marty_t3

I wasn't expecting to hear too many bad words about 300s on this BBS but i wasn't expecting them to be this highly rated. Isn't there anything wrong with these cars ?? :confused: They're fast, handle well, they're reliable, capable of high mileages, easy to work on, cheap to buy..... there's gotta be a downside!!! Lemme guess, they stand up well to crashes too? :D oh...wait... i just thought of one downside..... most of them are autos :p **zips up flame proof jacket**

Cheers Andy, I thought under the bonnet of my 200 was bad for space, that was until i saw a 300ZX. I've never seen so many pipes on one car :eek: (possible exception being the Toyota GT4... looks like the aftermath of an explosion in the samco factory) Sounds like the usual course of mods. I'd imagine most TTs would have an ample amount of grunt with the usual exhaust. induction and boost upgrade. (saying this now but probably be a different story when i get them ) :rolleyes:

If you've read any of my posts you'll know i'm looking to buy a Z in the near future. I was wondering how hard they are to work on for a budding amateur mechanic like myself. I've done a fair bit of work on my 200sx (changing turbos, intercoolers, suspension, etc) and done a bit of playing around with my scoob. Is the 300 a much more complicated beast or is it just that there's less space under the bonnet? Also, I was wondering if there are any obvious performance restrictions on the cars (like the 200sx has pathetic air flow through the airbox and a p155 poor exhaust as standard). I'd imagine the 300 would have some restrictions due to it being set up to meet the Jap 276bhp max rule. Cheers, Marty.

I put in a call the the dealer i bought my impreza from and was rather surprised when he offered me a trade in thats almost what i paid for the impreza and told me he'd source a decent 300ZX TT for me. I can't wait to get back into a decent car again. The last 3 months of Scoob ownership had almost put me off performance cars. The Impreza, regardless of it's performance, is a seriously over rated car. Long live Nissan :D Woohoo!!! oh.. before i forget ... I stumbled onto the gallery of owners cars the other night but i can't find the link to it. Can someone remind me where it is? I've got some pre-ownership drooling to do :p

I'm getting similar probs with my impreza and i've been advised to clean out the idle control sensor with carb cleaner (I don't even know if a Z has an ICS or if it can be cleaned). Does your car sometimes stall if you are stationary and give it some revs then let off the gas? I find that if i pull up to junctions in gear and use engine braking to bring the revs down slowly the car seems ok (though idling a little low). If i pull up to a junction quickly and press the clutch before the revs have dropped the car will occasionally stall. Sound similar?

No offence, but it always seems a bit quiet in here :confused:

My scoob is the same. The read demister has cut/melted horizontal lines into the tint. I want to remove it but going on the experience of a friend who tried the same on his car, i wouldn't recommend it unless you have a lot of time and patience. His side windows weren't too bad to get the film of as he could scrape at it while applying a liberal amount of white spirit. The rear was a different matter. He couldn't scrape at it much as he would end up cutting the demister lines. It took him about 6 hours to get the film off and the back window still looked a mess. There may be an easier way to remove this stuff but i don't know it.

I noticed the same with my old S13. Hardly anyone knew what it was. Guess their rarity and peoples unfamiliarity with Nissan sports cars works in our favour. It just makes the car's stand out in a crowd, especially when parked next to the common as muck Audi TTs and Imprezas :D Gotta wonder what Nissan marketing is all about though. They win first prize for having the most underrated cars. They make some bloody good sports cars and don't even make the effort to sell them :confused:

Take a look through my "disgruntled impreza owner" thead. Some of the same questions were answered in there. Seems to me that a few folk here are upgrading their car to a Z. I still can't figure out why Z's are so cheap?? That's a lot of car for bu99er all money.

I had a Meta on my 200sx. Had it for 4 years and had no problems with it at all. They're pretty good value for money in my opinion. I think most of the problems are down to the installers rather than the alarms themselves.

Well i think that's pretty much everything i needed to know for now. I already cleared the idea with the other half last night. She's happy to sit in the back and put the baby seat in the front as long as she gets to drive it once in a while (i neglected to mention the lack of boot space for a pram) ;) I'm off to the autotrader site now for a browse. A bit of car shopping this weekend i hope. :D

Glenn, Cheers, that's exactly the kind of story i was hoping to hear :) My mind is made up about getting a 300 now, just glad to hear good stories about going from a scoob to a Z. Out of curiosity though, how do they compare insurance wise? I'd guess the import TTs are in roughly the same group as the WRXs. SRRAE, An 80 quid repair bill sounds ok to me. :D In 3 months in the scoob i've replaced the turbo, the power steering gasket and the radiator header tank and i still get some smoke from under the bonnet when the car has been driven hard. There is a vibration above 90, the gear select is notchy and the clutch pedal doesn't return to where is should when it's pressed. The drivers door lock is mangled (cuz someone tried to steal it last week), and i think the boost control solenoid is gubbed cuz i'm only getting 7psi of boost. Like i said, 80 quid sounds quite reasonable :D

Ajay, I will advertise it there once i get it running properly. I'm hoping to trade it in though. There's too many things not right about the car just now so i'd feel guilty selling it to another scoobynetter. Same goes for folk on here. My impreza is a heap and i won't try to fob it off on another car enthusiast. I'll just fob it off on a dealer instead :D

Just one more question. Anyone wanna swap their Z for an Impreza ?? :D

I was just browsing around some of the links i've found on here and i came accross one that says the engine has to be removed to replace the turbos?? Is this true? :eek: I came accross some other info comparing the UK+JDM specs. I noticed that the stock suspension on the Jap version is supposed to be softer. Is this noticable? Also, the JDM cars have a 1.5" resrictor before the cat? Does this hamper performance and can it be easily removed? HICAS is only available on the "high speed" versions of the UK cars? I ssume this is the TT version?

LOL .... Believe it or not, I used gran turismo to narrow down my choices for my last 2 cars :D I think i'll put my own geek hat on and give the Z a try tonight :D

Thanks for the advice guys, Just a few more quick questions, I plan on modding the car a little. Probably jap exhausts, bit more boost, better induction. What kind of gains are there to be had from the few basic mods mentioned? Any idea of prices for tuning parts compared to other cars(HKS, Blitz, Trust etc)? I guess the exhaust will be a bit more pricey as there's more of it ;) Can the boost be turned up with a manual boost controller or bleed valve safely? What sort of boost levels are safe with a standard block/pistons/fueling. Are there any other mods that need seeing to? I guess the brakes are ok as the calipers were pretty sought after for the 200sx.

What about Cambelt changes? When are they due? It's more than likely that i'll be getting a car with about 60-80k on the clock so hopefully it'll already have been done but i just wanna be a bit more informed before i go car shopping. What sort of mpg do you guys get? My scoob is around 18-22mpg on average and my 200sx mas about the same. Are the 300 TTs much worse? I assume insurance wise they'll be the same as the Imprezas, imports cost more than UK cars? What about performance between the imports and the UKs? One of them better than the other? Any expensive common faults that i should look for? Any Good links for 300zx FAQ's that i should be reading?

Ok, so i've make the mistake of straying from my Nissan roots and bought a WRX Impreza a few months ago. I hate it and want to move back to Nissan and get myself a 300ZX. I've heard some horror stories about running costs for the 300 as well as expensive engine rebuilds required at 80k miles. Anyone got some good advice on what to look for in a 300ZX TT? Anyone owned a WRX and a 300zx TT and can give me a comparison or running costs etc? I'm looking to spend about 6K on the car, what can i expect for that? Any advice would be very much appreciated.