Mr_RS4

Still paying $930 per year through Just Car for a '97 S1 at agreed value of $20,000 all mods listed and rating 1 protection. Have been paying that for a couple of years now. After hearing what most of said about GIO I think I'll give them another year to sort their shit out and might give them a call.....I tried to call shannons when I first bought my stagea and they were rude pricks and didn't want anything to do with imports at the time. Even though they seem to now Just Cars have always been helpful and polite and so far to date I've got no complaints about the service.

I'm mainly after a set because I'm sick of the wind noise I get on both sides when on the highway etc. I'm guessing this is because of the pillarless door frames. For you guys that do have them does it make a difference with the wind noise etc. And yeah cleaning my windscreen and having the water comming in was a pain but my FMIC fixed that....no windscreen washer bottle

Last time I looked there were heaps on the Yahoo auctions but just had a look then and couldn't find any for once! I'd keep an eye out there as there are usually a few for auction.

"Ours came in at 1,658kgs with no fuel in the tank, with a full tank, some stuff in the back and 2 passengers it went over 1,900 kgs. Sorry, maybe I need to be a bit more frank. Sure the R33 GTST stuff will bolt in, but the spring and damper rates will be wrong, very wrong. There is no way I would be using a twin chamber, small piston Japanese shock on a Stagea Especially not together with a reduced travel, high rate spring designed for a car with 30% less weight. The combination of chassis weight, plus potential passenger and luggage capacity make a Stagea very different from an R33 GTST, which is after all a 2 door coupe with appropriate passenger and luggage usage patterns. My 20 cents worth:cheers:" Taken from the #9th post in the Suspension Sticky

To answer your question in order.... No and Yes I think it was pointed out a few times in the Suspension sticky. I'm not an expert on Suspension so if you want more info ask SydneyKid (topic starter for the suspension sticky). Although the R33 gear will fit (I think anyway) there are many differences in the valving and spring rates etc between skyline and stagea. Weight being the main problem, Stagea's weigh more than an R33 and the R33 struts would be designed to work with a different spring rate than the Stagea's stock springs. The struts from the R33 will be insufficent to cope with the extra weight and different spring rates for the Stagea. In short sure they may fit but I wouldn't put anything in the back and even then its not going to be any good. But I just picked up this info from what I read in the Sticky a while back so like I said if you want to know more talk to SK.

I would also recomend trying to source an Apexi SITC (ignition timming controller) as well, because although the SAFC will allow you to adjust your fuel mixtures it will also affect your ignition timming seeing as its a voltage bender device so while modifying you AFM voltage signal to the ecu (fooling it to think there is more or less airflow) to adjust the fuel mixtures will also make your car run more timming and could cause pinging etc... This is a basic explanation anyway. Mind you seeing as Apexi hasn't made these for some time now they are pretty rare. I looked for months and finally found one on Ebay in Japan. Cost me about $270.00 delivered here. But you will also be able to run more timing down low to further help with fuel consumption and better off boost response etc... Its worth the wait

Don't quote me for sure but I'm sure there was a thread not too long ago where someone said fitted (or maybe even had) 350Z wheels. Ask yakotas13, he'll know.

Well I'm not planning on lowering it for the time being, I may decide to one day maybe but I have already scraped the front bar comming in and out of some places (they have been a little steep though) and I do take the car on holidays and camping etc so I will probably just fill the guards with wheel size rather than lowering it. But if the standard Nissan ones will cost more than the Bilsteins (and I'm guessing there is no aftermarket equivilent that are properly valved for Stagea's and not just GTR / GTS-T combo kits) then will the Bilsteins be fine with the standard springs (this may seem like a dumb question, but I'd rather be sure as suspension isn't one of my stronger points ). Thanks again guys.

Yeah that was my assumption as well. Now just to find a descent one (that won't be scared off by imports, not to mention a Stagea) here in Brisbane. Any suggestions anyone???

I don't think you guys read the post properly. I wasn't asking if it was an easy job for me to do but wether it would be better to take it to any normal mechanic or to take it to a specialised CV / Driveline workshop. Be fu**ed if I'm going to do something like this myself. And my cars rearley see a workshop either unless its something I really don't want to do.....this is one of those things. I really just wanted to know what costs are like.

Also does anyone know of import wreckers that do Stagea's might be lucky and find one in a yard

Well I was going to sell mine recently (but am not now) and apart from the stero and wheels my mod list was pretty simlar and I just fitted a nismo kit too. From the avatar yours is a series one also. And after looking around at other prices from J-Spec to cars already here I settled on $16500 to $17000 ish. My kms were slightly higher too. But the thing is these just aren't selling for what they were 12 months ago, I purchased mine pretty much stock for $19000 and have spent at least $6000 since so I was going to loose a lot, which is why I am now keeping it among other reasons. The thing is (unfortunatley) you just don't make much more on the sale because of what you've spent on the car. You'd be better off pulling out the stereo, refitting the stock wheels, stock side mount cooler, stock brakes if you happen to have all these still that is. Rip out the safc, rsm, boost controller and throw on a bleed valve (and maybe turn the boost down a little, not really a good idea running 14psi on the stock turbo espically if your trying to sell it ). So basically just sell it with the clear indicators, exhaust and alarm and throw it up for around $14000 to $15000 and either keep all the stuff listed above for the next car or sell it all by itself and you will make more that way. I just don't see it selling for more than $17000 if your lucky. And even if they have stopped making the Stagea for good, remember these were the first series, there are the series 2's and the M35 above yours, so I doubt it will affect the price that much. There are already so many series 1's in the country. But like rb26stagea said it also depends on what someone is willing to pay. If you can find someone that can appreciate the amount of time and money you have put into your pride and joy then they may be willing to pay more. A lot of people just don't seem to understand that they couldn't buy a stock car for "X" amount of money and get the same result as your car by only spending the difference in your asking price. More like it will cost them a lot more starting from scratch. Check out the forsale threads on some of the popular sites for a good example of this....

Don't suppose you still have the KYB shocks and springs. I know this is an old thread now and probably hasn't been updated in a while

Has anyone here just replaced thier stock factory shocks with another set of standard ones. Although I would love to buy SK's whiteline/bilstien setup in the group buy I have just spent so much money on the car this year so far that I just can't justify anymore at the moment. Most of the bushes have already been replaced with whiteline ones anyway (by the previous owner) and with the new nismo kit bringing the car down lower anyway I don't have any intention on lowering it at the moment anyway. So I just want to replace the clapped out stock shocks with another set of stock ones. Basically just after prices and opinions from anyone thats done it. Recomended brands etc.....

Has anyone actucally had their CV Joints replaced yet. (I'm particularly interested in hearing from Brisbane peoples). My boots are split and grease on the inside of the wheel. Now not ever having anything to do with CV's before (damn AWD FWD cars ) what are the costs like. And is it a job for any normal mechanic or is it better to see a CV workshop (see plenty of them in the yellow pages). My girlfriends pulsar is also in dire need of CV's too (because I just got the boots replaced on hers and the joints didn't last too much longer before the knocking started) so I just might as well kill all the birds with one stone.

Starting to see prices like that more and more now from Japanese auctions for series 1's. Although photo's can tell a lot of the story are the log books supplied current, can you get a mechanical inspection over there. This is being offered by a lot of brokers now I believe, however I'm not sure of the cost involved in doing this. I don't want to make you worry about it or anything thought, quite a few people here have imported their stageas and there haven't been any major problems that I've read about yet. So good luck with it and hope it all works out well, the wait sucks though

Ahhhhhhh ok, I was kind of on the right track the I only made the assumption based on the pics in the green stagea manual (in Japanese) that came with the car I couldn't care less about that though so I'll just get aftermarket glass fitted.

I also prefer the AWD, like the comment about the traction controll a couple of posts above exactly illustrates my point about people placing too much confidence in driver aides and treating them as brain replacments But I still agree its safer and I wouldn't give it up (my comment about ditching the AWD in a manual conversion was purely thinking out loud). And I agree about everything SK and most others have said so far................ HOWEVER "joe26f", where do you get off mate? There is always one person to wreck a good discussion! I don't recall anyone so far mentioning anyones stagea being better than anothers. We have been talking about advantages and disadvantages of AWD vs RWD and people have bought different opinions to the topic but I haven't seen anyone being a tool about it......except yourself! And I think (had you read everything properly) there have been a few examples where AWD can assist you in certain conditions over what RWD can provide with out "If your race boy extroadanaire and want to average over 200kph around the nurburgring get the AWD." Anyhow I'm glad that your happy with your purchase and it seems that you made a wise choice, after all as long as your happy. But lay off the un-necessary comments ok

anyway as long as it has nothing to do with the windscreen or those little dotted black lines have nothing to do with anything then I don't mind getting an aftermarket one. Thats my only concern. Can anyone tell me what this switch does then???

Nah to the right of the ignition key barrel. I wasn't sure what it did, the only reason I thought it was something to do with the windscreen was from reading the factory japanese manual I have and going by the pics And yes I know the a/c heated air is to demist.

Just to dig up an old thread, I got a nice crack in my windscreen on the weekend. Started out as just a small 2 cm crack but being 3 hours outside of Brisbane and doing 110 caused it to become about a 30 cm crooked crack in no time at all Now I have read the other threads and it seems that Novus in Burpengary are the guys to go to. My question is that I can see a black dotted strip around the outer edges of the windscreen, and isn't the switch on the dash to the right of where the ignition is some sort of windscreen defogging or defroster (for ice and such), the one you puch once to turn on and once to turn off and has a little orange light on the top of it. If I'm right is that black dotted strip anything to do with that and if it is do the aftermarket ones have them.....just curious, and if I'm wrong about that button what the hell does it do???

I don't know if people don't read my threads properly or wether I don't write then clearly but I'm NOT NOT NOT saying that AWD ISN'T safer ffs. But I think some people put too much confidence in it. Espically in a car that weighs as much as a stagea does. Sure as far as loss of traction goes caused by wheels spin an AWD is going to have an advantage over RWD and on and yes anything with more than 2 wheels being driven is going to help traction, but (lets use wet conditions here seeing as it has been the basis for this discussion so far), take my example if I had come into that round about any faster than I did would the AWD system have had any chance of saving me....I seriously doubt it! The car lost traction because of the way the weight transferd from one side of the car to the other and more so in the rear, had I been going any faster the same probably would have been for the front too, or even if the front hadn't lost traction I highly doubt the torque transfer to the front wheels would have been enought to save me. And thats just one example, there are plenty more situations I can think of where the AWD system if going to do fu*k all to save you its not like it improves your tyres contact patch with the road. One thing I probably should have mentioned before is that before this had happened I was also under the naive frame of thought that some thing like that isn't going to happend because....she's sweet I've got AWD!!! How wrong was I? There are so many ways to loose traction (espically in the wet) where the AWD system is going to have little to no chance of saving you. And don't even bring WRC cars into this, a properly set up full time AWD rally car being driven by a professional driver with the intent to get the car into slides and such is hardly even close to a comparison for a fat arse AWD family wagon with a driver (in most cases) that doesn't even have half the skill behind the wheel. Now I'm not going to say I'm a saint (and I still wasn't "hooing" that day) but I do occasionally go for a spirited drive through some of the mountains around here and I find the handling very good comming out of corners and such but I still find the car likes to under steer (now this could have a lot to do with the fact I still have stock suspension and probably does) but I just wonder how many people grab their new stagea and go lets thrash (believing that the almighty AWD will keep them glued to the road no matter what ) and find out the hard way that it should be treated more as a driver assist function rather than a replacement for the brain. I shouldn't have to mention this but before someone gets offended I'm not targeting anyone here its just a general comment! But I still feel safer knowing that I have AWD I just dont rely on it. Personally though in regards to the origional question I (still thinking about the manual conversion) was thinking just how much weight could be saved if you didn't have the AWD system, like what was mentioned earlier in the thread. How much would the trasfer car, drive shafts front diff, cv / hubs on the front, attessa system (pumps, lines, wiring etc.) save you, it'd be a fair amount I'd imagine plus I don't know but would it be an easier and possibly cheaper conversion if you ditched it all (could sell off parts to ofset the conversion price)???

Being in an AWD and believing how the attessa system is meant to work is the only reason I put more throttle on. And don't get me wrong it didn't just plant it, as soon as I felt the rear starting to let go I progressivly put throttle on and counter steered (but being used to RWD cars I countered too much when putting more throttle in and as the torque was transferred to the front actually started to make the car understeer...sort of if that makes any sense) hence why I said it wasn't the most graceful save if done But like I said I definatley wasn't hooning at all which is why it caught me by surprise, but I don't know if the road was greasy (hadn't rained for a long time) or just the stageas fat arse but it swung around pretty quick. But yeah had I'd been in a RWD it would of been a completely different story. And yeah g-force sensors and tps do play a part in the attessa system but considering I wasn't going fast enough (unless they are very sensitive) and had very little throttle applied I don't think they would hav been playing a part. I don't believe it was caused but rear wheel spin but more slippery surface and they weight of these cars which was more at play (and you DO feel the weight in a situation like that). It would also have been intereting if the AWD stageas had a lsd fitted too?? Not to mention what different suspension setups would affect. But Duncan pointed out what I was really getting at. In that all AWD is really only an aid in traction with the wheels being driven (spinning and the like) but its not going to save you from comming into a corner to hot and understeering or sudden weight transfer things like that and other driver errors or unforseen situations. I'm not dissing it my any means but I think people may place too much confidence it AWD vehicles. And if Im not making a whole lot of sense I'm sorry but its been a long day, late and I'm tired

HA!!! Believe me you don't have to be doing anything stupid on public roads to get a stagea all crossed up. I was going around a round about after it had rained so the road was damp but not wet, (before anyone jumps to conclusions, NO the tyres wern't bald...they were brand new, and NO I wasn't trying to get the tail out AT ALL!) and with out any warning at all the rear let go and the car would have been at a good enough angle to get good points at a drift comp. So I put my foot down at about just under half way and it corrected but wasn't very graceful And it did shake some of my confidence in the ATTESSA system. It worries me that people may get them selves into a bit of a false mind set over AWD. I'm not saying that its not safer but I believe that people put to much confidence into it. But when you do loose traction there are so many other factors that come into play that all the AWD in the world aren't going to save you from. Such as sudden weight transfer, understeer, aquaplanning (spelling ) 10 old or so suspension ( these cars are getting on a bit now) and lets not forget the nature of the ATTESSA system in that it only provides torque to the front wheels when rear wheels spin occurs (which is done very quickly) but its designed from more of a preformance driving point of view than a safety point of view. I believe that full time AWD is probably safer.

Man when I did the FMIC install on my series one I had a hell of a time. Undid the one screw on top and couldn't get them to budge, didn't want to break them. But ended up getting that pissed off and just pulled them hard straight towards me and POP they came out. Same getting them in. It does feel like your gonna break them but it worked for me!