NemesizX

How clean had a car got to be to show at the NEC? I don't know how my car measures up to the standards required so have no idea if I should consider it or not?

Why would we want to cancel out jae? I thought that event was a good one..

Yea, lamborghini borealis pearl orange paint job looks sweet. I picked out the bodykit for him and we both designed the vinyl graphics together. I took the car down to have them fitted on Friday morning. Fitted the japspeed decat exhaust aswell. The guys that done the spray job did an excellent job, stripped the whole car, the only thing that is still black is the engine bay. They sprayed the underside of the bonnet, tops of the shuts on the wings etc even took the doors off and all windows out. They fitted the kit and sprayed it and it cost £1700 all in. I picked the wheels and he loved them so he bought them.. It's been a labour of love but I'm glad it's now finished so I can concentrate my efforts on my Z.

Those lights look the dogs danglys bigh! I just managed to get some photos of the celica as my mate was leaving.. Very pleased with it.. OK so the Z is still as it was on Friday, but i got to freeze my butt off to help a mate and the pleasure of seeing him happy.. That's what being a good mate is all about :thumbup:

Was supposed to be working on my Z but my mate turned up with his celica and has damn near killed me over the last two days.. We got some euro spec tail lights for his celica and they turned out to be American spec!? Anyhow cos he liked the lights I spent Saturday from 6pm until 12:30 am fitting the lights and making new looms for the lights as the Americans use the red indicators.. Had to use the reverse bulb holes for indicators so had to chop the loom and the swap the bulb holders as the holes were different sizes. We had bought the replacement led type reverse and fog lights and this morning I began installing the loom extensions to place the reverse and fog lights in the back grill of the cars bodykit. I started at 10am and just finished at 18:00.. Laying outside in the snow for 7 hours Saturday and 8 hours today, I believe my lower half may recover from the hypothermia sometime by next week! It was a bad#+@d of a job but really pleased with the results.. Haven't took a photo yet cos my fingers wouldn't work the camera! I am officially colder than I've ever been! It's snow joke!

Today I've done the resistor mod on the knock sensor. Got it plugged back in on the freeware consult and went looking for the fault code delete button. Realised the freeware version I have doesn't have a delete button!?! Grrr!! So mod is done but still stuck in safe boost until I pick up the full consult version at the end of the month! I've perfected the resistor connection though which is a plus. Made my own connector to keep it secure and tidy, all soldered and heat shrinked. Now about to wash her to get rid of that nasty Road salt.. Time to get a little colder! Then after that I'm laying on the ground for a while to fit my mates euro spec rear lights and wire in some new fogs and reverse lights on his celica.. All in all an eventful Japanese car repair day! Oh and fitted the decals to the celica yesterday morning too.. It's looking good I think!

I saw the thread and added some humour, didn't know it was that old! Lol.. Didn't want the loom but just thought the cat comment needed finishing Lmao..

Me too... I've got both though so I guess I'm a cog or a dat? Have had the series two for ages just sitting in the shed, the series one is still working fine so don't see the point in changing just yet.

It's magic Gaz! I'd be lost without them. Thanks for your advice Jeff. The only thing I will say though is that the temperature at the time of the screenshot was low but when the engine was up to its usual temp on the the gauge, the consult was reading 78 degrees and the other readings remained exactly the same. I shall run through the things you've advised and see what I can find. I know the knock sensor is definitely dead as I've tested it and it's reading open circuit. Resistor on the way as we speak! Lol.. Without the car being driven, is 78 a reasonable temp considering outside weather is 3-4 degrees? I've not long cleaned and re oiled the k&n filter and it did improve running and also changed the oil and put a k&n oil filter on too. Plugs, I'm not sure what's in it or when they were last changed so that's a must and was going to do that shortly. What plugs would you recommend? I was looking at the iridium plugs but also seen the hks heat grade 7 plugs online so confusion of choice sets in yet again.. I'd be happy to take the experienced advice here! Need to check the water temp plug but never had any temp problems, always remained perfectly placed in the centre of the dial, although I understand about thermostats sticking open a little or a lot! I'm fairly sure there's one in there but I wouldn't be shocked if there wasn't! I'm suprised at what you say about the ptu though, I was told the series 2 is a more reliable unit and improves running? I guess it comes down to the difference between opinion and experience again! I know which one counts Jeff! I'd love an experienced person to come give me a hand one weekend, but with no garage it's a big ask for someone to help and expect them to freeze their bearings off too.. God knows I've lost mine out there on occasion! Starting to build up a whole heap of jobs, so think my first buy will be a waterproof jacket and a pair of thermal pants...

Here's the read out.. Ignore the temperature reading as it remained the same once it was up to running temperature.

I've recently had an issue arise with my twin turbo. I've noticed she runs a little lumpy on idle with the occasional mild misfire. I decided to get myself a free version of consult and plugged it in. The readings I got back that I've been advised are out of place are the aac/i-acv readings are at 44% and the idle speed is dancing around the 900 rpm area. At points the engine does run lower but it seems to wander around a little when the mood takes it. The error code on the diagnostic is also showing code 34 knock sensor. This is obviously going to play around with something if the knock sensor is dead. I am going to cancel the knock sensor error by inserting a resistor in to the circuit and removing the knock sensor as advised by Mark, but whilst thinking about things this morning, I'm wondering if the knock sensor is OK, but it's showing the code because it's picking up the misfires? Is this a possibility? I'm.still running a series 1 ptu and I'm fairly sure I have a dicky coil pack somewhere thats causing the misfire. Not sure when the plugs last got changed either. So do you think I should change the ptu, plugs and coil packs before I remove the knock sensor from the circuit? Or would the code be nothing to do with misfire? Any thoughts out there?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]93280[/ATTACH] As you can see in the photo, there are no sidelights as such to give access to the bolts securing the wings.. Just those two slots in the front which have the original lights directly behind them. There are two 15mm holes in the air ducts for the intercoolers though so I assume there should be limited access to them from there.. I'm certain it'll be a pig of a job especially since that bumper has been fitted since it was imported in 94. I imagine there will be some fighting with rusty bolts, but I'll be replacing the all with 316 stainless steel bolts when the bumper goes back on.. I've got a bucket load left over from an old boat project so as long as the threads they screw in to are OK, I'll copperease them up and prevent future bottom pains!

Mine doesn't have any sidelights at all apart from two slots in the front. I guess you could say they are where you'd usually find front fog lights. This is why I'm imagining that the job is gonna be bacon! (a pig) I haven't seen any way of accessing the bolts securing it to the nose cone yet either! I've seen how the original bumpers secured and if those bolts are still in use for this flug bumper then It'll be a day of profanity and knuckle bandages! The design of the flug bumper incorporates the standard side and indicator light fittings but they are housed behind the bumper and two slot style clear covers are placed in the bumper so the light shines through.. Great to look at butte genius that designed it obviously hadn't thought of the poor sod that has to change the bulbs! Every now and then I have to tap the bumper to get the sidelight working so there's a loose connection there somewhere. I'm planning to remove the original lights and use the wiring loom there to retro fit some led sidelights and indicators which will be custom made to fit in the slots of the bumper and therefore if a bulb should give up the ghost, then changing it will be a simple case of unscrew the light fitting and plug in a new one. Simplezzz! I might be on the lookout for some original sidelight and indicator plugs to keep the plug and play simple. So again if anyone has any old dead or dying bits, let me know and I'll sort something out for them.. I've come to a bit of a full stop with my own custom afterburner rear lights due to a complication with lenses and Mot regulations. They have been shelved for now but not dismissed. I endeavour to finish the build for those sometime soon.. The rewire for the 6 pot venom lights from z centre is almost completed now. I'm disassembling the lights on Friday to rub them down and get them repainted before assembly and installation. Lots going on right now and feeling like ive too many projects on the go at once, my workshop looks like a scud missile landed there too so it's tidy up time at the weekend. Time to call in a favour or two from a certain friend of mine who sidetracked me in to helping his car build over the last few months! It's looking good though.. He owns a toyota celica that I got for a bargain price at auction. Here a before and after.. I know it's no 300 but it's a great little jap all the same and plenty for him to handle after his fiesta! Lol.. Not a bad job I'd say, do you agree?

Are you sure? I was told it might be Silverstone this year along with the japfest events..

Jaikai. My tent has two bedrooms and a central section. I can drive in and still go to bed in a separate room! Lol.. If I run the car for half hour it'll warm the tent up from the engine heat Lmao!

I'm talking about the 2016 one at Silverstone Trevor! I already done the 2015 one! Lol

I'll be there.. Got the tent sorted already. It's about the right size for me too. Even has room for the car! Lol

Alic trust me, no change is what you want to see where a cam belt is involved! If you do it right, it'll sound sweet like it does now and you can almost guarantee it'll remain that way for 5 years. Get it wrong or don't do it and that could mean lumpy running or if you don't do it, your valves could end up imitating bananas.. The change you will have however is peace of mind that your engine is being cared for and your investment retaining its value. One thing I believe everyone here will tell you is that owning a Z will never be cheap. The one thing you can rely on here though is that each and every person on this forum cares about your car as much as you do. The Z is growing thinner in numbers by the year and none of us want to see you go through a hard time and lose your car. We will all endeavour to look out for eachother and eachothers zs. It ain't just a forum here as I've learned, it's like a close knit community or family if you like. We all share one common thing, we all love the 300 zx with a committed passion. Final note on the fifty quid spent, jaikai an extremely knowledgeable and committed owner spent two long years doing a nut and bolt restoration on his pride and joy 'purple rain' and sadly after spending an eye watering amount and all his spare time, she was killed by an articulated lorry recently on the hard shoulder of a motorway. Thankfully he was OK but i had the pleasure of seeing his work when we met at the JAE last year, she was a beautiful fairlady. I actually wept a little when I saw the post about her demise. Still makes me well up a little now at the thought of it. So fifty quid Alic, don't think of it as a lot of money, just look at it as spending a few quid to make your lady smile.. It's a tank of fuel, that's all.. But it'll ensure you keep her engine in good order.. Anyway. Talking of z's, I'm off to bed now to catch a few after a 14 hour night shift.. So goodnight all..

Hey Prince, if I wasn't driving my Z daily I'd have sworn you'd stolen my skirts lol! Exactly the same as mine and even the same colour! Your 99 spec front end looks great mate! I've got an ab flag type 4 front end on mine, took me ages to find out what it was but now I know! It is a fairly unusual bumper to have as far as I can tell cos I've never seen another z with one fitted.. I do like the 99 spec though. Certainly looks easier to change the sidelight bulbs anyhow! I've got to take the bumper off mine to replace sidelights and indicator bulbs. I'm gonna get the bumper off one day and swap it all out for led side and indicators. That's a job for the warmer months though. I ain't sitting on the cold tarmac on my drive doing it in this weather that's for certain! No piles for me thanks! Just a quick question, how easy/hard is it to remove a front bumper on a Z? Mine looks like a pain in the kahunas to be honest especially since the flug bumper seems to have different screw locations to the original fittings. I know there's a couple under the headlight area, I've seen the holes for access but I'm gathering there are a few located inside the front wheel arch covers? Hoping that my resistor arrives today or tomorrow so I can begin trying yo trick my ecu in to believing the knock sensor is replaced! Just out of interest, does anyone have a spare aac/i-acv valve knocking around? Mine is looking like it's on deaths door as it's reading 44% on tickover rather than the 15% it's supposed to! If anyone has a spare valve, pm me please..

I've found only too often Ali that being on a tight budget means things just take longer than we want them to. It's all too tempting to cut a corner but the outcome will usually mean you pay more in the long run or watch the money you've spent go up in smoke along with the dreams of the car youre working hard to build.. I used to have a rover SD1 and spent fortunes on it, decided to take a short cut with the nitrous kit I had fitted and opted for a cheap micro switch as the safety measure to stop it injecting below safe revs.. The result was a friend pushing the nitrous button whilst I sat in traffic, my engine threw it's top end through the bonnet and through the shop windows close by in pieces.. I saved a total of £60 on the switch, it cost me the car which had over £14000 spent on it.. I don't need to do the maths any more.. I know that impatience and lack of experience can cost you the earth. Only really jammy lucky people get away with things and even that is occasionally! Do it right. Even if it takes you till your thirty.. You'll appreciate it so much more and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you were wise!

Hi all, not sure if this is the best place to post this but I'm looking for an old knock / det sensor. Just want the two pin plug from a dead one to wire in a resistor. I'd rather wire it in to a removable plug if poss so if anyone's got a dead one laying around, can I have it please? Ta very muchly.. :flowers:

Ali, if you're nervous about changing the timing belt, take it somewhere and get it done. Attempting to do it yourself is a great learning curve but if you ain't feeling confident, it's cheaper to get it done and your engine isn't gonna go bang if it's done by a professional. Ask yourself the question, can I afford to replace the top half of the engine? If the answer is no, then go pay someone to do it. Better safe than sorry mate. I have experience but ill be giving the experts the job of my cam belt.. If it goes bang then, I can give them the pleasure of replacing the engine! Lol

I've been working on engines most of my adult life and part of my youth due to being a motorcycle fanatic as a kid. I've been a part of this forum for a relatively short time compared to most but, although I'm fairly experienced with most engines, the 300 has a very complex engine and electrical system. I sit here reading these posts from you guys and the experience I've had from a lot of Z owners is that experience and knowledge are your best friend here. Theres a few guys on here that are very OEM about the Z and a few that are serious petrol heads in to tuning etc. It's a great mix of experienced guys and girls that over the years have learned that the Internet and the workshop manual do not always know best! IMO Ali, you seem to have the same view as I did at your age, that being the view that you know a lot about this car from your reading of Internet and manuals. I hope you take this the right way my friend but your knowledge and skills with these vehicles would get lost in the sea of expert experience found on this forum. Please swallow your pride and take the advice from these guys, they will help you to keep your pride and joy at its peak. I've owned a whole bunch of high powered big engined cars and worked on them myself over the years but this car is a little different in a lot of ways. Sometimes you need to put what you think you know to one side and listen to the voice of experience. Otherwise you may end up learning the hard way as I have on occasion and the hard way usually smashes your wallet or takes the opportunity of keeping your pride and joy away. It costs nothing to listen, it costs nothing to make an educated decision. The members here are offering you the specialist education of experience. That is a priceless offering.. Being young and wanting to show youre clever is perfectly acceptable, but being dumb and closing your mind to a depth of experience which will make your life easier is just plain ignorance. I'm not putting you down Ali, just pointing out the fact that you seem to be ignoring experience and listening to the Internet, which is only going to send your pistons through your valves and put your car in a breakers mate.. Learn to trust the guys at the forum. If they don't know the answer to your questions they will tell you that. If they have advice for you, listen to it because you'll find that in 99% of cases. They'll be right! Please don't take offence to this, I'm just trying to steer you in the right direction to make and keep the friends here. I wish someone had told me when I was your age, I might have spent less time under the car and more time driving it!

Been running the consult program on my zed and along with the invaluable help of mark Kent, have found that my Z has been running in safe boost. Turns out my det sensor has failed and is affecting the cars running. The revs are a little high also and the aac valve value is at 44% rather than the 15% at tickover. I knew she wasn't running quite right but it's amazing how these things could go almost unnoticed if I hadn't paid attention. Anyway, now I know what's wrong I'm on the case. Starting to get a little braver with spanner turning on this car.. The year im focusing all my energy in to getting the Z looking and running it's best.

Blimey phutumsch, no one is gonna miss those beauties lighting up are they! Lol. I'm about to get my side markers lit too, once my firm finally pat my December wages I'll be getting the veilside rear bumper paid for and the original one is coming off to be refinished and painted again as it is starting to flake the paint by the rear arches. Once it's off the car I'll have good access to run the wiring for the markers from the sidelights at the rear end. I'm going to also try and adjust the veilside bumper to remove the square ends from the rear fins. I'm just hoping there's enough material there to round them off nicely as the only thing I don't like about it is the square bits. Also waiting on my conzult lead and software to find out why my old girl is running a little lumpy. Seems to bog down for a second as I'm accelerating? Like a mild misfire. Nothing tragic hopefully!