andyvvc

All my gears crunch in the Zed EDIT: I have discovered a third pedal, to the left of the brake pedal. I will work out what this does tonight on my way home from work

Standard 18" sizes mate? If so i might order the fronts today from them and get them fitted elsewhere....second thoughts, i had better wait and make sure the rears turn up first lol

Yeah - got told the same. Only a few places have any stock left, and thats odd sizes (ie 19s, 20s etc). Stock apprently due when they fill the container and ship it over - late March im told

Ok - looks like the tyre fitters cant get hold of the Toyos for a good price, and they cant get the Vredsteins at all So, im getting the rears swapped for 452s later this week. £240 fitted, balanced etc. So not that much more than Camskills. The fronts are due in stock in March. I have 3mm + of tread left on the front Toyos, so they should be fine until March. Will just have to take it easy with the mix of patterns front/rear until the fronts can be fitted If anyone knows of anywhere with stock of the 452s (225/45/R18) do let me know lol Cheers

I came from the Bridgestones Mikey (with hard sidewall) and found that i was experiencing side-wall flex at higher cornering speeds with the Toyo's (car felt like it would slip momentarily part-way thru a bend). Other than that - great tyre. Interested to see what the Vredstein's are like - seem to be same price as the Toyo with a lot of people saying they prefer them to the Falkens and Toyos in terms of grip.

Just had a look at some pics of the 912s - they look awful. These cant be a replacement for the 452s....i reckon what ive been told about them being an ended line aint true. Looks like it will probably be the Sessantas.... Do these have a stiff(er) wall than the Toyo Proxes? Side wall flex was my only concern with the Toyos....took some getting used too even with 37psi to compensate.

Just got a call back from the Tyre/Alignment place. The 452s that i wanted aren't available - they can get the rears but not the 225 fronts. They DO have the newer 912s in stock (same price i think). These are supposedly the same compound and are *allegedly* replacing the 452s....anyone got any info on these tyres at all...any good?

Sounds about right Chris. I nearly bought a Honda S2000 a few years back instead of the Zed. It was a great car to drive, but the lack of any T/C on older models, and the fact that Honda consider 1L of oil per 1000 miles to be 'acceptable' kinda put me off. I drive fairly high miles each year (mainly for pleasure!) and the thought of checking the ruddy oil before each drive was a no-no for me. Cracking car to drive though ! I think i get through about 400ml of oil between 5k services on my Zed. Roughly a quarter of the dipstick...but the dipstick is probably lying to me. I bet it's not drinking any oil at all, just hiddng it on the crappy dipstick

Paid 68 quid for the GEO setup. Cant do anything on the camber of the fronts as expected. (currently at 1.4 degrees, with the specs says between 0.1 and 1.2 - so not terrible). Toe was the issue on the fronts - should have been 0.00 to 0.05 degrees. Mine was out at -0.10 ! Big difference! Now set at 0.04 on both fronts. Rears were cambered out too much - were at 2.20 degrees. Now at 2.02 degrees (1.05 to 2.05 range) Toe was out at the rears too. 0.16 and 0.13 respectively. Now set at 0.08 (0.03 to 0.06 range) So these are MUCH better than before now too. Looks like potholes have caused most of the issues i have had with Geometry...toe has been affected the worst. Nottingham Laser Alignment were great - bloke took me thru to his computer in the workshop and showed me the Nissan specs, digital readout of my current settings etc. Very eye opening ! They are based near the County Ground. Had to laugh as my car was being backed out - bloke was blipping the throttle a little bit cos the Cobra exhaust sounded so awesome in the workshop. A chap who owned a Scooby had just turned up and was craning his neck to see the source of the noise

I thought centring the steering wheel was supposed to be aprt of the GEO setup? Or am i wrong..? Bloke at the Alignment place reckons it's toe-ing out, thus scrubbing the inner walls a little. I might get away with saving the fronts if the 3mm of tread is across more than 60% of the tyre. (At a glance, it looks like 80% is at 3mm with the inner edge worn away. Cant see any cords, and looks like there is plenty of rubber left, just no tread pattern at the edge). Having said that, i recon 400 quid(ish) fitted for 4 Falken 452s is probably something i will sort next week - better to have the grip from same-set tyres, rather than mix new rears with part-worn fronts i guess ?

Booked into Notts Laser Alignment near the County Ground at 1pm tomorrow. The lads are going to sort the GEO while i wait Will soon see if i need the Falken's urgently or not. I'll try to get some pics of the scrubbing too - note to all, get your GEO checked every 10k miles. Dont forget like i did

Cheers Chris. I experienced the squishy tyrewall problem with the Toyos - been running them at 37psi to counter this a little. Anyone know if the Falkens are worse/as bad ? Im running 25mm lowered suspension on the car - all sorted at ESR 18 months ago. Been thru the last set of fronts and rears with no wear issues. They were totally even across all 4 tyres. The lads at ESR sorted the camber and toe really well. I suspect this is a toe/alignment issue. I probably should have had it re-checked 6 months ago doh!

Front tyres both scrubbed on inside wall - they need replacing. Front left is ok to swap for the right, but the right is totally illegal. Zero tread left on the inside wall, but just a few cm's towards the centre there is an even 3mm + of tread right across the tyre. It has shaped the inside of the tyre too its that bad - god knows how i haven't spotted this ! *Looks* like the dreaded tyre feathering that plagued older Zeds....although im running Toyo's not RE040's ! Im getting the car down to Notts 4 wheel laser alignment near the County ground (printed the GEO settings off this site - cheers! ), then will order 4 new Falken 452 tyres (i was about to replace the rears anyway as thay are close to 2mm). Im running Toyo's but i cant stretch to four new Proxies, so the Falken 452s will hopefully be a close equivalent? Camskills want a total of £394 delivered for the four Falkens. The Toyos work out about a hundred quid more. The Bridgestone RE050A (350z spec) run to nearly 600 quid ! So i'll go with the Falkens and (if Notts laser Alignment are decent for the alignment) i will get the new tyres shipped there for fitting. They have one of those new automatic tyre removal machines...so no scuffing of the RAYS. Somebody shout if the Falken's are sh1te

I ordered from Camskill and then got them fitted at Extra Grip Ltd in Notts (NG7 2GA). Tenner per corner to fit and balance. I run 18" RAYS so i could fit a tyre in behind the rear strut and one on the passenger seat lol

Ditch the Bridgestones 040's - utterly awful tyre for the UK. Far too hard a compound - you get loads of miles from them but they take an age to warm up and never really felt good in the wet to me. I swapped for (cheaper!) Toyo Proxies T1R's and they offer loads more grip in both dry and wet conditions. A little sidewall flex mind, but a few extra psi in the tyres lessened this for me. Others on here recommend the Falken 452's aswell. Or, if you feel flush, Michelin Pilot Sports are (so say those who use them,) the best tyre for the 350z.

I got 'matched' from a standing start thru to 70mph the other day by a bloke in a Crysler 300cc..... i was a little gutted until i let him charge ahead from 70, and saw the 5.7 HEMI badge on the back

Bloody loud ! Very good exhaust but it's not quiet. Marzman bought mine after i swapped it for a *slightly* quieter one from Exhausts UK. I would have kept it, but the neighbours were starting to frown lol I remember coming home from my folks on the A500 towards Stoke. Had the gf with me, and was tootling at about 70 in 4th. Two blokes on very fast bikes pulled up along side me, and both of them pointed to the exhaust, then cupped a hand to the side of their helmet, then gave me the thumbs up! I almost got a round of applause at 70mph when i dropped the cutch and revved the engine lol

Only when lowering - i dont think the spacers will do much other than improve the 'look' and give you an extra 40mm of track (extra cornering grip). The lads at ESR were able to adjust my OEM camber link-arms to within tolerance levels. Tyre wear has been totally even these last 18 months, with two sets of tyres both showing even wear after 10k + miles. I think if you go lower (30m+) you are probably gonna have to change the OEM camber arms for better aftermarket ones that will allow a proper geo setup. Someone more knowledgeble than me will post up in a bit i reckon (cue Martinmac and his slammed 350z)

Just got the annual renewal from Flux. I went with them last year after A Plan put their premiums up year-on-year and (despite being with them for 4 years) wouldnt go lower than 600 quid. Flux insured me for 530 last year, Now they want almost 600 quid.... ... so i called them. They refused to budge. So i called A Plan and got a 'new' quote of 530ish (less than my renewal last year - how does that work i wonder?) I called Flux back to tell them to bogoff, only to be told they would match the quote. No dice I said, you need to make it worth my while after all this phone aggro.. ...so Flux dropped the price to 499 fully comp, protected no claims etc etc ! And the lesson from all this: Insurance companies would rather rip-off existing customers and offer 'new' customers a better deal. Shop around people, it's worth a few calls ! EDIT - for what it's worth, both A-Plan and Adrian Flux have recieved nothing but praise from people who have had to make claims. Both really good insurers...but a shame that it needs the customer to make the effort to get prices dropped

25mm drop all round on Eibach Pro Springs. 20mm Eibach hubcentric spacers. I've run this setup for 18 months after getting it sorted at ESR. Only drawback is 'tall' sleeping policemen - but i have only had a few scraps Oh - get the camber re-set once its lowered, otherwise your tyres will wear abnormally and you will lose grip when cornering etc.

What was that ? A HDEV Stage 1 chip for the 350z ?? Where do i sign up !?

M64 4xxx - noticed you coming out of the rounda by the BP garage, left onto the A50. Saw the hazards come on so i reckon you saw me Ran with you up to the A38 turnoff. Horrendous weather conditions

1. Beavis: Deluxe Room 22nd (Wood) 2. Ebized: Deluxe Room 21/22/23rd (Chandler) 3. Rich5259: Deluxe Room 21/22nd (Brown) 4. DawnC: Deluxe Room 21/22/23rd ( Cowe ) 5. Shire: Deluxe Room 21/22/23rd (Chapman) 6. Nixy: Double Room 22nd (Pattison) 7. Markie: Double Room 22nd (Colyer) 8. Greekman: Deluxe Double!! Room 21/22nd (Ziaras) 9. Chris`I: Deluxe Room 21/22/23rd (Ingram) 10. Anubis: Double Room 22nd (Aitken) 11. Lincolnbaggie: Deluxe room 21/22/23rd (Neil Morris) 12. fakeindian: Deluxe room 22nd (Neil Shannon) 13. AK350Z: Deluxe Room 22/23rd (Kirkby) 14. H5: Double Room 22nd (Pears) 15. DontPanic (Dave): Standard Room 22nd 16. Vik54: Double 21/22/23rd (Long) 17. BulletMagnet (Mark): Deluxe Room 21st/22nd/23rd 18. Rtbiscuit + mrs biscuit: Deluxe Room 22nd (Thompson) 19. JT1703 : Deluxe Room 21st/22nd/23rd (Turner) 20. martinmac: Deluxe Room 21st/22nd (MacDonald) 21. eddz350: Deluxe Room 22nd (Tittensor) 22.SwanageDave 21st 22nd and maybe 23rd Deluxe (Dave Ogden) 23. Andyvvc + Lydia: Deluxe Room 21st and 22nd (Barraclough) 1. husky: Kennel 22nd

They *look* like a good idea. I may invest in a pair for the rears to see if they allow the Zed to get more rear traction in snow. I've not had any steering issues yet - but getting any rear power/traction in certain snow conditions is almost impossible in the Zed or should that be ?

Yeah only the rear pipes, not the full system. iirc the rear sections simply cut off and alternate pipes/tail pieces can be welded on.