MattG

Booked my car in with WGT Auto Developments ( http://www.wgtautodevelopments.co.uk/ ) last week for the following: 1. Engine Oil Change 2. Gearbox Oil Change 3. Diff Oil Change 4. Brake Fluid Change 5. Brake Pad Change 6. Skim brake discs with Pro Cut On Car Brake Lathe 7. Re-balance all 4 wheels All parts and fluids were provided by me. I have to say they did all of the jobs quickly and efficiently and I was very impressed with the service. Finally after 3 years of ownership I've found a garage that can properly look after my Z! If anyone else in the North West is looking for a decent performance specialist I would highly recommend WGT. The only downside with them is that their labour rate is quite high for a Northern garage (£60 p/h + VAT), but given the "fun" I have had with cheaper garages I would say you get what you pay for!

There are two things I have done which have vastly improved the gearchange on my Z: 1. Fitted a heavier gearknob. This made the biggest difference. "KTA" on here makes some very nice items out of stainless steel and I can safely say it made a huge difference to the quality of the gearshift. Some of the purists may say that you're losing some "feel" too but if that "feel" is horrible and notchy that's a win in my opinion! When I changed the gearknobs I was surprised to feel how heavy the standard one is so make sure you go for something really heavy like a KTA stainless to get the improvement. 2. Switched my gearbox oil to Amsoil. Not the most trendy of oils I know but it really does make a noticable improvement to the 350Z shift. I switched to the Nissan/molyslip combo a while ago to try that but I instantly found the gearshift worse and also got a disconcerting humming noise from my gearbox when really cold (5C or below). It went away once warmed up (after a mile or two) but it still freaked me out a bit! I had the gearbox oil changed back to Amsoil last week and my gearshift is much better again now and no more humming noise. Gearbox oil is about the only area where I differ with Alex's recommendations. He's a top bloke and has been very helpful in providing me with parts and advice (and decimating my bank account! ). If he can't supply the Amsoil then you can get it from Opie Oils, just let me know if you want a link.

There are two things I have done which have vastly improved the gearchange on my Z: 1. Fitted a heavier gearknob. This made the biggest difference. "KTA" on here makes some very nice items out of stainless steel and I can safely say it made a huge difference to the quality of the gearshift. Some of the purists may say that you're losing some "feel" too but if that "feel" is horrible and notchy that's a win in my opinion! When I changed the gearknobs I was surprised to feel how heavy the standard one is so make sure you go for something really heavy like a KTA stainless to get the improvement. 2. Switched my gearbox oil to Amsoil. Not the most trendy of oils I know but it really does make a noticable improvement to the 350Z shift. I switched to the Nissan/molyslip combo a while ago to try that but I instantly found the gearshift worse and also got a disconcerting humming noise from my gearbox when really cold (5C or below). It went away once warmed up (after a mile or two) but it still freaked me out a bit! I had the gearbox oil changed back to Amsoil last week and my gearshift is much better again now and no more humming noise. Gearbox oil is about the only area where I differ with Alex's recommendations. He's a top bloke and has been very helpful in providing me with parts and advice (and decimating my bank account! ). If he can't supply the Amsoil then you can get it from Opie Oils, just let me know if you want a link.

Mine did this after being stood for a couple of months in the bodyshop when it had it's respray. It went away again after a few weeks of use so fingers crossed it's just that.

Mine did this after being stood for a couple of months in the bodyshop when it had it's respray. It went away again after a few weeks of use so fingers crossed it's just that.

No problem mate, you can only go off your own experience. If L&G have done the business for you in the past then why wouldn't you recommend them? Regarding the diff oil, I would definitely recommend you take your own. The issue arose because the bottle for the Nissan oil for our VLSDs use says on it "Not to be used when a Nissan genuine LSD fluid is required", i.e. if you have a Nissan 4x4 which needs proper LSD oil. L&G were not aware of this, presumably they have never seen a bottle of the genuine Nissan oil for our VLSDs?! The weird thing is, they wanted about £6 per litre for their LSD oil and the proper Nissan 4x4 stuff is around £120 for 5 litres so I have no idea what they are using. Whatever it is, they confirmed to me that they have used it in other 350Z owners cars so if anyone has had their diff oil changed by L&G they probably need to find what out they have used. Glad you got on well with Tim, he's a top bloke and has never let me down and he's done a LOT of work for me, my family and friends over the years.

I'm amazed to see all these positive reviews for these guys! I had my Z in with them in June and they didn't impress me at all! Was slightly hesitant to post this given all the positive feedback but for the sake of balance here goes... Issues: 1. Replaced brake fluid but didn't bleed brakes properly leaving me with a dangerous car with a brake pedal that went to the floor and was incapable of doing an emergency stop. They knew it wasn't right but instead of telling me they needed the car longer to try and sort it they tried to give it me back saying that it was just due to the hygroscopic nature of brake fluid and it would sort itself out in a few days! Suffice to say I told them to take it back and do it properly, which to their credit they did, they are about 90% right now. Not happy with the incompetence or initial attempt to pull a fast one! 2. Told me the diff oil I'd supplied was incorrect and tried to sell me theirs. Double checked with ZMANALEX, my oil was correct, theirs wasn't. Makes me wonder what the hell they are putting in members cars who don't supply their own fluid! 3. Asked them to replace my wing mirror glass as mine was cracked and the heating element had stopped working. They replaced the glass but the heating element still didn't work. When I investigated a couple of months later I found they hadn't connected the two power connections to the back of the glass. 4. They were supposed to fit 4 new exhaust gaskets for me but only fitted two. I had to get them to fit the additional gaskets when the car went back in to have the brakes fixed. So overall not an experience I intend to repeat! Still, at least they were prepared to correct most of their mistakes which is something I suppose. They aren't alone though, I've yet to find a garage I've been 100% happy with and I've had the Z 3 years in Jan! Going to try WGT Auto Developments next week as they did some good work on my MX-5 in the past so fingers crossed they'll do a decent job with the Z too!

I got one made for me by JP Exhaust in Macclesfield and it's PERFECT! Nice and quiet when cruising and sounds just right when giving it some. Excellent build quality and fitment too. Probably about the best aftermarket exhaust I've ever bought, and I've bought about a dozen for various different cars over the years! They used my car as a template for creating an off-the-shelf system and this can now be bought directly from JP without needing to visit them. It's around £600 IIRC. It's a Y-pipe based setup with 2.5 inch Y sections and a 3 inch mid section. JP will make the system with a silenced or straight through mid pipe. If being too noisy is a concern then I would recommend the silenced mid pipe. I tried both configurations and whilst the straight mid pipe did sound amazing it's a bit on the loud side for day-to-day driving so I went back to the silenced mid pipe. JP reckon the silenced mid pipe won't reduce performance as it's more of a muffler wrapped around the mid pipe rather than a restriction in the pipe, if that makes sense! The one downside with their system is that they don't seem to provide gaskets with it but use some sort of sealant to seal the joins which isn't great IMO. I just bought 2 x 2.5 inch gaskets and 2 x 3 inch gaskets off a supplier on Ebay and used those instead to get a better seal. The only thing I would add to the above is that I have a bit more sound proofing than stock as I've got some Dynamat Xtreme in the rear of the car (for the ICE) but I've also got some Ultimate Racing Ceramic HFCs too which probably evens things out in the noise stakes. JPs web site is: http://www.jpexhausts.co.uk/index.asp HTH

I've got a set of painted 06+ headlights fitted to my Z. Me and a mate used a head gun to get them apart as neither of our ovens were big enough. To be honest the heat gun would be my prefered method anyway, at least then you're only heating up the bits you need to heat, an oven is a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut IMO. Just keep the gun moving and go around the whole edge of the casing. After around 5 minutes of this the sealant goes very gooey and you can then start to pull the lights apart. An extra pair of hands to help heat up / cut any stubborn bits of sealant really helps here. Once they were apart we disassembled them and I gave the plastic pieces to the bodyshop for painting. I went with the same gloss black as my wheels, door handles, etc for most of the bits, but did the central plastic piece around the projector lens in Audi Ibis White to match the paintwork of my car. The bodyshop loved me for asking them to paint that bit! I'd really recommend shelling out the money to get the headlight bits painted properly, the finish on the gloss black pieces was well worth the extra dosh and the piece of mind of knowing the paintwork will last without bubbling etc is nice. You don't want to have to split the buggers again if you can help it! Whilst they were apart I also added some Sti clear projector lenses (i.e. non-fresnel type for sharper beam cutoff) and some new 5000K Morimoto headlight bulbs. Once that was all done we reheated and cleaned out all of the old sealant leaving a nice clean channel for the lens to sit in and then added all new sealant, a bit more heat and then gave them a good squeezing together. We then put some clamps on them and left them to cool off for an hour or so before refitting. Oh, and make sure you don't forget to reconnect the 4 orange marker LEDs on one of the headlights or you'll have to split it and reseal all over again!! I'm really pleased with the end result, it's totally transformed the look of the front on my 53 plate Z and was well worth all the effort. They've been fitted for about 3 or 4 months now and there's been no fogging up whatsoever. I don't have any pics at the moment but when I give the car a good clean over Xmas I'll get some taken. Regarding CinCity, I've been seeing bad feedback on them for years on My350Z. I've seen reports of long delays, bad workmanship and people not getting their lights back so I would definitely avoid them at all costs. There really is no room for cutting corners on this job so you need to make sure you give it to a company you can trust. The only company that would ever get my lights and cash is ClearCorners. They're very expensive and you'll probably be waiting 3 months (or more) but their work is top quality. Having done the job myself I can see why they charge the prices they do. As others have said, if you get a company in the US to do this mod you'll have to send a set of UK spec headlights to them first which is another cost to consider, a set of headlights with all the required packaging is a BIG box.

Yeah, I don't mind, they're still getting the rest of the work anyway. I'd rather them be honest than have a go and bugger it up! Speaking of buggering things up, I've decided to have a go at fitting the suspension myself over the long weekend! Anyone know of any good guides with torque specs, etc?

Tried to get L&G to fit my KW V2s along with the other service work they're doing but they declined the job. I don't think they're too interested in fitting aftermarket stuff by the sounds of it. So not sure who to go with now. Wasn't impressed with TDI North's work so I shan't be going back there. Thinking maybe ABP are the guys to go with as I used them many years ago and found them to be ok. Or maybe I should just have a crack myself? Based on what I've read swapping suspension on the Z isn't that difficult really.

He's already said he's ordered new discs and pads?

Okey dokey, will do. I don't think TDI North have a proper alignment setup either, at least not last I heard. The only place I know of in the North West that are spot on with alignment is Nigel Lang's Garage in Bolton ( http://www.nigellangsgarage.co.uk/wheel_alignment.htm ). They're the only place in our neck of the woods that Tony at Wheels In Motion recommends anyway.

Had mine done gloss black with the rest of the respray and they've been fine for over a year. Repainting the handles in any colour makes them look 100% better as the finish on the stock ones isn't especially good. Once you get something glossy on them they really look the part.

What about Lockwood and Greenwood, can they do suspension fitting and 4 wheel alignments? I haven't used them myself yet but I'd heard they were good with all things Z related. I was thinking of using them myself for fitting my KW V2s. http://www.lockwoodandgreenwood.co.uk/7392/lockwood.htm

I've always used V-Power and never had more than 23mpg, with 22mpg being the average. I tried Tesco 99 and that was the same too. I've seen people saying they're getting close to 30mpg which amazes me, I can only assume they're being towed to work! You need to learn to carry speed/keep momentum and throttle control. Its constant stop-start and prodding the throttle that kills MPG I thought it was because I was beasting it everywhere?!

http://www.newcoatgarage.co.uk/ They did all the work on mine, including colour change respray, fitting a Nismo kit, blended rear spats, blended side skirts, resprayed my wheels in gloss black, etc, etc! They're not bargain basement, they just charge a fair price for an excellent job. Top bunch of lads, tell them Matt with the White 350Z sent you! And also tell them I'll be mithering them again soon for even more stuff!

I've always used V-Power and never had more than 23mpg, with 22mpg being the average. I tried Tesco 99 and that was the same too. I've seen people saying they're getting close to 30mpg which amazes me, I can only assume they're being towed to work!

I've got a Blueflame system that I was going to stick up for sale, but hadn't got around to cleaning it up and taking some pics. I've got two mid pipes with it, one with a silencer and one without a silencer, so you can tailor the sound accordingly. I just wanted something a bit more noisy (chavvy?! ), hence the sale. It's seen about 10 months use on my car from new. I was thinking £250 for it if you're interested? I'm based in Manchester but I'd be prepared to meet you somewhere halfway-ish for no additional cost provided you sent me the money up front. Otherwise postage would be on top and I assume it wouldn't be cheap. Let me know if you're interested and I'll get some pics taken asap and sent over to you. Mods: I hope this is ok, I just saw my opportunity and took it! If you want me to edit the post and send a PM instead let me know. Cheers, Matt.

I think this is a great idea, although having two dyno charts for the same car with the same mods (one with a SUL map, one with UL map) to show people how much they're losing by switching to UL would probably be needed to put people's minds at rest. I would expect a properly mapped car on UL might make the same as an unmapped stock car on SUL. Or is that wishful thinking?! Wow that's a lot of timing to lose! How long does this ignition trim last for? Is it just until you switch off the engine or until you reset the ECU? I'd hate to think that one crap tank of fuel on a hot day could put a huge hole in my map that requires a reset.

Abbey Motorsport for the South, RSTuning for the North.

Thanks for the feedback chaps, excellent service as usual! It's good to finally put this one to bed.

I keep seeing this stated on the forum but I asked Paul at RSTuning about this and he said it was a myth and he could see nothing in the software to suggest that the throttle opening was limited in the lower gears. I know there is a guy on this forum who has bought the Uprev software to tweak his own car and I seem to remember him saying the same thing too. If this is the case I think what people are perceiving as more throttle opening is just more torque and the fact that the throttle response, not opening, has been improved via tweaking the fly by wire throttle (like a D1 controller does). But on the flip side, Abbey's web site says this: http://www.abbeymotorsport.co.uk/site_flash/index3.html So really, what is the score with this?

For what it's worth, when my first MX-5 got written off the insurance company did send two guys out to come and inspect my car. They told me the visit was to assess the damage but I suspect they were checking for undeclared mods too (everything was declared though). They did ask me about the wheels but I was quick to let them know they were declared. They didn't mention the turbo conversion though! The fact that they didn't know what had actually been declared made me realise they probably didn't work directly for the insurance company and so didn't know my policy details. They were only there about 5 minutes and weren't especially thorough, they didn't even pop the bonnet IIRC. That's not to say other insurers wouldn't be though, but I was with Adrian Flux who are supposed to be pretty clued up on this stuff. I did wonder if it was going to get a more thorough going over at the salvage yard they were moving it it to whilst the claim was being dealt with. However, when the salvage guy came to take the car he told me that his daughter had an MX-5 and that most of the mods would "be on her car tomorrow". He obviously didn't realise that the car was still legally mine at that point and he was actually admitting to me he was going to steal from me! I used that little gem in a letter of complaint to ensure I secured a very fair settlement for my car! So in summary I would say you need to be careful about obvious stuff like wheels and bodykits, which to be fair attract only a small extra on your premium. For something like an Uprev remap I would think it virtually impossible to be caught. That said, if someone had been killed or seriously injured in my accident then things might have been very different. Regarding things like upgraded panel filters or brake discs and pads I'm not so sure. I mean, when most people put their "normal" cars in for a service with an independent garage, the garage will quite often use non-OEM air filters and brake pads/discs etc without telling the customer. So what's the difference with installing a Cosworth panel filter, given it will probably make no difference whatsoever to performance anyway? If anyone knows how insurance companies view this sort of thing I would be interested to know.