M35 Stageas any good?

[peas]

Hey all,

I am looking to replace my shitter. Bang for buck I always seem to be coming back to the M35 Stagea 2.5L DI V6. Has anyone had any experience with these? Do they have any inherrent problems? Seem fairly cheap for a mid 00's car when compared with a Caldina or Mazda6... And I can't seem to find anything on the net regarding common faults or issues.

TIA

Andy

[MAD FX]

Yep I have one, had it almost 2 years, no problems at all and from my research on them there weren't any major issues with them.

Keys are expensive, so make sure you get 2 with it or budget about $500 for another one.

The biggest problem is the gas, 13.5l per 100km around town, but down to about 8.5l per 100km on the open road. And they're a bit gutless, go well once you get up in the revs but lacking torque down low. But like you, value for money you can't beat them, and for the size the gas isn't too bad, and if you think about the extra $4k - $6k for say a Mazda 6 wagon is a lot of petrol...

[Emperor]

If you can stretch go 3L over 2.5, alot better on mileage and the 2.5 will dissapoint.

I've got the 250RS, I love it to bits, but a V8 is needed haha.
Best thing I love is how quiet and smooth they are stock, with lots of room in the boot and heaps of cubby holes.

Give me a txt or call on 0278180931 and i'll see what my old man can find for you (car importer).

[fuel]

They are a direct injection engine, so the intake manifold tends to gum up with muck when they start getting up there with kms. Also I've seen a number of them with pinking issues, and have seen another with a stretched timing chain which seems to be happening alot with the later model chain driven Nissan engines, however it seemed to be a one off case with this VQ.

Other than that, a good solid wagon which has a bit of a European look to it. Just don't get one with the horrible brown interior, they are ghastly!

[3T-Rona]

*stretched chains
*cam position sensors
*dont touch the earlier model with the integrated climate controll/stereo arrangement, shit themselves.

[Emperor]

*stretched chains
*cam position sensors
*dont touch the earlier model with the integrated climate controll/stereo arrangement, shit themselves.

It's not really an early model thing, it's a factory optional thing.
Mine being the RS poor-spec came with separate head unit, which is good, but still had a gay standard sound setup.

Mine's coming up 180,000km now. They do not like 91 at all.
I've pulled the intake plenum and stack off and cleaned it all out, as fuel said they clog up with shit after awhile.
The only thing that $&#$% me off about the Stagea is the aircon... Like if you have it just on normal fans blowing air in(aircon off) and it's on fresh air setting, and you hit the AC button it switches to re-circ old air.. Just a little annoyance

[peas]

Awesome thanks for that. I thought that the 2.5 might struggle a little bit. I have a mate in compliance who is looking at bringing in some cars so will hit him up about a 300RX. They seem like really good value.

[Emperor]

Get a 2WD. 4wd have issues and a 300 4wd model will be slower than the 250

[rollaholic]

much more efficent to recirc air if you want the ac on

[Emperor]

much more efficent to recirc air if you want the ac on

I'd rather sacrifice a bit of fuel than smell my fart 5 times

[Bling]

touche'

[Timmo]

much more efficent to recirc air if you want the ac on

I'd rather sacrifice a bit of fuel than smell my fart 5 times

[MAD FX]

Sorry to bring up an old thread but this one mentions the intake issue. What would this cause?

My M35 blows a bit of dirty smoke occassionally, and uses a lot of fuel. Would this have anything to do with the intake being clogged up? And how easy to clean, car is due for service/wof this month so just as easy to ak the mechanic to do it. Its just clicked over 90,000kms so probably not high enough to be a problem?

Is a 2002 M35 250RS poverty-spec

[Emperor]

How bad are we talking, in terms of fuel usage?
I'm not impressed with the amount mine uses, but it's a hell of a lot better than my old R34 Skyline or Forester.

The intake gets clogged up by blow-by from the pcv. I've stopped this by making an allow intake, that doesn't let the cam-cover go back into the intake, i'll be putting a catch can in soon.


It's about an hour job to clean the intake, taking off the airbox, intake pipe, throttle body, top intake plenum and bottom intake runners. Clean out with degreaser, or petrol like I had to use, it was that baked on.
Then after you've done that, it's reccomended to use upper engine cleaner, like Subaru guys use.

Oh, and if you do this, you'll need to do the throttle learning procedure, which can be found on google or skylines australia.

[MAD FX]

Thanks for that

Fuel use is 13.5l per 100km round town, so roughly 7.5kms per litre. Not flash. My Dad has a Forester XT, so turbo, 4wd and auto, and that uses 10l per 100km round town. My WRX was 10l per 100km as well, no matter how I drove it around town, as a manual though. What is your Stagea like?

[Emperor]

Duno exact figures, around town I can get 500km to a tank. Open road around 700 if I nana it

[MAD FX]

Ok that is about 10% better than me I think, I'm usually looking around 450km to a 60l fill, but yeah over 700 on the open road. I find having the 250RS means the only option is to nana it, even my gf was giving me shite about how slow it is off the mark, she has a bog standard n14 Pulsar. Can't fit a fridge in the back though...cos that matters every day.

Wof due next week so will see what mechanic says as well.

[Emperor]

Yeh, they struggle to gett the power down but go nicely up in the high speeds. I found out they don't weigh to much, took some scrap down the other day and asked the guy how much it weighed, 1650kg with 2 people, and half a tank. I was expecting 2 tonne..