WillieO

John Mintex £35 local car parts store special order for me. Been totally fine so far on 3g grooved discs with normal(ish) road use only. No track stuff yet. Willie

Can we can rule out the fact that you will get an improvement anyway just by really cleaning up the lenses and reflectors anyway while you do the upgrade. Is there no chance that that really is the reason for the improvement? Also with video footage (which I havent seen so cant truly comment) doesnt the auto exposure of the camera mean that the brightness thing is not comparable between the before and after or did we get really scientific here with 2 cars side by side one with and one without the mod and the view forward on the same road using the same exposure. I am ready to be convinced but only with clear evidence and an understanding of how it works. It seems to me that the silvering on the bottom of the headlight housing would be more likely to throw light up into the eyes of oncoming drivers. I just cant see how it can get on the road. Hate to think I've a closed mind here - maybe I am like the z lights and just a bit dim!

time for a body kit, some sideskirts, some bonnet vents and a 2005 bumper! they done make those eurethane bumpers the way they used to!

So in summary nice looking but no measureable improvement in light on the road! Logical Jim. A reflector needs to be behind and above the light source to reflect it forward and down.

Dont usually use the Z when it is bad weather but my last tankfull only made 200 miles before a refill. Calculated 15 mpg! I guess the cold and short journeys is the problem as it otherwise runs great. I even changed those fuel pipes that leak last weekend. Anybody getting good consumption right now?

Your neighbours will get to know when you arrive and leave! A colleague at work said he could hear my z 2 hundred yards away and inside the office even when I was as usual driving slowly in a stealth mode! It kind of disciplines you not to be an R Sole till you are well into the open country or on the mo way. Do love dropping the window in tunnels though and opening it up!

Mine is a 92 K UK TT with custom pipes from the cat back to 2 Apexi back boxes with OTT 5" outlet pipes ( I didnt fit it). It was originally set up with full decat but the noise was too much and the cats went back in to help kill the noise. Nice burble now but a bit louder than I like sometimes. I suppose another mid pipe silencer would have helped but would probably cause just as much back pressure as the cats. Never had any problems passing emissions tests with this set up. Legally you are not supposed to remove cats from cars reg on or after 01/08/92. I fink!

UK rear shocks are more like £130 each from Nissan. They have the hard and harder adjustment gizmo that the actuator turns to harden up the rear. Twas one duff rear on mine that gave the sideways kick sensation over potholes etc. Obviosuly rear rack ball point wear can also affect it. Not too hard a job to do yourself but you do need decent spring compressors.

Stuart It could also be that after market boost guages are only accurate to plus or minus a pound or two! Time it from 30 -70 somewhere quiet and if you get around 5.5-6 seconds all's well for stock manual level performance! Also check what safety boost level you show by giving it a bit loud for a moment once she's started to warm up but still before safety boost is cancelled. Obviously dont go hard on a stone cold engine. Willie

Stuart You're missing a pound and a half according to the Stillen chart! According to them you get an extra 1.5pounds of boost with an intake and exhaust! What does your stock boost guage read?

I always worked on the assumption that it should not be so tight that you cannot undo them with the standard wrench. No doubt like mine this dont fit anymore with the new nuts so I bought a spider type wrench and follow the same strategy. I hate it when tyre places go mental with an air wrench and you cant undo the nuts again. Less rambling and answer the q= 72-87 lbs ft or 98 - 118 nm stock. Dont suppose it should be any diffo for other allys but you might need to double check. You'll get a debate on tyre pressures though - I think a couple of psi up on stock is warranted with 18" wheels

What I wanna know is if stock boost is about 9psi how does it get up to 10.5 with an intake and exhaust if the ecu knows nothing about it and the blow off settings are unchanged? see the Stillen stage charts

http://www.z32.org/html/z32perf.shtml has loads of performance stats if the anorak in you takes over. I printed them all out and found them interesting reading when on the throne contemplating the meaning of life as you do. However so many other variables etc etc but interesting still.

Never tried it at 100. Tried setting it at 90 one time and see how long it could stay there. The sensation of runaway train certainly gets your attention when some bendy bits appear and you realise you are not in control full anymore, just hanging onto the wheel! Not recommended. Clarksons AMG merc has the radar contolled kind - that must be fun. First it sets off the radar detector of the plonker hogging the outside lane then applies the juice again when he gets over and the radar says all clear! I thought he had a point too when he said we'd all be safer drivers without seat belts and a big spring loaded spike instead mounted under the driver seat and connected to a shock sensor! The only crazy drivers would then be masochistic gays with a sharp object fetish.

Mine works fine. I think resume acc if pressed repeatedly increases the set speed in 1mph increments. Think UK cars only work between 30 and 90mph If you had the cruise light come on you must have set it that time. Touching the brakes obviously cancels it and resume is fun. It amazes me to have the car pull positive boost when you hit resume from about 30 after having been set at 80 - you feel like its running away with you then feel it back off as it reaches the set speed. The sensation of the accelerator pedal going down under my foot without me pushing it is weird too.

Think you might have a leak somewheres or your rad cap or the surface in the rad filler for the seal is a bad one stopping it making a good seal. Look for marks or cracks on the cap seal. Also like someone else may have pointed out look at those short hoses behind and below the top rad hose conn on the engine. One to each cylinder head. I had a leak from one and you can only see it by using your partners make-up type mirror and a torch - you get powder everywhere! She wont like this. The water would eventually drip off the sump somewhere and you could only catch it doing it when hot after just being filled up with water. If you left it alone it wouldnt leak much more because the water level was now down below it and the pressure could not get up enough to start it again. You then can then get local boiling yet a soft top hose because there's no pressure. Seems these little hoses can go every 3 years. They are a bit awkward to change but I found you can do it without taking the fan off if you dont have too big hands! Pootling around in this weather wont hurt it but a roasting on the motorway might. Think you should top the rad right up with water then idle it till hot and look underneath for the drips then search for the source. The top hose should suddenly get hot as the stat opens then begin to firm up then only go soft once it has started pushing the water out. If it is the rad cap that has a bad seal then the water will be going to the expansion tank almost immediately you start up. Hope you find the problem

Think its just the disc thickness 26mm vs 30mm thats different not the diameter. Pads should be same. In fact I think Scooby Imprezzas even use the same pads. Got mine from Mintex about £35 and been perfect for road use. Willie

Roy Diff oil is usually nice and clean and clear, same with gear box oil. If it was murky it would be a bad sign. I think you can get a seal OK from Nissan UK I would not expect that part to be costly and it should be an easyish replacement Willie

I fitted new UK spec ones - by Tokico. No skip or hop - just usual fishtailing on wet roads if you are heavy footed with no traction control!

From my service records I think they were about £100 each a few years back. The rears you quote are well cheap consideing the UK car ones are £130 ish each with the adjustable gizmo. The fronts are probably the same import or UK as they are not adjustables. My fronts were changed about 80k and rears 110k miles.

A simple check to prove the cooling system is pressurising properly is to squeeze the top rad hose when the engine is good and warm. If it is soft then you've no pressure and the water will boil at lower temp also leading to local vapour lock in the heads and eventual overheating. It should be well burny burny and firm. Watch you dont get the tips of your fingers knocked off with the fan if the engine is still running! Isnt the Z system supposed to suck some water back from the expansion tank once cooled down and if the exansion tank is overfilled it will always dump the excess on the floor.

Stuart I hear the grit too. When there's salt on the road I get paranoid about rot geeting in. Jez I'm on 18"'s. Road noise transmission always was a problem on Z's. Are there poly bushes available for the rear shocks top and bottom? When I replaced the rear shocks I re used the existing ones as they looked solid enough - maybe that's the problem! Was there ever any real progress on that electronic noise cancellation stuff that Lotus and others were working on? I'd love to be able to flick a switch and kill the exhaust rumble and road noise sometimes. Not sure if soundproofing would help that much as there already is a fair amount in the rear and the last thing a Z wants is more weight.

I returned a lemon from a private purchase one time. Parked it outside the guys house and put the keys back through his door. Fortunately he had accepted a private cheque which I stopped at the bank immediately I found the head gasket and diff had faults on the car. Dont think you can do this with a bank draft. Also any clever private seller is likely to add the words "as seen" to the receipt if you get one and get the buyer to sign his copy too. Its a danger buying a "special" car - you get carried away with the looks of the thing and forget good sense. Hope your man gets a fair outcome

I had a small tyre type air compressor that could get 100plus psi on the calipers but I still had difficulties with a couple of pistons. Resorted to putting them back on the car with the discs still off so I could put the hydraulic on and pump the buggers out with the brake pedal. Used wood blocks on the side I wasnt working on and a g clamp to hold in the pistons I didnt want to shift. Even so I had to stamp hard on the pedal and broke a cheap G clamp doing this with brake pressure and of course made a right mess with brake fluid each time the stuck piston would finally pop out. Meant a loty of bleeding etc. However it showed clearly that a stuck piston dont move with normal day to day brake pressues.

Ride is definitely harder on 18" with 35 rubber but it grips like a go kart. It feels like one too with the shocks at the back hardened up even more with the handbrake trick too. UK cars only!