Long story

 

Bought my `90 Jap import 300zxTT on the 20th of June this year and enjoyed 23 days of happy motoring until the return Journey from the Max Power event on the 13th July. In weybridge, surrey, it broke down with the symptom of no power to the wheels. The engine seemed to be OK and the AA diagnosed it as a possible problem with the torque converter, burnt smell in the gearbox fluid. Wasn't to worried at this point as I thought the garage would repair the vehicle under warranty and I had peace of mind in the additional "mechanicle nreakdown cover" bought at the point of purchase. With this in mind and on advice from the garage where I purchased the vehicle I had the AA deliver the vehicle back to base. A week later the garage finaly looks into the cars problem and after ringing round, send the gearbox to a specialist for repair and a new torque converter. After reapeted calls to the garage for progress reports, this little lot currently stands at £886. + £ 260 + VAT respectivley. During the process of chasing the garage to establish the damage I discover that my additional cover only provides up to £500.

 

The moral guys, watch what you sign.

 

Further to Z sightings at the Max Power event, if the black car in one of the earlier posts was in south car park S3, it was probably mine.

sorry to hear about braking down i saw you on side of road i think but was going too fast to stop

just thought cant o been you m8 i went on the sunday bust hav been a bad weekend for black Z`s hope you get it sorted

Sorry about the bad news.

 

The other thing that you have to watch with extended warranties is that many of them only cover mechanical breakdown. When my auto box went, my policy did not cover it as there were no broken parts, just worn out ones.

 

If you car has high mileage, the guarantees may not be worth taking out as I am sure that they can put almost anything down to fair wear and tear and not pay out.

And make sure it's the right cover for a turbo car and includes turbo failure

If your auto gearbox has been repaired and they have not fitted an aftermarket oil cooler then I strongly recommend that you get one. Autos are not kind to their oil and overheating is a major cause of their early demise.

Brent - get the autobox oil cooler bits (rad, stainless braided pipes & brackets) from www.thinkauto.com for £82 including VAT and carriage. just had mine from there.

 

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"Clean on drive"

"Dirty at 156mph!"

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Z first and anything else is secondary and live life a quarter mile at a time!

John Newcomb (NukeEm)

www.geocities.com/jn300zxtt

Good advice on the oil cooler guys! This will have to wait however as I still have not got the car back, they still have it awaiting the return of the box. Also Taking independant legal advice as to position with regard to the sale of goods act. Confused as to what makes this particular garage different to having bought the car as a private sale. I thought you would normally go to a trader for piece of mind. Still, who knows, could have a happy ending!

John - do you have a part number for the Auto cooler kit?

 

Or is it a generic "one-size fits all" type.

 

Thanks,

Trev

Well, Think I've got a bit of a result of sorts. Everything is being repaired and it will only cost me £ 500. The garage is picking up the rest of the bill which i'm guessing is probably coming in close to £2K, some of you i'm sure know roughly what this might cost. The rebuild is also complete with a new oil cooler, another expense spared. Should have the car back on the road by early next week, if not this weekend.

All in all, not bad on the customer service side of things!

Bad luck mate. a freind of mine was sold an auto with an overdrive that does not work and is now facing a big repair bill. The test drive we were taken on was just on short roads with bursts of acceleration so we couldnt tell at the time untill we got it up to 70 mph on the motorway going home

 

Paul

 

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Trey, these are the bits I ordered from Think Auto:

1 x 13 row oil cooler 230mm 3/8 bsp male,

2 x 3/8 bsp female fitting both 90 degree bends, 3m of 3/8 id stainless braided oil hose and 2 x cooler brackets. You don't have to go for the braided hose, ordinary rubber is a little cheaper.

 

They supplied the braided hose with the ends crimped on already for me. I can't remember the guys name that I dealt with but I was well impressed with his knowledge and their service. If you mention that you want to have the same stuff as I got, say it was for John Newcomb and sent to Burton on Trent around the 22nd June 2002. If you want to see what the install looks like let me know and I can take a few pictures of it for you.

 

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Z first and anything else is secondary and live life a quarter mile at a time!

John Newcomb (NukeEm)

www.geocities.com/jn300zxtt

Had similar problem..

bought my Z a few months ago, garage had forked out £1800 on pretty much replacing the gearbox before I bought it.. alarm bells did ring, but then thought... well at least it's been done at their expense not mine, and I used it to get the price of the car down further... 2 weeks after picking it up.. horrific grinding sounds emerge from centre tunnel followed by nasty smells outside the car. Back it goes.. only to find out the Transmission oil cooler has failed and taken a some auto bits with it..

 

I think it was Kris who looked under the car and remarked how pretty my new oil cooler is Bloody well should be.. the work cost £1300 and it's brand new Nissan bits (they actually said NISMO but I'm guessing that was just to sound good...)