Well I took the Z down to Chamonix in the French Alps for the weekend and it's longest run yet.

I loaded the boot with tools (safety precaution)and headed off, it was great down the Peage at 100 and with a few blasts upto 140-150 it ran great.

Fortunately Chamonix was low enough not to have snow and very little ice however on the sunday I decided to head over the Alps to Switzerland. Once up a few hundered meters their was snow on the ground and the Z felt very twitchy, going down a slight gradient I put the car in 1st (mines an Auto) and drove very slowly with the tail gently sliding from left to right, it felt like the hicas was going mad but was probably just the road, the problem is that other cars were flying past me including a Brit Rover I had passed on the way down. I have new tires on the car and none of the other vehicles had snow tires either, has anyone else had difficulty in the snow or ice.

The real clanger came yesterday travelling back, sat at about 120 my friend moved and knocked the gear from drive to neutral and put it straight back in before I could say STOP! The dashboard lit up like a christmas tree and a trail of smoke reminisent of James Bonds Aston trailed the car. I coasted to the side of the road and thought the car was on fire due to the amount of smoke. Looking underneath oil was dripping from everywher and I assumed the gearbox had blown however it turned out to be engine oil. I sat and pondered for a few moments and tried to start the car again which strted perfectly, I engaged drive and it pulled away fine so we let it cool for a bit and proceeded on our way to the next services to have a closer look.

We pulled into the next services and let the engine cool for a while before checking the liquid levels and looking for leaks. The dumb thing is that the levels were all fine and there were no leaks???? We drove home and the car ran fine which was strange. My dad reckoned there might have been a breather pipe that was blocked and the pressure of engaging drive at such high speed caused it to clear and spray oil everywhere.

Any ideas guys?

 

 

Stu,

 

The best person to speak to about driving the Z in snow and ice is Henri le Hir. He will also answer any questions or doubts you have about how the Hicas reacts under ice/snow conditions.

 

If you knocked the gear from 'drive' to neutral at 120mph (4000rpm+ ?) under full load then you probably just overloaded the Z's breather system.

 

If you checked the levels and everything seems alright now then I would just keep an eye on things.

 

Steve

 

Well I took the Z down to Chamonix in the French Alps for the weekend and it's longest run yet.

 

That's great

 

I loaded the boot with tools (safety precaution)and headed off

 

Good idea

, it was great down the Peage at

100 and with a few blasts upto 140-150 it ran great.

 

Ahem,. are we discussing MPH, or KPH ?

If it's indeed MPH, I'm glad you were not caught ;-)

 

head over the Alps to Switzerland.

 

Damm, where ?

I WAS in Switzerland last week-end

 

Once up a few hundered meters their was

snow on the ground and the Z felt very twitchy, going down a slight gradient

 

So far, so good....

 

I put the car in 1st (mines an Auto) and drove very slowly with the tail gently sliding from left to right, it felt like the

hicas was going mad but was probably just the road

 

Ok, so here what happenned. I haven't had it in my Auto Z yet, but I certainly had that in my Lexus and SVX.

You have summer tires, on snow, they give you AT MOST 20% of the traction you, on ice, it could be less that 1%.

As soon as the gearbox is in gear, the rear wheels will rotate.

The friction between the road and the tire , due to the snow, is NOT ENOUGH to have the gearbox stop driving the rear wheels (as if you were in N).

Technically, the speed of the tire patch on the road was not matching the "speed" of the road (I lack info to tell you if ). Your rear tires were simply spinning, and sliding on the road. Same thing as lifting the rear of the Z, starting the engine, the rear wheels will spin.

 

And, if it's slipping enough, you can have the Z stopped, with the driver applying just a little bit of brakes, and still have the rear tires rotating....it's fun, and extremely useful to do a nice "O" or a 180° turn, without moving..

 

A correct answer would be to put the auto in N.

 

the problem is that other cars were flying

past me

 

You bet.

 

I have new tires on the car and

none of the other vehicles had snow tires either

 

Well, I seriously doubt that. If this was in Switzerland, I'd say that in winter, 99% of the cars HAVE either winter tires (thermogomme) or M+S (Mud & Snow, all season) tires, as if we crash our car in winter, using summer tires, we can be fined by the police, and the insurance may refuse to pay :-(

 

has anyone else had difficulty in the snow or ice.

 

Hehehe, i don't call that difficulty, I call that FUN.

 

Basically, in an auto car, if it starts to be very icy (very low traction), you want to put the auto to N, and apply the brakes nicely, trying to avoid the ABS to kick in.

 

If you're in a manual, everytime you hit a snow patch, you depress the clutch.

 

BTW, this applies to "normal driving"...if you're driving aggressively, it's a different story.

 

The real clanger came yesterday travelling back, sat at about 120 my friend moved and knocked the gear from drive to neutral and put it straight back in before I could say STOP!

 

Ok, here again, MPH or KMH....

if it's KMH, it's something I do quite often.

 

A couple questions

 

Was the cruise control engaged ?

What RPM before ?

Did the RPM raised to redline ?

What RPM when the gear was re-engaged ?

 

The dashboard lit up like a christmas tree

 

Normal, it's X.mas time..... :-) hummm

no, it's COMPLETELY abnormal.....

 

and a trail of smoke reminisent of James Bonds Aston trailed the car.

I coasted to the side of the road and thought the car was on fire due to the amount of smoke.

Looking underneath oil was dripping from everywher and I assumed the gearbox had blown

however it turned out to be engine oil.

 

First of all, what is EVERYWHERE ?

Engine, Gearbox, drivetrain ?

 

 

Ok, the only think I can think of, right now is the following

 

IF you were not using the Cruise Control

THEN when the stick was pop in N, the RPM went up to redline

THEN, IF you have a low compression in one/some cylinders, IT'S POSSIBLE that there would be a high pressure surge, that this pressure would go to the lower part of the engine (because of the bad compression), and pop out the oil level dipstick, spraying your hot engine with oil, producing the smoke.

 

OR....something was clogged....and was suddenly purged....but I cannot see what it could be

 

I sat and pondered for a few moments and tried to start the car again which strted perfectly, I engaged drive and it pulled away fine so we let it cool for a bit and proceeded on our way to the next services to have a closer look.

We pulled into the next services and let the engine cool for a while before checking the liquid^levels and looking for leaks. The dumb thing is that the levels were all fine and there were no leaks????

 

So, have you cheched the engine dip-stick ?

Have you checked all your transmission boxes (gearbox, differential, etc) oil level ?

 

We drove home and the car ran fine which was strange.

 

I bet you're not complaining about that....but I know the feeling.

 

My dad reckoned there might

have been a breather pipe that was blocked and the pressure of engaging drive at such high speed caused it to clear and spray oil everywhere.

 

Again, where is everywhere ?

 

Zee you

 

Henri

 

Thanks Henri,

 

I am going to go back in January but will use snow chains next time.

I think something must have been blocked on the Z i.e. a breather pipe as it has been fine since.

I left the speed denomination of KMH or MPH off deliberately for obvious reasons.

I didn't use the cruise when travelling that fast incase something happened, so when the lever went back into drive my foot was already off the throttle and I was checking for traffic to pull on the hard shoulder and stop.

I usually go to Chamonix 3-4 times a year just for a break I really like it there.

Where abouts were you in CH?

 

Stu,

If the rear feels very unstable then check the

toe-in and HICAS joints.

I had to much toe-in in the rear which resulted in

excessive tire wear and very unstable rear on icey road (could not go straight).

 

Just a thought.

Maciej

 

 

Thats a good point the tires do seem to be going down pretty quick.

Do I need to take it to a 4 wheel alignment centre to get the tracking done?

 

 

Thats a good point the tires do seem to be going down pretty quick.

 

Yup...but is this un-even, or not ?

 

Do I need to take it to a 4 wheel alignment centre to get the tracking done?

 

Yup yup

 

And BTW, I'm in Fribourg, CH

 

And fianlly, good luck to find chains for the Z, that will go over your rims....

 

Thanks for your help Henri.

Perhaps next time I should fly to Geneva and hire a car.