longsh07

Just what we need, buggy MOT software

You can take your car away, you're just not allowed to drive it if it fails, which of course causes issues for most people... Was reading something this morning about it as it happens. Garage cannot stop you from driving your car away (even if it fails - that's your risk!), nor can they stop you from having towed elsewhere to have the repairs done.

I overheard a Cosworth rep at Autosport international one year that the Cosworth pads are made at/by EBC. The compounds may be different of course but if EBC pads are cheaper they might be worth a look. If you use them properly and don't expect them to be magical, they are a prefectly good pad. Quite fond of Yellowstuff though I've not had them on my 350 but on my Impreza and FN2 Civic.

I do get bored of cars easily but I've come to realise it depends on how you use them most of the time. As it happens, my 350Z is the car I've owned longer than any other (since 2012). I used to do about a 6 mile commute through town five days a week with it, that was miserable and made me dislike the car. There was one short stretch of national speed limit road but it was single lane and usually busy so topped out a 50 on a good day... Same experience I think is what lead me to sell my MK2 MR2 which I had previous to the 350Z, biggest car regret to date. I since moved and now have a 15 mile commute to the same place but its basically the total opposite. Practically every road is national limit with only a couple of short 40 and 30 sections. There is also a couple of bits of dual carriage way too . Being able to actually stretch the car's legs makes such a difference to my enjoyment of the car. While I was on the verge of selling the 350Z before I moved, I would be very hard pushed to sell up now!

Do me a favour, after you've been driving the car and come to a stop, touch the alloys and tyres on the rear end. Is one side hotter than the other? Can also try touching the calipers. I wouldn't touch the discs though just in case I'm starting to wonder if one of your brakes is seized and or dragging. That might upset the braked LSD system which will flash the TC light.

@burntorange what size tyres are you running? Not sure you answered this earlier.

To echo what others have said. I bought a brand new pair of Berk HFCs, got then red hot as recommended, and they still failed an MOT. Then replaced them with a second hand pair of Cobra HFCs from a member on here who HAD passed with them and they still failed on my car... Put stock cats back on and fly's through no problem. It's totally hit and miss in my experience and far easier to stay stock.

I know right, same here... looks like I'll be getting some new boot poppers soon...

By the way, if you get these make sure you fit the bracket that bolts to the body the right way up It sounds so simple but I managed to forget which way they went in the couple of minutes it took to swap it over. Correct fitting:

2003 must be blob eye right? Quite partial to those myself though given the choice I think I'd take the 350 over one unless its JDM purely for the power differences. Classics are my personal favourite (bias ) but most UK ones are going to be riddled with rust by now so your probably right to look for bug/blobs. My 350 is certainly a better drive (handling/braking), but holy hell is an 90's boosted engine a laugh! Anyway, good luck!

Welcome along and good luck with the hunt I've currently got an 05 350Z GT4 and a 99 JDM Impreza WRX. Quite a bit of a difference and a hard choice to make so I don't envy you . What year WRX are you looking at?

Hi David, First off, all UK cars should be run on premium fuel (97 octane or above) all the time to avoid knock. Given Japanese imports are used to running on even higher grades you should certainly stick to the premium stuff! Don't suppose the garage mentioned which sensor it was as there are four, one pre-cat, one post cat, then the same on the other side (bank) of the engine. The code (if you have it) will refer to one of the four sensors, like so 'bank x, sensor x'. It should also say rich or lean condition I believe which will help diagnose the issue. As for why it would suddenly come on, it could be the fuel is cleaning out a lot of crap from the engine/exhaust but I'm not expert so take that with a pinch of salt. And for getting it to stay off, has the car been remapped? If its the post-cat sensors, then these can be switched off (ignored) during the mapping process to solve this. Otherwise, you could try fitting O2 sensor spacers as these can help to fool the system into thinking its fine. HTH

Shouldn't make it any better or worse to my knowledge. EDIT: HFC's were just too much hassle for not enough benefits IMHO. I do miss the sound though...

Unless your going forced induction or ITB's its probably an unnecessary expense to get a standalone ECU. CEL = Check Engine Light You don't want that. There is loads of info on CEL's after fitting HFC's or Decats on the forum. It's caused by the difference in readings between the pre-cat and post-cat O2 sensors. I cant recall the code but there can be four different codes if I remember correctly. Each code refers to a different sensor, bank 1 sensor 1, bank 2 sensor 1, bank 1 sensor 2, bank 2 sensor 2. Part of the UpRev remap is to disable Sensor 2 on both banks so that it doesn't read the O2 level after the cats which can be out of spec with Decat/HFC

Why not just give them a call? You might not get booked in any faster but they'll be able to answer your questions at least. No not particularly, that's just how it went on the day. I wasn't particularly looking for power gains, I was more interested in the 1:1 throttle response, getting the CEL for post-cat sensors disabled, and a couple of other bits and pieces. At the time I drove the car daily and that I prefer acceleration over top speed, this is just how it came out and I'm happy with it. I do need to back again though as I've since had the HFC's removed and Stock cats fitted. Might right and pick up an Motodyn MREV2 plenum though, apparently they do wonders for my engine!

@burntorange To be honest I think you're probably at the point that if you need anything else answered you need to speak to a tuner directly.

Running rich brings its own issues besides fuel economy , notably carbon build up and bore wash (I believe this is where too much fuel removes the oil from the cylinder walls). If you look at the AFR plot on the dyno chart (bottom / right) at the point the engine is making peak Hp (approx 6400 rpm) its already running at nearly 12:1 AFR. Mine is a GT4 so its a DE RevUP engine. Peak power is at 6400 rpm. Peak torque was at 4800 but moved to 5200 which follows what you are saying. What you'll also notice on the torque graph (bottom / left) is that despite losing peak power, the torque available through the entire range (2500 to 6500 RPM) has increase a fair amount. In theory, if you tune for peak power you'd need to rev the nuts off it constantly to say at peak power. Instead, my car pulls harder now from 2500-6500 than it did before so does losing 9Hp really matter if the car is now more responsive?

This is helpful:

I didn't lose it, its still there an could be tuned back in. But peak power is ultimately just for bragging rights. To get the biggest number I'd lose pulling power in the rev range its driven in 90% of the time. Yes. HP = Torque x RPM ÷ 5252 More fueling lower in rev range. More fuel = more torque. Higher torque x lower RPM / 5252 = lower peak HP than higher torque x higher RPM / 5252. I think that all makes sense

Long time no posts! Not much occurring to be honest except I had a local graphics company knock up this fantastic quality Gran Turismo sun strip for my GT4

Put simply, the stock (unmapped) ECU tries to keep the power figure at the figure it left the factory with. Unmodified car - will be slightly down on power due to grot build up in the engine, wear, and all other factors that are totally normal as an engine ages. Modified car without remap - You may have cleared out the cobwebs and opened up the ability to push beyond stock power figure but the ECU will still target and try to stick to stock power figure. Modified car with remap - You're car can be tuned to produce whatever power level it can produce safely. For example, my 350Z GT4 should have had 300Hp at the flywheel brand. I took it for a remap at Abbey Motorsport with the following mods fitted. Milltek exhaust, Berk HFCs, plenum spacer (fitted at Abbey), and HKS panel filter. As your can see from the dyno chart: Pre-remap It made 270Hp at the hubs (+35 for flywheel), 305Hp at flywheel - Top right chart / Yellow box. Post remap, peak power was pulled down to 262Hp at the hubs, 296Hp at the flywheel - Top right chart / green box. While I've lost some peak power I've gained roughly 10 ft/lb torque through most of the mid range (bottom left chart) making the car pull really nicely

Had another quick look into this, just curious but do all models have the braked LSD feature? Was flicking through the owners manual and (according to mine at any rate) the car uses a braked LSD and there appears to be no way to disable that. My theory is then that what is experienced in higher G corners is the car activating the braked LSD. Could be totally wrong but given everything suggests that using the button does in fact turn off the ESP, but simply leaves the braked LSD and ABS active. That would also explain why the system only activates when cornering hard (I perhaps because you are overpowering the viscous LSD?) and why the two systems both go out when the fuse is pulled (because they are one and the same). Besides that, the manual does say that the ESP wont function correctly if using non-standard brake pads/rotors/calipers (), non-standard or heavily worn suspension/bushes, non-standard tyres, driving up a steep incline.... if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, if it doesn't like what you had to breakfast... Anyway, just a thought, apologies if this has already been covered!

Ah, got it.

Try @ZMANALEX I had to replace mine after a clown of an alarm installer damaged the ribbon cable...

This one? Pretty sure that's just the climate control ECU is it not? I