rabbitstew

They are good. I remember paying around £1000 for one for my R1 many moons ago.

Or every five years. Early HR's will be due this summer. All servicing is mileage or time dependant. Items degrade with time as well as use. Also good practise to lubricate the threads (i.e. Copperslip) on modern long life plugs. In the past when they were junked every six/twelve months, and only cost a fiver, this wasn't a problem, but when they could spend five years and thousand's of miles between changes, there have been instances of seizure.

They were originally, as they were based on a lotus esprit chasis, but for some unknown reason they raised the front end of them just before it was launched, which totally screwed up the handling. A lot of owners drop the front end back to how it was designed originally. Performance wise, they are slow as my lawn mower as they are quite underpowered. I think its something like 150hp for European models and 130hp for US models with all the extra anti pollution control on them. Renault V6 I believe I thought it was a volvo engine?

What mileage is your car on? From memory the 313 only needs new plugs every 54k miles.

They were originally, as they were based on a lotus esprit chasis, but for some unknown reason they raised the front end of them just before it was launched, which totally screwed up the handling. A lot of owners drop the front end back to how it was designed originally. Performance wise, they are slow as my lawn mower as they are quite underpowered. I think its something like 150hp for European models and 130hp for US models with all the extra anti pollution control on them.

I just use a tin of engine lacquer paint which I got from a local motor factor. Nothing special really, but its high temperature and durable stuff.

Look like someone has just plucked a pigeon in that 3rd pic down....

Alex has them. If you need any advice on fitting one, let me know as I fitted one on my HR last weekend. It really is a 10minute job. You just need a 1/2 drive breaker bar, a 10mm socket (or spanner) and an allen key (to lock the tensioner back).

Depends on what mood im in really. 9/10 i ignore them, then 1/10 i will smoke them.

Powdercoating is defiantely the best way, but like Wasso says, not cheap.

Sounds like an easier option than what I did! I designed a spreadsheet which worked out everything, incl overall cost per mile. Sometimes it does workout cheaper to take the cash. My ex was getting £650 a month car allowance, and we got her a brand new sporty Renault Clio Diesel for a lot less than that on 0% finance. We worked out that over X number of years basically her cash allowance would have paid for the car, servicing etc, and we`d end up with a free (albiet high mileage) car worth around 7 grand at the end of it.

In all fairness, if the brake fluid only went on the roof, then id wrap the roof in black. Its very fashionable at the moment. The other panels look like bad keying, which you can sand down, fill and respray. Either way, the cost of what would be basically a full respray, then a roof wrap will soon add up.

My quote when I got my zed last year was £1200. That was with specialist insurer. Im 40 and have 20 years NCB with only 3 points from 3 years back. After haggling, begging and days of shopping around I got it down to about £800. Im shocked that an extra years NCB only makes £3 difference to the quotation though. Thats mental.

Ive done this before on other cars and it really is a straight forward process. For the zed, my first step would be to look at the how you change brake pads guide as that covers pretty much all you need. You can paint the calipers on the car which saves you having to remove them completely and then rebleed the brakes. With the actual painting, its just a case of cleaning the calipers up as much as you can. I usually use a wire brush attachment on a drill, or a hand wire brush and carefully clean all the dirt / old paint off. Its all about making sure the surface is clean and has a good key for the paint to stick to. You dont have to get all the old paint off, just make sure its not flaking and has a dull key to it. Make sure you dont scratch the calipers, and watch those bleed nipples. I then use an airline to blow all the dirt / dust out of everywhere, else sometimes it can get stuck around the brake disc etc. Depending on what paint your using, how you apply it may vary. I tend to use a tin of paint, same sort of stuff as you use for painting engines. I then use a small brush and carefully apply it to the caliper. Leave to dry, then if need be apply another coat. Id watch not to get too much around the holes where the brake pad securing clips go through else it will just flake off once you put the pads back in.

It's chain driven, did you mean these belts - http://cougarstore.co.uk/index.php?main ... ucts_id=77 And if you did mean the Aux belts, make sure you get the right ones for your model of zed. The older models had 2 belts, but the newer HR models only had one.

Well done!!!!

Had a very nice looking blue 370z coupe following me from Bedford out to a retail park on the outskirts. Female driver, private plate S** ENL. I was in the missus`s Juke.

Welcome! Im in Cambridge every day, so will look out for you!

Now THAT is impressive!!! It also answers some other guys question on here last week about whether you can fit a pair of ski`s in a zed....

Yep, a company car is classed as a "benefit", so you have to pay tax on it and its relating to engine size. So, with my old 1.5 diesel I was paying around £40 a month I think extra in tax, which when I compared it to the £260 a month my previous private work car was costing me in tax, insurance, servicing and depreciation, it was a no brainer. Of course, the amount you pay in tax increases if its a bigger engine. But, amazingly I was supprised that the tax man actually pays you more mpg allowance if you have bigger engines. Sort of seems to contradict things a bit. Loads of stuff on this on HMRC website - I spent ages looking into it all a few weeks back for my missus.

I think most of those questions will be answered from searching this forum. There has been some discussion recently about how a FWD hot hatch compares performance wise to a RWD sports car. Basically they are a completely different kettle of fish. Id suggest testing one out and see how you get on. If your used to hot hatches with a nice bit of power then you may be disapointed. Money wise, you`ll probably be struggling to get a 57 plate 350z for 11grand, they seem to be 12->13k, so your not too far off the mark. Theres a few for sale on here, which means they are owned by enthusiasts, so check them out! Good luck with your search.

I agree. Some cars definitely seem to be either feminine or masculine, and judging by the type of people I see driving them they definitely seem to fall into those categories. In general mx5`s, audi TT`s, porsche boxsters, z3`s, slk`s, 206cc`s all seem to be feminine cars and 99% of the time i only see women driving them. Blokes seem to go more for the 350z, 370z, z4 or jag XK`s.

Unless the company is very strange, all business fuel is always paid for regardless of whether its a company car or a private car. Most companies ive worked for give you the choice of either X amount per month cash, or a company car lease upto the same value per month. Some people take the cash then either just use their current car, or get their own personal lease car (as sometimes you can get a better deal) - or even use the allowance to fund buying their own new car on HP. Others, just let the company supply the car as then they also pay for all your insurance, road tax, servicing, tyres etc and you dont get hit by the depreciation of the car. Where fuel allowance is concerned, if you take the cash option, you get 45p a mile for first 10k miles, then it drops to (for my old company car which was a 1.5 diesel), 13p a mile. However, if you go for the company car option, you only get 13p a mile from the off. Which option you pick depends upon your personal circumstances - ive done both in the past. One company was paying me £600 a month to run a shed which only cost me £800 to buy in the first place. However, in general its usually best to take the company car option rather than the cash equivalent, as benefits usually outweigh the cost of depreciation, insurance and maintenance of running your own car - especially over 40k miles!

On the plus side, he`d get a lot more petrol allowance from the tax man as its a bigger engine!