The Max

The way I see it, Ithought these vehicles were made ideally for 98RON. Why skimp on the fuel in the first place?

I think you need to be more realistic with your price point if you actually want it to be a good system - unless you find someone desperate for their next hit of heroin and rips one off someone's car that's not theirs.

Keeps changing? Sounds like a rolling RSA type of code. Interesting.

That's good news then. So the 4-digits stamped in a little metal plate that came with my keys from Japan must be my PIN code. Guess I don't have to get the Immobiliser card for my Consult 3+ after all. In which case, what is the Immobiliser card for then? For replacing a faulty BCM with a new one or am I completely off track?

Seems like the dealers aren't inclined to work on our imports as if they're looking to protect the local distribution channel. Stupid since they'll be getting paid for the service regardless. <br /><br />If I ever need to replace either of my two fobs, I think I'll have an easier time buying the security module for my Consult 3+ scan tool. Mongrels.

I get all my OEM bits from Steve Jarvin Nissan in Haberfield (Sydney). Raj has been looking after me since his Cullens Nissan days which makes it a grand total of 18 years now.

Well bugger me. I was under the impression my '09 wouldn't work with the Consult 3. I should've done more homework.

Sub $300? I wish I didn't need the Consult 3+ for mine. That's a massive price gap.

Took a look through my archive and found it. She was a very efficient individual and while I was working in the UK at the time, my buddy received the shipment within a week in Sydney. Price doesn't seem to have changed much either. Nevertheless, this looks and feels exactly like the genuine Nissan product. Keep in mind that while it does support the reprogramming of security keys/immobilisers as well as diagnostics on the R35/GTR you need to buy the interface cards/modules for those purposes at an additional cost. For the purpose of diagnosing and resetting error codes, the scan tool alone is more than sufficient, again as long as it's not a GTR. It came in handy one time when, for whatever reason, my steering angle sensor lost its calibration and thought my wheels were at an angle when they were indeed straight. A 10-second recalibration with the scan tool fixed that. Then there was also the time when I flashed my ECU with the UpRev Osiris, only to have the warning light come on for the bonnet pop-up struts malfunctioning. Again, a reset of the fault code cleared that little annoyance as well. Definitely worth the money if you're going to be the one servicing your vehicle, as I do. I paid with credit card and never experienced any dodgy transactions thereafter, so from my point of view, they are safe to trade with. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Nissan-Consult-3-plus-kit-diagnosis-system-Nissan-III-for-all-Nissan-Infiniti-GTR-with-bluetooth/700027_736022832.html I forgot to mention one more caveat: The Nissan software only works on Windows XP SP2 or SP3. Do not buy this if you cannot score a laptop running XP SP3. I already tested the waters with it on a Windows 7 machine and it definitely doesn't work.

I paid $1300 mid-2012 for a Chinese clone of the Consult III+ tool with the Nissan software from an AliBaba.com seller. It's the exact same thing as the "genuine" product and works a treat. I can't remember the seller's name but if anyone wants the detail, I guess I can always search through my email archive and get back to you.

It's not complicated. I just put a lot of detail into what I do for two reasons, which are mutually inclusive - neatness and reliability. I've intercepted the front speaker outputs of the OEM stereo. The OEM stereo front speaker output feeds an Arc Audio PS8 DSP. The DSP then manages the splitting of the signals to the front and rear channels of my Rockford Fosgate T800-4AD amp as well as my old faithful Sony XM-1002HX amp which is attached to my equally old faithful Soundstream Exact 12" subwoofer enclosure in a portable arrangement, since I didn't have any room to neatly mount it in the vehicle as well. I'll update my how-to thread with some more photos once my work here in Russia is done. The 4-core speaker cable carries the front speaker outputs from the OEM stereo back to the DSP. The 3 runs of 8-core speaker cable carry the following as individual groups: 1) Feed from the output of the Rockford Fosgate amp to the front and rear crossovers which you see pictured in my thread (Front left, front right, rear left and rear right = 8 wires) 2) Feed from the crossovers for the rear speakers to the rear parcel tray. (Each side requires 4 wires since we have separate tweeters and woofers so L+R = 8 wires) 3) Feed from the crossovers for the front speakers to the dash behind the OEM stereo where the tweeter pairs feed the existing OEM wiring which I had intercepted earlier (as there's negligible power loss given high frequency drivers don't require as much juice) and the woofer pairs are then soldered to additional 18AWG speaker cable for passing through the drilled out door harness Sumitomo connectors. For the remote turn-on wire, I tapped into the 12V accessories feed since the amp needs to be on at all times in order for the phone handsfree to be usable. Again, I don't have my design files on my FTP server so I can't tell you off-hand which pins I tapped into for that. Is it hard to change the grommet? Not really. You just need to be careful because you need to disconnect the ECU wiring and the last thing you want to do is bend (and consequently break) any pins in those connectors! My photos should have reasonable detail on what's involved there. How did you remove the grommet to pass your power cable? Did you remove the rubber cap first and then press in the plastic clips at the three equidistant points on the grommet? If you did that and you can physically see that there's nothing broken, then you're fine. However, if it seems loose, then you definitely need to fix that. Remember, it is there to shield the interior of the vehicle from water. You need to ensure that the plastic grommet sits well inside the lip of the rubber cap so that when it clips in, the rubber forms a gasket on the firewall and therefore seals it completely shut. Otherwise, water won't just go in and mess up your carpet. It will potentially trickle down to some electronics, including ECU and BCM. Those are the two devices you don't want to risk. Do the job properly or give it to someone who will before you cause yourself grief. You have a nice car - keep it nice. Take your time, take pride and most of all, take absolute care. Yes, you are supposed to use the crossovers on your splits. The only time you wouldn't use them would be if you had a DSP like mine which has several outputs and can act as an active crossover. Of course, that would mean that you would need a total of 8 channels of amplification just for one pair of speakers and therefore a total of 16 channels of amplification if you want to do front and rear. That's something I didn't have the room for in my boot if I was to keep it as stealthy an installation as possible. What brand and model speakers did you get? I'll tell you how it should be connected because you seem confused or in the very least, you haven't carefully read the manual that came with your speakers. If it has 4 terminals, that means it's two pairs of terminals to be fed from the crossover. In other words, you wire the amp's output into the input of the crossover and then the tweeter and woofer are connected to the respective outputs of your crossover. I'm guessing your speakers probably have the option of allowing you to mount the tweeter on the woofer if you don't want to physically split them apart, like I had my Boston Acoustics ProSeries 6.5 set up in my Maxima. Because the speaker grilles in our Skylines are a much lower profile by comparison, I dismounted them from the coaxial arrangement and mounted the tweeters separately on the Scosche 6x9 speaker adapter plates in order to maintain a lower profile and clear of the grilles.

I'm not a fan of aftermarket LED jobs but I must admit, this is very tastefully done. Nice one!

Oh so you found my little how-to. It's a shame I didn't continue to take photos throughout the process but the Sumitomo door harness connectors definitely need a lot of care and patience, particularly when plugging them back in. It sounds like you've added wiring for both drivers in each of your doors rather than use the stock wiring for the tweeters in the least as I did. I hope you left some slack inside the cabin as I advised in the event that you need to ever have the doors removed, in order to allow yourself some slack to cut and re-terminate those cables during and after the removal process. With the drilling, even though you've already done the job, it's best not to use a drill bit but a carbide cutting tool which abrades its way through instead of gouging. You have better control over the motion of the bit with no risk of warping the plastic or losing control and damaging neighbouring pins, etc. Anyway, point being, take your time with it, even if it means taking two weekends instead of one. It's way easier to do damage in modern vehicles than it was back in the 90s! You'll save yourself a lot more time and heartache in future. Also, be sure to use glue heatshrink over your soldered connections but also be careful where you apply the heat around the surrounding wiring loom, trim and carpet. Keep cardboard tubes handy to help you shield surrounding wires during this process to be sure your heat gun (or mini blowtorch, which I don't really recommend) doesn't upset anything else. Did you find the FSM for your vehicle?

Sounds like the connection between the BCM and your done light assembly has gone bad. If the wiring shows continuity, then since you eliminated my theory about the connectivity to the dome light switch, it is probably the MOSFET in the BCM has been damaged due to excessive current draw. Easiest way to check is to ground pin 48 on the BCM and see if the lights come on. If they do, then that's definitely the problem. You might not be arsed now but you will be later because they're your interior lights.

I don't have the FSM handy to point out which pins are the speaker outputs but it is part of the connector which has the main power as well. Sadly, if you don't have a Bose system, and it looks like you probably don't, there is no readily available remote output. The simplest way is to use the accessories power rail, of which I think that wire is on that same connector as the speaker outputs. Besides which, your amp needs to be on full-time anyway because of your phone handsfree. No amp, no phone audio. Go to the Nico club forum where you will find a copy of the G37 FSM relevant to your model. Generally, it's one year later than your V36 (ie. V36 2009 = G37 2010). Look up the AV section of the FSM and you'll find the relevant pinouts in there. Be sure that you look up the correct system within the manual as it lists all the variants - with/without navigation, reverse camera, Bose, etc. Last caveat, are you putting in split/component speakers in the doors or just full-range? If they're splits and you don't have a Bose system, you will need to thread another pair of wires to each door because Nissan only have one pair feeding each door and the woofer and midrange (or as they call it, "sqwarker") are connected in parallel with a bipolar capacitor as a high pass filter for the midrange driver. Looking back on the work I did to mine, if I had to start all over again, I'd ensure my V36SP was equipped with a Bose system because all the wiring could simply be done in the boot with no need to touch the head unit. By the way, where are you mounting your amp?

It's cool. Practice makes perfect, so the longer you type on your phone, the better you'll get at it. Anyway, if the auto-dimming has begun to malfunction since you attempted to use the LED replacements and replacing it with the conventional/stock globes isn't resolving it, then something may have happened to the switch or the less likely case of the BCM as a result. Without knowing what year model you have, I've been looking at the FSM for a 2005 G35 which shows the BCM having direct control of the lamps when the switch is in door mode. Again, interpreting what you're saying, you haven't actually lost auto-dimming. Rather, you have lost total functionality of your interior/map lighting when the switch is in door mode. Let's be clear about this because there's a big difference as to what could be happening here. In the very least, you may need to explain this clearly to an auto electrician if you can't diagnose and resolve the problem yourself. If you don't, an unclear explanation may confuse the situation and cost you more time and money. I'm not trying to be grammar nazi on you (though I am quite militant about communication). I'm simply making sure that this gets resolved for you efficiently. If you only lost the auto-dimming, so that the interior/map lights were coming on when the switch is set to "Door", that would suggest that the BCM has gone faulty as it's either completely on or off, indicating that the MOSFET driver within the BCM controlling the grounding of the lamps has malfunctioned and needs replacing. But in your case, if the lights remain off even with the door open, then it's more than likely that your switch is buggered. Easy way to find out is to disassemble your map light assembly so that you can get access to the switch and check that it is functioning as it's meant to with a multimeter on continuity or the lowest resistance setting. See if the switch has continuity between the pins on the switch which carry both the BCM connection and the ground leg of the lamps. I don't have the complete FSM loaded but it should be easy enough to work out. In the very least, you should be able to determine if the switch shows continuity between the BCM leg of the switch and the ground leg of the lamps if you can't determine which pin on the switch itself is meant for this ground leg of the lamps. The other thing to do is to check the door switches themselves and whether or not they still have continuity to the BCM. Best way to check this is to check pins 12 and 62 (according to the 2005 FSM) are grounding when the doors are opened. Pin 12 is the passenger side door and pin 62 is the driver's door. Of course, this is a US FSM so this order could be the reverse. Again, this is from a 2005 model so it may not be a match for yours. Find the FSM which is and follow its diagram. If the the door switches and the map light switch looks like it's doing its job, then check for continuity between pin on the BCM (pin 48 in the 2005 schematic) and the pin on the interior/map lamp switch which the BCM is meant to connect to. If this is OK, then my guess will be that you didn't successfully test the map light switch and it's more than likely that the switch or the wiring leading to the switch is buggered or maybe the connector for the switch isn't properly seated - particularly because the problem only arose when you performed the work only in this area. In short, I reckon you broke it and you need to retrace your steps to find what has physically broken.

I almost gave up trying to decipher your message. Seriously dude, use a little punctuation next time so that we can hopefully better understand you! Now to check if I understood you correctly (which I doubt I have), you've changed your dome light to LEDs and since then, you've had problems. Is this correct? If so, have you tried putting your original dome light's bulb back in to see how it performs? If it doesn't exhibit any trouble, then clearly it's a case of your aftermarket LEDs not being compatible with that particular light control design, so the BCM cannot drive it unless it has the full 12V.

I would consider it. However, the fact that it's more work for my 2009 model and the fact that I don't like anyone else working on my vehicle's wiring, especially after all the work I've put into the alarm and sound system, keeps me from even thinking about taking part in this. Thanks for lining it up but I'll pass.

I simply changed my stock muffler to a Megan Racing one for around AUD$560 shipped mid-last year. Gives it a nice note without being obnoxious - exactly what I was aiming for and reminiscent of what I had with the turbo exhaust system my old Maxima (VG30E, not a DE like your Z). Best value for your dollar, I reckon. If you're going to take advantage, now would be the time before the exchange rate declines any further.

I'd say all brands have dropped the ball with the head units given the tightly integrated OEM gear. The automotive manufacturers themselves killed off that market long ago. I still have my Sony MDX-C8900 minidisc unit, more for nostalgic reasons. The last of the brilliant decks. But I agree with Frosty. If I was to choose any decent brand, I'd say Alpine is as good as it gets these days.

Definitely doesn't sound like a battery nor starter motor problem. You'll need a mechanic for this one, not an auto electrician. Scotty's started you off on the right path. Take it from there.

Starter motors aren't a dark art and it's more likely a starter motor will fail rather than a component in your IPDM. Given the test results, I'd say the starter solenoid on the motor has either died or just the positive feed into it isn't making good contact due to the bolt shaking loose for whatever inexplicable reason. I remember the solenoid in my old Maxima dropped its guts after 17 years of excellent service. It was easy to start cold but not immediately after driving (ie. hot). Hopefully someone from your neck of the woods will chime in with their recommended auto sparky.

Given it affects AC and stereo control as well, I'd say you have a dry joint somewhere in the AV system, starting with the AC+instrumentation amp module. That said, I'm not familiar with the V35 as much as I am with the V36 but that's where I would start. Get your hands on the factory service manual for it and trace the schematic back from the dash cluster (or combination meter, as it's called in the manual). See which module it plugs into and then take out that module for an inspection. Dry joints aren't all that obvious to pick up on without some serious magnification but if you're good with a decent soldering iron (i.e. a proper temperature controlled unit), if you pick the logical points where it wires into and resolder the joints with just a little touch of fresh solder, that would be your starting point. Should it still exhibit the same issues, keep working your way through the circuit, reflowing all joints leading back until it comes alive. Also, check for any capacitors which may have dried out. It's pretty obvious, even with the SMD types, where you notice the can having bulged out at the top and/or sides. Pay particular attention to any electrolytics which may have been also heatshrinked as well. Carefully cut the heatshrink off and inspect accordingly. Be sure to replace them with not only the same value capacitance but also the same minimum working voltage ("WV"). You can go to a higher WV rating if it physically fits but don't go lower. Also check for any leaked electrolyte on the board, which can result in corrosion of the copper traces. Be sure you clean it with some circuit board cleaner and double check it's all gone by applying a little heat from your soldering iron and wafting it for any unusually pungent smells. If you still smell something pungent, it's not entirely cleaned up. Given the problem is thermally related, I'd say the cause is a fairly simple one, hence why I've mentioned dry joints first. The caps may not really be the result of a thermal issue but they may be possibly storing enough of a charge eventually to power up so while you think it's because it has cooled down, the reality may be that it just had enough time to eventually charge up. The less likely cause is a bad semiconductor, typically a transistor or two supplying power to all those devices. In which case, diagnosing a bad one while in circuit isn't as easy, particularly when dealing with a thermal issue. That takes a can of good freeze spray (such as Electrolube's MCF400) and hitting the suspected components until one of them gives you the expected result. Unless it's a common fault mentioned on one of the G35 forums in the US or something, you'll be hunting for the culprit but you'll feel very satisfied for having fixed it. Best of luck and let us know what you find. You might save someone else's bacon one day.

The FM expander works regardless. What do you mean when you say "work properly" in reference to your iPod? Are you talking about just line level/aux audio input or having full control of your iPod from the OEM stereo controls?

Additionally, should the car ever be written off, you're given first opportunity to buy the wreck back from them.