Mr_RS4

Hey just wondering if anyone with FAST can do me a huge favour (or if anyone knows the part numbers from doing this before). I fitted SK's bilstein/whiteline kit a couple of years ago almost now and when I did it all the rubber parts in the factory top mounts that I had to re-use were in OK condition but they have perished quite a lot and have split now. So I want to take the struts back out front and rear and replace everything with new items front and rear. So I'm basically talking about everything from the bump stops up (not including the actual top metal plate) and the part for the factory bump stops and dust covers too. As sorry to say but the generic ones that came with the kit were sh*t. The rears don't even fit over the shock body so have always just bunched up at the top of the shock body (which makes a squeaking noise going over speed bumps etc..) and the front did fit over but doesn't cover the whole shaft. And they keep comming off the bump stop (no I didn't cut the wrong end of the bump stop) I have had to glue them twice! From memory the factory bump stops and dust covers were on piece aren't they? Anyway if some one could jump on FAST and give me part numbers so I can order from Nissan that would be awesome!!! Thanks guys....

Thats going to have to be one hell of a printer to squeeze an 1800kg wagon out....hope it doesn't jam!

I'm not too far behind that, 197xxxkms on my series 1. Still going strong. Just some rattles inside the car but thats probably got a lot to do with the suspension But driveline is great. Original turbo too. Runs 11psi. Will be stripping interior and doing a full dynamat through the whole car which should make interior noise a lot better.

I have found the answer to my fuel economy issues. Just give the stagea to my wife !!! The best I've ever done is 430kms brim to fuel light and I was as easy on the right foot as I could be. I usually get around 400kms and its always a mix of highway and city. Never taken it on a long enough drive to do a full tank of highway. My wife can get 500kms and the guage will be a few lines above empty. She does highway and city but a lot of traffic and aircon is always on. This is in a Series 1 C34 too.....I don't know how she gets so much more out of the car. So she's always getting 10.5 to 11 litres per 100kms. Smart ass.... We'll be going on a drive from brisbane down to falls creek and then to melbourne the back to brisbane next year so I want to see what she gets out of it then on the highway, no traffic and no aircon (as it will be winter). Should be interesting.

Chuck a post up if/when you get around to fitting the cusco arms. I'm guessing (stupid question) your trying to take out some negative camber? Curious as to how much they can remove, they don't look like it'd be a lot from how they're adjusted but at least the are a one piece arm unlike the ones I got which are in 2 seperate pieces per side which makes adjusting harder plus they hit in various places. I need to take out a good 3 degrees (that was when I just had the whiteline bushes). Going to have another go this weekend at adjusting these more.

That'll do it, probably R&R kicking in. I've got pretty similar mods and am only running 11psi and have a sitc and safc and still have issues with r&r some times but its better than it used to be. Will get around to an aftermarket ecu one of these days. I've got a couple of mates with R33's and we've all got very similar mods running same sort of boost etc... and their cars seem (well do actually according to dyno sheets) have more power and are more responsive going by a seat of the pants drive than my Stagea and netither of them have safc's or sitc's. The power difference isn't huge but its noticable espically with the extra weight in stageas. I don't know if its different factory maps, different cams (although I can't see why Nissan would use different cams) or what but its quite annoying.

Would definately like to get to this one, should have lousey suspension sorted by then (which stopped me comming to the last one). Will keep and eye on this thread......

ahhh ok.

Hey man what front upper arms are they in the pic. They look like cusco ones. Are they any good (fitment and adjustability), I've had a lot of front camber issues and have a set of Just Jap (Ikeya Formula copies by the looks of them) ones on there at the moment and they've been nothing but problems with hitting the springs (and eveything else) and have had a lot of problems aligning them properly. Am thinking of ditching them for cusco's or ikeya formula's (at least you can get a bushed version with the ikeya's) and what bushes are you using in the uprights (standard or polyurethane types like whiteline ones etc)?

I did it the first night I had my stagea . But it's not a diff lock (stagea's don't have a centre diff to lock) but it puts the torque split 50/50 (front and rear) which at low speeds will cause a shudder while turning on dry ground. Do the M35's have a seperate button to engage the 50/50 torque split like the C34's or does just engaging snow mode do it for you? I don't believe just engaging snow mode in the C34's causes the 50/50 toruqe split to kick in too unless you hit that button as well.

The more work I do to the suspension the more noises I seem to create. Up to the full SK bilstien kit now, only problem with that is the generic rubber dust boots dont fit over the shock bodies in the rear so they bunch up and make a noise when going over speed bumps etc. Got sick of stuffing around with upper arm bushes front and rear and castor bushes (none of which gove me any where near the adjustment I needed to get descent amount of +ve castor and camber) so am in the process of replacing all my suspension arms with pillow ball adjustables. All the ones I'm using have dust boots protecting the ball joints but being there is no bushes used you still get some more noises. Not so much NVH as everyone says but the occasional click/clunk every now and again (just when the car comes to a stop) but its not regular enough to annoy me. The handling is worth it. So far have the castor/tension rods and front upper arms in. I have a few interior rattles, mind you I reckon 70% would go away if I fastened the safc and sitc properly inside the glove box and cleaned out my centre console Harder suspension also seeks out new rattles. Try to fix them as they pop up.

Just go to www.maltech.com.au They make complete front and rear replacments for stageas. ADR approved with the ADR numbers stamped on the rubber boots at the end of each fitting on each line (so there won't be any issues if you get inspected). I got a set off them front and rear for my series one. They fitted perfectly and bolted up exactly as the standard ones did. They also do custom ones, so if your fitting R33 calipers and need the fittings changed they should be able to handle it. Very friendly and made them up and posted them to me very quickly. You can also choose the colour of the braid and the rubber boots too if thats your thing. My old lines were ok but were starting to show signs of wear. I fitted the lines front and rear, dba and dixcel slotted rotors front and rear and dixcel sports pads with motul racing brake fluid. Once they were bedded in the change was amazing (still using standard calipers). I'd already had a descent set of pads on my stock setup but still had little pedal feel and a bit spongy feel when braking hard. Now I have a very firm pedal feel which makes for much more confident braking. Once you get some heat in them (even though cold performace is good) they bite very hard for some time before they start to fade still yet to fit a MC brace. From memory the price was quite good on the lines too. Here are some pics from when I did it last year. Their not great but you get the idea. Easy job to do.

Not sure of what the min thickness is for the rotors but just give a brake shop a call they'll be able to look it up and tell you what the min thickness is. I used S14 DBA slotted rotors on the front of my series one and I imported a set of Dixcel rotors for the rear from Japan, I used Japanparts.com to bring them in for me. I didn't get slotted for the rear but Dixcel do a slotted for the rear of the stagea. Dixcel also do a front slotted rotor as well (and if they price of their rear rotors are anything to go by then I'd say the front slotted would be cheaper than the DBA part, but I'd already ordered mine ) Go to www.dixcel.co.jp (use google to translate) and get the part number (can be a bit tricky to navigate) or just go to importmonster.com and search for them on there, they are always there. I found japanparts.com to be very fast and they got a good price too.

Do you happen to have the factory leather auto shift knob, if so how much delivered to brisbane?

Would be interested in the auto shift knob as long as its in good condition either by its self or still attached to the assembly PM me if its available and price please

Yeah been looking at those, just want to make sure that R33 stuff fits. I know that some have tried R33 rear upper arms so I'm guessing it applies to the rest

Damn straight, thats why I just went with a standard windscreen. I mean when am I going to use it in QLD. But at least I still get to defrost my mirrors

Yeah if your really keen on going the stock ecu route a copule of members have had toshi do a rom tune on s1's I think Tangles was one of them?

Slight thread hijack....I'm also after the same thing as mentioned in the first post. I have SK's complete suspension kit and have adjustable bushes in the front and rear as well as in the castor rods. But ever since I've owned the car (with the stock suspension) I've always had alignment issues. So while the topic is on castor rods what are the options to go full adjustable on everything, casotr rods, front and rear control arms, tie rods etc....basically adjustable bushes aren't cutting it for me so I'd rather go for complete adjustable items. I"m also assuming replacing all these components with adjustable ones and throwing in a new set of steering rack bushes and steering rack spacers would really improve things steering and handling wise. The car handles much better than it did but the alignment and lack of steering response and feel let it down. I think the pwr steering could do with less assistance really, I'm guessing thats why valving was mentioned, is it possible to change the valving or something? Would all R33 items fit?

Hopefully in time someone would engineer a complete kit like the masa r34gtr front (that was easier though as the 34gtr was based on the skyline platform). Now just cut the roof off and make it a ute and that would be sweet. I still think the c34 series were meant to be utes and not wagons! And as sweet as this is (it actually makes me want to buy an M35) I'd still take a wgnc34 ute with a r34 front any day!

You could just use the whiteline adjustable ones, I've got them in but I'm starting to get the noise on the RHS. I just had a wheel alignment so I'm not going to bother stuffing up my front camber settings just to get rid of a slight squeak.

I also think the stock brakes are overlooked to a point. I have DBA slotted rotors on the front, stock rotors on the back, braided lines front and rear and a jap brand pad (I cant't read the name) all rotors lines and pads are new btw and use a racing brake fluid (about $45 a bottle) and I was very surprised. Cold performance is good (better than other setups Ive had) but once you get them hot its hard to forget that your pulling up 1700+kg. However I have found the limits of this setup and will probably upgrade to some thing bigger in the future. I mean the rotors are the same as an S14 but are expected to cope with an extra 400 - 500kg or so with crappy 2 piston calipers up front and singles on the rear. Which is why I was so surprised at how good you can make the factory system!! Why are you so keen to piss off the microtec its probably the tuners and or installers fault it blew the engine, they're not a bad ecu and mazfix have recomended them for use with auto's, it sounds like your going to a lot of hastle to go back to factory ecu setup when you already have something that can be tuned (you'll be sorry when you get it running and find your spending more time at the servo than the road)

I dont use the centre part of the rocker cover on mine. Makes changing plugs so much easier and keeps coil packs cooler I guess. Just doesn't look as good. But heaps of people do it.

Hey, Does anyone have any pics of SK's Suspension before you put it in the car. The ones in the group buy thread that SK posted up ages ago no longer work. Am trying to install my kit this weekend but I think the rear spring seats (bilstein ones) are wrong as the rear spring doesn't fit over them. I have them the right way up and have double checked the part numbers for the springs to make sure they are the right ones. The spring seat looks like its too big, the fronts are fine (haven't fitted yet but they sit on the spring seat fine). But if I flip the rear sping over so the flat shaved down side sits on the spring seat it fits fine but I'm guessing this isn't right?

Thats funny as.....but seriously can someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a sticky with the links to the major fuel economy threads and then lock it (just so that sticky doesn't become yet another fuel eco thread) or just choose the most popular one and sticky that so we don't have a new one of these popping up each week. Just a thought