G'Day from a 'new' Stag owner

[tigerleo62]

Hi All

Picked up my RS FourV this arvo, wow what a smooth g'box! :wassup: Car is very smooth, except when I picked it up it was rolling all over the place - turned out the front tyres were 7 Kpi over and the rears 3 Kpi under pressure! Once that was rectified at the servo, it was much much better... Still needs the swaybars to stop the roll (having just had a tiburon for over 2 years, the Stag feels very rollie-pollie, but I guess I will get used to that after a while...)

THe CD/Radio/Cassette player is u/s - a fm converter was installed, but doesn't seem to do s.f.a... hence I have been driving it with no internal audio and the car is very quiet indeed... the dash cig lighter doesn't work either, but the rear one does... couldn't figure out where the fuse for that would be... guess I better order a manual...

A couple of questions that some one might be able to answer:

The switch on the right of the gear change that has Power A/T Snow - what does this switch do - I can figure out the SNOW bit, but as the the other two positions?

THere is a button that looks like four little tyres to the left of the steering wheel - the dealer said it changes the AWD from 40/60 to 50/50 front to rear - does this sound right, and if so what the hell do you use it for???

Anyways, cheers!

[Jay95R33]

Congratulations and welcome to the Stagea family

The fuse box on the Stagea's is in a bit of a funny place if you ask me. It's behind the 'coin box' that's near the drivers right knee. I think you have to take the lower dash part off to get to them

The Snow/Power button just holds the gears a little longer and kicks down quicker in Power mode, and you've probably already worked out that in Snow mode it disables first gear (less likely to spin the wheels in the snow).

The dealer was almost right about the 4wd switch. It does infact enable 50/50 split 4wd when pressed but it works a little different to just straight 50/50 split.

From what I've read on the Jap sites, when NOT pressed it's 100% rear wheel drive until the fronts loose traction, then the backs will come in upto 50% to give you traction.

When the button is pressed it will give you a 50/50 split from 0-20km/h, after 20km/h it will give you a constant 20/80 split (20 front, 80 rear) unless the rears start spinning then the fronts will go upto 50% to give you traction.

I hope that helps.

Cheers

J

[tigerleo62]

Cool, thanks Jay, that helped a lot!

Just been for a drive this evening and realised that the 'power' button doesn't light up, while 'snow' does - read that others have had probs with the globes on dash/console...

The 4WD switch makes sense now - leave it off for dry weather and turn it on in wet weather, or I suppose if one felt game to take the Stag for a run through the surf :crazy:

BTW: first place I looked for the fuse box was where the coin box is, so I thought, "well it isn't there then...", but, hey, turns out it is... :confused:

[SafT]

Congratulations and welcome to the Stagea family

The fuse box on the Stagea's is in a bit of a funny place if you ask me.  It's behind the 'coin box' that's near the drivers right knee.  I think you have to take the lower dash part off to get to them

you can pop the coin box out

the diagnostic port is behind there as well, but it can be hard to get a plug onto it

[tigerleo62]

you can pop the coin box out

the diagnostic port is behind there as well, but it can be hard to get a plug onto it

Thanks for that - very easy to get out and now I have discovered there is a fuse missing... wonder what it is for (probably the cig lighter that doesn't work I hope) and how many amps....

Really must purchase a manual...

[RB26VL]

hey tigerleo

welcome to the slowly growing owners of stageas in perth

they are a really nice smooth car to drive, but manual would be more fun, but thats life

we should organise a cruise in a few months when i get mine on the road.

doin the rb26/gtr 5speed conversion :aroused:

should be a bloody weapon sleeper :headspin:

where did u purchase it from??? auto wholesale???

good luck with the new ride

cheers

Brad

[tigerleo62]

Hi Bad - yeah from Albert at auto wholesale - it was the blue one with twin sunroof - very clean interior, but a few k's on the clock...

I'm past driving manuals as a daily driver now, but still fantasize about a softtop manual - auto wholesale has an immaculate series 1 MX5 for $16k - looked very very very tempting, but totally impractical as a utalitarian ride - wouldn't be able to take my cats to the vet in that one!

The big task now is determine what to replace the audio with - whether to go for a 2 DIN all in one unit or two seperate DIN units such as a DVD screen and a DVD/CD/AM/FM tuner/amp thingo - ebay has some interesting cheap stuff - time to go to the local stores and see how much the real audio products cost...

[BoyWhoCriedWolf]

Welcome to the club Tigerleo. I am sure you will have a hep of fun in your staj. I have just fitted a gtr front mount and upped the boost - its a lot more fun now.

Cheers,

Ken

[ICE12]

Tigerleo welcome and enjoy, it is all good.

Ken can you let me know who did the fitting of the FMIC for you, PM me so not to Highjakc this thread.

ICE

[Happymeal]

Welcome to the family! come in, kick off your shoes we've got a seat at the table reserved for you Guys we might have to extend the table I think, this community is growing fast!

Just reading about the power button, you say yours doesn't light up? Probably just a bulb or something in the switch. The ECU will actually put the car into Power mode on it's own if you are vigourous in your prseeing of the accelerator pedal. For example if you punch it for over taking or something you will often notice (if your light is working lol) the power light comes on, and everything functions in power mode the same as if the rocker button was pushed down to manually select Power mode. ie the Ecu is smart enough to say, "I think they want power mode" and give it to you. It will resort back to it's normal mode once you've calmed down in relation to the accelerator pedal and driving has returned to normal. Not sure how long the delay is before it goes back to it's normal mode though. But check it out anyway, my R32 GTS-4 auto did the same thing, so I had some expereince with this system before the Stagea RS4 I have now.

Snow mode, starts the gearbox off in second gear I think (I'm not as sure on this mode as the power one, as I don't use it)

Jam a 10 amp fuse into the spare slot you have, it is the lowest one in the system, so if it absolutely needs something higher it will be the weakest point in the system and blow, which is good, better that that other stuff. There are no fuses in my fuse block with a lower Amp rating, 10 is lowest (red aren't they from memory).

try that anyway, see if the cig lighter works with a 10 in place. The cig lighter function won't blow a 10 (or shouldn't). If it still doesn't work, you may need to pull the centre console out to see if the damned thing is actually plugged in properly. Mine wasn't when I got it, but it did not have the factory sound system in it. I have a feeling the system in my car was removed by previous owner and another head unit was installed. I only had two front speakers (non factory), and my rear doors were empty. So they probably forgot to replug in lighter. I was confident in removing the centre console though as have done so on several cars stereo or electronically related. It's not a tough task, but if you haven't done it before, always error on the side of caution and try to visiualise where stuff will be clipped. Don't force anything, you don't want to break your baby

Hope that all helps you, and again welcome.

[tigerleo62]

Thanks Happymeal - gee you Kiwi's are always so hospitable!

I replaced the fuse with a 10amp the other day, but didn't do anything (that I know of), so the cig lighter may well not be connected - it looks absolutely brand new so I am pretty certain it was replaced at compliance. Anyway, I will check it out when I get to replace the stereo (as well as the power switch globe).

I have read up on this forum about removing the centre consoles - such as removing the centre glovebox thing and the hazard light so that you can push out the console and vents from behind to access screws etc. - sounds much better than trying to pry things off with a screw driver. I found out yesterday that the cassette player works even though the CD and radio doesn't. However the only cassette tape I have is the sound track from an Indian musical, so if you are in Perth and are sitting next to a stagea with Indian music coming out, then that is me! :headspin:

But first I need to firm up the ride of the car - I can't get used to how it bounces along - kind of a novelty in some ways, but I would prefer to just drive the car and not worry about 'floating' over the road!

Fuel consumption is a bit of a worry - don't think I have ever used half a tank of fuel in one afternoon of driving around town before! :thumbdwn: But the engine is so smooth and the turbo kicks in before I know it at times, so I guess with more experience in the car I will be able to drive more economically.

I had read somewhere before that the smoothest engines, i.e., with less vibration are straight 6s and the optimum size is 2.5 litres. Now I know what they mean! :wassup:

Anyway, cheers

[Jay95R33]

The ECU will actually put the car into Power mode on it's own if you are vigourous in your prseeing of the accelerator pedal.  For example if you punch it for over taking or something you will often notice (if your light is working lol) the power light comes on, and everything functions in power mode the same as if the rocker button was pushed down to manually select Power mode.  ie the Ecu is smart enough to say,  "I think they want power mode"  and give it to you.  

Ahh good stuff... I was at the lights the other day, no other cars around, raining etc.. So I thought I'd test the 4wd system. Left foot hard on the brake, right foot on the go peddal. Stalled it up to about 2300rpm and took the brake off. There was a very slight twitch in the back end and then it took off. I think the backs spun a fraction and then the fronts came in to play

But after a took the brake off I looked down and saw that the power light was on, even though it was in normal mode... Very cool.

J

[RB30wagon]

This,being my first post on this site,when I saw the subjects on the stageas,I immediately clicked on it!At the moment,I still own an ever reliable 86 skyline wagon,which even though she's had a long life,I still love it to bits,but I would like to upgrade to a stagea wagon one day.I don't know what it is about wagons,maybe it's because they're so versatile,but I'm not too sure how much the stageas are worth,and can you get them in a manual?Personally I'm a manual person,but I suppose the autos arent too bad sometimes.

Well,hopefully someone can enlighten me a little.

thanks,from Geoff.....

[tigerleo62]

...but I'm not too sure how much the stageas are worth,and can you get them in a manual?

In Perth they start around $19+K, but from what I have read they are about 5k more in Sydney and way cheaper in NZ...

I was reading some earlier threads in this forum this arvo and manuals are about 6-8K(?) more than an auto and the general vibe seems to be that it is perhaps cheaper to convert an auto to manual in Aus rather than purchase a manual in Japan...

I think that is the gist - but do some searching on 'manual' or such - I have only been on this forum for a week, but if you read some of the earlier threads (turn the forum option off that only lists recent threads) you will gleen a fair bit of info on what people are trying out on their stags...