stubzie83

+1 I have Kumho KW27 Winter tyres on at the moment and they are very soft and the car does roll around a bit on the sidewalls especially with the milder temperatures recently. They always have grip though even though it doesn't always feel like it but there is the odd flick of the traction control light when I wouldn't expect it with summer tyres. I agree with Dblock that the tyres firm up and feel much better as the temperature gets down below 2-3 degress Celsius as that's what they're designed for.

+1 I have Kumho KW27 Winter tyres on at the moment and they are very soft and the car does roll around a bit on the sidewalls especially with the milder temperatures recently. They always have grip though even though it doesn't always feel like it but there is the odd flick of the traction control light when I wouldn't expect it with summer tyres. I agree with Dblock that the tyres firm up and feel much better as the temperature gets down below 2-3 degress Celsius as that's what they're designed for.

Remember it is winter and you're on Bridgestones The Bridgestones don't fair well in cold and damp conditions. I bought my car going into winter and found it very twitchy when the temperature dropped running standard sized Bridgestone RE040s. Come the spring and summer though the grip was immense even in the wet. You might want to wait until the weather gets warmer and drier until you pass judgement on the handling. I found the handling a bit scary in the winter on Bridgestones with lots of tramlining and a general feeling of instability above 50 -60 mph on straight roads. I also had the back end kick out a few times when I didn't expect it going around corners even though I was driving very carefully This led me to get some winter tyres for this year, but it has been fairly mild down South this winter so far There have been a few icy mornings though and the winters do feel good when it's really cold but the sidewalls are a bit soft so there is a touch of roll on the tyres compared with the bridgestones. Much more stable in the cold and wet conditions though. I would just say wait a bit before you go mad with changing the suspension as you might find it improves with the weather.

While working in Russia a few years back I was cheerfully informed that 15% of prescription drugs were counterfeit!! Fake Medicine If you want to see counterfeiting at it's most worrying then go to China. I when to Shenzhen a few times for work and the markets have pretty much anything you can think of in them but all counterfeit and cheap. The most worrying thing I saw were fake Arai motorcycle crash helmets which were a snip at £8! I'm not sure they would do anything for you in a crash though

Fitted the new discs and pads today and attached the runout gauge base to a jack stand. This seemed to have enough mass and stability to get the readings done. Managed to get the discs to 0.03mm runout on both sides after cleaning up the hubs so I'm happy for the moment.

+1 I also ordered winter tyres from MyTyres back in October. They came up as two separate orders and it was a bit confusing at first as they didn't process them at the same time. They did all turn up together though. Took just over a week as the tyres were shipped from Germany after a few days delay. I guess they were getting both sizes in stock so that they could send them out together so had to wait for one of the sizes.

Hi All, I'm going to be changing my front discs in the next week or so and want to check the disc runout to avoid any problems with DTV in the future. I have purchased a dial gauge with a magnetic base in order to measure the runout. I did a dry run last time I had the wheels off and the problem is that I can't find anything to attach the magnetic base to as all of the suspension and front axle parts seem to be aluminium. Does anyone know of any steel parts around there that I can attach my runout gauge to or do I need to find a big piece of steel to attach it to on the ground underneath to hold it steady? Cheers, Steve

Thanks for that. I'll be checking and possibly adjusting the headlight aiming. I've found that the level sensor is not mentioned in the 350z service manual as it is for US cars and they don't use this feature. However, the G35 with adaptive front lighting does have a height sensor and the service manual shows it as being attached to the near side rear suspension so mystery solved.

Hi All, I'm currently trying to make sure that my headlight alignment is correct as I'm finding the lights to be a bit dim at the moment. I would like to check the auto leveling sensor/mechanism just to make sure it's still attached and working properly but I can't find any information on where it is. I've been hinted that it connects to the near side rear suspension but other than that I'm not sure. Also does anyone know if there is also one on the front as a lot of other cars seem to have one on the front and the back? Cheers, Steve

air lock +1 When I did mine it was an absolute pain to get the air out of the heater matrix. I found the best method was to raise the front of the car up so that the radiator cap was above the air bleed valve. You can then force coolant into the heater matrix and the air eventually comes out of the radiator. It takes a while, a lot of massaging coolant hoses and a lot of cursing to get done.

Fronts are 18x8 Rears are 18x8.5 I believe that all of the Rays are these sizes. Having said that the standard 18" alloys are 18x8 all round but still use the same staggered tyre sizes as the Rays. The front and back wheels have different shaped lips on the rims to take the different sizes though.

Thanks for the responses. I will probably try and make sure that the alignment is correct although I didn't have my MoT that long ago and I would have thought that if the lights were too low they would have picked this up. Also nothing was said at the P3 service at the same time and I'm fairly certain that headlight adjustment is a service item. I found that the lights were a bit better last night. They immediately seemed brighter at switch on and looked whiter than on Monday night from outside when I pulled up at home. However, as soon as I get on a dual carriageway the throw still isn't that far or that bright. Not sure why the brightness and colour would vary from day to day unless the ballasts are on the way out but it seems unlikely that both would go at the same time. I might bite the bullet and replace the bulbs if the alignment is ok. I would also like to check the auto leveling sensor. I wasn't sure where it was but I'll have a look around the rear passenger drop link as was mentioned and make sure it is free to operate correctly. I'm assuming it's just an arm that connect between the suspension and the chassis to measure the amount of compression on the rear suspension due to weight in the boot and thus work out the angle of car.

This is what standard 18"s look like in anthracite on a gunmetal zed. I got these wheels for winter tyres and had them refurbed in anthracite as the they were all quite badly kerbed. They were painted then had clear powder coating over the top.

Yeah I think it said in the article I read that it's £3800 more than the megane 250 cup version

According to some car magazine reviews it costs the best part of £28k and only 500 will ever be made. Of those 500 only 50 are going to be sold in the UK so they'll be very rare. If you look at the Nordschliefe lap times the 2003 350z did it in 8:26 and I would guess the 370z is a couple of seconds faster so quite a bit faster over a distance than the Renault.

Anyone notice the Zed (rally car?!) crashing at about 3:10 in the November clip?

Hi all, I've noticed that my headlights seem to be really dim of late to the point where I can hardly see anything more than about 10ft in front of the car clearly. I'm sure they were much better not too long ago. I have had a search and realise that pre-facelift HIDs are not meant to be great and that adjusting the angle can help, but I'm sure the bulbs are on the way out. I've been in a lot of other cars recently (all with halogens) and they seem to throw out much more light than my zed. Even my GFs Mini with standard halogens seems to have much better lighting! When I start up the lights they have a very green hue initially and take about 30secs to a minute to warm up and change to a whiter light. I'm sure they used to be quicker to warm up and didn't have a green tint before. Also from outside the car the lights appear very yellow from head on whereas they were more white not that long ago. They do seem quite bright when reflecting off my garage wall though from a couple of feet away but just don't throw out light when on the road. So would this mean that new bulbs are in order? They seem to have deteriorated very quickly as they were much better just a few weeks ago. Any other recommended things to check? Cheers, Steve

Yes they were the standard fit wheels on pre 06 cars (rays were optional) and have the correct offset and clear the Brembos. I bought a set myself for winter and swapped them for the Rays and they are absolutely fine just a lot heavier. This is a good price as I paid £570 just for a set of the Kumho KW27 winter tyres and had to buy the wheels on top of that.

Crazy. On the second page there's even a guy who signed up to the forum just to so that he could make a pi$$ take remark. Very funny though if the guy was actually serious.

You don't need red ones as the original bulb is white. I tried led stop/tail bulbs before and found that there wasn't a great amount of difference in brightness between the tail light and when the brakes were applied. The original dual filament bulb seemed much better so I left them in as I thought it was safer.

Was on my way back to my gf's house in her mini when I saw this one. Had an aftermarket exhaust which sounded really good when they ripped it off from the traffic lights. Would quite like to know which one it was.

I saw some of these on a brown mini clubman the other day in Sainsbury's Horsham car park and they looked awful :yuck

BOOM HEADSHOT!

Yeah they came out a lot better than I thought. Might get my Rays done whilst they're off the car as they're all looking a bit bubbly here and there. They were only refurbed just before I bought the car just over a year ago as well

Here's mine just fitted: Standard 18"s finished in anthracite with a powdercoated finish. Got them done at Wheel Works in Crawley. Tyres are Kumho I*ZEN KW27.