luthepa1

It could be a blue tinge but I not really sure. I can only go by what I see in review mirror and I have not had a car that blows smoke before to tell the difference of white vs bluish. I might need to get someone like Craig to take a look for his expert advice. However I suspect it would be from oil burn therefore blue as oil level going from max down to half or even 1/3rd seems excessive for 500kms? I'll check the the radiator overflow bottle tomorrow although engine temp is constant at 1 notch below half way all the time. Your right the dump took a hard hit so nothing would surprise me if turbo has damage. I have not noticed any knock and have not seen any error code which i thought would be detected by car ECU? When I first left workshop after new dump, front pipe and exhaust fitted I never fully gave it stick. Drove hesitantly with 2/3rds throttle max because I noticed smoke. The following day went for drive again and started to push it and that is when I would have got that error 235 as fully boosting it uphill if felt and heard the engine retard as it pulled back the timing. Saw the boost instantly drop from 21psi to 17psi and was like that until switching car off to reset. Think your right though.. a compression test is in order.

Hey All, Need some help and advice. My car has been blowing a little smoke since a recent repair and I am not sure what to tackle next in trying to identify and resolve. Today it was noticeably worse for some reason which helps in trying to better understand the issue. It has been hard to replicate as its been quite intermittent except for travelling to work in the morning there seems to be a scenario that seems to be able replicate. That is I let it coast on its own momentum downhill before entering the Sydney tunnel and just as I enter the tunnel I apply a tiny bit of throttle (500rpm) to pickup momentum and see a puff of smoke come out. But usually after that I dont see anymore smoke (as if it clears itself). However when I pull up to a stand still at lights or whatever I can smell it. One other scenario where I can reproduce the smoke was joining the motorway I boosted it through rev range and max boost and immediately after backing off throttle smoke!!! But that I have only managed to see once. The other thing I can do is when I come back from a drive and park my car I will rev it high and then when the rpm comes back down to idle some smoke comes out. See this link for vid https://www.dropbox.com/s/278rebeaeejjxud/VID_20130405_213304-trimmed.mov. However this will not happen on first start, cold start. Cold start is all fine and not reproducible. Also on a cold start I find the vacuum seems to be a little high than when its really warmed up. For example on cold start it might be -8psi and when really warm (bit of a flex) it will most likely be -10psi. -10psi is what it use to be before new legalis R exhaust though. Today however it was a lot more reproducible multiple times to and from work. It seems to be more along the lines of you're cruising along, then back off and coast/roll and then when you apply throttle again it blows smoke - white smoke. Valve stem seals perhaps? I had been a little worried about the turbo as the exhaust took a brutal beating from a accident the wife had by which she ripped the whole exhaust off from catching a speed hump in a shopping mall car park. Managed to ripped the dump that Scotty makes up. Quick History: - Week before Xmas blew turbo in summer heat (was stock crap) - New sierra stage 1 hi flow turbo replacement with new dump by scotty but still be stock exhaust (getting 17-19psi boost) - First week Feb 2013 exhaust incident (clean break at cat of front pipe and dump pushed up and ripped). Limped it back home (So loud!) - Ordered new legalis R exhaust and finally fitted 3 weeks ago tomorrow with a 2nd dump and decat front pipe by scotty. - Noticed smoke as soon as leaving with new parts. Car was hitting 22psi and error code 235 present on ECU. Bypassed cars stock bleeder and now maxes out at 17psi across whole rev range. No new error codes on ECU. - Not always reproducable (before today at least). Went for a slow family cruise last sunday and never blew any smoke. Day before on Saturday saw some smoke when I gunned it! See attached log graph. Suggested to date - Turbo rear seal - PVC - valve stem seals Any help/advice greatly appreciated.

Well cleared the error code and went for a boost. On return home no errors reported. So suspect the err 235 was indeed because of exceeding 21psi but that's fixed now. 17psi flat across rev range. But now I got some hunting to do. I tried performing a Idle Air Volume Learn function and it will not complete. Was data logging my run so got something to analyse. Might have a boost leak somewhere or maybe not. Maybe idling too high or read maybe fuel trims are out (hope I logged that).

Hi All, I am trying to find reference to a post here in the past for ECU fault codes but it seems to be gone. I just hooked up my laptop to the consult port (OBDII port) for a diagnostics run and sensor data logging to try and get an idea hopefully for a issue where my car intermittently and randomly blow some smoke. If my car could smoke a cigarette then its like it took a puff - lol. Anyway I have fault code P0235 which I believe is turbo boost sensor? I recently bypassed the boost bleeder/controller as after recent mods with Criag's help my car was hitting 21psi. A little too high for kind of stock setup still. So I believe the code is for this sensor but I wanted to confirm incase is was for the other sensor that monitors boost pressure. I still have everything connected electronically. I just connected the inlet and outlet of the bleeder controller to each other (keep dust out), plugged the hole on the intake pipe and replaced the T with a stright through from inlet to waste gate actuator. Any info on code 235 would eb great! Now to go for another test run for a speed trap test thanks!

Hi All, I am trying to find reference to a post here in the past for ECU fault codes but it seems to be gone. I just hooked up my laptop to the consult port (OBDII port) for a diagnostics run and sensor data logging to try and get an idea hopefully for a issue where my car intermittently and randomly blow some smoke. If my car could smoke a cigarette then its like it took a puff - lol. Anyway I have fault code P0235 which I believe is turbo boost sensor? I recently bypassed the boost bleeder/controller as after recent mods with Criag's help my car was hitting 21psi. A little too high for kind of stock setup still. So I believe the code is for this sensor but I wanted to confirm incase is was for the other sensor that monitors boost pressure. I still have everything connected electronically. I just connected the inlet and outlet of the bleeder controller to each other (keep dust out), plugged the hole on the intake pipe and replaced the T with a stright through from inlet to waste gate actuator. Any info on code 235 would eb great! Now to go for another test run for a speed trap test thanks!

thanks for the feedback guy!!! This site/forum truly rocks! Believe me if I was able to I would do my own basic servicing at home as I have with all my past cars. Unfortunately my carrent living arrangements is that my car park is 2 levels under ground (apartment basement parking) with no ability to service. Bad lighting, heat, traffic = not good.

Thanks for the feedback guys. So I am thinking that I will start with commercial engine flush product before going full on with diesel. That said when and how should I use it? I never used such stuff before. Plus engine just had fresh Neo oil put in it yesterday so be a shame to ruin $120+ oil although I'd rather that than a crazy repair bill. I was just reading on the Liqui-Molly Detox and got the impression I could put in any time as its an additive that does not change the DNA of the motor oil. Or shoul dI do a couple 100 K's then put the flush in and do another couple 100 K's?

Just stock ECU. Only upgrades now are HDi FMIC, Sierra Stage 1 Turbo with actuator, Dump pipe. I just reset the ECU (I think) and it seems to idle much better now and not rough. Also the tappy noise seems to quietened a little although still there. Starting to think my has just been like this for a while never noticed coz not usually sticking my head in the engine bay to listen.

Hey guys, Well Craig (Jetwreck) replaced my "FUBAR" turbo today as well as fitting the new dump pipe that Scotty made up. Very happy with the work performed and Craig is a legend! No f**king around and does the job proper! However there is still a little concern still lingering with a tapping noise that started up top of engine. The oil that was drained was black as hell and royally f**ked. It should not be like this as my car cant have travelled more than 2,500km since last service and I provided the mechanic royal purple (5000km since last year tax return). Highly suspect that mechanic took it for himself and bent me over. Also other evidence was the oil feed banjo to turbo was blocked. After speaking with craig he is wondering if there is poor oil circulation feed to top end and any of the other many oil sprayers in the lower end. Thinking that the engine is so clogged up and full of shit it need a good flushing. Hoping the engine has not had it. So... any recommendations for proper, thorough engine flushes? Going to try and get another 500km on it keeping off boost to try and force some oil around and then go for a professional flush. What would people recommend and/or advise? Paul.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that responded to my post. Its great to know there is an active community of people out there with Stagea's that are more than willing to help out however they can. Much appreciated!!! Update: I have spoke with Jetwreck who is going to help me out in this repair. Cant say thanks enough!!! Also touching base with Scott about dump pipe and actuator. Thanks.

So whats up with these turbos then if I am one among a few to many now that they suddenly dropping like flies? Cheap/basic turbos?

Not planning to do myself as underground basement parking makes it impossible (it was torture enough to put in the FMIC).

Thanks for the fast feedback guys!!! Much appreciated which makes me both happy and sad - lol. I too was thinking on the limp back home that the turbo prob in poor condition and something like the compressor rubbing on housing. So next question... Anyone know good workshops in the Sydney north area for turbos??? I located in chatswood.

Hey Guys, Well my week before Xmas is shaping up to be worse and worse. Today its my car. It has started to make a very loud industrial sounding vacumm cleaner noise shall we say... lol. And it seems to be completely insync with when the turbo would spool. Initially I thought its a intake restriction (maybe a door/flap not opening any more) but now I am getting even more paranoid that its the turbo that has shat itself. So my car has always made a turbo spool up noise since I bought it 2+ years ago in Aug 2010. Initially I thought "oh no... I have a fried turbo". But later I found info online that this is the normal operating noise of the VQ25DET turbo setup. I hope to this day that is true. Either way the car has always behaved well in accelerating and never missed a beat and no smoke or anything. A1. I will attach before and after sound bites I have taken. Good thing I have the "before" on hand still. My car is completely stock with exception of a HDi front mount intercooler I installed my self. I checked today the intake fitting as best I could without taking the bumper and reobar off and all looks ok. Although I did notice there is a small coolant leak on the car LHS. So today was driving home with wife and kid. I had the aircon cranked up to max as it was 30*C outside at the time. I was on a uphill slope sitting at the traffic lights. They went green and I floored it to beat the other off the line with the car locked down into 1st gear in sequential mode. Acceleration was poor but jsut thought that's the usual for having aircon on. Then at the next set of light with only a slight uphill this time acceleration was poor once again which I thought was strange AND THEN... I hear this very loud unusual sound. Best way I can describe it is like a vacuum cleaner. Or a wurring sound but not really a siren sound. My immediate impression was that the lack of acceleration was due to a choking engine from restricted intake. If the car is rolling or not accelerating you dont hear the sound but apply a little to max gas pedal (another words make the turbo kick in) then the sound is very strong a loud to hear. I stopped at a servo to check ECU fault codes as I had a similar thing on a subaru legacy when if I accelerated in a too higher gear like 4th uphill, the ECU would sense the turbo boost not rising quick enough and go into safe/limp home mode. To fix that I would reset the ECU and all fixed. Anyway back to the stagea and the check engine light was giving me 4 groups of 10 flashes, another words 0000 - no fault. I reset the ECU anyway while in diagnostic check mode. All this did was now make the engine run rough as shit at idle now with a tapping noise going on in the intake manifold area but got better over time. I then decided after mucking around in the engine bay for a while to limp it home very carefully (hoping I have not made things worse - but now maybe good excuse to upgrade? - lol). The limp home helped idle as the ECU seems to have relearnt the air/fuel mixture I guess. So I am posting this for advice or help. Listen to the attached sound files of before and after and let me know what you thoughts are. Is my turbo sounding fried? Or is it something thats probably stuck shut on intake or needs reset? Love to hear any kind of feedback as tomorrow first thing now I need to get this car sorted before the Xmas period. Thanks in advance, Paul. Sound bite 1 - before: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27909437/Stagea%20-%20before.wav Sound bite 2 - Sick Stagea: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27909437/My%20Sick%20Stagea%20M35%20Turbo%202002.mp4 Note: The sound file labelled sick stagea I took on my Galaxy S3 which saves as a 3ga file which is meant to be a mp4a file according to vlc. I have renamed extension to mp4 so it can be recognised by media players. Let me know if its not working.

Hey Guys, Well my week before Xmas is shaping up to be worse and worse. Today its my car. It has started to make a very loud industrial sounding vacumm cleaner noise shall we say... lol. And it seems to be completely insync with when the turbo would spool. Initially I thought its a intake restriction (maybe a door/flap not opening any more) but now I am getting even more paranoid that its the turbo that has shat itself. So my car has always made a turbo spool up noise since I bought it 2+ years ago in Aug 2010. Initially I thought "oh no... I have a fried turbo". But later I found info online that this is the normal operating noise of the VQ25DET turbo setup. I hope to this day that is true. Either way the car has always behaved well in accelerating and never missed a beat and no smoke or anything. A1. I will attach before and after sound bites I have taken. Good thing I have the "before" on hand still. My car is completely stock with exception of a HDi front mount intercooler I installed my self. I checked today the intake fitting as best I could without taking the bumper and reobar off and all looks ok. Although I did notice there is a small coolant leak on the car LHS. So today was driving home with wife and kid. I had the aircon cranked up to max as it was 30*C outside at the time. I was on a uphill slope sitting at the traffic lights. They went green and I floored it to beat the other off the line with the car locked down into 1st gear in sequential mode. Acceleration was poor but jsut thought that's the usual for having aircon on. Then at the next set of light with only a slight uphill this time acceleration was poor once again which I thought was strange AND THEN... I hear this very loud unusual sound. Best way I can describe it is like a vacuum cleaner. Or a wurring sound but not really a siren sound. My immediate impression was that the lack of acceleration was due to a choking engine from restricted intake. If the car is rolling or not accelerating you dont hear the sound but apply a little to max gas pedal (another words make the turbo kick in) then the sound is very strong a loud to hear. I stopped at a servo to check ECU fault codes as I had a similar thing on a subaru legacy when if I accelerated in a too higher gear like 4th uphill, the ECU would sense the turbo boost not rising quick enough and go into safe/limp home mode. To fix that I would reset the ECU and all fixed. Anyway back to the stagea and the check engine light was giving me 4 groups of 10 flashes, another words 0000 - no fault. I reset the ECU anyway while in diagnostic check mode. All this did was now make the engine run rough as shit at idle now with a tapping noise going on in the intake manifold area but got better over time. I then decided after mucking around in the engine bay for a while to limp it home very carefully (hoping I have not made things worse - but now maybe good excuse to upgrade? - lol). The limp home helped idle as the ECU seems to have relearnt the air/fuel mixture I guess. So I am posting this for advice or help. Listen to the attached sound files of before and after and let me know what you thoughts are. Is my turbo sounding fried? Or is it something thats probably stuck shut on intake or needs reset? Love to hear any kind of feedback as tomorrow first thing now I need to get this car sorted before the Xmas period. Thanks in advance, Paul. Sound bite 1 - before: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27909437/Stagea%20-%20before.wav Sound bite 2 - Sick Stagea: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27909437/My%20Sick%20Stagea%20M35%20Turbo%202002.mp4 Note: The sound file labelled sick stagea I took on my Galaxy S3 which saves as a 3ga file which is meant to be a mp4a file according to vlc. I have renamed extension to mp4 so it can be recognised by media players. Let me know if its not working.

Yeah I am in a underground car park at 8pm when its almost empty. Thought it would be good time to get sound bite. I must get round to taking a look under the hood when work gives me a break. I want to check if the exhaust bolts are coming loose like others mention as I also had this on a SR20DET silvia.

LOL! These Nismo ECU sound like more fun. So are they plug 'n' play so to speak? Can you just swap it in replacing stock ECU? Or would one need to go to dyno? Buying from ebay japan or monster import or something?

I find its not "touchy" enough (gearbox that is). well sometimes when not pushing it but if say i turn out a side street (rolling start) and i floor it its like, 1 sec.... 2 sec... oh! lets gear down a gear or two? not touchy enough. and in that instance i feel half throttle would have had me further down the road by then? yeah think i should try some mods first. first id like to do the hdi fmic upgrade with thinner thermo fan. that should help at this time of yeah. i only got car nearly 3 months ago and maybe what i am noticing is summer arriving with increased turbo lag? after that exhuast. suggestions? 3 or 3.5 inch? not too loud either (thats a first). so how do i reset ecu anyway? and recommended driving after reset before switching car off? cheers!

Cheers to all for the feedback so far. Appreciate it. I was not aware my car had a fly-by wire accelerator. Never occurred to me. Yes 6km to work (12km round trip) is not much. But there is a small twisty section of road on the way where I lock it down into manual mode and OMG!!!! This car fly's! It definitely loves the twisty, windy roads which is much to my liking. I grew up racing through the Adelaide hills. Eagle on the hill was always a bench mark road. I guess to be clear the "gutless" sensation when applying full throttle is most noticeable taking off from stand still or rolling start. Kind of get the feeling that half throttle is just as good but maybe its just me. Actually its probably just turbo lag I am starting to notice more as the weather seems to be heating up in preparation for summer. I just cant help but think there is maybe something I can do to make the gearbox more obedient to my driving style. Oh yeah... Stupid me. It dawn on me today that my comments about my fuel consumption being high (20L/100km) could be to do with me using manual mode a lot more in the last 1-2weeks as I try to understand this laggy acceleration feeling. Plus its more fun :-)

Ok I've been searching for some time on the forums and while I have found some slight insight into what I am trying to find in terms of answers, I still have not found info related to what I require. Firstly I own a NM35 Axis Autech Stagea. My first question is my fuel consumption high? I mostly do short trips (~6km) to and from work, not always everyday of week. Other than that just local city driving around chatswood sydney. The longest drives on a more regular basis are from Chatswood to Sydney CBD (think its only ~12km) but this is just for Nov mostly. And on fewer occasions I have done distances from Chatswood to manly beach (~20km). Those figure can double as they are one way. So recently I have been getting 18L/100km. But lately that went up a little (yesterday I was getting 20L/100km of 47km range). However I admit I do love to push the car so maybe its just my driving style? Also can anyone tell me in the fuel usage history screen what each bar of the bar graph represents? Is it between each start of car, or the recorded range, etc? And how does the range figure work? I am not quite putting 2 and 2 together here. Secondly - My car is still stock at the moment. If I am just crusing around and give half throttle to make the gear box kick back I feel nice, quick acceleration. Always put a smile on my face. But the same cant quite be said for full throttle. Maybe its because it has stock intake and exhaust so it cant breath as nice. But sometimes it feels like the car is limiting output to protect the gear box perhaps? I read other posts and I think there is such a thing as a torque converter to protect gearbox and keep it cool. Is this what I am noticing on full throttle? Or do I have a downgraded trans fluid thats making my auto gearbox under perform? OR maybe I am just experiencing wheel spin and dont know it. Couple time I have had all windows down in back street and heard the wheel just breaking traction. But I feel the lack of power on full throttle in more car/ecu controlled. Well that's it. If anyone has info on those points and suggestions to maybe changes needed (trans fluid change, torque converters, etc) would be greatly appreciated.

here is a sound bite of what mine sounds like. http://www.4shared.com/get/v_2oZU0M/File.html From what I read its normal. Also in this review they mention the same thing. http://www.testdrivenau.co.cc/?p=553 Let me know if yours sounds the same?

Ok glad I found this post. I too have noticed this whistle under acceleration/boost. When I first bought car and heard sound I was like "Oh no!". I thought signs of turbo on way out. But after driving more and more I am not convinced. I think its just how the car is. Then I found people saying its normal for this car/engine/nissan. So I wanted to know if anyone can confirm its normal? I also found this review of stagea against holden wagon SS which suggest its normal - http://www.testdrivenau.co.cc/?p=553 Also Here is a link to a sound file I took of me driving in carpark (sorry cant figure how to attach to this post) http://www.4shared.com/get/v_2oZU0M/File.html. Can really hear it in effect. Can anyone please put my mind at ease. Cheers!

appologies. i did search but i guess i just did not find the right search terms. cheers for link.

Hey all, I recently bought a Stagea NM35. One thing that annoys me is the sequential shifter style. As stock, you push up to change up gears and push down to change down gears. But this I find uncomfortable and seems against the cars motion when accelerating hard or braking hard. To me (IMO) it makes more sense to push up to shift down gears (as your leaning forward when you brake hard) and pull down to shift up gears (as your being pushed back into seat when accelerating). I thought before I go ripping out the center console to see the possibility I'd check to see if anyone else has done this already and what they did. Also if anyone has some kind of schematics would be awesome (although if lucky its just simple wiring). I can see myself soon opening it up to see the circuitry underneath to make the change. Cheers!

I just keep pushing buttons and trying combos until it worked. I have a lot of practice I guess you could say. I worked 4 years in Biomedical engineering where I serviced over 250 different types of medical equipment that have their own ways of entry and service menus. But you may want to proceed with caution. I think I have accidentally adjusted my outside temp reading. I think its 3*C too high. But I just have not had time to try n change it back as been busy with the tv tuner install (which I just got up and running). P.S. I still did not manage to suss out the diag. menu on aircon yet. Will get to it soon.