JimX

How much money do you want to spend to have a slightly nicer car?

I got my renewal a few weeks ago and found it had dropped from $1500 (last year's price) to $1200. I was thinking that the market value had obviously dropped, but after doing some checks on Trading Post I saw some nearly stock R33's (usually just exhaust and/or rims) going for up to $19k private and just over $20k from a dealer. I'm fairly sure that the market value or mine with a few more mods is around the same or even more than the original insured value ($22k). The girl on the phone said that I was able to increase the insured value if I liked. Might need to check that out.

Very easy for young people to get the money to buy the cars in the first place though. What do you need insurance for?

Good stuff, might have to look into that! Thanks for the info.

Motul 8100 X-Cess is a better choice because it's 100% synthetic. Not the best, but good for the price. If money is no object then maybe consider the 300V oils, which are the next "rank" up.

I had mine mounted above my left knee on the underside of the dash until I sold it and replaced with PowerFC. It took better quality double sided tape than what came with the unit though. But once mounted properly it stayed and looked really cool. Didn't look out of place at all. And I could fold it up flat if needed, although I don't think I ever did. You couldn't really notice it at all through tinted windows at night. I wish I still had it for the bling bling aspect

If there was anything at all to remind me that my car is really just a Japanese Commodore, it's the bloody squeaks in the dash! I don't expect anyone to be able to find them for me, but what I was hoping was that if there was anyone that identified a squeak in their dash, could they post in here what it was and how they fixed it if they know how (or just ask for advice like I am). I've got 2 squeaks in my dash, both sounding like they're in the centre somewhere. I think I've identified one, but I don't know how to fix it. This one seems to be a flap in one of the air conditioning ducts in the middle which temps to thump/clunk up and down when I go over bumps or get a standing wave in it over multiple bumps. I've found a bit that's movable on the right hand side when I stick my hand through the centre console with the radio removed, and I can make the same noise manually. But it doesn't seem loose, and it springs back ok, so I'm not sure what I can do to fix this. Perhaps gluing some clark rubber along it or something. The other one seems to be higher than that, but looking at pics of a disassembled dash there doesn't seem to be anything up there capable of making this noise. It's kind of a metal-on-metal creak type noise, or perhaps plastic on metal. It tends to happen only on small bumps or generally uneven road. I thought it might be my suspension from either the radius rod bushes or the swaybar, but this seriously seems to be coming from the middle of the car and there are no bushes there. I deduced this by asking my passenger - it's coming from her right, but my left. This has to be in the middle, surely?! It also sounds like it's in the high cabin rather than under the car and outside. But squeaks are the master of ventrilloquism so I'm not ruling out anything. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I've found Motul to be generally underpriced for what it is when compaerd to more famous brands. It seems to be the biggest brand oil where you're not paying for the name. Turbolite may not be the best oil for a car with a turbo because it's a semi-synth, but I've used it in my bike (11k redline) and found it to be better than other brand full synthetics. I would agree that a full synthetic would be better with a turbo due to higher running temps, but I have never used a bad or even average Motul oil. You can do far worse than turbolite, even if you stick to 100% synthetics. I use 8100 on my car and have not found anything better for the price.

Ok here's something that I have only discovered recently. This is to do with my motorcycle, but since oil is meant to remain as consistent as possible between changes I think it can apply to a certain extent to cars. The main difference between my bike and car is the operating temps, as the bike has no turbo. In the past I have been changing the oil in my bike every 3000km (factory specifies 6000km). However at between 1000-2500km, I noticed the (wet) clutch grabbing significantly more than when the oil was fresh. To me that means the oil friction properties have changed, because the oil is now allowing the clutch to slip differently than when the oil is fresh. Even though this means the clutch is slipping more, I fail to see how the oil could be getting BETTER over time. Oils break down in engines, they don't get better. This happened across the board no matter what oil I was using, and I noticed that the "cheaper" oils would do it earlier than the more expensive ones. The oils I used in the bike in order of worst to best are: Castrol Formula R 5W-30 Castrol Formula R 10W-60 Shell synthetic 10W-40 (designed for motorcycles) Motul semi-synth 15W-50 (designed for motorcycles) Mobil 1 5W-50 Fuchs synthetic 5W-50 Motul semi-synth Turbolite 10W-40 The weirdest thing here is that the oils designed for motorcycles are only average at best. The reason I tried car oils is because I read a review on the net saying that motorcycle oils aren't necessarily better for bikes. The most surprising thing is the Turbolite oil I've got listed at the end there, which I used for the first time in my most recent oil change. I accidentally missed my usual 3000km oil change because I was waiting for the clutch to slip to know when I should start paying attention to the odometer (I have to push a button to cycle it between the trip meter). But it's still working exactly the same as when the oil was new, after 3500km. Because of that I'm going to see if it can do the full 6000km without having to change the oil. I don't get it. A cheap semi-synth is better than a full synth costing 50% more? I also don't understand why Motul have a car oil that's better in a bike than their bike oil. Just marketing at work I guess. I still use the more expensive 5W-50 8100 full synth Motul in the Skyline, but mostly because the turbo runs a lot hotter and I think a semi-synth will break down too quickly because of that. Anyway I'm sold on Motul. I don't see any need to buy other brands again, unless Motul changes their formula for the worse.

Rims are sold, this thread can be de-stickied/closed. $40 on its way to SAU as soon as Christian gives me his bank acount details If someone else can tell me that'd be good, because I had a quick look around and couldn't find anything.

Someone is coming to look at them tomorrow morning, I will let you know if they aren't sold at that point.

Why very reluctantly? If I blew my turbo up and got offered a replacement at half price, I would be over the moon. Is there something I missed here?

Well I have had a couple of offers in pm but from interstate and it just makes things too difficult. But how about this: Price drop to $400 I just need to get rid of them because they are wasting a lot of space.

Thanks Pred! I'll give Repco a call, and/or a different Supercheap shop.

Price drop to $500

95 single air bag. How much did you want for them? Are they factory belts or aftermarket? How do factory belts work as far as legality goes?

Bump

Can anyone that likes the quality of their R33 seatbelts (ie, they retract easily and fully) look at the tag on it near the anchor point and tell me who made them and/or where to buy them? Mine have always been crap so if possible I'd like to get something better. This has always been I've been looking at doing since getting the car but now my passenger seat belt won't retract at all so I have to do it asap. Thanks in advance.

sold

Ok the head unit arrived this morning, with no extra taxes or fees. So that was $379 delivered to my door. I fitted it this arvo and it seems to work fine. The only major gripe I have with it so far is that there is only 1 remote wire which means you can only run either a remote amp, or an electrical aerial. Or be a dodgy bastard like me and wire both things into the one wire I think it should be ok, no fuses blown yet. Kind of annoying that the aerial doesn't go down when I switch to CD, but that's not a major concern. For the price I'd say it's excellent, but I wouldn't want to pay $700 for it. The biggest things it has over my old head unit are WMA file playing and the extra DSP stuff. I don't think that's worth the extra $300+ that shops are asking though.

I've read all the fine print and definitely recommend anyone considering buying off this guy do the same. He says that warranty won't be honoured locally, but will be honoured by shipping the thing back overseas at a cost of $100 for the buyer. Even if that happens it's still cheaper than $700. Yes, much more of a hassle I know, but hopefully being Pioneer it's not going to die within the warranty period anyway. It's a calculated risk of course but one I decided to take. All I can hope is that it doesn't bite me in the ass Update: Got an email from the guy this morning, he said the payment's cleared and it gets shipped by EMS today or tomorrow. So I should have it by mid next week.

Phew that's good to hear! I had a look at the guy's FAQ and he says that GST is usually only payable if it's >$50, so anything under $500 is usually GST (and duty) free. I can only hope, I won't know until I get either the package, or a slip saying to pay $X before I can receive it. The deck is coming from Thailand or Malaysia from what I can see, so it's probably going to have duty payable, unless it slips through.

That kinda sucks. Did they find out through independant means that you had had a car stolen? Or did they ask you and you just answered yes. I'm wondering that even if you had a car stolen and you said you hadn't, how would they find out?

Series 2.

Sounds like your friends are doing something wrong. There are people getting >300rwkw on stock internals on a non-neo RB25. Steve for example .