hi all,

new to this. just bought a mint 300zx tt, import on l plate, bought it from a nissan garage and just having a couple of problems but under warranty so not so bad. The problem is the chorley nissan garage are strugglings to find the solution to the problems.

 

any help would be greatly appreciated.

1.

vibration between 40-60mph from back nearside corner. not the wheel balancing gets slightly better after distance so heat makes it better, it can only be described as a wheel bearing noise coupled with an out of balance wheel. strange.

2.

knocking when going over bumps from front right, again not as bad when warm.

3.nissan diognosed the vibration as a knock sensor but how can this be when it is vehicle speed related not engine speed?? also if they have picked up on something else if it was a knock sensor would a light not appear on the dash?

 

thank you in advance for any help

 

regards

 

mat

bbb

Sounds like your prop shaft centre bearing , loosens up after a bit of use hence gets a bit better when being driven or sometimes the rear gearbox mounting rubber can cause a vibration cos it, gone hard with age :x:

Hope you get it sorted bud .

Vibration is more than likely prop centre bearing or rear gearbox mount sagging.

 

Knocking from front is more than likely tension rod bushes or upper suspension arms worn.

 

Knock sensor? WTF are they on about? :rofl: They'll have done an ECU code check and it will have come up with code 34. This means the connection to the knock sensor is broken. The car will be in safety boost because of this so will be nowhere near as fast as it should be. Replacement of the sensor is a big job but there is a cheap, quick fix by putting a resistor in the connector to fool the ECU into thinking there's a knock sensor there. This removes the ability of the ECU to protect the engine from bad fuel though, although the knock sensor isn't all that much use due to its limitted operating range....

Nissan garages just wont have the skilled engineers to work on a 300zx. I am surprised they even tried! Chorley Nissan have refused to work on my car before.

 

You wanna get in touch with Andyduff ;)

Vibration is more than likely prop centre bearing or rear gearbox mount sagging.

 

Knocking from front is more than likely tension rod bushes or upper suspension arms worn.

 

Knock sensor? WTF are they on about? :rofl: They'll have done an ECU code check and it will have come up with code 34. This means the connection to the knock sensor is broken. The car will be in safety boost because of this so will be nowhere near as fast as it should be. Replacement of the sensor is a big job but there is a cheap, quick fix by putting a resistor in the connector to fool the ECU into thinking there's a knock sensor there. This removes the ability of the ECU to protect the engine from bad fuel though, although the knock sensor isn't all that much use due to its limitted operating range....

Speak of the devil :duffer:

thanks for your help, seems as though they have picked up on a problem that i wasnt aware of. they said its a 5 hour job to change the sensor!!!!

HAHA Knock sensor causing vibrations lol - i like it

thanks for your help, seems as though they have picked up on a problem that i wasnt aware of. they said its a 5 hour job to change the sensor!!!!

 

Yeah thats about right - at least they told you something correct :D

Would you consider getting a third party warranty cover? does anyone have this? or are they not worth the paper they are written on?

They give very little cover of the things that can actually go wrong.

vibration between 40-60mph from back nearside corner

If its not the prop centre bearing then it will probably be the rear N/S wheel bearing. thats the one can goes first normally.

 

You have already said......

Dear All,

 

2 Months on and chorley NIssan have still not found the problem as described above, this vibration, they have changed the Gear box mount and the propshaft centre bearing.

It i s beautiful example but I am getting a bit sick of waiting paying insurance tax etc!!

 

Any further ideas? Unbalanced drive shaft?

 

They have even offered to give my money back but not sure as dont know if I will find one as good.

 

Am considering saying to them to cover me an amount say £500 and I will take to a specialist garage and have the work done myself, but it is difficult putting an amount on something of which you do not know the solution.

 

The basic is a vibration between 40-60mph which seems to become better after a few miles. Very servere when cold, less when warmed up.

 

Any help would be very much appreciated

 

Thanks in advance

 

Mat

deff sounds like prop

 

has it been balanced?

no this has not been done, apprently there are 2 joint aswell one at either end and it could be these?

It could just need disconnected at the rear join, and rotated till it's balanced. You'll only need to do it a maximum of three times to find out, lol. (4 bolts)

 

What about the wheel bearing, have you crossed that off the list?

 

You need to take someone out in the car who is willing to sit in the back with the seats folded down...........(sounding really dodgy here, lol).........and listen for where exactly the noise is coming from.

 

We can train dogs to find drugs and crims, surely we can have a special "Find the noise" dog? :dance:

agreed with petrolhead..they need to try rotating the prop into the 3 other positions then test drive...takes time but costs no parts

I have vitrually the same symptoms.

And it was proving hard to find.

Eventually had to wait until another club member had their car in at the same garage.

Prop shafts were swapped and the the vibrartion move from one car to the other.

So my prop shaft is away being re-balanced and reconditioned this week.

Should have it back in a week or so.

 

Perhaps you could find another friendly zed owner in your area and start swapping parts - start with centre bearing and prop shaft.

Mate,

 

i live in preston but take my car to geoff at zedworld. (tamworth) There is no way I would leave a Z in anything but the hands of a specialist. Nissan main dealers have not got a clue what they are doing on a Z. Ask yourself what is the average leangth of service of their mechanics? How long will it have been since they worked on Z's in any numbers? The Z is a very complicated car to work on and most of the knowledge needed has been lost by the main dealers. Drive your car to a specialist (if it drives) if not get it there by truck and let them give it a full healthcheck. Believe me you will save a bundle of money in the long run. The key to enjoying a Z is driving it as it was designed to be driven not worrying about what might go wrong.

 

My 'mint' import had a horror story cambelt (saved in the nick of time), dodgy wheel bearing, centre propshaft bearing on the way out, front subframe that was loose, and some broken sensors. :headvswal

 

The upside of doing what you must is you will not believe the performance of a well sorted Z :) :) :)

 

Best of Luck mate

 

Chris

I have vitrually the same symptoms.

And it was proving hard to find.

Eventually had to wait until another club member had their car in at the same garage.

Prop shafts were swapped and the the vibrartion move from one car to the other.

So my prop shaft is away being re-balanced and reconditioned this week.

Should have it back in a week or so.

 

Perhaps you could find another friendly zed owner in your area and start swapping parts - start with centre bearing and prop shaft.

had the same prob, in the end it was the prop out of balance ,but it was the same price to fit a one piece prop ,and lighter ,and no prop bearing to worry about in the future :dance: got mine from the states £320 delivered.smooth as silk now fitted it myself easy.

thank you all I really appreciate it.

 

Any idea on costs of balancing prop shaft?

thank you all I really appreciate it.

 

Any idea on costs of balancing prop shaft?

I got quoted £250 so decided to go for the one piece.