Mr_RS4

Well atm there doesn't seem to be any clear path to saving on fuel put it that way. Some just seem to be lucky I think, I think I could be doing better but I also know there are some doing much worse than me too. I know that they are a heavy car with a slush box like every one has said and I'm not expecting n/a 4 cyl fuel figures but I don't think that at somewhere around 400kms or more per tank of normal town driving and around 500kms of highway driving would be too much to ask. Myself and a couple of mates actually want to drive down to bathurst for next year and the stagea is going to be the best car to take but if I cant do something to improve the fuel economy then we may be squeezing into something smaller.... Basically I'm going to try the M.V valve body upgrade, a new set of coil packs, another O2 sensor, clean the AFM, and then get another tune. See how I go from there as thats all I can think of atm that may actually have some effect. Does anyone know if its possible to change the lockup of the torque converter. Because at lower to medium speeds say 60 to 80 or so kms the converter will flare really easially. But at say 100 - 110 and above you can have 5psi or so of boost and it will stay locked. So if there were a way to manually (with a switch or something) activitate the lockup as there may be some advantage espically as it flares so easially.

See I don't even know if it comes down to the tune all the time either (crazy as it sounds). But I installed the SAFC / SITC combo (I know its not going to give the same result as a stand alone ecu but still....) and had the car tuned. Timming was advanced in the lower rpm and then slightly retarded up top, and going by the print out I was getting a fairly nice A/F ratio, sitting around 13.5 around 2000rpm then dropping a little to 13.0 around 3000rpm then steadily drops to 12.0 to 4000rpm then stays around high 11's to redline, its a bit up and down and could be better but its just an safc and still a damn sight better than the factory one. Since a lot of people here are using the safc it would be good to compare A/F ratios alone just for safc tunes. I think a bit more time spent could of gotten better results but my point is I'm still lucky to get 400kms a tank. Its a S1 but I personally didn't notice much improvment and was pretty dissapointed. A note also I was also suffering an ignition breakdown (and the dyno sheet shows it) but haven't gotten around to getting new coil packs, but have a pretty new O2 sensor, new plugs and its a nice fresh engine. However I only ever notice the ignition breakdown at higher rpm when my foot is flat so its hardly bad. I'm running 10psi boost but was running stock before the tune and didn't make any difference. I've tried many different ways of driving it but the best I've found so far is leave it in POWER so it drags the gear changes out but I use a little less throttle just to keep it off boost as much as possible and if I'm in slow traffic I leave it in 2nd. The times I hit 400kms (best yet is 430kms) is mostly highway. But sadly I'm just about to give up. I have been seriously considering a manual conversion. But people seem to be giving mixed responses with better fuel ecomony there too.....as much as I would love a manual again I think I'll try a MV valve body first as a lot of people I've spoken to say the get better fuel economy. As I think thats where a lot of my power seems to be going. I don't know if we'll ever nail it down to one thing as I think its a lot of different things that are effecting the economy and all cars are going to be affected by different things or different combo's of problems. As a last note a friend of mine has an '06 WRX and on around 55 odd ltrs of fuel he is only getting 500ish kms to a tank driving down from gympie area to brisbane. Thats on a much newer 4cyl turbo stock standard. So I think I'm doing too bad afterall. All in all if I could get a consistand 400kms normal driving and around 500kms highway I would be more than happy and I don't think thats too much to ask...or is it??? P.S you can all grab a coffee and a snack now

wow I have never seen that light, for a sec I thought u may of been getting confused with the O/D light which is also orange and between the indicators. Hope I never do see it either. Or is this only on the S2, I never knew it was even there. As for the flashing power button my old S13 180SX used to do that occasionally but the TPS was also fubar among other things, did a manual conversion....that fixed it

NO LONGER FOR SALE PLEASE DELETE.

Yeah I would agree $20K is worth it (should PM ska and see what his went for?) but its always been a hard market trying to sell a stagea. Well it is here in QLD anyway. There are always so many in yards that just sit there and I myself am trying to sell mine atm and haven't had any serious enquiries. But (probably like yourself) am starting to rethink AGAIN about selling, its hard to put a "market happy" price on a car that cost you so much more (money and your own time) but most people aren't prepared to pay for that. I've sunk over 6K in the last 6 months, paid $19K for it about 18months ago and have it up for $12K (or $13.8K with RWC etc...) so would think you've probably spent much more than that. When you do advertise it may help to put up rough prices it cost you for each thing you did so people have a rough idea how much it would cost to do all over again themselves, every hagglers favourite line is....."mate most S1 Stagea's I've been looking at are more like $13 to $14.5K these days, and I could get a S2 Manual in Japan for $18K. Not even giving a thought about the extra costs of importing that pop up or the fact that even if they purchased a stock $13K stagea it would probably cost them that again to pay for the parts and labour that it cost you to get your ride to where it is today when they could just shut up, cough up the dough and enjoy in an instant what you took ages to achieve. Hehehe and I wonder why I'm re thinking about selling anywho enough of my ranting

And trust me on the carbon shards. When playing golf a few months ago I was hitting out of a very tricky spot with lots of low hanging tree branches and didn't have a good look behind me when I swung, I "had" a carbon 9 iron until it hit the tree behind me, shattered and my hand slid down it (I don't usually wear a glove), hurt like f*ck and I spend ages pulling them out they are so fine......so I can only imagine what being hit by a carbon fibre bonnet would feel like. P.S then I was dumb enough to pick it up again a couple of weeks later to show someone....

Bump, I really need to sell this but am still firm on the prices. $12,000 as is or $13800 (new windscreen, coilpacks, C.V's and valvecover gasket) plus RWC and 6 months rego. Either option is a great price.

Wouldn't have the xenon lights anymore anyway (damn adr's ) unless the compliance shop didn't destory them and they were refitted

Bump As said above $12000 as is or $13,800 with the listed items fixed RWC and 6 months rego. FIRM on both prices. Pics don't do it justice, don't be scared off by the couple of things that need fixing, this is a beautiful car and is in great condition for a 10yo car and just because its modded doesn't mean its been thrashed. Also cash sale only no swaps.

Make that 2 more leaving the Stagea stabels. Although I'm not moving I do want a cheaper car to insure, run, repair as I want to start investing. As much as I love my stag I've had my time, I do plan to get another one some day (prob be an M35 by then) but I want to sell before prices drop even further. So if anyone in QLD is after one too its adverised in all the usual places. (sorry for the little hijack but seeing as I'm a few thousand k's away I didn't think it would matter )

***Update*** I will let it go AS IS for $12000 FIRM or if you wish I can get the things fixed up (listed above) with a RWC and then it will be $13800 FIRM but will require a deposit on the car for the later option. I would really like to sell asap but don't bother offering less than what I've posted as that really is cheap enough as it is.

No sorry will not seperate any bits from the car. **somethings I left out of the origional post*** I forgot to mention it in the first post but I'm in Brisbane too. And although I really don't want to settle for much less than $13000 I will "consider" offers over $12000 but no less. I would estimate about an extra $1000 - $1500 tops would cover the windscreen, C.V's and a set of splitfire coils (even though it rarley shows signs of the stock ones breaking up) which would leave you with a beautiful stagea for $14ish K. Also have just put new rear tyres on with the fronts still having a bit of life left in them yet.

I am putting my much loved 1997 Nissan Stagea up for sale. - 159xxx Kms - Full Nismo Body Kit. Professionally fitted and painted by DMD May this year. - Apexi SAFC and SITC piggy back controllers - Front Mount Intercooler - K&N Pod Filter - Full 3" Turbo back exhaust with H/F cat and rear cannon - Twin Sunroofs and Automatic closing rear hatch and Auto headlights - Whitline Rear cradle bushes and front camber kits - Sard blow off valve and turbotech boost controller set to 11psi (has never been boosted past this) - Driver and passenger airbags - Viper alarm system with remote pager, remote start, microwave sensors etc etc.... - Has also had timming belt and waterpump changed in May this year by Mercury Motorsport. Was also dyno tuned there at the same time. - Plus more that I have probably forgotton.... Now there are a couple of things that need to be fixed but they aren't major problems. First the windscreen is cracked (not too bad but does need to be replaced) and also the front C.V boots are split and need to be replaced and possibly the front outter C.V joints as well but am not sure. I had Mercury look over the whole car when it got the belt replaced and tune done and the only things they could find were the Split C.V boots and a small leak from the valve cover gasket. Also on the very odd occasion on hard acceleration there is a small break down from the coil packs (this is a comming RB motor problem) but I haven't fixed that yet as most of the time it doesn't happen and it didn't even show up when the car was on the dyno but at some stage they will need to be replaced I guess. Other than these things the car is in great shape and drives great and looks great. The car is registered till 5th Oct this year but I'm selling the car unregistered but will only really need the windscreen and C.V boots (and maybe joints) replaced to pass. And other than the coil packs I can't see any where else that money needs to be spent. A nice set of wheels would really set it off though. I'm only selling the car as I have new plans in my life now and just don't want to spend further money on the car as its only getting driven mainly on weekends if that now and have bigger priorities now. Asking price is offeres around the $13000 mark. And I will post some pics of the interior and the windscreen crack up when I can grab my g/f's camera. Please note also that I'm not selling it with the stero (and don't have the factory one to replace it with) however I will leave the pioneer 6" splits and jaycar 6" co-axils in the front and rear doors with the tweeter in the facotry locations. They are bother the yellow kevlar type. In the pics ignore the tape on the wing as I just got the car back from DMD and I had to leave it like that for an extra 24 hours. Either PM here or message me on my mobile 0422 583 180 ALSO ONLY SERIOUS BUYERS NEED CONTACT ME AND NO SWAP OFFERS PLEASE!!! Thanks guys. Josh.

I'm in the same situation atm but haven't been bothered to do anything about it. However O'Briens = Highway Robbery

I had the same prob a while a go with mine. It cost less to get it rebuilt than it did for descent sec hand unit. Depending on what your auto electrician charges I'd check that option out first if you can live without the car for a day or 2.

I was also thinking R&R as a possibility but doesn't explain the pinging....hmmm? thats why I said to maybe check CAS base timing and fuel pessure / pump or maybe even injectors?

Well its hard to put an exact amount on what I paid just for the rust. I got mine fixed when I got my kit fitted and painted. But basically I paid $1200 for the fitting and painting of the kit and $800.00 to get the rust fixed under both mirrors, both mirrors had been scratched (from scraping on things previous to my ownership) so these were resprayed too and a nice dent and scrape that went from the RHR wheel arch over to the RHR door plus some other minor scrapes here and there. So $800.00 for that extra work compared to $1000 just for the rust under the mirrors seems a bit unreasonable. From what I can tell both doors have been blended (can tell the new paint from the old if you look REALLY close) but this probably had more to do with the body kit blending than the mirrors. Others who have just had the rust fixed and nothing else may be able to give you a better idea on price.

Wouldn't surprise me if they were after the whole console (would sell very quickly to anyone thats just done a manual conversion ). But yeah your going to have a hard time finding another one sec hand. Maybe look at the Yahoo auctions (even then they are rare and quickly snapped up) or get a S2 RS4S manaul one from nissan which should be the same. P.S gotta love the maze of wiring, I don't think I've had one import yet that hasn't come with a few extra kilos of wiring.

Even though many write them off as a land barge when you compare them to the competition (instead of S13's and Skylines which isn't a fair comparision) they do come in under or close to most others out there (mind you I woldn't have expected a XR6T ute to weigh 1800)

I can understand that the missing could be caused by the coils (am having the same prob atm but haven't been botherd to fix it yet as its not too bad). But don't see this being the cause of the pinging. And yeah high boost has been known to cause issues with spark but I wouldn't think at only 11psi (unless the spark was really weak I guess but even then....?) Have you got your mechanic to check your base timing at the crank angle sensor? Checked fuel pressure (dodgy pump maybe)? My bet would be to try the silicon fix on your coils with a set of properly gapped plugs first and see if that fixes your spark break down and if not try a new set of coils (either another second hand set if you by chance have access to some or splitfires). And then get the safc installed and tuned on the dyno and see how you go from there. The surging in power could be R&R (but this should stop the pinging as its retarding timing) or could be fuel supply issues too which would explain the surge in power and the pinging I guess. Just suggestions anyway, good luck!

^^^^^Second that, I used NRMA in the past and they were great on price, features and service. But yeah doubt they'd have much to do with imports.

Now don't eveyone flame me here (just and observation ) but I saw my fist Legnum on the road the other day. Previoulsy I had just seen pics and didn't really like what I saw. But this looked pretty tidy and sounded great. They could be a bit of competition. No where near as hard to find in a manual, same sort of luxury features (can be found in leather too), lighter and still AWD just to name a few. I think the front looks mean but not sold on the rear. A lot of imports seem to stuff it up at the back imo.

As for standing out I think all stageas stand out (maybe because I own one) but I thought as soon as I got the nismo kit fitted I'd start getting pulled up (you can hear it coming) but nothing yet. Only thing I've been pulled up for is a RBT and the policeman just started asking me all about it because he'd never seen anything like it and said it looked great! Even on the odd occasion my partner drives it (she drives a 1.6 pulsar so when she gets in the foot automaticly gets planted )

Someone has watched too much "Tokyo Drift" This is one of those personal taste things and its really up to you to decide because everyone is going to give you a different answer and you'll never make your mind up But if your wife is anything like my partner then your not going to get out of buying the white one becasue it comes with all the goods. Even though you'll probably stop using all the extras once the fun wears off (don't think I've opened my sun roofs for months now ) So you might as well give in now

I think this should probably be in the "For Sale Section" but good luck with the sale