I've had my 91 import (2005) TT for about 2 months now and we have had ups and downs. After buying it as soon as I put my foot down on the test drive, I got home and found numerous faults. The previous owner said all the right things (mostly lies) and left me with a bodged and leaking injector, completely pissed suspension, leaking BOVs off a Supra, perished PS pipes, a *****cks 2 week old MOT with rear discs like poppadoms and leaking windows.

 

Not happy with my £3000 sieve I gave it to Zedworld and got all sorts done, of note, BOVs removed, suspension aligned, and an ECU upgrade with 13.5psi boost. The problem now is that I got home (200+ miles from Zedworld) and the bloody thing wouldn't boost. It turns out it is safety boost and I have found a code 34 on the ECU which is dodgy knock sensor. I crawled under the car doing an impression of an ocean floor dwelling flat fish and there is no way I can find/replace the sensor. The problem is intermittent and I am reluctant to spend £100 or so on a new one. I don't think I am damaging it running in safety some times what do you suggest. I don't think it is knocking I run good fuel and stuff, im gona consider better (long) plugs.

 

On another note, my air con doesn't work and I am driving round in the world's fastest oven, God knows what shape you need to be to have the fans blow on you but you need to be licking the radio for a start. Can Kwik fit pump it back up and are they all as hot as mine? It is ridiculous.

 

Hope you can help,

 

many thanks,

 

Tom.

Tom, firstly moved your thread in to help and advice. and welcome

 

Re the code 34, quick way to establish if the det sensor is dead, disconnect the loom plug, on the ecu side, bridge the spade connectors with a 1 mega ohm resistor (from a tv repair shop, about 50p for 5)

diconnect the battery for an hour, (this resets the ecu) after this connect it back up, and run an ecu diagnostic check. the resistor will tell the ecu it is working and hopefully get code 55.

So it prooves det sensor failure.

If still shows 34, there is likely to be another problem, go over engine bay, checking all connectors for signs of green crud, and clean with a small file or sandpaper and some electrical contact cleaner.

usual suspects are the ecu temp sensor (top water pipe, centre of cam cover) the maf, (under nose cone) and the idle control valve ( rear of engine right hand side near det sensor)

all these will cause issues if not really clean

 

Air con, is it blowing hot all the time? could be that the previous person removed the thermostat, yes its been seen before, can you give us more details.

stu

Thanks I will have a poke around the engine bay, I found the injector connection block was very manky.

I don't think it is blowing hot, I have the little temp computer at 10 all the time on auto, but the econ button makes no difference and was told it needed re charging. The air coming out of the fans is tepid at best. Are they just a hot car and is the indicated ambient temperature a cabin temp or is it outside. Zedworld wisely didn't pump it up in case it was leaking and it would have been a waste of money as they said they needed to bring a bloke in to do it. Would kwik fit do it for 50 quid or is it some random old system in an awkward place.

Hi Tom, usually it is the foot long(ish) loom for the dett. sensor to the ECU connector, or the connectors themselves that fail, due to age, or deterioration, but as said above, the dett. sensor can be bypassed with a 1 meg ohm resistor (as I and many others have done too), the benefits of this being the dett, sensor is smack bang in the middle of the V configuration of the block, under everything basically, very difficult to get to with the engine in the car. I have been running with mine bypassed for around 6 months, I did have it previously re-located, but then the dett. sensor loom failed, so I had to bypass it, well, until the engine comes out in winter. Hope you get it sorted mate, lots of help and parts on here.....

Hi Tom,

 

sorry to hear of your woes mate....

 

Hopefully the above posts answer your det sensor question... As for the a/c, quite often with age the system develops leaks - be it a hole in the condenser or somewhere in the pipework. Kwak Fart cannot help you as the 300zx runs on the old refigerant (I believe it is called R12) and all these fast fit places will only replenish modern systems with R134 gas. However there is a drop-in replacement for the old R12 - which Zedworld can arrange; although quite sensibly they declined to take your money as there could be a leak somewhere...

 

Your best bet would be to call a mobile a/c technician who specializes in the old type of gas (or its equivalent replacement). That's what I did - he identified my Z had a big hole in the condenser and just charged me a £25 call-out fee. So with that knowledge, I went up to Jeff's and he popped in a replacement condenser, then had the system regassed. It works just perfectly now!!

 

Good luck mate!

 

Richard

Hi Mate,

 

welcome to the club.. good to see another member in the area.. good crowd up here....

Thanks guys I have had a fun day working on my car but I wish it just worked, I'm done for today I've taped up loads of bare wire ends that have no obvious homes to go to. I have scraped quite some crud out of electrical connectors sprayed lots of stuff with WD40 and done a bit of cold air directing around the nose.

Tidy engine bays make me happy.

I would happily pop to zedworld but it's such a long way in any vehicle nevermind in the 300. I will yellow page an air con man and see what he says I hadn't thought of doing that.

 

Can I do that dett sensor bypass in the footwell or just down the back of the engine?

On the plus side today I found that it has a pretty good exhaust system on it :-)

HARBY300 hi mate, where do you get your work done up here? I can only really go to zedworld for a list of things to make the journey worthwhile, I have things on my wish list I get done down there one day manifolds and interviewers and stuff, just for little jobs I need someone near by.

Its tough mate to be honest so am trying to do all work myself with help from the Guys on the forum..

 

I tried Falcon Engineering and they just conned me so I advice stay clear.

 

Electrical work if I get stuck I got to Floreys in Middlesbrough. May be able to help with air com and can be mobile.

 

Jamie at EVOTUNE has done stuff for me. suspension, weight balancing etc.. good for most work apart form the real detailed mapping stuff etc I recommend Jamie..

 

when I need parts I ask the Guys one here, they are a great bunch.. However mine wil be at Zedworld beginning of next year for some stuff...

 

Probably not much help but ive managed using this lot... I did have a starting issue and must have rang 20 garages and nobody would touch it. in the end I rang the rac and after an hour he maesured the fuel coming from the filter and that was it..lol..

 

its not easy owning a ed in the North East

 

forgot to mention Jamie at Evotune can do all the manifold stuff etc...

Great advice thanks, I'll let you know when this stuff is sorted. I'm using a sewing machine atm doing some interior trimming! Some very wobbly red stitching on black leather lol

HARBY300 hi mate, where do you get your work done up here? I can only really go to zedworld for a list of things to make the journey worthwhile, I have things on my wish list I get done down there one day manifolds and interviewers and stuff, just for little jobs I need someone near by.

 

hi bud and welcome to the club im in whitby so in the same boat but on the other hand theres not a soul id trust up here with my zed ONLY ZEDWORLD suppose ive been lucky so far and not had many probs what i have had ive managed to sort out with the forums help good set of guys on here

not much comfort i know but ive not found anyone yet

some Guys on here have done some great pipework with electrical cable and a hot glue gun... Kaza Steve being one.. you would never know unless you were told..

 

There a re a few of us who meet up when we can, Bird, Paulzx, Lil Steve all good guys and full off good advice..

 

Forgot to mention wheel refurbs by a guy in Hartlepool. excellent and Lil Steve used him on recommendation and wasnt dissapponted...

Hi buddy, welcome to the club.

 

I had similar issue with code 34. Like said before, I put the 1 megaohm 0.25watt resistor in the pin holes, and it was fine. its £25 to get the knock sensor relocated as not ideal to run a turbo engine with a knocksensor bypass!

 

The knock sensor itself is over £200 from Nissan, but there are cheaper ones on eBay - however I cant vouch for them - you may be able to get a good one from a breaker, but its still going to be very old and near the end of its life.

 

The resistor was 29 pence from maplin, and the plug is at the back of the engine in the middle, at the top. there are 3 connectors, two together, and one on its own. Its the one on its own, closest to drivers side.

 

 

When located, literally just pop the two connectors apart, one side goes to ecu and one to the det sensor - bridge the two pin holes and should run fine.

 

 

As for reseting fault codes, dont disconnect battery for an hour, takes too long.

 

There is a Connector port in the drivers footwell, just under the dash, next to the kickpanel by the door. you can do this to diagnose faults without lifting passenger carpet, and it also auto resets fault codes when you disabloe it, by repeating the disabling procedure.....

 

 

Using a paperclip, or small wire, jump the connection between pins 8 and 9 on the Consult connector, as shown below:

 

[ATTACH]65203[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

Hold the jump for three seconds, then remove the jump. This is essentially the same as turning the potentiometer on the ECU.

Once the jump is removed, the CEL will start blinking codes.

Insert the jump again, and hold for three seconds. Then remove it. This will clear all codes.

Turn the key off, and run codes again to ensure they’re gone.

Edited August 14, 201213 yr by Ryan

Just a post to say thank you all for your advice, the car now works better than ever. The leaking limping car I bought has been transformed. The resistor trick worked a treat, to be able to know that when I put my foot down it will just surge forward and not make that hiss of boost limiting disappointment is wonderful. I have re trimmed bits of interior I have made 2 awesome bags for the targa roof panels, they are black hard wearing material with a plush red lining and Velcro flaps, the panels fit perfectly in them and go into the boot. Zedworld stopped it leaving a trail of rainbows on the road and despite the coilovers is now comfortable and can tackle a speedbump (before it couldn't get up a drop curb).

 

The air con isn't fixed yet but I will get to that, I am now a happy zed owner.

excellent news mate, any pics of the custom targa bags?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

that didn't work ill try again.

 

 

One of those should work

nice work.. :)