jrm

Me too ... doesn't have the heat issues of black, doesn't look plain like white - and doesn't show dirt/marks like black or white .. great option in my opinion

we have a lady amongst us. lol ... that's some funny shit Well anyways ... Car flew through with no dramas... Inspector was a young bloke this time, rather than the older bearded guy previously... The old bloke wandered over and had a look, they were both kinda stunned I'd resolved the steering and lights issue so quickly. But hey, I'm determined, and I'm supposed to be already on my way to Melbourne (not typing away on SAU). Well, should leave in a coupla minutes ... Overall, I'm very very relieved this is all over (well, until next time...)

Hi all, I was recently found to have some excessive movement in my rear steering rack - we suspect due to running with the HICAS fuse out for an extended period after there were issues with it. The mechanic I used fitted a replacement steering rack from a low-km R34, however I found that now after I got home - the HICAS light will not go out. I ran the HICAS diagnostic and it came up with the following codes: 21 Vehicle speed sensor not present 22 Steering angle sensor not present 23 Steering angle sensor neutral or not present 24 Rear main sensor input not present 25 Rear sub sensor input not present We've double-checked all of the ground-points, and sensor connectors and even swapped the sensors back from my original rack - still doesn't seem to change anything. Given that it's basically every sensor fault possible, I'm at a bit of a loss and wondering if it's a bigger wiring issue or the HICAS ECU is playing up. But seems a bit coincidental it would die after changing the rack after being good on the car for many years that I've owned it. I'm back at the mechanic today, and we're going to play around some more - I'm guessing maybe he'll try a different rack if it keeps playing up Does anyone have any suggestions, tips or has anyone seen this sort of thing happen before when changing the rear rack?

I guess it could have been worse, Dohmar - I'm just used to having every mechanic I take the car to compliment how immacuate the car is and that it's straight as a dime and it generally doesn't have issues. Hell, even the inspector complimented me how clean and tidy the car was after getting underneath it. I dunno, this whole regency thing has sent me for a bit of a spin and I've been feeling sick as a dog from all of the stress. I've always been very vigilant about making sure everything I've modified has been within the law. Unfortunately the exhaust guy who originally fitted my exhaust told porkies about it's legality, and my headlights weren't changed during compliancing (like the documentation I have says they were..). I still reckon my parkers were legal (he says they showed a blue tinge, I disagree - but eh - what can you do - sure, they're white LEDs - but clearly not 'white' enough). Took all of 10 seconds to throw in T10 incandescents I had in my toolkit in the boot. Other amusing anecdote - the car was originally defected for my exhaust loudness, yet the inspector this morning didn't even verify how loud it was - figure that out. He also laughed at the note from the officer about the tint saying it was in the glass and factory and was fine. Anyways - I ended up going elsewhere than my regular tyre/suspension guy for the rear steering stuff - ended up getting the entire HICAS rear steering rack replaced - cos that was the cause of the minor lateral movement. It wasn't much - but obviously too much for the Regency inspector. The new rear steering rack isn't showing movement - which is what they asked for - so it should pass now. Only other remaining item is the headlights - turns out H7 bulbs are the easiest fit into a D2R bulb spot, so I'll be converting that over tonight - should be fairly straight forward. Car is booked in for re-inspection early tomorrow morning, should hopefully sail through with those fixes made. Fingers crossed. Thanks for all of the support & assistance from everyone on this forum

Looking for: * some very good condition rear tie-rod ends for an R34 * To buy or borrow - R34 non-xenon (or xenon converted to H1) headlights

'kay .. am now feeling a fair bit reamed.. Headlights got told to replace with halogens 'oh that'll just be a simple bulb change - no stress'... From what I understand - it's major irreversible changes to the headlight housing to fit halogen bulbs. Anyone know where I can get some non-xenon headlights for borrowing or buying ASAP? After ringing around, only guy I found who said he had non-xenon headlights they turned out to be xenons, so no go. Next drama - rear tie rod ends show some lateral movement. My tyre guy says that's going to be very expensive ($130/side + labour) and he can't get the parts till next week. *sigh* ... Anyone have any bright ideas?

Less than 9 hours till my car is going through Regency .. f**king shitting myself... *sighs* Fingers crossed, I was supposed to be driving to Melbourne on Friday - depending on tomorrow is whether I take the R34 or something else

It was definitely safer - in my opinion - to remove the sub/amp. Whilst the wiring loom under the bonnet is all fused within 30cm of the battery, held in with cable ties and within split loom, and the wiring in the boot is all fairly well taped up and split-loomed too, nothing in the boot (amps/subs) was bolted down which I understand to be a major no-no. It's something I've been meaning to fix up since I got the car, but it's one of those things you never get around to. The engine bay is pretty tidy, I even cleaned it and degreased it on the weekend to be doubly sure that it looked virtually perfect. Few obvious modifications are the cusco brake stopper, alarm siren, big optima battery with gold battery terminal & the 0-gauge from the battery (though that's all in split loom). I'm kinda shitting myself over the headlights, thinking I might throw in some lower temperature bulbs (4300K) to try and tone them down somewhat.

Hrmmm .. what a fun coupla days.... Been trying to put together a checklist for my car - so far: * Just had tyres/suspension checked out by tyre guy (and 4 new tyres fitted .. too much scrubbing on inside .. ugh ) .. * Spare tyre has 80kph written on it * Ride height is 340 front, 345 rear to the eyebrow, which according to SA Transport site is the minimum legal - so *should* be good here. * Only had my brakes serviced recently, calipers/brakes all good, ADR lines are legal * Vehicle Standards have told me the rear factory glass is fine (cop at station where I had the car cleared for driving until inspection didn't believe me "so any car can just drive with as dark as they like if they came from the factory? I dont think so!") * I just personally did a major service, so new aircon/alternator/power-steering belts, new oil, new o2 sensor fitted .. * Checked all my window washers, wiper blades, no cracks in any exterior glass * Front seats all move back and forth fine, seatbelts all in good condition, and pre-tensioners work. * Planning to remove all the sub, carpc, amp from the boot ... * Engine isn't blowing any smoke, no oil leaks * Horn is working * No rust in any panels * All undertrays, guard linings are in and bolted up correctly * Checked all my interior bulbs (one of the map lights was busted), indicators, parker bulbs, highbeam all working fine... * Exhaust noise fixed with a baffle in the muffler, not touching anything under-body. My performance feels like crap, and boost levels are much lower than before, but what can you do? So only two things I have to worry about I can think of: * ride height is on legal minimum, hoping that's okay * xenon factory headlights - my compliance papers said these were removed, but they sure are still the factory xenons when I bought it. I can't imagine how much that would cost to fix. What's the likelihood of the inspector picking up on it?

It cost me like $1100 or so back 2.75 years ago when I bought the car (the exhaust was fitted the next day). I believe it's an x-force turbo-back system. To be honest, I shouldn't complain too hard, I've been driving around without any real police hassle at all from the exhaust at this level. I've been eyeing off various HKS Silent options, and wondering what's out there, and wondering whether it's possible to get something free-flowing that's quiet and retaining as much of the current system as possible to reduce costs. I don't really know enough about exhausts to know what's possible. The other option is, I just deal with it being like this, and tackle it later when I start doing more mods and require a more free-flowing exhaust. Right now I just want to get past this defect and re-assess from there. I suspect my thoughts/plans with regards to oil coolers and other modifications may need some re-thinking in mind of keeping this both stealth and legal to try and avoid any future issues. I'm still yet to find an intercooler option that i'm comfortable with to be legal (no cutting). The only thing I've come across so far that seems to fit the bill is the Arc SMIC, or taking an off-the-shelf FMIC (that fits behind the reo without cutting) and making custom piping to the factory pipes. Ugh .. what a headache.

You reckon with this x-force muffler baffle plate tack-welded in at four spots, it should be okay? Kinda like this one: Muffler guy reckoned it was a bad idea to do more than tack-welding it in and that it should satisfy them - that if he did proper welding it would leave me with a ruined manky tip for if I wanted to take it out for something like a track day. I don't know how nasty these inspectors are gonna be though.

+1 Dohmar

Good to know - but it would be nice to have a piece of paper from Regency to show a cop next time so he doesn't hassle me though... Something tells me it ain't gonna happen, though..

Did you need to cut the reo to fit this?

Some night shots for me last night (shortly before getting defected whilst driving around looking for more good photo locations .. *sigh*) .. You should be able to click on those for a larger image too. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. Certainly not bad for a cheapy camera - just wished it had raw capability so I could have done more with them post-processing...

Wonder how well an R34 GTR exhaust would go on an R34 GT-T sedan then, if it's too long for the coupe.... There's an R34 GTR cat-back exhaust I'm eyeing off at the moment - but I don't want to go to too much effort modifying it to fit.

Wonder how much effort this would take to fit to an R34 GTT...

*knocking wood* mine hasn't yet.

MMMm .. just went to my regular exhaust guy and took in the muffler baffle that came with my x-force muffler and he welded that in. Sound levels were then re-tested at 88db, which is under the 90db required. Do you guys reckon that is going to be acceptable, especially with it welded (not just bolted) in? It looks like arse, and the car feels boring and I now find driving it boring instead of putting a smile on my face - but it's now legal db wise. Not sure about emissions, or whether Regency are going to check/care. I tried talking to the police this morning; went in with the receipt from the work, and the defect papers - figured I'd see if they'd just let me at least have an extension to drive until I can make a Regency appointment (can't do it on a weekend), but they didn't seem interested at all, or interested in just re-inspecting themselves instead of having to Regency it. Any tips/suggestions on this, or am I stuck? I was figuring I can easily remove the display bit from the turbo-timer, pretty sure it just unplugs, and just leave it in otherwise. It's reasonably easy to remove completely (it's using an inline wiring loom), but if I don't have to, I'd rather not bother. I figure I can stow the Ecliptech shift-i progressive shift light under the dash. I gotta tell ya, I'm really tired by all of this from the stress and the drama. I don't know how you guys that keep getting defected deal with it. I think I would go insane.

Well, my first defect notice tonight. Guess it's a "welcome to the owning a skyline" thing. Two things they've put on my defect notice: * exhaust noise (98db) * Window tint (rear glass - 23%) Not real sure who I can see in a hurry to fix my exhaust lower to 90db. I have baffle thingy which can go into the muffler, but I suspect these arent legal unless welded in (and probably isn't going to lower it far enough anyway). Now, I also have the factory UV glass on the rear, you can't remove the tint, and changing the glass would be thousands of dollars - anyone know what to do about this one? I have no ideas about what to do with this rear glass - I've checked search, and a few people have mentioned how dark it isi, one guy had an RACQ inspection and it was picked up as a possible problem, but I couldn't find any real answers. The SA Transport guidelines aren't real clear on it either, just stating it has to be 35% or better. They do mention factory privacy glass, but seem to give it any excemption over the 35% thing. Few other things I'm worried about for an inspection - are they going to check everything? I've checked my ride-height, it's 340F, and 345R which should be legal according to everything I've read. I still have the factory xenon headlights (compliancing papers said they'd been removed but they hadn't). I do have an apexi pen turbo timer - which I use an as air-fuel ratio meter (all turbo-timer functions are disabled, though it's still hooked up - does that matter?), and a shift light on my steering column. The car is pretty much standard otherwise, spare tyre is yellow and marked with 80jph. My braided brake lines are ADR approved, clear side/front indicators have orange bulbs... I dunno .. I'm trynig to think what I can be done for further - I really don't want to have to pay for a re-inspection. Been trying to read this thread to get tips. Kinda stressing out at the moment What a pain in the ass... what I get for driving about looking for nice spots to take pictures of my car on a Friday night ..

Wish I could just buy something like this... I've never worked with fibreglass before, and not sure something this complicated is something I'd want to tackle as my first project!

Clicking is battery dead, jump start it or try a new battery. Moving on from that - why's the battery dead? Could just be a crap battery (the one I got with my car was absolute rubbish), or your alternator is not charging it properly. Once you get it going with a new battery, you'll want to see what sort of voltage you're getting to the battery when the car is started. If you're seeing 14.4V or so, alternator should be charging okay, if it's lower - alternator is likely dead or not charging adequately.

Mine is a 1998 R34 GT-T sedan in manual. I did a tonne of testing recently with my car when I was playing around with writing some code to put on my CarPC, referencing various PLMS documents and trying to figure various timings out. I had no real issues talking to the primary ECU (EF) but subsidiary ECUs did seem to require more accurate timing (I could get results from a simple hexterm with EF, but with others it almost felt like it wanted it more accurate/timed out rather than a steady stream as from a program...). I did get the other ECUs to talk (sometimes I had more than one responding at once, that could get confusing - I guess it must be a central bus type arrangement for all of the ECUs via the CONSULT port). Anyways I gave up after a few hours of messing about because I'd pretty much killed my battery (I was using a notebook, and RDP'd into it via wireless) and I just didn't have the right hex codes to get anything meaningful (and nothing seemed to line up with the PLMS S-HICAS information). I'd really like to get more into playing with this stuff, but I honestly don't know where to turn or who to talk to (or if they'd even talk to me!)

I've written some custom code to try and talk to it, but I don't know what codes I should be sending. The S-HICAS codes that I've found on-line don't seem to work, and because it seems to be on the CONSULT2 vs CONSULT1 protocol, it almost 'feels' (from my testing) that you need to get the timing between commands a little more precise (CONSULT1 stuff on the EF ECU seem a lot more 'loose' in its acceptance of commands). I'd love to get in touch with people messing about with trying to talk to the ECUs via CONSULT (I'm a sysadmin, netadmin and programmer), but trying to find people is a complete pain - and the people who have put in the effort don't seem to want to share their knowledge about (understandable really - i've spent hours and hours on playing with stuff already - it can be arduous work).

I've got a copy of test software (from the developer) of just the HICAS part of the Conzult software so I could test it on my R34 GTT, but it wouldn't work to my dismay... (wouldn't even initialise the SHICAS ECU)