Psyrus

Well to round this all up - Brought it back from Joe today and I'm pleased with the results. Everything was appropriately priced including labour (perhaps a tiny bit on the high side but he's an independent business so I'm happy to pay the premium). It works out to be ~30% more expensive than the place in wangara however the convenience of a 12 minute drive versus a 35 minute drive, I'm willing to pay the extra money. He also helped me out big time after the service was done at no cost and as such, I'll be using him in the future (although I may have to shop around for my 100k service). Happy customer (although poorer student... I need a real job) Again, thanks for the other suggestions by everyone, when I look up my next service or need to have other work done I'll definitely check them out.

Nah didn't know... wouldn't mattered since I was serving ol Turnbull & the other libs last night till 11pm anyway, they're not bad tippers though

I'm calling him in a little while (just woke up... I'm a bit of a nightowl because I work late nights) to sort it out & I'll let you know. I'm perfectly happy for you to grab em (I'll be dropping it as early as possible in the morning) as long as they're properly back on the car when I pick it back up Don't want any of this lol Edit: PMing you details

Steal mine while it's at mr auto

Thanks guys! Looks like Joe @ Mr. Auto will be the first place to check out. Hopefully he is gentle to me on my student budget + not getting any shifts at work Ah... the expensive joys of the 13 year old import (that I occasionally hug... don't look at me, you've done it before too...)

Much appreciated syfon & gazza. Oh well turns out I have a little more time, because upon inspection I was supposed to post the past service receipts to these guys at AWN and well... haven't done that so basically it's voided regardless. Meh, got it free with the car so no big loss I guess... I'm going to give the Mr. Auto place a call, although now that it's not necessary that I get the work done by a mechanic, I should probably learn how to change the oil etc myself [not looking forward to that 100k service coming up soon *sigh*]

Hello skyline owners of Perth, Had my 33 for going on a year now, and been taking it for services up north in wangara thus far, however it's about 30 minutes of driving and no longer having the gf to ferry me back and forth (and friends working days and pretty unwilling to take me there ), I'm looking for somewhere that'll be a little closer in hopes of using the pub transport to get back. I was hoping for something in osbourne park but from searching the various forums here, the closest 'reputible' place is Oconnor, which is a bit closer but much of the same. I'd love to learn to do the minor 3-6 month stuff myself (oil, filter changes), but trying to keep that AWN warranty valid so I have to get a qualified mechanic to do it [bah! ]. Are there any recommendations or do you have to go around that far out to get to the decent places regardless? I suppose there's always the family members I could ask Any help or advice appreciated.

Btw I heard on the radio that this is all over now, the government caved or something, so back to non-crazy driving for you lot I heard it on the radio but I've searched the news sources and can't find anything to confirm... so it may not be 100% certain at this point. Just wanted to provide a heads-up to everyone

For closure, I had the battery replaced with a NS55 because it was the only one that'd fit at the time, paid a bit more than I wanted to but meh.... Starts perfectly now, super happy Thanks for the advice/help.

The magnitude of the fine does not match the severity of the crime IMO... You'd have to be doing like 50km/h over the speed limit to get a fine like that... yet doing burnouts in a parking lot attracts the same penalty... Yep they correlate perfectly.

Yeah I paid about $500 for my autowatch installed and all... guy's pretty good but I had some issues with it, he replaced parts for free (as he should). Overall pretty happy with it

Well technically if they're paying said "stupid tax", then they're still exhibiting the same Darwinian behaviour that you're suggesting the tax averts, as per your "instead" comment indicating an either-or situation. Food for thought perhaps

My skyline averages ~11.3L/100km with about a 60:40 split for city:freeway driving. Details can be found in the excel file: http://members.iinet.net.au/~rodchinn/publ...kyline-fuel.xls Pretty stock car and I don't boost often [very light foot]. I love visual representations of stuff so I've done the excel spreadsheets for all 3 cars I've owned That being said, there's some shocking fuel economies in here... do you guys run full throttle off every set of lights or something ?

Yeah I have pretty stiff suspension too [car came like that] and going through a roundabout I've taken for over 6 years now for the first time I lost control... horrendously scary when you don't mean to do it. Luckily it was @ 3am after work and I was able to counter-steer/fishtail it till it came to a stop (still on my side) so I was pretty happy with the end result.

Thanks, will check that out ... Hope it's the battery although I think it's a newish battery (only had the car ~10 months) although I'm not sure if during the compliance it would've been changed. <$200 is way better than multiple hundreds of dollars for an alternator replacement (from what I understand).

Well here's an interesting development. Had a really warm start today [just ran into the shops to grab some phone credit] and when I came back to start, it cranked once and then died. Completely dead... dash lights came on like 20% luminosity, my defi gauge was dead and if the ignition was @ 'on', it would make a strange clicking noise from the boot of the car. So anyway I thought maybe I'd let it cool but after leaving it for 20 mins it still wouldn't start. So I got someone to come down to pick me up since I figured it would have to be towed... on a hunch though I pulled out the jumper cables and attached them... What do you know... instant start! Does this mean my alternator is dying or dead... or what? I checked the battery area while it was making the clicking noises and the noise was coming from around the fuse box, but not in the fuse box from what I can tell [unless it was popping like 100 fuses ]. Will be calling up the place I bought it from tomorrow [since they do the servicing as well] and just check if it'd be best to take it to an auto-electrician or what (since they are about a 45 minute drive from me and I have uni during the week).

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciated Will look at investigating the issues you've suggested... might take a while since I have my uni mid-semesters starting in 2 days then a heap of projects due. But I'll report back if I do eventually figure anything out.

Hey guys, Had the 33 series 2 for about 8 months now and this has been an ongoing problem however, [if I'm not imagining it] the problem has worsened somewhat as of late. Basically a cold start will generally take about 0.5-0.75 seconds of 'ignition' to turn the engine over and get it running, but if I try a warm start (after it's been running for a while) it will take a good 3-5 seconds of ignition and a few gas-pedal pumps before it will start up. What could be a related problem to start-ups is when trying to start is sometimes it will begin to start but then go dead for half a sec (like the battery has been disconnected for a fraction of a second) but then it'll start fine. I also suffer from the weird neutral-stall that Benzino33 experienced (http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Problematic-Rb25det-t265210.html)... consensus appears to be split vacum hose perhaps or something. I'm not very mechanically minded, so I'm just looking for some pointers; I've read through some of the related threads on the first page... I wouldn't even know where to start diagnosing Aside from that, it's a really nice car... pity about the insurance/fuel/maintenance costs that come with them

Yeah please do tell... My [R33] front windscreen seal is coming off on the driver's side... looks tacky, I'd love to get it replaced.

My baby~ Wanted a skyline since I played GT3 [i think I was 13] and eventually got the money saved up. Had to hold out for a black one though! The #1 comment I get from my friends is... "wow your car is shiny" I'll get around to joining Sauwa sometime... uni & holidays are too much at this point to care.

For a comparison, the 96 S2 R33 GTS-T I own gets between 10.5-12L/100km on a 55L (or is it 50L?) tank. I usually fill up at the 450-500KM mark which is just starting to head for the bottom of the fuel gauge. I'm a very modest driver though, maybe 30 seconds a day of boost, that's it, and that's moderate too... just coming onto the freeway (40->100km is fun to do on boost). I've seen people who drive hard get between 18-22L/100km so it really depends how you drive them... same with any car. The nice thing about the skylines are their beauty (imo) and the power you have if you need it

Will they take you on if you have no qualifications/coursework? I've been considering it for a while (I'm sick of being @ the mercy of the mechanics) but doing uni full time & a night-shift job, there's just no time... I barely get time to drive! I guess I'll have to re-evaluate my situation after uni is done [July 09] or see if they'll take me for a 3 month stint during uni holidays... Any recommendations?

Hey there I have the exact same issue with my DB25DET, My quick fix has been to learn how to drop the clutch in second gear quickly, as that will jump start your car again. I'm not sure about the ramifications of doing this (about twice a week, when the stalling issue presents itself) engine wise, but I refuse to sit there at the roundabout/corner looking like an idiot who doesn't know how to drive a manual People seem to point towards BOV or this vacuum issue, neither of which I know anything about [not very car savvy], so I'm going to take a friend who knows this-from-that and see what he thinks. I'll be pretty unhappy if it's a serious issue since I bought the car not two months ago, and have done <1000KM in it...

Well thank you very much Chris! Once exams are over I'll give him a call. It's amazing what people can do to their cars, I spent hours last night just trawling the forums looking at the pictures, projects, DIY guides... It's going to be fun Thanks again!