IPAddis

Panic not mate, I've not got much experience with Zed's but I doubt that this is a complete engine failure. This kind of thing can be caused by LOADS of different issues, usually electrical. Annoyingly, it's usually something simple but thankfully, it's usually something cheap! If you'd REALLY fubared your engine, it wouldn't start / run at all. It could be a whole heap of electrical sensors / connectors, fuel blockage, fuel pump, air blockage... Don't worry about a new engine yet, get it on the diagnostics machine. I'm a LONG way from Chester otherwise I'd be round with the Datascan software. Ian A.

I'd be up for a a SE/SW meet as I missed the last one and the Hayes museum is a bit of a trek. Neither SE or SW meets are very close to Bournemouth, maybe we need a South Central region? Incidentally, I'm organising a TVR meeting on the Sunday the 8th January where we're meeting somewhere in Poole (TBC) and driving through the Wareham forest to a very nice Pub in Studland called the Bankes Arms. The pub will be reserving a section of the car park exclusively for us. It's sort of here-ish: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=403000&Y=83000&width=500&height=300&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&keepicon=&zm=0&scale=25000&multimap.x=349&multimap.y=189 As there will be relatively few TVRs (say 5-10), would anyone be interested in a joint TVR/300ZX meeting? Ian A.

I thought of that but my head needs to go there in order to get to the square nut at the back of the top alternator mount. Nice positioning there Nissan, I really enjoy having my arm jammed between the oil filter and a copper brake pipe.

I had to put the jack on a piece of wood in order to get the height to get the axle stand underneath. There was an almighty crack as the weight of the car split the wood in two! :o The only wood I had left was conti board (chip board) but surprisingly, this held OK. Ian A.

I gave it to the local auto electricians (Hill and Bellinger) with a very proud smile on my face. The mechanic must have thought I was a bit loopy. Anyway, he bench tested it and confirmed it was giving out a low voltage and yet the warning light (controlled by the electrical connector?) was not switched on. Apparently, the diode pack had gone, the bearings were worn and something else was kaput. £100 and 24 hours later, it's back, completely cleaned, painted matt black, refurbished, tested and generally as good as new. The bloke even pushed out the sliding bush to make it easier to get back on (handy as I don't have a vice). They refurbished the one on my car and it's still going strong 3 years later. My neck and back have almost recovered so the refit will commence at 0900 hours tomorrow. Ian A.

I was going to ask the same question. The jacking points indicated appear to be metal box sections (on the front at least). However they don't seem very thick and crucially, the cup shaped top of my axle stands are too narrow. Hence the only way is to balance the car on one lip of the axle stand. Allow me to demonstrate with ASCII art: |____| car box section. \__/ axle stand. Am I using the wrong place? Also, when jacking the car up with the OEM jack, the sills are a bit distorted and also too wide to fit into the groove in the jack. When I raised the jack, it pulled the two parts of the sill together and removed some of the coating (stone chip stuff?). Has someone made my car a wide-body version by stretching the whole car width ways? Ian A.

I AM A GREASE MONKEY! :hyper: All be it the slowest one in the world. Only 5 hours to remove 1 alternator :eek: I managed to work out which direction to lever alternator in (downwards) only to find that there's nothing to rest it on while you undo the wiring. It's a pretty heavy lump when dropped onto your head from 6 inches! It then took another hour to work out how to remove the plastic connector on the back (theres a locking tab near the alternator body) and the other two bolt connections (8mm and 10mm spanners in the end). Now all I have to do is get it fixed! I think it's broken because it's been bathed in power steering fluid, there 's a lot of gloop down there and it appears to be sprouting from the connection on the power steering pump. Some light spannering action should fix that, after all, I am a pro now! Ta for tha advice, Ian A.

OK, I'm starting to wish I'd never started this. I've removed the splash guard, the anti-roll bar brackets and both bolts for the alternator. However it still doesn't want to move. The guide says to put a lever bar between the alternator and bracket and lever it forwards. Apart from the fact that I don't have a lever bar, I can't see where I should be levering. I can't get anything to the back of the alternator as the suspension arms are in the way. There's a lot of delicate looking stuff so I want to make sure I'm not breaking anything. Please advise ASAP as I have the day off work to do this. Thanks, Ian A.

Cheers David, I'm not overly bothered about the Zed, I usually break down much farther from home! Also, my girlfriends scare tactics of "it's making a horrible noise when I try to start it" sounded much more expensive. It was quite amusing when the AA man turned on the lights saying "This'll make it cut out again". Not with the candle-power lights on a Zed mate. It ran happily for another 30 minutes with the heater on full whack. Never mind, at least I had my reliable TVR to get to work this morning. There's two words you don't often see in the same sentence! Datascan stuff would be great, it'll give me something to play with while waiting at the local auto electricians! ;) Cheers, Ian.

Only 4 weeks into Zed ownership and I've met another AA man and travelled another journey in a low loader :( When trying to start the car, there was lots of loud and rapid ticking and flashing antics from the indicators and alarm system. Diagnosis, flat battery (phew!). Unfortunately, although the car started with some assistance from a booster battery, the battery still showed 11V while running (should have been 14.5). The alternator warning light isn't but it's definately not charging properly. I've looked at the wiring diagram in the service manual and it seems that the connection to the warning light is seperate from the connection to the battery (which runs through the fusible link). I plan to check all these connections this evening, what's the best way to access the alternator connections, from the top or from underneath. I'm expecting everyone to say underneath but as I don't fancy lying on a concrete floor in the freezing cold, I thought I'd check. Of course, if it isn't a connection issue I'll have to recon the alternator, the removal of which sounds a little tricky (involving removing roll bars and such like). Why is it always the most inaccessible components that fail? Cheers, Ian A.

Hey Oilman, long time since I've seen you post on Pistonheads. I wondered where you were lurking! Do you think the "Mobil 1 0W-40 is too thin" arguement applies to Zeds as well? Cheers, Ian A.

My mate has had several Vettes starting with a C4 of similar age. Pros === V8 sound Head turning looks Cool digital dashboard Cons ==== Poor Handling (NOTE: grip = fantastic, handling = poor!) Chassis quite bendy (it twisted noticably going up his driveway) Low power. Despite the V8, that age of Vette only makes 250ish BHP. Glass roof is a pain to remove (and weighs a ton) Left hand drive (difficult to overtake on single carridgeway, car park tickets, etc.) UK conversions (e.g. rear lights and fog) detract from looks. I'd stick with the 300 if I were you. Now the C5/C6, that's another matter! Ian A.

New Z, new subscription! We bought the car with white internal stickers already fitted. Can we have a keyring please? Will try and add some details to the profile soon. Cheers, Ian and Sarah

Thanks for the replies, I've decided a black manual N/A LWB with leather and climate control would be the ideal car. I appreciate the point about compromising on the spec to get the best car. I'm actually looking for a cheap daily driver and I'm looking at the bottom end of the market (circa 2k). Not sure how optimistic that is. Cheers, Ian A.

Hi, I'm a newby to this forum but I've always liked 300ZXs, especially the one driven by the girl in the film Teen Agent (Esprit, 300ZX and 900 Turbo, good film!). Anyway, I'm interested in getting one as a sensible car (I have a tweaked TVR Griffith as a toy) and I've seen a couple of nice black N/A cars (Silverfox, YHM!). I'm curious to know what standard fit features I'm missing out on by opting for the N/A over the T/T. Things like leather, climate control, HICAS, T-Tops, roof blinds, etc. Can anyone help me out? Of course what I'd really like to do is get a small loan, buy a T/T and crank it up to 500bhp with the aid of some nitrous, but no, I WILL be sensible with this one! Cheers, Ian A. PS. Sorry if this has been covered before, I've done a quick search and checked the FAQ but couldn't find this info.