evest

If you're concerned about the mileage on your engine, I'd suggest at least doing a compression test and perhaps an oil analysis. These things can give you lots of indicators about the engine condition (as well as the driving experience and general observations). If they throw up any signs of a problem then investigate further, but if serviced properly and not abused the 130K should be fine!

Mine is at 140k and is fine mate, good and even compression across all cylinders, gearbox sound. Some suspension parts and other bits replaced/upgraded. I do all my own servicing as far as possible with high quality oil, etc. I stopped caring about the miles long ago! Don't know what the power output is now but my butt dyno is happy - hopefully I'll win the uprev raffle and get a more accurate assessment!! For me, the zed is a keeper so when the engine or gearbox or whatever eventually dies I'll just rebuild or put new ones in!

Paid mate - ref D89377960 Cheers!

I was happy to sign up for a £20 ticket at the start, and still am mate

I'm in mate, cheers! evest (350Z DE)

Ah thanks for lead mate but I've managed to get one from a breaker (Nippon). I'll try not to melt this one...

Hi all, Am after the plastic gauge pod surrounds for centre console (oil/battery/clock). Any year should be fine but mine is a 2004. Cheers!

It doesn't have it own clips mate - it just bolts onto the bumper along with the undertray - just check how yours has been fitted. If I remember rightly, the kerb scraper should sit above the undertray (ie - it lays first against the bumper and then the undertray beneath it - then bolts goses through both).

Disregard - just seen you're in shropshire. Sorry couldn't see it before on the mobile phone version.

ps - will need to know this weekend as going away for a month on Tuesday!

If you're anywhere near Bedforshire you're welcome to borrow mine til May mate. It's a kestrel dual action with pads, etc...

To be honest patience was on its way out towards the end mate, plus the missus was getting a bit stroppy about the time it was taking up! Will leave it a while before I tackle the rest...

Cheers mate - it helps that the car is a keeper so any mess I make is only mine to live with!

If you've got the money to buy a refurbished motor then you're better off just swapping them out in my opinion. Based on the car's age, it's likely that the little carbon brushes inside the motor have worn down, so cleaning it will probably buy you a few months at best.

Had a few over the years, but think the best I've was a simple head-nod and thumbs up from a guy at the lights straddling a Honda Fireblade (no I didn't even try to keep up with him...) Apart from those who like the looks, it's a very well respected car by petrolheads in general.

Oh forgot to mention - if you put your doors back together and the passenger window has stopped working, then BEFORE you strip the entire door, take the window out, remove the mechanism; remove, dismantle and clean the motor, to then put it all back together again only to find that the problem persists..... ... just spend literally 1 second checking that your big fat clumsy hands haven't pressed the passenger window lock button on the driver side switch panel...

Having had the undertray off a few times the condition of the underside of my bumper has deteriorated, due to rusted bolts and the captive nuts pieces graunching the soft plastic. Shamefully, an increasingly elaborate system of tie wraps had found their way under there but the whole thing got so weak that the wheel arches came into contact with the tyres and had to be replaced. So time to do a proper job... I used a plastic welder, some flexi plastic welding rods and some aluminium bodywork repair mesh. All in about £80 inc the plastic welder. Some much better video guides on how to do this are on youtube (not zed specific but doesn't matter). Bumper off and example of the sort of damage (worst case below) - about four of the bolt positions needed repairs: Cut mesh to shape (one piece seen here but best to go double thickness) - heat up area with welder to make it tacky and press it the mesh: Apply flexi plastic wleding rods to build up material around mesh - bonding with existing bumper: Leave to dry and cool and than sand smooth and drill holes - I lined up the 'kerb scraper' trim against the bumper to get the positions right: Neaten up as desired. Re-installed along with some new wheel arch liners and now strong as new. Only drawback it that as you will have increased the thickness slightly so the captive nut clamp things need a bit of encouragement to go on - I found that a few gentle taps with a rubber mallet worked well.

Well this all started off with a new HU, which led to a spruce-up of the centre console which led to.... a full interior re-trim... Sort of Aston Martin DBS inspired but clearly I'm not really going to achieve the same quality, but I'm pleased with how it turned out for a DIY job. Lot of work, mistakes, learning and there are still a few little finishing touched and neatening up needed. If you spot any issues - don't worry I already know, believe me! Haven't photographed every single stage as too many, but it's a quick canter though the project. I purchased and learnt to use a sewing machine! Then I gathered materials and glue and vinyl wrap, etc... Didn't keep track of the total spend so far, but not more than a couple of hundred quid (including the sewing machine). I've used viynl instead of leather because it's cheap as chips and still looks great. Leather would be too difficult to work with as an amateur - besides, I'm a vegan so kind of against the rules! I fully stripped out the dash (removing steering wheel not essential but easy to do and makes things massively easier, in my case I wanted to re-do the switch panels anyway - you need security torx bits to remove the steering wheel - must be the security ones with the little holes in the end), centre console, HU, dash right back to the windscreen. Believe me this is not as daunting as it looks and everything somes out fairly easily. There are other guides out there on the internet, but all I would say is - if you attempt this, just go in a logical order and don't force anything - if something isn't coming out easily there will be a bolt of screw still attached somewhere. Try to remember where all the bolts and screws go or bag them and label them. I purchased used door cards to work on. I did some designs on my computer and eventually settled on one. The idea was for things to flow nicely and fit in with the Zed's general shape. I started with the two top and two bottom dash panels. Took a few attempt actually as didn't get the stiching lined up and due to the thickness of the material being added, I had to trim down the dash panels themselves so that everything would fit back together. The passenger side was relatively straighforward but the driver side was a bastard due to the dish that the steering column sits in and all the buttons. Haven't got a photo but I couldn't do it in one piece of material - however, the join lines are blended quite well and almost entirely hidden by the steering wheel and control stalks, etc... I then tackled the front grille panel. This was a bastard - especially the vented section - wasted a lot of vinyl wrap trying to solve this. In the end I chopped out the little crossmembers of the grille, wrapped it and then plastic welded some aluminium mesh that a mate had spare to replace the grille. Worked out really well and looks much better. Sanded under supervision! Plastic welding - very handy tool to have for other repairs too. Basically a sodlering iron with a big pate tip and rods of flexible plastic to use. The centre console was sanded, painted black and then lacquered. Could do with a bit more fine snading and polishing to get the shine perfect. The pods were painted matt black (simply due to them previously being silver) with red rings to fit the theme. (See finished pics below) Steering wheel pieces wrapped. Haven't bothered to replace lettering - I know what everything does! Then... the door cards.... days of my life......... these took an age to get right but hopefully worth it. The idea is that they flow into the dash coners whilst adding a more interesting shape and detail to the interior. The diamond pattern most prominent on these and it is also repeated in the lower side panels of the foot wells. And the finished effect with everything back together....! Looks better in the flesh - honest! Next steps are the centre armrest console (probably carbon vinyl wrap), A-pillars and headliner - black alcantara with maybe a centre section/strip of the diamond pattern repeated on the headliner. I will also make new gearstick and handbrake gaiters with the same red stich accents. And some new floor mats!

Cheers Alex ☺

Hi folks, Haven’t got my manual handy so: Question on the axle nuts – can they be re-used? Recently had an MOT fail due to excessively wheel play = worn rear wheel bearing – however I’ve not had any noise/symptoms of it, even though I’m on 136K miles! I did have a slight “wubwubwubwub†noise and on stripping down the hubs to get them ready for new bearings I noticed that on the corner in question the axle nut was barely more than finger tight (whereas had to heave on the breaker bar on opposite side). Had everything stripped a while back when I redid my bushes, etc and pretty sure I torqued everything up correctly – concerned the nut may have worked it’s way loose hence my question. On the other hand if they can re-used / re-torqued safely then I guess it’s possible that I must have not tightened correctly last time.  For now have re-torqued and the noise has gone away – while get the MOT re-checked this week to see if the wheel play has definitely gone. Cheers!

Hi folks, Anybody know if the stock space saver will fit a Nissan Juke? I believe the stud pattern is the same, rolling radius slightly bigger than juke wheels but should be ok for a short rescue drive. Just need to know if the offset is an issue? I'm guessing if it clears the Brembos then it shoul be ok on the Juke - but if anybody knows for sure I'd appreciate it. Cheers, S.

I think the big petrol stations let you fill out a non-payment form so you can pay later. Of course its all on CCTV. Don't think indie garages generally allow it. I expect that the jokers I met already had a full tank! Probably will still stop for people and just rely on experience to guide me!

I'm sure many of you may have already heard about this sort of thing, but I hadn't and I was targeted by a roadside scam yesterday, so I'm guessing there will be somebody on here who may not have read about them. So pulling onto the A1 at Letchworth, there's car on the hard shoulder of the slip road with a guy waving frantically - so I pull over to help. He says he's run out of fuel and is asking for money, promising to pay it back, etc - he's starts thrusting his 'gold' rings into my hand as a deposit (hallmarked 18K... ) and a very ropey looking business card. Since his car was still running, I told him there was a petrol station literally less than 2 miles away and offered to show him the way. So we drove there, and our conversation continued. By this stage, he and his dad are asking me for £100+ to get them to Manchester, where they then need to fill up a 'truck' with diesel to take another car to a client... blah blah blah, more gold coming my way. They are promising to come back next day and pay me £500, etc... So.... they're on a business trip from London to Manchester to sell a car that is on the back of a flatbed. They've made it as far as Letchworth and run out of petrol. Their flatbed is also out of fuel. They have no money and their bank cards don't work and they have no breakdown cover. Then they're gonna drive all the way back up here tomorrow to give me a fortune (thought the gold rings were worth £000's?? Just leave me with those then??) Good luck with the business guys... Anyway, whilst I'm good natured and like to help people, I'm not stupid and suspected this was a scam. I didn't give them any money and suggested that they go into the petrol station and explain that they are genuinely 'stranded' - I'm pretty sure you can come to some arrangement in these circumstances. They chose to drive off. Wish I had phoned the police sooner so they could catch them in the act - hindsight! I called the police and reported everything so hopefully they will be able to trace these guys. Apparently this kind of thing happens all the time and unfortunately people can get tricked into giving out money - especially when the tricksters claim their family has just died and they're desperate to get home. Worse thing is - I'm probably less likely to pull over to help people now. It's a general warning, but if you live in Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire - here are the details of the ones I encountered: LX55 KGZ Silver Ford Focus 2 Asian guys, mid 30's and mid 50's - wearing suits, they weren't threatening. Can seem very genuine at face value. Bogus business card and gold rings offered in return for various amounts of money.

Hi Jerrick, I'm very impressed with them. It's still early days so need to experiment further with the firmness settings and ride height. I'm no expert - but the car feels superb in the corners and very planted - I'm a lot more confident accelerating on both straights and corners, just on roads so far, I haven't tracked it. The rear is nice and firm even on the softest setting - I still need to modify my rear strut brace in the boot so I can attach the adjustment cable to the top of the damper. I have the fronts set at about the 1/3 point between soft/firm (favouring soft) and this feels good so far. Steering feels more responsive than before, not that it was bad to begin with, and I've got rid a slight 'wandering' feel that was starting to creep in. As you can see, I've also done all the bushes and put a little more negative camber on the fronts. I've had the car corner weighted but following some further adjustments it needs to go in for a final alignment. This has no doubt also contributed to the overall improvement too, but I think the MeisterR coilovers have been an excellent upgrade. Sorry this short review isn't more scientific!

Here are some fitted pics in my car (and a vid) - same intake but mine has a different sticker and a red coupling hose (my choice - original came with a black one) - really good looking and sounding intake!: youtube vid: https://youtu.be/HacSJ2qGFoY