WillieO

It can also be an early sign of an autobox beginning to fail assuming yours is auto that is. Check the fluid colour and smell. Prolly not if it can do a 12 sec quarter! Otherwise coil connectors and injector connectors as others mentioned.

Hi Ossian, did you finish all that sill work? I've still to do mine. Shes sat outside, taxed and insured but with no MOT. If I can make the meet it'll have to be in my Ford engined MG!

If the aircon was working well it should clear misting on auto as the chiller has the effect of dehydrating the interior but its true that no heat can come till the engine is well warmed and just sat ticking over its too well cooled to warm up fast. The flaps are automatically controlled. Also if there was a frost then sub zero locks out the aircon compressor to protect it.

If its a TT did you re track the rear HICAS? If thats out then it can feel really weird

http://www.300zx.org.uk/gear_ratios.htm Gearing is about 28mph per thousand on a TT auto. (25.7mph/1000rpm manual) so 2857rpm @ 80mh and lock up to be pedantic! My 2600ish was prolly down to speedo error and the true speed was more like 76mph 25.2 per thousand apparently for a NA! As far as I know you cannot hold lock up. Only the box ecu can decide when it locks up and the conditions are explained in the auto transmission manual. Basically light throttle and high speeds. Power mode usually just keeps it from going into OD.

Engine temp sensor was loose coz when you boot it the needle jumped allover the place That was just the T gauge sensor - there's another main sensor beside it - the bigger one - thats the one that gives the engine ecu its references. The connector is ripe for furring up with green oxide as are most connectors on a zed at this age. Certainly check it and clean it if necessary.

Lock up makes it feel like it just changed up again from (OD)4th to 5th. (I know there isnt a 5th actually) If you let it do it on a light throttle at over 40mph you might only notice the rpm fall slightly again shortly after changing to 4th as the converter locks up. You'll know if you are in it when it shows around 2700rpm at 80. It drops the lock up if you hit the throttle or hit an incline. I am not sure where the transmission ecu gets the temperature reference from but but it wont allow lock up till well warm - maybe it uses the main engine temp sensor. If you have a bad connection on that then it could be seeing cold the whole time and not enabling lock up. This would also kill max normal boost and have the engine stuck rich and drinking fuel too.

You might find its loose! There was a bolt and a nut on a stud holding mine on a they had worked so loose the starter was just hanging in there. Result was finally a broken motor flange casting with nasty noises when it tried to start. Check it before its too late to just tighten it all up again

Halfords had short lengths of the 8mm high pressure stuff. The reason this problem gets forgotten is that it only happens in very cold weather and as the engine warms up the hose seals again and the smell disapears. Fortunately it runs down the inlet side in the vee and not onto the hot exhausts. It only gets worse though and obviously is a fire risk if there are any sparks going on under the bonnet.

Mind the wiring can be iffy and hardend and brittle on these. My rear drivers side injector regularly takes a vacation. I found it by trial and error. I wiggle the wires to the connector on the injector and hear the engine pick up and go smooth again on all 6. Then it works ok for ages again. Obviously there's a bad connection or maybe an internal wire break close to the connector. When the engine was out last the guy fitted new connectors for the front 4 but didnt or couldnt fit new ones on the rear two. I am sure there's nothing wrong with the injector only the wiring and its intermittent.

hose directly under the FPR at the back running down to the injector rail - you dont need talc if you can smell it! Its pouring down to the vee ond down the back of the engine. Look under the car next time and you will see it dripping onto the ground! You really need to take off the trim cover mid plenum thats over the throttle cables to be able to see it. I'm sure some people have changed the FPR thinking it was leaking but it just looks that way. Cold mornings shrink the aged hose enough for it to stop sealing. Its not hard to replace all those hoses with 8mm high pressure fuel hose.

make double sure it isnt just green oxide in the connectors thats stopping them working properly - clean the connectors and do the diagnostic. Mine were fine after cleaning up the connectors and it has starship mileage

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-NISSAN-300ZX-Z32-FAIRLADY-SILICONE-HOSE-TURBO-KIT_W0QQitemZ220157283377QQihZ012QQcategoryZ43120QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Anybody tried these?

I have exactly the same on the very same connector. Sorry but I wiggle the connector wire above it with the engine running and can hear the 6th clinder come back on. The wire would need to be bent in a certain direction to keep it on and if it moved it would drop out again. It would regularly do this in winter but its been fine for the past few months. One day I'll take it apart and replace the connector! The garage that had the engine out to do the turbos changed the front 4 connectors but left the 2 rearmost ones.

I had vibes with my last box. This was partially cured by first replacing the centre prop support bearing then pretty much the rest of the way by packing the gearbox support to raise the tailshaft angle a bit. You can do it by carefully jacking under the box with bits of wood under the sump then as the slotted part in the rubber support opens up you pack strips of rubber in there. Obviously this is a bodge but it can quickly prove if its just a new gearbox mount you need. The tailshaft angle can be too low with the age sagged mountings. My box later expired anyway and the replacement box and replacement gearbox mount has meant that there is not a trace of the 50-60mph cold vibes any more.

If yours is a UK car there is also a diff oil cooler that only works via an electric pump that comes in at high speed/temp. Its towards the rear offside wheel arch. If any of the pipes are leaking (did on mine) the oil can drip onto the exhaust giving smoke and drops get onto the bumper which dust sticks to making it look like black oil. It can go unnoticed for years if it never gets driven hard! It needs the pump to run to leak! It would not explain smoke in the engine bay which better supports the turbo oil feed or transmission oil being the culprit theories.

Yes its possible but unlikely unless its been razzed. Mine only got to 141k miles before one turbo seized! Only ever saw a little blue shortly after starting when it hadnt been used in a few days or weeks.

This will kill the battery if there's not already a dead cell causing this.

If it revs past 3000rpm then the AFM is probably fine and the problem is somewhere else

Check that the engine oil cooler is getting good and warm. It only gets oil fed to it if the pressure is over about 50psi. If the cooler is cold it suggests the valve that diverts some oil to it is jammed closed and this could explain the really high pressures. Pressures up around the 90psi's usually only show on cold oil.

easier to make it right and keep it

get replacement pistons and a seal kit off ebay. the pistons seize and stck eventually. force em out and replace and good as new.

Sounds like auto tranmission fluid. Check the dipstick is not jumping out as it could come out there if its overfilled. Also it could be a sign that the autobox is on its last legs if the trans oil is brown dirty and smelly rather than clear red. Other possibilities are the tailshaft seal allowing fluid to hit the exhausts or leaks in lines to the fluid cooler.

Turbos dont do seals jsut because of no back pressure on straight through exhausts. my auto reached 140k miles on original turbos with straight through exhausts the last 40k miles. It can be down to the way the car is used, whether the boost has been upped and whether it had clean oil all its life. The lack of back pressure when cats are removed helps finish off an alrady worn turbo. If you are sure you are getting good turbos then the auto ones are going to be fine. The big cost is getting the engine back out again if they are no good.

If you can smell it then its pouring out - take a look under the car next time! It runs down the back of the egine and trickles off the gearbox bell housing. On mine it was the FPR down hose to the injector rail hard to see but reasonably easy to fix.