clive01

ok will deff change the oil then. do you recommend i run the engine for a few minutes to heat the oil up and get rid of the waxy stuff or sound i not risk running the engine again with the current oil?

Is it as plug and play as that? just pull out the connector(s?), plug in the new one and screw it down?

I have one more question. Am i likely to do any damage to my car even when running with the test ECU with the symptoms I have described? And how do i fit the new ECU? Is there a guide somewhere?

That would be very much appreciated mate. I will put a cheque in with it when i send it back to cover your postage. send me an email to camlourme@hotmail.com and i will reply with my address to send it to. Thanks again.

will an auto or even a jap auto be ok in a UK manual car? i am west london Andy P but dont mind jumping on the tube over to you to pick it up and drop it back to you.

there are different types of HG failure. A leak between the oil and water sides will produce the mayo on the oil cap but you can also get a leak between the water and cylinder sides which will mean combustion products "blowing" into the water and therefore not produce any signals in the oil but will still have the same affects of head warping etc. But i dont want to unduly worry you as if you are seeing a puddle it is more likely you have a leak in the system; coolant hoses, waterpump or radiator but cant see what would cause a pudddle under the battery but i suppose it can run off the scuttle panels. you could try topping it up and getting home in one piece and stopping when the temp starts to climb (or even if it doesnt climb to normal temp is as much of a worry) stop turn off and leave to cool down and retop-up. but i wouldnt want to advise you to do that and you overheat your car badly. it would be best to get it towed I guess. I get free breakdown recovery as a additions account holder with barclays. You could just phone up the AA and join and immediately get them out to tow you if you are really worried.

what will changing the oil do? make sure there is no water in it. If water got in the ECU it would have nothing to do with water in the oil would it? should i run the engine to get to oil warm for the change or avoid running it at all even to see if the problem is sorted, reaccurred and the cylinders are full or now the plugs should be dry? I have put this on another thread but incase it doesnt get seen there i will add it here too. Ok has anyone in the london area got a std UK manual ECU they can very kindly lend me to get me out of this hole i find myself in????? Will pay travel cost and money in kindness!!!

Ok has anyone in the london area got a std UK manual ECU they can very kindly lend me to get me out of this hole i find myself in????? Will pay travel cost and money in kindness!!!

Yeah would deff check the level in the rad. Sounds like you might have an airlock in the rad so water can something get to the head and sometime the air trapped is blocking it. The most efficient way to check it is topped up is to park on a steep hill with front pointing up the hill, leave the engine running and pour water/coolant mixture into the rad cap openning until fully. Take it for another drive and repeat until constantly full. Be careful when opening the rad cap when engine is hot as the cap itself can be boiling hot and if it is full scalding water will flow out. It is worth keeping an eye on the rad water level for a few weeks to make sure you have got rid of all the air blocks. Always top up the rad but make sure you have water in the expansion tank too above the min level. If the problem keeps occuring you need to figure out why. The most common are; a small leak or split in the coolant hoses (particularly around the jubilee clips) or from the water pump where water is leaking out under pressure during running and air sucked back in when cooling, faulty rad cap which leaks water under pressure due to bad spring and then sucks in air when cooling not extra liquid from the expansion tank due to poor seating (replace with a known good one), or the bad one!!! split in the HG causing exhaust gases to be blown into the coolant (look for even a slight oily film on the coolant surface) Hope this helps

Looks like you have spotted my problem down to a tee... http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=94080&page=2 need your help now because it is now running badly. when exactly happened to the ECU and is it now irreversiblly damaged???

UPDATE got the car running and took it for a drive but it did not sound happy at all. Thought that was normal since the ECU had been reset and was reprogramming itself and there was probably a lot of unburnt fuel washing about in the cylinders and exhaust and the plugs were probably a bit wet still. I have reset the ECU before and had a flooded engine too so I have experienced this before but I took it for a long drive and it sounded terrible. It was all lumpy and stuttered even when going a constant speed with the cruise control. It was fine whilst decelerating and a bit better when accelerating but it was still struggling badly. It was about an 45 mins to an hours drive in total on the M4 and did not really seem to get better or worse. I noticed I had a blow in the exhaust when doing the starter motor where the EGR enters as mild steel into my SS system (!!genius!!) but I am not sure whether this is new or old but don’t think it is big enough to cause the major running problems I am having. What is going on? Is my ECU damaged from the problem Andy Duff mentioned or am I missing sparks on certain cylinders like I refer to above? Is there a way to check if all the cylinders are running correctly? Could my timing have been kicked out somehow? Did not move the CAS so it is pretty worrying if my belt has jumped a tooth. I checked the error codes again when I got back from the drive and 11 has disappeared but still shows 21. I didn’t think the error codes got deleted unless the ECU was reset so does that mean they disappear when the problem sorts itself out. Do my problems therefore have something to do with the code 21? I had no running problem before and even immediately preceeding this starting problem and I should probably also mention that when I was coming to the end of my long journey in the wet immediately before this problem occurred it had started to smell faintly petrol-y. Never noticed this before so it probably occurred during the journey.

you have got it Duffman, unfortunately not before i found out myself the hard (and wet!) way. i pulled plug 1 (if that is the drivers side nearest the front) cranked the engine and a petrol geyzer came out the hole!!! took me by suprise a bit. spurred me on though as at least it was now cranking. could see a hell of a alot of fuel swilling about in the cylinder still! stuck a screw driver in the cam cover to hold the throttle open to let the petrol evaporate a bit and i pulled the fuel pump fuse (in the drivers side small fuse box) put a rag over the openning and cranked it a few more times. was a bit worried that i couldnt see the plug sparking though. Inspected the ptu again and saw one connector was a little loose but was probably still in contact. is the fuel pump fuse the same fuse for the rest of the engine electronics like the sparks? Put the plug back in and tried to crank it a few times to dry the plugs out (fuel pump fuse still out) and it actually caught after a few splutters. paniced a bit though as the wedged screwdriver was holding the throttle open so the revs quickly rose and i saved it before it ripped itself apart by turning off. prob enough fuel in the cylinders and injectors to still ignite. took the screwdriver out and tried to turn it again with the fuse out but no luck. Have left it now with the throttle open and will go back a bit later and take the screwdriver out put the fuse back in a hopefully it will start. I will take it for a drive until it sorts itself out. What i am worried about still is. 1. the spark i didnt see on the plug i pulled. i earthed against the plenum and everything but deffinetly no spark. is it because the fuel pump fuse i actually the same fuse for the spark? or have i been running on 5 or less cylinders. and how can i tell this and what can i do to fix it. 2. has this internal injector driver circuit short caused any permenant damage to me ECU or engine? is it actually the ECU that get wet and if so how the hell does that happen!?! didnt notice any dampness around it before when checking the codes.

put a socket and ratchet on the crank pulley and at least see if the engine turns over then. how do i do this? i am 95% it wont be cranking. I sounds like the starter is trying to crank it but it is blocked or stopped. Could a cylinder or all the cylinders be full of fuel or something and it cant compress against it so cant turn? whatever it is trying to turn against feels pretty solid and that i wont budge

11: crank angle sensor circuit & 21: ignition signal circuit The battery was off overnight as i didnt want to get electricuted while touching the starter motor as it was sparking alot when it was hanging off as it was shorting against the chasis. So old codes should be clear (including codes that formed when the problem happened) and new codes will be from when i have just tried to start it up. I have fiddled with the CAS and PTU connectors and nothing. I have previously given them all a good clean when i had an unrelated problem and couple of months ago. The PTU is series II. Would the ECU kick up these two codes as a kind of default if the car failed to start????

TAKE 2 i glued the backet back on the starter and refixed it which a 3 stars out of 5 PITA job without a ramp!!! started it again and it was the first time when i turn the key it just goes CLUNK. It seems that the starter is turning against a heavy resistance and although it hasnt got much torque itself it wasnt able to turn against the engine and broke itself away from the mounting!!! this sounds a serious problem the battery is strong as it is turning the starter fine but it seems like something in the engine has ceased!! I really dont understand it aas i said above i had just been on a long journey and was fine and when i tried to start it the following morning this happend. there is oil in the engine, the coolant looks clear and the coolant temperature levels where fine during the journey. the only out of the ordinary things that happened was that it was very very wet that night and like i have said above the fan and shroud chewed each other up where i hadnt attached the shroud properly. could water have sneaked into the turning parts somehow and rapidly rusted over 12 hours with the residual heat from the engine and ceased something up. OR could parts of the fan or shroud that got shaved off flown into the engine somehow and caused this??? Please help because this sounds really serious

thanks for the help today was the first opportunity to have a look at the car and i was suprised to see that the starter motor was hanging loose with one of the 14" bolts loose and the other still attached to the bracket that had clean broken away from the rest of the unit! Have never inspected the unit before so i dont know if one of the bolts had always been loose and eventually the vibrations caused the bracket to break or what. I am shocked that steel unit had broken so i am concerned it is turning against a resistance causing it to snap with the crank or engine mechanics ceased or stiff. I guess i will find out when the starter is back on but i am wondering whether people think i should be worried or the snap was just caused by the looseness of one of the bolts???

it sounds like a worse problem than a dodgy battery. I found this on the service manual. But dont know what is means from there on.

BIG PROBLEMS! To give background i had a long journey in the car last night from london to derby and back. It was very wet if that makes a difference but when i went back to the car this lunchtime, a good 11 hours since the journey, it didnt start. I turn the key and it gives a couple of normal turning over chugs and then CLUNK. sort of similar to when you start the car in gear but different slightly and the car wasnt in gear. Tried again. CLUNK. Tried again. CLUNK. Went to look under the bonnet and noticed that where i hadnt secured one side of the upper fan shroud it had obviously come into contact with the viscous fan and it had destroyed a small section and also worn the tops of the fan blades down an amount. The shroud has not been secured on one side for a few weeks and this hadnt happened previuosly even with long journeys. Perhaps extra forces from water heavy air had caused it or higher speeds. Thought a shard of plastic might have been caught in one of the belts and the front so had a feel around but couldnt tell much. Tried to start again and there was a CLACKING noise similar to when you put football cards in the spokes of your push bike as a kid. Had another feel around and started it again. This time there was just a WUURRR from what must be the starter motor running freely. I heard fuel pump knocking too. tried again and it was just the free running WUURRING which seemed to be coming from the bottom-back of the engine. I understand that keep trying to start it with a problem hasnt help but can you help me piece this together to figure out what is up????

hhmmmm interesting. I will jack up this weekend and take a gander. Would this ring true with teh creaking/clicking sound i am getting when turning right?

I am getting a strange creaking / knocking noise coming from what sounds like the front right of the car when I turn hard right. I previous FWD I have owned that I a deffinete right CV joint problem but I tried to have a look around my wheel last night and I could see (or feel) a cv boot. Do zed’s or any RWD cars have cv joints on the front or just a free bearing? What could my problem be if it is not that? Is there a rear cv joint or something similar with the HICAS?

It’s a strange one. Think it is just a poor connection in the rear lights. Will have to get my multimeter and sandpaper out and check which connection it is. The engine warning light is a bit bizarre. Have just been out to check the error codes with the turning the pot on the ecu method and the warning light flashed away so the bulb is ok. Why would the engine warning light not come on at all when starting? There is a good chance I sorted the wrong 2 pins when using the paper clip method to check for codes. What damage could this do? Anyway, I was able to check the codes and I am getting a code 21 which is a ignition circuit problem but the car is running fine. It is not a historic code as the battery was left off recently. The ptu is a relatively new looking series 2 and recently cleaned connectors on that and one coil packs when I had my recent starting problem. Could I have a problem with the ignition that I am not aware of? Or could it be linked with the non-working engine warning light as I might of shorted the wrong pins as one of the ones of pins you are meant to short is the IGN pin. Or could it just be something to do with my immobilizer that must cut the ignition circuit somehow?

any help on this guys. would be much appreciated!

1. I recently did the clear rear indicator conversion. only done one side so far but all went fine but strangely now every time i switch on the lights the rear light doesnt come on (either both bulbs or one or other of them) and i have to go round to the rear and give the unit a tap on the front and it is fine. tried looking for a loose connection but cant find anything. Anyone heard of this problem before? 2. I tried to check the ecu error codes but shorting the two pins on the consult plug with a paper clip i was short on space and couldnt really see what was going on with the light but now the yellow engine light does not flash on at all when i turn the ignition on like it is meant to with the battery light etc. I guess this is not a good idea that this light isnt working if i do develop and engine fault. everything else seems fine. is there a fuse that just controls this light?

what Mark has said about the HG has got me really woried and doing searches seems like many people have had the same symptoms as me and it was down to a failed HG. Although, i think it is just as likely to be a leak from one of the hoses or a faulty rad cap I am keen to find out whether my HG is in trouble. I have read about a "sniffer" test with dye chemicals to test whether there are exhaust gases getting into the water system. I know there are other methods to test but these all seem inconclusive and i have seen a post that says this test kit only cost £25. However, i have searched the internet and cant find anywhere that sells it (it is just mentioned on every other car club forum which goes to show that is not only zeds that are a headache!). Does anyone know where i can get it or even a brandname that i can search for?

definetly mate. Thanks for the tip off. Is the method i have described to test something else or a different way of doing the same thing. In your method are you testing the whole system pressure capacity without a working/sprung rad cap? does the system have to hold the pressure for an amount of time or are you just testing to see what pressure it can get up to? Any ideas on what that target / test pressure should be?