waltzinblack

Good to see another fantastic product of the ZedShed!

I agree, you shouldn't buy a car if you can't judge it properly. This is especially true for all the Mums and Dads down at my local (rather prestigious) primary school, it's quite funny watching them trying to judge their big status-symbol Q7s and Range Rover Vogues.. when they clearly have no clue (seat cranked right up close to the steering wheel.. swirling their hands in a flurry trying to do a 35 point turn etc) how big they are. I've seen it before too, where someone in front of me waits at a gap for the oncoming car to come through, when I'm screaming at them because you could easily fit the 350Z through that gap and they're too scared/unaware to attempt it in a Daewoo Matiz! These people really should not be allowed to drive if they can't judge the car properly. However, most people need to be able to drive... and even though I think that a large proportion of people out on the roads should not be there (for the reasons above and others!), it isn't going to change, and they are still going to buy cars that they can't drive or cars that are needlessly large. Especially with the rise of the crossovers... like the Qashqai and X3 and that sort of thing, these are big cars that are much more affordable and usable than proper 4x4s, and as such are very popular. I can also imagine that in a bigger, higher car, parking and judging the front and back would be harder. Especially if there is a low car like a Zed parked behind, it's bonnet would disappear out of sight LONG before you've hit it. SO.. as much as I disagree with the parking aids because it encourages a lower standard of parking from a lot of people who can't park already... with the increase in big cars on the roads (even normal cars are getting much bigger.. hatchbacks/saloons etc) I think the aids are a good thing because it stops the unaware school mums reversing into the front of my pretty little Z! So yeah, my opinion is take pride in the fact that you can judge your car very well and slot it into parking spaces with ease and with no danger of collisions, but also be THANKFUL for the driver aids stopping the people who can't park from causing damage!

Mega is right... you can cause a crash but it can still be an accident. Your recklessness was undoubtedly the cause, but you didn't intend to lose control and smash into the Saloon coming the other way and kill the family of 4 inside it, thus it was an accident. The only way it could not be an accident is if you actually meant to cause all of that destruction. I see what you're getting at though, something that happened and was nobody's fault. Unfortunately that's not the definition of an 'accident'! Finding something that wasn't someone's fault is possible, but at the same time Ekona is right, everything has a cause. There's only one thing I could think of that might not have a cause or reason for happening, and that's the Big Bang. Whether something is a fault or not depends on the definition of fault, and you'd have to bring in the Lawyer's friend the test of reasonableness

Saw that today too. Will be interesting to see whether it's the whole 'state' of San Andreas or whether it's just Los Santos but made much, much bigger and more like a city, like they did with GTA 4. I liked the direction they went in with GTA 4 with the updated graphics and physics, let's just hope they make this one a bit more 'fun' orientated, but not TOO much as I did always enjoy the organised crime with a bit of random fun in Vice City rather than the gangster who becomes the richest man in the world flying jets and stealing things from military bases in San Andreas, that was a bit TOO crazy. How long do we reckon for actual release date? Hopefully just as I get bored of Elder Scrolls

New brakes are good, although the M3/25 didn't give me much of a chance to use them, and I won't be driving the car much until I can arrange to get new tyres fitted and aligned! But yeah, the pedal is MUCH more progressive, before it was a little bit, little bit, little bit, and then suddenly a lot more bite, now they slow down much more predictably, and a lot more quickly. Pedal doesn't have a massive bite, but as you said that would probably happen once they are warmed up a bit. Glad you approved of the stopping power when you drove it! Will have to see if they improve any more over the next couple of hundred miles. Drive home was a massive pain. Poured down the whole way, and fog, and lots of bunched traffic only moving at 50-60, didn't quite get the run that I did this morning! Still, the brakes LOOK awesome (especially those lovely clean calipers!) Many thanks to Keyser for using his tools, expertise and the Zed shed (and for the brake lines!), thanks to Buster for his help and sorting out the wonky bonnet, and thanks to Zmanalex and Jez at Horsham Dev. for the parts! She's sure gonna stop now, just need to get those ARBs fitted so she goes round corners

Hahah I'm not brave or fit enough for that! Sometimes I wish I did though... but for now playing with toy guns and dressing up is enough fun for me!

Can't believe I missed this off my list as well, totally forgot Where do you play? DB Play all over the place mate, always happy to make an awesome roadtrip to a site (especially in a Zed.. the boot is actually a good shape for gun bags!) Xsite High Wycombe was my first site and my 'regular' site (although dont play that regularly outside summer because team mates are at Uni). Xsite is a bit aimed at new players and does more paintball style games, but its very well run and marshalled and is a good day out. Also pop down to Ground Zero every now and then, woodland and Urban, been to Urban Assault up in Peterbrough too. And a couple of other one time trips! Yourself?

Airsoft. Some of you will know it but I imagine most won't! It's similar to paintball, but with fully automatics bb guns, and a lot more like Military Simulation. The guns look and perform better, the players are better (not all 10 year old chav birthday parties!) and I love it! Basically grown men playing soldiers, but it's good exercise and good fun!

Cheers evilscorp, will get someone to help me try that, but the bonnet is also slightly raised up on that side too (along the line of the wing it is higher), do you think moving it forward will solve that?

They are indeed still there and stuck on well... There are no marks on the inside of the bonnet anywhere, and the rubber doesnt seem to have marked, but you can definitely see those three scratches! Well either scratches or ingrained rubber, but either way it's being pressed against the bonnet pretty hard I would say.

Thanks for the reply buddy, yes strut was removed when spacer installed. But after that it was touching the plenum and making big vibrations in the cabin, so I just adjusted the three bolts to bow it up and away from the plenum, which solved THAT problem. A quick google of 350z engine bay and every pic I've seen shows the adjustment bolts on driver's side? Apart from Some HR engines with it on the other side, although I'm not sure if they were non-UK models or something as the battery was on a different side too. But thanks for the reply dude, much appreciated

Hey guys, asking for a few pointers about my bonnet. I've only noticed this problem AFTER installation of the plenum spacer, and I'm pretty sure it's all related somehow. There are a few problems but I think that adjusting one thing might solve them all. Here are a list of my problems, any solutions to which would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for pics they are iphone quality and some of the stuff is hard to see if you're not looking at it in real life. First of all, the strut bar is fouling the bonnet as below, on the intake side: Now, this only happened after the plenum spacer, I can't really afford to just shorten/lower the strut, because with the plenum spacer it is already close to the top of the plenum (to be honest it could actually do with a bit MORE space from the plenum to be honest!) I don't know how I can adjust the strut to solve this problem! I really don't want to lose the strut! It's a 5/16 plenum spacer which I was told you are able to keep the strut with. I have only tried adjusting the strut via the 3 nuts on the driver's side, I have not been unbolting it from the wings to adjust it. Now I THINK that this rubbing problem might also be manifesting itself in the bonnet being higher on one side than the other. You have to look at the pics carefully to see. Below you can see the bonnet has a large gap not only from the bumper but also from the headlight: Here is a close up of that side: Compared with the near side: The bonnet also rocks from side to side a lot if you lean on either side, closing the big gap on the offside. This also supports the view that the strut is pushing it up from the middle, and because the bonnet is a bit flexible, you can rock it flush with pressure. The bonnet also seems mounted slightly incorrectly on the offside: As a final point, I have a metallic vibration sound that ONLY happens at 2k rpm when the engine is cold. I'm not sure if this is just the resonant frequency of the strut bar, and so I can hear it vibrating on the inside of the bonnet. It definitely sounds like two bits of metal vibrating, but it's weird that it ONLY happens when cold and only at 2k rpm. There is also a sort of clunky, knock sound from the front of the car when going over bumps. I don't think it's suspension related, because the knocks aren't exactly consistent with bumps in the road, more like something is swaying as a result of the bumps and making the noise as it settles. It's VERY, VERY quiet, and I can only hear it with aircon and radio off, driving at idle speed in 1st or 2nd. I THINK it might be the excess play in the bonnet wobbling and bumping around, but I am not sure. ANY help appreciated! And thank you ever so much for taking the time to read and understand this long post! As you may have noticed, it is an 04 car with facelift headlights, I don't think they are causing the bonnet issue, but if they are easily reseated then I might try that too.

Love the car AND the Dogue de Bordeaux.. I only got my new puppy Dogue on Sunday

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyker_C8 Such wacky, awesome cars

Awesome noise it made too! In front of me in Waterloo this afternoon.

+1 I've been having a similar problem in the Zed, and was told it was probably balancing or if not alignment or geometry. I sure hope it's not a wheel bearing

As above, need a rubber bonnet seal to go on the inside of the bonnet. I think there is only one that goes at the front, but any advice to the contrary would be appreciated! Thanks

So the iPhone has changed the world? Not really. Without the iPhone we would just be.. without the iPhone. Clutching some other innovative little improvement on the mobile phone. 9/11 and the associated war has changed the world massively. I saw hardly ANYTHING said on my Facebook about the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and one status about the 10th anniversary of the war. But my news feed was absolutely littered with Michael Jackson/Amy Winehouse/Steve Jobs tributes, one person even started quoting him and calling him an 'inspiration'. I mean WHAT!? They never even knew what he was like personally, and base their opinion on the newspaper obituary. Another girl I knew had to go home early from work because of the emotional trauma when Amy Winehouse died. But she was fine to work on the 11th of September. That annoys me and makes me worried about the state of our species. Over and Out.

Wow, finally someone who agrees with my sentiments exactly! I've been trying to say this to a lot of people I know throughout the day. What I'm slightly more annoyed about is how everyone was quick to lament the loss of Jobs, but everybody seems to have forgotten the 10 year anniversary of invading Afghanistan.. where so many more people (and especially very young people!) have lost their lives and seen their friends killed, and have been involved in changing our world a lot more than inventing a fancy mobile phone.

Haters gonna hate. The 350 and 370 are both cheaper, better looking, at least as fast, more masculine (big, wide, big engine), as well equipped and more reliable than their rivals of the same age and mileage. The interior isn't as good, but it's not exactly bad. And it could be FAR worse, like other Jap performance cars.. Evo 8 *cough cough* The reason they don't sell as well is lack of publicity, dealers don't know so much about the cars, and the badge and fuel economy. Silly reasons really, that shouldn't turn away a proper petrolhead. As for the Gone in 60 seconds comment... does he mean Fast and Furious?? I think the confused and uninformed haters on that thread need to get out of their boring diesel Saloons that they most likely own and go and have a test drive of a Z!

Awesome mate, tempted to fit the same! Got a video of the noise? And make sure you post up your Dyno results when you get em!

Thanks for the reply stubzie! That was exactly what I needed but a little too late! Found a mate with an adjustable wrench and we did it! I updated the other thread but forgot this one! We put the spacers on with the kit, but I think that the strut bar was adjusted a little too short as it was, spaced it out and now no rattles/drones at all! it's amazing how much difference the vibrations made, the whole car droned and vibrated SO much and so deeply!

Hahaha.. I now officially DO have some modding skills. The Strut bar WAS cuddling the plenum, so a mate came over this evening with an adjustable spanner and we sorted it. No drone or vibration AT ALL now. You weren't lying about the bolts being tight though! I mean just look how your forearms are bigger than my upper arms and you'll start to understand the trouble we had loosening the strut bolts All done now though! EDIT: yes Wasso we fitted the Spacers, but my strut was adjusted pretty short as it was so needed adjusting!

It's already got washers on from spacer kit, and if its possible to just adjust it out a bit whilst its still attached that would be a much easier job that taking the whole thing off to put washers on! Especially because I'm sure that the attachment bolts have specific torque settings and I dont have a torque wrench, but cheers for the input buddy!

Simple question.. I searched 'adjusting strut brace' and 'strut brace' etc but couldnt find this anywhere on here. I need to adjust the front strut bar a bit so it clears the plenum, as at the moment it's VERY close and I'm pretty sure it's vibrating on the engine when I'm driving because there is a MASSIVE vibration and drone through the cabin at 1.5k to 3k rpm (resonant frequency?) and the drone is there across the whole rpm range but less obvious and doesnt vibrate all the trim, I googled it, and there were a few american threads but nothing for a complete newbie... so: -Can I use any old wrench? I understand there are no specific 'torque settings' for the strut bar nuts. -Correct procedure: do I loosen the middle one (some places say 1.7 turns... does it HAVE to be that much? or does it not matter) and then adjust using the outer two nuts. -Do the outer nuts adjust a different way to the centre nut? I was under the impression that they go the opposite way... and how do I actually adjust it? I need a little more 'height' so it clears the plenum, it's closer on the driver's side but a little too close for comfort overall. -Will it blow up if I do it wrong? Thanks