rmgthatsme

Thanks for the advice, will do a search on the ECU reset... Is that the tap dance on the pedals routine? The joints are unlikely to be the issue. Seems it can't release the soft top storage compartment cover as I can hear the mechanical noise of a release mechanism under the panel when I press the switch. it's unable to release this storage cover so the rest of the hood retracting sequence doesn't commence.

Appreciate a little help please...the soft top warning light on my dash panel is lit (i.e. indicates top is open) but the soft top is locked closed. Has been working perfectly for the past year. When I try to open it, I can hear only the unlocking sound but no further movement. Fortunately the hood is in the closed position as it has been raining heavily here but I am worried big bills are on the way for diagnostics time if I'm not sure of the issue and need to take it into a garage. Many thanks!

I keep trying to get my Mrs to drive my 350Z roadster but she refuses as she thinks its too wide, has too heavy steering and she knows I'd cry like a baby if it got dinged. Wish she would have a go then she could appreciate why I always have a grin on my face when I come home. It's only an old Jap car, not expensive so why not let her have a bit of fun. If she scratches it, its no big deal as it can be repaired easily. Sometimes its great to do the illogical thing?

That should buff out fine Speedy recovery!

HAHAHA, that's surreal! Well spotted.

As a geriatric (50+) member, I come onto this forum almost daily. Due to my location I will never benefit from the meets etc., have been refused by a forum Trader due to my location and due to time differences often come to posts late. My "benefits" are therefore less than UK based members but I wanted to share my view. I completely enjoy this forum which to my mind is blessedly without the cliques, hostility, text shorthand and other nasties that pollute many other sites. I find it adult (for the most part), witty, informative and welcoming. I get to appreciate other members' viewpoints which are often very far from my own and I love it. I can choose to disagree or not respond but always in a civil manner. My view is that its a free site and the owner(s) have all rights to how its managed including the Team members. I don't see any hindrance to members putting forward their ideas whether in the form of a post or pm. I don't see the need for additional voting to have a "people's mod" but equally don't see that the Team would reject any help sincerely offered if actually percieved as needed. I don't see the need for a label as a "trainee mod". I think any member can highlight by pm an inappropriate post and should do so. I would like to thank the Admin/Mods for this fantastic site. It brightens my day, every day! I would not say don't fix it if it ain't broke, I would say please continue to feel free to take suggestions and offers of help from active members like Neil in the best possible sense. The internet is notoriously poor at allowing accurate exchange of opinions because nuance, humour, body language etc. are very poorly substituted by smilies. If suggestions are reviewed and rejected for valid reasons then perhaps acknowlegement and thanks via post or pm would likely be very welcome from the initiator? Cheers

Daily toy Only do about 70km a day and mostly highway getting through about STG80 in petrol weekly. I live in a hot and usually sunny climate so top down to and from work. Brings a smile to my face when i drop my son off at school (and am allowed to actually drop him off at the gates now as I have a cool car ) then enjoy the morning sun on my way into work on a very clear highway as I "counter-flow" commute. At the end of the day its top down always and sometimes taking the B-roads home. Either way its more smiles/mile than anything I've driven before incl. my Saab 900S turbo convertible or MGC or MGB. It's a keeper for me for sure and will never go back to hard top commuting!

I've read that women like to speak about their personal issues not because they want solutions but simply because they need to talk. This comes from a book called "Why Men don't listen and women can't read maps".They have shown on brain scans of women that their speech ability is far more developed than men and is believed to be a result of their "brain wiring" as social group members from the cavemen days and onwards. The need to share also bonds women together. Men apparently have less verbal capability as we were hunters and used as little verbal communication as possible to express intentions to minimise the threat of detection and our brains through time are wired accordingly. Men will less often speak openly on the personal issues about which you speak as they tend to instead prefer to think things through by themselves. This is all supposed to represent the average of the male/female population and there are of course differences in any population. Can be one of the reasons men annoy women and vice versa as the woman at the end of the day wants to speak about her day and the problems she faced just to talk it out while the man listening thinks she wants these problems solved and keeps offering solutions to fix things for her. Woman doesn't want to be fixed and man can't understand why she is babbling on in this case as he just wants a bit of peace.

In my hometown of Singapore, we have raised the art of taxing the motorist to a fine art. We have toll gantries everywhere on highways and at the town centre. You certainly pay as you go and this was originally touted as helping to control road congestion. It has of course not done anything of the sort, still get the traffic jams at the same points which get worse each year. This is even though we additionally also have a monthly quota to allow new vehicles registration called the Certificate of Entitlement. At last count getting a 10 year COE was around STG 40,000 . This is before you can actually have the privilege to buy a car by the way. We also have horrendous taxes on petrol and to make sure you can't nip accross the border where they have cheap petrol, our fuel guages are checked before we can drive over. Be happy, you drive in a relative paradise

The reflectors look great but the paint finish of your car is absolutely stunning, really "pops" in the photo

+1 The sound you can hear in the roadster is fantastic. I happily live in a warm country and the only time the top goes up is when rain threatens. Top up (not much sound insulation) or down you feel so much more connected with the car and the environment. -ve side of this is if you're an audiophile but then the best sound IS the car.

Just a thought but could it be a faulty on/off switch? Second suggestion is that if it's very cold where you are, have you turned the climate control dial to a low enough setting to actually activate the compressor? Sometimes can be the simple things that fail... Hope this helps

@ Jay Thanks for the pics. Great looking car and the photos were really useful for me as they show what is possible on the inside of doors, under the bonnet etc. Personally love the colour as well. @Paulzx That is a very informative post from an insider. Never knew about the various disadvantages. Not too bothered about reselling the car as i intend to keep it until it becomes difficult to keep it on the road due to maintenance issues etc. Did not know about the UV fading issues as I thought this would have been considered in the vinyl production process. Is this common to all vinyls as far as your know. I'm particularly interested in this aspect as I live in an area which gets strong sunshine a large part of the year and the car is parked throughout the day in an open lot. Also we have many vinyls here which come from Mainland China which is expected as it's just up the road.

Very Happy Birthday, sorry you felt sad no one remembered, did you know it's also International Women's Day? Hope you had a great day!

What do these wrapped cars look like e.g. when you open the doors, the boot, the bonnet etc. If you go for a different colour fron the original, does it look naff on these interior areas? I have seen great photos of wrapped cars but always with the doors closed etc. Anyone show how they look with the doors open? Strange question maybe but I wonder whether it looks bad if there actually is the original base paint showing through. I had my pearlescent white roadster resprayed pearlescent white because a) I do really like the colour and wasn't sure whether a colour change would look bad with a different interior body colour. Anyone got any photos? I'd really like to get my roadster wrapped in a pearlescent orange which with the black top would look fantastic from some pics I've seen. Cheers

Have you tried changing the way you get into and out of the Zed? Don' t know how you enter/exit now but if you are the "1 leg in, shift bum into seat and bring other leg in" type for car entry, why not try with both legs together, feet on the road to first put your behind into the seat with your back facing into the car and then swivel/rotate both legs into the footwell. Seems to put less stress on the lower back using this method. Seat itself is very comy for me but I have a JDM roadster with the mesh centre portion which I find really comfy and hugging. Mind you I have been told I have a ahem "generous booty" so YMMV Hope you find a solution that works for you mate and that you're pain free soon.

Yeah agree but if dust gets in between the paint surface & the liner will still act like sandpaper from my experience. Cover being breathable helps on the rust front up to a point, guess our very humid/wet climate here colours my view. YMMV. As I said, just my 2c

Yes it was exactly as you described but it hasn't happened since. It's obviously mechanical as the jerky action when it finally closed on that occasion seemed to indicate that something was sticking as it freed up suddenly with a jerk and hasn't happened again. I do believe that having happened once though it's only a matter of time. Don't believe it's the elastic bits as their function happens much earlier in the hood retraction. Just realsied that I've hijacked the OP's thread. Appreciate your posting separately if you find the issue. Cheers! Will do. Its as if the mechanism is getting caught on something. You can see the motor has enough torque and is trying to pull the roof down, but its not having it. Its had to see when you look, so i`ll have to enlist an assistant to operate the mechanism whilst i look at the roof. Will see if i can do that this weekend. Strange how yours only did it once, then now is okay though!

Shares in a high dividend paying company may be an alternative option. Seems to be increasingly popular in these uncertain times?

These outdoor covers can be a mixed blessing at times. They can trap moisture inside the car, not allowing it to dry off and if it gets windy, the small movement of the cover against the paintwork with the dust that gets trapped inevitably under the cover can act like sandpaper scratching it badly. The last shed I had, had lost its surface paint coat at the bodywork corners where the outdoor cover had been rubbing over time. Just my 2c

Prefer the "de-cats" myself i.e. dogs

"Only downer was that my roof struggled to go down properly. It got to the very last stage when the folded roof goes into the storage compartment, just before the plastic lid comes down and it just wouldnt go in. It was as if it was stuck. A few open/close open/close`s and it jolted down okay. Its as if something was sticking on it. I`ll have to try and investigate a bit more when I get some spare time" Would you please post if you are able to find the reason for the "sticking" in the hood retraction action when you have the time. Mine did this once and not since but would be very interested to hear your findings and corrective action. Cheers and happy top down days ahead!

My last roadster was a MGC in a distant life without wife/kids etc.. I am 50+ (mid life crisis much? ) and was thinking of getting a Merc SLK. My 19 and 16 year old lads response when I told them this was: massively old fart ghey! I ended up with a 2004 Z roadster in white and have heard from my missus that she overheard my older son tell his girlfriend while walking past the car that "Dad was just keeping it warm for him till he gets out of military service " With my cred restored please move over Porkie while I roll in the Sh#te with you! Puts a smile on my face every day I've driven it for the past months and I find myself stopping when walking past, just to look at it. I've had young blokes come up to me in carparks to ask me what it is, who are driving far more "macho mobiles" and you can see the admiration for it almost daily when you drive down the street. It's quite rare here in HK where most convertibles are high end supercars, mercs or bimmers so the local lads drool over it. Enjoy!

Is the stuff you bought simply a spray type silicone lube i.e. the thin non-viscous stuff or is it a spray gel type which I see mentioned on the US forums? + 1 on the question on seals...what seals? Cheers

Hi Ruddles, Really impressed that at your young age (I'm 50+) you have the presence of mind to take stock and make the decision to move on. While I have worked for the same multinational since before I graduated, I have changed fields every 5 or so years to keep life interesting as I find repetition brain numbing! I have been fortunate to do everything from sales, marketing, factory construction team project management, logistics, factory management, business unit management, administration and soon to move into Training & Development . I have done all this within the same company and in different countries so I kept all benefits accruing and I could do whatever interested me. If I couldn't I would have left. I believe you have already left your employer in your mind and only need to "follow up" with the actual situation. Do try to leave on good terms, get references from your employers and a commitment from any friendly managers to continue to act as references for your future. Always pays to leave under good terms. Do your absolute best up to the minute you leave the firm. Avoid bad mouthing the company in the interim to co-workers etc.; these same people have chosen to stay and their loyalties to you will largely end once you step out the door. Envy of your decision may cause ex-colleagues to bad mouth you affecting references after you leave so don't risk it. Being modest and unassuming in this situation never hurt. Being young, you have such great opportunities ahead and I think its fantastic that you wish to pursue a field in which you have passion. Keep that and the career, opportunities and payback will come. Congratulations in your decision; make the next steps carefully