses together you may end up with 10psi or even more. The standard actuator is set at 5psi. All the solenoid does is bleed the extra 2psi pressure away from the wastegate, effectively giving you ~7psi. The solenoid is either closed (5psi) or open (~7psi). If the manual is indeed 7psi all the time then it means the solenoid is always open. If you do get sick of the whole boost solenoid thing, search on this forum &/or ebay for a "turbotech" boost controller (NOT JRD or anything else!). They're cheap and reliable and you can set the boost manually and remove the boost solenoid completely. They will also allow your turbo to spool up faster too I had one on my previous stagea (s2) and it worked a treat! The problem you're having could be related to the wastegate actuator, possibly a weak spring? or it may get stuck open...which would mean you'd have almost no boost, or if it did build up it would only build slowly...(i think)

If the kms have been "wound back" (ie. had the dash swapped) - the importer will know for sure....but I doubt any of them would admit it. The odometer is digital so as far as I know the only way to "wind back" the kms is to swap the dash with another car that has done less kms. Unfortunately it is very common practice in the industry and you are best to go by the overall condition of the car.

I believe the 4.5 refers to the exterior + mechanical condition. They have a separate rating for the interior, usually A, B or C (not sure if there's also D, E etc). Mine was actually a C interior due to a couple of cigarette burns in the seats but other than that it is spotless (I had it inspected in japan before placing a bid so it wasn't a gamble). I actually saw the sinergy one, they have another yard on north east rd which I've been past a few times. That car's been sitting there for a while (over a month). congrats on the NSP one. enjoy

Check HERE for a list of fault codes. lachlanw - your "boost cut" issue is related to your cat back exhaust. Standard boost is 7-8psi on a s2. An exhaust will raise this figure and this means more airflow...which may mean your AFM is then reading outside the preset range the ecu wants it to be, so it cuts fuel to protect the engine. To fix that, you need some form of tuning, be it as simple as a Apexi SAFC, or as full-featured as an E-manage. Nisstune is another option. morm - if your exhaust is standard, then its unlikely to be the same issue as the above, and you wouldn't be experiencing the boost/fuel cut issue. Check your vacuum hoses etc... Also be aware that the standard boost solenoid will keep it at 5psi until you reach 4500rpm and then it will jump up to ~7.5psi above that. Also I believe it will limit boost in first gear so you may not see the 7.5psi until 2nd gear. If you want to run 7.5psi all the time (you do, trust me) simply earth the black wire from the boost solenoid (this is a small vertical cylinder thing attached to the chassis near the passenger side strut - it has a red and a black wire coming off it into a plug). By this I mean so that the black wire connects the ecu to the chassis instead of connecting the ecu to the solenoid. I'm pretty sure thats right - its been a year and a half since I had my s2. If in doubt cut the black wire after the solenoid plug and earth both ends... Its a good idea to make sure you can reverse the operation later so dont cut it too short. This little wiring trick causes the ecu to keep the solenoid on "high boost" mode all the time, instead of just after 4500rpm. Unfortunately it means you'll be running more boost between ~2000 and 4500rpm than you were before so your fuel usage will increase. It wont increase your peak power.

Oils have different grades. Have a read of the different grades of full synthetic oils. "Full synthetic" is sometimes more of a marketing term than actually 100% synthetic. It may or may not be true. Basically if I remember correctly, Nulon 300V was one of the few grade 5 oils, most other full synthetics are grade 4 (redline & royal purple i think) which is still pretty good, and then there are also a lot of grade 3 oils, which are still listed as "full synthetic" even though some of them are actually a semi-synthetic. This includes shell helix ultra...unless they've changed it recently... Either way a synthetic oil will work well, just depends how critical you are. The average joe just sends their car to your average mechanic and their cars usually last the distance...so who knows...

4.5 is great. Good luck with your search Be sure to let us know when you get one...you wont look back!!

Very true. although it still uses more RAM than xp if its available. I normally disable superfetch and anything else thats likely to thrash my hard drive. Had a hard drive die after 4 months of using Vista (the drive is only 3-4 years old). Doesn't make sense to thrash the hard drive 24/7 just so I can open firefox 0.2seconds quicker the first time it loads. I'm running the win7 RC - it doesn't expire until next June so I have until then to either buy it or go back to vista (gee, hard choice). This is coming from someone who only used Linux at home over the last 7-8 years...decided to try vista and now win7 and I find its not too bad. Btw, got my HTC Magic last night (Google Android phone). All I can say is, this thing is awesome!! I've already got the SDK + eclipse (all free) and I intend to create some apps for it. Need to learn java but I'm an old hat with C, C++, python, perl (I work as a computer programmer) so it shouldn't be too difficult. The examples look easy enough. I love the fact that you can create apps that tie the features of other apps together. ie. you have GPS and you have a note-taking app, why not link them so you can associate notes with physical places? etc. If you haven't seen/heard of android yet, its because there's only a couple of phones available with it (and the OS is still new and in development). But thats all about to change because almost every major phone manufacturer except apple currently have an android phone in the works. This includes, Sony Ericsson, LG, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and a few others. Essentially android can do everything the iphone can do, except that its more "open"...meaning there's no restriction on what apps you can run on it and its much less restrictive to get your apps onto the android market (and free!). There are pros and cons, but basically, you will either care a lot, or you wont care at all. The differences between them is much like the differences between the parent companies - Google and Apple. Google aims for openness and freedom whereas apple controls everything tightly in order to protect their user experience (which I believe is top notch from what I've heard). Which phone you prefer largely comes down to which side of this coin you find yourself.

Mine was done recently. * New plugs * flushed coolant * oil change * new oil filter * new air filter * new drive belts (i felt like getting them to do this because I wasn't sure what the original ones were like and its often a pain of a job). all the usual checks (brakes, tires, "vehicle safety check" etc etc blah blah) for what its worth... and thats about it... Anything I missed?

I drove past this morning on my way to work but the M35's must all be in the showroom. No M35's were out in the fenced area out the front. Do they have another holding yard somewhere?

?? I thought the standard integrated system IS Bose? There's another AR-X on carsales that has the same one.

Yep looks like the bose system. Doesn't the screen pop down into the dash? It has definitely been lowered. The wheels may fill the guards but whats their excuse for the low (ie. non-ARX) ride height? 74000kms is pretty normal. Most freshly imported M35's I've seen are in the 60-80K kms ballpark. 25K seems a little high but then I'm not sure what AR-X's go for...they're definitely a higher spec than the RS and a notch up from the RX too if I remember correctly.

oops my bad. However it still looks like custom kits are still on the waiting list. My preference is probably still with SGI at this stage just because its been around longer. I realise the LiLPG systems have been in use in other countries for years but its still "new" here as far as installer expertise etc is concerned. Not sure where to get a conversion done in SA though... I also like the idea of dual-fuel just in case there are tuning issues with lpg, although it'd probably mean losing the spare wheel and only having a "repair kit"....hmmm.

Just thought I'd dig up this old thread and see if anyone knows if the M35 can be converted to LPG. Contrary to my post at the start of the thread, this time I'm more interested in Dual-fuel and probably just a SGI setup - since LiLPG seems to be (excuse the pun) vapourware at this point in time...at least for custom setups like we'd need.

Could've been me. Was it completely stock and with a morpowa sticker on the back windscreen? Was on my way back from victor, and was on south rd all the way up to grand junction rd. Would've been around 9-10pm, give or take 30 mins...

Put it this way, if they ARE genuine, then it means you have a 10 y/o car thats been sitting around doing nothing for a LONG time which could be worse than a car thats done 10,000-20,000km a year for 10 years. I bought a s2 a few years back which had apparently only done 28000km. the interior supported the kms but the engine bay possibly didn't (hard to say). Either way it lasted until 100,000km without the timing belt being replaced so it had either done 28,000 as advertised (and had been sitting in a caryard for 5+ years) or it could have actually done 120,000km with a refurbished interior... Just something else to think about too - they dont "wind back" the kms in these since the dash is digital. All they do is find a wreck with less kms on it and swap the dash out. Its most often done AFTER the sale in japan but before the car goes on the boat. Its like an extra "service" they offer the importers...and unfortunately there are a lot of dishonest people in the industry. With my M35 I imported it through a guy my family has known (and trusted) for years. However even with the questionable kms on the s2, it was a nice car and I owned it for 2 years before moving on. Had a few teething issues same as any 2nd hand car but after that it was very reliable.

does it do it any other times? I had an issue where the steering would cause it to lose revs and sometimes stall when driving at low speeds, and very often when pulling into my driveway in a block of units (full lock one way then the other). First I had the power steering fluid flushed (that was all nissan could find) which kind of alleviated the problem ever-so-slightly for a few days...and then it was back again. But it turned out to be a build-up of black around the butterfly on the intake, making the butterfly sticky and so it couldn't adjust the idle quick enough. The M35 has no idle air bypass valve so it relies on the ecu adjusting the throttle to let the right amount of air in. If you have some time, remove the throttle body and give it a good clean out. This fixed the issue 100% for me and straight after that it idled perfectly every time. I did have to do the idle-relearn procedure afterwards to make it idle at the right revs again (i think there's a sticky in the DIY or servicing section at the top of the forum). Some other guys had the same or similar problem although not all of them were the same cause... If you find the solution, let us know

The OP mentioned the price difference between 98ron and 91ron fuel. The gap has been slowly widening and yes it is annoying. I doubt its anything other than just a simple price increase. The same way other businesses increase their prices purely to generate higher profits. Basically they want to increase their profit margins off those people who are already prepared to pay a bit extra for fuel. Sounds like a reasonable idea to me...except that its not really fair. But it obviously works for them. Just sucks to be us. There is a general rule with the price of an item, that it is not priced based on what it COSTS, it is priced based on what the market can handle. This goes for much more than just fuel. How many companies buy an item for 30c and sell it for over $100? Lots!! But we pay it because there is no choice. If they put the price up to $100 a litre overnight (a ridiculous example), we'd all find ways to walk to work or catch the bus. So obviously that wont happen. They will have economists trying to find the price points which generate the most profit. And as for the price cycle - its the same as what the airlines do...and its pretty simple. Most people dont need to buy fuel on a specific day, so the ones most conscious of price can wait till tuesdays (or is it wednesdays?) and the ones who dont care so much or who cant afford to wait will pay a higher price, generating a higher profit. So everyone gets fuel at a price they can tolerate and the fuel companies win because they're making more profit on all the other days. They know we cant go somewhere else so they have no reason to keep it low all week. I'm not sure govt involvement is necessarily a good idea either. And it probably is true that they will not harm what is one of their biggest tax collectors. What we need is more competition for fuels. If electric cars were to arrive, we'd have a real choice, although the power companies are not exactly a better alternative to fuel companies - more demand = higher prices. I think the problem is that our fuel all comes from the same suppliers so whilst there are many different fuel "brands" - really it all links back to only a few suppliers (or maybe only 1 supplier if you trace it far enough).

Pretty sure its only related to the Air Flow Meter signal. The ecu reads the amount of airflow and if its above a certain limit then it tries to protect the engine by cutting ignition. This is pretty normal because obviously the AFM can only operate within a certain range. I'd recommend looking for a 2nd hand Apexi SAFC2 and getting that installed and tuned. It works similar to the FCD as far as altering the AFM signal but allows much better actual tuning. You can use it to lean out the mixtures right across the revs, as it uses up to 8? control points and interpolates the amounts between those. So basically it can modify the voltage signal returned by the AFM so that when you're doing say 3000rpm it can do -0.1 and when you're at 4000rpm it can do -0.3 and when you're at the redline it can alter it by -1 for example. This then tricks the ecu into thinking there is less air going in than there actually is, and so it supplies less fuel. It MUST be first tuned on a dyno to make sure you're not altering the AFM signal too much and running into detonation problems. Its much better than the FCD because you can use it to actually tune how rich it runs right across the rev range. The result of either SAFC or FCD will be similar as far as your maximum airflow limit before it will either run lean or hit "fuel cut", but the SAFC lets you do much more than just set a limit on your AFM. The later SAFC2 also has a knock sensor I believe. Hope you get it sorted out.

When I bought my s2 years ago I was told by the dealer that they dont keep auction sheets so I couldn't have it. Later I found out that they are required to keep them by law so it sounds like I was being taken for a ride. Probably because it "apparently" had only 28,000km on the clock...but who knows? I'm pretty sure you as the buyer have a right to a copy of the auction papers but I'm not 100% on that. Either way, most importers wont touch anything below auction grade 4 and quite often nothing below interior grade A, or maybe B. I went through an importer for my M35 and so I was shown auction papers for all cars that came up for auction before even making a bid. Mine had a C grade interior only because of 1 single cigarette burn mark in the driver seat, and one on the cieling above the driver seat. Other than that it was perfect. I had it inspected before auction so I knew this in advance. But having owned 4 nissan imports now, and 3 of those being turbos, I'd say you should be fine. Sometimes when the car arrives there are a few little issues that need to be fixed, but usually nothing serious and its pretty much standard when buying a 2nd hand car anyway.

One way you can compare all combustion engines that rely on air and fuel in order to turn/rotate a shaft, is to compare how much air and fuel is required for the shaft to be rotating at the same speed in both cases (so long as the shaft is carrying the same load). This is a comparison of efficiency, which to me is far more important than how much power you can make. How much power an engine can make is more a question of money than it is of superiority. Now before everyone starts comparing 2 engines based on stated capacity, I'm more interested in 2 engines of similar power AND torque (torque being more important) - because this is the only way that you can take LOAD out of the equation. It seems the capacity is largely irrelevant because it all depends on your terminology. And because the engines work differently, a comparison of capacity is meaningless. In my opinion, an engine with a 2L capacity is the same as an engine with a 1L capacity that "cycles/combusts" twice as fast. So with this in mind, I say capacity is irrelevant. If we're going to talk capacity, we need to talk capacity with respect to time - ie L/min etc. The reason you cant just use output shaft rpm to compare them is because people could argue all day over whether the 3:1 (or 1:3 whatever way it is) gear in a rotary is a factor. So to remove this out of the equation, and properly compare the efficiencies, you need to assume that both of them are pulling a vehicle with the same gearing and of the same weight. Since we cant physically do that comparison, if we know the engines produce similar power and torque, then thats pretty much the same result. Obviously I'm talking a lot of theory here, and to compare the efficiency exactly as I've described above is probably not possible, because no direct comparison exists in the real world. The best we can do is pick out cars of similar weight, power and torque and assume that their gear ratios are all the same and then do a comparison of fuel economy. And even then we know that the gear ratios aren't the same so the numbers will still be skewed one way or the other. So essentially, any comparison between the two is always going to be fraught with problems.

Think about what you want it for. Whats happening is that the Air Flow Meter is reading too high so your ECU cuts fuel to protect your engine. The Fuel Cut Defender simply stops the Air Flow Meter from reading this high (it doesn't change the amount of air actually entering the engine!!) so essentially it is bypassing this safety mechanism. You are then relying on the factory tune being overly rich so that it will still provide enough fuel once the FCD reaches the clamped voltage. With the FCD on a factory tune it will run rich up until the AFM reaches the clamped voltage (as set on the FCD) and will start to lean out from there. You need to check your AFR's (ie. on a dyno) to make sure your it doesn't lean out to far on the top end. To put it another way, once the revs go above the point where the FCD clamps the AFM voltage, the engine will be getting more air but no extra fuel. Think of the FCD as a band-aid, not a tuning option. It doesn't just get rid of the fuel cut. It bypasses the ecu's safety mechanism, potentially allowing it to run lean. If you're only flowing slightly more air than stock it should be fine though, provided it works as advertised.

if you want to check if its on the outside first, try using toothpaste on a rag and some elbow grease to "polish" it. most toothpaste is slightly abrasive. I used it on my s2 so I'm not making it up. Not quite as effective as the mcguire's (i used that also), but ok if its all you have