KiLLeR2001

I have nothing extra in my car, not even AC. I know its a bit overkill but I wanted to go all out. For too many years now I've been dealing with sub-par batteries, it was time for a change. I had a RedTop before switching to an FMIC and it was fine as well.

edit:

I'm getting a new phone (8mp camera) in July so you guys won't have to deal with these shitty pictures anymore... LOL.

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KiLLeR2001

Next up:

- Coilovers
- Adjustable rear traction / toe rods
- New rear bearings
- Extended studs for rear hubs + 10mm spacers
- Repack axles with new grease

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KiLLeR2001

Well, you guys know me. As I continue to save up for my coilovers + rear suspension links, I decided to tackle another little project I've been meaning to do.

*** Wireless Trunk Release ***

I installed power door locks on my car as soon as I bought it so I could utilize the Viper alarm lock/unlock feature. And when I bought my kouki 180sx tail lights I said to myself that there is no way in hell I'm carrying another key just for the trunk. Which was not a problem for me because my manual lever works fine.

However, it wasn't until last week when I was buying groceries (something I rarely do) and I had a few bags in my hand and in the other hand holding onto my Nissan key when it dawns on me... This key can't open my trunk. Herp a fucking derp. So I have to proceed to unlock my door, open the door pull the lever (with bags in hand) and then pull the trunk up. Pretty lame right? Yeah I thought so too...

So I bought the DEI 522t trunk release kit.



(Bosch relay not included)

Now this isn't necessarily a hard install, but it will take a few hours if you want to do it right and hide the wires as best as possible.

The first thing I needed to do was to inspect the trunk latch mechanism.



The manual wire you can see I've highlighted yellow, you will want the solenoid to mount from this direction (right side). Red arrow indicates where your new wire from the solenoid will be going.



This is the little piece you will feed the wire into and then screw down to lock into place. It's important to remove all the slack so that the solenoid can get a good pull on the wire when you go to activate it.



Solenoid mounted. I used one of the 8mm tail light stud/nut combo to mount it. It was really nice of Nissan to use 20 studs to mount the tail light assembly to the chassis LOL.



Here is the little clamping piece fed through the wire and then tightened down. You will want to make sure your solenoid is mounted firmly before finalizing this step.



Relay setup.

Now for Viper alarm systems, I had to locate the red w/ white stripe wire in the main harness. Thank god it was right out in front so I didn't have to fishing for it in my cluster bomb of alarm wiring... LOL



So pretty much the only annoying part of the whole process is feeding / hiding the signal wire from the front of the car all the way to the back. The same idea would apply for the 12V source wire too but since I relocated my battery to the back, this was a lot easier.



This is my common area for hiding wires, LOL.



12V source wire hooked up to the battery terminal and then fed out of the box and underneath the interior. Don't forget about installing the 15A fuse (unless you like fires).

Here is everything all mounted up...



Finalized product. As you can see I used another tail light nut to mount the relay to the chassis, props again to Nissan.

The only delay I had with the install was with the Viper alarm system itself. I was pressing the AUX button and nothing was happening. So I had to dive into the user manual and figure out wtf was going on... Apparently you have to hold the AUX button for a good 3 or 4 seconds before it sends out the ground signal to the solenoid. Hearing the relay click and solenoid pop open the trunk is sweet sweet music to the ears.

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holemilk00

Take 30mins out of your day and paint those damn door speaker grills boy!!!!!!!

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I had a cool signature

KiLLeR2001

No need, I have mint conditioned ones awaiting transplant. That'll be in a couple months when I work on freshening up the interior.

But for today I have a treat for all. COILOVERS!!!

Finally, after years of riding on shocks + lowering springs, I am back into the realm of fitment. I spent my entire day today tweaking the suspension here and there. Getting the level out making sure both sides were even etc.





Old setup. Be gone super soft springs, leave me alone for awhile.



Old fronts and rears yanked out.

Time for the new (lightly used)...





HKS Hipermax II coilovers!!! Spring rates are 7kg/5kg.







Fronts mounted up. Had to fine tune these a few times till I was content.





Engine bay photos. I'm becoming an HKS whore.



Rears getting installed.

Now time for some fitment pictures. Nothing too crazy. This is my daily. I'll be driving like this for awhile to see how it is.





Front wheel fitment.





Rear wheel fitment. The camber is just enough so that the tires will not rub at all.



Kinda shady out so can't really see all that well. I'll just have to post more pictures later.

As of right now the front camber is maxed out, so its more than the rear camber. I'd like to see how -2.0 F and -2.5 R looks. I'm going to get an alignment on my next off day so I can see how I want to dial in everything. It's a slow process but... SHES LOWARR!!

edit:

Frame rail near front of car is exactly 4 inches from the ground.

Comparison picture.



Picture of the front wheel gap on the old setup.



New front wheel gap.

When I get the real S15 fenders cut and welded, and I re-adjust the front end afterwards I think it will all come together nicely.

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FRpilot

please detail that if you can.

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KiLLeR2001

Will do. I'm going to be retaining the factory side repeater indentions as well.

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Edwin562

i been hearing soo much good feedback on the HKS coilvers. I been trying to hunt down a set for myself. Good progress btw...

KiLLeR2001

Yeah they are nice. Good streetable coilover. I'm most definitely going to upgrade to Swift springs in the future. I want to keep 7kg up front, but increase to 6kg for the rear, 5kg just seems a tad bit too soft for me.

Next up:
- Adjustable rear traction and toe rods
- New rear bearings
- Axle grease repacking

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Edwin562

forgot to subscribe to this thread...


Edit: now i did.

KiLLeR2001

So I have this running theme with my car. Basically, this idea entails showering my car with decals. I know what you're thinking, "wtf killer screw this ricey bullshit build, im out!".

But no, there are strict conditions:

Condition #1: The decal CANNOT be seen from a person's normal viewing angle. As in, with the hood shut, doors closed you can walk around the car and look everywhere and no decals will be seen.

Condition #2: The decal must represent something either installed on the car -or- represent something to me as a person. For example, earlier in this thread I installed the HKS Hi-Power exhaust, and on the frame rail I slapped on the HKS decal.

Which brings me to my next little addition...

I work in a sports store while slowly finishing up my bachelors degree in Computer Science. Not too long ago we got in these cool static cling decals for various teams. I decided to snatch up all my favorite teams to put somewhere on my car.

I was looking around for a good spot to put them, and the answer was just too easy...





Haha. Lets see how long they last with the heat of the engine bay!

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KiLLeR2001

Just ordered some Swift springs for the coilovers. I couldn't wait. 7kg front / 6kg rear. But unfortunately they are on back-order for 4 weeks! Oh well.

I also ordered a new set of OEM rear wheel bearings for my Ichiba hubs. Probably won't be for another month until everything starts rolling in. Going to collect all the parts and do it all at once.

Finally got my friend's S14 back on the road (yanked out the KA and swapped in an SR). Here's a rare picture of me actually IN my car.

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KiLLeR2001

*sigh*

Occasionally I get random urges to check my car out, whether it be looking for leaks, looking for loose bolts etc etc. Sometimes I find myself underneath my car looking at everything anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.

Ever since I installed my coilovers I would notice occasionally this sound of "dirt" kicking up in the tire well, I knew it wasn't a coilover noise because it was rotational. I sort of shrugged it off because it would eventually go away.

Fast forward to tonight, I'm looking underneath the rear section of my car, looking at subframe bolts, axle bolts, and then I notice immediate fail.

Apparently that "dirt" sound was the inside of my tire grinding against the inside wheel well metal lip, and chunks of tire were being slung up, hence the sound.



This is a picture of the inside of the tire, probably the worst spot, but this ring goes all the way around.



This is part of the wheel well that was rubbing against the tire (and it looks like some rim too).

The whole fail aspect to this story is I took my 5mm spacers off because I said to myself "I don't need these anymore, I'll wait for my 15mm spacers to arrive." And the thing is, I checked for clearance when the car was still jacked up, but I failed to recheck clearance once the car was on the ground. The car rolled back with ease so I assumed I was good to go... NOT!

I banged the lip flat and I re-installed my 5mm spacers, so I shouldn't have any more clearance issues...

Do you guys think I need to replace this tire? Anyone who has dealt with this before. Again its on the inside of the wheel not the outside. It really sucks cause I just bought these damn tires. Fortunately the other side was fine, it was only the left side that had the rubbing issue.

edit:

To clarify again, it was the rear left tire that was rubbing. The other 3 tires were fine with no clearance issues.

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jr_ss

I recall reading somewhere that people had issues with one side of the S13 chassis having one wheel sunken in more than the other side. Guess you found out what side it was... I would run the tire. It looks strictly cosmetic and not cut super deep. The car looks good, I can't wait to get mine back up and running.

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My SR20VET

KiLLeR2001

Yeah, the rubber thats missing seems to be the extra amount of rubber that protects the rim from curbage. There are no steel belts exposed or anything and definitely no air leaks. Knowing me I'll probably end up buying a new tire in a couple weeks though. LOL.

Drove to work today no rubbing or any signs of clearance troubles so I'm good for now. Got a few parts on the way and a few more parts still to order. Tick tock tick tock...

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Edwin562

its been more than 2 weeks and no update? whats going on here? do some work!!!

KiLLeR2001

Ok, I'll bite.

A friend of mine was going junkyard hunting so I decided to tag along...



We didn't find anything we needed but I thought this was a cool picture of a chuki front riding high, hah!

My new OEM rear wheel bearings came in...



And then the other day I decided to take a random picture of my car...



Haven't washed the car in months, I've pretty much given up hope on the car's exterior until I actually decide to start working on all the body work that lies ahead of me...

Parts I'm still waiting on:

- 15mm KICS bolt on spacers.
- 7kg front / 6kg rear Swift Springs.
- SPL Parts rear traction / toe rods.

Once the parts come in I'll get some more pics up, then off to Firestone for an alignment.

edit:

Oh yeah and I changed my spark plugs today. lol

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KiLLeR2001

I don't know how I'm going to tell you guys this, but I have some embarrassing news. Let me start off by saying that when I bought my first 240sx back in 2007, I knew little to NOTHING about cars. In the last 5 years I have literally went from knowing nothing, to knowing everything I do now. And I'm still learning on a day to day basis...

With that said, I made a gruesome discovery... I swapped my SR20 into my car sometime around Jan/Feb 2008... For the last 4 years, the ground wire for my oxygen sensor was never hooked up! I have been running rich for 4 years...

*moment of silence*

Seriously? Yeah... Sometimes I find myself going back and checking things I did back in 2008 when I swapped the SR and scratching my head like "what was I thinking..."

But what I don't understand is my car never ran terrible enough to make me question the oxygen sensor's integrity. I usually got 21mpg in the city, and I verified that I was getting around 30mpg driving to ATL and back all highway. My idle was always consistently 850rpms...

So now that I have verified that it has ground and 12V switched with ignition ON, I am interested to see what type of gas mileage lies ahead of me. Maybe the sensor is so fouled from running rich this whole time it still won't function properly.

I did a quick drive after hooking it up and noticed a smoother idle. The car seemed a little smoother in between shifts as well. Other than that the power felt pretty much the same. I just replaced my spark plugs too so I don't have to worry about fouled plugs.

When I yank the engine out this winter I'll replace the O2 sensor with a new one for sure.

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KiLLeR2001

Some more parts have arrived...





SPL Traction and Toe rods. Big ups to Jeff and Jack of Jordan Innovations for hooking it up! These arms are awesome. I'm definitely going to upgrade my RUCAs to these bad boys when funds allow it.



Project KICS 15mm bolt on spacers. This should give me the desired look I'm after. It will effectively make my front offset +15 and the rear offset +23.

My Swift springs have been shipped, so I'll probably get those by next week.

I made a trip to Harbor Freight this morning, had to get a low profile jack now that my car is lower than before. Not to mention one of my scissor jacks stripped the threads and my car came crashing down as I was lowering it. Good thing I wasn't underneath it LOL. I also bought an electric impact gun, so removing wheels will be a breeze and those hard to break bolts won't slow me down anymore.

Sunday after work I'm planning the breakdown process, Monday I'll be taking my hubs + new bearings to get pressed on. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything back together and the alignment on the same day, otherwise I'll have to wait till Wednesday when I'm off again.

Stay tuned!

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KiLLeR2001

Well I had a jam packed day today. Started the day with a trip to AutoZone. I needed to get some axle grease for the axles as well as some oil and filter for my upcoming routine oil change.

I also realized I didn't have a 36mm socket for the axle nut so I had to call my friend who I know had one. Ended up staying at his house for a couple hours trying to help him diagnose some issues he was having working on someone else's car (Pontiac Grand Prix). To make a long story short, I told him the coolant temp sensor he bought wasn't ohm'ing out the same as the OEM one, he switched back to the OEM one and the car no longer overheated... lol.

After that little fiasco I needed to head on over to Firestone to get the old Ichiba rear wheel bearings off my hubs and the new OEM bearings pressed on. I got to the counter and the guy manager said "We no longer service parts people bring in." WTF! I brought my front wheel hubs + bearings to you guys like a year ago. When I told him that he told me they no longer do it anymore. So I took my ass to Pep Boys down the street and they said "Sure, we'll get this done for you in no time." And an hour or so later they called me up to come pick up my hubs. Awesome.

Now onto some pictures...



Nothing better than fresh OEM bearings. I'm hoping these last me a good 20+ years.





Old toe and traction rods. I swear the traction rods on my car have not been tampered with since the car rolled off the factory line. I was using my brand new impact gun and the impact was no match for how seized these bolts were. I had to get my ratchet and the pole from the low profile jack, and use that as leverage to do one giant push of energy to break it loose. Damn that sound was horrible too. LOL.





New traction and toe arms installed.

And now we move onto the axles... Holy crap. This shit looked like baby's milk diarrhea. I would recommend everyone to put fresh new grease in their axles the next time you swap in a differential or do subframe bushings.



BARF!!!



Cleaning it up, once I got as much of the old grease out (which is was so liquidy it just poured right out like a milkshake), I took a good amount of new grease and packed it in there.

After bolting everything back up, I put the cotter pin in for the axle and was trying to bend it up with a needle nose pliers, the type of pliers that bend 90 degrees near the tip. I'm pulling up with the pliers and of course it slips off the cotter pin and I stab myself with both tips right in the face just missing my eye...

http://tehl33tsite.com/240sxdd/black...t/IMAG0540.jpg

So as a reminder for you guys, please don't forget to wear safety glasses. I could be rocking an eye patch right now if I wasn't so lucky... Or maybe an eye patch would be boss as fuck? I'm sure the ladies would love it.

Wednesday I am going for an alignment.

edit:

After I had everything installed I called my friend up and we went for a little drive to make sure everything was copacetic.





I hooked a nice little round-about with considerable speed, my car took it like a champ, my friend well... He almost spun out LOL!

Only got a few more things to get for my suspension and it will be complete!

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S14DB

You put new CV boots on?

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Comments should be taken as Opinions not as Statements of Fact

KiLLeR2001

No, the axles were not leaking or anything. In retrospect, I probably should have refurbished the axle entirely, but this was just a little job I wanted to do while the axles were off the car. Remove old grease, insert new grease. Nothing to it.

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S14DB

Then OE boots are probably the reason the grease was diluted. They get permeable over time. Why you see the silicone boot kits.

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Comments should be taken as Opinions not as Statements of Fact

KiLLeR2001

Most definitely. I still have an S15 HLSD I am planning on installing in the future. When I do that swap I will most likely look at refurbishing my current set of axles or buying a refurbished set. Nothing shall be overlooked!

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towlie

Was those bearings for s13? How much did pepboys charge you (before tax)

KiLLeR2001

I personally bought S14 bearings but the S13 and S14 bearings are identical. Pep Boys was a little expensive, $40 per bearing.

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KiLLeR2001

Well as planned, I got my alignment today. Went to a brand new Firestone where my tech got transferred to. The alignment machine is wayyyy nicer than at the other Firestone I use to go to! Check it out!



This setup makes it favorable for lowered vehicles, just perfect!



Another cool thing about this spot is that its not busy at all, no one knows about it so I got there and my car was up on the alignment rack in minutes!



In the process of getting the settings dialed in!

I did -2.5 for front camber and -3.0 for rear camber. Toe and caster all set to factory standard. The car drives amazing now. I actually cracked a smile when taking a turn LOL!

Another little piece to the puzzle showed up today...



OEM 180sx front strut bar for SR20DET! I sort of impulsed bought this item. I had to though, I can't pass up OEM goodness.



Perfect fitment, as expected. Hood shuts just fine, no clearance issues anywhere.

Only thing left to do now is put on my 15mm spacers. I'll probably get to that later today.

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FRpilot

did you get your oem bearings from pepboys? I know chain autostores (oreily/kragen, autzone, etc.) can special order things, i was just expecting these autostores to carry some type "oem replacement" raybestos wheel bearings on the shelf.

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KiLLeR2001

No, I got them from the Nissan dealership.

-------

Just got done installing the 15mm spacers. Unfortunately I had a little clearance issue so I had to crank the camber a little more. I'd probably say I'm at about -4.0 for the rear now. I'll go back to Firestone next week and get it evened out for sure. Might also bump the front camber to -3.0 instead of -2.5.



Project KICS 15mm bolt on spacers.

I tried to get a picture of the front fitment and new rear camber but I suck at taking pictures I don't think they help at all LOL.



Front left.



Rear left.



Rear right.

So yeah, another trip to Firestone next week! Oh how I love lifetime alignment plans.

Wheel specs with the spacers, Front: 17x8.5 +15, Rear: 17x9.5 +23.

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towlie

Yokohama s drives I have those to