waltzinblack

In my most humble OPINION: For a Newbie to the Zed who is desperate to spend whatever it takes to get every ounce from an otherwise stock car/get the nose on their mate's Astra VXR in a traffic light GP, I would definitely agree with Ekona's advice. i.e. Just for acceleration you want new air filter/vel stack, as free flowing exhaust as possible, less weight wherever you can lose it (especially unsprung), and lightened fly, followed by Uprev. Yes this makes a 'difference' and it does make the car feel sharper. However, in my experience it really doesn't do a lot for tangible real world performance. And what it does do performance wise you could get from a RevUp Zed with all the other benefits they come with, that would probably cost the same amount more if you sold and bought again. You can perhaps justify the cost on your car by how nice a straight through exhaust on a Zed sounds, though. They are probably the best sounding N/A V6 after the Golf R32. If you want a real, noticeable improvement to acceleration that actually represents better value for money, save your money and turbo it/buy a turbo car. Your £2k fund that you'd need for the N/A mods would be FAR better spent on brakes, stiffer ARBs, polybushes in key areas and maybe stiffer springs. Spend whatever change you have on petrol to drive the 200 miles to a track to improve your skills and you will realise and enjoy the already strong acceleration a stock Zed has when driven hard. On good roads, you will enjoy and notice a better handling and stopping car for that money a lot more than if you had 10 extra horsepower and a very slightly livelier throttle.

Still have the discs... really want to shift them! Suspension is now gone. Thanks

I've also done the Formula Silverstone thingy, but mine was unfortunately in damp conditions! I am by no means a great driver and my track experience is limited, but for what it's worth here's my 2p: I totally agree that the biggest issue is having the confidence to push the car to get the most out of it. That obviously depends on the person, but for me I was a bit worried by the wet, worried that everyone would be far better than me, and worried how I would end up if I ploughed a tin can into a barrier at 50mph. Fortunately the cost didn't worry me as I paid the extra insurance that covered me binning the car. Sitting all strapped in in a single seater with helmet on obviously doesn't calm nerves. Nor does the huge amount of noise they make or the massively heavy clutch. I was also worried about how I would adapt to having the gearstick on the right - and if you think a Zed's gearchange is notchy and stiff, wait until you try these badboys! However, when we pulled away I was the only one who didn't stall (LOTS of revs) which made me feel a bit happier. At Silverstone they give you some pace laps behind a 370z, slowly building up faster and faster. Once all the staggered groups had done their warm ups the 370z peeled away and there were free laps. Within 10 seconds of flooring it unbridled down the straight (except for the rev limit of course), adrenalin had all but replaced any anxiety. The acceleration itself isn't THAT amazing, but accelerating that quickly in a soap box racer with an engine is really fantastic. Once you're moving it all makes sense. Pin sharp steering, zero body roll, instant throttle, tremendous brakes. Even the gearbox livens up and you forget how bad it was pootling around the pits. Truly loved the experience if I'm honest. No ABS can be a bitch in the damp though.

This sounds very similar to the issues I have JUST had, also had a judder on low speed braking, car felt like it was in high winds when on the motorway, wallowing all over and TCS cutting very early on normal speed corners. Been to Jez at Horsham Dev today, appears to be a massively f***ed rear wheel bearing. Just a suggestion caliper may be hot if like mine yours is cutting the TCS in on every roundabout!

Where do you work mate? Looks a familiar building to me... Also, I think you will be fine in that much water. I've driven through deeper, so deep in fact that the range rover behind me turned around! I got a little bit worried when I could feel the car really pushing against the water, but got through and not ill effects other than a creaky clutch pedal for a few days! That was about 4 months ago. No problems since! I think everything that low is pretty well sealed up. In other news, took the Saxo through a huge puddle yesterday and I think the water caused a bridge across some of the electric connections, handbrake light and oil light came on and sort of 'flickered' as it happened but then faded out as the water obviously dripped off!

Apologies, Hertfordshire, near hertford. I could also deliver for a small fee If you're willing to travel far I might be more flexible on price...

owhhh... I was frantically scrolling down to say Z06 and saw I had been beaten to the punch!!! Really really want one of these... or the new C7 which is even better!

So below we have brand new, still packaged Pagid discs front and rear set. These are Brembo equivalents. £100 each pair I think sounds fair! £170 if you take both. Collection only please, they are too heavy to post. NEED THEM GONE BEFORE NEXT WEEK. Also have my old suspension, completely stock and done 70k miles or so. £50? Collected too. Please PM me.

I would be too jealous so you are not allowed. I guess that Zed you 'revisited' must've really impressed!

Thanks Mikey. Only had a quick question.. but yeah it wouldnt let me PM.

Inbox full? I tried to PM you about something

It's normal I'm afraid... And unfortunately there's absolutely no science to working out how 'wrong' it gets. Mine quite happily fluctuates between half full and empty depending on how hard and how far I've driven. Both the meter and the DTE reading! Basically, unless you want to be sitting there calculating your DTE in your head, in mine I always find that when the light comes on I have about 25 litres in the tank. it would be nice if there was a permanent fix for this...

It's all nonsense... it doesn't matter what history/pedigree/name the engine has on it. If it works and does what you want it to, who cares who built it?

Possibly marzman that's a good suggestion. It definitely hasn't always been there so probably something of that ilk. May try to get under it this weekend.. But if anyone has similar suggestions or has had the problem themselves input would be welcome

Thanks for the suggestions and replies. Gearbox oil could probably do with being changed (planned shortly) but I just don't think the clunk is from the gearbox... The jerkiness is caused by the gear box, but it's the weight transfer onto the rear axle that coincides with the clunk, as opposed to slotting the gears in...

Anybody?

See THIS is the kind of info you need from the forums/Haynes manual! How easy is it for the driveshaft to come out? Is it just a case of be careful or is it likely to come out? Mine is lowered at the rear, quite a bit. Not because it looks like a slammed sick ting innit blud, but because I had to replace a rotten torsion bar in the past, and garage quoted me cheaper to just fit an entire spare rear axle they had lying around, which had already been lowered. I think these 25mm lowering springs will make it fairly even. As for the brake bias valve, never had a problem so far, even with a lowered rear and standard front.. ha ha. Maybe its because I took the spare wheel and bracket off! Thanks for the tip though. It is a thoroughly satisfying job to do, and after doing a few more bits on the Saxo I will endeavour to do some simple ones on the 350Z. The problem is, I don't drive the Saxo very far or very fast so I'm not too worried. I'd at least like someone to sue if some untightened bolt decides to spontaneously go on holiday when I'm on the autobahn in the 350z! As for next steps, I will definitely do a few small bits just to get the Saxo in decent running condition. There are some other 'overdue' items that aren't quite as serious as the suspension. After that who knows... can't decide whether to flog it for a few hundred quid (black VTRs seem to hold value a little), or start doing some serious work on it and turn it into a track car. The problem is in a few months, once moved into a flat, I will have no need for a dog car/train station runabout and will only have the one parking space, which will obviously be for the Zed. However, keeping it at a friend's house or family member's garage could potentially be an option. Some people on here may scoff at the idea of a Saxo track car, but at the end of the day if you strip it you have a sub 900kg car, where even the upgrade parts are cheap. And you won't be forking out mega money on brakes and tyres. It will also give me an excuse to do some proper mechanical work to it! Yes its front wheel drive, but I'm sure there's a diff out there for it that will help and it will be a fun, low powered car to learn with and get more trackdays under my belt.

My loyal shed Saxo VTR, my first car that I have used for over 4 and a half years for all the daily graft that the Zed is too pretty to do, finally let me down for the first time the other week. I haven't looked after it amazingly well, only done the bare minimum to keep it relatively safe, road legal and working, but it has always just started and done what I've asked. Every time. It makes weird noises sometimes, and has almost left me stranded a few times, but whatever the problem has always limped home and then to the garage to be fixed. However, I knew recently that a damper was going or gone, with the others not far behind. This gradual decline, combined with me having no time to get to a garage due to hectic work schedule, meant that eventually this front drivers damper had had enough, and was leaving the spring to absorb everything. The potholes are very bad near me, and were taking their toll! Cue spring snapping on a pothole very near my house. So near, in fact, that I didn't even notice (I know, right!?) and managed to park up outside. Went to drive it next day and it hardly moves, felt like brakes had stuck on in the rain or something, so I drove it down the road 100m or so hoping they would 'pop' off. Much smoke and burning later, it was apparent that the snapped spring had sprung over the bottom spring seat and was grinding against the tyre as I drove. How the tyre didn't burst I will never know (that's why you buy Michelins I guess!). So, not trusting OEM spec suspension to cope with being at the mercy of the lacklustre Highways Agency, I decided to treat the poor car to an Apex upgrade suspension kit, to be fitted with the help of my mate who works on his old MG. Considering he has never done suspension (apart from fiddling with leaf springs...) and my biggest mechanical triumph was fitting new windscreen wipers, it was going to be a big task to attempt the Haynes manual 4 spanner rated job! The kit was an Apex 25mm lowering upgraded suspension kit, seemed to have favourable reviews on Saxperience (lol) and the like. Came with two front springs and damper inserts, and two rear shock absorbers. Jacked up and wheel off, with new suspension at the ready, you can see how far down the snapped spring had travelled in the pic below: So we opened up the Haynes manual and set to work. Later on, as you will see, we found the Haynes manual pretty rubbish. It fails to mention lots of difficult bits and assumes you have a pristine car with no rust. No mention of bits that are more difficult, doesn't even indicate what tools you need! My mate has most tools you could want for a car, but Haynes could've at least given a checklist at the start. Rudimentary sunshade set up! Meanwhile, our cars were basking: So first things first, with the wheel out the way we cracked out the good old WD40. In all honesty, a lot of the bolts here probably needed a few days soaking before being moved, but we did the best with the time we had. Anyone checking the metadata of these pics will see that, given we needed to keep going to Halfords, Machine Mart (neither close by!), or to my mates to get his Grinder etc this actually took us SEVERAL weekends of 1-2 hour stints of actual work. Proper experienced mechanics like Keyser at the Zed Shed, would have all this to hand and know what to expect as they actually know what they are doing! Again, all we had was Saxperience and the Haynes manual, other that that it was learn as we went along. Again, note the sheared spring and how far down it is! Next was to remove the big central nut holding the hub carrier and drive shaft etc together. This was an unexpectedly large nut (30mm) that our massive socket and wrench set did not have anything to remove! First trip to Machine Mart for the 30mm socket... and we got it out. An overly long trip for one part! Then we had to get the caliper off, lots of WD40 here and two awkward to reach bolts. Then propped caliper on a brick and moved to one side to avoid having to disconnect the brake hose and have to bleed brakes etc! When this was finally off, the obvious next move was to take off the anti roll bar drop link. The bolts on these, stupidly, have an Allen key hole to hold whilst you turn the nut. Obviously, rust had ruined this allen key hole and effectively rounded it, and the force required to hold it and move the rusted nut was way beyond the limits of any allen key. We were stumped... but reference to the Saxperience guide revealed that these drop link bolts are notorious for seizing and there's pretty much nothing for it but to... ...grind the old drop links off. We hadn't expected to need the grinder, and wasted a day going to get it. We also knew we couldn't finish anything until I had ordered a new set of links. Luckily they were about £12 for the pair and came with all fitting bolts, so we could go to town removing every last trace of the old ones. The grinder made mincemeat of the actual drop link (severed it in half because it was just quicker, to allow removal of the hub carrier), but later on actually grinding the drop link bolts out really was hard going. The heat even caused them to get that rainbow effect you see on TVR exhausts and the like. That combined with their toughness made me think that the bolts themselves were probably titanium. New links: With the new links arrived, we assumed we had everything we would need to finish taking the hub out, replace suspension and put it back in. first step was to jack the hub up slightly under the brake disc, and lever out the drive shaft and lower suspension arm. The driveshaft came out easily, but the lower arm being under tension made it very hard to lever downwards enough for it to slip out. The Haynes manual was actually our friend here, giving one little tip about a dual lever motion to ease the lower arm out. Once done, left the drive shaft and lower arm resting on more bricks! (Although before we did this you can see how springy the lower arm is below, pushing the driveshaft up!). Then got out the shiny new ball joint separator. A tool bought and used for literally one part of the process. Unfortunately it came shrink wrapped so couldn't return it!! The nut removed here had been lucky enough to be doused in WD40 for a week or so while we waited for the drop links before continuing work. As a result it came out fairly easily and just needed the separator to remove the steering arm. Now my mate carefully supported the hub carrier with the help of the jack, and I went up top to unscrew the upper mounting screws. No worries about springs decompressing here - it had bloody snapped!! After much toil, hub carrier fully out: Haynes didn't tell us you'd need these bad boys to get the top damper screw out to undo the strut assembly! Another hour wasted on a round trip to Machine Mart! Removed the top sections of the strut, only to find this pesky little screw cap holding the damper in. It was a bugger, really on tight and rusted on. Haynes and Saxperience unhelpfully suggested using mole grips or pin wrenches to remove... It simply was gonna budge with those little tools. ANOTHER hour down the tool shop effectively wasted, and we ran out of time that day. In the meantime whilst my mate had other commitments, I shopped around for something meaty enough to remove the really tough screw cap. Bring on the beast: 30 seconds with that pipe wrench and the cap came straight off! New damper in, old damper for the bin! Then out came the spring compressors to fit the new spring on! After a bit of fettling, tapping, screwing and some cuts and groans... we finally had a finished, upgraded suspension piece! Just had to grind away the pesky titanium bolts from the old drop links and it was all ready to go back in... AND VOILA! NEW LINKS AND SUSPENSION FITTED! Ready for driving! Unfortunately we only had time this Sunday to finish fix the broken side, not ideal to have 1/4 of your suspension upgraded, I know, but desparately needed to relieve the Zed from the daily drive to the train station, so we fitted the wheel back on and the Saxo so its driveable and it will just have to wait until next weekend for us to upgrade the other side and complete the job installing the rear shocks! Not bad I think, for my first ever mechanical job. Even with only one corner done it feels much better. Can't wait until the entire car is finished. And hopefully the other side should only take a couple of hours as we know what to expect and have all the right tools now! Thanks for reading.

Hi guys, Perhaps you can help if you've had a similar issue. Googling/searching forum didn't provide much! As the title says, I have quite a clunk coming from the rear end of the car. I should note that this is only: - When pulling away sharply (NO, not traffic light grands prix.. but those occasions when for one reason or another you need to pull into a lane merge etc a bit quicker than the car next to you, or pull out slightly quickly from a roundabout or junction); and - going through the biggest plight of the Zed owner, the dreaded change from 1st to 2nd. As we all know and will hopefully admit, the Zed's gearbox is not very refined (especially on a 54 plate car with 95k miles!), and these 'half-fast' shifts from 1st to 2nd are often very easy to make a hash of, and can be very jerky and lurchy. The jerk/lurch itself I am not worried about. If, as stated above I do a slightly hasty (again, not burnouts away from the lights) pull away, if I do manage to make a hash of the 1st-2nd change, then the car of course lurches forward, and then jerks back again once 2nd is engaged and back on the power. At this point, as the car jerks back, there is a loud, quite deep clunk from the rear. The clunk does not, as far as I can tell, happen when pulling away in 1st, or when changing from 2nd to 3rd. Although, perhaps it would if I managed to jerk the car enough. I am guessing it is suspension/rear axle/rear subframe related. Many thanks. PS - Perhaps others will agree, clunks aside, that this jerk is a thing. I've tried a lot of techniques and I'm sure after 3 and a half years of ownership its the car not me that makes 1st to 2nd jerky! If you do it like a granny, its fine. If you give it the absolute beans and redline it, its fine. It's the in between 'half fast' shifts that are obviously much more commonly required in the real world that seem to be the jerkiest. Maybe I just can't changed gear and should've stuck with my Automatic Jag!

yes you can.. I had this done on my old RE050A on the rear.. then went on a carlimits day with it. Scott at Abbey also told me he'd 'never heard of one of those failing' before I did that, so I guess you're pretty safe.

Thanks Tricky Ricky, cleared that up nicely for me But I maintain that using the pressure gauge to judge temperature still works, as only if your engine is dangerously worn or run dangerously low on oil would you see huge difference in common 'normal' pressure figures, and the pressure changing much more readily with increase/fall in revs. As these 'normal' pressure figures are pretty consistent for us all, you can judge accurately enough when the engine is warmed up. (i.e. cold start 100-110psi, then once warm 30psi idling, approx. 60psi/6th g/60mph). But for the paranoid of you out there: remember that running a slightly different grade oil, and even outside temperatures can mean that these common values vary very slightly. Surely the oil must thin to some extent though when it is warmed, due to thermal expansion?

From everything I've read on various forums, the general consensus is: You want the engine to get to its optimum temperature as quickly, but with as least wear on the engine, as possible. It was sensible to warm up old cars. New cars (and by new.. I would say probably last 20 years or so!) are built much, much better and have complicated ECUs etc to ensure safe cold starts. Maybe leave the car 30 secs or so just for fluids to get round, but after that the quickest and best way to warm the car up is to drive it, but gently. No flooring it, try not to rev to high, change up early and smoothly etc. This ensures equal heat expansion as the engine warms up through natural use, and also warms your gearbox etc which idling won't do. Idling for ages will take longer to warm the car up, and because the fluids arent travelling, and the air not flowing around the engine properly, you get hot spots which cause uneven expansion and engine wear. OIL is the key here, not water. As the temp rises, your oil pressure falls which you can see from the guage. The Oil gets less viscous and coats your engine parts better and gets into all the crevices properly as it warms giving maximum protection. I personally always wait until it is FULLY warm (60psi at 60mph in 6th, or 30psi idling) before even considering hard driving, but to be honest after 10 minutes of warming the oil is probably at a sufficient (although not ideal) temperature to start driving more aggresively.

thanks guys. Will be PMing clark motorsport

does any one have a spare? I hit a badger last night, was just a big bump under the wheel and didnt cause any damage other than knocking out the little clip that holds the side skirt on, the very front one that clips it into the inside of the front wheel arch. Would be very grateful and willing to pay for one if someone has one lying around they could pop in an envelope! Pm me. Thanks

I will be living next to that Aldi very soon... Zed hidden in an underground car park