nagasakihacky

Yeah, mine's a pm35 RWD. That's why it's getting critical. I can hardly keep up with most vans around corners in the wet now

I'm in Auckland, New Zealand, so postage might be the killer, but would still be interested as I looked into bars a while back and couldn't find anything locally. Didn't know there z33 bars fit though

Sweet - I'll look into those options and see what's available. Really want to try and get on top of the body roll

Does that stretch as far as sway bars? I'm struggling to find anything for RWD stageas

Cheers guys - think I'll look into some swaybars and see what I can find

Is PM35 suspension same as M35? I've got a 2005 350RX and whilst it never handled like a go-kart, over the past year it's turned into a jelly boat - more body roll than the Michelin man and I'm getting wear on both shoulders of the rear tyres. Was under it the other day to change belts and brake rotors and it looks like the chassis end bush on the ??compression rod?? is torn on both sides, and the sway bar mount bushes are a bit knackered. I'm thinking it's time to swap the old rubber bushes out for urethane ones, but a bit lost trying to find part numbers. Does anyone know if the suspension is the same as the RWD 2.5L's? Are there aftermarket sway bars that would fit? I'm not really keen to lower since I regularly need the ground clearance getting in and out of a couple of driveways, but something needs to be done to reduce the body roll. BTW, I'm in NZ, but assuming that even if stuff isn't available locally, I should be able to get most stuff shipped across the ditch if necessary - just gotta figure out what to get!

I realise it probably seems a little analysis retentive, but yeah, I've already been doing that for the past 6 months or so. 10.5L/100km is the best I've got and that was on a long road trip, all open road, not driving hard, mostly just sitting at 110kph (by GPS so close to 120 on the speedo). Around 180km of open road driving plus the rest around town gets 14-15L/100km and all around town is anywhere from 15-18L/100km. That's consistent across multiple full tanks for each case. I also doubted how accurate the ob-link would be for fuel consumption (I don't have the on board thing since my screen has never worked), but so far it's matched what I put in when I fill up pretty much exactly. Just realised it's actually +5% that the a/f correct is stuck on, not -5%, so if the sensors reading that and it's not just the ob-link stuffing up, then it probably is running a bit rich on that bank. To be perfectly honest, I can wear the high fuel consumption, but it just doesn't feel as smooth or responsive as it used to. I remember when I first got it being impressed by just how smooth and responsive it was.

Interesting to hear - I'm just a bit surprised that they are so thirsty. Mine's RWD only, yet driven like a granny it seems to use significantly less than my mates RS Four driven fairly hard. Also, a friend of mine had a 350GT skyline which got better mileage than my motorway mileage around town. I realise a skyline is a little more aerodynamic than a stagea, but in terms of weight (which should matter more around town), the stagea is only around 100-150kg heavier. He no longer has the car, so I've not been able to check, but perhaps it had the HR version of the VQ. Maybe it wouldn't seem so bad if I'd moved from a ford or a holden (although I'm pretty sure my mate gets better mileage from the 3.6L commodore), but coming from a twin turbo subbie, it seems thirsty as hell. I'm not getting rid of it though, so just thought I should be sure that it's not just my car.

I will give switching the sensors over a go if they're the same plug for both sides, but unless the software is the problem I think it is probably a bad sensor. I think the A/F learn is probably the long term one, which I imagine is more to do with the downstream sensor, but I can't be sure. Assuming I don't destroy the sensors removing them then swapping banks should answer everything.

Air filter still looks near new, but I'll try replacing it and I had a look at the spark plugs a while back and they also looked good, though again, I'll probably try and swap them soon to see if there's any difference. I would have thought even if the O2 sensor is only used at constant speed or idle that could have a pretty major influence on fuel consumption, since that would surely set the baseline of the fuel mixture from which any further adjustments would be made. My understanding was that the O2 sensors were really the primary input for adjusting the fuel map since switching to wideband sensors and that MAF was only to find your place in the fuel map, though I'm no mechanic. The OB-LINK just shows a small bar graph that swings left and right with the current percentage showing above. Based on the readings, I think it's showing the adjustment from 100% since it swings between -10 and +10% usually - I've not seen it go outside +/-15%. A/F correct 1 seems to jump around a bit depending on what you are doing with the throttle, whereas bank 2 reads -5% no matter what. There is also a similar display for A/F Learn 1 and 2, which I assume are probably the post cat sensors. What do your sensors read in your software, and what is your fuel consumption like?

Hi, I've owned a 2005 350RX Stagea for almost a year now and I'm finding that it seems to be using more fuel than it used to, and generally feels a little less responsive and less smooth. I'm somewhat open to the idea that it's all in my head, but while I can get up to around 10-11km/L on the motorway, around town I tend to get more like 6-7km/L and that's going very easy on the loud pedal in both cases. 10-11km/L would be strictly motorway driving. I just did a 1000km trip on the open road, and throwing in a few corners and a handful of 50kph zones through towns and that averaged out to just over 9km/L I bought an OB-LINK a while back and have been using that to try and track if it was something to do with my driving style, but it seems like it just likes to suck fuel if you're doing anything other than sitting at a constant speed on the motorway. What I noticed this morning though, was the meter for "A/F correct 1" and "A/F correct 2". I assume these are the two banks, but while A/F correct 1 jumps around a fair bit as you accelerate and decelerate, A/F correct 2, seems to spend 99% of the time at 5%, with very occasional jumps to 10%. I'm not entirely sure what the percentages are supposed to be, and I haven't got any error codes, but I'm wondering if this could point to a problem with the bank 2 O2 sensor? The car has never felt like it's misfired, but there have definitely been times when it's felt like it's running rough. Do these sensors fail in this way or are they either going or not? Any suggestions? Cheers, Tony

Not sure. It's all good here in NZ, and having got used to it in my wife's car, I find it a real hassle having to thread the seatbelt through the seat each time I take it in and out in my car. I can't begin to understand why it was ever illegal in Australia given how much easier it makes it to install a carseat correctly and safely. Even done properly, I can't get the car seat close to as rigidly held in my car in 15 minutes as I can in the wife's car in about 30 seconds.

Whoops - forgot I posted this last year! I do mean child restraint anchor points - specifically the ISOFIX points that can be used instead of a seatbelt to fasten the child seat to. Still keen to hear if anyone has these fitted in their car

Not even 100% sure they exist, but there was some mention of not being able to use them in Australia in a thread I read a while back. My car doesn't have them but there are threading mounting holes for it at either side in the crack of the rear seat. I live in NZ where you can use them and they are damn convenient for swapping the car seat between cars. Not sure what I'm willing to pay (obviously less than a second decent baby seat), but if you're looking for some weight saving removing some unused steel haha and want to make a buck hit me back! If you're in NZ even better, otherwise we can work something including just sending to my mate in Sydney so he can hand carry on his next visit