The Max

@mycarhasposessedme, after seeing your hand constantly waving about on-camera, I'm pretty sure that kind of activity would be right up your alley (so to speak). Mgrande, no experience with it here but I'd be taking off the cover and wiggling the shifter around by hand (or just finger) to hopefully listen out for the source of the rattle.

Pretty sure some guys here have been using one from Jaycar.

You're right. It is an exercise in compromise. I much prefer the lesser complexity in going air-to-air and the amount of people who've reported on their coolant system spewing forth their contents after a hose failure is well-known. It's the only reason why I would avoid buying one, despite how pornographic they are to my eye and have me lusting after one!

They look menacingly stunning but I'm not keen on their overly complex coolant plumbing for the turbos.

Stick to what you have. Moving into a higher colour temperature will be far too white and useless in many conditions, particularly in wet weather.

You've lost me with your terminology. I'm guessing by "Exon," you mean "xenon." If so, if it is a D2S (i.e. a round connector rather than a rectangular 3-pin connector), you should be replacing it with a similarly decent D2S bulb. Philips or Osram are the way to go, in my humble opinion. No, LEDs are not a suitable replacement and I doubt you'll find anything LED for a headlight bulb anyway. For the small 5W wedge bulbs (i.e. park lights), sure, but not your actual headlights. Even if they did exist, they would burn out a lot sooner than a Xenon HID and the colour temperature would be bad enough to get you (deservedly) defected.

It always is when it's not your car. Which reminds me, I need to readjust the parking brake on my V36. Nobody has really been capable of giving it a proper adjustment, working on the cable instead of the shoes themselves. I always get a little nervous creep from it.

I'm not so trusting of that idea either. I know of two people with two vehicles whose pawl did not hold their vehicle at all and made quite the amusing ticking sound as they rolled away from them. One caught his vehicle in time. The other, well, the write-off was a blessing in disguise anyway. To me, they're always a backup to the parking brake, not a primary.

Agreed. Their parts search is becoming more unreliable by the day. I find myself having to contact them directly instead.

I don't see that as a reasonable excuse for not engaging the handbrake, at all. I hope you're at least turning your wheels in the right direction for your vehicle to veer into the kerb so that it doesn't roll off and damage someone else's vehicle or kill someone. Pardon my judgmental attitude but part of motoring is thinking responsibly about everyone around you and your heavy steel weapon. We have parking brakes for a reason. They are the primary safety device, not your gearbox.

Perhaps they fit but would they actually look worthwhile? Honestly, what's wrong with trying to do the job properly and, as a result, once only?

Definitely get an OEM or Chargespeed (spelling?) bumper. That thing is hideous.

iPhones, in my experience, have generally sucked with the V36 Bluetooth. Keeping in mind that as you update your iOS, you put yourself at risk of the Bluetooth playing up on you again. As for dialling from the vehicle's interface, look at the Japanese translation document thread stickied at the top in this discussion group.

Wise move. Always do your mods first and then tune.

If you're in Sydney, go to Tunehouse in Marrickville.

The nice kind.

Certainly is a thing but if you're an '09 model, you're OK. Mine is an '09 model too (built 12/2008) and ECUtek'ed.

What are you using to scan the codes?

Well, if the paperwork looks kosher, I guess that helps. What grade is it (e.g. 4B, 4A, 4R)?

Have you already cut a deal with these guys, placed a non-refundable deposit, etc? Looking through their very basic website, honestly, I wouldn't be inclined to do business with them. I smell a rat. Did you ask them for the Japan export/de-registration paperwork?

If a dealer has to do that, I'd be wondering about the dealer! Who are they, if you don't mind me asking?

The 19" rims complement these vehicles well, in terms of both aesthetics and the tyres having enough of a sidewall to not make it feel like you're driving a horse-drawn wagon, let alone looking like one. To that end, horses for courses. If it looks good to you, stick with it. I usually associate such mods to owners who abuse their vehicles, knowingly or otherwise. So hopefully you're not buying a shitbox. What I would be checking though is to see if they have used any crappy spacers between the hub and rim, what has been done to the suspension and if the overall circumference of the tyre hasn't significantly changed (as that will potentially render your speedometer highly inaccurate).

I suspect the asterisk for the Bluetooth name is an illegal character for Apple perhaps. I still haven't had the chance to go through the menus and determine where you can change the name back to my-car or whatever else you want to call it but that would be the first place I'd look for troubleshooting.

You're seeing about the same power as my vehicle. I know Jim from long ago when we both attended a MoTeC training seminar back in 2004. The guy knows his stuff. On my instruction, so no fault of his own, he got a little too aggressive with my tune the first time around and while it was a massively more responsive result, there was a bit too much pinging on hill starts for my liking (BP Ultimate 98) so I had him dial it out at the expense of losing that power off the line. It's actually more pleasant now off the line, as the pedal isn't as sensitive, so I'm not seemingly being a hoon at every set of lights. As noted in my own thread about dyno tuning this model, I don't feel that there's much to be gained in terms of power. Purely in my humble butt-dyno opinion. That's probably partly because it is JDM and already tuned for the supposedly better fuels that the Japanese sell their consumers. What I feel I really gained from the tune is better throttle response and the lack of a speed limiter. Is it worth the money? Honestly, I maintain my view that it isn't. I could've just stuck with the UpRev Osiris kit that I bought and remove the speed limiter for less. Your real gains will come from what the other guys have suggested here - pipes, etc. Maybe DashyyPC knows a little more about these vehicles and can extract that much more out of them for better value but I'm pretty happy to leave mine where it is now.

I had no idea our vehicles had a "root" button. To think all this time I was paying for it! Anyway, on a serious note, it seems that the Bluetooth ID of your vehicle has been overwritten by the previous owner (or yourself when sifting through the various settings). You can change that name again though I'm struggling to remember which submenu option it was in the Bluetooth menu. I'll get back to you on that.