WillieO

US spec get them on the front shocks as well. Hollow piston rod with an actuator at the top to change the valving inside.

sounds like centre bearing and or universal joints on the propshaft, Any clonking? blurred rear view mirror thru vibes? Hopefully not a worn out diff though or diff bearings. They can make a noise like you describe and drone at speed. If it changes when you turn left or right it could point to a rear wheel bearing instead.

Nope never been there - yet. Just some contracts for heavy electrical power equipment and could never get over calling a London telephone number to reach a person via sat phone in sunny K. Also making brandy from wine by freezin off the water when its minus 40 in mid winter! Sorry to digress from zedery. Anyway on zed brakes I'm nearly sure I've seen a road test way back when new and a stock zed with Nissan pads could pull up in about 50m from 70mph. The latest 5 series BMW saloons dont do much better today! Sure it maybe couldnt do it in that distance too many times in quick sucession! So the big brake kit would give more stamina for absorbing and radiating the energy but if you have sticking pistons then you risk warping the new and expensive big discs. I fitted stock size 3G 30 groove and only after fixing the calipers. Brakes fine now Willie

Steve You at kivo, KPC or TCO? bet no zeds out there?

So ya going to learn Russian when winter comes there or study zed? If your new zed is an old UK zed then I'd bet on a couple of stuck caliper pistons each side

Get enough detting then you can hole a piston - just when you lift off at high speed and slam the foot down again. Other possibility is a burnt valve or seat - maybe lots of ticking over hot in traffic during the hot weather recently? When it was rebuilt, did each good valve go back in its own nicely worn to fit seat? One put in another seat might not seal so well then burn due to a bad contact surface not taking the heat away. If you've absolutely no compression then its head off time unfortunately unless you can see a stuck open valve or camfollower with the cam cover off.

Had a chuckle at the most recent 2 bulletins 99-020C FEB 03 Vehicle - Flat Towing Recommendations 00-056B NOV 02 A/T - Mandatory Oil Cooler Cleaning Says it all really - these cars are getting on a bit so now comes the crap in the transmission oil cooler followed by the tow truck if you dont deal with it!

The A to Z book by Scott Philbrook mentions 90/91 models with the problem. Quote TRANSMISSION FLUID AND THE ENDLESS GRIND The gear-grinding problem in the 1990 and newer 300ZXs with manual transmissions is the car’s most common problem. I know more people who have experienced this problem than any other one mentioned here or anywhere that I have done my research. My own car was a good example. It ground the gears when shifting into and out of fourth and sometimes other gears. The worst thing about was it most often happened during hard acceleration. Apparently there is a problem with the synchronizers in the manual transmissions of the 1990 and ’91 models. I waged an unsuccessful battle against Nissan to have something done about this. I wanted a service recall or at least some financial assistance with repairs. Nissan dealt with me diplomatically — I received a form letter that demonstrated to me that they hadn’t even read the letter I sent them. Nissan stated that there was no evidence that my problem was apparent in any cars other than my own. My original letter listed almost 30 other 300ZX owners from all over the world who had the same problem. I had even discovered a Technical Service Bulletin that indicated how to fix the problem that Nissan was now denying to me even existed. Here’s information on the bulletin: BULLETIN INFORMATION It was titled, “GRINDS REPAIR KIT NTB91-086” and specifically related to the 1990 and ’91 300ZXs. It was labeled Manual Transmission Classification MT91-002, and its bulletin number was NTB91-086, dated October 24, 1991. The bulletin applied to the following VIN numbers: JN1RZ26**MX999999 JN1RZ24**MX504315 JN1CZ24**MXSOS910 [that’s MXS and the letter “O” followed by S91 and the number zero]. The bulletin said that customers may complain of a grinding 35 problem when changing from fourth to fifth gears. It goes on to say that, after checking all the basics, like pedal adjustments, etc., that a repair kit is available. The repair kit is to be installed by removing the transmission and installing the kit, using the same procedure as used to overhaul the transmission. The kit’s part number is 32220-30P25. It contains the following: Spring-Insert Fifth Reverse, 32615-30P10; Fork Rod, Fifth, 32816-30P10; Sleeve Coupling, Fifth, 32616-30P10; Ring-Baulk, Reverse, 32617-30P10; Gear-Reverse Countermeasure, 3220-30P10; and Ring Baulk, Fifth, 32614-30P10. These parts must be used only as a set on vehicles built prior to the applied VIN numbers. Unquote Quote I drained the transmission and filled it with Redline Brand MTL. The difference was amazing — the grinding all but disappeared. I still occasionally experience it when racing very hard (on a closed course), but for the most part it is gone. That is even after 70,000 miles of grinding (I bought the car with 48,000 miles on it). In any event, the gear grinding is one of the Z’s more serious problems, and it is not easily repaired. If I were more financially fortunate I would probably buy a new transmission. If you have the grinding problem, I recommend trying the Redline MTL Synthetic transmission lubricant. Unquote

If the car is has been sitting a day or two the pressure will be almost all gone. Be brave with some rags and catch any spillage - not recommended for compulsive smokers!

fpr is fuel pressure regulator. If you follow the fuel pipe work from the filter up to the plenum on the passenger side you will see a black thingy tucked between the second and third induction pipe. This has a fuel hose right underneath that is very hard to see. It gets hot there and after 10 years the pipe going from there down to the fuel injector rail hardens and leaks - especially on cold mornings. This one is not so easy to tighten the clip on except by removing the central cover with 3000 24 valve etc written on it. Sometimes the leak is taken as a broken fpr but I think more likely the hose conn right underneath. It would piss fuel on mine when cold but dissapear when it warmed up. Very hard to see. The fuel would run down the back of the engine onto the floor under the car. Strong smell needs a half tea cup of fuel so dont believe getting your talc out is going to find ity bitty leaks. There are of course other places because all these rubber fuel hoses harden with age. Best to buy some 8mm high pressure fuel hose and get stuck in and change em all!

under the fpr

John Are they pukka Nissan with integral sleel sleeves? Or poly? The Pukka ones looked (from memory) like they were a certain orientation when fitted. Just checked my poly's - no cracks also the rod can and does lean the bush to both sides as it should when the car is jacked up taking the weight off the suspension or compressed. Looks to me like the poly allows full movement. I could see a 2" lowered suspension causing an issue though as it is neutral at stock level but would be compressed if lowered.

unplug and replug the connector on the tps and waggle the wiring underneath it when idling - if its there you will hear the tickover change immediately. Also listen for hissing around the engine bay when idling implying a small air tube has come off or is leaking. I had one just in front of the battery with a cracked T piece. New T piece and idle back to normal

Mine passed 2 MOTs with a little play you could feel on one side. Anyway as the front tyres seemed to being eaten faster than expected on the shoulders I figured time to change them. I bought the NISMO Skyline bushes from Middlehurst Nissan I think - I found the number on the forum. Cost about £156 with next day del. They are supposed to be uprated. They are actually bush bearing assemblies with rubber seals. The same part numbers are on them as on the courtesy website, The inners and outers are different. They were a bit bigger than the ones that came off and had Motorsport use only marked on them. Asked what that meant exactly and was told - just means uprated and maybe a little harsher than stock. Once the old top links were free from the hub carrier you could feel much more play. Not too hard to do. Hardest part was getting the nuts on the inner wing mount undone. Steering feels very accurate and no rattles or noise whatsoever now even on bumpy roads. Tyre wear has definitely slowed too.

Nothing else looks like it in a rear view mirror except maybe some Italian stuff by what's his name, Ferrari

John I doubt you can get em back in. The sleeve is kind of soft and unless you have the correct diameter tool and a big press I think it would be like getting toothpaste back in the tube. Are you doing this because of the sticky on poly bushes above? I would wait on more feedback from others as they all get re checked - if they're fatigue cracking then there's more out there! We need to know if this is a type / design mismatch or a failure in the actual product used. Also the suppliers of poly bushes must take a view on this as "fitness for purpose" becomes an issue.

You sure about all being 10" wide. I have 235X 40 on my 8.5" fronts and they look like you couldnt use a wider wheel with that tyre size without overstretching the sidewalls. Plus there is only about a half inch max clearance with the arches on full lock as is. Got 265 at the back on 10" and again it looks like the narrowest tyre you could use at that rim width.

I did it by drilling out the rubber and soft stuff then catching the edge of the mild steel sleeve with a cold chisel - pushing it towards the middle and lo and behold the sleeve almost falls out. You dont need a big drift on this. Took no time at all. Pushing the new poly one in is harder until you realise its supposed to go all out of shape before popping in

Why dont you ever see cars like that on top gear type shows? I'd love to see £5k worth of car + £20ks worth of mods trash £300ks worth of Zonda but somehow you know you'll never see it. That car must be about to have chocolate pistons at that output and the lag from the big turbo must be whole seconds before it gets up to boogee.

Martin Check with Dick300 - Colin Dick. He has had a lot of work done at Hypertech so should be able to give a decent reference.

Martin The engine is probably fine, just fried turbo seals. These engines are good for mega mileage if not totally thrashed and uprated. Where in Edinburgh are you? I'm in Falkirk. Willie

10 ish bhp on a tt

I also found that even 150psi wouldnt shift them. When I did mine I had to put them back on the car with old pads in the sides that did work and a piece of wood against the single free piston other side then stamp rally hard on the brake pedal. You hydraulic them out - really messy as you loose the brake fluid each time one pops. I had 1 really tight on each side. Clean each up and do the seals and pop it back in to do the last one same way other side. Or as you feel it begin to give way under the brake pedal check which one has moved and block it to let the other go. Saves the mess X2. hope that makes sense I tried g clamping with a small g clamp on the free side but the clamp broke with the pressure. You can actually push the pistons back in with your fingers when they are really clean.

Brake master cylinders either work or dont. When they fail one circuit usually stays working so you get some emergency brake to stop. Best if the rear circuit goes first as the fronts do about 80% of the braking effort. The foot pedal travel gets much longer. Dual circuit system on the zed is split front rear. Spongy long travel pedal and lousy stopping distances would be very noticeable. Otherwise the master cylinder is fine. Zed problems at this age are more likely one or 2 stuck pistons in each of the 4 piston front calipers, especially on UK cars due to salts. Properly working zed brakes are actually pretty good.

Dont get me wrong I like to dream but arent 550rwbhp zeds just dream cars? Seems to me the 360-400 level at the flywheel is already damn good and reasonable reliable. As Andy says the mods are pretty expensive to get to the seriously high level. I mean if you got it its pretty much unusable - give it 10 - 20 full bore quarter miles and the transmission will be shot. Then the rings will go, the bores will wear fast and it will be unsellable at anything near cost. Also the driveability will be less nice as in nothing then everything. Theres a feature in one of those US mags about a 550bhp one and the rear wheels go all toe in on a full bore start because the rear sus bushes are too squidgy to hold it. Once you go for that you better rebuild the car from the wheels up with rigid sub mounts and decent brakes as well.