Siman350z

Sorry to bring up an old thread but i've got one of these weldina nismo exhausts on mine- interested to see that they're quite rare? I bought the car second hand- uk car though. I need a new seal/ gasket for the join from the backbox to the rest of the exhaust. Do I need a special gasket or are they a standard fitment? Nismo seem to do one but the join looks like all the other exhaust joins i've seen. FWIW, it sounds absolutely fantastic and well above stock- perhaps that's due to the rest of the exhaust also being non-stock? it certainly doesn't stick out at all. Pic attached of join that's blowing. Backbox is the 20100-rs z35 model.

Did you try greasing the collar as per the sticky thread on here? Going into Japex next week to get it greased but thought this was a permenant fix from the stories.

May be tree sap. Autoglym tar remover would take it off without any abrasion but any 'misting' is best got rid of with some form of polish as mentioned above. I used Autoglym paint renovator for the misting and a lot of scrubbing and they came up a treat (didn't fancy the wet and dry paper initially for fear of damaging them but i'm sure if you've got the right gradings of paper/ paste/ creams then you'd be fine)

Sidewall damage will be a new tyre IMHO- that's the advice i've had from tyre fitters in the past. Get it checked/ changed and have a great trip!

I have the same issue! I love the 370z and the GTR. GTR though, you'll be going to fast on the road before you start enjoying it. Those discussing the elise exige though- if you like the 350z/ z4 you'll hate the lotus. I had an S2 exige (NA) after waiting years and doing a lot of research. Despite the rock solid residuals, they are hugely unreliable (read-expensive), fragile (all that fibreglass is expensive too!) and completely impractical for everyday use with barely any rear/ side visibility and stone-like suspension. The ride is extremely harsh. One example out of a looong string of issues, my air con broke- a pipe was leaking. This happens on most/ all S2 exiges. The fix required removal of the front clam (that's the entire bodywork of the front of the car) for a cost of £1k. Most of the bills were similar for stupidly minor fixes. On the performance side, on a good, dry road or track they're great but with the engine behind you and low weight, it's hairy on real roads and doesn't inspire confidence with snap-off oversteer. I still miss the looks and the insane noise mine used to make but I would never swap the 350 for another!

These quotes are absolutely bonkers. Firstly, I would steer clear of anyone nissan 'reccommends'. They won't necessarily know anything more about 370z's and are likely to be known to them as some kind of company agreement/ insurance linked reason. I had a similar situation with my old lotus exige and used a 'recommended company' and it was overpriced and the work was much lower than popular specialists recommended by others on forums etc. Worst of all- the colour match was poor. (This was a £7.5k job which in hindsight could have easily been £2k at a good, well known independant!). There's a fantastic bodyshop near me, near buntingford, Herts (not sure where you are but that's only 20 mins from Harlow mentioned earlier). They are superb- mid 60's chaps who are extremely experienced and have helped me loads in the past. Their colour match is completely seamless too. They are independent and very well priced- £2000 to fix that is ludicrous and purely becuase they are changing the panel. Anywhere that is insurance recommended (such as the place where you've been quoted) will always be more expensive as their quotes are designed to go straight through the insurance- so they can charge more! If you want the details of this independent pm me

Lovely pair of cars- just please, don't put that same rear spoiler on the 370 Enjoy the upgrade!

Hey there, welcome! I had an E46 330ci a little while back, you're going to love the 350z so much better in every respect. As for the alarm, it seems pretty good and reliable too (i've had clifford in the past with awful issues) so i'd stick with that! Enjoy

If you mean you need to drive to within your own/ the car's limits and according to the conditions then all very well but breaking traction for most (intended or not) tends to be on wet roundabouts and tight b-road 60 limit bends which is usually within the speed limit.

Never known a forum to be quite so hung up on tyres I've got the 452's and they do let go, but personally only when I let them and they feel very progressive given correct driving techniques. If anything, I would say they had a little too much grip. Tyre choice very much depends on the style of driving the the driver. For me, the Michelins would leave the car 'over-tyred' unless you're running higher power. I have them on a lowly ford puma (1.7) and they really afford the car amazing grip but for the price, I just don't think they're necessary. The 350z is a wonderfully balanced car and driven correctly, 452's are spot on IMHO

Jesus! I always wondered how bad the wear was on cars with serious camber That's some dedication right there..

370z takes a baby seat So that will be my convincing line to the missus when that time comes up

This, although personally I wouldn't tell her and i'd garage the Z- because there are a million non-descript mint 1 series which can replace a damaged/ stolen one, but a good Z is worth hanging on to!

Why did you replace that? Doesn't look very worn!

Sorry for the thread resurrection but thought i'd update on my experience of the Brands Hatch drift academy. I paid a hefty £300 via http://www.therealgranturismo.com for a full day. But this meant proper briefing and all day tuition, as well as using the 350z and skyline GTS-T exclusively. Absolutely loved the skyline/ boost but the 350z easily held it's own. It's also a testament to how much of a beating these cars can take and still tick! It was a great day and you're introduced to 1st/ 2nd gear fairly complex drifts which just aren't doable on the road unless you want trouble/ to wreck your own car. We're not talking cheeky powerslides here, a pair of rears was lasting 10mins a go to give you some idea of how hard the cars run. I also felt I was getting a great idea of the balance of the 350z in terms of car control (esp in the wet/ sliding conditions). In comparison to the £59 quid sessions, the group was pretty overcrowded and got very limited time in the cars- also, it was the all-day group that got the use of the 350z/ gts-t exclusively and the cars for the larger group weren't quite as good IMHO. They didn't really get past basic doughnuts/ slide where as the all-day group got into the properly fast stuff. Overall, well worth a go though

^^This, after buying my car with vreds front/ 452's rear, I replaced the rears first. With the old vreds up front and new rear 452's, the tcs was grabbing random wheels in basic, sweeping corners- beserk. Very unstable in braking too, oddly not even when you were pushing on, just with normal driving! I never had the issue before, only when the fronts were worn and the rears new. New all round completely cured the issue, it was night and day. It was so bad I even had Japex check it out as I thought there was a mechanical issue with the car! Will never be mixing tyres on the 350z again. 452's all round for me now. As for 'these tyres xxxx don't work in the wet' you just need to learn how to drive it I've driven near-bald semi slicks on my lotus in flood-like conditions and even that was controllable up to a limit, it just depends on your personal preference/ driving style which should be adjusted to the conditions and grip available.

Fantastic photo, sounds like great fun! Wet handling is always fun

Sorry to see this at least you know they were caught! Some time ago someone crashed into my car which I had picked up 2 weeks earlier and did 3k's worth of damage to the rear end and drove off. Never caught them. At least you know they'll see some sort of punishment and it'll be on their record. I'm with the others though, for god's sake don't claim, it's not worth the insurance premium hassle. and you'll be grinning with it all shiny again in no time. As for the scratches, try scratch X and pourbuoys (sp?) excellent for removing any scratches which are only laquer-deep. And no worrying about respray's not matching etc then too Also, if you're anywhere near St. Albans/ herts area, pm me as I know an excellent dent man.

Don't say that - I am considering going the other way! Was it an s1 or s2 lotus and was it an s version? I've driven them all (pretty much) but owned a 2006 model exige NA (wouldn't recommend the pre'06). One of the biggest issues was the lack or rear/ all round visibility for anything near real-world driving. The S model puts the intercooler up high so you have zero rear-view. In the NA model you at least get some (you can see cars, lights etc through the rear grill). The ride is just too harsh for everyday use and on mine, despite being nearly new, everything went wrong. Incredibly hard to drive fast on the road too, with the engine out behind you it's always waiting to spin on you (a common complaint with new drivers) which is much worse in wet/ winter. Fiberglass clams are fragile-as glass- as the name suggests which is difficult for daily use too. I ended up with severe tinnitus, a ruined back and knee from the driving position too. However, they are completely superb to look at, the steering feel is amazing and they will always feel special when you sit in it for a drive. Get one of the stage 2 exhausts and the pop-bangs on the overrun are very grin-worthy (obviously no link to the tinnitus there!). Overall, if you're gonna do it, it's much better as a second car than as a main driver (mine was main driver).

I lusted after a lotus for around as long. When I finally got my hands on a mint exige it wasn't the car i'd dreamed of. Ended up selling it, and after a while, got the 350z which is easily the best car i've owned. It's downright brilliant. Chose it over another lotus, DC2, DC5, S2000, clio trophy etc etc. PLEASE don't go near the boxster. My brother had a superb-condition Boxster S and they really are very dull. Yes it goes ok and is built well but it fails to put a grin on your face, whereas the 350z does that everytime. The old boxsters are cheap for a reason. Parts are a fortune and the engines often fail costing more than the car's value to fix. To me the 370z is a superb car but the prices are sky-high for now...£20k for a good one? You're better spending £8k on a good 350 and then moving to the 370 when prices are lower and you fancy a change. To me they are very similar cars anyway and the £12k extra outlay isn't worth it. As far as the power hike on the 370 goes, the 350 has plenty of power for the road, more is a luxury but really not essential if you ask me.

Yep, this feature is available on some BMW's, Audi's etc but the nissan alarm don't come with it. It is THatcham 1 but that relates to the security level rather than gadget features. As you say, a Toad or Clifford alarm will give you this (I believe it's called remote closure on the clifford for example) although that will be at a cost and in my experience they tend to be hideously unreliable- I was locked out of several Clifford-equipped cars before I stopped fitting them! The auto mirror fold which a member on here set up is, essentially a wiring bodge/ alteration in the door and although it worked well cannot be bought over the counter and the member in question seems to be awol at present. If you search and find the pics/ details on the forum though it would be very easy to replicate yourself with a few basic maplin parts and a day's time...

Note that any quoted, or 'book' values will always be very different to the real world. It also depends how you drive a particular car. Forums and listening to owners is always best IMHO.

My 350z (2004) will do 36 mpg on a motorway run (up to yorkshire @ 70-75mph) and I can easily average 30-32 with average driving. If you are driving the car with a heavy right foot, 25-26 mpg average on a tank is what I get. I've never seen below 25 on an average. This equates to around 360 miles to £75 of Tesco 99 (138p/ litre). Mine is 100% a daily driver and I wouldn't say it cost me much more than my 306 rallye to run. I absolutely love driving the thing and I think if I didn't have to fill it up or work, I probably would never get out of it! (Not sure the fiancee would be happy but it does have a passenger seat....) It really is very good for the mpg for what it is. Mostly as there's so much torque, you're not revving the engine like you would a hot hatch. To be fair though, I wouldn't recommend the car as a 'city' car as it's not intended for that, hatches/ hot hatches are always better there anyway.

Really sorry to see this mate. Having watched the vid, very odd crash? You were pushing on but unless you applied no lock at all, the car really did just veer off? And especially as you'd been driving all morning you're clearly aware of how the car *should* be behaving. From my armchair, it looks very much like that tyre delaminating was a huge contributing factor. It's a great read this thread but seriously, go and get legal advice, for all the comments on here, at the end of the day, none of us are legal experts in this field and you could have been seriously injured. Tyre fitters are clearly required to provide a service where the tyres are 'fit for purpose' which they aren't here. You weren't exceeding the tyre speed limit nor doing anything the car is not designed to do, and yet the tyre very clearly failed. The fact that it overheated may well have been linked to it's increased stress by being placed on the wrong corner. Get in contact with a solicitor. I might be able to give you an email of someone who could help if you're not sure who to talk to. I had a similar highly frustrating experience when a lotus main dealer sold me an exige with 0.5mm of tread on semi-slick tyres which then span in the wet. Yes I should have checked but that's why I went to the main dealer! For peace of mind!

That's interesting, I paid £300 for a full day so i'm certainly hoping i'll be doing more than doughnuts