Gio

I can't afford any of these - but my, ain't they purty. http://www.clearcorners.com/products/nissan/300ZX2/

Hmm, interesting idea. Usually use Castrol Magnetec but forget which. I'll check at next service. Cheers - Gio

http://www.ttzd.com/tech/pcv/pcv.html

Z32s are known to have a lot of play and get failed by testers who haven't come across this before. There is a Nissan tech bulletin about it http://www.300zx.org.uk/nissan_bulletin.htm and Paul C is a pukka MOT tester so he might be able to add some info. But in the mean time, get your MOT tester to read and understand the bulletin - your link may well be within specs (for our Z32s). HTH - Gio

Thanks for all your kind words and helpful comments - the best bit about this forum (sniff sniff). andyduff: yep, got his details (mostly OK and keeping fingers crossed for the rest). Herman/Mike/jaffa: you're right - no one hurt, thankfully. aaronjb: thanks for the bodyshop suggestions. AndyP: me too! More fingers crossed. james300/ChrisC: short story is above. Nelson: thanks but hopefully things seem to be going OK for now. smw1: all depends on the insurance. I want to get it all done new (on the other bloke's insurance as it was his fault) but if this puts the bill over "economic repair" I will have to try to bring the cost down. Will e-mail later if I need to: thanks. Cos: nothing as clever as that. Just put his name into google and looked through the results. (The lazy way but sometimes it works!) Mac/jay: less of the widearse cracks please - I haven't been down the gym for some time, that's true. But that's no reason to take the p*ss ;) everyone else: just thanks :p Cheers - Gio

Beautiful plumage, the Norwiegan Blue...

Also you might have a lot of stuff running in memory that has accumulated over the years. Check out processes under Task Manager and cross ref against this lot http://www.answersthatwork.com/ Also if you have spyware suspicions, try Adaware or similar http://www.lavasoft.de Good luck - Gio

Thanks Guys - always good to have a shoulder to cry on. Yes, got his details and I know where he lives (local) and I looked him up on the net so there is no escape! I was in the left lane and big merc van + trailer was in right lane (about 30 ish). He indicates and moves left into me despite leaning on horn. He then carries on and scrapes the trailer down the side as well just to add insult to injury. Thanks for the offer Nelson - insurance co (Lifesure) and legal insurance people seem to be on the ball at the mo, but will shout if they f it up. 30 mph, I dunno - absolutely no cred at all. ;) And the RAC are a bunch of useless gits, too. 4 hours for a recover of 5 miles. Bright side is that MJP says all the parts are available. Now all I have to do is find a bodyshop who knows Zeds and is closer than Tamworth / Nottingham! Thanks again guys - Cheers - Gio

B'stard. 6.5 hours after picking her up from the garage. B*gger b*gger b*gger :( - Gio

http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18235 Nissan part no from dealer N26261 30P00 Bulb £1.80 + VAT each or on here http://www.zcentre.co.uk/lighting/lighting.shtml Cheers HTH - Gio

googly googly googly googly *ping* http://www.ttzd.com/tech/pcv/pcv.html :)

Actually, that's a bloody good point - should have mentioned that.

Fair enough. Certainly the condenser DOES affect the airflow and (as in my other post) if it gets partially clogged with gunk and/or the secondary fan is faulty then you will get overheating problems. If you do want to remove it, I would guess that just removing the condenser would do the trick as far as airflow is concerned. If the system has no gas in it then (according to the manual) a sensor will just shut off the compressor. So you could keep the condenser hanging around in the garage to pass on to the new owner if you sell it in future. Cheers - Gio

If you have a look at the plumbing pages in section HA of the manual you will see that it is a right b'stard. To take out all the hoses and plumbing is probably more trouble than it is worth. You could just disconnect the compressor if you wanted to stop the a/c working but personally just having been without it for 6 weeks or so, I wouldn't recommend it. F hot it was and no mistake. HTH - Gio

Paul C and James300 are right. Unless you fancy taking on the plod about the interpretation of My guess is that this might get you a sympathetic hearing from the magistrate but it's tough to argue that the 300ZX cannot accomodate standard size at the front when all UK 300ZXs can. At the rear, however, they cannot physically accommodate UK size so would be allowed the smaller size. Now I've got UK size letters on a J size rear plate and this is strictly, speaking illegal! Cheers - Gio

Yes - the manual says that the relief valve pops at 540psi so things were getting a little too much! The aircon guys also said that R134a would (as you say) run higher pressures than the old gas. There are, apparently, several gas choices but most of these are blends which they now refuse to use. (For a reason I don't understand.) In my visits to them I have seen several bourgemobiles but also a couple of Jags, a big Beemer, a Ferrari and a Triumph Stag so they appear to have a good rep. But I'll have to wait until the next heatwave to tell you if they've done a perfect cure on mine! Cheers - Gio

For those of you with long memories, you may recall that a bunch of us had new PCV valves fitted in the hope it would cure smoky turbos. Well, mine did - sort of. The symptoms (for me, anyway) were that in normal use, no smoke. But when it had been left in idle for a period of several minutes (eg at an MOT test), both exhausts would start to blue smoke. This disappeared after a few minutes of normal driving. But still worrying. I had the PCV valves replaced in June and everything seemed to be fine. During the next MOT (Aug) the smoke returned - first from the left bank then the right. But a lot less than it used to be so clearly, clearing the breathing problem (caused by gunky PCV valves etc) had a good effect. During some other work, I asked the mechanic (Steve at Lucas Garage) to give the turbos a good inspection and checkover as I was concerned about the smoke. He reported that they looked fine with no leaks (one was bone dry and the other had a slight oil smear but only what you would expect on something in a 14 year old engine bay). They sounded fine as well. His opinion is that this smoke is not from the turbos but indicates a very slight valve stem leak. And, at the current stage, not worth doing anything about. Now of course you have to be sensitive to blue smoke as this can be very serious. So don't use this story as an excuse to do nothing! But I though you might be interested anyway. Toodle-pip - Gio

I just had a mini-saga with my airconditioning which I hope might useful if you're having the same problems. During a 6 hour drive to Cumbria on the hottest day of the year (natch) it stopped working. The temp of the air varied and then the water temp guage would climb way high. Turn the aircon off and slowly the guage would go back to normal. When I got back home, I had it regassed by Mark IV Aircon in Langley. They used a new gas (R134a) and a new type of oil. It cost £78.38. I had rung several people and been told that I needed to replace seals and use a blend gas and (lots of other stories). Quotes varied up to £120 or more. I asked the guys at Mark IV if this was necessary and they said no - it was just people trying to get more of my money. R134a and this new oil was all that was necessary. (BTW, R134a runs different pressures to the old gas so the pressures in the manual no longer apply.) (Note: a bit of searching found that Nissan has released a Technical Bulletin about retrofitting R134a and seals and stuff but I am too tight to spend the $25 to read it.) A few days later, it misbehaved again (same symptoms) and eventually stopped completely. Back to Mark IV who discovered the pressure relief valve had blown. This is in the pic on p HA39 of the manual. This part does NOT exist as a separate part from Nissan - it's only available if you buy the entire pipe from the compressor to the condenser. Over £130 + VAT from Japan (and 6 weeks). And it's a b*gger to fit. Luckily, MJP found me one on a breaking ZX. It simply unscrews and can be screwed on to the existing pipe. Mark IV regassed again (this time including fluorescent dye which is a good idea whenever you get regassed as it helps detect leaks) and ran a pressure check. The pressure was still climbing too high so they recommended to clear out all the crud which accumulates on the condenser and the radiator (14 years of road dirt just sticks to the cooling fins and vastly reduces efficiency). Also they discovered that the sub-fan relay (only on TTs not NA) was missing. So MJP again to the rescue with a s/h one. (NA condenser fans are off/on, TTs are off/medium/high which is why they need a second relay). Lucas Garage in Datchet semi-stripped condenser and radiator to give them a good blow through and got rid of lots of crud along with half a carrier bag which had got wedged in there. No wonder the cooling was not up to spec! Last thing was a Consult check by Dan Perkins Nissan in Slough (thanks, James) which confirmed that everything was OK with the aircon- sensors, fans etc and the air temp was to spec as well (2.7°C). So now, of course, the sun has gone in and the summer is over! Cheers - Gio

I'm a 5th level Vegan - I can't eat anything that throws a shadow.

Well spotted Stuart, even thought it means us real-key owners can't lord it over the lesser plastic replica owners! ;) Cheers - Gio

also try http://www.mjpauto.com 01277 374201 for Mike Feeney ZClub Technical Advisor and supplier of parts to the gentry. HTH - Gio

When I ordered a bunch of stuff from Mike, he even found a couple of parts which were cheaper from Nissan locally than from the US. Also, a couple of wrong bits were ordered (not Mike's fault) and he just said "send 'em back for credit" - which was nice. Dealing locally with local knowledge can be helpful for us non-experts. Cheers - Gio

Too bloody right - I can't swim :D

Blimey, bring another 2 or 3 and you'll soon get their collective IQ up to 90 or even 95. :D

Yeh but at least his missus will have somewhere to park her bike. :D hehehe ©1897