WillieO

Chris Sorry no idea on wheel bearing costs. Rear outboard look like double ball race press in types. Front are taper roller double race assemblies also press in. Not like the old kind where you lift out the roller cage and knock out the outer track! Your vibes sounds more like prop - Hope your UJs are OK

S'pose could be the centre bearing still. When the rubber support ring gets perished and breaks up you could get support one side and none the other meaning the bearing makes hard contact with the mount during cornering to the right. Mine was sagging onto the hard mount.

Does sound like a wheel hub bearing if it changes tone on cornering. Probably not inboard. On other cars I noticed they could moan for ages before they really start to fail - then you get play at the wheel where the problem is. On my 240Z I remember it was even resulting in more brake pedal travel as the play in the bearing coggled the disc and pushed the pads back on cornering. Then you could pump it back up again. You should jack up and spin each wheel and feel for roughness or play.

You should tell your insurer too - for an "induction kit" they ususally want a bung of £40 - £60.

With 130W bulbs do you then use the headlamp washers for cooling the glass? Anyway, thats some serious current loading for the alternator especially on a bad day with wipers, aircon, heated rear window, bum warmers etc on. Plus maybe a bowerful HiFi - I wouldnt take bets on how long the alternator will last. Is it not the case that anything over 55W is lllegal for road use? Seems to me a daft law when its brightness that counts not watts.

They do work and are especially useful at night when you are less likely to spot a camera. The other big hassle more and more is that they are great at detecting mobile phone masts because the microwave relay transmitters on them often beam along roads as roads are usually the obvious paths between hills etc. Also automatic service station garage doors and shops. I am not sure if the sophisticated ones can discriminate but my 715 snooper cant. So some places are so flooded with microwave radar that the beeping is incessant. On balance would still rather have it than not especially on the "open" road when you might be tempted to over do it..

Harry had a 20% off day at the weekend so being a tight Scotlsman I got some new 30% brighter bulbs and a new smaller calcium battery cos my big 4 year old Nissan one sounds like its going to give up soon. Will pay me £20 soon too - honest. Anyway Harrys book says H1 for Zs to 94 - Harry's own brand is Osram. Not correct after trying I had to go back again and get the even cheaper H3s which do fit. £7.99 each. Seems brighter although I might have had more carrots recently. But I know when they are on now! Boy but you need long thin double jointed fingers to do it - change the bulbs I mean

question was put it in the gearbox - Is there not a possibility if it does work that it makes the synchros worse ie crunchier cos the reduced friction stops them using friction to synchronise the cogs before they mesh as they should do

Better check the manual but I think you need the engine running to power up the power steering pump and you open a bleed screw or similar each side of the HICAS rack and bleed any air out until neat power steering fluid comes. But better check - I'm not sure and never done this yet.

I've also got a 71 Reliant Scimitar GTE 3l and its all fibregass! The fact that its still around tells you something so I guess its not the material - if its used right. But if lowered and susceptible to kerb contacts polyurethane must be the way to go. Please dont get a body kit that makes it look like a kit car tho.

anti roll bar bushes and steering rack mounts also worth a check for clunks

Quote works it out on g force (god knows how it knows when you hit 60! anyone????) but seems damn accurate. unquote I wondered about this too then tried to remember the Newtonian physics stuff from school. Its got to be that the precision accelerometer knows the instantaneous acceleration or head snappin "g"s from the zero mph point - it then knows the change in velocity over time increments and does the math calculus stuff to work out speed versus time. Hence knows when it has passed the 60mph mark. Obviously it needs to know where it started or stopped from as a reference. On the 60 to 0 time I am guessing that it works backwards from knowing again when it has hit zero and mapping the deceleration against time all the way down. My 2p worth Willie

Sounds like you might be talking about the famous venturis. I understood these to be on the series 2 on and designed to aim air at the brakes and also to cause a pressure drop behind the intercoolers to improve air flow through them. One of mine is cracked but not too badly. I guess they must do something cause they are not there for looks! I remember reading that Z book and the guy there was recommending earlier cars getting them since they were not so expensive from Nissan and would improve brake cooling. If you are lowered then for sure these are the first things to get crunched on a kerb Willie

Just drive both and see for yourself. Each has merits and demerits. Both are great cars! If both are good uns then you have a perfect opportunity. Search the archives for more info - this is well documented Willie

19 year old scally. Just weeks ago nicked for ripping off someones CD player, speakers and amps from the car, then arrested for driving with no insurance. He is fitted with his very own personal electronic tracker and he wins £9million on the lottery. What would we do with people like that? God has a chuckle! No justice!

Isnt the revs cutting out over 2000 the fail safe system? The manual says 2400rpm in fail safe mode. An AFM fault would do this but there are other possibilities too. AFM fault should give code 12 There is a mention of abnormally high or low voltage reference coming from the AFM if faulty. You should double check all connections for corrosion etc Willie

Jay anyway as I was thinkin, is it your girlfriend who caused all the fuss about sexist advertising of sexy cars? Government ministers with nothing better to do than waste our taxes on useless interference in PC stuff. If so can we see the piccys to decide for ourselves! Willie

Dave Yeah, could go work for Bentley and show them how to make it handle on wet roads at high speed. but your right, I need to get out more! Willie

Being really pedantic now, who noticed the Bentley has its front tyres on backwards? Hows that for spotting details?

The PTU is brace of power transistors in a little finned box on the front of the cam cover (LHS from the front of the car) that amplifies the separate spark pulse signal for each cylinder coming from the ecu. The amplified pulse then goes to each separate HT transformer coil for each cylinder to make the high voltage needed to fire the spark plugs. - (At least thats how it looks to me) I dont understand the failure mode for the PTU but I guess if any of the separate transistors breakdown then your sparks can collapse. Heat can break down a dodgy one that works OK when cold. The original PTU was dodgy and a USA recall changed many but not all of them. I guess if its lasted this long it must have been OK. Also dodgy soldering or oxidation inside can fault them. Some electronics engineers can rebuild it with new transistors for you or buy the later one.

Lots of " performance" cars have have single pot calipers all round now. Guess they are cheaper to make than multi pots. The single piston is usually a big sod though. Discs are also much bigger these days since wheels and tyres got bigger. Its about how hard it can squeeze and how much heat the disc can absorb and dump before the friction goes off that counts. I guess there must be some techy reason why Brembo and the likes are multi pot kings. Presumably you get a more even and higher pressure distribution of the pad on the disc with multi pot calipers. My experience with 10+ year old cars with multi pot calipers is that they can have seized pistons and as long as only one or two are partially siezed you dont always notice it except that the brakes dont stop you so good. When the discs warp or the car starts pulling then you do something. I rebuilt my Z calipers on the front - 2 pistons each side were sticking! New discs had warped within a year. Anyone saying that Z brakes in good condition are crap for fast road use is talking same. They're not up to hard track use but that is different. If the calipers are in good nick you can push the pistons back with your fingers

Chris I had the erratic idle also. Cleaned throttle bodies, reset tickover with the idle valve ecu connection disconnected etc. Mostly it ticksover now at about the set 700rpm steady and bang on. But just occasionally it takes a wobbly and ticksover highish. I pop the bonnet, and I find that giving the throttle position sensor connection a waggle or the connections to the wires just under it on a flying lead connection. This usually does the trick and it comes back down again. I think Z connectors are permanently becoming oxidised. The wiring gets brittle too so you gotta watch how you waggle!

You really have to get under and inspect it or better still get it on a lift. Mine had the rubber of the bearing mount all hard and perished. You could see the cracking by gently jacking the prop up to stretch the rubber. The shaft was otherwise running on the bones of its arse so to speak. The vib tends to go away as it warms up and the rubber gets a little softer. Be careful that the rumbling is not proposhaft universal joints as that would be a bit more expensive to fix. Nissan UK relieved me of about £135 for the centre bearing and my local garage took 3 labour hours to fit it. You need massive torque to undo the big nut to split the propshaft. Incidentally the old bearing was perfect - only the rubber part was finished. You can check out your bearbox mounts at the same time. Willie

Dont you still have to keep the cooling system overflow and expansion bottle within reach of the radiator cap? I thought you could not just throw this away. The radiator needs to be able to suck up additional water depending on cooling system pressure. When its very hot and over cap set pressure it dumps some water into the bottle to relieve pressure. Once it cools right down it takes the water back again. What about the venturis under the ICs- are these only on the series 11's? They are apparently supposed to lower the air pressure behind the ICs to increase suction thru them and also to aid brake disc cooling.

Gurgling at tickover is usually coming from those pipes on the front end of the exhaust system that I think have to do with emission controls. Someone say what they are? They fill up with water especially now its colder and especially with short journeys. Gurgling from the cooling system would be much more ominous and you would be dumping water out the overflow bottle - head gasket? The only way I could see you totally loosing oil pressure would be a turbo feed line coming off or breaking. This would dump loads of oil and I guess you'd see lots of smoke. Your mains and big ends would soon be knocking. Your symptoms may all be unconnected. Gurgling exhaust - normal Duff oil pressure sensor - normal Slight oil leak somewhere getting on exhaust and causing a smell - check it out! IMHO