Ok this may be a bit controversial but here goes, tech questions and answers have always and will be a main feature of this and forums alike, it why when present and new members are stuck actually come here to get help.

 

But in the 10 years I have been here I have witnessed many coming and goings of the main players (posters) who answer these, myself included. However over the past decade the accuracy of many of the answers has lessened which is bizzare in as far as they should have become more accurate?

 

Looking daily at the numerous similar enquiries from members it has become clear too many answers are coming from members who read an incorrect answer before and then repeat the same from with a firm belief they are doing a good thing.

 

Of late I have reduced the amount of tech answers and threads I answer in order to judge more clearly what is going on, its basic Chinese Whispers thing with inacuarcy building on inacuracy. The most noticable thing is mainy of the main players are part of this and are long term members, mods, reps etc. no way am I having a go but trying to sort this out.

 

In order to do this I am going to create a new post that will be a "myth buster" of all things 300zx, the kind of things I mean is like the series 1 ptu been a fail item....most 20 year old zeds still have one! how is that a fail item? I know they can and do fail so do series ll ones, we know we have seen it about as much as series 1 types, also ptu failure seems to be the stock answer for any engine malady and simpy is not born out by our 10 +years working in zeds, the real cause is bad connections causing excess current draw and overheating the unit inside.

 

It has even crept into our workshop now via telephone tech when help owners trace a problem, when we explain our possible solutions we sometimes get " are your sure, I read on the forum...." Argh!!!!!! you rang me!! this can be seen even more so where the same tech question is been asked by the same owner on the different 300zx forums and the same wrong answers have resulted....becomes pointless eventually.

 

Ok so you get the idea, while I create this myth buster list please feel feel free to add any areas of tech doubt you have and will add it in, oh just thought of another one, "import and uk zeds have different batteries" .. WRONG! both the same, this is one that surfaces most Winter times and even I have stopped correcting folk now!

 

So off to work off to work I go and look out for the thread and get your suggestions in too.

 

Regards

 

Jeff TT

Edited July 29, 201213 yr by JeffTT

Great idea Jeff:thumbup:as you know I know nothing about the technical side of the 300 but I have posted that "These cars fix themselves":biggrin: I think this might be a myth and I have been lucky:yes:

I take it this is a response to my suggestion of waiting for the PTU to cool in an attempt to eliminate it as a suspect / identify it as the cause of ToyoII's problem. I have read this two or three times over the years, whereby people have had problems while driving (e.g. lost a cylinder/lumpy running), have pulled over, cooled the PTU (or IIRC one of them even swapped it with a spare), and the motor started up again, albeit only for a few minutes in the case of those that cooled the unit. Perhaps it was a coincidence and there was another fault. I'm not saying this is the issue with ToyoII's motor, just passing down a suggestion from the past... however... most importantly though, I think a myth-buster thread is a very good idea and the Series 1 PTU should be one of the first topics!

i do what i know ,,if im not sure i phone you and if i can not fix it it goes to you

i cant go wrong lol

excellent idea jeff

Top man Jeff, nice that you are taking the time (once again) to help us all out. There does seem to be a few 'chasing rainbows' issues that these cars produce and this will be a great help.

Well done matey.

A great idea Jeff and a sticky it will become. I for one have learnt so much from this forum and your goodself and as they say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

 

Without doubt good and accurate info is better coming from someone who deals with the zeds day in day out and the time you take out to give this info is very much appreciated and invaluable to the community. :clap:

i believe the PTU thing, is more to do with checking it, rather than saying its failed, i know im guilty of such talk LOL, not to suggest the PTU is failing, but more to check the connectors and make sure they are making a decent connection.

 

But yeah, im looking forward to this.

I take it this is a response to my suggestion of waiting for the PTU to cool

 

No not in the slightest, something I have been thinking about for a few weeks and decided to post about it.

 

So seems general replies its a good plan so will be writing this up over the next few days and will post it up then.

 

Jeff TT

could turn out to be very interesting this. esp for people like myself who are trying to learn more and more. realistically the only way to learn things is to try but you need someone who knows, to step in and say no thats a red herring or try this blah blah. i notice alot of people are posting problems and once resolved the solution is never posted, so if you do a search and find a similar topic, there are a few suggestions, but they dont finish off with a solution so you cant really know for sure quickly what is worth trying and what was just hearsay.

could turn out to be very interesting this. esp for people like myself who are trying to learn more and more. realistically the only way to learn things is to try but you need someone who knows, to step in and say no thats a red herring or try this blah blah. i notice alot of people are posting problems and once resolved the solution is never posted, so if you do a search and find a similar topic, there are a few suggestions, but they dont finish off with a solution so you cant really know for sure quickly what is worth trying and what was just hearsay.

 

Good point that I have had this trouble as well you do the search then think you have the right thread for the answer and no solution

Perhaps you can add a solution found type of thing to the help and advice forum but think this might be a bridge to far

No not in the slightest, something I have been thinking about for a few weeks and decided to post about it.

 

Just down to good timing then :)

 

Going back to the myth-busters thread, I wonder whether it's worth having a kind of factual part, i.e. your own knowledge and experience from working on Zs, and a part where others can share/vote based on their own experiences, where you might not have had the personal experience to provide a 'professional' opinion, such as "do FMICs block airflow to the rad enough to raise running temp", "does removing the fan shroud affect the running temp", "will running an N/A Diff with a more powerful Z break it", "will putting 'x'-weight oil in damage the engine", etc. Just an idea.