HY51 Fuga Hybrid

[V35_Paul]

That light bar setup is nice  

[Duncan]

OK, looks like I'm done for now except for some properly sized tyres.

I've finished the install of the antenna, antenna splitter, usb 4g wifi and 4g mobile booster in the boot

Once the trim is back in, no sign of it all, other than the nice new bright boot lights

I added these lights in addition to changing the stock boot light to LED

Inside, I've installed the Greddy Informeter. It's hard to find a good spot for extra displays with interior designs but this works OK. I wired in another OBD port for it so the standard one is still available.  I've also installed a wireless charging phone cradle mount to the right of the steering wheel with USB power supply but no pics yet

Finally, all the LED swap overs are complete, the front exterior is all LED now except the headlights which were HID

[Duncan]

For reference of anyone else doing interior and exterior LED swaps (looks much more modern I think), bulbs locations and sizes are:

Interior (excluding vanity mirrors, cig lighter, rear ashtray light, glovebox light):

LH reading – ba9s

RH reading– ba9s 

LH footwell – T10 

LH footwell – T10 

RHF door – T10 

RHR door – T10 

LHF door – T10 

LHR door – T10 

Boot lamp – T10

 

For the exterior (headlights are HID 35w D2S, my side repeaters are sealed lights with T10 so I left them)

Front Parkers - 2x T10 with all around LEDs (not just end) mid length

Front indicators – 2x T20 orange, resistors required

Fog Lights - 2x H8 (white LED swap)

Rear indicators - 2x T20, resistors required

Reverse lights - 2x T10 with all around LEDs (not just end) mid length

License plate lights - 2x T10, must be short to fit housing

[Duncan]

Also for ease of reference, I measured up the rotors and pads while I was there.

Fronts are 320mm diameter, 28mm thick, 50mm high which makes them DB2308. DBA don't list them for the hybrid but they are listed for the VQ25 and VQ37 models

Rears are 308mm diameter, 17mm thick, 64mm high which makes them DB2313E. Again DBA don't list them for Fuga but the listing is there for Infiniti Q70 rear.

Front pads are DB1696, bendix don't list them as Fuga but they do list them for M35h Infiniti

Rear pads are DB1509, again bendix list them for M35h Infiniti not Fuga.

[sonicii]

^^ looks like they run the same brake setup as the series 2/3 V35, 05+ 350z Track and the later model Murano.

[Duncan]

Good to know the cross reference, thanks. Getting brake parts at short notice for weird nissan imports has been the bane of my life over the last decade...

I can also confirm the GF50 Cima ATTKD brakes I had don't fit; disc size and caliper offset is good, but the bolt spacing is miles off for the caliper  

[Duncan]

So, a couple of updates on the Fuga after 3 months' of driving.

Firstly, it has very much grown on me. The drivability around the hybrid features are a bit weird at first, but once you accept/ignore what it's actually doing instead of paying attention/thinking it through all the time, it works fine.  Fuel economy has been great for a full size sedan at about 15klm/litre (6.7l/100klm).

A couple of features I hadn't noticed initially but are good - the seatbelt has auto retraction which sounds minor or like you never needed it, but in practice it means it always holds properly when you sit down, and pulls out of the way cleanly which is nice.  Also, the headlights steer with the front wheels, I didn't really notice at first but as I've been doing more country road at night driving this time of year, it does make a difference.

One other unexpected plus, the hybrid works really well for a common use of the car for me.  I spend a lot of time travelling to and between clients, and that often means I am working or taking a meeting in the car.  With the hybrid you can leave the car on with AC etc running, and the petrol engine is off most of the time which makes it a much more pleasant work environment (often with the Cima on a hot day I'd have to leave it idling for long stretches to keep the interior cool and outside noise out while on meetings)

 

 

[Duncan]

A couple of issues too

The bluetooth sucks. It works fine, but you have to pair phone and audio separately, and it does not switch automatically between paired phones. So, if Kel has been driving and I jump in, I need to connect my phone for both phone and audio through the menus. I guess it was cutting edge in 2013 but today its a pain

Also (to my surprise!) the mid undertray is not positively affixed at the front. It is designed with 2 tabs that sit on the cross member, and 2 bolts at the rear. In theory that is all fine and it hasn't come out at speed, but I crossed the weir on the road home last week with about 250mm of water in it, the water got above the undertray and pulled it down, leaving me rolling around under the car on a cold dark night to try and free it up.  I will replace it but I'll work out a way to hold the front in place better (and remember that the Fuga can't go where the Titan can!)

In other unfortunate news, a youngish skippy made a bad life choice when I was driving out the other day. I did miss him the first time, but when he saw armco on the other side he turned around and came back. Skippy didn't make it and I have a new front bar coming overnight from japan (ok, 12 weeks by sea...). I've been lucky over the years down here, that is the first one I have hit.

[V35_Paul]

pair phone and audio separately was still happing in 2018 in my q60 👎

[sonicii]

That's weird, my Q50 doesn't seem to be like that, just pair the phone once and it works with audio and hands-free (including text messages).  I'm surprised the later Q60 has gone backwards there.

Wife's Murano seems to have the option to either pair the phone as audio and hands-free, or just audio alone.

[Duncan]

It's been a while since I updated this, but that is mostly because it's been doing exactly what it should with no issues. The car is a lot firmer than the Cima but still great on long drives, and fuel is 7.something average.

I've finally got the ECU tunable.  It was not on the supported ROM list for Uprev, but after a bit of a backlog and some back and forward it is now supported, and I bought a second license so I can get it tuned. It barely ran when I first reflashed it which had me pretty concerned, but after disconnecting the battery for a bit and doing the throttle relearning it has come up perfect. I also had a hybrid warning but that cleared after a couple of drives.

Next up when time allows, zorst and pods then that tune.. Probably won't make it faster or more fuel efficient, but it will sound better. There is really nothing off the shelf for these as the intake is quite different to the v37 skyline in front of the airboxes, and apparently no-one in japan buys a hybrid and puts a zorst on it. I am hoping generic VQ35HR headers do fit though, there is a bit of space down there.

[sonicii]

I'm a little surprised there was an option to tune the hybrid.  I thought the market was just too small and the difficulty of not just tuning an ECU, but the entire hybrid control system so it doesn't mess up the driveability.  The Hybrid power control system needs to have a fairly good idea of the power/torque curve of the ICE so transition to and from ICE as well as motor assist and battery charge, is smooth and unobtrusive.

They might also be a bit worried about the transmission as it is rated to 600Nm and with 547Nm in stock form, you don't have too much head room before extra work is needed there.

Anyway, how did it go?  much difference?

 

[Duncan]

No results yet, just loaded the base map (which I expect is the same as the stock map, copied 5 times into the 5 slots). Uprev did not previously support it but the ECU is the same series as pretty much everything Nissan since about 2005 so it can be reflashed by them, they just needed the factory ROM sent across to get it going.

I may well live to regret stuffing with this, but I'm pretty sure the petrol motor is just a petrol motor.

[Leroy Peterson]

Great thread!
I have no doubt these cars are tricky to get your head around. Being a grey import nissan AND a hybrid.

[AussieCossie]

Fantastic write-up mate, thanks for all your effort.

To introduce myself, I'm new to the forum but not to Skylines. I own 2 Prince Skylines 🙂, one restored during Covid lockdowns and the other still waiting for resto.

I've been seriously considering a Fuga Hybrid import direct from Japan and bought through a broker as it seems the best compromise between comfort, power & fuel economy. Most of my driving is in the Victorian countryside so your information is pretty much all I need to pull the trigger. However, the only thing that worries me is the cost of replacement high voltage batteries. I don't know if they can be refurbished but some of the info I've seen online suggests it's not a cheap exercise. Is this something you, or anyone else with a hybrid, has come across?

Cheers,

Andrew

[sonicii]

They are the same as the Q50 Hybrid drivetrain.  The HV battery pack is built from 12 separate modules, they can be replaced individually.  They are around $1.5k each, or if you want to buy the entire pack of 12 cells, you are looking at more like $12k.

I have seen 2nd hand HV battery packs on ebay for around $1.5-2k, but they are usually US based, so add another $500-1k for shipping.

I know many people mention it as a concern when considering one, but stories of actual failure are still fairly rare, I guess as they age, we will start to hear of more.

[Duncan]

I'm really happy with it as a zoom around the countryside car. Not a race car but it handles OK and goes well.

I was a little nervous about the battery thing too, but figured replacement is possible if necessary. I did get the car taken to a dealer before shipping to be checked out for any errors and HV system issues on the basis that it would be half the price to fix anything before it left. They said the batteries were in great condition, but of course who would know

Ultimately, it would be hard to tell if they weren't OK unless you were paying a lot of attention to how often it is in electric mode. It starts and stops pretty seamlessly so if a battery was dead and it did so 1/12th more often I'd never notice.

Incidentally, in the full EV Leaf this whole thing is much easier. There is software called Leafspy that reads the EV can and provides detail on the health of individual batteries, so you could get it checked before auction in about 2 minutes and have confidence in what you are getting

[Fijay]

Hi Duncan, I'm impressed with your thoroughness in explaining issues around FUGA 2013. Thank you.
I just got mine delivered today and would like to know how I can change the bloody Navi and Audio system to Englkish, please.
Bottomline, how did you go about converting yours please?
All help will be much appreciated. Thanks

[Duncan]

funny, 2 days after that last post I got nailed in the back entering the freeway, I am still waiting for the new rear bar to arrive and get it back on the road.

anyway, I did the xanavi upgrade from ebay. Everything was simple, plug and play English conversion. Probably the only thing not great is the English control buttons they provided are not a great match in colour/texture to the factory buttons, but of course you could keep the factory buttons if it worries you. Also, I lost the passenger mirror front parking camera in the conversion which is a shame 

A key thing for the fuga is that the head unit includes Australian maps, and one of the autonomous driving features gives a warning if you are a approaching a corner too fast. Obviously that doesn't work with the factory japanese maps.

Also, there are options to put in aftermarket head units eg Andriod. I've put one of them in my stagea and have found it excellent, however, for the fuga you might or would lose the hybrid monitoring and some other head unit based controls. I generally think Android is a better head unit than factory because you can run whatever apps you want, but I was not willing to lose the hybrid display features

I'm not sure if the english units are still available. The seller I brought from is shut https://www.ebay.com/str/xanavioemupgrades

[Fijay]

12 hours ago, Duncan said:

funny, 2 days after that last post I got nailed in the back entering the freeway, I am still waiting for the new rear bar to arrive and get it back on the road.

anyway, I did the xanavi upgrade from ebay. Everything was simple, plug and play English conversion. Probably the only thing not great is the English control buttons they provided are not a great match in colour/texture to the factory buttons, but of course you could keep the factory buttons if it worries you. Also, I lost the passenger mirror front parking camera in the conversion which is a shame 

A key thing for the fuga is that the head unit includes Australian maps, and one of the autonomous driving features gives a warning if you are a approaching a corner too fast. Obviously that doesn't work with the factory japanese maps.

Also, there are options to put in aftermarket head units eg Andriod. I've put one of them in my stagea and have found it excellent, however, for the fuga you might or would lose the hybrid monitoring and some other head unit based controls. I generally think Android is a better head unit than factory because you can run whatever apps you want, but I was not willing to lose the hybrid display features

I'm not sure if the english units are still available. The seller I brought from is shut https://www.ebay.com/str/xanavioemupgrades

Thanks Duncan for the reply.
However the link is not working anymore. Probably they have closed shops. It says Seller unavailable till 2030........😂