Toon Chris

So get a Skoda. By all accounts they are very nice nowadays and you may even make £250 a month. Or drive the Z all the time and consider it 'free'. Money and dullness or a good life - take your pick

"Like someone who was shot while playing a game of Twister and left to die" Nice line

Ah yes, LPG is a great way to drive high miles on the cheap. Just switch to petrol when you want the sportiness, although I do feel that you tend not to as it makes you a bit too mean to take it off LPG when you know the price difference. It does keep the engine in good condition though, the oil stays very clean.

I could have a company car but instead get work miles paid for and use the Z. I could make money and have a diesel - but life isn't worth living when you are driving something boring for all those hours!!! I feel great driving the Z all the time and I break even - it's money I never had so don't miss it and I get to drive what I want. It's not a hard choice mate.

That must be the quote of the month

30K is nothing. I'm on 96K and the car pulls like new (better actually as I've had a ECU tune). Don't ever be put off by high mileage on a V6 car, it's just a way for you to get a good car, cheaper Servicing consists of an oil and filter change and checking nothing has dropped off every 9K miles, costs about £100 with good quality oil (Millers for example). It says to change the brake fluid every 2 years but if you do lots of miles then just do it whenever (like most cars). Costs about 2 hours labour and a couple of litres of good fluid. Basically they are not expensive cars to run. If you want to change the diff/LSD oil then ok, but it's not a priority. Do it whenever, I had mine done at 80K and with an oil and filter change as well the whole lot was £200. Everything is easy to get to on the Z so the mechanics like it. Every 50-60K change the spark plugs. More expensive (plugs are about £60ish) and a few more hours labour but its a 'proper' engine inserted under the bonnet in the 'proper' direction so it isn't hard to do. You will need a new clutch at some point and it will be the most expensive thing you have to buy. Get a solid fly at the same time to prevent upsetting changes when the exiting one goes 10 minutes after the clutch was changed If you go for the full monty then about £900-£1K but if you just have the plate and bearing changed then possibly the good side of £600. Treat the car well and it will last you for ages. Build the price in to what you expect to pay for a higher mileage car. Upgrade the brakes? No problem, it is cheaper than the standard nissan prices to get a good set of upgraded disks and pads all round Buy your parts via people on this forum and cut the price in half(ish) from nissan prices - and most of it is genuine nissan too! DON'T get budget tyres. The difference in price is only a few tanks of petrol so why skimp? Budgets will make the car feel terrible and could put you in the ditch. These cars are heavy and powerful, not a good combination on a slippy road if you lose concentration. Get some mid-range tyres for about £400 a set and they will do you for 20K on the back if you are polite to them, a little more on the front. Finally, the cardinal sin on this forum is to say your MPG but if you do a lot of miles you can get much closer to 30MPG. I do about 20-25K miles per year and don't hang about (i.e. no gentle acceleration and 50mph cruising) and get that. Finally, finally, you will want to start to buy add-on bits and this is where it gets pricey. The cheapest 'fancy' exhaust will be £300, a good one nearer £1000 - and that can be for the last section only! So hopefully you can see that they are not an expensive car to run if you have a good one, but if you have to watch the pennies then just walk away as it is probably not the car for you. A surprise bill can be a lot of money should you be unlucky. If you want cheap then get a Ford, not a sportscar.

http://api.twitter.com/chilean_miner

Sounds great, how can i refuse when it's only an hour or two away 1/ martinmac 2/ toon chris

Other: eBay it and hope to God someone buys it

Put a lip around the roof and plant a lawn.

+1 clean the throttle body. Make sure you have the throttle reset procedure to hand for afters.

What about the throttle response? The first thing I noticed when I got my PC was the greatly improved and snappier throttle response. A bit like kevlo I can stand a few hp missing as I'll never really notice it, but it's the throttle response that interests me. Did that change noticeably? For heat-soak, I don't really understand that argument as I'm using the same main intake pipe, same MAF collar and the filter element doesn't get warm if I check it after a drive. Ok so in traffic maybe I suck in more warm air but who needs 250bhp+ in traffic and warm air means less power because you use less fuel which is pretty handy in traffic . I do have a cold air intake but I can't say I noticed that doing much to be fair, even on long trips.

DS2500 are a star choice for road use. Very good feel and have excellent stopping power, yet quiet and light for tootling about as well.

Not a hope without a breaker bar

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Cheers although I'm not sure if that will fit my 04 plate or not. My original reason for this thread was to see if anyone recognised the problem and more importantly from my perspective, was it just noise that could be ignored for a while or would the gearbox die and leave me stranded. These gearboxes make all sorts of whines and rattles from new so what is one more noise ? After a flurry of PMs etc I'm of the opinion that I should just take it steady for now but will have to replace it. It occurred to me that the cold-start whine has stopped now and been replaced by this chatter, so maybe a bearing has finally started to go. I'm going to get it changed in September (hope it lasts!) and hopefully get a proper diagnosis as the same time, that way I can update the thread for future worry-warts like me. If I get a chance I will make a small vid and see if the noise is discernible. Cheers for you help chaps

Oh no please don't go there, I don't even want to think about the flywheel being wrong. viewtopic.php?f=25&t=25934&hilit=flywheel

Thanks matey, although I did call them a few months ago with a big shopping list of repairs and servicing inc new tyres and they never called back. That put me off. I have the firdenza solid fly from Alex (which is excellent) so it isn't the Dual Mass whotsit breaking up. Alex, have PM'd back. Let's see what the wallet damage is.

Very recently my gearbox has started to make a chattering sound which appears to come from the gear change lever itself. The noise happens under full load at lower revs (2-3k) so I guess it is a torque-related issue. Its an 04 GT with 91K miles. It is a noise that I previously got when at very high revs in 4th and 5th (6K+) so not something that worried me a lot as I don't do that very often, but the other day it started to do it in 3rd at the lower revs, then after only a few hundred miles it has moved to include 1st and 2nd. It is hard to describe a noise but it is like a metallic hammer drill noise in frequency and is accompanied by a little gear lever vibration. When 'chattering' it isn't easy to change gear, it seems to stick in place a little and have trouble finding the next gear (esp. 5th to 6th at the higher revs) - backlash possibly? Noise is noise and not really an issue, and providing I don't floor the pedal in the rev ranges it is no more than a distraction, but I am concerned that the gearbox may be falling apart rapidly and it will go pop and leave me with a car I can't drive to a garage. Can anybody diagnose this at all, or offer any words of wisdom? The next question is does anyone have experience of the price of a fully recon gearbox (and NOT via Nissan), just in case? I have been considering a Urethane Transmission Mount as maybe the transmission is just rolling about a bit, but then again maybe just a replacement standard one would be enough?

In the toon. Looking at you through the window right now mate. wish I had a spotted card on me

my budget is 13k , went to see this one as it was cheap ! Well then buy it and you have 3K to fix anything that is wrong with it. That will be more than enough for a new clutch plus all of the more common faults. Whenever you buy a used car you will find something somewhere that needs fixing.

When I had my uprev tune they said it isn't the throttle opening they changed but the responsiveness to the MAF. Makes sense (I think )

Hmm just feel that it engages the gear abruptly sometimes feeling a bit like a ‘bang’ unless you slip the clutch a bit if you know what I mean. Maybe your dual-mass flywheel is pooped. If the springs are worn or broken then the clutch will engage with more of a bang than normal. Personally I like my solid flywheel as it's lighter. It just means you ave to match revs a bit more carefully to avoid anything abrupt.

Well the response has been stunning C'mon guys, don't make me eBay it. £7.50 including postage, it's a bargain!

I had a Mk1 as my first car. 'The Crumpet Catcher' (it didn't). How about this for an utter lack of taste - especially the middle picture, read the writing http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1808897.htm