JimX

I was going to write this up after my head unit arrived safely, to ensure that I don't inadvertedly cause other people to get ripped off. But I thought I would post up what I've done anyway, and then follow up with posts if it doesn't arrive quickly or at all or damaged or whatever. The story: I need to buy a new head unit, because my old one is going into my gf's car. At Strathfield Car Radio, I found a Pioneer DEH-5650MP, RRP $579, on sale for $379. Not bad I thought, considering this was an impromptu upgrade and I needed to spend as little as possible but still have it better than my old JVC mp3 unit. Before buying it though, I checked out Ebay, and discovered the next model up, DEH-7650MP, for the same price including postage. The RRP of this unit is $999. Since it's coming from overseas I might have to pay GST and import duty, but even with that thrown in it's still going to be less than the $699 that JB Hifi want for the same unit. By my calculations it should be under $500 including all fees and postage when all is said and done. As I said above, I will be wary of this until it arrives in good working order, because I only deposited the money yesterday and it obviously hasn't arrived yet. But I thought I would tell everyone about it in case they decided they wanted to take a risk like me before the guy ran out of stock. His ebay store is here, and he has a high positive rating so I'm pretty sure I won't get ripped off. At time of this writing he has 17 7650's left, but there are plenty of other brands and models there if you want to spend more or less money. The 7650 is just in the right price range for me and with the right features I want for that money. I'll keep this thread updated as to what happens with delivery and any extra fees I get hit with, in case people want to hold off getting anything from this guy.

I think there are a couple of people who have written about making claims with Famous in this thread. If not there is another thread somewhere in this section where they talked about it. From what I can remember there were no issues because all of their stipulations were followed (the main ones being parked in your own garage overnight if at home, and telling them about all the mods). No one had their car stolen from their own garage either I think. Which is good I'd search for the exact posts for you but I'm at work (well, really it's because I'm lazy)

The Commodore? Yeah.

If you know what you're doing it's probably best to do yourself. I have had cars where mechanics or their apprentices have left bolts out of gearboxes etc. Imagine if they left a bleed nipple not done up properly. Bleeding brakes is very straightforward and easy to get right, but in a busy workshop it can be easy for a mechanic to forget to do something up properly. A few years ago I got Midas to install a new brake booster in my Commodore, they didn't test them properly and my brakes stuck on. By the time I drove around the block and back to the workshop all 4 wheels were smoking like they were on fire. If you want a professional to do it, take it to a reputable brake place like Race Brakes rather than your local servo workshop.

GTR turbo is too small for your car. I have one question for the seller - how did you manage to get 3 turbos that have all done the exact same mileage?

All you guys whinging about Falkens, WHICH FARKIN' FALKENS?! Every manufacturer has cheapshit tyres, it's just that Falken's cheapshit ones seem to be cheaper shit than most others (but not all). I can back up what Duncan says about the FK451's, they are excellent in wet or dry. I have silica tyres on my bike which grips really well in the wet and dry, which was my main motivation in also getting silica tyres for my car. The 451's seem to go well with price/performance. There is no way I would buy one of Falken's lower end tyres though, they are definitely cheap and nasty. Duncan, I've got a feeling that the ST115's wear out quickly because they have those bubbles of Aero bar nothing in them. Their gimmick is to "suck up" road noise with these vacuum bubbles. But surely that just means there is less rubber to wear out.

Declare it. They know about mine and it's all ok.

You don't have to park on your property overnight to be covered. If the car is within 500m of your place of residence, it needs to be in a lockup garage overnight to be covered against theft. It doesn't have to be your garage. And you are covered if you leave it outside overnight more than 500m away. This is just to stop people leaving their car exposed to car thieves overnight in the street or in a driveway where they are easy to steal. Personally I welcome this because it's dropped my premium over the past couple of years. I've read a lot of posts from people whose cars got stolen from their driveway or in the street in front of their house, and I am glad that my insurance money is not funding any cars that have gone missing in this way. I'm not saying that I don't feel for these people, but I'm glad I don't have to pay for it.

I've said it before but I'll say it again just in case people haven't read it yet. I used Castrol Formula R for the first 4 or 5 oil changes (every 5000km). Then I swapped to Motul 8100, and suddenly the exhaust ran absolutely FILTHY. Then after about 1000km, a lifter got blocked. The Motul had done such a good job of cleaning the engine that it dislodged the large chunks of crap that had accumulated in the engine when using Formula R and whatever the previous owner had used before it. So while I'm not going to actually say that Castrol added gunk into my engine causing a lifter to block, I *will* say that at the very minimum, it did absolutely nothing to help clean out the inside of the engine from whatever unknown oils were used previously. If you really want to use Castrol, I would recommend doing an engine flush between services to gradually reduce gunk buildup. The Castrol is doing jack-all in this regard for you even though as a supposed synthetic, it should be keeping it clean. Since then I used Motul 8100 in my last 2 changes and the exhaust is now running much cleaner due to the insides of the engine now being much cleaner. And no hint of any blocked lifters.

5W-40 and 10W-40 oil are the exact same thickness when hot. The only difference is the former is thinner when cold. But both of them get thinner as it warms up. So if the 5W-40 oil is thicker when cold than the 10W-40 is when hot, there's not much chance it's going to do damage to your engine.

I can't see anything Can someone re-post the pic/s?

Sold!

It's good to see that I wasn't the deluded one for a change

Am I the only person that doesn't notice any difference between Optimax and Ultimate? With Mobil, I seem to get slightly less mileage, but no noticably less power or any other side effects.

Got any pics of it in your boot?

Sold.

I haven't said anything in this thread for awhile, but I think it's about time I said it. What have the last 6 pages got to do with increasing the redline on an RB25?

Price drop to $280. Even though I said I was open to offers, someone could have offered this anyway

>220rwkw or thereabouts.

The main physical difference is they are 90mm rather than 80mm, which means you either need a new intake to your turbo, or buy a $15 adapter (Hills Motorsports have them). Also you will need to modify your airbox if you have one, or if you have a pod you will probably need a new one. This AFM idles beautifully. I had my doubts about smoothness of running because it still only goes up to 5v but supports more power, but it seems to just as responsive as the original AFM. Apart from the cost I can't see any drawbacks to upgrading your AFM once your power output requires it.

Sold!

How many seconds delay is there between mp3 tracks on the head unit?

Quick update: I received the pod this morning, and it bolts straight on as my old pod did to my factory AFM. In the (Japanese) instructions, there is a diagram showing adapter/spacer in between, but I think that may only be required if you still have the factory airbox or you need to mount it to the chassis. There is also a metal bracket to hold it to the chassis in the diagram, which I guess is part of the adapter kit. None of it is needed in my case, as I have a UAS airbox which holds the AFM securely enough. Well, it will once I dremel out a bit more room for the bigger AFM One cause for concern is the extra bolt holes to line up on a different style AFM, they protrude past the edge of the gasket and may be a point at which dust can get sucked through over time. I may fill the extra holes up with Tarzan Grip or something.

I'd say they're pretty decent. If the high flow version had been around when I got my 044 I probably would have gotten that instead. I'll never get over 300rwkw unless I win lotto.

I still have a problem with you saying that it would have "destroyed everything" and that it will destroy the engine 90% of the time. If GTR090 had said the engine wasn't working properly anymore then I might be more inclined to believe you but as it stands I want more proof of your figures before I will say I was entirely wrong. I was just going off what I've seen other people here report. If GTR090 finds out that the engine is more damaged than he originally thought then maybe you are right. If so then maybe people that are reporting blown turbos are similarly driving around with more damaged engines than they thought.