mad082

not too many cars that will do the job that well in that price range. early model patrols or landcruisers will do it ok (go petrol not diesel though), otherwise v8 falcon or commodore. the 6's will tow it as well, but not as well as the v8.

the new wrx's are growing on me. a mates sister bought a new wrx in the typical blue and my mate says it has plenty of go (and this is from a guy with a supercharged altezza and 2 sprinters - one 4age and one sr20det), so he isn't comparing it to a commodore or anything like that, LOL. i actually think that even if i had the money, i would get a new sti or evo x over the new gtr. sure the new gtr may be fast, but even if i had plenty of money i wouldn't want to be paying the equvilant of a new wrx everytime i had to get a service done, LOL.

that's all well and good if you are the only shop in town, but if you are one of 4 or 5 shops selling the same stuff, not stocking the cheaper stuff is a sure fire way to go out of business very quickly.

i can't see the thread as i'm not a member. can you take a screen shot for me? but sounds like it. had stock shitty looking wheels. actually i have a pic of him on a skid pan.....

no don't know his username, and could find out a mod list. things i know off the top of my head are: twin throttle body 3" exhaust locked diff lightened flywheel button clutch rb26 oil pump (i think) 750cc injectors then there was something about boring out the oil channels in the crank to allow greater oil flow. and i'm pretty sure it made around 170kw with the exhaust dropped off at the cat. i was at a dyno comp on a hot day when it made just over 140kw., which was only about 15kw less than a vl turbo on 9psi that went on after it, LOL. but as i said, reliability was an issue, and he rebuilt it quite a few times. he used to take it to the drags all the time, and in burnout comps. certainly wasn't a daily driver (the fuel economy was really really really bad).

i don't think that i can agree with this statement. i think you are being offensive to camry's. they are much better looking cars than r33 sedans.

that still comes down to the consumer. the retaillers could stock the aussie made stuff (and a lot do) but people won't buy it because sitting next to it is an item for 1/3 the price. and as other people's posts have clearly stated, the average consumer doesn't give a shit about where it's made or the effect on the economy they are having, as long as the item they are buying at this particular moment is the cheapest possible. also there are certain industries where there simply isn't any australian made products.

if you were to lose your job because your boss couldn't continue to pay you because of too many people buying from overseas you would very quickly care about it. and it can affect you much more indirectly than that. say you live in a town that has a high retail economy but you work for a builder and people start buying more and more stuff from overseas. eventually there will be lots of people who are unemployed, and not many unemployed people can afford to build new houses, so your boss lays you off. that is the big thing. at the end of the day, where you spend your money affects your job security, because the more you spend in your local area the more local people are employed. and the more local people are employed the more money they have to spend at your work, keeping you in a job and even possibly leading to you getting paid more. you can't just look at it as "i'll do what helps me the most right now". the other thing you have to take into account with buying stuff from overseas is that often the warranty is void or can only be dealt with with the person you bought it off. i prefer to buy from somewhere that if something is wrong i can simply walk back in and get them to sort it out. i don't have to rely on emails to hopefully get it sorted out. how many people do you hear of having issues where their emails aren't being replied to? lots. but hey, it's your money, you can do what you want with it. just thought that i would post up some information to give people an idea of why prices can be the way they are so that people don't just automatically think that it is the retailer ripping them off. also i should mention that the reason why a lot of places are cheaper online than actual stores is various reasons. 1 is that some of them are operating as the middle man. they don't carry any stock. you want something, they order it and send it straight to you. this dramitcally cuts down their running costs. another reason is that some see it as 'bonus income'. they are selling to customers that wouldn't come into their store due to living in different areas, etc, so they will sell it cheaper online than what they do instore. and yet another reason is that they are buying it in bulk due to the extra sales that they are getting online. and as i said earlier, bulk buys usually attract a discount.

i love the fact that so many people are missinformed about how damaging to the economy privately importing products are. privately importing stuff has a massive effect on the economy when it is done on a large scale (by that i mean lots of people doing it). i will explain a few things that happen on the wholesale side of things. if the australian distributor isn't owned by the parent company they may be required to pay a large amount just to become the distributor. for example i know of a bike company whose previous distributor was closing down, and the asking price for anyone wanting to be the new supplier was $100,000. that was before they even ordered a single item. then there is the cost that australian suppliers have to pay for the stock. they have to buy it at a higher cost that what the parent company does (so that the parent company is making money from the sales too). this means that even if the same mark up was used the price that the end customer pays is already higher due to the higher buy price to start with. also the fact of freight comes into it. while the cost per item will be less than if you buy a single item, shipping still costs a hell of a lot for a container, where as if something is japanese made, then they only have to ship it an extremely short distance (relatively speaking). then there is import duty and GST. this immediately adds 15.5% onto the price. and the fact that all retailers and wholesalers work or a percentage mark up, if you alter the initial cost price by $1, the final retail price may be altered by anywhere from $3 to $10 in extremely marked up items. now is when the consumer starts affecting things. while buying the product there will often be cases where the more you buy, the cheaper it gets. there will also be minimum quantity buys as well, and sometimes they will be forced to buy other products as well which they know aren't going to sell very well but they still have to pay for them. where the consumer affects this is with the quantity side of things, which i will go into more detail. it costs a set amount to run a warehouse. you have to pay rent, running costs (electricity, etc), staff and all that sort of stuff. most people who haven't been in business don't realise just how much it costs, and how much you have to sell to make your basic running costs. for example i have a shop that is about 10m x 15m, and it costs me $2500 a month in rent. to make enough profit to pay that, with my profit margin i have to sell about $7500 worth of stock, and that is just to pay 1 single bill. if i was to employ 2 staff full time that would be another $20,000 a month i would have to sell just to make enough profit to pay them. it isn't just a case of sell $2500 worth of stuff to pay the rent. yes that does give you the money in the bank to pay the rent, but you also have to replace the stock you sold. now if you aren't selling many items you need to make lots of profit per item to meet your basic running costs. if you are selling lots of stuff and are making good money, but are starting to lose sales to a better priced item, you can lower your mark up to get more sales and thus you will still be make as much money at the end of the day. this is where the population also comes into play. australia has a population of 20 million. japan has a population of about 120 million. therefore all the above mentioned costs are spread over a much larger customer base. plus the fact that (in this case) the parts the companies are selling are for cars that were sold domestically in the country and not privately imported in small numbers. if consumers start buying stuff from overseas at prices that you can't compete with, lowering your price isn't going to do much at all. instead you have to look at other measures, such as firing staff, or raising prices (which then hurts you even more). this is the big point that most of you are missing. the more people buy from overseas, the more unemployment we are going to have. so next time you ring up someone like testra and get an overseas operator, just remember that it is people like you who want everything at the lowest possible price who are the cause of that.

a mate of mine had a rb30e that was making well over 130kw at the wheels. i think the most he ever made from it was about 160kw. but generally it was around the 140 to 150kw range and wasn't the most reliable thing in the world (had a few rebuilds). he had it reving to around 8000rpm (or maybe it was 9000rpm, i can't remember). he had a twin throttle body setup, 3" exhaust, and all that crap. he was running low 14's in it, and i think they dropped the exhaust off one day he got down to about a 13.6 or 13.8. it was also a fuel guzzler. his father had helped build the motor for him. his dad and uncle had been using rb30's in speedway cars for quite a few years so knew lots about them. i think the only time a workshop touched it was to tune it, LOL. i don't think he is on this forum, but i think he may have been on the r31 forum.

there are plenty of things he can do before paying someone to look at it. various things can contribute to the idle speed, especially after lift off. first of all there is the old IAC and AAC setup. also the o2 sensor can contribute to this as well. i have heard of people with dodgy o2 sensors causing similar issues. i know that in the missus pulsar though that if i am driving and pull up, sometimes the revs drop to around 1200rpm for 3 or 4 seconds and then will settle down to the normal level after that. however in your case, because it dropped after you turned the lights off, it is more than likely going to be caused by the AAC. the AAC is the Auxilary Air Control. this is designed to alter the amount of air going into the motor (mostly at idle) to stop the engine stalling when extra load is put on the engine by such things as the alternator (when the lights are turned on) or the aircondition compressor.

both those statements are incorrect. the fuel put into the tank will mix with the fuel in the tank already when filling up and then again when you drive along the road as it sloshes around in the tank. also stale fuel is real. go find a car sitting at a wreckers that has been there for a while (like a year or 2) and pull a fuel line off and inspect what comes out. you won't get a car to run on it very well. the higher the octane of the fuel, the faster it goes stale (loses it's octane rating). that is usually because it has been mounted incorrectly. when i put an 040 in a mates 33 i made sure it sat nice and low and he didn't have any issues with running it down until the light came on. the biggest issue with letting the tank run low is that you start to suck up any crap at the bottom of the tank. when there is a lower concentration of the junk (since it all settles on the bottom when the car is stopped). however once you have run the tank down a few times there won't be much crap left in the tank, it will all be in the filter. i opened up the fuel filter from my magna once day and it was full of crap. even just letting the fuel flow out where it normally went it was enough to get your hand covered in debris.

yes you could check the wires and all that, but it isn't going to tell you if the explosives are still good or not......

more than likely 2 different issues here. the timing issue could be caused by the timing belt jumping a tooth, or possibly by the CAS being dodgy. if you can try someone elses CAS is the easier of the 2 options, but it isn't unheard of for the timing belt to be out by 1 tooth. the temp issue could be caused by the timing issue but could also be caused by something totally unrelated. it could be that the radiator is blocked, the thermostat could be stuffed, there could be air in the system or the water pump could be worn out.

probably because they was water on them they were slipping. would be worth tightening them up a fraction or replacing them, because as the weather gets hotter, if the car sits in the sun during the day, when you start it in the afternoon the belts will have stretched a bit from the heat and will slip even more

the missfire is going to be either a spark or fuel issue. i see that you have a rb25 in a 240sx. do you happen to know what series motor it is (series 1 or 2)? there are a few ways to tell if you don't happen to know. the plug on the TPS and the presence/lack of an ignitor pack at the rear of the rocker cover. if the TPS is a black rectangle and there is an ignitor pack on the rocker cover then it is series 1. if the TPS is more rounded with 2 plugs on it and there is no ignitor then it is series 2 (they have the ignitor built into the coils). back to the missfire, what is most likely happening (what happens with most missfire issues) is that the spark plug isn't able to ignite the fuel. the reason it happens at WOT and not lesser throttle is because the further you put your foot down the richer the air/fuel mixtures get as well as the more fuel that is in the combustion chamber. the cause of the missfire can be caused by a few things. 1: over fueling. 2: weak spark plugs. 3: weak coils. 4: weak ignitor. now you have changed the plugs, so that rules that out. the overfueling can be caused by a few things. can be fouled injectors not shutting properly, dirty/damaged AFM or a boost leak (you have also ruled that out). you could try taping up the coils with electrical tape to reduce the chance of them arcing out. if your car has the ignitor pack then they can also strat to fail at higher load due to the fact that they are getting old now and don't perform like they used to.

technically you shouldn't get any real difference in economy from regular to premium. the ecu reads how much air is going into the engine and puts in the set amount of fuel for that afm voltage and tps position. other things will affect economy much greater than the type of fuel. you don't just take into account what revs you are doing, but how far you push the accelerator down. someone flooring it but only reving to 3000rpm will use more fuel than someone who revs to 4000rpm but uses half the throttle percentage. also the O2 sensor controls the fuel economy at light throttle loads, so if that dies your economy goes bad. also if the thermostat is shot and your car takes for ever to come up to operating temp then you will get poor economy as well. or you could simply have a slightly dicky fuel gauge. then there is your driving environment. if you have to stop at traffic lights often then you will get poor economy compared to someone who drove the same trip but got a green light every time. finally, you said that a tank was lasting you 3 days, but the more important information is: how many kms were you doing in those 3 days, and how many litres are you calling "a tank"? i have used a full tank of fuel in a day, but i also drove 600km on that tank.

ok it won't be pinging. pinging will still be igniting the fuel so you still make pretty much full power, it just doesn't do the engine much good. you are right in your research narrowing down to coils or plugs. there are other possibilities, but they are much less likely than a spark issue. the big question is, how old are your current plugs, and what type, gap and heat range are they? also, what model car do you have? if it is a r32 or s1 r33 gts-t (or gtr) then it could also be the ignitor pack. they can have issues when they get hot. without taking into account how old your plugs are (since you haven't said), i would be pulling the coils out and inspecting them for signs of arcing. if they appear to be in good condition then grab a set of spark plugs. they should only set you back about $30 for a set of coppers. stick them in and see how it goes.

i use the plus ULP 94 octane in the missus car, have done so for well over a year. get reasonable economy. ran caltex 98 octane stuff for a few weeks and didn't notice a different to how it drove. fuel economy was a touch better but not enough to warrant running it all the time (10% cost difference for a 5% economy gain). i pretty much only run E10 fuel in the car and it runs fine. never had any issues with it. i also ran it in my magna and my other shit pulsar without any issues as well. know other people who run it with the same results. the biggest cause of E10 making the car run like crap is the fact that it actually cleans your tank/lines more than normal unleaded so all the crap in your tank and lines ends up blocking your fuel filter (and injectors if it happens to get past the filter, although it will soon clean this out as well). generally if you put a new fuel filter in before running E10 and then change the filter after running a few full tanks (letting it get reasonably low before filling up) through it you won't have any issues. and bradmax is spot on about what fuel is sold in what states depending on what companies have a refinery there. i know that in town all the privately owned servo's (other than the united) are either BP or caltex. we don't even have a shell or mobil servo in town.

it really does come down to the launch. when i took my v6 magna to the drags i raced a turbo 33 and beat him by about half a car length. on that run he ran a 14.95 (was his first time to the drags, same with me) and i ran a 15.02 but because i had gotten a slightly quicker reaction time i won. by the end of the night though he was down to low 14's or high 13's while i only got down to 14.8 and my worst run was a mid 16. my point is that it comes down to the individual run. if you get a slightly bad launch or don't get a clean gearchange it's all over. also your driving skill comes into it as well. the same night i was at the drags a mate was there and there were 2 people taking turns of driving his car and the difference between the 2 of them was noticeable.

how would you check an airbag though? hit the front of the car really hard and if it goes off you know it is in good working order. if it doesn't go off try hitting it harder. if it goes off then it works, if it doesn't you know it's shot.

i wish i had gotten in before the laws were changed this year cause then i could've gone straight from my learners to open licence just by doing Q-ride. now i have to abide by the restricted vehicles laws, but that doesn't bother me because i don't have a bike, and if i did get one i would get a 400cc dirt bike to ride around the road. they go well enough for round the streets (will still beat most cars to 60kmh), and i grew up riding dirt bikes so i know how they handle, plus i could ride out to my grandparents farm and ride around there on it too.

around windows, (usually a sign that a window has been replaced before and the paint was scratched and not touched up before the new window was installed). around the lip of the wheel arches.

yeah, umm, that white sticky stuff isn't from the race tape.........

i too am on the sellers side for this. while i can see where the buyer is coming from, i have been jerked around buy overly cautious buyers and i know mates who have been too. i had a guy want me to drive 45 mins (each way) for him to be able to put the car up on a hoist. then when he finally came and had a look at the car is was as dumb as a post. brought a heap of mates who all looked under the car, etc. the rear rocker cover was leaking a bit and he wanted to get a compression test, etc, done which on most cars i would've agreed to but this was on my magna which required the intake plenum to be removed (quoted as being about a 1.5 hour job each way from memory) to get to the rear 3 spark plugs and can't be done with them still in and then if the gasket gets damaged in the process then you are up for that as well. so i informed him that i would only get it done if he paid for it all even if he didn't buy the car, to which he then said that he was going to get some other tests done it to make sure the head gasket was ok. i was at a mates place at the time and he is a mechanic and he was trying to figure out what tests (other than pressurising the radiator) could test the head without having to remove the spark plugs so he said we could sneak it into his work and do it because he wanted to know what these mysterious tests were. although after i told the guy that a mechanic had offered to let me use his hoist because he was interested to see what the tests were i never heard back from the guy. about a week later i put a new rocker cover gasket on the car and sold it a few days later. i also know someone selling his car where the buyer had a compression test done and the results came back saying it was low on 1 cylinder. then he got one done himself and the results showed it to be fine. the other thing is that if the roadworthy was done at a reputable place then a lot of the things that an inspection looks at should've already been done and other things like oil leaks you can look for yourself. although if you don't know common issues with cars you can often be worried about oil leaks for no reason. and the professionals can also make more of a drama out of something from lack of knowledge of certain issues. for example it is pretty common for r33's to have a bit of oil coming out of the bottom of the power steering pump (seemed to be an option you could tick on the order form, LOL). a lot also have a leak from the rear of the rocker covers on the passenger side. early E series falcons always have oil around the base of the rocker cover as well. s13's pretty much all have dodgy washer bottles. generally most issues will be evident when taking the car for a test drive. about the only real test worth doing is a compression test if you want. but again, if the car feels strong when you drive it then there is a good chance then the results will be good. a lot of things that go wrong with cars you can't test for. if the turbo is about to blow a seal or part ways with the exhaust wheel there isn't much way of knowing this in advance. probably one of the best things you could do is take a consult cable and laptop with you. that way you can check for any fault codes as well as acurately keep an eye on things like temperature when going for a test drive since the stock gauge isn't very accurate. but then slightly higher temps can be caused by simple things or not so simple things, so it is sort of a double edged sword.