New Stagea Owner With Some Questions

[phoenix88]

Hi all,

I just purchased a yellow stagea with an r34 front end from Evo mitch and there are just a few small questions i have about stageas. This is my first import turbo car so the questions may seem really dumb.

My first one is about the engine light that comes up on the dash. I was told by the previous owner that it is the O2 sensor and that i can check it with a paperclip. Ive searched how to do this but it doesnt mean much to me. Could someone explain how to do it in stupid person language.

My second question is about the turbo timer that came with the car. I couldnt find the model name all i know is that its made by pivot. Does anyone know if there is a manual i get for this.

Thanx for the help.

[wolverine]

when does the engine light come on?

[phoenix88]

The guy who owned it before me said it would come on at random times. i just drove in from queensland to victoria without the light on and have driven around a little bit more then it turned on has hasnt turned off since.

[QLDR31]

Thats a beasty looking Stagea.

Not sure how to test the oxygen sensor. Think they are around $90 maybe more.

A while back I purchased a USB diagnostic cable it allows you to connect a laptop to the car and tell you faults etc, A tool like this might be handy for working out issues. Maybe someone locally has one?

Some good turbo timers use the oxygen sensor to workout how long the car stays running for, maybe this is causing the problem with your turbo timer.

Edited February 7, 2010 by QLDR31

[pipster11]

either get an ecutalk display (www.ecutalk.com), awesome gadget and really handy to have

or their consult cable

you want to look for the o2 sensor voltage changing from low to high and back down to low (.3 to .9 back to .3, etc) it should rise and fall quite quickly too (up and back down in a couple of seconds)

if its a series 1, get the o2 sensor for an n14 sss pulsar with an sr20 (same plug)

if its a series 2, get the same one, but you have to cut and crimp the old plug to the new sensor

[wolverine]

Engine check light flashing is often an indicator that the knock sensor is picking up some noise. There are other possibilities (like AFM maxing out) but I am pretty certain it has nothing to do with an O2 sensor.

Is it running the factory ECU or some aftermarket engine management. It may be worth checking the AFR's as good insurance.

[pipster11]

bad o2 will trip the cel on most things with obd-ii based stuff

go to bursons and haggle, should be able to get a new one for ~$90

worst case is that you cel still comes on but you get slightly better fuel consumption

[wolverine]

Replacing a working part doesn't make sense, stick a consult on it and check whether the 02 sensor voltage fluctuates once it is up to temperature.

I have never had an engine check light come on with a failed 02 sensor on either car.

[-RBD2-]

borrow a consult and check codes before spending money mate,best way to work out whats happening

if your 02 sensor was shagged the car would splutter and stall at idle and if it does idle it will be very erratic

my was jumping between 900-1300rpm then drop to 600rpm then usually stall,very annoying in traffic

if it is your 02 sensor,go buy a EL falcon sensor (bosch) there about 55bucks and always available then just cut the plugs and resolder them together

plus the 02 sensor does jack all for fuel ecomony,least it didnt in mine..?

[pipster11]

all comes down to how badyl its failed

i had an outback which would throw cel for o2 all the time but would still idle and drive ok

my 32 had a bad o2 too and it idled badly and unplugging it made it better and ran better too

o2 is only used for idle and low throttle amounts (cruising and coasting)

if your getting 400+ kms from a tank around town its not too bad

you can get the cel to show you what the o2 is doing by getting it into diagnostics mode (paperclip thing) and starting the car and holding the revs at 2000 rpm, it sould flash about 5 time in 10 secs or 10 times in 5 secs, i forget

[QWK32]

Tom is pretty much right on this one guys. On the S2 the O2 sensor can throw the engine check light up for a couple of seconds, then it goes away. It happened to me, I found it was mainly after you have been driving the car for a little while, i first saw it on a highway road-trip. Once i got to where i was going i checked the error codes and it had "O2 Sensor Malfunction". I threw an oscilloscope on the sensor and found that while the O2 sensor would cycle, it was very "lazy".

Even though the sensor was starting to fail, i didn't have an issue with idle or an overly excessive fuel usage. I changed it for another genuine nissan one that set me back about $170, i didn't feel like stuffing around rewiring a NTK or Bosch one. I didn't get any noticeable increase in fuel economy afterwards, but it was probably only a matter of time before the thing shit itself all together.

Ben, as for the turbo timer, maybe look for a Pivot website, they may have user manuals available to download.

[pipster11]

Tom is pretty much right on this one guys. On the S2 the O2 sensor can throw the engine check light up for a couple of seconds, then it goes away. It happened to me, I found it was mainly after you have been driving the car for a little while, i first saw it on a highway road-trip. Once i got to where i was going i checked the error codes and it had "O2 Sensor Malfunction". I threw an oscilloscope on the sensor and found that while the O2 sensor would cycle, it was very "lazy".

Even though the sensor was starting to fail, i didn't have an issue with idle or an overly excessive fuel usage. I changed it for another genuine nissan one that set me back about $170, i didn't feel like stuffing around rewiring a NTK or Bosch one. I didn't get any noticeable increase in fuel economy afterwards, but it was probably only a matter of time before the thing shit itself all together.

Ben, as for the turbo timer, maybe look for a Pivot website, they may have user manuals available to download.

just curious as to what acceptable voltage ranges are? and time to go from max to min to max etc?

off the top of my head mine bottoms out at 0.3V and maxes at about 0.95V and takes a second to go from bottom to top and about a second to go back down when fairly warm (a bit quicker when hot, maybe even twice as fast)

[QWK32]

just curious as to what acceptable voltage ranges are? and time to go from max to min to max etc?

off the top of my head mine bottoms out at 0.3V and maxes at about 0.95V and takes a second to go from bottom to top and about a second to go back down when fairly warm (a bit quicker when hot, maybe even twice as fast)

its not really the upper and lower peak voltages that are important, its the crossover through the range of 0.4-0.6v (roughly) that is. with mine it would cycle, but lag in either the upper or lower peak voltages for too long, sometimes quite a few seconds before bouncing back.

[phoenix88]

Thanx for all the advice guys. Im not to sure whats goin on with the engine light, the car is running fine. Im just goin on what evo mitch told me when he sold it to me. he said he got the code from the diagnostic. Im gonna get it changed over just so i dont get any problems with it later.

Theres nothing wrong with the turbo timer i just have no idea how it works. Ive looked for the manual but cant find anything.

The cars at the mechanics this week to get a victorian roadworthy. hope it passes.

[QWK32]

If your keen to get that error code checked out, you could either try the bridging the pins method aka "Paperclip Method". or just ask your mechanic if they have a diagnostic scanner, and can check the error codes for you. It doesn't have to be a nissan scanner or with consult setup. My brothers workshop uses one called a Carman, it has a bunch of different plugs so it can link with almost every make/model, it works on my stagea.

Edited February 8, 2010 by QWK32