andyvvc

I wanted a set of Nismo's 3 years ago for my old Zed. Best part of £3000 new from Ni$$an and about £2000 from traders on here new with tyres: almost name-your-price second hand up-to 1600 quid! They were rare as rocking horse poo. Not quite as rare now but still an awesome wheel. Damned if i can tell any difference in performance over my old 18" RAYS. Well worth 1200 quid - and they are hardly crying out for a refurb - any new buyer could live with the bubbling until summer and get them sorted then for what, 50-70 quid per wheel? LMGT4's - All show and quite a lot of go in my opinion

Jez has got a great little setup at the moment, very good office and two large garages with 4-post ramps etc. I cant recall what he charged but it was a good quote and included all of the fluids. Drop him a PM and see what he says (ask what the P3 covers too). Think i paid an extra 49 quid for him to change the diff fluid too - not a standard P3 service item.

My old 53 plate UK Zed used to whine a little (gearbox). It went away after fitting a louder exhaust The new 07 plate HR model that i have also has some gearbox whine - noisier when cold. It's hasn't gotten any worse after 10k miles and was doing it from new for the orignal owner. I've had gearbox and diff fluid changed on a P3 at Horsham - no difference to the noise. I think a lot of the HR's have a quiet touring-car style 'whine' from the gearbox when moving, especially at lower speeds. Seem to be quite a few theads on here and the US forums talking about the 'whine' noise.

Long story short: Flux gave me a renewal of £862 this year. I'm still waiting for a call back from A-Plan. The best Sky could do was £787 (that included the 20% club discount). Flux refused to budge... ....confused.com... ....Admiral, Elephant and a few others came out at about £560 with the same car value, protected no-claims, £350 total excess etc. One call back to Flux - option 4 "I want to cancel my policy". Spoke to a very helpful lady who put me thru to renewals....who promptly "recalculated" my renewal at, oddly, £560 ! To save any hassle I've stayed with Flux (unless A-Plan come back with an awesome quote) Rip-off Britain ? Renewal quotes certainly are.... I'm now paying what i was paying for my 350z insurance 4 years ago...but haven't premiums been going up a lot over the last few years? Clearly not if you shop around and force the insurers hand ! EDIT: This is protected no claims, legal cover, courtesy car, some European cover, fully comprehensive.

Alcatraz - need to book tickets NOW if you hope to travel while you are there. There is a legit Alcatraz website that offers e-tickets. Print them and take them with you. When we went we bought tickets in advance (weeks in advance) for a specific date/time. While we were queing we discovered that it wasn't possible to buy any tickets 'on the day' for any date earlier than the following Tuesday (we went on Friday, so sold out for days ahead). Check the internet for the street names used in Bullit. (Filbert Street was one we visited). Stupidly steep! Certainly worth a look. http://www.rjsmith.com/bullitt-locations.html Also worth a look is the famous Lombard Street. Pier 39 is pretty good too. We also got some great pics of the Golden Gate bridge from Torpedo Wharf area just off i101 before you drive onto the bridge. Parking up the top - short trail down to the wharf. Some good views. Oh, and dont forget Union Square for shopping (Macy's and some other big stores). And there is a famous chocolate producers somewhere...and of course the trams. And some seriusly steep streets! Oh, the Catherdeal is worth a visit too - massive!

Alcatraz - need to book tickets NOW if you hope to travel while you are there. There is a legit Alcatraz website that offers e-tickets. Print them and take them with you. When we went we bought tickets in advance (weeks in advance) for a specific date/time. While we were queing we discovered that it wasn't possible to buy any tickets 'on the day' for any date earlier than the following Tuesday (we went on Friday, so sold out for days ahead). Check the internet for the street names used in Bullit. (Filbert Street was one we visited). Stupidly steep! Certainly worth a look. http://www.rjsmith.com/bullitt-locations.html Also worth a look is the famous Lombard Street. Pier 39 is pretty good too. We also got some great pics of the Golden Gate bridge from Torpedo Wharf area just off i101 before you drive onto the bridge. Parking up the top - short trail down to the wharf. Some good views. Oh, and dont forget Union Square for shopping (Macy's and some other big stores). And there is a famous chocolate producers somewhere...and of course the trams. And some seriusly steep streets! Oh, the Catherdeal is worth a visit too - massive!

lol - I'm a minnow comapred to you lot. Got about a grand in GKP - waiting for £8. Or £16.77...or maybe $61...???? Also got a few grand in XEL - which is at a very low price at present given the potential upside/Rowan Norway drilling stuff and DECC approval being due soon. Im not plugging XEL - DYOR as always. But that and GKP might help me pay a chunk or mortgage off in Q1 2012. Or maybe sell the 350z and get a 370z? GLA ! Oh - and i looked at my share trades. I first bought GKP back in early 2009 - 30p a share. Sold at 62p having been happy with a nice profit.... GODDAMMIITTT!!!!!

lol - I'm a minnow comapred to you lot. Got about a grand in GKP - waiting for £8. Or £16.77...or maybe $61...???? Also got a few grand in XEL - which is at a very low price at present given the potential upside/Rowan Norway drilling stuff and DECC approval being due soon. Im not plugging XEL - DYOR as always. But that and GKP might help me pay a chunk or mortgage off in Q1 2012. Or maybe sell the 350z and get a 370z? GLA ! Oh - and i looked at my share trades. I first bought GKP back in early 2009 - 30p a share. Sold at 62p having been happy with a nice profit.... GODDAMMIITTT!!!!!

Had a call back from Eileen - Moreton now have my username and have added me to the 350z event, so the hotel is now 100% booked EDIT - (in terms of my booking - there are still lots of rooms free!) 1. Ebized +1............sat &sun..............hotel booked 18/19/20 May 2. Wasso +1..........Sat & Sun ............Fri, Sat, Sun - (will book tomorrow) 3. Maccaman.........(Sat & Sun) 4. ChrisS.............. Sat & sun...........staying at own 5* accommodation 5. Ken................. Sat & Sun............. Hotel 18/19 6. Chesterfield +2... Sat & Sun.............Fri, Sat, Sun - need to confirm if moreton can accomodate. 7. glrnet + 1........fri, sat & sun......hotel now booked 18/19/20 May 8. Bockaaarck +1....Sat & Sun............hotel booked - 18 / 19 May 9. JetSet...............Sat & Sun.............No accommodation needed 10. 350ZCaroline.....Sat & Sun.............No accommodation and Sunday drive only 11. Will 350z +1 ...........fri, sat & sun.............hotel now booked 18/19/20 May 12. Blacky + 1..........Sun.....................Hotel booked 19th 13. Andyvvc +1.......Sat and Sun.......Hotel booking confirmed for 18,19 and 20th May 14. Madmarky..........Sat & Sun ............Fri, Sat, Sun 15. Lincolnbaggie.......Sat & Sun.............Hotel booked 18/19/20 16. octet (Adrian + Leti) - Fri, Sat, Sun....Booking confirmed 17. choptop +1........Sat & Sun.............Hotel Booking still to be confirmed

Had a call back from Eileen - Moreton now have my username and have added me to the 350z event, so the hotel is now 100% booked EDIT - (in terms of my booking - there are still lots of rooms free!) 1. Ebized +1............sat &sun..............hotel booked 18/19/20 May 2. Wasso +1..........Sat & Sun ............Fri, Sat, Sun - (will book tomorrow) 3. Maccaman.........(Sat & Sun) 4. ChrisS.............. Sat & sun...........staying at own 5* accommodation 5. Ken................. Sat & Sun............. Hotel 18/19 6. Chesterfield +2... Sat & Sun.............Fri, Sat, Sun - need to confirm if moreton can accomodate. 7. glrnet + 1........fri, sat & sun......hotel now booked 18/19/20 May 8. Bockaaarck +1....Sat & Sun............hotel booked - 18 / 19 May 9. JetSet...............Sat & Sun.............No accommodation needed 10. 350ZCaroline.....Sat & Sun.............No accommodation and Sunday drive only 11. Will 350z +1 ...........fri, sat & sun.............hotel now booked 18/19/20 May 12. Blacky + 1..........Sun.....................Hotel booked 19th 13. Andyvvc +1.......Sat and Sun.......Hotel booking confirmed for 18,19 and 20th May 14. Madmarky..........Sat & Sun ............Fri, Sat, Sun 15. Lincolnbaggie.......Sat & Sun.............Hotel booked 18/19/20 16. octet (Adrian + Leti) - Fri, Sat, Sun....Booking confirmed 17. choptop +1........Sat & Sun.............Hotel Booking still to be confirmed

I reckon myself and Lydia would be up for this again. Great meet last year Just need to make sure i dont book the granny-room at Heaves again lol

Hotel booked - managed to get all three nights in a Mezz room. Looking forward to this. Are any plans to get some semi-pro photographers involved again like 2011?

1. Ebized +1............sat &sun..............hotel booked 18/19/20 May 2. Wasso +1..........Sat & Sun ............Fri, Sat, Sun - (will book tomorrow) 3. Maccaman.........(Sat & Sun) 4. ChrisS.............. Sat & sun...........staying at own 5* accommodation 5. Ken................. Sat & Sun............. Hotel 18/19 6. Chesterfield +2... Sat & Sun.............Fri, Sat, Sun - need to confirm if moreton can accomodate. 7. glrnet + 1........fri, sat & sun......hotel now booked 18/19/20 May 8. Bockaaarck +1....Sat & Sun............hotel booked - 18 / 19 May 9. JetSet...............Sat & Sun.............No accommodation needed 10. 350ZCaroline.....Sat & Sun.............No accommodation and Sunday drive only 11. Will 350z +1 ...........fri, sat & sun.............hotel now booked 18/19/20 May 12. Blacky + 1..........Sun.....................Hotel booked 19th 13. Andyvvc +1.......Sat and Sun.......Hotel to be booked for 18,19 and 20th May on Monday Jan 9th (unless we manage to wangle a stay at ChrisS' local 5* gaff!)

Lovely car mate! Here's a good exhaust tip for you (pun intended); viewtopic.php?f=166&t=50920 This will look stunning on a silver 370z....and will be (possibly) the first fitted in the UK to a 370z? You know you want to....

I play now and again - but im running a Radeon 6870 card and it seriuosly gets choppy after about 5 mins of multiplayer....im runnng the latest drivers too The card rocks the game in single player...ruddy annoying that multi gets screwed so often for me. Stick me down all the same - i'll drop on when i can BF3 username: andyvvc

The main thing to watch out for with the engine is head gasket failure. Very common on the 1.8 k-series. Make sure there are no coolant leaks and your never low on it. Beavis is right, the K Series has a few weak points (and i ought to know - I ran a '98 plate VVC Coupe). The head gasket went on mine. However, it only cost about 600 quid including labour and new parts etc to get it professionally skimmed and sorted. This included a new radiator, hoses, gasket, skim, removal and refit of engine head and the VVC mech etc. Root cause on K Series engine failures is rarely the head gasket. It's normally a cooling system failure which then warps the head due to the sandwich construction of the top/bottom of the engine (12 very long bolts iirc hold the engine halves together). On my Coupe, the rad pi$$ed itself overnight..so a cold morning start felt normal until i realised there was no hot air after a few miles of warming up. Too late - head was damaged and needed a skim Provided you check the rad, hoses and coolant reservoir regularly it should be absolutely fine. Also of note, the head gasket was revised in 2000 by Rover, using a more durable construction to withstand more stress etc. They also updated the sh!te water pump (another classic root-cause of gasket failure). As your's is a V plate it's probably got the better bits in it...just keep an eye on your cooling system and it'll run and run! iirc there is some decent info over at http://forums.mg-rover.org/ - including some random posts by some 'Andy_vvc' fella....what a plonker As a side note - the K Series engine (with the 160bhp capable VVC mech) was a cracking engine. I can see why Lotus used it in the Elise. Lightweight, revvy, decent power for the displacement.

Another Midnight! That makes a grand total of three of us i think...?!? Welcome to the forum!

Think you drove past me as i turned into B&Q - i heard the exhaust then clocked the Zed

I live in Derbyshire. Lydia's family live in Essex (Mayland - right on the ar$e end of England). My folks live near Crewe. I had to be back in work in Nottingham on the 27th. Can you see what's coming? Yep - over 700 miles of blissful Zed driving. Had some scares on the A14 towards Stanstead - the new Falken tyres still had delivery compound on them and were slippy as hell in the rain. Wheel spin at 70mph in FIFTH (and the resulting fishtailing) scared the sh1t out of some drivers behind me...and if truth be told, scared the sh1t out of me too! And this was with light acceleration overtaking a truck after being flashed out by the car behind me... Other than this, the car was rock-solid. The drive back to Derbyshire at midnight on Boxing Day was awesome. I managed to hook up with a bloke in a V8 Range Rover and the two of us basically owned the A14 and M1...there was no other traffic. Even at "motorway" *ahem* *cough* speeds the Zed was returning 27MPG The drive back from Crewe the next day (having visited my folks) was a little more subdued due to traffic and lots of flashing blue lights that kept flying past me on the A50. Despite this i still managed some exhilirating driving and was quite impressed with the number of drivers who saw the Zed approaching from behind them and politely pulled out of the way. I tried quite hard at a few junctions to upset the Falkens, but they seem nice and grippy now that the compound has burnt off. I dread to think what it cost me in fuel - but it was a fun way to spend several hours over the Festive period...and i managed to see both sets of folks too. Of course, if it had been snowing . . . EDIT - just done the maths. On an approx distance of 700 miles with an average MPG of 27, thats 25.92 gallons, or about 117 litres of fuel. At about £1.34 per litre of Super at Tesco, that equals about £156 in fuel. Bolloxs! I should have driven faster and harder!

The noise will be coming from the ball joints in the compression arms, these aren't replaceable I am afraid; Ar$e! Does this mean new banana arms/compression arms? I assumed that replacing the worn OEM compression bushes with the new ones was a straightforward fit. Or are you saying that the ball joints themselves are also probably worn and in need of replacing? The obvious concern now is that this might cause an alignment/tracking issue if it isnt fixed soon...? Am i right? And in reply to a few others - i thought the plugs for the HR model were twice the cost of the DE ones? Alex has them up for 100 quid for a set of 6 iirc?

According to Ni$$an the sparks cost 26 quid each Having said that, traders on here sell them for 100 quid for all 6, so the 100 quid extra from a main dealer wasn't too unexpected (book time of 1 hour apparently, plus VAT). As i have no decent tools and the mechanical ability of a drunken monkey, the cost wasnt too terrible. It's done now. Receipt from Ni$$an tucked away in the service folder and hopefully 50000 more miles until *anything* major needs doing again. Except the drop links on the front ARB of course

Jez was going to do them, but unfortunately only had DE sparks in stock. They tried some local suppliers but couldn't get more than 4 Platinum-spec HR plugs on the day. I agree the price is good. They supplied all the fluids too....compression arm bushes plus fitting and Geo should have been nearly 300 quid alone, so a great price all-in

....car is finally fully sorted for her 50,000th mile anniversary lol Big thanks to Jez and Kyle at Horsham Developments for sorting out the full BIG P3 service last week (slight issue with the sparks, but not the end of the world) I've also just had 4x new Falken 452 19" tyres fitted to the LMGT4s. Coupled with the new compression arm bushes and alignment that Horsham fitted last week, the car now drives arrow-straight and feels a lot sharper than it did running on the worn out OEM bushes. I get a lot more steering feel and inputs seem more precise Total lot done: Horsham: (£650) Full P3 service (minus sparks) Belt check Coolant change Diff oil change Brake fluid change Oil and filter change New compression arm bushes Full four wheel geo-alignment Ni$$an Main stealer: (£200) 6x new Platinum sparks + fitting Notts Laser Alignment: (£700) 4x Falken 452 tyres (245x35x19 and 275x35x19) Total spend £1550. Turns out that the main 50k service AND tyres AND worn bushes all needing doing in the same month can be quite pricey lol ! Big thanks to Horsham for the decent quote - easily 300 quid cheaper than the Main Stealer, and i know the work has been done by people who know what the Zed is There is now a cluck coming from the front of the car when i go over sleeping policemen etc. The tyre fitters had it on the ramp and i asked them to check the arms and anti rollbar etc. They didnt find any play in them. Having said that, neither did Ni$$an when the drop links on the anti rollbar went on my last Zed...play was miniscule and they missed it...noise was quite clunky tho. I'm gonna get a second look at the drop link ends/roll bars in a week or so. Pretty sure one of them is on the way out...probably worn before but masked by the worn compression bushes. Im now skint. Donations will be gratefully received

Aye - its, erm, a bit dirty now Washed at the weekend, then drove to Stoke and back - 130 mile round trip - car looked like it had been driven on the Utah Salt Flats....utterly ditched! Even the exhaust was powder-white thanks to all the salt. Cue a 60 min clean, getting under the rear arches and the exhaust too to get as much salt off as i could.... British weather!

^^^^^