Dear All,

 

 

After months of searching for a decent one, and having found one a couple of weeks back I finally picked it up yesterday. Black manual TT. It's great. :-) My mate and I have found a couple of issues with it but I'll get those sorted out under the warranty. I'm also planning to take it out later today and put it through it's paces for a couple of hours to shake out any additional problems as the traffic on the A1 was pretty heavy last night coming back from Watford so my opportunities to really boot it were fairly limited.

 

A couple of observations after driving it for a couple of hours yesterday. The first is that whilst the privacy glass looks fantastic from the outside, when you're trying to reverse into a parking space at night you really can't see a thing, as I discovered when I got home. On the plus side it means that when somebody's tailgating you you don't get dazzled by their lights in the rear view mirror. Related to this I notice that it does seem like every other person with a reasonably powerful car wants to race, which is kind of funny at the moment but might wear a bit thin after a while: on the other hand maybe the novelty of wasting Imprezas never really wears off, I don't know... and as for Mondeo ST220 drivers, I have only one word: no!!!

 

As I said there are a couple of things that are definitely wrong with the car. One is that the N/S wing mirror just doesn't want to fold in. The second is that, only when in gear, there's a fairly loud vibration coming from the rear of the car at around 1500 rpm, which is particularly bad in second, although it's also very obvious in first. Actually probably one of the reasons I notice is that it's got the world's worst stereo in it (the original I'm guessing although to be honest it looks circa 1985), which isn't wired in so you can't listen to it anyway. Back to the vibration: it's clearly not coming from the engine, and I don't think it's coming from the transmission since I'm getting nothing through the gear knob, and as I say it's clearly coming from the back of the car. My mate thinks it sounds worse than it is, and suspects a loose exhaust baffle or something. It got worse as we were driving back for about the first hour or so but wasn't evident when I originally test drove the car. Whatever it is though it needs sorting because it's making my really cool looking car sound truly appalling at low revs.

 

The other thing, which is something I'm slightly irritated with myself for not noticing when I looked the car over, is that the paint on the spoiler is cracking up a bit in a couple of places. It's not too bad, but obviously I notice. Martyn (my mate) knows somebody who does resprays and he reckons it'll cost about £100 to get sorted. Alternatively I could just have it removed because I quite like Zs with no rear spoiler in any case. With the respray I'm just a bit concerned about the colour matching as I know this can be problematic with them, although I understand it's more of a problem for the pearlescent colours (mine is just flat black). Can anyone give any advice on this please?

 

Another thing is the indicators. They do work fine, but the side lights come on when I use them. Is this supposed to happen? Again, I only noticed it because of it being dark: from inside the car it looked like the front indicator had come on but wasn't flashing. Previously I'd just assumed that these were some sort of additional fog light.

 

Something else I probably only noticed because of the absence of any music is the turbos. It was my understanding that you shouldn't be able to hear them at all, however under full acceleration you can just about hear the faintest of hisses. The boost level however seems to be fine, with the guage topping out just to the right of the third line above 0 (this is something I checked on the test drive). Is this cause for concern?

 

Sorry, this is turning into a bit of an epic, but I've only a couple more questions left (honest).

 

First off, where's the cruise control? There's one blank in the set of controls to the right of the steering wheel, which I'm assuming is where it's supposed to live... but it clearly isn't there. On the one hand I'm not so bothered if it doesn't have it, but on the other it's quite useful because there are a few dual carriageways around here with a lot of speed cameras so sticking it on 70 and then forgetting about it would be a great advantage. It's very easy to go a lot faster than 70 without really noticing. Again, this is something I didn't check on as carefully as I should have when originally looking over the car.

 

Secondly, I don't see any traction control anywhere. Now to be honest I'm just really NOT bothered about this, but I thought Zs had it so I was just wondering.

 

Last thing. Anyone know a good place to get mats for these babies?

 

That's it for now. I'm planning to post some pics a bit later, but I'm still sitting around in my dressing gown like a fat waster at the moment.

 

 

Cheers,

Bart

I'll put my two-penneth in. Fistly welcome to zed ownership.

The vibration you are experiencing could be from the prop. I'm sure when those with more knowledge see this you'll get some definitive answers. I can say that traction control does not come as standard, although some use it as an add-on. Racelogic is a good one, I'm told.

 

Good luck with it,

 

Simon.

Hi, and welcome.

 

Cruise control - if u have then there is a button on the RH control unit, ans then buttons on the steerinh wheel. Some dont have it though.

 

Traction control - Never available on the zed. As Simax says racelogic is a good aftermarket option.

 

Mirror - One of the breakers on traders section will be able to help there

 

I also get a faint turbo hiss as boost rises. A leak is the suspect but i still get 9.5 psi on aftermarket gauge.

 

Indicators - sound like a short circuit or bad earth

 

Cracked spoiler - very common problem. The stock one absorbs water and cracks.

 

 

Look forward to the pics, enjoy her and take it easy for a while, especially with the latest weather.

if you got cruise you will have some buttons on the steering wheel

im sure the turbos's arnt as quiet as people think. You can hear them. If somebody has put in some aftermarket induction kit then, you get a sucking sound which does sound like a whistle. Have you taken the headlight panel off to see if it has an induction kit?

Welcome to zed ownership mate - enjoy her!!

 

I have some good audio bits and pieces up for grabs (phoenix gold sub and amp - the sub box designed specifically for the zed's shallow boot!!), and a great sony head unit (cd/radio) with minidisc multichanger (if required). Let me know if you're interested :D.

 

Cheers

Rich

The first is that whilst the privacy glass looks fantastic from the outside, when you're trying to reverse into a parking space at night you really can't see a thing, as I discovered when I got home.

That's why privacy glass is a pain! A triumph of bling over function.

 

Actually probably one of the reasons I notice is that it's got the world's worst stereo in it (the original I'm guessing although to be honest it looks circa 1985), which isn't wired in so you can't listen to it anyway.

Do a search on Bose 300ZX on google - there's a lot of mis-information running round. If I knew then what I know now, I would have had my original Bose repaired / restores instead of blithely ripping it out. Your choice, but get readup on it first.

 

Back to the vibration: it's clearly not coming from the engine, and I don't think it's coming from the transmission since I'm getting nothing through the gear knob, and as I say it's clearly coming from the back of the car.

Propshaft vibes can usually be be felt by putting your hand on the transmission tunnel. So if you're not getting that, it's probably something else.

The other thing, which is something I'm slightly irritated with myself for not noticing when I looked the car over, is that the paint on the spoiler is cracking up a bit in a couple of places. It's not too bad, but obviously I notice. Martyn (my mate) knows somebody who does resprays and he reckons it'll cost about £100 to get sorted.

Bubbly spoiler means it's waterlogged and not worth repainting. I got a repro OEM from http://www.zcentre.com and he also has a lot of other options from smoothing the whole thing out to stuff that looks as if it should be airborne.

It was my understanding that you shouldn't be able to hear them at all, however under full acceleration you can just about hear the faintest of hisses. The boost level however seems to be fine, with the guage topping out just to the right of the third line above 0 (this is something I checked on the test drive). Is this cause for concern?

Standard boost guage is only a vague indication. You should get a full boost leak test from a specialist. Who should also pull the codes from the ECU or do a ConZult at the same time.

 

Secondly, I don't see any traction control anywhere. Now to be honest I'm just really NOT bothered about this, but I thought Zs had it so I was just wondering.

Doesn't have it as standard (except that five digit lever on the end of your right leg)

 

HTH - welcome to the madhouse - Gio the Luddite

Thanks for the info guys. Like I said, I wasn't too worried about traction control. I think originally I might have read about that on a US Z site anyway, although that may not make any difference. I don't know if US Zs were ever available with it either. Mine's a J-spec so there are bound to be differences. As for the spoiler I think I might well end up dumping it, but that's not a huge issue at the moment.

 

The rest should be covered by the warranty. What I'm planning to do is take the car down on Wednesday. Martyn's going to jack her up and take a good look over her tomorrow afternoon. That said, if anybody in the Cambridge area has got a bit of time before Wednesday and wouldn't mind taking a look at her (particularly with respect to the turbo noise) I'd be more than willing to show my gratitude by shouting them a beer or three.

 

Cheers guys,

Bart

Welcome mate, is it an import? If u do find the criuse controls, they

wont work over 60mph anyway!

You didn't mention whether it is a lwb or a swb, swb dont have c/c

iirc.

If you decide to ditch the rear spoiler, you will need a tailgate skin, these

are available form the z-centre (traders section) along with some pics

of whats underneath the oem spoiler!

When u fit a decent stereo in it, you'll discover the standard speakers

are not up to much either!

 

Apart from that lot....congrats on buying the Z! :D

Congratulations on getting the Z.

 

If you can get a set of original deep shag-pile Fairlady mats, they are gorgeous.

 

You'll probably find someone on here selling some.You can put them in the washing machine and they come up lovely.

Hello again,

Thanks for all the replies so far. I particularly liked the comment about the privacy glass being a "triumph of bling over function". I'm going to need to remember that. I'll be keeping my eye out for a pair of those Fairlady mats as well. I'm going to post pics as soon as I get chance. I'm just off out again unfortunately but will try to get them up tomorrow.

 

The stereo is NOT in fact the original Bose unit as I had first suspected and appears to be a real antique. I've taken a picture of it just for the comedy value. The tape and CD units appear to be made by different manufacturers: the CD player is from Bijo (whoever they are) but the tape deck (complete with really naff 80s EQ controllers) doesn't have any kind of branding on it. I suspect all of the speakers are after market units though I haven't looked closely since there are Pioneer tweeters on the doors, so I'll initially just get a new head unit, see how it sounds and then maybe get some new speakers from there. I'd kind of budgeted for this anyway so it's not a big problem.

 

As a result of your advice I can definitively say there is no (and never has been any) cruise control, but that's cool. The steering wheel is original and there are no buttons on it.

 

I've also decided to ditch the spoiler at my earliest opportunity, probably once the 3 month warranty has expired. I'll check out zcentre as suggested, so cheers for this.

 

Now this is where things get slightly worrying. I took her out for a drive earlier on this afternoon, along the A14, A11 and M11. Took her up to the red-line a few times. Checked that she'd been delimited and all that kind of gubbins. All fine (apart from the vibration obviously) apart from this one thing. When I started her up she was cold (not driven since last night) so she was idling at 1500 rpm, and oil pressure was 4 kg / sq cm. Once warmed up the idle was around 750, with oil pressure at around 2 kg / sq cm. I was a bit concerned about the boost guage, which was indicating a little further to the right at first than I expected, but when the revs dropped so did the boost pressure, so that once warmed up it was nearly at -700 mmHg.

 

All good so far. Now, about 20 - 25 minutes into my drive I noticed that the oil pressure guage was indicating 0, but then the checklist warns that they tend to go wrong so I figured it had literally just died. However, when I eventually got back home and tried to put the car in the garage she was obviously idling again whilst I opened it up... in the end I couldn't get her in: I'd originally been worried about the length, and it had never occurred to me that she might be too wide, but guess what.... too wide. Actually she probably would go in but it's REALLY tight, and I just didn't fancy trying it at this point. But then when I went to park her I noticed that the oil pressure guage had returned to life again and was reporting just under 2 kg / sq cm, which is in the expected range for idle. Yikes! Anybody know what this is all about? Is it just a dodgy guage or might there be some problem with the oil pump?

 

Gotta go for now.

 

 

Cheers,

Bart

Hi mate

 

welcome to ZX ownership :dance:

 

The oil pressure reading prob is down to the sender unit - they always go after a few years and the part is expensive to buy. About £80 IIRC, so you could go down the aftermarket guage route as some have. Me? I like original so I bought a new stock sender :x:

 

As for the spoiler, don't waste your money getting the original one resprayed. I did before I bought the car (I paid the dealer to get it done - was about £75-ish). 6 months later in the cold of winter, water got in, froke and made it worse. I bought the fibre-glass replica one and paid my local bodyshop to paint and fit it.

 

Good luck with it

 

Richard

Hi Bart and welcome

 

OK the boost, oil and water temp guages are, I am trying to find the right words to describe them, im sure one of the other guys will come up with something better so I will just use

 

 

*****X

 

your engine could be frying or freezing and it wouldnt tell you either way, you could have perfect oil copression or no oil in the car and it would say, hey your fooked and the boost guage is marginaly better than the other 2.

 

They can be fixed but I wouldnt bother and just get 3 of the traders with a pod or dim plate.

 

oh and lastly mate. the best and cheapest thing to do is to spend £20 and join the club and for one good reason.

 

If shes black you can join the darlside and take the piss outa thoes poncey girly re(D)tards :) as well as getting discounts on gear and decent advice and help

welcome to zed ownership :rofl: your vibration noise is proberly your propshaft bearing mine has just gone and been done by jeff at zedworld this will set you back just short of £300 sheets :shock:

 

like sideshowbob said if its a swb then you dont get the privalidge of cruise control like me :cry: but its more fun booting in between cameras anyway. my mirror went also this set me back £100 but mines a j-spec ive been told uk's r cheaper.......... have fun when its done and good luck!!!!!!!!! :hyper:

indacators plus sidelights----normal

Privacy glass is a film on the glass and appears darker on the the back window due to the angle the glass is at - remember pythagoras from school. :) - 0.2 mm thick, could be 0.5mm thick at that kinda angle.

My car hadn't been driven for a coupla months - mirrors appeared not to work. Kept pressing buttons on way home til eventually they freed up. may just be inactivity. Take apart and clean/lubricate. Might work.

Guys, thanks to all of you. That's great. I should be able to get all this sorted out under the warranty anyway: if it is the prop-shaft and the dealer won't sort it I'll either slap him or sue him, but I don't think either of those should be necessary: he seems pretty sound.

 

I have also found another bizarre noise: a tapping (just started this morning) in time with the engine note -- seems to be coming from LHS. And, more worrying the ABS light came on this morning and something in the boot of the car on the RHS (presumably to do with this) kept buzzing / humming away for 10 - 15 minutes after I shut the engine off. Any ideas / insights would be much appreciated.

 

Apart from that it's all peachy. I've been driving it quite a bit to try to find problems so that when I take it back to the dealer next Wednesday hopefully everything that's wrong with it will already have manifested itself.

 

I actually paid up my membership a day or two ago but I doubt it will have cleared yet. Looking forward to my first meet.

 

Thanks again to everyone for their help and advice to a delicate noob'.

 

 

Cheers,

Bart

And, more worrying the ABS light came on this morning and something in the boot of the car on the RHS (presumably to do with this) kept buzzing / humming away for 10 - 15 minutes after I shut the engine off. Any ideas / insights would be much appreciated.

IIRC that's where the F-expensive ABS unit is (over a grand new). Hopefully it's something like a connector, fluid or something rather than the unit.

 

Look at the online manual and/or parts fiche for more info. Good luck!

rice boy two .three hundred quid for a prop bearing ! i am having mine done at nissan next week for £238.00 includes parts and labour.

I bet this chap is sH!tting himself now. He's noticed loads of issues and they are probably all the stabdard stuff we all go through...Don't worry m0n1xX3r, what you're experiencing is really common stuff for us.You'll get through it

 

2 bits of advice...Join the club, it's the best £20 you'll spend...and spray it BLACK. Only BLACK ones have the BS1877 kitemark!!! This will ensure loads more speed :o :o

2 bits of advice...Join the club, it's the best £20 you'll spend...and spray it BLACK. Only BLACK ones have the BS1877 kitemark!!! This will ensure loads more speed :o :o

hahahaha :rofl: every fule kno silver is fastest - even J Clarkson :D

Clarkson, a man who knows everything......or does he?

Nah, I'm not panicking yet. Now if this were 3 months time and the warranty had just expired THEN I'd be panicking. Zs: cheaper and more reliable than my old Renault (cost me two grand this past year).... well, perhaps not. But it IS a lot more fun to drive.

Cheers,

Bart

Oh yeah, forgot to say. She's already black... although now she looks rubbish because she's covered in salt. Ever since loads of people got stuck overnight on the A14 and M11 a couple of years ago, at the slightest hint of snow the highways agency goes ballistic with the stuff round here. I kid you not, the drier weather today has meant the roads are white but it's not with snow.

Oh yeah, forgot to say. She's already black... although now she looks rubbish because she's covered in salt. Ever since loads of people got stuck overnight on the A14 and M11 a couple of years ago, at the slightest hint of snow the highways agency goes ballistic with the stuff round here. I kid you not, the drier weather today has meant the roads are white but it's not with snow.

 

 

congrats on the puurchase ;)

welcome to zed ownership :rofl: your vibration noise is proberly your propshaft bearing mine has just gone and been done by jeff at zedworld this will set you back just short of £300 sheets :shock:

 

like sideshowbob said if its a swb then you dont get the privalidge of cruise control like me :cry: but its more fun booting in between cameras anyway. my mirror went also this set me back £100 but mines a j-spec ive been told uk's r cheaper.......... have fun when its done and good luck!!!!!!!!! :hyper:

 

That is well OTT unless it was a brand new bearing.