GT4 Zed

Hi Jez nice to chip in Wrt binding as i mention in my post it was very slight and at the ragged edges of grip. I donot know your set up but with 265 and 295 MPS 2 rubber providing grip and KW var 3 setup for track day and a 14" anchors i can safely say any shortcoming in you suspension will show up. Secondly as said not very many really track their zed or take it to the limits here so it will never be an issue. the same will apply to any other bush swap leaving the rest stock Anyway for the first time i felt i was actually pushing close the limits of the MPS 2 just because i had so much confidence from the consistence and firmness that i could now feel in front due to the supepro compression bush and it is in the context and at the very limit of grip (or my talent) that i felt a very slight bind which I repeat could be expected and only highlights how good the urethane bush is wrt to OEM rubber and that in my case or infact any serious trackday zedder will have to go the whole hog with superpro or any urethane bush or even solid bushes to achieve the perfect matched setup..........................It will be expensive but i feel worth it if it means getting more out of you suspension and tyres as opposed to the very expensive modes we often get which bring little to the table I would look forwards to your impressions when you get the remainder of the front done as i will only get to do mine at the month end now unless you want to give me a set to review

As promised here with some pics fitting the Superpro banana or compresion arm bush and a little review after a prolobged road test todays when the sun was up Will continue to update this thread as i fit more bushes from superpro. My final intent is to convert every bushe to urethane for the full benefits New superpro urethane bushes Pre-fitting assembly Removing the OEM rubber bush. Need to remove the brace first. See the damaged bushes Pressing in the new bush using lube provided Arms reinstalled on the car My mate Carl(garage owner) posing He is ex-nissan mechanic and a petrolhead and very handy with bikes or sidecars which he races. I would recommend him to fellow westmidlanders for MOT, Service or swapping parts supercompetitively. He will also let you get your hands dirty Now for some pointers:-Plan ahead to do this bush swap and generously douse all the nuts to be removed with WD40 or similar because you will be amazed at how frustrating it is to removed a coroded nut -I would recommend Superpro urethane bushes but any choice of bush will be better than a torn OEM one! -check the ball joint for excessive play especially axially. See the FSM for torque specs. -Use a wire brush to remove all corosion were possible and apply copper grease generously. - You need to compress the banana arm when removing the ball joint nut if not it wil just keep spinning on itself and may damage the ball joint. - A bit of gentle heat on the ball joint nut (does not need to get red hot as the heat may travel up into then joint and damage the seat within) with a hand held butane torch can majorly help to free up a stubborn ball joint nut. - Buy new ball joint nuts as its likely the old ones will be coroded and worn from the battle to get them out Also get ball joint seats(cones) if you are replacing the whole arm to as you will not be able to pull off the old ones without a special tool. - You will need an alignment after this or atleast a check to make sure its all as desired. - Use the opportunity to inspect the whole underside of the car and do TLC repairs as required. I changed my exhaust gaskets and nuts to cadium-plated ones which should resist corrosion better than SS nuts and bolts and prevent blowing in near future. -you can save money by taking out the arms yourself and just take to a garage them to be pressed out and in or otherwise buying arms with bushes of your choice already pressed in and selling yours or as exchange. Review Before the swap i knew my banana bushes were done; through a combination of running low ride height, stiff and aggressive setup and trackwork but also from the clunking and vague unpredictable steering feel and exagerated tramlining to even some suspension bind going round tight corners especially at entry or mid corner. This was confirmed after visual inspection and when i got the OEM bushes out so no surprise there. Note: i would never demonstarte excessive play so this is not reliable you need to get underneath and close to the bushes to see what is going on. Also even though the banana bush is the usual culprit the transverse link bushes do perish to eventually and may need changing too.(see below) So i was expecting a transformed car atleast from the perspective of the front end feel. I took the car down my fav A road on the glorious sunny afternoon today and drove until brakes and tires where up to temp and let the beast rip full chat To start off with, coming off the ramp the clunking had disappeared which was just a fantastic feel but it was the handling that i needed to see ...........if it had improved. All i can say is the car has been transformed. No more clunks, no more vague steering feel, very good front end grip especially with sudden changes in direction, on long sweeping bends you just feel the tires digging in no fuss, no squeal, nothing just pure grip . i also noticed that the front just feels much firmer now. I pushed for about 15mins and things only felt better as the suspension settled in and the MPS2 warmed up to the task. The other noticeable thing was less obvious tramlining. I do have this and its an acceptable sacrifice IMHO in exchange for grip with running wide grip tires. I think the has lessened due to the noncompliance of urethane in noth primary and secondary axis unlike the mushiness you get with OEM rubber. The design of the superpro is very clever which the ring designed to allow for secondary axis movement as this would not be possible with a solid lump of urethane. Only a solid spehical joint will have similar or better degree of freedom and still be firm. At the end all the time under the car and struggling with removing the NS ball joint nut was all worth it and the actual swap itself takes less than an hour once all the nuts and bolts were off. Now before it sounds like there are no pitfalls, i found that the extreme limit (of my car and my talent ) there was some very slight suspension bind which is not unexpected as the soft OEM rubber bush on the transverse link(see pic below) cannot keep up with the stiffness of urethane and is now an obvious weak link. But TBH this was at the very limit and will not be an issue for DD or fast road which most people will not find these limits nor do they have their car setup to find. But for trackday officionados when only the best is good enough you will need to do all the Transverse link bushings(pictured) too to prevent this and have full dial up and consistency. Superpro parts no SPF3299K and SPF3298K Note: You may get suspension bind anytime you use any aftermarket uprated suspension parts (which have an unmatched performance window to OEM spec or if the car is excessively lowered hence exceeding the operation angles of the suspension design. Infact you can also get bind when swapping only some new OEM parts while the rest of the suspension parts on that axle have deteriorated. The way to cure or avoid this is to match all the bushes on the same axle which i intend to do anyway. Would i recommend this; i would say yes without question and would even go on to say its is a necessary mod premptively when you zed is beyond 30-40K miles because the OEM bushe will tear. It will tear too quicker if you track the car or it is lowered and especially if not brought back to specs with the right parts. I am sure i made the right choice not going for solid bush now as the bind would be more exagerated i feel and it is more costly to replace all the bushes with solid rose jointed once. Hope this helps those who are planning to do this mod Note: - I have some used banana arms with bushes already pressed out for sale as i did not need them as initially feared. Also have new cones to go with these and can press in new bushes of any choice for before shipping Look in the sale section. -Jez @ horsham developments is doing a 10% discount on these bushes at also reduce price than other Superpro retailers link: viewtopic.php?f=161&t=47391

Shame you couldn't make it down, had perfect weather all this week, hope it continues tomorrow and Sunday! On a side note, the owner of the Hotel An Der Nordschliefe has a black 370z convertible OZ i am there with you in spirit Post some pics and or vids please guys .

These were surplus to requirement when i swapped my torn OEM bushes to Superpro banana bushes. They are real hard to get and got these last preowned set from Zmanalex New ones are £360 from Nissan though i believe Alex sells them at a discount but you will save yourself a bundle here They are in good condition with minor cosmetic non-structural scrapes and dings as expected from Aluminum. The ball joint and ball joint boots are intact and in working order. I have 2 new cones(ball joint seats) from Nissan which cost £30 excl VAT . Save yourself a bundle off new cost price and get these delivered for £220. For an extra £20 i can press in your new bushes if you send them to me first, leaving you only the little task to fit these puppies when you get them. THESE NEED TO GO BY END OFF WEEKEND. If not i'll return then to Alex where you can always purchase them but i will think at greater cost as they are just so hard to find preowned as they get damaged in most front end crashes hence costantly increasing in value

Hope you guys have alot of fun Could not finish in time but git most of the big jobs done so wil all be worth it in the end! I will be aiming to come down this month end or next so watch this space.

Sneaky snake Have a good one

Yup as Ian said Archenemy did mine about 2 years ago for £80 inclusive of VAT for both rear arches. Its a mobile service and he drove to my house. Took under an hour to do the job;) The chap was from the oxford branch and covers the West midlands. I recommend their service. Book early as it they are advanced-booked by atleast a week

Have a look in the electrical index in the factory service manual. Link below and it covers every other thing about the zed http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/350Z/coupe/

Need to do the grill black too I'll loose the lines on the bumper and the line running down thenismo skirt too. Makes for a smoother look I'll put up pics of my skirts You worry too much about ride hight mate. Mine was 35mm before without too many issues. i just adjusted the suspension and ride height yesterday to matain the OEM front to rear height ratio and raised it my 3mm overall so will see what it is comes down to when its settled!

Its not unheard of that oil can spill out of the dipstick and a few have got this problem here in the past. Get a new stick and it is problem solved as it is likely that the fit is slack.

Ian its looking good. We all know the chargespeed rear is the dogs danglies anyway Nice combo with the nismo bumper and i hope you are using the nismo skirts Anyway i can't figure how you could not take skirts out was that before or after a few pints of the golden stuff If you would have picked up your phine i could have stopped to help

nice one guys I am yet to see that azure but will be looking out for it I will draft up plans/routes for a mini meet and see if we can make it happen. i already have a route in mind and nice pub with quiet car park just spread the news and look out for the thread wrt it.

Yup you got me mate This was today I have got friends in high places so parking is free You have the grey zed i see all the time right with the SPY no. plate right There's another kuro that recently joined the ranks so that makes about 7 zeds that i know of that live locally. Time for our own mini meet as we have abundance of roads and pubs in the outskirts

These look serious, are balanced quite light They should have the option of an underdriven main pulley for those who want to go all out

+1 i'm afraid

All the points husky made covers why the zed is heavy but if you put it in context with similar cars you then realise is not just the zed but the whole industry suffer from the same issues. then when you add all the GT parts(heated electric seats etc) plus the crash test regs it all adds up! The only other way to improve performance is more power but then you have emissions and consequently tax and insurance band issues which will make the car uncompetitive in the market so their hands are tied But it takes some sacrifice, systematic approach in modding to realise the full potential of the zed and that is the real appeal. Eg you could get a 2003 zed for 6-7 grand and throw £30k at it and end up with bespoke performance and handling etc humbling of cars x3 the price because even those so called top of the range car eg Porsche turbo, GT3 GT2 GT2 RS, GT3 RS etc by aftermarket companies because they have to make compromises. I for one feel the zed is one of my best motoring experiences so far (i have had a few) and by far the cheapest but the most i got involved hands-on, as opposed to paying for mods/work to be done and drive off with the results, My two TVRs in the past (Tuscan and Cerbera) come neatly second.

Guys its not looking good for me for this trip as i ran into some problems this weekend which was my only time available to swap out my bushes for Superpro items and a few other bits and bobs. There is still a faint chance left if i can swap out of my weekend shift this weekend and be able to complete the bushes swap, reset geometry and re flash my UTEC as i have fitted a ported manifold i got from the states, MREV2 and decats. The tune up is not imperative as i can use the OEM map but the suspension is a must. Fingers crossed and i will be there Anders how is your progress?

Happy retirement Dave Well done for putting up with us all this years

I have only used MPS2 N1 spec exlusively on the zed for almost 3 years now and used to do 34F 35R to dial out understeer but found out that if you inflate to 34 you get 33 and 35 give 34 so now i do 35R and 36R to end up with 34/35 However the ability to adjust my suspension means i have other strategies to achieve a neural ride or dial in under or oversteer I got some RO1 spec(audi RS and S cars spec) MPS2 for the front in 255/35/19 as i could not get my usual 265/30/19 and it should even perform better as it rated rated 96Y XL as opposed to 94Y XLfor the N1. The zed is heavier in front than the porkers and should be similar to the fast Audis

Has to be the ball joint on the compression/banana arm It is hard to demonstrate play in them easily and you get false reassurance on finding damaged banana arm bushes thinking you have found the problem to you clunking. But they can all coexist and i think they are all a continum of the same issue.....too many soft rubber OEM bushes perishing over time and allowing unwanted play and damage to suspension hardware I have just found this out meself this weekend trying to replace my perished OEM bushe with Superpro urethane ones and discovered that my drive side ball joint has play in it So I have gone from a planned routine bush swap to needing a pair of arms in case the PSis fooked too! One advice i will give anyone with worn banana arm bush is to act quickly and replace it with whatever choice of bush now available as any delay will eventually impact on the ball joint meaning you will need a new arm or used in good condition which are rare as hens teeth quoting Zmanalex Next affected will be the Transverse link arm(lower front control arm) inner bush, then drop link, then outer bush and possibly camber arm ball joint and bearing.... due constant dynamic geometry instability For your compresion arm bushes here again are the options - Superpro urethane bush - see Horsham developments - OEM rubber bush - see Zmanalex - SPL solid spherical bush - see Abbey I have my self to blame for waiting too long

Hoppy buffday Nix

Even porsche drilled disc crack with heavy track use but less so as they are quality disc. Long and short of the matter is you get what you pay for but i will think that the PF, DBA, stoptech or brembo GT rotors will be ok for normal DD and fast road use and short trackday stints. but TBH, I will spend my money on PF 01 pads or similar race compounds(if you can stand the dust and squeal), braided lines, Dot 5-1 fluid and OEM brembo disc, even brake stiffner and get the optimum perforance you can get out of OEM size discs at way less cost. OEM size Slots, drilled dimpled disc etc from above manufacturers will make little difference compared to the outlay. The 2-piece lighter disc will be marginally better but price?!!! It comes all down to the swept area by the pistons and total SA for heat dissipation amongst other things and you are not really changing these variable by getting fancy discs But if look is your thing then feel free..................

Got my Superpro banana arm bushes today and H-dev spacers for my custom plenum spacer. Thanks Jez for the quick service Also got a few other goodies; X2 front rubbers. 255/35/19 MPS2 off course . Could not get 265s from my usual stockist so this will have to do Got the D1 controller in case i can't fit the intake manifold and MREV2 in time for a UTEC retune. Should be getting ported intake manifold and the MREV 2 tomoro I have put the car on stands and preoiled all the nuts and bolts on the K-member in readiness for removal of the arms early tomoro. Then its off to get the OEM bushes pressed out and Superpro ones pressed in and refit the whole thing. The OEM bushes look very sorry as i already knew from the clunking they made and vague feel. I hope to do a step by step guide for those who want to DIY to save labour costs. And off course there will be a review Some pics: Nice little package with bushes, instructions and grease. Note right bush preassemled by hand. Feels nice and well engineered. H-dev spacers for strut brace and plenum pillars. I have needed these a long time to fit my custom plenum spacer correctly. i will get rid of the washers i had been using Husky i think you need this Everyone should have one of these as the basic minimum to improve throttle response. Don't know why i got rid of it before Jacked up. ready to go Yep! thats the bad boy. you can see there is a slight twist on the vertical axis i pried it with a metal bar and its all over the place Doused all the nuts and bolts with WD40 to soak overnight after wire brushing all the rust and grime! Might need a long breaker bar to avoid stripping nuts Superpro bushes line up for the zed and product codes. I hopeto swap all these eventually. More discounts should be handy

I had the opportunity to hear that exhaust when Phil dropped by It is awesome A cross between nismo and k-1 but very cultured sound . Alex, how do you get hold of some of these parts?