pathfinder123

Trifik. They look so powerful that I might need to buy some welding goggles to go with them...

Great news that your dials are nearly home. I am interested in what you did to change the dome lights to LED's, might do the same here. S.

Went for a fairly long drive yesterday and no tapping noise, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've found the cause. Certainly the amount of play on the small tonneau cover tangs was not good, and remains the major suspect. Putting heat shink sleeving over them was a quick fix for some if not all the noise. S.

Thanks for the tips guys. Are the stay bolts put in real tight, or is there some locking solution on them ? Looking again at the stays, I think that unlike others I have seen the piston and the body may not be able to rotate through 360 degrees, so that may be why they are handed. The small tonneau cover has a couple of tangs on it's front end that locate into the underside cover of the hatch. I found that there is quite a bit of up and down movement possible. Not sure that this is the problem, but it might cause tapping when the various bit get hot and start the expand. I have put some heat shrink sleeving over the tangs, and now there is no movement. I guess that it's just trying one thing after another until the tapping goes. S.

I was going to swap over the left and right trunk stays, until I noticed that they were marked LH & RH. They look identical. Anyone any ideas ? S.

Accidental shorting from the positive battery terminal is the reason you should ALWAYS remove the negative (chassis) connection FIRST, and replace it LAST when working on a car electrics. Doing it that way avoids a spanner on the positive battery terminal shorting to chassis. S.

Nope... S...

Husky, Can you PM me again. Bit of a C**k Up on the mail front - sorry.. S.

That's a good thought R. I will try that as well. The difficulty is that the problem is so intermittent. S.

I have had my 08 Coupe for about 3 months, and recently I have been trying to track down a noise coming from the rear on the passengers side. It seems to happen only after I have been driving the car for a while, an is more likely to happen when the weather is hot. It is a tapping sound that occurs when I go over bumps. I have been all around the inside of the back of the car making sure that all the plasticey bits were solid and applying felt where things were rubbing. Although this process has got rid of a lot of squeaks, the tapping sound remains. Something I noticed the other day, was that after I had opened and closed the trunk the tapping seemed to go away. That reminded me of a Focus I had that developed a knocking at the back which I traced to a defective pneumatic stay. That one was very noticeably bad, but I was wondering if one on it's way out could be the cause of the tapping. I am thinking of swapping the LH and RH stays and seeing if the problem moves. Has anyone else experienced this type of noise or has changed a stay - is it easy, any tips. Cheers S.

The best way I found to remove SMD's is to use solder wick. This comes on a reel and is a flat copper braid, impregnated with flux. You put one side of it onto the solder you want to remove, and apply the soldering iron on the other side. When the solder melts it gets pulled up into the braid, leaving the joint virtually free of solder. All you need to do is cut off the bit of braid when it gets saturated with solder, and use a clean piece from the reel - Simplez ! You can get solder wick from Maplin Electronics or other electronic stores. S.

It's not easy changing the LED's in a heated seat switch. For my ICE power arrangement I brought a seat switch, changed the LED to blue, and modified the contact action. It was a right B*/$%&*"D. If you just want to change the LED it's not quite as difficult. It just takes a bit of patience. If I remember correctly there are a couple of clips at the back of the switch which you can push down with a SMALL flat bladed screwdriver. This should allow you to pull on the terminals and the whole assembly comes out. Don't worry if you are left with a load of bits, it is pretty easy when re-assembling to work out where they go. The only thing is - DON'T LOOSE THE SMALL BALL BEARING ! There are two SMD LEDS, a large and a small one. The small one gives a backlight with lights on, and the other comes on when the switch is activated. There is a small black piece of plastic which allows only the relevant switch graphic to display when the switch is toggled. There is a small SMD resistor in series with the LED, and you might have to change it's value to get the light level you require. The internal switching is rather bizarre, and it took me some time to work out how I could change it to meet my needs. Hope that this helps, and sorry that I did not take any photos. The reason is that for most of the operation I was Boss Eyed.. S.

My wife, who thinks that the whole thing is a hoot (pun), went to Halfrauds and brought me a gas powered one. She wanted me to pose for a photo leaning out of the Z's drivers window, horn in hand. I said NFW. It's our wedding anniversary, and now we're not speaking.... S.

Oh, I asked to speak to the engineer, then the foreman about a few items I'd requested to be done, like checking the headlights. Knowing I had the car, I asked in detail how each stage of the work was progressing, and they dug themselves into a bigger and bigger hole ! S.

A few years ago, I put my then company car a Modeo into the local garage for a routine service. As was the practice I was office bound while the car was being worked on. At lunch time, I walked with other engineers down to the local pub for a pie and a pint. What did I find in the pub carpark ? - my car ! Having given the garage my spare key, I still had the original on my keyring. So I drove the car back to the company, and hid it round the back of the building. The fun really started when at 3pm I phoned the garage, asked how it was going, and when could I collect the car. I managed to keep the conversation going for 10mins before they admitted that my car was lost. I then gave them a tremendous B****CKING, and told my company what they had done. Company vehicles were never serviced at that garage again ... S.

+2 But would it pass the MOT ? S.

Just returned from a nice (quick) drive, it only having been spoiled by a couple of numpties who pulled out before looking. I expressed my displeasure with a quick blast on the horn. Unfortunately it really didn't have the desired affect, as it the horn would have been better in an orchestra rather than a car. Also it's rather quiet. They just carried on their sweet way... Has anyone fitted their Z with a more meaningful horn ? I don't mean the Dixie or Colonel Bogie type of contraption. S.

I do a lot of electronics, much of which involves SMD (Surface Mount Devices) components. The LED's in this project fall into that category. I found that if tweezers are used to hold SMD components and they slip, the component is propelled into space ! The method I use is to cut the end off either a wooden toothpick or cocktail stick and use the stick (held vertically) in the center of the component to pin it to the PCB whilst you tack one end of the component with a soldering iron. You can then solder the other end, and finally touch up the solder at the first end. Sounds more complicated than it is, but for me it works great every time. GL Stewart

Beautiful photos. Is the reg significant ? Stewart '3RXQ

I moved the center heated seat switch into the left hand position, then fitted a modified seat switch into the vacant center position. This controls the IGN line to my CarPc. Forward allows the PC PSU to be triggered by the switched IGN feed, and rear connects 12v so the PC stays on all the time. I changed out the original red led for a cool blue one. Stewart

How can I put this politely ? NO !!!!!! Stewart

You must have been looking at my credit card statement ! With all the bits and pieces it came in just shy of £700. Presently have 256Mb of RAM, and although everything runs fine I may increase that in the future. Yes, the WiFi connects to my home network for file transfer etc, but also using TightVNC I can control the CarPC from inside the house. However, I have to turn the volume up a bit to hear the music .... Stewart

After 3 weeks of head scratching and pulling my new Z apart, finally the CarPc is up and running. The biggest issue was that there was no way that my 7" LinITX Translucent display was going to fit in the existing "sticking out lid" cubby. As I did not want to mutilate either the display or the cubby, I made a replacement cubby out of Fibreglass printed circuit board. A lot of measuring/cutting/filling and soldering was involved, but the end result has been worth it. The PC which is a bundled system from LinITX is housed in the rear cubby, fitted on shock mounts onto an MDF board covered in material. I took lots of photos during the process if anyone is interested. Cheers Stewart

Thanks Chris, I have just had a quick look and it seems fairly easy to tap into the Red/Green wire that goes to the cig socket. Cheers Stewart

Hi, I am wondering where the easiest point at the front of the car to pick off a switched 12v supply. If I use the front cig socket, is it easy to get at the wiring/take out ? Maybe there is somewhere better. Cheers Stewart