ostego

Always keep mine clean with a good layer of wax.... will add some polish to my shopping list

Probably fallen into the classic male trick of thinking my car would attract girls when i bought it, not sure whether it is just mine being orange, body kitted and with loud decats, but it seems to be a giant hit with young boys.... and also with middle aged men oddly enough.... but so far i have not pulled up and had one female complement my car! With spring and summer seemingly approaching given the recent nice weather, which is the time id imagine a zed really starts to turn more heads.... is this trend likely to continue, am i doomed to always be approached by young kids and middle aged men..... or does zed have any tendancy to pull in the ladies? And before someone says "its not the car that matters... its the person behind the wheel" HUSH, because ive just said it!

53 plate 350GT : £7,800 Service & coolant change : £350 Parts identified during service required : £450 Labour to fit parts £250 Tax : £280 Insurance : £710 Total after 2 months : £7.8k for the car, £2,040 to get it all in order ....... Projecting a further couple hundred when the MOT is due in April, and then another £1,000 for the year once the zeditis takes it's hold in my brain, already have plans for £350 of that budget. I used to complain when a service on my old hyundai cost me over £150...... now nothing phases me, anything less than 4 figures is a bargain I have realized!

Nice one glrnet £52/hour sounds good! Theyre only 33 miles from me as well, which isn't too bad if i can get cheaper labour and a good quality job! Will just either have to book a day off work of beg them to do it on a saturday, as it seems they only do Mon-Fri! Bloody hell Briggsy..... Knew stuff was cheaper up there... but that is pretty significant! guess even if the job stretched to 5 hours I'd still only save about £75, and would cost me at least that in fuel, so not worth taking it that far!

Nice one, isnt too far of a drive if the rates are good and they come recommended. Will give them a call tomorrow. Do you know what their hourly rate is by any chance?

Hi, I was going to take a trip down to the zed shed to have front brake discs & pads, front & rear drop links and compression arm bushings replaced. I have all of the parts that i bought from Clarke motorsport, but since Keyser has some issues with his house re-build atm and is out of action for a while, I'm stuck with these parts and am not able to fit them myself (have read how easy front pads discs and drop links are meant to be... but am too phased by it and simply wouldn't trust something that I have fitted!) SO... from what i gather from Abbey Motorsport's quote.... this job is around a 4 hour one. 2 hours for the compression bushings, 1 for the drop links and about 1 for the front brakes.... but I'm on quite a tight budget, and ideally can't exceed about £250 on labour for this, with Abbey's £65+20% VAT, I'm well into the £320 mark, and the same goes to H-Dev. What scares me here is that if they run into some unexpected trouble... this figure can then rise quite rapidly! Whilst i understand Abbey & H-Dev have their high labour rates given their areas of expertise and skill, the jobs i require doing are relatively "basic" ones, so i figure there would be no harm in getting them done at a garage that charges a cheaper hourly rate more in the field of £50 per hour. Does anyone know of any mechanics that are good, cheap, and reliable that are in the South West London/Surrey/Berkshire sort of area? Or am i being unrealistic to expect to find a mechanic that charges £50 per hour?

I'm in Newbury, and have been thinking it may be best to get 2 of one side done... but the green really is quite a dark shade so I'd imagine a slight difference wouldnt be noticable at all

Hmmm, local is a stretch for me looking at that map! Am heading down to the zed shed in a couple of weeks though so maybe i can pop into their bournemouth branch and ask around!

Yeah, i know it is a good price for all 4... but i only need the paint work done on part of one wheel, as the other wheels are fine, and i love the paint work on them! Just would rather find a really good sprayer, who can match the colour of the other wheels correctly!

Have a half litre bottle of brake fluid going as a prize if you'd like!

Hi, Need to have my wheel re-sprayed after brake fluid damage. The orange outside rim is fine, but it is just the inside, and the spokes (the green parts) that would need sanding/re-spraying Out of the 2 bodyshops i visited, one said it would be too difficult to match and they'd need to do all of them at a cost of £300. The other said they could do the wheel to the best of their ability but couldnt guarantee 100% accuracy, because of the unusual colour and me not knowing the colour code (from what i was told the previous owner initially intended them to be black, but the guy spraying them mixed the colours a bit wrong which caused them to come out with a green tint (and the green really shows in the light), so don't think it is a "stock" colour. Can anyone recommend a place or forum user that may be able to sort this out? Picture of wheel :

To give this thread some closure, i made it back to Newbury fine and safe last night.... is amazing how little braking you need if you just drive more "predictively" and sensibly! Went to H-Dev this morning, and it ends up the inner nipple that Jez thought was seized was loose, so that has all been sorted now and fingers crossed there will be no more brake fluid leakages! Am going to keep a close eye on the fluid levels over the coming weeks. Jez was also kind enough to give me £50 towards the re-spraying of the wheel, and a half litre of brake fluid (which i hopefully wont be needing to use any time soon!) Now it's a matter of finding someone who can re-spray the wheel! Visited 2 body shops on the way home and they think it would be quite challenging.... as the colour isn't exactly a "stock" one and will be hard to match!

FFS! Seems its getting worse.... first time round it took 13 days.... last time was about 2 weeks.... topped it up on Monday, have handbrake and ESP & skid light popping up today! Felt around and found some clear oil-based liquid around the font drivers side calliper, so may have found the culprit! Are also puddles under that wheel where i parked last night... and because the wheels are painted.... ALL of the paintwork on the insides of the wheel is bubbled and looks pretty rough.... i am not happy Will top it up with dot4 to the max, and just pray the brakes don't fail me on my 50 mile journey back to Newbury tonight ready for a 9am trip to H-dev!

Hmm, wouldn't be that then as I noted earlier that the brake pedal felt quite firm and high up! Guess Zman alex is right, Hopefully this is just a quick little thing that needs tightening or something that was overlooked when doing the service and Jez can put it right in a flash! As I've just forked out £8k for the car... £350 on this service... £1k on tax & insurance... and have another £800 worth of repairs that need doing... so I'm literally broke!

didn't see the inside nipples but had a good feel around the callipers and discs on both sides and there was no liquid there that i could feel. With regards to Chubby Ninja's comment that they may not have bled the brakes properly.... they did note that 2 of the nipples were seized, so i can therefore assume they weren't bled "properly" in that sense (no detriment meant to H-dev, they knew i was on a tight time schedule so did what they could to have it done in time). Could them not bleeding these 2 nipples have resulted in air getting in the system, which is now slowly working it's way out, and hence resulting in the dropping fluid level?

Have looked around the callipers and discs and cant see or feel any leakages, no sign of any residue from what i can tell. Felt the insides of the discs too and it was just black dirt that came off on my hands

Just checked and having topped it up to max yesterday, it is already back down to the EXACT same spot as it has been the last 2 times i had to top it up, directly inbetween min and max. No lights yet under hard braking, so at least it doesnt seem to be deteriorating a lot quicker.... but seems for some reason each time i top it up it must quickly disappear to the mid-level, then slowly deteriorate after that! Hopefully Jez can shine some light on this mystery!

Looks like I've got an early morning stop off on Thursday! Just hope the brakes don't fail me on the journey there!! Thanks for the advice guys! One of these days the posts about problems with the car should end.... fingers crossed

Yeah, probably the best idea really! Just have this week off as holiday so was hoping i could forget about car troubles and just travel about to visit friends! But will get in touch with jez and see if he can have a quick look if i stop off in Chievley! Was just wondering whether this could just be an easy fix i could do myself in a couple of minutes to save me the effort and fuel!

Right... so had a service with Jez @ H-dev just over a month ago having driven 900 miles in the car and with no brake fluid problems. about 2 weeks after the service where they changed the brake fluid, and identified 2 nipples that were seized, the ESP, skid and handbrake light came on.... i looked and saw the fluid was half way between min and max, topped it up and thought it was sorted. 1 week ago the problem reared its head again as the handbrake light came on under hard braking, and then yesterday i start up my car to have the same 3 lights on again.... only to see the fluid level is half way between min and max yet again after just another 2 weeks! So i am pretty sure that this issue lies with something done in the service. I read online it could be one of the bolts they undo to bleed to brakes that may not be tightened enough, so the fluid could be leaking out there (figure it must be as that would have been the only thing that could be causing this)! Is there any quick way i can check to see if or where this leak would be coming from? Am paranoid as I've heard brake fluid strips paint.... and my wheels are painted, so don't want any corrosive liquid dripping down them!

Has brembo pads i think, so that could make sense Is strange about the handbrake light then, as it has only recently started doing it, but will see whether it stays like that after everything is replaced! As long as i know it is ok to drive it for the next couple of weeks! Thanks

Hi, When Jez looked at my car a month ago, he said the front pads were at 27.9mm when they should be 28.4mm minimum, so needed replacing. I recently had the ESP, skid and handbrake light on permanently, and topped up the brake fluid to max which got rid of this. I am now having the handbrake light appear when I am braking hard. Is this an indication that my brake pads are getting dangerously low? The front brakes squeak slightly when light breaking at low speeds, but no noise with just general braking at normal speeds, or hard braking I am booked in to the zed shed for 22nd Feb, and am having them replaced along with the discs then, but will probably need to cover 250 miles between now and then, and just want to be sure I'm not going to run any risk of doing any damage, to both myself if the brakes fail, or the car if the pads are low. Don't really want to go topping up the brake fluid reservoir even more to try and get rid of the light as if they're being replaced soon that will just cause unnecessary hassle when the fluid is pushed back up

Although obviously not "right"... i think it looks sort of good! Goes well with the alloys and door handles!! Wouldn't personally go for it though just because it looks too much like a bad respray than an intentional mod! That and the general condition of the car also just screams that the previous owner was rubbish!

When i first bought my zed in December 2013, planning ahead for my renewal in feb 2014, i ran some online quotes, declaring all mods (alloys, body kit, spoiler & exhaust), my 4 years NCD, 4 years experience and age of 22, and was looking at £1,200 for the year.... every other company wanted £3,000+ Have just had my renewal with elephant for £700... which i class as a total bargain, since the prices online from them since i purchased the car fluctuated from £700-£1300, so i got it at it's lowest (well... they asked for £770, but got it down) Just a bit perplexed as EVERY company outside of the admiral group want £3000 plus.... but then all of the admiral group give a considerably good deal considering age, NCB, etc. It cost me £560 to insure my 1.6l Hyundai last year 3rd party fire & theft.... and only an extra £140 to sort me out with a 3.5l V6 with cosmetic mods fully comprehensive I think it makes more sense for them to give a reasonable price... as obviously zed drivers are very careful, i take a lot of pride in mine and would be far more inclined to drive an old banger like an idiot and crash it than i would in a zed! I nearly cry if i see a small stone chip on the paintwork.... would never cope if i saw it smashed into a tree! A lot of people on here seem to be with either admiral group, or the specialist insurers, but was just wondering why the rest of them are so extortionate

Could i get a close up pic of how you did it on the sides? Have @*!# loads of this wrap, so am fine wasting 1 square metre if it doesn't go to plan but may try doing it without removing the pillars at first just to see how it comes out, as like you I've heard of horror stories removing them, especially in cold weather How did you handle the cutting along the rubber seams that go around the roof pannelling though? would be terrified that with a knife cutting along that you could easily damage and cut into the seams