Jack94

Few more little jobs done. Firstly a bit of interior trim removal to locate the hidden manual boot release cable. It must've been apart before and whoever put it back together forgot to route the cable through. Hopefully I'll never need to use it but it's good to know it's there now just in case. Next up was to replace the boot poppers because the rubber on the end of the old ones had started disintegrating due to age. I was dreading how much these would cost with the "R8 tax" considering 350z ones are nearly £50 each, but was pleasantly surprised to find they were only £15 each. Lastly I replaced the standard LED entry lights in the door cards for genuine Audi projector ones, just because they look cool.

Lovely looking wheels for the money, look much more expensive than they are. Good luck with the sale.

DEPOSIT TAKEN ON ALL 3 ITEMS

Can't comment on the OEM cats (I had torqen HFCs) but I had this invidia system on my 350z for over 4 years (roughly 22,000 miles) and had no issues whatsoever.

The clutch kit? It's meant to be one of the best available for anyone wanting to upgrade to a single mass flywheel without compromising the cars driveability or pedal feel. The lighter flywheel means the engine can rev significantly quicker, and it won't wear out unlike a dual mass one.

Bump

I went for the complete ones seeing as they were only £10 extra

From memory I think they might have been a slightly looser fit, but that never caused me any issues. I had them installed for over 2 years and never had one fall out

Oh

How frustrating. Regarding replacement I'd highly recommend the ones from opentop, they easily pop the tailgate past the latch even with the heavy V1 spoiler.

Personally I think the extra money for a face-lift is worth it for the newer/better headlights, tail lights & interior. Tax is half the price on a pre-facelift car, which seems to sway some people. HR's seem to be the most desirable and therefore fetch a premium, however the difference in power between the 3 engine variants is negligible.

The boot poppers are just springs, which are meant to pop the tailgate open enough to clear the latch when you press the switch, so you can open the tailgate one handed. My first guess would be that the release switch has packed up.

I'm sorry but this is completely false. Sure you'll do damage by bouncing off the redline of a cold engine, but as long as you drive it gently at low revs until everything is up to its operating temperature then it will not cause any adverse issues whatsoever.

I had a similar experience with one of my neighbours shortly after I bought and moved into my house 3 years ago. I offered to park so the exhaust was facing the street rather than their house, and set off as soon as it'd started up (except when it needed defrosting in the winter). They're probably still not completely happy but they've not moaned again since. It's the best you can reasonably do really, the idea of changing your car or job, or parking down the road is just ridiculous. I'd love to have the luxury of choosing whether to work from home and not have to commute everyday, but sadly that's not an option for me. At the end of the day when you're living so close to other people you've all gotta be willing to compromise a bit, otherwise you need to move somewhere more remote. Funny thing is my completely OEM R8 is louder on cold startup than my 350z with HFCs & invidia gemini. I bet my neighbours were over the moon when they found out I was selling the zed, until they realised what I was replacing it with

Was there an issue with the ones Alex is offering? Can't imagine you're going to find better than that, and certainly not better service

Good luck with your search, you should get a nice tidy example for that. Just remember to check all the usual things like gallery gaskets etc.

Absolute bargain for someone. GLWTS

All items still for sale

Great, it'll probably cost an extra £1/litre

Jack (28) Ferrari F40, just because it's so god damn pretty.

If you're not in a rush then I totally agree with Headphones, get yourself to Japfest before you make a decision. It's all personal taste at the end of the day, eventhough the gemini & HFC combo is still on the quieter side of the spectrum I certainly wouldn't have wanted it any louder.

If you decide to add HFCs definitely do that before you get it tuned. A remap should be the last step once everything else is in place to get the best gains, plus they'll be able to turn off the post-cat O2 sensors to eliminate the chance of the HFCs throwing up an EML. I had torqen HFCs paired with my invidia gemini, it was quite loud so I'd bear that in mind. Any HFC will make any exhaust a fair bit louder.

Sounds like you've done your research. The stock intake system flows really well so there's not really any gains to be had from a CAI, plus access to the filters is a pain in the arse when you want to clean/replace them. If you're not bothered about engine bay bling an aftermarket drop in filter is a good choice, I had a HKS one on my 350z. Personally I'm not a fan of oiled filters like the K&N because if you over-oil them it can upset the MAF sensor. In terms of exhausts, I had the invidia gemini cat-back and would thoroughly recommend it. Brilliant quality, fitment and sound.

Yeah they were filthy with carbon build-up! But also one of the previous owners had done a crappy attempt at painting them, which was coming off in places. Shame because I actually quite liked them in black, went with the theme. They're just finishers attached to the bumper so I might look at getting another set and having them properly powder coated at some point, that way I can revert it back to standard if I ever want to. Never really had continental performance tyres before, always had Eagle F1s on the zed. Was going to try pilot sports next seeing as everyone seems to rave about them but will see how I get on!

Only a couple of very minor jobs completed this weekend. Updated the infotainment software and navigation maps to the latest (final) version. Still very dated compared to modern systems but at least it's as good as it can be now. Also fitted a Brodit phone holder. The oem headunit has bluetooth, but only for calls sadly, luckily it does at least have aux input. Ideally I'd like to keep everything as oem looking as possible, but if I decide I can't live without bluetooth audio, android auto etc I'll look into replacing it with something aftermarket. Finally gave it a good wash and polished the exhaust tips up with some autosol metal polish. Never had a white car before and although it looks lovely when clean, it's obviously a nightmare for showing every little bit of dirt! I have a feeling I'm going to be cleaning it every other week 🙈