pixel8r

The M35 should only use about 9.5-10L/100 on the highway. Anything over 10L/100km (or under 10km/L) on the highway means either something is not right or your right foot is heavy/shaky. Make sure to put the tiptronic into 5th when sitting on constant speed because otherwise the throttle is too sensitive and the torque converter will keep locking / unlocking, which will end up using more fuel. For some reason using the tiptronic makes it less sensitive and will keep the revs low and constant. The above is for a completely stock stagea. Depending on which performance mods you have it may do better / worse... In my own experience, mine averaged 10.5-11L/100km on the highway when in D. Putting it in 5th using the gear lever gave me 9.8L/100km but I've seen lower than that since. I'll be doing another long interstate trip in about 5 weeks and reckon I should be able to beat 9.5L/100km this time.

those are all fantastic ideas. maybe you need to get some copyrights and go speak to some TGA execs I would definitely watch stuff like that.

Looking very tidy! yes, many of us are quite familiar with "the wait". It seems like forever...but well worth it in the end.

sounds good, thanks!

Thanks for all the replies!! I'll have another look under the boot but I'm well aware of the different sections under there and haven't seen it before - but I haven't been looking for that when I've had the floor pulled up either... Is it in where the spare wheel is or is it in the other section further forward where the tools etc go? or maybe there's a 3rd compartment I wasn't aware of. Failing that I will try to get hold of a factory one somehow. Was hoping to have something within 4 weeks (driving to adelaide) which probably wont be possible if i'm importing one...but we'll see how we go. Out of interest is it something any importer would be able to source easily? I know the guy I imported my car through and he has offered to get me any parts I might need too - might be worth asking if he can get hold of this. If I have any luck I'll let you guys know.

Howdy, My M35 didn't come with a cargo barrier so I'm just wondering what my options are. Firstly, if I was to source a factory one from japan, does anyone know roughly what price I'd be looking at? Is it worth getting one made to fit locally instead? I want one that is removeable. I was happy with the factory one in my s2 - I presume the M35 factory one is similar to that as I have similar hooks in the roof etc to clip it to. The other thing I'm missing is the shopping cover - although I can probably live without that one since the windows are dark enough you cant see in the boot anyway. Would be interested in hearing from anyone who has had a cargo barrier put in, or bought a factory one separately... Cheers

I actually like the way the UK show mixes it up a little. My least favourite segment is the "star in a reasonably priced car" thing. What a waste of show time. One thing I dont want to see on TGA is any coverage of skylines etc just because of the already "hoonish" reputation they have in australia. Any review on TGA of any import is never going to be fair or unbiased. Even the now-legendary GTR only gets a mere 5 minutes on there if its lucky...compared to 30 mins for a 30+ year old falcon thats hardly quicker than a proton satria. Dont get me wrong - this fits perfectly for most of the australian audience... Not that I expect any tv presenter to be strictly unbiased, but in australia, the car scene is so narrow-minded that it'd be difficult for them to do a show that was anything but ford & holden... They have to please the fans no matter what, and the facts are that the vast majority of their viewers are ford/holden fans...so their hands are tied to a certain degree. Thankfully the UK show is back on for now...but if we want the latest episodes we will still need to head to youtube...

the VQ25DET starts building boost at around 2000rpm (well thats when its noticeable - ie. when you feel it) and from there it accelerates pretty rapidly. The revs would also build up slightly quicker at that point. I like to describe the power delivery of the VQ25DET as "ferocious" although that may be overstating it just a little Even though there is a small difference in reported power between the two engines (191kw vs 206? kw) the difference in peak torque is much greater (325N-m vs 407N-m). Interestingly the VQ30DD almost has as much power and torque as the RB25DET NEO - just shows you how far technology has progressed in just a few years.

I always thought this too. Lately I've been using shell mainly for the 4c/litre discount, but it definitely doesn't run as smoothly as with BP. It is noisier with shell fuel, hard to explain. A friend who used to work at the refinery was telling me shell fuel is the best blah blah and reckoned it is louder because it has more power with shell. Not sure if this is true or not. BP ultimate just seems to run quieter/smoother. I wouldn't say its worse than shell for either power or fuel consumption...but then I haven't done a whole lot of testing. Didn't notice much difference to fuel economy after switching from bp to shell. If anything it got worse, but this could just as easily be attributed to my driving patterns. There are always other factors so very difficult to do a fair comparison just on week-to-week usage. Caltex 98 made the car run more sluggish, wont be touching that again.

Thats a very good price!! Mine had 40,000 less km on the clock and was only ~$1K more last october (excl onroads), but that was directly imported through a friend, so getting it for that price from a dealer is very good!! Enjoy it, they're a very nice car - particularly considering the price. No other wagon comes close to offering the same level of features/quality for anywhere near this price.

I've not replaced the turbo on a M35, only a (1999) s2 stagea, which has the RB25DET NEO engine and the same turbo as a R34 skyline. Not sure on the exact details but the replacement turbo was a GT30 - i believe it was the 3071R although I could be wrong. This was mated up to the exhaust housing from the original turbo, so making it a sort of 'hybrid' turbo. This was done to increase response. Alternatively you can get the internals of the turbo replaced with brand new (garrett) high-flow parts by GCG. Many people on this forum have done it and their reputation are pretty good. I had that option when doing mine, and if I'd had the choice again I'd go the GCG option 100%. As far as I know there is no drop-in replacement turbo for the M35. The closest thing to a drop-in replacement is the GCG one. i think the idea is you send them your turbo and they upgrade it and send it back - and it will still fit exactly the same as before - the oil/water lines are unchanged etc. You do take on a risk with any stagea, being an import, that you may drive it home and 4 months later have it break...but if you read through this forum, you'll soon notice there are no "common problems" that occur with stageas, at least no major ones. I always reckon that with a Nissan you're fairly well guaranteed to have a strong driveline, ie. engine, transmission & diffs. Suspension may be worn or need replacing, but overall its rare to have any major mechanical failures on these cars. I owned a s2 stagea for 2 years and aside from the turbo and worn right rear suspension (was like it when i bought the car and was fixed at the dealer's expense) it required no other money spent on it except the usual servicing. I've now owned my M35 for 9 or so months and done ~16000km and I've only spent money on servicing. It still drives like its brand new. Its now done 97000km and the factory turbo is still going strong - fingers crossed. So yes there is a risk, but in my opinion it is a fairly small risk. If it really has something wrong with it, you'll know within 3 months/5000km and within that time the dealer must pay to fix it. Worst case if you do need parts for the M35, Nissan will be able to import them for you - at a cost of course. Also import wreckers are now beginning to stock more and more M35 parts which is a big plus.

Anyone on here done the 100,000km service on a M35? Mine will be due later this year so I'm curious what I'm up for. Presumably its all the same but minus cam belt? (the VQ is chain driven) Are there any other differences?

I bought my last stagea from a dealer with the AWN warranty. I was given a book with it which listed what was covered and how much etc. Basically it covers a lot of different systems on the car, up to a certain maximum price for each item. Included in that list is the usual engine, transmission, etc etc most mechanical stuff. Mine did cover the turbo however only up to $700 (ever tried replacing a turbo for $700 including labour?). I had problems with the stock suspension which the warranty didn't cover (fortunately i had the 3 month/5000km dealer compulsory warranty to fall back on) and had them fixed. Even though it was under the dealer's warranty it was still handled through AWN. However, AWN have their own network of mechanics and you need to take it to one of their mechanics to have it covered. This was fine for suspension, but my turbo was also faulty on that car (but not within the 3 months after buying) - and I rang several mechanics from their list and none of them could offer much help. A few of them said they'd have a look but didn't know what turbo it had or where they could get parts from etc. Also they were not turbo specialists (although they may well have been able to do the job?). I ended up just going with a turbo specialist and ignoring the warranty. All up it cost me an arm and a leg but I had a professional job done and 6 months warranty on the work carried out. I cant say whether it would've been a better option to go through AWN's listed mechanics, but the places I rang did indicate that it would be a fairly difficult task for them to source parts etc. If you can guarantee the warranty does provide for a decent workshop that knows enough to work on these cars, particularly if the warranty is with the dealer you bought it from and not from a third party, then its probably worth something. Dont forget you do have the 3 months/5000km dealer mandatory warranty to fall back on in any case - which covers pretty much everything. They need to ensure the car is roadworthy so if anything major breaks it'll be covered. AWN is from my experience a great warranty (easy to deal with etc) however you may have difficulty finding a mechanic on their books who has experience with our cars.

Like all collectors items, the value is nothing to do with the car, but with the buyers emotional attachment to what the car represents. It might as well be a red cardboard box they're selling/buying.

Race? Looks more like a game of "follow the leader" too far? Actually I dont mind bathurst. I'll look past the cars and everything for that one cos it really is a good race. Not sure why I like it better, maybe its the increased tension and therefore more chance of a good prang? (so long as no one is seriously hurt - no one likes that!!)

+1 My morning coffee is so mandatory I almost feel my company should pay for it...lol. (btw i'm a programmer).

Should be RX - have another look at the FAST info you attached (this is what Iain was referring to, not the pics from ebay). Excuse me for pointing this out - it was starting to get confusing... again, looking at the FAST info above, the VIN does in fact appear to be correct.

I'd say $20-21K should be enough to cover it all, provided the conversion isn't over ~$7K. However, +1 for just buying one thats already been done. You'll never get your money back on the conversion thats all. It'd be worth something, but not the full $7K.

From memory the MASA kit is about 5k. Its all fibreglass IIRC. Its essentially replacement parts specific for the stagea to make it LOOK like a R34, not parts off an actual R34 (although I'm sure there are similarities).

The VQ25DD is an impressive beast in itself. At just 2.5L it has more power and more torque than the (early) SR20DET. Its also got more power and torque than the current line of 2.5L n/a engines from the likes of Subaru, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Honda, and Toyota. They just need to bring out a decent hot hatch with it in. And no, the Tiida is not it. Why nissan insist on continually bringing all their crappiest models to australia and refusing to import class-leading cars like the skyline and stagea is beyond me. The Teana (maxima) is ok -very comfortable but a bit ugly IMO. They should've at least brought in the real maxima that the US is getting. Nissan would rather let toyota get all the glory with their 200 "killer wasp" aurion than fit a VQ37HR into the maxima. 245kw anyone? Still, the fact that the stagea wasn't officially imported here makes it much cheaper for us to import, so i'm not complaining really.

you just needed one of these (well, not really)

Just curious about the low-down torque thing - comparing the VQ35DE with the VQ25DET... I would expect the 35 to have more torque up to about 2000rpm or maybe slightly higher, then I'd expect the VQ25DET to start overtaking it quite rapidly (speaking of torque only, not on the road) and keep that lead right through to the redline. My reasons are these. From what I've read online, all VQ engines will have 80% of their torque available from 2000rpm. This doesn't include torque from the turbo on the DET version however. So at 2000rpm the VQ35DE would have ~288N-m available (I think they have ~360N-m max). Also at 2000rpm the VQ25DET would likely only have about 80% of the torque of a n/a VQ25DE - which I'm guessing would be somewhere around 180-200N-m. These numbers are not exact by any means, but without the extra torque from the turbo, the 2.5L is never going to match the 3.5L. But all the same, in normal driving around, 2000rpm is usually reached as soon as you apply pressure to the throttle, so the lines may be blurred as far as which one "feels" like it has more torque. And this is all just purely hypothetical too. Personally I'm still more interested in the turbo version, because of its higher peak torque and the fact its turbo (there's no replacement for boost ).

This sounds normal to me. It will always idle high when cold etc. The important thing is that you do the idle air learning when the car is fully warmed up - so go for at least a 10 minute drive and then do the idle air learning straight after that.

The factory guage measures vac too so it must be reading it from after the butterfly if this is the case. There is definitely a sensor before the butterfly which has (in english) written on it "BOOST SENSOR" so maybe this is what lets the ecu know about boost. Pretty sure the s2 stageas had a similar sensor feeding boost pressure signal to the ecu. Some other interesting info - the s2 stageas (and r34 skylines) had a plastic compressor wheel and ceramic turbine. The s1 stageas and r33's had a steel compressor wheel but still the ceramic turbine i think. Interesting that they went back to metal with the M35. I had heard from many people that the ceramic would let go long before the plastic ever would so it wasn't that bad - and did a good job of making the turbo lighter and therefore spin up faster. And thanks to nickcorr for mentioning the bit about 747's - I'm never flying again lol

I know this is offtopic - but does anyone know if the factory headlights can have the height adjusted manually? Mine shine pretty much straight ahead instead of down at the road in front of me. So I can see signs lit up for miles but not much in front of the car. Its enough to drive with but could be lots better if they can be adjusted.