Vertakill

Cheers for that Adam. All the points indicated to an alternator going and everyone agreed to that BAR a guy that specialises in alternators nearby. He said that he'd never expect a 350z's alternator to go when only 60k miles have been done. He'd asked about any newly installed electrical items and I have a 2nd stereo in my car that was in it when I bought it, that has no power going to it. I've also got a mysterious DVD player (prev owner didnt tell me about it) underneath passenger seat that's wired up to something, and also a Harmon Kardon iPod connector too. Not to mention a REALLY annoying Clifford alarm (made a thread about it continuously going off on here b4) that could've been badly installed.

Anyone got a rough price of an alternator, or if there's anything I should look out for?

In case anyone was interested, it looks likely that it's the alternator. Car is ok while running off jump leads and another car, but as soon as leads are disconnected and you start revving or putting on electrics, the voltage just shoots down. (Reading voltage from a meter, seeing as my speedo/dials are all dead..)

Lol. I love the car but I've had some awful luck since getting it a few months ago. Pretty much every fortnight I've had a problem so I'm convinced it's cursed. Planning on selling it when I sort everything out (seem to be finding more problems than I'm fixing though!).

http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14747 Continuing on from that thread above, my car lost all power today on the motorway. Firstly, speedo + all dials weren't working at the time of this incident. This problem has been fairly intermittent and I can't figure out the reason behind it. Got petrol last night and on driving to station the speedo/dials all died - no biggy I thought, considering it KEEPS happening, Drove to work this morning, still no speedo/dials. Go home for lunch to show my prev car to a possible buyer, and the Zed loses ALL power while on a motorway going 70mph. Tried dropping a gear or two and revving - nothing. This is literally pedal pushed all the way down and not a peep from engine. Free wheeled between a shitload of traffic cones (road works) and into a make-shift hard shoulder. Putting it into neutral meant I could rev to my hearts content, putting it into ANY gear and revving resulted in nothing. Eventually the car managed to move forward a little and reverse a little. Thought wahey it's back. Then was thinking about merging back onto busy motorway and realised I'd lost all power again. Thank god I didn't try to merge! Tried turning car off, left it sit for 20 seconds, turned on - wouldn't start. 2 hours later (sold other car wahoo) came back. Battery was at 14 volts (first time I was able to check voltage seeing as my speedo/computers were dead) according to a meter and it started first time. Was able to roll forward and back, but then it lost the ability to rev while in gear yet again. (Read that the hotter the starter, the more juice needed to turn the engine, hence why it worked when left to cool down) Left it idling for a while while we rang around for advice and when we came back the battery was at 8volts, then later 7 volts. So it would seem that the battery isn't getting a charge and is slowly being depleted. Turned car off and it wouldn't turn on again (voltage obviously too low), then the windows were stuck down and I couldn't get them back up which meant the alarm was constantly going off. I had my bro come out and his car was there but I didn't want to risk charging the battery to the max and chancing driving home because Im sure eventually it'd die again, assuming that was the problem. It's been towed away now is on it's way back to my house for further scrutiny!

I had a look behind the speedo and saw 2 cables, left and right. Both seemed fine. I'll try take the whole speedo off when I have a chance and have a better look. Cheers Ian.

This has happened me more and more often lately, and usually rectified within a couple seconds of it happening. However, after going over a biggish pothole, the display/speedo stopped working for at least 30 mins. It eventually came back, only for it to stop working again a little while later. This is every dial on your display directly in front of you - fuel, speedo, rpm etc. Also, the smaller LED displays on your left - batt voltage, oil, multi-function dial. Any ideas what I can do? Could it just be a cable that powers the entire display, and where should I be looking? It's quite difficult to physically get your head around that area as theres not much space for your head between the steering wheel/windscreen. Any help is much appreciated, as the main one that's worrying me is the lack of being able to see the fuel gauge and the MPG is naturally fairly woeful.

Oooh that looks very nice. My brother only just recently did this sort of idea with his car.

Thanks for the response and for moving this H5.

Just a few questions, as this car is really beginning to annoy me lately. Skip #1 if you have no interest/experience in insurance/crashes etc. 1. To cut a long story short, a motorcyclist ran into the back corner of my car while trying to do an Evel Knievel style overtaking manoeuvre against oncoming traffic AS I was crossing the lane to go into a petrol station. Anyways, the brake light, back bumper and the quarter panel (where petrol tank is) need replacing. However, there's a bit of a dispute with myself and the assessor for my insurance company, in that he thinks a part only needs repairing rather than replacing. The part is BEHIND the quarter panel and just under the brake light. I'll try to take a picture when I get home. If the part is repaired, the cost will be €2000-€3000.. However if it's replaced (which I think it should) it'll cost €6000-€8000 allegedly (50+ hours of labour). The part is badly damaged - twisted and broken metal so I definitely think it needs replacing.. after all that's what I'm paying my extortionate insurance for. 2. Yesterday a Ferrari 355 tried to race me on a fairly empty motorway. I'll save the results for another day but, after redlining each gear from 2nd>4th we slowed down and I noticed that, out of nowhere, my speedo just died. The speedo dials all dropped (revs/speed/water/petrol) to the bottom and the LEDs all disappeared. For a second I thought the car was about to lose all power but it didn't, everything was fine. Changed gears, revved a little.. no issues. Anyone have any idea what this is, or how worried I should be? Could it just be a lose connector or something? 3. The right exhaust is slightly hanging and it's making an annoying rattling noise every now and then. I've been told it's just a heat deflector rattling and it just needs to be screwed in properly as it's came loose. I haven't had time to check it out but has anyone got any insight? Couple other small niggling things that make me go mad but I'll save them for another rant/post. Thanks! - Crap, this was meant to be in Technical rather than Technical > Warranty.

I had an alarm issue too. One of the alarm sensors under the bonnet of mine had seized up.. looked like a bit of moisture got at it or something. But anyways, the switch rusted so when the bonnet was opened or closed, the switch wasn't actually clicking in/out. So randomly the alarm was going off until I spotted it. It seemed to love going off at night time (possibly more moisture/colder weather) at about 4am... so for a while we just thought the car was afraid of the dark..

That driver door hinge thing is happening to mine too. It's slightly dropped just as you say. It's so annoying when driving above 50-60mph, I can hear the wind whistling into it as if the window was slightly open. Also when the window IS slightly open (say, 4cm), and I hit a bump the window kind of rattles. Slightly worrying...

Edit your post please sarnie

Aye that started out as a PM, but wrote in wrong tab in firefox and voila. Edited it just before you posted

woops

xStric9x: Thanks for the feedback - Yeah I've put a little thought into it. But one or two things put me off it. There's a new tax coming into place in Ireland in July which basically means that we've gotta pay an extortianate amount of money on any car with high co2 emissions. So I've gotta get this car before July 1st, hence the reluctance to import. Any recommendations on reputable importers? I've only looked at bonsaicars admittedly.

Thanks for such a speedy response martin and I'll be looking closely in the warranty section now, thanks!. Funny you should post that coz I actually had that very car open in another tab! It looks in great condition but I regrettably bought my Celica in silver and I'd be reluctant to buy a silver 350z. :| Who knows though.

Hi, just registered and have been looking through an awful lot of informative posts but I'm still in need of some advice. I'm looking to buy a Z within the next week or two and would appreciate any hints/tips or things I should look out for when buying one. I'm in Ireland but I'm mostly looking at UK cars as there's only a handful of (overpriced) 350z's for sale here. Just to give a brief idea - I'm currently driving a 00' Celica VVTLi with a leather interior so I doubt I could settle for a non-leather spec'd one at the moment. I'm willing to spend around £12-13k on most likely a GT model. Some feedback from owners about things I should keep an eye out for would be much appreciated, thanks!