Ekona

There's no legal noise level for a car as such, but you could get an ASBO if you drove around a housing estate for hours in 1st gear like a tit. So don't do that.

Little follow up...

The system is nicely bedded in now (400 miles-ish) so I thought it might be interesting to do a noise test on it. Hired a meter from BaT (so it's the same as what they use trackside) and had a friend hold it 0.5m from exhaust at 45degrees and held the revs at 4500rpm. Now considering this exhaust IS REALLY QUITE LOUD, what reading do you think we got, bearing in mind each additional 3dB is a doubling of volume? Remember, this is with no bungs in. 100dB? 103dB? 106dB maybe? Nope.

95dB

And even that was absolute peak, the meter tended to sit around the 93.5dB mark. Even when we bounced it off the limiter we only got 98dB, so static it's pretty much fine for just about all UK tracks (Goodwood the main exception). Thing is, the exhaust is much louder under load (especially so considering I've got a Popcharger on there as well), so it'll possibly fail on the drive-by. It's more the tone of it that comes across as particularly brash and loud, and not the actual volume of it.

I'll get out tomorrow and do a test with the bungs in, hopefully I'll be able to borrow my brother and his MY07 which is bone stock and do a comparison.

I'm still hoping that one day they catch up to google maps. Its so easy to add waypoints, telling it to either go past, or that you are stopping there. Much easier when you are trying to plan a trip through rural Wales

You can use Google Maps and TT ITN files to plan a route. It's a bit complex to describe, but a piece of cake when you get used to it:

1. Using Google Maps, plot your route BUT DON'T USE EXACT PLACE/ROAD NAMES. Instead, click on a small piece of road near each junction/road you want to be on. This will give you the LatLong co-ords in the destination bar at the top of the screen, and this is what you want.

2. Using the TT, go to the itinerary screen and select New. Start entering your co-ords in order, from start to destination. This bit can be a bit awkward, as GM gives you the co-ords without the N/E/S/W designation that TT uses. You'll need to simply guess which one you need to select to get the right part of the country (unless you know exactly how to translate them, which I don't). Basically I always leave the first half of the co-ord (latitude) as default (which I think is N), and then change the second half (longitude) to the other one. However, this is very much dependant on what part of the country you're in, and you'll have to confirm it on the map afterwards. Usually TT throws up an error if you've got it wrong, so you just pick the other one.

Anyone lost yet?!

3. You then need to take every co-ord you've entered (apart from the start and finish) and mark them as a waypoint. On the main list of them, simply tap each one and select 'mark as waypoint'. Job's a carrot.

To give you an example, here's the GM of my route in France for my LeMans trip next month:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&hl=en ... +Voyageurs)&daddr=D6+%4048.195620,+0.203510+to:72460&sll=48.205571,0.225048&sspn=0.082257,0.22934&ie=UTF8&z=7

Sorry, phpBB doesn't let that be a clicky, you'll have to copy + paste it into your browser See the co-ords in the top right? That's what you want. The reason for doing this is that GM will take you a different route to TT sometimes, so you need to be as exact as you can bear when putting in the co-ords. If anyone really wants further help on this, either PM me and I'll try to clarify stuff, or if there's a big enough demand I guess I could do a YouTube video of it.

Anyway, hope that helps a bit.

It could be that a wastegate is stuck open, so the turbos are spinning but no boost can be generated since the wastegate is venting all the time. How to check this - I don't know

Very possible, good point. To check you'd need to manually pull the wastegate arm open and see if it closes nice and tight, no play in the springs or anything. Probably need to be done with the car in the air unless you've got arms like pipecleaners

If the turbos are spinning but you're not seeing any boost, then that's got to be the cause. It's not impossible that you've got something stuck in the blades of the turbos, but on both it's a bit unlikely. I wouldn't drive it too much in that state, as if you're not getting any boost the turbos will be spinning as fast as they possibly can, and you'll kill them pretty quickly.

Definitely no hoses popped off anywhere?

Do you have a boost gauge at all? Any kind of boost controller (electronic or manual)?

Ford Focus Mk1. Cheap as chips, as reliable as anything you're likely to find for that money/mileage, and a decent drive too. Loads of space, cheap servicing + parts, won't lose much more value if any. Better spec than an equivalently priced Golf, just a more rubbish badge.

Just a thought, anyways. I'd stay as far away from the Zed in terms of fun/performance as possible to make it a real treat when you finally get to drive it.

Would a crank sensor kill all boost though? Not having seen the car or kit in question and I'm far from an expert at the VQ35DE engine, but the symptoms sound more like one of the pipes post-turbo but before the TB have popped off: At least, that's what I've had before on previous aftermarket turbo'd cars. If this had happened, then would the car going lean off-boost/rich on-boost cause the crank sensor failure?

Sorry, not trying to sound like a know-it-all-Nancy here or anything, I'm genuinely interested as to what caused the failure as going FI is something I'm looking at for the future of my own car, and I'm more experienced with turbos than superchargers so that's probably the route I'd take. Just eager to learn, that's all!

Is there not an easier way to reset the ECU, like pulling a fuse/s like on other cars? That guide (whilst I'm sure it's spot-on an is great if you don't want to start pulling the car apart) seems like hard work for something that should be so simple...

Or is this typical Jap engineering over-complicating everything?

Exactly. If the government reduced the tax on the fuel (and don't forget, every time that the physical cost of the fuel itself goes up the tax goes up twice as much!), then we could start paying sensible money for our fuel which would in turn lead to cheaper food in our supermarkets, which would mean that we would have more spare to pay our mortgages with or buy luxury goods, which would lead to a kick start in the economy and we wouldn't have to worry about this credit crunch malarky.

However, getting the government to understand all that is another matter...

That's been doing the round for at least the last three years, and it'll never make the blindest bit of difference. It's the tax that's the issue for us, not the cost of the petrol itself.

Very nice, especially the Delorean. I've been tunnel running with a couple of those and they sound beautiful

*EDIT* And I've just realised (after looking at the background) that the Delorean isn't a mock-up of the BTTF car, but rather one of the prop cars they poodle around in at Universal (or it looks familiar to my eyes anyway).

It's free for one year and then you have to pay. I've just upgraded from the old 500 to an XL Europe, and that's the same content in the pack as that one. Speaking of which, unless you want it for the small size for the same price as that ONE you should be able to get an XL which has a much bigger screen.

Honestly, don't use the included TT speed cams as they're utter rubbish. There's a good few missing and they don't include the mobile sites, which is what I find the PGPSW ones particularly good for. If you're going to spend £130 on something, another £19 isn't that much more on top at all.

I use the TT for GPS speed cam locations, but I never bother with the official ones as they're slightly rubbish. Go to PocketGPSWorld and pay £19 per year for a fully speed-zoned and type set of the buggers. Far more accurate and dead cheap

Is that literally all you want? No subs, better speakers, nothing? If that's the case, then read the pages on 350Z-tech.com and do it yourself, as it's really not that hard at all.

Honest!

BBC iPlayer my friend

Agreed. Right up there with the one just after Angus got caught playing with naughty ladies, absolutely hysterical!

"GORDON'S ALIVE!" :lol:

Not by much perhaps, but it will alter it for the worse. 45% of 255mm is more than 45% of 245mm.

*EDIT* using this handy site, with 255 tyres on the speedo will read 1.3% too slow.

0-100 times count though!

Not unless you're driving at 100mph in the first 3 gears in a straight line it's not.

@Sarnie: We're on about the 330D, not the 335D.

Yup, the second number is the height of the sidewall expressed as a percentage of the width, which is in mm.

0-whatever times are pretty irrelevant unless you're on the drag strip. In-gear acceleration and torque is what counts after you've started moving, and that's why the 330D is a fantastic cruising car. A well-driven Zed should happily keep up with it all day long, but if you get things wrong then the Beemer is going to walk away.

330Ds are hugely quick when moving, look at the torque they put out. No shame there I reckon.

Nice one, cheers Phil.

And yes, this does mean that those bits I got from you are still sitting in a box in the lounge

As per the title, really.

Any ideas as to how long it should take a reasonably competent garage to do a pad change, fluid change, and fit a set of Goodridge lines on a Brembo'd Zed? Couple of hours tops?

Thanks!

Or you could use Photoshop Express Beta.

Just say you're from the US when signing up, they don't check at all and you get access to all the shiny goodness that Adobe can offer. Whilst it's not exactly CS3, it is very good and the quick tools do work well.