pixel8r

My old s2 stagea used to do that noise on startup. Would disappear about 2-3 seconds later. Also I found that I could turn the car off and on again, and it would usually be ok the 2nd time. I think I ended up replacing all the drive belts, which solved the problem for me. I think the squeaking was the belts slipping a little before they warmed up.

very nice looking stagea you have there mate If you've never owned an SLR camera before, prepare for a bit of a learning curve. If you're into photography (which I'm guessing you are) then you'll enjoy your new camera, but it can take a while before you get the best from it. Here's a couple of pics of my new stagea (first time I'd seen the car "in the flesh"). There will be more (better) photos once I pick it up!! Not as aggressive as the old shape but more "modern" looking I think.

I'm with CeJay as far as posting negative stuff about companies goes. Negative comments (true or not) posted about any business can result in the business taking legal action and besides, I'm pretty sure its against this forum's policies anyway. Several users have been banned for not adhering to warnings given etc... Safest way is to just send PM's.

Hey i went there today to check out my new stagea. Didn't read your post until just now but I did see a couple of legnums there, and a galant. Leggy's aren't really my cup of tea, but they are a nice car I'm hoping to be able to drive my car home in 2 weeks time so hopefully things will go to plan... Mine has no screen or tv/nav stuff so your job should be pretty easy on it i'd imagine. Is it just the radio that needs attention? ie. band expander install to pick up aussie FM channels... PM me once you've worked on it if you like Its been a long wait but from what I saw this morning, worth every second

isn't the standard tyre size for s2's something like 225/50? it should be written in the bottom of the driver door opening ie. just down next to the seat...

I'd just like to add another workshop offering compliance for the M35's. Carmen Imports in Brisbane (www.carmenimports.com). Anyone after more info on these guys, PM me in 2 weeks time

Just curious, anyone know what the standard M35 (non-arx) ground clearance is? My previous stagea (s2) had 15cm clearance when stock...wondering if the M35 is different - meaning that yours may sit lower than a C34 with the same setup?

This might give the same results as the Apexi AFC Neo - they both work off the same principle. I'm wondering if the problem is the side-effects in advanced ignition timing caused by the AFC? If you can get hold of an SITC then give that a shot (no longer being made - basically does for ignition timing what the AFC does for airflow reading). Also with boost that high, I'm wondering if that is the reason it runs so rich? From my experience, it tends to run very rich once you increase boost. Most people told me it would run lean (ie. thinking more air = lean) but I think what happens is that the computer senses the increased boost and dumps loads of fuel into the mix to try to protect the engine. So what you end up with is very low AFR's and less performance and increased fuel consumption. Have you tried getting a cheap boost controller (try a turbotech one - they worked well on the C34's) and lowering the boost a bit? Wondering if that would make the tuning more predictable since it sounds like you're trying to diagnose several things at once there. Limiting boost to 10psi across the board would at least eliminate that from the equation...allowing you to focus on just tuning AFR's / ignition timing.

I more or less agree. The boy racer thing never really phased me. I'd still love a skyline to drive to work and back... But I've now joined the M35 league...not that i'm "old" or whatever, just that my interests have changed and this car really suits me better. I owned a s2 stagea before and this time I basically just wanted the M35 because of all the newer technology etc. I do agree that the styling etc of the M35 tends to appeal to "older" tastes - one only needs to refer to my previous comments in this thread and find that it wasnt' all that long ago that I never really liked the M35s at all. Who'd have thought I'd actually own one?

I never heard of any stagea model using any parts at all from a R32GTR. Pretty sure both s1 & s2 share parts with the R33 GTR. Anyone have any other info?

Very sad to hear. I'm still waiting for mine to arrive in oz - looking like about 4-5 weeks to go still until its in my driveway Mine's an RS - I looked at the RX (very nice - being the "luxury" version with many extra bells and whistles) but in the end a good clean RS came up for auction and I jumped on it. Yours looks absolutely mint from the photos. Good luck with the sale hey. Hope you get a good price in the end

Not sure if the original post was answered as to why it was 10psi... See my other post above - s2's (and s1's) are definitely only ~7psi standard. The original post mentioned a larger exhaust, which would more than likely account for the increase in boost pressure measured. On my old s2, installing a full 3" exhaust alone was enough to raise the boost high enough for it to hit R&R, causing it to lose power suddenly and even cut out in some cases...

wasn't sure if you were joking but I thought I'd follow this up with a warning for anyone who thought pouring boiling water on a frozen windscreen is a good idea. If you were to pour boiling water on a very cold windscreen, your next problem could be sourcing a completely new windscreen and finding a way to clean all of the cracked bits of glass off your dash and in your air vents etc... Fortunately I haven't done this but I have heard of it happening 1st hand from several people who have... I'm sure they all thought AFTERWARDS about how silly an idea it was...but yeah - just a warning to all - if you're gonna pour water on your windscreen to defrost it etc, make sure its COLD WATER or at least only very slightly warm Maybe newer windscreens are stronger these days, but I'm still not willing to chance it...

Have you seen any in real life? That was the difference for me. Photos do nothing for the car, but actually seeing one up close, I just wanted one!! zei20l - its an RS FOUR V, no leather or tv (didn't really want either of those anyway). Not sure on the stereo, its stock but i'm not sure what factory options there are. I dont know if it has any particular options. I wanted one that was completely stock and as cheap as I could find (without any major defects) and I believe I achieved that. The estimate is 8-10 weeks...but I'll hopefully get to "see" the car before then. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning

Hi all, Some of you may remember me from this forum. I owned a white stagea s2 for 2 years and sold it earlier this year. It was replaced with a Pulsar and we quickly discovered we really needed a large car, kinda missed the boot space of the stagea in a big way, not to mention the comfort, handling, performance, you name it. Anyway, so we've now bought a silver 2003 M35 Stagea - 2.5L V6 Turbo. Its currently in Japan (importing through a family friend) and so I'm sure many of you can relate to the painful waiting game while we put up with a borrowed old falcodore wagon in the meantime. Actually I am grateful to be able to borrow the car but all the same I'll be VERY happy to see my stagea when it eventually arrives!! Pics below for those interested: Will post an update when the car arrives. I have been given ~10 weeks as a rough estimate. Will see how we go. Am very much looking forward to the 408Nm@3200rpm and 5sp auto!! Hoping to get it converted to LPG sometime next year but will cross that bridge when I come to it. Hopefully the new Liquid LPG systems will be more available by then.

hey sorry to hijack the thread but does anyone here know if M35 stageas can be converted to run on LPG? Looking at importing one very soon and will be looking at a lpg conversion early next year. The Liquid LPG systems sound good, hopefully they'll be stable and more proven by the time i look into it.

The SAFC is definitely worthwhile!! and if you're keen, as mentioned above, get the SITC as well for extra tuneability. However you can make do with a SAFC very well and the SITC's are quite rare so you may find them difficult to get hold of anyway. I only had an SAFC on my old stagea s2 and it had 160awkw comfortably. The SAFC will be fine for anything up to around 200awkw, and after that you'd probably want to look at some more advanced ecu's for better tuning capabilities. People who say the SAFC wont affect fuel economy aren't giving the full story. Basically the SAFC ONLY works when the throttle is past 50%. Below that, the SAFC doesn't do anything as far as I know. Above that, (ie. anything from 50% up to full throttle) it will modify the airflow signal that the ecu sees, making it supply less (or more) fuel than it otherwise would have. Usually you want to lean it out a bit, particularly at the higher revs, so this is where the SAFC will do its stuff. The theory goes that if its causing the ecu to supply less fuel at any point, then you will be saving on fuel at that point. Its more complex than this too, because the SAFC on its own will also affect ignition timing, but its still safe to say it could potentially save a bit on fuel. Sure, it wont save you on fuel if you just cruise around and it wont affect your highway economy much since you'll only be using light throttle all the time. However, if your driving style involves heavy throttle a lot, then you WILL save on fuel. You'll only be using less fuel when the throttle is more than 50% but its a fuel saving nonetheless. It may get you a few extra kw but for me the most thing I noticed was increased fuel efficiency and therefore more power in the low-midrange. Since you'll need to tune it on a dyno, its a good idea to advance the timing a bit at the same time (keeping in mind that the safc will also advance the timing depending on how different the settings are to stock). By using a combination of safc tuning and advancing the base timing (at BOOSTWORX - yes, do go there!!) I managed 10kw extra at the top end and the car just felt so much more responsive right across the revs. AND I saved over 1.5L/100km in fuel economy from that point onwards. Admittedly the advanced timing meant I couldn't use anything but 98 octane fuel, but you should probably use this anyway Lastly I'll just mention that just adding an exhaust to your car, will probably be enough to make it run too rich, and will require tuning of some sort. For this sort of mild tuning, the SAFC is excellent value. and if you know what you're doing, its simple enough to make small changes yourself afterwards. Just be sure to write down the settings before changing them and then you can always return to these settings later. good luck with it

The neo's definitely run the same 5psi / 7psi setup as the series 1's. That is, 5psi and then up to 7psi above 4500rpm - as controlled by the stock boost solenoid. Or you can short the solenoid permanently and run 7psi all the time, for some extra midrange response. Its actually somewhere between 7psi and 8psi from memory... If its running 10psi either you're measuring a different pressure or yours isn't stock for whatever reason. normal spot to plug in the guage on an RB is on the nipple near the plenum.

There are at least 2 members on this forum who could shed some light on just how "easily" it can (or CANT) be done!! Until someone confirms that one has ACTUALLY been complied, DONT GET ONE. Its too easy for them to back away afterwards if it doesn't work, leaving you with a $25000+ (guessing) car that cant be legally driven on the road. Personally the 2.5L turbo model would be more attractive to me anyway. It would build its torque slightly later but if the S2 I previously owned was any indication, the turbo starts spooling the second you touch the throttle, even when just cruising around, so it would have plenty of usable torque.

Not sure if this is a useful comparison but a stock AUTO stagea s2 has 206kw at the flywheel (probably accurate in this case) and roughly 120awkw. They also weigh around 1658kg. So thats a loss of about 86kw. The losses dont increase by much as you increase the power so working by percentage doesn't give an accurate enough result... At a very rough guess, I'd say make that ~70kw drivetrain loss given the GTR is manual and a bit lighter (AFAIK the GTR's are about 1500kg or thereabouts - feel free to correct me). I've also heard of them getting around ~180awkw completely stock so that would put it at about 250kw at the flywheel. anything around 240-250kw should be accurate enough in my opinion. And just for the record, the "Gentlemans agreement" in japan seems to have finally been lifted since we now have cars in japan like the R35 GTR and others smashing the 206kw limit to pieces.

I can only hope they have read all of my posts regarding them. Being a company so exclusive you turn potential customers away (because you split hairs over what makes an "enthusiast") is not cool. Could've had the $1800+ that I spent on insurance for my stag (and silvias before that, add another $4K or so) but instead it went to your competition. no claims, just pure profit... only trying to help...

Having just sold my stagea (sad day) I can answer that question...but I do not believe there is any other car that can fully replace the stag on all fronts. It will be a compromise in a number of areas in order to improve on just a few areas. For me it was a case of going for a smaller and more economical car which is a big compromise on performance, space, and in some ways, comfort, but what I lose in these I gain in cost savings in a number of areas, and hopefully this will benefit other areas in life that have been lacking (ie. more money for short holidays etc). I now own a 98 pulsar sss which is a great little car for what it is, but not really anywhere near as good a car as the stagea. The plan is to save money and pay off the loan and it will be a good second car later on Go the stag!! I drove ours interstate between Brisbane and Adelaide twice and its an awesome car to tour across Australia in.

You wont get very good value for money with any upgrades to the NA engine. ie. you'll spend a lot of money for even 20-30kw increase. Your fuel economy will also probably suffer. Fuel economy would be the #1 reason to own a NA skyline IMO. If you're not concerned about fuel economy, be aware that a turbo skyline will be a better option than modding your NA one. It will cost less to sell and buy a turbo skyline than to increase the performance of you NA skyline to the level of a stock turbo one. If you're just after mild gains then yeah, exhaust, intake, and maybe some tuning? but be realistic about how much power you want and whether you can live with the louder exhaust. Something to think about.

Hey buddy just reiterating what others have said. 14psi is what it takes to pretty much kill the turbo instantly. You'd want to step down from 14 a fair bit to make it safe enough to last. I had mine on 11psi and I think you'll find most people on here keep it around 10-11psi with the stock turbo. Replacing the turbo with something as good or better is going to be an expensive operation but you do have options and the cost varies from ~$1000 to ~$2500 depending on what you want...and the more expensive ones aren't always better. Mine was averaging 13-14L/100km on the standard turbo (8psi) and 10L/100km on the highway. Try to get it fixed a bit before selling it cos it will really harm your sale price if the fuel economy isn't great.

STILL FOR SALE, HOPING TO SELL IT THIS WEEKEND!! Please make an offer... If you're after a very cheap series 2 stagea with good performance and awesome potential then this is for you!! There are NO problems with it. Just want to sell it quick before the car I'm hoping to buy also sells... EDIT: car is now SOLD. sorry.