austin

Hi guys, long time no posts though i have been following.. anyways i thought i'd share my experience with Admiral and my collision (it wasnt even an accident) some half a year ago. 25 July, 1030pm, clear conditions, on a big, 3 lane roundabout a focus in my right rear corner decided he wants to take an exit from the most inside lane (i was on a middle lane going and marked! straight on) completely through my car. obviously ended up with a dent right behind the wheel arch and about 50cm scratch. pulled over, took some photos, straight away he starts to shout i drove into him (im still quite curious how, i would have to be going sideways and in reverse). Passing police noticed parked cars, they pull over, ask if there are any injuries, answer is no so they are like 'ok, exchange insurance details and be on your way'. quite a wtf moment for me. 6 months later the guy still claims i drove into him and also claims whiplash. funny thing is if there's anyone to claim whiplash it should be me, except damage is so minimal that if i didnt see his banged up focus parked in my side in my mirror i would have thought i drove over a banana skin or something :/ Admiral in their radiant wisdom say there isn't enough evidence to make his, may i add totally bogus, claim go away and so they have suspended 3 out of 4 years of my ncb and want to settle on 50/50. now im considering ways to proceed. has anyone been in similar situation and used some independent specialists? im thinking accident damage assessment company, expert witness etc etc etc. unfortunately there was no cctv from the scene (how typical there isnt a camera when you need it and there are normally 5 every 100 meters everywhere else). suggestions welcome thx aus

Best of both worlds - Berks HFCs. MOT pass, better noise, less rasp, more mid-range torque as opposed to high end power with decats. aus

And in plain english? More importantly, do you predict it being a costly fix?

Hey guys, my Z seems to have developed a weird buzzing noise. It's a bit like these philips sonic electric toothbrushes or an electric shaver i guess. It's only there when engine is running and seems to be coming from the back of the engine bay, i'd say more driver than passenger side. It's quite irregular and only heard on idle/low speeds as not that loud (yet..). Perhaps it sounds familiar to anyone, any ideas will be much appreciated. Cheers, aus

You know guys, I'm so tired of all this constant blame game. Speeding, killing, speeding, killing. I'd really like to see the police give fines and points as often and as freely to drivers who hog fast lanes, not indicate, use wrong lights which create glare, cut in with no room for cutting in, use side mirrors for god knows what etc. Bottom line is we all speed at times and yer, if caught we just gotta suck it up and pay. What I can't take anymore is putting equals sign between doing 10mph over and going for a shooting rampage in an orphanage. Inconvenient truth is its not the speed that kills but lack of skills and responsibility. Skills necessary to control 1.5 ton pile of metal. Perhaps if driving instructors in this country were qualified and experienced enough, training a bit more thorough and tests slightly more challenging so that it takes higher IQ level than 20 to pass it, maybe then there would be less teenagers taking 40mph bends at 70 and rolling their cars. Maybe additionally to annual MOT, drivers should be taking reflex and concentration tests. I don't think it would be a bad idea to tighten drink-driving laws either. The way I see it the country which according to the government has a binge-drinking problem having practically the highest blood alcohol level allowance for drivers in whole of Europe is downright ridiculous: 0.0 mg per ml – Estonia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary 0.2 mg per ml – Norway, Poland, Sweden 0.4 mg per ml - Lithuania 0.5 mg per ml - Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany (Germany is 0.3 if you’re in an accident), Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus (North) 0.8 mg per ml – UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Switzerland 0.9 mg per ml - Cyprus (South) Yeah, maybe then the beloved death-on-roads statistics would change. Hey, we might even see changes in insurance premiums. There, rant over. Ugh

Thanks gents. It may have resolved itself as after driving for a bit today i can no longer hear said sound. On top of that just had MOT done and except for almost illegal rears everything is ace. Think I'll go do Alex's bed-in procedure tonight, however living in London I'll wait until 2-3am so i can find a quiet a-road haha aus

Was planning to but this sound kinda freaked me out - i dont want a wheel to come off at 70mph lol

Hey guys, just had a first drive since had new discs and pads fitted and I can't help but thinking something's wrong. There's no vibration under braking or otherwise, but now and then I could hear quite loud sound like quick knocking? Hard to describe, but it sort of resembled the sound of a flat tyre i guess. I'm quite worried as I have no clue what that might be - I checked wheel nuts and caliper bolts are tight to manufacture's torque setting. Any advise will be much appreciated, cheers aus P.S. Two yellowstuff pads came with these metal 'nipples' on one side, should these be inner or outer side of caliper?

Well I didn't want to spend too much and still have decent quality. Did consider DBA 4600 but since lots of people here tried them and were happy and I haven't seen anyone going for these I chose brembos. Reputable company so hopefully I'll be happy with them. Worst case scenario I'll switch to DBAs and at least you guys know what to avoid (touch wood lol)

Fitted this morning. First wheel took me forever, about 2 hours, cause to be honest I was quite scared and didn't really know what I was doing. Other wheel was a 15 minute job. I'm soo excited as i think they look ace. Just a tech question to some of you Zed Gurus The yellowstuff pads came pre-bedded, so should I still follow the bedding-in procedure posted by Alex? Alsooo noticed the pads I took out were ebc redstuff so really curious how much difference in stopping power I'll notice aus

UK GT cars do come with brembo setup indeed, however there's always room for an upgrade There are brembo discs and there are other brembo discs (like in any other company i guess).

Got them from LK Performance. Decent guys, prompt, free delivery (discs + pads) by courier. Discs £350, pads standard price which was something short from £80. Can't wait to fit them! Originally was thinking about EBC turbo groove, as my budget for this month didn't predict new brakes lol but decided against after reading quite a lot or mediocre or downright negative opinions. So I've upped the price to around £350 to choose between DBA and Brembos and here we are. Hope they'll perform as good as they look

Yah, that's what i was quite curious about. There's quite a big price difference between HEL and Goodridge and I must say I struggle to understand what's so different about them?

Yup, Brembo sport brake system. Couldn't decide on drilled or slotted so like a true blonde i am i've decided for the cooler looking ones lol. I didn't get them from Alex, as PF setup he suggested is unfortunately above my budget for the time being. Rears are still fine so won't bother for now. Just thinking about goodridge lines next month, before i do 2800mile euro run lol

I think last time i was so excited was the day of picking up the Zed. Call me crazy but this car makes me feel 8 years old all the time haha. aus

Ugh, just like de-cats fail MOT. It won't stop people from changing them back to normal for once-in-a-year test

Oh why why why isn't it the N2

Looks ace. Kuro ftw

All xenon headlights must have auto leveling mechanism, thats to prevent much stronger glare with wrong angle setting (thats why if it was up to me I would made all cars with cheap aftermarket bullshit HID kits illegal). That said, apparently there is a way to adjust the angle manually. To be honest I have exactly the same feeling, a bit disappointed with mine, i think it might be the design of the headlight that is responsible. Facelift zeds' lights improved quite a bit aus

Yup, thanks for input Will. I'm no stranger to German driving, in fact this is where I took advanced driving training after coming to Europe. Still think it's the best and most relaxing country to drive - easily prefer to cover 1000km there than 300 here, no offense to anyone.

yeah i hear ya, suddenly little wonder half of surrey owns SUVs with 2 meter clearance

thats cool to be assured. With distances I cover in Zed day to day its impossible to guess cause theres not enough steady motorway cruise (that is something i must yet see in the UK lol) and wayy too much London/getting to/going around M25 lol

Haha, i guess it all does come down to speed. It won't be my first - last time I drove to Munich it was in a T5 volvo c30 and not being sluggish at all I still averaged short of 36mpg.. that with doing quite a few miles at 120+. Whats funny with daily driving I notice little difference between said turbo'ed c30 and zed in fuel consumption, hence my question. Probably steadish 80mph is what it will come down to especially as france, holland, belgium, austria, switzerland and italy all have similar speed limits.

Hiya I am yet to take a (very) long drive in my Zed, hence question to those of you who've done it. What sort of average mpg will I be looking at? I'm planning on driving down to Munich, then Milan and back to London, so it would be mostly motorways along with some mountains. Is aiming at ~30mpg being overly optimistic? German autobahns still mostly limit free but generally at reasonable speeds of 70-80-90mph Thanks aus

Aye, thanks for all the input gents, as predicted I'm no closer to deciding aus