JimX

In that case, it was always doing it and you just never noticed before

Metal tint is what it sounds like - tint with metal in it. The metal provides the darker colour rather than dye, and as such it can never fade or change colour (have you seen a sheet of steel change colour in the sun? aside from rust I guess). Thus they are more expensive and able to have longer warranties on them. And it won't mess up your alarm sensors, I think the sales guy is either misinformed or FOS.

Sniper, you're probably talking of a car loan, which will need comprehensive insurance anyway. But they will give you a personal loan (where it's none of their business what it's for) which also means the car isn't under finance (so they can't re-po it) and it also means you can forego the insurance if you really want to. The interest rate is usually a couple of % higher though so they get you either way.

$600 is pretty bloody cheap. Have you considered trying Ebay? I reckon you'd get over $600 for it easy. There's a limited amount of people here who would need a turbo like that for their Skyline, but there's probably a lot more people on Ebay looking for one for their VR4

1) It would depend. Damaged compressors or exhaust wheels could be hitting the housing, bearings could be making a noise, or the whole thing could not be spinning at all in which case it will just make no power (probably even hideously restrict it). Your boost gauge will still go up and down with the manifold vacuum, but not past 0 (ie, no positive pressure) 2) It will definitely help the turbo last longer, because although the turbo is always spinning, it's only really under strain when on boost. Also exhaust temperatures increase with revs which will cause it to wear out quicker. That said, as long as you take care of it by allowing it to cool down and doing regular oil changes with good oil even a plain bearing turbo can last quite a long time. Ball bearing turbos will last even longer. 3) I don't have enough experience with this, but I've had my plain bearing turbo for over 20000km now, and I don't know how much it had done before I got it. I give it some stick fairly often, but it's still like new. There's no axial shaft play whatsoever. If it does die, a rebuild is around $350. I also run it at 14.5psi (1 bar). 4) Sometimes the seals will leak causing oil to be blown out in the exhaust, but if you are thinking of buying a turbo or turbo car the best way is to just check the axial play on the shaft. If it moves in and out at all, it's either toast or in need of a rebuild very soon. There will be some side-to-side play even on a brand new turbo, but check it anyway to make sure it doesn't hit the housing. It shouldn't, if there is no axial play. You can also check for pitted blades, they're a sign that a good air filter was not used and can also indicate an engine in bad condition. The bearings may make weird noises before they go but it's not a guarantee. Too much boost can also kill them without warning. 5) If you don't mind filling your engine with chunks of ceramic, sure Personally if I had a ceramic turbo that blew its compressor wheel I would immediately pull over and get a tow. Ceramic is used for (a) cost savings (I believe, not 100% sure), (B) quicker spool up than steel, and © planned obsolescence. They're obviously designed to last a very long time, well outside the warranty period. So sometime after that if they blow, the shattered wheel may write off your engine and hey presto, another customer for Nissan when you rebuild your engine and buy the new parts from them (well that's their plan anyway). I hope the above answers your questions ok and doesn't contain too much misinformation! (I apologise for anything I've got wrong)

I used to leave my turbo timer set at the default time whenever I got home (it varies, whether due to detecting how hard I've been driving it or a fault ) but I then realised that if I just drive off-boost for the last km or 2, then reverse down my driveway, open the door, park in the garage (which takes about 1 minute) then I don't need a timer at all - it's already effectively gotten at least 2 minutes of cooling down. If I've been thrashing it a bit I will leave the turbo timer on for a minute after I park it then shut off with remote, or if I'm real lazy just let the timer go until it times out (which goes up to 3 minutes I think). I never leave the car unattended with the turbo timer running anymore. I don't think it'd really be any easier to steal, but it would mean that a thief could get in and ram my car into things for the hell of it and write it off. Or get 1-2km away before the engine cut out which would still screw me up bigtime because it could be anywhere.

Defecting a taxi takes it off the road while it gets fixed, which means it's not earning any income, which means the driver won't be paying any tax while it's off the road, which means the government gets less money. I'm utterly amazed that the cops bothered busting all those taxis, it was probably the first time ever they've done it. Sports cars on the other hand, don't generate the government any revenue other than the fuel we buy and rego, so they like to throw in some defect notices here and there to help top up the slush fund.

What colour is the smoke?

As Brody said, what's the point in the deposit if you can just change your mind and get it back? If that were possible, it seems like a big waste of time and effort to hand over the money in the first place. I'm not really sure how you think it's unfair, because this is the whole point of the deposit. To compensate the seller if the buyer doesn't end up buying it. I can sympathise, but it's just business. It's a buyer's market anyway, your friend shouldn't be hung up over a small deposit (unless it was a couple of grand). He should be able to find a nice enough car and bargain down what he lost and then some.

Well, 1/4 is just a number I pulled out of my arse So was 500ml.

Sometimes businesses don't know when to bite the bullet. I really have to wonder if Mark knows how much his reputation is suffering because of this.

I don't think there is anything other than a 1/4 tank of toulene or the like that will boost your 98RON fuel to 100 or more. The way mixed fuels get their octane rating is (basically, not precisely) by averaging out the RON rating of each component. If you have 60L of 98RON fuel, you'd need 500ml of something with a RON approaching 300 in order to boost it to 100RON. Does such a substance even exist? Toulene already has quite a high octane rating, and yet you need a 1/4 of a tank of it to make any significant gains. Whenever fuel companies talk about their product boosting fuel by a number of octane "points", they are referring to the number after the decimal point, not before. So something boosting your fuel by 7 points is less than +1 RON.

I use Meguiar's on my wheels, and yes it does contain some acid. But it's fine on clear coat and I think it's ok for exposed alloy. Read the bottle before buying it to make sure, but I think it'll be ok. But that's why I said to hose it out properly, it won't do much to metal in a few minutes but over a few weeks or months it might start to disolve pits in the metal.

Err, guys? Have any of you used Ebay before? That is the starting price, not the Buy It Now price. Once word gets out there will be bids. I would be very surprised if it didn't go for at least a few grand more than that. Either way, I think Ebay is a stupid way to sell such an expensive car. You have such a tiny window of opportunity, which means that people that would genuinely pay a lot more for what the car sells at the final price just can't put a bid in because they can't come up with the cash in such short notice. Even if this car sells for the minimum price, that is in no way an indication of the car's true value. The buyer could easily then take his time and sell it for closer to $38-40k. At $34k I think it would be an ideal investment.

You could try that spray on mag wheel cleaner stuff. You'd want to make sure that you hose it out properly though.

Most car salesman are like this. And the sad thing is, he will probably get close to his advertised price when the right sucker comes along. The stereotype of the idiot used car salesman is self-perpetuating. They talk a LOT of shit and make up stuff on the spot to everyone, and eventually a fool with a lot of money comes by and gets snared. So the tactic works. I guess the buyers of cars in these situations deserve it.

FARK ME! You are the first person I have ever seen that agrees with me on Camry drviers!!!!! I thought I was the only one noticing these clueless idiots all over the place. It's good to see that I'm not imagining things. They usually don't hoon around too much above the speed limit (some of the V8 wannabes with the rear wing etc are big exceptions though) but some of their stunts at or below the limit are so dangerous that I just look out and give them a lot of room everytime I see one. I reckon that if I ever die in a car accident, it will be because of some clueless git in a Camry.

What's the correct torque?

At Gladesville Garlick Ford. The guy that does their "factory" tints works in their workshop, but he does his own private work for a lot less than what the dealership charges for their new cars. I was quoted $180 for all windows except windscreen, with metal film tint (Johnsons brand), lifetime guarantee, etc. But in the end he said the rear didn't need to be re-done and was a close enough match for the sides so I only paid $120. Unfortunately I don't have the guy's number anymore because I did this a year ago, but if you ring up the dealership and ask them for the guy that does their tints I'm sure they'll put you through. His name is Adam somebody.

I have 20% on mine and it seems to be the best compromise between privacy and being able to see out at night. The only problems I have are parallel parking when there are no street lights, but that's where power windows come in handy I've been RBT'd a few times and no cop has even looked twice at my tint. I've heard a rumour that the way they based the laws on the 35% "legal" tint were flawed, and as such they are unable to bust anyone with darker tints than that. Well maybe 5% would get you done but 20% is too close for them to call. But 20% is heaps better than 35% I reckon, looks better, keeps the heat out better, etc.

That looks heaps better than the old shape. Although all Japanese sports cars at the moment seem to be headed towards that shape, it's getting a little old. Are they at least keeping the inline 6? Or moving to a V engine like everyone else?

Thanks again Jay, I'll give it a go this weekend.

Yep when I accidentally unplugged it it stalled straight away. But not having a screwdriver to plug the wires back in (they got yanked out of the unit itself - long story) and being a few k's from home I had no choice but to try running it without. It started up fine first kick funnily enough, but then wouldn't rev above 2000 or so. I crawled all the way home at about 40kph, and it was running so rich you could smell the fuel from the cabin sometimes. It's far from the optimal situation because the extra fuel can wash the oil from your cylinder bores, but 10000km later I've had no issues. It can also foul your plugs. But it's better to have it running too rich than too lean.

Thanks Jay! I'm going to get it properly tuned, but I plan on trying some road tuning myself. I've got a map based on a setup similar to mine, so I might try setting it up somewhat more conservatively than that and get my mechanic to fine tune it afterwards. Oh yeah, does anyone know where to hook up the timing gun? Normally you put it on number 1 spark plug lead, but this car got no leads

Pushead, that's incorrect re: unplugging the S-AFC. Without an AFM signal the ECU goes into limp home mode. This means it runs mega-rich and will not rev above around 2000rpm. I've done it myself when I accidentally yanked the cable out. I know there is more than one person around here who will back me up on this one. Also, he doesn't have to set anything other than zeroing all the mixture adjustment points like he's already done. It came straight out of my car with everything else set up as it should be.