G1en

Great spot. Ordered a 500ml and 1ltr kit which then qualifies for free delivery as well. Having previously sold and used lots of their products i can say most will not disappoint and at that quite frankly ridiculous price its a steel.

The lithium grease is supposed to be the ticket for things like this, wd40 do a version you can pick up from halfords/toolstation etc. I may be wrong but think silicone spray is better used for rubber/plastic.

Mine made a similar noise after i replaced the power steering rad and refilled the fluid. It was just a case that when i turned the steering lock to lock and rechecked level it was way below minimum. Topped up and then it was fine. so what i would suggest first (and cheapest option) is replaced the fluid. I squeezed any hoses i could get my hands on to get air out, ran engine for a couple of minutes, did the lock to lock turns then topped up. it may be your fluid is past its sell by date so to speak especially with the weird bubbles and if the level is fine. Then next stop would be pump but obviously more expensive. see what other more knowledgeable forumers suggest.

The rays alloys that are on are in need of a refurb so when i refit the ssr wheels i may have a go at refurbing them. Could also pick a colour of choice which would be cool. Always liked the light bronze look.

Latest update Jan 2021 With the Zed in hibernation over winter i decided to eventually do what many folk do and replace the archaic stereo whilst at the same time removing the sat-nav and bose amps and anything else i found related with the view of modernising the system whilst saving any weight i could which would be an added bonus. So i set about removing trim and screws and clips to see how many i could lose over time as this took a few weeks doing a couple of hours after work a couple of nights a week. First thing i took advantage of when removing the centre console was that 6th gear has always been a crunch if not slowly guided in. I think i read somewhere that adjusting the shifter plate can somewhat alleviate this so i slacken off the bolts and reset the plate in the best position i could so (when stationary) all the gears engage smoothly. Whether this equates to no crunch in 6th i will have to wait and see. Worth noting though that i initially moved the plate to the furthest right i could but then i could not get 5th or 6th as it sets the stop point past the channel to engage 5th/6th so i had to apply a little trial and error. I then carried on taking all the trim pieces out from behind the seats and in the boot area to see what i could find. Now to my surprise there is a fair amount of wiring, amps, nav, audio stuff lurking in the orifices of the Zed. So without thinking too much about it i think i removed: main head unit radio/tape/cd changer sat nav screen and control panel sub and amp and mount behind drivers seat tray and some module behind passenger seat bluetooth unit in centre console sat nav cd unit behind seats speakers behind seats speakers in doors amp unit plus sat nav aerial plus metal cage in boot. This left loads of wires and connectors unplugged so was unsure how this would impact the new head unit. I decided for ease of install plus weight saving i would just fit new speakers behind the seats and run new speaker wire straight from new stereo. So i bought this basic setup from halfords, again as sad as this may seem, i bought a lightweight non cd unit so its a single din but also only half the size of a normal single din, who has a load of cds in their car anyway now? Because of the diminutive nature of the unit this created its own challenge in securing it into the 350z centre console. I had bought the fascia adaptor so that was fine but i had to use a little fabrication to secure the head unit to the fascia. Fortunately for me, as i already have an aftermarket steering wheel i don’t require or have use of steering wheel controls so just purchased the basic non bose iso connector hoping this would be ok. I soldered the new speaker cable into the harness for the relevant rear left and right speaker wires and run them past the gear stick and handbrake and into the housing behind the seats. There are plenty of holes and voids for this making it very easy. In the pic below the new cable is the orangey wire, you can see the new stereo in the hole where the bose sub was to see how compact it is. Fitted the new speakers which again went straight into the existing holes using the same bolts. Very straight forward when you do a bit of research first and get the correct size. 6.5” for anyone wanting to do this. So with the stereo fitted, speakers in and coupled up. I was left with 2 holes in the dash where the sat nav screen and control panel used to be. I bought a sheet of 3mm black plastic that i cut down to blank these off. The screen part was easy as its just a rectangle so i just put a small bolt/nut either side. The plan for this area moving forward is to house a GPS lap timer/analytics unit so i can make best use of info to improve lap times when i start doing track days in earnest. I have been looking at the Aim solo 2 DL which seems a good bit of kit, you can program the leds for multiple things such as shift lights and the gps timing is accurate to just 2/100th sec. anyway, with it being a nice flat surface i could use it for lots of future options. The slanted section was a bit more tricky to sort. I have blanked off with plastic best i can but as its sloped and curved it isnt flush. I did manage to use existing fixing points though by tapering some more plastic and screwing through into them. Finally added a few stickers to make it look less plain. The little microphone on the rhs is part of the bluetooth stereo and sticks nicely to the side for hands free calling. So at this point I reconnected the battery and fired the stereo up. Now i must admit just having 2 speakers means the sound isn't great but its good enough for my use. The main thing is i have bluetooth calls, apple link up for music and radio. I then realised i had no radio.... or at least no reception anyway. I did a little googling that said the powered aerial needs a turn in signal from the car so battery back off and some more soldering. To try and help others, if you remove the bose amp in the boot, you just about lose all the sound system as everything seems to run through it. I had to connect the remote amp wire (blue) that was on the iso harness to the power wire for the aerial (brown or green) cant exactly remember but the aerial has its own little connector behind the standard head unit. I then figured out that the aerial power or signal runs through the amp so had to cut the connectors off and re-solder together. This was the hardest part of all as aerial wire has an inner and outer copper wire separated by a plastic sleeve. The inner copper strands are so thin they just break when you try and cut through the plastic sleeving so i had to slowly wittle the plastic away to expose the few strands then use plenty of solder and electrical tape to hold together. If you zoom in on pic below you will see what i mean. Anyway, result, this sorted the reception and i now have radio again. With that sorted and all the plastic trim off i decided to “bed liner” the boot area. This would get it neatened up, looking better and protect it as well as giving it a little anti slip property. So i bought some bed liner spray cans from local automotive shop. I used a little sandpaper to rough it up first, masked off and sheeted off as much as i could then firstly used the half can of grey primer i had lying in the garage before 2 coats of the black bed liner. 3 pics below of before, after then after with plastic trim back in. Looks half decent. Also managed to relocate the alarm siron box to the rhs onto a bracket. Finally, purchased a new gear gaiter, black suede with red stitching as the original oem one was looking tired. Unfortunately i destroyed my knob extension (insert innuendo) removing the gear knob at the start of this so may have to purchase another if i don't get on with the short shift look and feel of this. Next up, touch up handbrake paint as the orange is beginning to come back through. A good blast out as its been a couple of months and a good wash and wax as its filthy. Keep Safe, Keep sane everyone.

Forgot to add, i have an aftermarket steering wheel so dont have steering wheel controls anymore so wont be needing that adaptor either. in my head i just buy a universal adaptor for new unit. Find the existing live and solder that into it, connect ground then fit 2 new speakers in door cards and run new wiring to new connector, solder that together, plug in arial connection and bobs your uncle?

Thinking of swapping the oem head unit for a upto date one but as its more a track car i am doing things differently to most so can anybody help with the following. I have already removed the bose sub and amp from behind the drivers seat as it had stopped working anyway, i am wanting to remove the amp in the boot to create more boot space but as i understand it this powers the front and rear speakers? So is there a way of bypassing this amp with a new head unit or will i need to either buy new amp/run new wiring/something else. I would have thought all new stereo units would have a built in amplifier capable of powering either 2 or 4 speakers. I may remove the rear speakers and just have the door speakers as its only for a little music/sound with an upto date system. I may buy new door speakers also but dont know if they need to be a certain size/profile to fit without having to bodge it. I am not bothered about a little work or soldering but have no knowledge of car audio systems so asking on here before i end up balls deep with no sound apart from my shouting.

All depends how “competitive” you want to track it. The zed will understeer a fair amount at the limit with factory spec camber/toe. You can dial a lot of this out with adjustable arms, you will want adjustable anti roll bars as well then you can really taylor the setup to understeer/nuetral/oversteer bias to suit your style, at that point you will want uprated suspension/bushes so it goes on...tyre/wheel sizes and widths etc. basically have a go as it is now and see if its good enough for you and your natural driving style/speed/risk. If you decide to start tinkering you may well keep buying more parts and altering setups to get that perfect feeling.

Bringing the ban forward to 2030 is crazy. Whats the plan for those millions of households parking on the street? Literally half (and then rising) the parking spots at motorway services are gonna need a charge point etc etc There is gonna have to be some monumental investment in infrastructure to make this work at a time when the country is borrowing at record levels already.

Wheel nuts? plenty of colour options and styles to suit your taste/scheme

Mid September saw the last 2 events at Harewood in a condensed covid hit year. I must say the weather has been great for the few events we have had. This was a full weekend Saturday and Sunday to finish with. Saturday was near perfect conditions for the zed, cool enough at around 20 deg to get some cooler air into the engine and not worry about heal soak but sunny enough to warm the tyres and track up. Sunday started very drizzly then gradually dried up and warmed up as the day progressed to finish with similar conditions to Saturday meaning times just got faster and faster on the day. pic below of the weekends backdrop: timing wise, this resulted in me breaking my personal best several times, The car was feeling great and i even managed some quick getaways at around the 2.5 sec mark. Now this is a little misleading as we were starting about 500mm behind the start beam European style so this got everyone a tenth or so but even still, I will take consistent 2.6 sec 64ft times all day and the key to this new launch? Starting as if on the road, i know, it peed me off as well. ignore the rev level and clutch point and just pull away as normal (kind of what you do instinctively) then feed in the power over a second or two. Anyhow, this helped me achieve a PB of 64.09 on the Saturday and 64.17 on the Sunday. getting very close to a 63 now which i think would be incredible for a NA heavy Zed. Must admit i felt a few of the runs were near on perfect and very little (if any) room for improvement. I mean three years of flying up a 64 second hill leaves me chasing hundredths now, not tenths and much depends on the conditions. Really pleased with how the car is now though, there was just a small annoyance in that it was pulling/steering slightly left, not massive but noticeable on the motorway when nice flat road with no camber so after reading up online, i realise this can be dangerous i decided to attempt a diy alignment fix whilst putting on the standard rays for the winter. There were 2 reasons for the car pulling left. First, the camber was maxed out both sides at the front on the adjustable arms, this was done to keep things simple, max camber, max attack, if it gets knocked, easy to put back, but this resulted in the drivers side being around 15 minutes more than the passenger side, also the castor was around the same 15 minutes more. (Toe was identical from prev alignment) so although only minor and on a standard car you may not ever notice, on a race prepped machine with poly bushes, stiff springs, anti roll bars etc it accentuates the tiniest of variants. So armed with my impact gun and torque wrench i decided to have a go safe in the knowledge i would not be driving it in earnest for a while. I started by measuring out the adjustability on the camber plates which was around 3.5 deg then trying to work out how little gap was 15 minutes, basically its a small one, around 3mm, so adjusted that back, then tried to find online the castor specs along with my last printout. The passenger side was right on the upper limit (8.55mins) drivers side was just over 9 deg (out of spec) luckily the eibach camber arms also have adjustable caster plates that can adjust the castor either .5 .75 or 1 deg plus or minus so taking .5 off the passenger and .75 off the drivers side meant they were almost identical number wise and bang in the middle of tolerance oem spec wise, win win. This left me with one last issue, when you change camber it affects toe so i needed to tweak the toe on the drivers side to compensate for the 15minutes less camber. back to the tinterwebs and the zed American forum had someone do some self alignment and worked out (rightly or wrongly) i may never know that 1/8th turn on the tie rods resulted in 15 mins toe which is what i needed so thats what i did. wheels back on, jumped in and took the girl out for a quick spin and to my amazement she handled superb, 100% straight on the flat and following the camber of the road both left and right as applicable. Now i don’t condone everyone to self align as in my defence i was only tweaking the front, i dare say if the camber/toe was way off i would have probably screwed it up even further but nevertheless i was chuffed to bits with this. Fresh from above i decided to do a yearly service myself ready for the winter and mot next month, so i purchased these along with some new copper and alloy washers in various sizes as i wasn't sure which size i would need for the oil sump plug and diff plugs. I decided to soak the differential drain and fill plugs in wd40 to be working away whilst i jacked up the front and took off the undertray. Then off with the oil sump plug and drain the oil filling up my oil pan to the brim (which was significant) I then looked at the oil filter and thought, this could be awkward. It was! As i have an oil cooler, the lines run to the sandwich plate attached to the filter meaning there is next to no room, enough to get your hand in but i couldn’t get any grip/leverage to twist the oil filter off so I had to resort to the smack a screwdriver through and turn. Problem was i only had space for the screwdriver to turn less than an inch and it was bending as well as tearing the metal case of the filter as well as not budging as well as covering my arm and the floor in oil. Many expletives later i came to the conclusion i would have to take off the oil cooler lines, cue even more oil pouring over my arms and the floor! Then whacked a long allen key through the filter and just about managed to twist it off, boy was that thing on tight! Not wanting to be in the same predicament next time i made sure the new filter went on hand tight only! on a plus note, the magnetic plug and oil was in good nick with only minimal metal particles, pic below: new washer and cleaned plug back in, refilled with the fuchs oil and after about 3 hours finally that was done, spin car around and jack the rear end up now. Now the upside (and downside) of having a plated diff like my Kaaz is that you have to change the oil yearly as it uses mineral oil rather than synthetic which doesn't have the same longevity but this means that the plugs get removed regularly so came out easy as pie. Again like the engine oil, the gear oil seemed in very good condition with the magnetic plug again only having a small amount of metal particles stuck to it (around 4 or 5 but actual metal bits 1mm rather than shavings) not bad for a diff that takes a fair amount of abuse. Then i got to use my new oil transfer pump and filled with fresh dedicated kaaz gear oil, halfway through i was pumping away not paying attention when the plastic tube popped out of the fill hole and topped up the pool of oil that was now soaking into the tarmac. I used an 18mm internal diameter copper washer for the plugs if anyone wants to know, you could also use a 17.5mm Plugs back in, quick drive out and all was fine, put back away in garage with no leaks or oil drops on garage floor so a productive Sunday afternoon. I finished off by parking the wifes car over the 2ft wide oil stained tarmac and waited to see if she would ring me at work the next day to say her car might have an oil leak. Still waiting... Just the MOT to do in November, will see how the kinetix high flow cats get on, not had any engine light come on since installing so fingers crossed then I like everyone am looking forward to next year when we “may” have some car shows and a full season of racing.

Just looking at the pic and my 3 year old boy looks over my shoulder and says, “look dad, it’s broken, let’s get it fixed.”

Yes def different for DE @JAllen28 you can have it fella but collection from Pontefract or Ripon (work) All i was asking for was a small donation to the forum.

I have one for free but its a HR model type.

Gotta get me one of those shifters. looking good

Yes mate, yours looks much neater and more like a pro job. I suppose its easier when you stick to the same size pipe. With the cats and flexis i was going over and with no room to move under the car along with starting at the wrong end which i didnt realise was an issue until after it was never gonna be great. I guess at some point i may end up pulling it all off and doing again (bit like the bumper) do it once, screw it up, leave it a bit then do it right next time round. what i would say is it does seem to have given me a few extra bhp as at last event i was hitting rev limiter in places a good few metres before i ever have previously so definitely think it helps with both temps and getting the gases out quicker, just need to find out how long the bodge will last...

Update 06/09/2020 Just a small update as like for most people, Covid has ruined this year but at least we have our Zeds to put a smile on our faces. After last update and being bored with the standard engine cover I decided to buy some gold spray cans and give a touch of colour to the bay and try and make the shiney air boxes blend in a little more. It turned out ok and certainly captures the eye when i open the hood now. Is it ok to say hood, watching all this youtube content in lockdown has me fully americanised. I then had my first hillclimb event of the year at the beginning of August (finally) and while i was a little rusty it just about stayed dry all day and it was refreshing to stretch the cars legs, although i had taken it out for some spirited drives over the summer, its not the same as actually flooring it on a track. My times were a little off but very consistent, in the 65's all day with best being 65.64 and good enough for second in class (out of 13) During August I decided to have another go and painting the front bumper. I had rushed it far too quickly last time resulting in a shower of s6!t finish and it may be no show car anymore, it still needs to be presentable in the paddock. So bumper spray job part duex ensued and this time putting the base colour down as a mist, 3 light coats followed by one light clear coat, then 2 heavy coats of clear. left overnight to dry/cure. then wet sanded back with P800 and P1200 resulting in this: Then hand polished with a gtechniq hand polishing sponge, course side (white) with some scholl S3 compound i had left then the soft side (black) with some S40 for the finish. I opted to do by hand with plenty of elbow grease as the DA polisher was just not cutting it. It was taking 3 times as long to get the same results. Just confirming that DA machines may be great for finishing they are too "safe" for heavy cutting if required. Anyway final result was this, which for a diy job in the garage i was happy with, overall 6/10 rather than the 2/10 i had before. I did finish with my right bicep a good 1" bigger than my left counterpart: What I will add is that if like me, you decide to do this inside, cover everything. I masked up the floor in front and the engine bay and wheels behind but the overspray from the base coat and clear goes f-ing everywhere! literally, it gets where water can't. Luckily as the car is ceramic coated, the layer of whatever it is was sat on top of the paintwork so a quick snowfoam and wash afterwards cleared the mess, not sure how lucky i would have been if either the car paint was "bare" or i'd left it several days/weeks before cleaning. Next up was installing some bits i'd had lying around for months. If you have read this build from the beginning then apart from being in solitary confinement with only this to look at, you will know that I have had issues with the clutch fluid boiling. I put some heat sleeve on all the lines I could see running close to the cats (obviously the heat issue is made worse by the high flow cats not having heat shields like the OEM ones. I also wrapped the main clutch line in some gold tape i had left over from the air boxes and then (after this photo) cable tied where i needed to make sure everything stayed in placed. Then I had been umming and arring for a while on whether to put some heat wrap on the exhaust so just bit the bullet and went for it. I had 10mt of volcano wrap bought on E-bay. It doesn't state what volcano it comes from but i suspect its one in China!! This was only enough to do the CATS so i had to purchase some more from a local car shop. This was the standard fibreglass stuff which is all they had so i used that for the y-pipe and finished it off there, I think there is little point doing any further along, there may be little point doing any of the exhaust reading the internet but what the hell. I started the car and left it running for 15-20 mins to cure the wrap as per instructions. It does smoke a bit and stinks and you certainly have to open the hood if your stationary to let the smoke/fumes out. The next day i sprayed some high temp silicone spray over the wrap purchased from Demon-Tweeks which supposidly helps seal the exterior preventing moisture and dirt getting engrained into the wrap and causing corrosion. The problem I have is that i was doing this in the garage with car on axle stands, I barely had enough room to scratch my ar5e let alone install the wrap so it wasn't anywhere near as tight as it should be and I struggled to get it taught around the cats which chamfer out and in, I just had to do best i could and use lots of jubilee clips but there are still small gaps here and there so crap can get in. Worth noting i used white silicone spray so finish isn't the most aesthetically pleasing but it was the only colour in stock, you can get black and others if you prefer. While under the car i chose to put some underseal around the kidney brackets as like many, they were starting to rust even though i'd protected them previously, so out with the wire brush to scrape off the loose rust and brush on a heavy coat of underseal: I have just remembered, I paid another visit to Horsham sometime in the last few months to try and sort out an issue I had with the revs dropping and car spluttering around 2k revs. I also needed to get the car mapped again as i had also replaced the high flow cats and y-pipe courtesy of @buster in order to try and free up a few more ponies. It was after this install the car developed the problem with the revs (nothing to do with the exhaust) As usual for me I didn't take any photos at Tarmac HQ or Horsham but it was great to see Bob again and the guys at Tarmac for the first time, you don't need me to tell you, pay them a visit if you need anything for your Zed, likewise the guys at Horsham. Jez did manage to replicate the stuttering and put it down to the VVT controllers sticking which is a semi-common fault. He has managed to map most of it out and get me 2 extra BHP so its only evident in nuetral now but to fix it for good i am gonna need some used VVT bits from Zmanalex at £200 or new from Nissan at £2k I know which way i will be going. Fast forward to last week and it was the second event at Harewood, weather was the same as previous, dry but very cold for August (about 14 degrees) and very windy on the hill so it was never going to be a record setting day but nether the less on Run 2 I put in a flawless run to net a 64.61 Think this is third best ever so given the conditions and the fact the grip was just not there, i was chuffed, every corner on the run hooked up and i even managed to get the car launched semi-reasonable. I have just come to the conclusion that starting "normally" and feeding the throttle in over 2-3 seconds is quicker than any other method at Harewood. Overall I was second in class again (out of 12) missing out on win by 0.15 secs Car was looking good, just noticed I have also fitted some quick release bolts for front bumper as i was fed up cutting my hands getting into the wheel wells every month. Another quick mod although I cringed when i was drilling the wings (fenders if you like) I have actually done a fair bit looking back. Photo below of some of the class, including a fully stripped out GT4 Aston (that if it was a regular championship event I don't think would be in this class) And Finally last week, the family and I had a much needed break in Wales. I will leave you with the view from the top of our hill:

I know you can get a standard clear coat and then a 2k clearcoat which i used for my bumper. The 2k stuff is twice the price but supposed to be resistant to petrol/oil etc. (Well, as much as your oem stuff is) so it may be just crappy clear you have used, also i think you need to give clear a good day or so to cure before exposing it to the elements (Temp and humidity dependant) so possibly if you put it straight onto car that may have been an issue? just clutching at straws for you.

DM sent

Yes, will do. Will get you a couple of pics and message you at weekend to sort.

Definitely for HR, im near Leeds. i could arrange UPS if too far but would be an extra £10 to cover.

If you have a thermostatic sandwich plate i dont think the oil in the lines and cooler will drain anyway so just add the standard amount. This will then mix with the oil held in the oil cooler when next running engine upto temp.

I have a set lying around, cobra hfc’s only a couple of years old but cannot vouch for the “internal” condition. They did get through the last mot (just) yours for £100 if any use.

Yeah, im with msitpro sold mine when i put my polyurethane bumper on, they are an inconvenience at best anyway and most people on here detest using them as they spray washer fluid all over you bonnet as well as the lights, lets face it, if anyone leaves washing their car long enough for the headlights to need assisted washing aids then either they shouldn’t be responsible for a car or are probably driving illegally already as the number plate is lower and will be masked well before the headlights. i did read somewhere on here that it is part of mot that if fitted they should work, but we can take the “if fitted” literally and unfit them.