SteveW

I thought so just wanted confirmation, thanks I'll drop Alex a PM Cheers Steve

Hi, I've just bought a K1 and Y pipe off YHTM (Thank you) just need to fit it which i'm planning on doing this or next weekend. Just wondering can you re-use the Y pipe to cat and y pipe to mid pipe gaskets that come with the stock exhaust or should I just buy some new ones? If so where do you buy exhaust gaskets from? A couple of shops around me don't do them. I've got gaskets for the cans to the mid-pipe. Thank you Steve

Amen to that, think thats why my Celica still looks good 18 years down the line. Ha ha.

Thanks chaps paints4u it is I'll have a look later and get them ordered. Hopefully the centre console will look ad good as I 'think' it will.... If not it'll be getting carbon wrapped. I just fancy something different. Cheers Steve

Where is the best place to get rattle cans, i.e. quality ones. I'm planning on painting the centre console black with silver metal flecks in and want to do a good job so trying to find the best quality rattle cans. The only place I can think of for cans at the moment is Halfords, but have no idea how good quality these rattlers are. thank you Steve

Hi A couple of quick questions regarding the Eibach springs you can get for the 350z - Pro-Kit. I'm thinking of getting some springs for my car, I'm not bothered about it lowering the car - but I know they will. What I'm more interested in is stiffening the suspension a bit, I like a hard ride lol I don't want to get coilovers due to cost, and the fact they aren't particularly well suited to the UK roads, i.e.durability. Anyway these questions are really to those who already have the Eibachs fitted or had them in the past: 1) Are they stiffer springs and therefore will make the ride a bit harder? 2) I've seen on the Eibach website they lower the car approximately 30mm, does this give any clearance issues over those stupid half speed bumps? I can currently clear them with no issues and don't wanna start having to avoid roads with them cos there are loads where I live! 3)Any other issues I should be aware of? I'm running with the standard Rays and got no plans of changing in the near future. Thanks very much Steve

Cracking guide good find! I'm planning on painting my centre console the same way that guy has painted his mouse. Black paint with silver metalic flecked laquer. Didn't have a clue how to start but now I do, wish me luck! I think I'll need it. I'll post up reslts when its all done.

Another point do't forget perceivede quality - Audi and BMW are renowned as premium brands. In actuality they use many of the same suppliers that cheaper car manufacturers use. Just cos something has a BMW or Audi badge doesn't mean its better quality.

Yeah the quality of the paint isn't fantastic, in fact my 18 year old Celica GT4 has better paint but you do have to be mindful of the fact of cost as mentioned before. i.e. 30K car etc. If you aren't happy with the paint you can always have it re-sprayed, I would personally stay away from Nissan for this and go see a specialist. I really like the look of Ford Panther Metallic with the silver flecks in the paint that the Zed unfortunately misses. Another point to bear in mind when the zed was first produced they had just changed from oil based to water based paints and all the problems associated with water based paints had probably not been ironed out. This is one of the reasons why its much more important to wash and wax newer cars all the time. Cheers Steve

Right I'm open to offers on these now they are just taking up space in the kitchen. Cheers Steve

Right all sorted now It cost me £85 for the rear discs skimming. They quoted me £48 per hour + VAT. They thought it would only take 45 minutes but because the nearside rear was very bad they had to do a number of very small skims so took 90mins in total. One side twenty minutes the other an hour + ten minutes set up and re fit of wheels. I no longer have vibration or jerky braking as I had previously. I used: K N M Motors Ltd Deanfield Garage Leeds LS27 9QS telephone: 0113 253 5608 If anyone is looking for their brakes skimming and struggling to find somewhere like I did, they WILL do drilled and grooved also and have a Procut machine. The garage setup seems rather good, all equipment looks to be in good nick, the owner is sound and the guy who did my car was sound too. I will definately be using them again probably for the MOT. Its also good to support the local family businesses. I'll get the DTI out at the weekend and check runouts for actual values. However I can tell its a lot lot better, brakes have more bite even with just light braking I am currently applying. I am ensuring the discs are fully stress relieved from the machining residual stresses before getting some proper heat into them. Overall well happy! If anyone has any questions just drop me a PM. Cheers Steve

Whoops Double Post

Hallelula!!!!! I have found someone who will skim drilled and grooved disks who is fairly local! I've only called about twenty places.... Touch wood, but it doesn't look like I'll be having to take a trip to EBC in Northampton. I'll post up details when done, I'm going in tomorrow afternoon. See what the runout are like before and after. Thanks Steve

Hallelula!!!!! I have found someone who will skim drilled and grooved disks who is fairly local! I've only called about twenty places.... Touch wood, but it doesn't look like I'll be having to take a trip to EBC in Northampton. I'll post up details when done, I'm going in tomorrow afternoon. Thanks Steve

I think its probably one of the bearings on the gearbox, likely in my opinion to be the input shaft bearing thats gone. I also have a very quiet whine, I'm 99% sure what most people think is the clutch release bearing (common fault on the 350Z) is actually the gearbox input shaft bearing. I had this before on my Punto and it was very similar to the noises coming from the 350z. When the clutch goes I'll be taking the gearbox off and having the input shaft bearing replaced. I have no noise at all in neutral with the clutch pressed in but get a rumbly/ additional noise when it is released. Hope you get yours sorted mate. Steve

Hi mate thanks very much. This is where it gets confusing it works perfectly with everything except for the Iphone. My sony MP3 has no issues. I would use that but cos its well old the battery lasts about 5 minutes and windows on my laptop doesn't support Sonicstage anymore. I'll take some photos when I pull it apart next time and send them over if I can't figure out whats wrong, maybe someone else can see whats wrong really appreciate your help. Thank you very much Steve

I'm still struggling to find someone who is actually willing to skim the discs. I haven't had any response from EBC as to if they can identify someone who is willing to skim them, I can't seem to locate a phone number for them either. Just for information the runout on mine where the problem is coming from is 0.36mm so to the naked eye looks like nothing but is a lot in braking terms. Spec for rears is 0.07mm and front 0.05mm. The root cause is hub runout caused by a bump to the kerb during the snow. Replacing all the parts isn't garaunteed to remove the problem completely because of the tolerances in the assembled parts so a skim may still be required even with a new hub carrier, hub, bearing and disks. I work in engineering and a lot of tolerance stackups are based on statistics and in some instances you will just be unlucky. A skim of the disks on the vehicle is the best solution if you are suffering any disk runout provided the disks are fairly new or you have enough meat left on them so they can be skimmed and won't go close to or below the minimum thickness. Obviously first check you haven't mounted the disks on a dirty hub! I'll let everyone know if I find anyone who will skim them up. Cheers Steve

Hi mate, Thanks very much, if I can't find anyone who will skim them up then I'll be stuck with only one route, new everything in that case I'll drop you a PM savings on parts are always appreciated Cheers again steve

Hi mate, I have considered fixing the underlying issue however this will prove to be very expensive. The wheel bearing would need to be replaced and it is also good practice to replace the hub as well. I've had experience in the past of just replacing the bearing to find it goes again a few thousand miles later due to the hub being out of round following removal of the old bearing. This should solve the hub run out issue but it can't be garaunteed because of the tolerance stack up of the associated assembly. I used to work in a car plant and disk skimming was done on some brand new cars. If the new bearing and hub etc did solve the hub runout however then new discs would be required because the ones on there now have got a thin patch caused by the hub running out for the last couple of thousand miles. So either way to use the existing disks they will need skimming and getting them skimmed on the car is the best bet because then they match the hub and run much truer. Hope this makes sense. Cheers steve

I still can't get my MP3 mod to work with my Iphone. I'm getting there though I think, I added two 32Ohm resistors as suggested by another member and it now detects that the Iphone is plugged into something so plays through the car speakers until you pause it then it stops working again. Only other thing I've noticed is the earth portion of my lead is live when you lick it you get a tingley tongue, I really don't know how I have manged this, it is only soldered onto the earth part of the board..... I tried licking the lead plugged into my hom eamp and this is tingle free . . . . nothing is ever easy or works first time for me.....

Hi Everyone, I hope someone can help me. Has anyone had their EBC turbgrooves skimmed on the car? I need to get my rear disks done due to hub run out on the passenger side from a knock on the kerb in the snow. However, I have tried 4 places I found on www.skimmydiscs.co.uk but no one will do them because they are drilled and grooved. Has anyone found any places that will do them? I'm based in Wakefield but I am now willing to travel cos I can't drive over 50, well I can as long as I don't use the brakes but need to get them done as soon as possible. I'm even considering going to the actual EBC place in northamptonshire. Does anyone also have a phone number for EBC because all I can find is an email form on their website and they haven't replied yet...... Thank you Steve

These are still available if anyone is interested. All boxed up and ready to go. Thanks Steve

Hi Zazur, the disk causing the problem on mine is running out a long way its clearly visible to the naked eye However the issue is quite a lot to do with the runout of the hub I have found. After I checked my discs I took them off and got the flatness checked where I work. The discs are all within 0.035mm except for the passenger side rear on its own it is out of spec but only out by 0.1mm. The hub run out however (at approximately half the diameter of the disk) is 0.15 thus at the outer edge of the disk this is causing the disk to run out by 0.30mm (assuming the disk was perfectly flat) however I know thats out by 0.1mm which gives a total runout of approximately 0.4mm. Since taking the original measuremnets I posted I have rotated the disk to its 'best' position and run out is down to 0.36mm way out of spec but I think with mine the biggest issue is the hub run out not the disc itself. Have you checked your hub runouts this could also be contributing to vibrations. I'll let you know how I get on after my skimming, I've found a local guy who ill skim the turbogrooves.

Well car got serviced but discs didn't get skimmed, garage were unwilling to do them because they are drilled and grooved and were concerned they would damage the machine. Bloody main dealers need a kicking!# Trying to locate somewhere else tomorrow!