pixel8r

I sometimes purposely park next to another import (or similar type of car), particularly if its nicely modified etc. Just the theory that obviously the person looks after their car so less chance of me getting a door opened into my car etc. Otherwise, cant say I've noticed skylines etc parking next to me a lot - but if they do, they're quite welcome, I'll often check them out when I walk past anyway...

nope mine is silver (and 100% stock except the stereo). was at the gold coast a couple times in the last 6 months but thats about it. I tended to head up to the sunshine coast more even though I lived on the south side of the city...weird i know.

just toot the horns please. was very thankful you included that 2nd option... lol!

I am amazed at the number of cop-related threads in the SA section. I've just moved back to Adelaide after living in Brisbane for the past 18 months and the difference couldn't get any more extreme. In Brisbane you'd be lucky (?) to see a cop car on the road - there are so few around. This also includes speed cameras etc. They do have lots of undercover police cars but still nowhere near as many police on the road vs the number of other drivers. Driving in Adelaide again I've now become aware of just how many cops there are here. You cant drive more than 5km without seeing a police car. Now I dont mean to discriminate or anything, I've been an SA driver for most of my driving life myself, but you'd think with this many police around the traffic would be perfect, but its actually the opposite. There are far less "hoons" (for want of a better word) on Brisbane roads than here. I have no idea why that is...its just an observation. Maybe people from other states have noticed this too? Some theories I have are: * Adelaide has more traffic lights and slower speed limits, creating more frustration in drivers. We become impatient and by the time we reach our destination the frustration can reach very high levels. * shortage of legal motorsport venues - ie. legal drags, track day venues etc, and also motorsport events where enthusiasts can participate. I understand the hobby, and there are a lot of people who love working on a car project. Wouldn't it be a lot more rewarding if there was a place you could take that car and legally take it round a circuit or set 1/4 mile times etc? Instead the only option for many is to take these cars onto public roads. Yet the SA govt seems unwilling to go down this path - and many people i've spoken to feel that this would just create more "hoons" - even though evidence from other states appears to show the opposite. What do you guys think? And try to keep it respectful. This isn't about bagging the police - most of whom are just trying to do their jobs (rightly or wrongly).

I'm willing to bet the stagea ATTESA is a lot closer to the system in a GTR than a GTIR/bluebird is. The GTIR is a fairly different setup as far as I remember. The stagea being originally based on a skyline would mean the GTR's AWD system would've been an obvious choice. I was of the belief that the systems are mechanically about 95+% the same but with the ATTESA computer tweaked for the wagon usage. The system on the s1 & s2 was from the R33 GTR I believe. Not sure on the M35 but I'd say it'd be more similar to previous stageas too. None of these would be comparable to the R35 GTR though.

yep. similar for halogens too (for those of us who have had the xenons removed in compliance). Its a royal pain to get the wire supports unclipped and clipped in again, so difficult to see what you're doing!! I've spent more than 2 hrs just changing light bulbs the first time I did it, should be quicker next time hopefully. But definitely remove the airbox/radiator overflow bottle - its impossible without that extra room.

I thought the torque readout was meaningless with autos on a dyno. The story I've heard is that unless the dyno is setup with all the correct parameters specific to that car, it cannot measure torque accurately. Something to do with the fact that the torque converter multiplies torque to the wheels, but the dyno has no way of knowing by how much etc.

silver stagea at woollies on kesters rd (para hills i think it is). Saw you driving out as I was walking to my stagea. Had a trolley load of individual items because i refuse to pay for shopping bags (just moved from brisbane so i'm still not in the habit of taking the "green bags" along).

V is definitely not rwd. Both my stageas have been RS FOUR V's and both are AWD. RWD would just be RS (ie. without the FOUR). Not sure what the V stands for - I always thought it was either a sports or luxury variant...cant be much in it though.

No pauses between the flashes on self-diagnostics means no fault code is showing up. This almost certainly rules out a faulty sensor causing the issue (unless the sensor is faulty but still reading within normal range - but if this were the case it wouldn't trigger the A/T light). There are a few places that offer shift kits on the RE4 trans. SA RACE (Adelaide Transmission & Diff Specialists in the white pages) at Holden Hill in SA can do them and they offer a few different options depending on what you're after. Highly recommended (as are MV Automatics - I had one fitted by them to my previous s2 and it was great). Not sure if a shift kit is all that good as far as the extra pressure exerted on the driveline, but mine did last 2 years without issues and was still working fine when I sold it. There is at least one place in Brisbane that will do them as well, but the name escapes me. If you get it serviced by a good auto transmission workshop, they should be able to identify any potential problems at the same time. There is a difference between a proper transmission service and just flushing the oil. Hope you get it fixed. I've had an auto trans go kaput on a silvia and its not fun, nor is it cheap to fix.

Well my wife always tells me off if i even think of taking off fast at the lights, and yet somehow its fine if she does it. Mind you, it doesn't really stop me.

So basically you're off the hook. points do expire so you might find that thats the case. Either way its good news for you

Its such a different world with a nissan import, especially stageas. She must think we're all loonies, or maybe just overly friendly?? I've had many passengers comment on how cool it is that a perfect stranger will give me the thumbs up just because of the car. You dont get that in a falcodore. We've owned a s2 stagea before for 2 years and now the M35 for nearly 1 year, and my wife now usually spots stageas before I do. Her other trick is to say "stagea" when a volvo wagon goes past, knowing that I know exactly which car she's referring to. nasty

spotted a white M35 stagea on nelson rd in para hills yesterday around 5:40pm. Gave the thumbs up but i dont think the driver recognised that I was in a M35 too. They do tend to blend in more than the older stageas.

out of interest i just looked this up. http://www.tds.castrol.com.au/pdf%5C9070_T...828_2008_12.pdf its specifically for japanese built transmissions and the pdf also says it is an alternative to nissan matic j. The transmax z is probably fine too, but from the sounds of it this one is better? dunno.

The V35 & 350Z manuals (same auto trans as M35 stagea) say over and over to only use Nissan Matic J fluid. It says other fluids may deteriorate components over time... I realise nissan aren't going to recommend other brands though... I recently had my gearbox serviced, and the workshop used the Nissan Matic J because its all they had (not that there's anything wrong with it - I'd say its up there with anything else), but apparently Castrol do a Transmax E which would've been the one to use (according to the workshop). Dont quote me though.

I mean no offense or anything and am only trying to help when i say this, but with a turbo that big it will be frustrating and useless anywhere except the drag strip. If it reaches max boost above 4000rpm thats only like 2000rpm or so of max boost. You'll be driving a non-turbo on the street cos you'll never be on boost. When it does hit boost it'll be so extreme and wont be a nice drive at all. In stock form the boost comes on nice and smooth and the car is very driveable. That is what you'll lose by putting a big turbo on - the driveability. GT35's are standard on a ford xr6t so that should give you an idea of the size engine they're designed for. The RB25 just doesn't have the low-end torque to spin it up good enough. EDIT: just realised you have a RB20. There's no way an RB20 has enough torque to power up such a big turbo. It might have cost you a lot but it will cost you more trying to make it work. Nissan match the stock turbo up exactly with the characteristics of the engine. If you modify it, there will be a compromise in some way. Most people are happy with a GT28 highflow - eg. from GCG. The compromise is its slightly more laggy but the top end is a lot stronger. you can still get plenty of power from a GT28. If you need more power than this, buy a GTR.

Normally the boost will build up and then drop away slowly as you approach the red line. In this case the boost is dropping back sharply very early in the revs (around 3600rpm) which to me doesn't look normal. Maybe it is the turbo not being able to keep up but I'd say its the boost controller. It will usually taper off a bit towards the top end. When I put the highflow on my last stagea it dropped by 2psi by the time it got to the red line, but it was a gradual decrease.

ok, THAT is NICE!! where to buy? (haha).

Looking at the dyno sheet, you seem to have a big flat spot around 3700-4500rpm - due to the big dip in boost pressure. If you were able to improve boost and maybe hold it at 18 you'd see a much better top end result. Not sure how possible that is. In theory if the boost was set to 15psi and the boost controller was able to hold it there constant, you'd probably see the same kw figure.

shift kit/valve body upgrade (auto)!!

The power delivery would be completely different. The NM35 has higher PEAK power and torque but I'd be willing to bet the PM35 has significantly more power and torque up to say 2200-ish rpm, possibly higher. Dont just look at the power figures on paper, thats just the maximums. If they could quote you "average" torque figures, or if you could get hold of a dyno graph of each (showing power and torque), that might make it easier to compare. This means that driving around town the PM35 would have a fair amount of get-up-and-go, more so than the turbo model. One extra Litre ought to make quite a difference to low-end torque. The power delivery would be much more linear in the PM35. but no turbo, no fun - I say, although if you're not into turbos then this isn't likely to matter one bit. The PM35 would also be better on fuel too. There are many things in its favour...but I'd miss the turbo.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is some fault or corrosion or something similar with the factory ground points, that would account for the benefits gained, but how much time do you want to spend troubleshooting that kind of "problem"?

I didn't use the 8guage wire or anything that serious. The guy I spoke to at the auto shop gave me 25amp wire and said that being a ground wire and that its not connected to anything thats likely to carry a huge current, 25A would be plenty. It is suitable for use around the engine though, dont want any heat-related issues. Its also not the prettiest install you'll ever see but hey, it seems to work and thats the main thing. Hopefully this makes sense. I've drawn yellow lines to show where I've run the wire and where its connected up to. The wire from the battery to the engine goes under the intake pipe because its very handy to be able to remove the airbox in order to get better access to headlights etc. so I wanted the wire out of the way. I couldn't be bothered removing the engine cover to take photos cos I've done that enough times over the last few days. Its pretty easy to work out what I've done though. There are 2 factory ground points on the right hand side at the front of the engine, and one on the left of the engine at the front. Its probably not necessary to run a wire between the two areas, the engine is all metal anyway, but I had plenty of wire so I did it anyway. Here's a pic of the throttle body connection, showing where I ran the wire for that side. This wire runs under the intake pipe, and hopefully isn't touching anything too hot (its properly insulated anyway, so should be fine). If anyone can see any problems with this setup, let me know. I'm no expert, I just had a go - it seems like a pretty non-complex thing to do. I've used cable ties to hold the wires in place but black tape is probably a neater solution. Once again, you may feel that this mod does nothing at all. In my case, the factory earth setup was not fantastic, everything is earthed through the chassis, and there was no direct earth running from battery to engine. If any of the other ground connectors to the chassis were corroded etc, this would have caused problems. Hopefully by earthing a few spots directly to the battery I've improved things a little/lot. Given that the engine/gearbox performance seemed to be a bit temperamental before, and seems more consistently good now, I'd say its a success, and makes sense from a technical perspective.

+1 for stagea handling!! Most people expect wagons to be just boring shopping carts, designed to do the basics and just fit lots in. But I think we can all agree the stagea is sooo much more than that. Its built to go fast, handle well, and do all of the above. It can do the boring stuff and still be fun to drive at the same time. Everyone who has driven my car (and even lots of people who have been a passenger in the car) has commented on how well it handles, not to mention the performance. I know its not going to break any records in either category but for a wagon it goes hard! It can handle the twisties and if you're ever lucky enough to do an interstate drive or two, you'll really love how it handles the open road. Overtaking is a walk in the park (in my old s2 stagea with 160awkw incl GT30 turbo, when i was passenger - i kind of had to hold onto the seat when i had it laid back trying to sleep...to stop sliding up the seat - lol!).