benro2

Simply for those who come across this thread in their searches... nothing more infuriating than finding what you're looking for, only with no answer or follow up! Especially since I couldn't find anything on this topic.. So yes, as it turns out, there is a device that will control both boost and fuel adjustments, amongst other stuff. It's the Haltech Platinum Interceptor and it's around $750. That sounds a bit pricey but when you consider the costs of a decent EBC and fuel adjustment, you're up for $750+ anyway. This is what the Haltech page says about it: The Platinum Interceptor is a totally new “piggy back” ECU designed to work in parallel with your existing factory ECU. The Platinum Interceptor provides tuning of fuel mixtures, ignition timing, boost levels and many other features. The Platinum Interceptor is installed using a universal type wiring loom and tuning is performed on a laptop with user friendly Interceptor software for Windows. As the Platinum Interceptor works with the factory ECU, you need only tune where necessary, maximising power whilst maintaining factory levels of economy, idle quality, cold start etc. Performance has never been achieved so quickly, easily and affordably. The Platinum Interceptor has been fully tested on many makes and models, with the range of supported vehicles constantly being expanded.

Sorry, forgot to follow up on this... yep, basically I just replaced the whole box that contains the 2 relays. Took me 5 mins to replace and worked like a charm straight away! Only downside: cost me $75 and the guy tried to charge me $100. I think I got ripped off? Nevertheless, I had to buy it on the spot as I really needed the car registered quickly and didn't have time to play around taking the relay box apart and waiting for relays to arrive from overseas Was also thankful that it wasn't the ABS pump - the parts guy said it would have been about $250-300. Also think that's a bit steep?

OK, you may have a point with the AFM voltage and fuel pump there, but I don't know how the ECU reacts if a fuel pump is failing. Also, judging from my last experience, my OEM pump just died suddenly, it didn't let go gradually. So I'm on my 2nd fuel pump, nothing fancy but not OEM, and that was probably 1.5 years ago, so it's highly unlikely to be the fuel pump itself failing. Don't forget, the AFM can't actually adjust the amount of air I'm receiving - all the ECU can do is try and richen the mixture, so if it's seeing what it thinks is too much air, it will try and add fuel. This is why it's running rich - it's seeing higher voltages (ie: what it thinks is more air), and adding extra fuel. Fuel pump relay: I had a short in the fuel system and this has been fixed. They would have found this at the time - the problem I am having now is something separate. I have already cleaned the IAC valve and AFM! Plugs were changed just before this happened. Coils are Splitfires and the series 2's run coil-on-plug ignition so no ignitor. There are no obvious air leaks but I'll leave that until last since it's so hard to check O2 sensor was replaced a while ago, I would say under 20k though, and it didn't make any diff to fuel consumption at all even though the original was > 100k old! I know some people say theirs are only good for 60k and they get heaps better fuel consumption as soon as they change it, but I keep a very close eye on my fuel economy and it didn't change at all The other stuff you said to check: Injectors/Injector Power Supply: I believe my injectors were flow tested about a year ago and they came back fine. Haven't looked at the injector power supply, might be worth keeping in mind. Fuel Filter: this was changed when I changed the fuel pump, about 1.5 yrs ago. Should be fine! Due to some family difficulties I haven't been able to take the car back to the autoelectrician's but in the meantime I was able to do a bit of testing of my own with the aid of my ECUTalk (damn that thing has come in handy!)... I think I must have some "bridged" (?) wires in the AFM circuit, as even when I disconnected the AFM plug I could see a voltage (sometimes) - maybe 0.1 - 0.2V . I also watched the voltage change anywhere from 0.2 - 0.6V while the car was off, but with ignition on and AFM plugged in. And as mentioned before, at idle it should be about 0.2 - 0.3V and I've seen up to about 0.6V. It probably goes a bit above this and at that point, the car stalls. Hopefully will get it looked at soon and will let you guys know what the problem was!

Yeah, just gotta find one first Taking the car back to the auto electrician's on monday (3rd time LOL) and he's gonna run some tests on my AFM. Hopefully he will be able to tell if it's stuffed or if it's the wiring somewhere. Yep, it could be this, however I would have thought AFM because of the increased voltage when the problem occurs. I don't think the fuel pump failing would cause a change in the AFM voltage...? And yes, when the fuel supply stops, so does the car I did it the other night in the Supra by accident when the tank was nearly empty - started boosting up a steep hill and suddenly my head nearly went through the windscreen! Fuel pickup must be near the front of the tank

Yep, I have heard that they're supposed to be one of the better/cheaper ones too, however MBC's are nowhere near as good as EBC's Yep, if you're on a very tight budget you can use them, but all you can really do with a stock computer is *maybe* run another 1 psi boost before you start getting R&R... and if you do hit R&R (easy in cold weather with an MBC) then you're going slower than before anyway! However, there is a way to reroute the pipes to bypass the stock solenoid so you're running ~10 psi - it's in a thread somewhere on these forums, Sydneykid details how to do it. This is the cheapest and most reliable way to do it - no boost controller required at all! The tuner I spoke to recently also said that the little ball in that Turbotech can get dirty pretty easily and when that happens it doesn't control boost properly anyway. So basically, if you're gonna push past 7.5 - 8 psi, budget about $700-800 (non-installed) for a decent EBC and FCD - or use a combined one like the Haltech Interceptor I mentioned, or something similar - and you can fine tune even more.

LOL, sounds very simlar to my problem! Have a look at my thread: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/360082-intermittent-fault-no-one-knows-what-it-is/ Does that sound like it? I have 3 suggestions: 1. Fuel pump on its way out. I replaced mine but it gave no warning it was going to go. It was driving just fine and then one night it just wouldn't start. Unlikely to be this. 2. Intermittent wire short which is cutting power to the fuel pump. I just had this fixed on mine. Eventually it started blowing fuses. The problem started out like yours but got worse - only thing is, I'm not sure if I actually had 2 separate problems to begin with - one like yours, and the other with the car stalling randomly - or whether one caused the other. The short turned out to be near the O2 sensor - the wires running near the little heat shield. Don't know if yours could be these too? 3. Air flow meter. I suspect mine is playing up. Have a read of my thread to see the symptoms. This may have been caused by problem 2. Let us know if/when you find the problem!

I found another clue! I think it's the AFM... The car did the same crap tonight. Only this time I'd been driving it for 2 mins, wasn't even up to temp. I was pulling away from the lights and as soon as I was in about 3rd gear I just lost pretty much all power. I held the throttle in the same position and the boost gauge was displaying 0 psi and crept up to 2 psi (pretty sure my foot didn't move). I didn't get any more power - in fact, I think the car was pretty much not accelerating at all! It was OK for most of the journey home on the M4 but just before I got home I jabbed the throttle slightly as this is what seems to set the problem off. I noticed that after I'd stopped the AFM voltage was about 1.2 - 1.3V (correct at idle), but then the car started dropping revs and almost stalled - but as it did this the AFM readout went up to around 1.8V. I couldn't see out the back of the car but apparently last time it did this it was blowing a lot of black smoke. So this leads me to believe that the AFM is telling the ECU it's running a lot more air than it really is which is richening up the mixture a LOT and killing power. Sounds about right? I actually replaced the AFM a while ago with another 2nd hand one and it was running fine for a long time. However, both this problem *and* the stalling problem (blowing fuses) happened around the same time. Is it possible there's still a short somewhere, or possibly the short from before has damaged the AFM? How can I test this? Also, would my broken injector duty cycle readout have anything to do with all this?

The only thing is, with those manual boost controllers, they vary a LOT with the weather. I think I've got the Turbotech on mine now (is it the blue one with the little ball + spring in it?) and it varies by about 3 psi from hottest to coldest weather. Whereas, if you run an EBC you can have it rock solid on your target boost no matter what the weather. I used to run the Jaycar EBC (never worked properly though, kept burning out a resistor, just like the DFA) and that used to hold 10 psi dead on in any weather. It's because it's linked to the injector duty cycle. That particular EBC also allows for a boost "curve" to be programed in, something that's not that common in many brand name EBC's. I don't mean just the ramp rate, I mean where you could conceivably run 10 psi from say 2-4k rpm, then 12 psi from 4-6k, then taper back down to 8 psi by 7k if you wanted. The only downside to the Jaycar EBC is that it's a bit hard to tune, in that you can't just say "run 10 psi max" and it'll do it - you have to program in a boost "map" - basically values that map to each injector duty cycle, but Sydneykid provided me with a base map that worked very well for 10 psi. The Hand Controller kit (lol, the only one of my kits that actually WORKS!) can be used to tune the EBC "live" so you can do some road tuning.

You are definitely hitting "R&R" (richen and retard). This is where the ECU is trying to protect itself by richening the mixture and retarding the ignition. It's because it's seeing too much airflow for what it thinks is safe for the car. As others have said, anything over about 8 psi will cause this. I have seen it happen on my own car (dead stock except for manual boost controller) and in the cold weather I run a bit over 7.5 psi and get the exact same issue. Same rpm range - I think because this must be the greatest volumetric efficiency of the engine (ie: it's flowing too much air more easily than at other rpm). The only ways to fix this are to either: 1. Restrict boost to < 7.5 psi, or 2. Run whatever boost you want (around 10 psi max on stock turbo or you will stuff it pretty quickly) and run a fuel adjuster. You can do this on-the-cheap with a Jaycar Digital Fuel Adjuster kit, but beware, unless you can either build it yourself with some level of confidence (ie: you've built a few kits before), or you can find a pre-built one, I'd steer clear of this option. I attempted this myself and never got it to work properly - and a lot of others on these forums have had bad luck with it too. If you can, budget say $500 for a brand-name fuel adjuster, like this Blitz "R-FIT" (Fuel Intensity Tracer). While I was at a performance workshop the other day, the tuner there told me about the Haltech Platinum Interceptor which is a piggyback ECU that can do both electronic boost control and fuel adjustment, amongst other things. He said they'd do it for about $700, and it's marked on Haltech's website for $799. This is actually a pretty good price considering what it does and that you'd be paying say $350-500 for an EBC and another $450-500 for a fuel adjuster. Food for thought!

Hey guys, this is kind of a last ditch effort to try and diagnose an intermittent problem I've been having for the last couple of weeks. It all started when I was having problems with the car stalling randomly. I was able to start the car again straight away, then one day it wouldn't start. Turned out to be a short in the wiring which was blowing the fuse to the fuel pump. Got that fixed, then I noticed another problem: After driving the car for about 20 mins, not hard or anything, mostly normally in 80km/h highway conditions, I noticed the idle speed dropping to about 500rpm for a few seconds, then returning to normal. After this started happening, I would have a partial loss of power for a few seconds, then would return to normal. A minute or two later, same thing, while accelerating lightly. Came to a stop, car idles fine for a while, then idle speed drops really low for a few seconds, then back to normal. I have had the car at the auto electrician for a few days now and he's brought in other people to have a look at it and no one can find what it is! Incidentally, I have an ECUTalk unit hooked up and the injector duty cycle doesn't work anymore. The rest of the display is fine, it's *just* the IDC, and obviously L/100km as this is calculated from IDC. This used to work before I took it to the auto electrician's, and he is aware of it and has been trying to fix it but with no luck. He did hook up his scan tool but I don't think it's talking to the ECU properly - however I was in the car the first time he did this and the IDC was displaying fine straight afterwards, so I doubt it's that. I know it's extremely hard to diagnose a car from a bit of text but am just hoping that someone out there may have had the same problem and happens to know what it may be? Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks for the all replies guys. Turned out the timing was way off. I have no idea how it got this way, but apparently it was about 15 deg advanced!! The ECU must have been compensating for it but the mechanic said he could hear bad pinging on WOT. I couldn't hear it because I wasn't listening for the right type of pinging, like the "tink tink" sound - he says on the RB25 it's more like a white noise (which I honestly didn't notice either, but anyways). So that's pretty much fixed all those issues I had, including the idling issues. However, I have another issue but that's for another thread...

Sorry for digging this thread out of the grave, but my car has just failed the e-Safety check due to the ABS light showing! I'm about to ring an auto-electrician to see what he can do. I would have had a crack at it myself but am at work and need to leave for Melbourne on Thurs (it's Monday today), so don't have time. Will let you guys know if it works!

Oh OK, that's interesting. What's it caused by, and is it there from factory when new? Is my slight misfiring problem related to this in any way? The engine was actually cold (35C) when I was doing this. This, I think, was part of the problem - I only got around 3L of water out of it! Apparently it's supposed to hold 8.6L!! I'm guessing that's because the water in the block couldn't be accessed due to the thermostat being cold, so I'd have to flush with hot water to keep it open? The reason why I was doing a flush/clean is because my temps were getting pretty high during summer - around 95C after going up a big, long hill - and even at idle they'd hover around 92C and stay there, whereas a couple of years ago the thermo fan would kick in at 92C, cool the car down to 87C, then cut out - like it's supposed to do. It seems now it can only hold it at 92C. Also, on some of the hottest days I've ever driven in, during one of my previous trips to Melbourne it would only reach around 89C on a huge long hill. Seems to be getting worse with time! I think it was a Nulon branded radiator flush. It's too early to tell if it's made any difference, but I would guess that if I've only gotten 1/3rd of the dirty water out, I don't think it would! I bled the system by squeezing the top radiator pipe with the radiator cap off, and gradually adding more water as the level dropped, until it wasn't dropping anymore. Is it possible there's still air in the system? AFAIK, there is no blue smoke from the exhaust, however last night after I'd been showing a friend the engine (just after resetting the ECU), it was idling roughly just as I started it. He said there was some smoke and although it was dark, I'd say it was just dark smoke due to a rich mixture. Are you thinking possible blown head gasket? I hope not! AFAIK it never blows any smoke other than in the above situation. Yes, I can drive it as normal once it's been warmed up for a few mins. I can give it WOT and it seems to have pretty much full power - possibly down a few kW but that's probably my mind playing tricks on me Are you thinking AFM plug or something has been disconnected? I've already checked that and all the surrounding pipes - they all seem to be fine! I haven't plugged in the ECUTalk to a laptop, if that's what you mean by self diagnostics? The ECUTalk itself is supposed to pick up error codes and so far nothing has turned up - incidentally, this is the original reason why I bought the ECUTalk in the first place, but I've never seen any error codes appear! As you can see, the unit claims to read ECU error codes: http://www.ecutalk.com/consultlcd/userguide.pdf Thanks for the replies guys! Please keep the ideas coming

Hey guys, last weekend I changed the spark plugs and did a radiator flush myself - and unless this is a massive coincidence - I think I may have stuffed something somewhere. Here are the problems: 1. When car is below normal operating temp, randomly the engine will idle really roughly, almost like it's on 5 cylinders (could be but doesn't seem quite *that* rough) then return to normal. It will also run REALLY low timing (like 0 deg BTDC) on even light throttle, even in a low gear - seemingly after I've given it a bit of throttle just beforehand. Returns to normal at random times, or when the car is up to operating temp (I think). Just tonight I was driving in between a couple of walls at very low speeds on like 5% throttle and I could hear random pinging, say 2-3 pings per sec - quite sure this wasn't happening at all before. 2. When my ECUTalk indicates I'm at 80C water temp, for the first 5-10 mins after this it'll boost to 7-8 psi (I have a manual boost controller fitted but everything else is dead stock) but I will get almost no power. I actually saw the ECUTalk indicate 3-4 deg *after* TDC! Feels like I've hit a wall - absolutely bugger all acceleration! 3. When car has been up to temp for 5-10 mins it all seems OK, however it seems like if I fang it around a bit, after I start driving normally again the car will either stall or start acting really weirdly - like fluctuating between 500 rpm idle then up to 1500 rpm, etc. If it stalls I can just start it straight back up again. WTF is going on!? All of this only started *after* I changed the plugs and flushed the radiator! One thing though, I had a bit of trouble changing the plugs so I had to take the large air intake pipe off that runs over the top of the engine and a few others around it. I've made sure they're all reconnected but it was a bit of a job getting the big one on - it looks like it's on properly but is it possible it's not? Surely that wouldn't cause problems like this? Edit: oh yeah, this could be it (I hope not) - when trying to get the new plug in that sits directly under the large air pipe, I accidentally cracked the white brittle insulation and had to take the plug out. Obviously before I did this I picked out all the pieces and then got the vacuum cleaner out to get all the small bits. It is possible, however, that I didn't get some of the really small bits, and these may have fallen into the cylinder. I was really careful to ensure this didn't happen, but possibly my eyes just aren't that good Would something that tiny be able to cause problems like this? Oh, and of course, I threw away that plug and put another new one in Some notes: - Car is auto S2 R33 GTS-T, stock everything apart from Turbosmart (?) manual boost controller set to 7.5 psi. - Car was in gear when it stalled. Was luckily in a car park and it just died without warning. All electricals were fine and I just restarted, no probs. - Also running a turbo timer which has some loose wires. They have been loose for a long time and all I've ever seen this do is turn off the turbo timer itself, never the engine! Last night I fixed it in another position that has less stress on the wires, yet all the above problems have happened since then, so I doubt this has anything to do with it. - I've just reset the ECU but nothing changed. - Plugs are copper NGK heat range 6 gapped at 0.9mm. Previously they were around 0.8mm but I can't recall which heat range - but pretty sure they would have also been 6. - Running Splitfire coilpacks, only a few months old. - Replaced CAS recently (with 2nd hand unit), didn't touch when changing the plugs. - AFM was cleaned recently, also didn't touch. - Slight misfiring at idle. This was happening before all these problems above. If I stand at the back of the car to the side of the exhaust pipe I can hear slight "bassy" pops. Not sure if these are actually "misfires" or not but doesn't sound right. With the old plugs, with the A/C off, it was pretty bad and you could feel it in the idle. With the A/C on you can hear it from the exhaust but not feel it, except for one every few seconds or so, usually after the A/C compressor has turned off or something. To me, it seems like an ECU or some signal corruption or electrical fault. It seems like the ECU is detecting some bad pinging or something and retarding the ignition as a result. Is it possible this is still happening at idle so it retards the ignition so much that the car stalls? Any ideas?

OK, this post is more for when people do a search and curse when the problem's been fixed with no solution provided! So yep, my car is FINALLY running back to normal now!! These were all the things I had to fix, in the order I fixed them in, and what the symptoms were: - VVT solenoid blown: replaced, picked up a small amount of torque below say 2000 - 2500 rpm. Almost undetectable if you didn't know any better. - Replaced ECU: strangely, just the part that controls the VVT solenoid was fried. Had to replace the whole ECU. Done at the same time as VVT solenoid so I guess this is really what made the bottom end torque reappear. - Splitfire coilpacks: stopped misfiring at idle and at high revs. Tried a second set of OEMs, but these had the same problems as my originals - spark must have been escaping out the sides. Tried siliconing up the gaps and tried every combination of coils between cylinders, no difference. Only solution here was new coils and Splitfires were availabe for < $500 shipped from Nengun. - Replaced Cam Angle Sensor (CAS): this was responsible for strange behaviour when the car was warming up. As described in some of my other posts, when the water temp reached 30C the car would suddenly lose about half power (on a light throttle) and timing would retard severely. Timing would pick up again at around 70C. Obviously had to check timing after replacing but was already dead on. Picked this up for about $130 2nd hand off Ebay, but I'd make sure you have a DOA warranty and don't buy 2nd hand off a private buyer, as you cannot fix the CAS (AFAIK) and I really tried to pull it apart but it just wouldn't New are around $650 (!) so I figured I could buy 5 or 6 2nd hand ones for the price of that, and *surely* one would be OK! Luckily, the first one I bought was fine - Cleaned AAC valve: before I cleaned this, the car was sometimes hard to start (particularly in cold weather) and was dropping too many revs when changing the gear lever from "N" to "D" (it's an auto!), so the car would "shudder" for a second while the revs dropped to ~500 rpm. Generally wasn't behaving normally around idle and when I tried to drop the idle speed to 650 rpm the car would misfire badly. As soon as I cleaned this, the idle speed picked up a couple of hundred rpm and the car shudders a lot less when changing from "N" to "D", although it still does happen slightly - but I think that possibly the car may have done this even when new. Either that or I didn't clean the AAC valve well enough I'm satisfied with it for now, although idle revs are hanging around 750-800rpm and I can't seem to get them to drop any lower, but I'm not too worried about that for now. - Cleaned AFM and replaced K&N panel filter with paper filter: at this point I still had some slight "surging" on and off power under 5+ psi boost up a steep hill in top gear, much like R&R. Found out that you can NEVER run any kind of filter that requires oiling to be cleaned when you're running a hotwire AFM (ie: stock Skyline AFM) as the oil will eventually coat the wire and cause false signal readings. This happens even when it's been oiled properly (ie: not drenched in oil as once happened to me which required another 2nd hand AFM!). Cleaned the AFM with some AFM cleaner (yes, I was shocked that they actually *make* cleaners specifically for this too!) and went back to a paper filter to ensure it doesn't happen again. Apparently there are aftermarket panel filters (non-paper) that don't require oiling but usually these are harder to come by and much more expensive, so I didn't bother. I have not noticed one tiny loss of power at all. - Reset ECU: this was the final touch. I noticed that the timing *appeared* to pick up slightly under a lot of light throttle situations and the car felt more responsive. I say "appeared" because it's quite hard to watch the timing under particular conditions and drive at the same time However, I can tell that resetting the ECU definitely changed the way the car drove from the seat-of-the-pants feel. Only two remaining problems but I can live with them for now: 1. Idle speed is 150-200 rpm too high and cannot seem to lower it. Could be a split air hose, and I've heard that the ECU has an idle fine tuner on it, although I've also heard that the series 2 AFM's don't have this anymore. Haven't had a look on mine yet. I doubt this will help as I think it only has a max range of 250 rpm or so. 2. Slight misfiring at idle still. Could be dirty plugs and/or incorrect gapping, although I'm sure my gapping is correct as I made sure I researched this properly before replacing the plugs last time. Seems to happen when the A/C compressor turns on after idling for a few seconds after rolling to a stop. Only happens once every 30 secs or so on average. (3. This may not be a problem, but timing is quite low at 50%+ throttle under 3000rpm. This is quite possibly just how the stock ECU behaves. I've seen it drop to as little as 8 deg BTDC @ 3000rpm in top gear @ 5-7 psi. However, the car seems to feel like it used to (when it wasn't broken!) under the same conditions, so I'm not going to call this a problem just yet, unless someone can confirm the correct timing under these conditions!) Hope this is of help to someone! It's taken me a LONG time to diagnose and the car is a LOT better to drive than before. Overall I'd say it's using about 20-25% less fuel than before I started replacing parts too. I keep close tabs on fuel consumption via my ECUTalk box and after I replaced the VVT solenoid and ECU I was using about 10-15% less. Replacing the CAS accounted for the other 10-15%. The AAC valve, cleaned AFM and reset ECU didn't really make any detectable difference. The car is MUCH more responsive on light throttle and doesn't feel sluggish like it used to. I also noticed a slight change in engine note too, slightly more "growly", I suspect from running more advanced timing. Interestingly, I had replaced the O2 sensor prior to the first item on this list thinking that it would solve all my problems and it didn't make one tiny bit of difference! At that stage the car had done roughly 130k km, and I bought the car at 49k km. Supposedly they're only good for 60k and I'd done 80k at that stage. The readout on the ECUTalk didn't change at all, and fuel consumption didn't change at all. It was a bit of a pain to do so I'd leave this one until last!

I don't see how the car could be tuned with a dodgy CAS. It's too random to be able to tune "around" it. It's not like it just pulls out a set amount of timing, it's all over the place. I also cleaned my AAC valve on the weekend and it didn't fix my timing issue (which I was 99% sure about) but it has improved the idle somewhat. Didn't work miracles like some people have said, but maybe mine wasn't that dirty to begin with. I also may not have cleaned it as well as I could, but I did give it a damn good clean with carby cleaner and a LOT of carbon came out! I did notice that the car starts a lot easier now too! Worth giving it a go if you haven't already. From what you've said it's almost definitely the CAS but can't hurt to eliminate all possibilities.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but did you ever discover what was causing the problem? I had similar problems to you and it turned out to be the Cam Angle Sensor (CAS). Picked up a 2nd hand one off ebay for $150, brand new they're more like $650. It can be a bit of a risk getting a 2nd hand one, but I bought mine off a parts place who said I had a 7-day DOA warranty. It's pretty easy to fit, just make sure you line up the markings with the old one so you don't stuff up your timing. I did it myself and managed to get the timing spot on, made a HUGE difference to how the car drives. Unfortunately mine is still pulling some timing when the water temp reaches 75C but I believe it is unrelated, probably the knock sensors or something. Just about to clean the AAC valve - will let you know if that makes any diff!

OK I've done a 180 and am now looking at going with 18's I've decided to also lower the car as I've recently discovered I'm getting bad tyre wear on the inside 5cm of my right rear tyre. I'm going with Sydneykid's suspension package, probably the whole thing minus springs as he reckons I won't need the Whitelines. May as well keep the car a bit longer then So I'm looking at some Rota Torque Drifts in 18 x 9.5 with +30 or +35mm offset and 245/35 tyres all round but I'm unsure if these will fit without guard mods? And if they do, what's the lowest I can go wheel-to-guard before guard mods are required? Keeping in mind my car is Charcoal, what colour would look best? I'm thinking either Gunmetal or Steel Gray. Have a look here: http://www.rotawheels.com/wheels.asp?wheelid=45 The reason why I'm going for 9.5's is because I want the fat "concave" look so will a +30 or +35mm offset still show this? I basically want it to look like the GTR below (18 x 9.5's in Gunmetal), however I think he said somewhere in the thread it was +20 so will 15mm really make that much difference to the "concave" look?

Thanks for the tip, I guess I will be BTW, is the IAC valve the same thing as the AAC valve? ECU should be fine as it's just been replaced (2nd hand of course). STILL haven't reset it, keep on forgetting! Will have to do that next weekend. I've checked the timing and it was dead on. The sticker inside my bonnet says 15 deg BTDC - which I presume is for when it's in N - and I can see that the timing increases by 5 deg when it's in D. When I drop idle revs in N to 650 rpm I do get 15 deg BTDC, and in D it goes up to 20 deg. Sounds like I'll have to check this AAC valve though! I remember reading aaages ago that the AAC valve may be blocked if the car picks up and drops revs, kind of like when the steering wheel is turned when stopped. It doesn't really seem to do this, and come to think of it, last time I had it in the garage I *think* the mechanic said he cleaned the AAC valve - will have to check this too. Anyone agree that it may be the plugs still? Will have to check both though by the sounds of it...

OK, a small update for those who are interested (probably nobody )... First of all, the CAS (*cam* angle sensor, *not* crank) FINALLY fixed most of my problems - at least the major ones! As soon as I put that in the car was MUCH more responsive, just like it's supposed to be! I haven't reset the ECU but I will do this shortly when I think of it. Seems fine anyway. Secondly, I am having slight misfire problems at idle when I try to lower the idle speed to 650 rpm. I am thinking this is probably to do with incorrect spark plug gapping and/or fouled plugs from running too much boost in winter, plus from my aforementioned problems. The plugs probably haven't done any more than 5000 km, and they're just regular plugs, nothing like platinum or anything. I can't remember the gapping, but if I'm planning on running 10 psi boost in the near future, what should I gap them to? So, when the idle speed is set to 850-900 rpm or so, the misfiring problem goes away, however when I put the car in D the revs have a long way to drop, and they actually drop to nearly 500 rpm for a second before climbing back to 700-750 rpm, and it's pretty rough and kinda annoying. When I tried idling at 650 rpm in N, when I put it back into D it was a smoother transition, probably because the revs didn't have as far to drop? Also, idle speed in D was pretty low, probably 550-600 rpm, so I had to adjust it back up to 850-900 rpm in N. At these revs, the timing is usually sitting at either dead on 0 deg BTDC or somewhere jumping between 0 and 10 deg. When I lower it to 650 rpm the timing is dead on 15 deg, and in D it's always dead on 20 deg. Do all these things point to the plugs or could there be something else? Also, one thing that was new to me that's quite interesting regarding the thermo fan "mod" I was going to do in summer: it's not just an overheat protection fan, it *does* come on when the A/C compressor comes on, but only when needed! I'm guessing it's some kind of pressure switch, as on a fairly cool day it would take ~30 secs for the thermo fan to switch on (engine temp was ~60C which I how I knew it's not just an overheat fan) after the A/C compressor turned on, versus a 38C day where it took closer to 20 secs. So, no need to do this mod anymore! Would Nissan have done this for fuel savings or something? Anyway, overall I'm now very happy with how the car is running - just need to get this idling problem ironed out and then I'll be able to rest

Thanks for the reply. I think if I go with Kinks' solution I shouldn't have those issues anyway! Very helpful to know though LOL, true dat! I'm a big believer of getting it right first time But yeah, I am incredibly anal about stuff that's either being used like it shouldn't (ie: using the wrong tool for the job) or stuff that doesn't work properly (like scrubbing guards)! Good to hear. I'll just leave it at 360mm and see how it looks I guess! I'm quite like my current suspension setup (LOL would be embarrassing if it did turn out to be stock! ) so I'd like to keep it how it is, if I can. Sorry about this, I just wasn't paying attention and should have reread the entire thread before posting! I did see your post a few days ago (and actually saved the pics to my HD) but forgot that it was the same person replying! Well, I think my mind has just been made up to go with the 255/40R17's on the rear - I've been looking at getting the Continental ExtremeContact DW's from tirerack.com and it turns out they don't make that in a 245/40R17 anyway Which leads my to my next question - has anyone tried these out and how many km's did you get out of them, and what type of driving were they used for? I have been told that since it's such a high performance tyre, the compound is so soft that I'm unlikely to get much more than 5-10k km out of them, even with regular everyday driving. I'm still deciding if that's acceptable or not, but looking at the prices of the (hopefully) better wearing SportContact 2 (or 3, or anything else in that class), it seems like the best option...? Nice. Will see how the GTR rims go first then look at doing that shortly after! Now, where are some cheap, good condition GTR rims?

They look really nice - do they scrub? They look awfully close to the guards! Also, how are Rota for quality? I came across those the other night during my searches and checked some of their weights - not bad! They also say they've been going for a few years now too. OK, so to be clear here, with your 10mm ride height drop all round, without a camber kit, it's all good, but lowering any further will result in scrubbing? Also, do you still clear all speed bumps and driveways without any troubles? Mine does right now but I've noticed that the stops they put at the end of car spots are *just* under my front bar now, so even a 10mm drop will likely make it start to hit - another reason why I'd like to keep it at stock height! Are you on 18's? I was considering these but I though I would have to lower the car too much to get it to "sit right", whereas on 17's I figured that I could leave it at stock height and it should look OK? Do you have any pics of your car, preferably side on? Yep, 245/40 isn't right. 235's are much closer. Not sure about availability, haven't looked yet! I've found the 255/35R18's are very expensive and hard to find, but 245/35 or 265/30 are much easier to find and cheaper. Are both your tyre sizes readily available and cheap? Also, how is tyre wear? Is it fairly even front/rear and across each tyre? I have found mine to be pretty taily in the wet, but I thought it was purely the crappy tyres (BF Goodrich, probably 30% tread left). How does yours grip in the wet? I didn't want to increase width too much because of tramlining/aquaplaning. I've had my car for > 5 years now and it's still pretty much bone stock, however I'm not sure if the shocks are stock or not (I could probably just stick a camera under there and post the pics up - which I may do sometime in the future ) - but I don't think they are, as I have read in multiple places that the stock shocks are only good for 60-80k. I bought my car with an indicated 49k on it (pretty sure it was wound back although 2 different garages thought they were genuine) and it's now almost hit 134k and the shocks are still just as stiff as when I first got the car! If I push down on the car it simply returns back to the original height, no bouncing whatsoever. It's quite stiff, and not that comfortable, even on 16's, which is another reason why I think they may be aftermarket. So with this in mind, if I were to go with 18's, and if you think that I need to drop ride height by a few mm to make it sit right, would it stuff the shocks if I just used lowering springs? I'm really getting wheels more for if I wanted to sell the car, which I will most likely do before these next set of tyres run out, so I am really trying to do this on the cheap, while avoiding the typical Tempe Tyre crap that will only make ride/handling/grip worse. Those Rotas that ssxRicho mentioned look really nice but I just think that 17's will look too small, and 18's will make the car appear to sit too high. After doing a LOT of research the other night I kinda gave up on getting aftermarket wheels at all, but if I can go 18's with a small drop in ride height for cheap, with cheap but good quality wheels (Rota or Speedy?), I would reconsider. One more thing: when going from 16's to 18's, did you notice less lean in the corners? My car seems to roll a bit in corners but I'm not sure if it's due to the high profile tyres or needing stiffer sway bars! This is one other thing I'd like to fix. Thanks to everyone for their replies!

Oh yeah sorry about that, wasn't paying attention to your reply I've got a friend who has these wheels, I'm gonna try a test fit if I can. Alternatively, are there any other 17 x 9's out there that fit better that are cheap, good quality, and look half decent? Any suggs?

Hmmm. I'd like to stick with the 245/40R17 just so I get the outer rolling diameter fairly close to stock. So if I leave mine at stock height, you're saying the front guards are fine, but I'll just need to roll the rear guards? And would I need to completely roll them or just into a "V" shape so they retain most of their strength? I have someone who can do that for me so it's not too much of a problem. I wouldn't do it if I had to lose the inner guards though.

Yeah it does! Weird they did it like that, but I spose it makes sense for people who get worried when the needle moves up 1mm when it's a couple of degrees hotter (like my granny ). It would be all over the place otherwise, so I can see why they did it. Would you be able to let me know how this turns out? I would be very interested. I'm sure it's possible, I think it shouldn't be to hard for an auto electrician. I'll ask mine when he comes round next time and let you know.