IPAddis

It could be worse mate. Every time our fuel light comes on, the alarm system locks or unlocks the doors and the immobiliser light flashes. It gets more and more persistent until you fill it with fuel. Very odd! Ian A.

Has anyone tried adding an additional fuse to the existing fuse box in the driver's footwell? There's usually a few spare slots. I've never tried it personally, just though it was a good place to connect to a fat power cable from the battery. I shall hopefully be wiring in an amp this weekend so this is good stuff! Ian A.

We get between 220 and 250 miles from a tank with town driving. Seems quite low considering the size of the tank. My 5 litre bank-injected V8 is more economical, although that is in a significantly lighter car. Ian A.

Mmm, I think I see what you mean but if you don't mind, I'll get you to have a look in a couple of weeks time when in comes into Z-Tech. Cheers, Ian A.

The bushings seem fine in ours but there's still a fair amount of slop. You can see that the actual lever going into the gearbox is moving about. In addition, at around 6000rpm, the gearstick rattles violently. There appears to be a UJ on the end nearest the gearbox (according to the service manual), could this be loose? Ian A.

Hmm, does that just apply to turbos then or are N/As dependant on Super as well? If so, I think I'll be named Optimax customer of the year :(. Ian A.

Really, why? I thought the combination of knock sensors, coilpack ignition and fuel injection should allow you to practically run it on meths if you needed to? Ian A.

I've had the light on for about 20 miles and at that time, only managed to get 63 litres in. I thought the tank was 72 litres? Ian A.

I'm sure all the T/T owners have seen this already but for those who haven't: http://www.yadamnfool.com/media/Z32_4L.mpeg Right-click and save as the site is too slow to stream. There's also some others at http://www.yadamnfool.com/Z_Commercials2.htm Ian A.

Who's a lucky boy then?! Did you find somewhere that sold replacement underwear Eddie? :shock: Ian A.

OK, that's great thanks. I'll look into it further. Cheers, Ian A.

I went to Sterte Garage in Poole. Popular with Skyline fraternity by the looks of it. They were pretty knowledgable but didn't have a cheap source for the parts. If I get a secondhand one and I can't fit it, I'll go back to them. Ian A.

Hi all, I've got some noticable play in the driver's side rear wheel hub. It's an N/A so no HICAS issues. Definitely seems to be the wheel bearing but I've been advised (by Zed World) to replace the entire hub for a secondhand one rather than go through the expensive of fitting new bearings. Has anyone removed and replaced the wheel hub before? If I can get a second hand one, would it be something I could do myself? A garage has recently tightened the wheel hub nut which should hopefully mean it isn't rusted solid. Cheers, Ian A.

12's good for me.

I'll be there and I'll be bringing the missus! Ian A.

http://www.stebel.it Select Products -> ElectroPneumatic -> Nautilus They're very compact twin air horns. I have two sets on my other car, i.e. quad air horns. They encourage people to pay attention, especially when combined with 115db of V8 bark. :) Ian A

Oil pressure on my cars usually drops slightly with nice clean oil. Sounds fine to me. Ian A.

VW are bringing out a VW Polo with both a Supercharger and a Turbocharger called a TwinCharger. Might be worth while checking it out as I would have thought they may have some technical and fiscal improvements over previous systems mentioned. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/inside_vws_new_.html Ian A.

When you start the car from cold, it uses a much-richer fuel mixture (the modern equivelent of a choke). If you turn the car off shortly afterwards, some of the extra fuel remains in the pistons. Subsequent cold starts can result in significant overfuellling and hence the engine won't start. This happens on almost all vehicles in certain circumstances. Honest John is always writing about it in the Telegraph (which we get at work BTW). Ian A.

Could it be a bad pulley (damaged ridges, bearing, etc)? Has the power steering pump been removed in the past and maybe put back with washers in the wrong place (causing it to be out of line with the crank pulley)? Have you got an underdrive pulley which would mean they were fitting the wrong belt? Ian A.

You can get strange effects like this from an intermittent ground wire. What happens is that the components start to ground each other out. Hence the indicators come on or the horn sounds. I'd check all your earth wires. Regards, Ian A.

Cool, thanks for the reply David. Doesn't seem to be making the squeal any more and the air con is still working. I'm going to check the sight glass sometime over the long weekend to see if the gas has leaked. The burning smell appears regardless of whether the air con is on but strangely, that appears to have disappeared recently as well. When I washed it a few weeks ago, it ran on 5 cylinders and once again, after 10 minutes, it fixed itself and has been fine since. At one point, the CD player refused to accept CDs and now it's fine. Could I have a self-healing Zed? Ian A.

Didn't touch the air con belt. Would overtightening the alternator belt affect the air con pulley? I'll try to spin the air con pulley by hand when I get a chance. Cheers, Ian.

OK, new alternator fitted for just over a week and then the other day I got this continuous squeeling from the engine bay. Lifted the bonnet and it was definately a belt slipping but couldn't determine which one. I'm pretty sure the belt was good and tight when I fitted it and I used the old belt (it seemed in good nick) so there shouldn't be any stretch. Having thought about it, I think it manifested itself when I hit the demist (and hence the air con kicked in). Since then, there's been no noise but some faint burning smell from the front after a drive. The air con still works and the pulley clutch seems to kick in but it does have a slight wobble in the pulley. I'm suspecting that a bearing may have given way in the air con compressor causing the temporary belt squeal and subsequent wobble. Should I cut the belt now and save the compressor from futher damage or is there nothing to save and I might as well keep using it whilst it works? Or is it something else? Answers on a postcard... Cheers, Ian A.

As a relative newbie, I'm not really qualified to discuss reliability. However from my research on the subject, there are a few common issues: 1) Failing turbo chargers - £2000? 2) PTU (part of the ignition system), £100ish. 3) Propshaft centre bearing / Universal Joint - £150ish. 4) Failing auto boxes - ? 5) Misc electrical gremlins. As you can see, buying a manual car with no turbos (Jap import) rules out items 1 and 4. However if you need the power, it's hard to ignore the T/T. Don't forget insurance, it can be a bit pricey unless you find a good broker. Ian A.