pixel8r

not running different sized tires...although they may be worn differently at the front vs rear... we did the dyno with the 4wd button on so was interesting to see the torque split show 50-50 until the revs got higher then the torque shifted mostly to the rear. thanks for the tip - running it in rwd only mode will eliminate the 4wd system. will try that first i think.

what i feel through the pedal feels like road vibrations - ie. like a grinding feel - like if there was a bolt loose underneath somewhere...that kind of thing - just when cruising along. I think my front radius rod bushes may need replacing so i'm not too concerned about that since i know what that is. but the real shuddering was felt on the dyno today - more under heavy acceleration or at least at higher speeds. as for the auto box - i have the valve body upgrade fitted (by mv automatics) so its a bit clunky anyway - i dont think its the gearbox. might need to get it booked in sometime for a mechanic to have a good look.

nope, auto. tiptronic. and its awd, just to clarify. i'm thinking diff(s). Would changing the ATESSA fluid possibly fix it up? i guess it would help in any case...not sure if thats done as part of compliance...

Hi everyone!! I've just come back from a dyno run at graham west and on the dyno the stagea was shuddering quite a bit - more and more as the revs increased. I've been feeling vibrations through the accelerator pedal recently and the car's never been real smooth to drive. I've always thought my suspension was a bit stuffed (rear shocks are new, fronts are stock)... any ideas as to what i should check - or get checked??

nah that was adelaide turbo services who suggested the gt30 as opposed to a gcg hiflow. they told me i wouldn't see a huge benefit without bigger exhaust and fuel management. they did a great job so i'm not knocking their work. i doubt there's that much difference between a gt28 gcg hiflow or gt30 anyways so either way i think i would've been in the same boat. It feels faster with the new turbo when on boost so i'd say the turbo isn't really the issue. i knew i wouldn't be seeing the best from the turbo anway. I'm guessing there are other problems with the car and that it actually only had about ~80awkw when we bought it - due to the stock turbo having issues, especially at higher revs. Its quite bumpy to drive in, which i always thought was the suspension - but now i'm thinking there may be a bigger issue. I've been getting vibration through the accelerator pedal lately and there was quite bad vibration through the whole car on the dyno, indicating something not right in the drivetrain. So yeah i dont think its a case of getting less power than before, i think its more that we bought a car from a dealer who pulled the wool over our eyes and covered up all the problems the car had. they knew there were suspension issues before we bought it and only confessed when we got them to fix it under warranty. should've taken the warranty a lot further but too late now. i dont want to give up on it - but right now i've got the debt from when we bought it, plus the extra debt from the turbo replacement, and no performance to show for it. that should explain how i'm feeling right now...

Well here's the dyno chart for my s2. Was very disappointing - its crap basically. Less power than a stock s1. And also found that there's a fair bit of vibration in the drivetrain - thats gonna be fun to sort out... so yeah the only good bit is the AFR's are fine. An exhaust + boost controller would give me good power, but would likely throw the AFRs out of whack, requiring some kind of chip to tune it...and its money i dont have, nor will have any time soon. All i can say is i'm fast losing interest in keeping this stag...just costing way too much...

I'm thinking of posting about this actually... its not pretty at low revs (lag) but once the turbo kicks in (~3000-3500rpm) the front lifts up and it pulls nice n hard all the way to 6000rpm where it changes gears. Then lag comes back to bite again as it now drops off boost on the gear change (~2800-3000rpm) temporarily. Obvioulsy I have a very mismatched setup at the moment so hopefully that will improve when i can afford to support the turbo with other mods... Still, the recent sau cruise through the hills had the stagea sitting in the higher revs a lot so it went really well. Unfortunately tho i was recently stood-up by my bro-in-law in a magna...gotta do something about that lag... A side note - the stagea actually now averages 13L/100km city driving now, down from 14L/100km before...so thats nice.

hey!! i thought we did a pretty good job of keeping up...except for getting stuck behind a terribly slow 4wd going up mt lofty - double lines all the way. After that things picked up a bit... Very nice drive, and i was very impressed to experience how well the stagea handles. Its just sooo much more than just a family wagon!!

gocarts sounds like a cool idea!! also i'm always up for a cruise.

I think both had vct, but the neo is infinitely variable whereas the earlier rb25 is not (more like on-off), so i believe. my knowledge on all this is fairly limited, but this is what i've picked up over time by asking people the same question. I've been told the head is different on the neo and uses direct injection (not sure what that means exactly). Also the turbo is slightly different - which will affect the different power outputs between the two as well - but as for the engine, the above is all i'm aware of. Otherwise there are differences you can see from photos, like different throttle body, and with the neo cover removed there are other visual differences also. I think its just minor, ie. enough to tell them apart. On the whole I think the two are fairly similar, but with the neo they were trying to reduce emissions (which they did) and also managed to squeeze an extra ~20kw from it. Thats a fair effort.

are you suggesting a sss pulsar or n/a supra is any more a performance car than a n/a skyline?? either way, to reply to the initial post, i have a s2 stagea tiptronic (same engine and gearbox as r34 gtt) and stock the auto is what you'd expect from an auto. the gear changes are quite normal for an auto but I found that the 1st to 2nd change in mine was quite slow and at higher revs it took a while to actually find 2nd (ie. from start of the gearchange till actually hitting 2nd was sometimes longer than 1 second). So I got a valve body upgrade (aka 'shift kit') fitted ~$440 including trans service, and its great now. still not comparable to a manual, but IMO the very best an auto can get. You do feel a slight clunk as it goes from 1st to 2nd but its hardly noticable and you dont notice the later gear changes at all. But put your foot to the floor and it will give the usual delay while the ecu figures out what gear you want, and then bang - you're in the gear and you're off - in a split second after that. To explain it another way, instead of riding on the torque converter for a bit between gears, you're actually in the gear immediately. If you want manual performance, get a manual. But if you would prefer an auto (for whatever reason - i prefer autos because 80% of the time i'm driving to/from work in peak hour traffic) then get a shift kit. It will clunk a little on the 1st-2nd gear change though - so if you prefer a real smooth ride then leave it stock. As for tiptronic - i rarely use it. Holding my foot flat makes it change gears at just over 6000rpm (could get maybe 600-700rpm more with tiptronic but it hits revlimiter so quick i find its easier not to). And the auto will learn your driving style so if you kickdown a lot, you will master it through the accelerator without needing to use the tiptronic shift. All a matter of preference and a feeling of control i guess.

Getting mine dyno'd on saturday (my bro-in-law is a member of the magna club thats got a dyno day at GWW that day). Will be interesting to see the results... my mod(s) are fairly controversial - had to replace my turbo so i've now got a nice garrett GT30....but everything else is pretty much stock. Fortunately that includes the exhaust so that kept boost levels and airflow down (strangled really) but its not a bad thing because it means the stock ecu/injectors etc. still cope just fine and also intake air temps are still handled well by the stock r34gtt intercooler. On the plus side, the car does have slightly more lag but considerably more power overall (and still pretty responsive) - and I now use 1L/100km less than before without changing my driving style. Its not what people predicted, but its good news for me... ...which is why i'm really keen to see the AFR graph on saturday will definitely get a scan of the graph and post the result as soon as i can on saturday.

Yeah i saw that scratch on the front when i got to the Gold Coast to pick the car up. The guy at the dealer's told me over the phone "ha if you want photos of scratches i'd hafta make some scratches first'...and then i get there and there's like 6 or 7 noticeable scratches. The interior was spotless so it wasn't all bad...and the outside isn't too bad overall. But just another big lesson never to trust a car dealer. I never got to see the auction papers either - even though I asked for them. They said they dont keep them (yeah right - happens to be a legal requirement that they do) - so all I have is several mechanic's word that the km's do appear genuine. And it is auction grade 4. I thought about GTT rims before - and seeing them on your car really helped. For the money you cant beat them. I've seen some on ebay before, might keep on looking. Not in a hurry - just if i see a bargain sometime...ideally I'd want 18's but i'll never be able to afford a good set of those. I got plenty of photos. I loved the photos of all the skylines in one big line driving through the adelaide hills...yeah!!

Some more pics

Some more pics

Sorry to hear about sir032's accident. Hopefully the car is repairable?? Was a nice ride that one. Glad everyone was ok!!

Thanks for the great cruise guys!! Had an awesome time - the drive was loads of fun and was nice to meet up with a few people. cheers, -Steve.

Ok, mine's the white S2 - i'm pretty sure it'll be the only one there. Haven't seen any S2's in adelaide yet, though I'm sure there are a few. Interesting you want to change to a stagea. IMO the interior of the stagea is slightly better. I was deciding between an r34 4door and a stagea s2 back in march and finally went with the stagea. For me it was the uniqueness of the stagea, and the nicer interior, and I think the whole sports wagon thing is cool. It was all a matter of practicality and the stagea has loads of boot space which we've used many times now. I'm very glad with our decision. The r34 would've been a lot faster, due to ~200kg less weight but the stagea has AWD to compensate and still has lots of power potential (depending what you want the car for) and AWD is great for driving in the wet. Just gives more confidence.

Another factor people may not be considering is the low price of R34 4-door sedans. In some ways i prefer the look of the r33 sedan but I'd probably still choose an r34 just because its newer and I prefer the front bar, taillights, extra power, and tiptronic auto of the r34. You can get r34 4-door sedans for around the low $20k mark for a good one. A newer model thats around the same price will generally push the older model down in price a bit. Just something to consider - from a buyer's perspective i suppose. (although I am not looking to buy one - i chose a s2 stagea instead - better interior/boot space, and very unique).

Does anyone know if these S1 / S2 differences were passed on to the stagea S2 as well? I'd be interested in finding out if the turbo is different for S2. Mine is a 1999 model and the turbo was definitely nylon. I say WAS - as I now have a nice BB, all-steel garrett GT30 turbo after my stock one began to make really bad noises (shaft play). If the S2's really do have a metal compressor wheel and turbine, then surely this would be a good buying tip for people looking for an r34 - ie. look for a s2 one since they will handle more boost and the turbo will last longer. Oh, and my stagea dash lights up orange, not white....but that's probably just a stagea thing.

Hi everyone! I think the title said it all... For all those in adelaide, hopefully you've checked out the SA section of the forum and read about the SAU cruise thats happening today... I'll be heading into town for it today and was just wondering how many other stageas will be there... Looking forward to meeting some of you (if not today, maybe another time? should do a stagea-only cruise someday ).

Got it! Thanks - I'll be there!! Looking forward to it.

Just went and checked to make sure. Can definitely put the windows up and down after the ignition has been turned OFF and the keys removed. Not sure how long afterwards but I'd guess a few minutes. The sunroofs wont open unless the ignition is on - its just the power windows. Is this a S2 thing? or could it be my immobiliser??

me too!! only really interested in the cruise as haven't been on one yet... would love to take my stag for its first sau cruise!!

I'd be interested in the details too (time/date etc) - hopefully for a saturday?? tangles and i should be happy to represent the stagea clan