ThreeFiddyZ's OEM+ 350z Rev-up Build Thread

[ThreeFiddyZ]

So, after my 10th consecutive year of Zed ownership passed by last year, I thought it was about time to start a build thread to document at least some of what I've been up to with my Zed during my ownership, particularly more recently.

Since the beginning, I've always wanted any changes or improvements made to seamlessly blend into and compliment the rest of the car, with the aim of an 'OEM+' style (so I have been known to be quite particular/minimalistic with my build to say the least!) whilst at the same time, doing my best to keep on top of any issues to make sure it is maintained to the highest standard.

Anyway, to get the ball rolling, here is a picture of my Zed from a few years ago and I will begin to add some updates to this thread shortly to show some of the more recent work!

 

Edited 49 minutes ago by ThreeFiddyZ

[ThreeFiddyZ]

So, now that I've broken the ice somewhat, let's get started.

As many others will probably agree, unfortunately the plastic lenses on 350z headlights don't tend to stand the test of time too well. Whilst the headlight internals are pretty reliable (providing you have your wheelarch liners still fitted and don't remove them!) the lenses deteriorate and become cloudy. 

Although I did wet sand and polish the lenses on my original headlights, although most would have been happy with this, the perfectionist in me still wasn't happy with the result. I am really my own worst enemy. So, anyway, I went hunting and thankfully after a year or so, I managed to buy two new genuine Nissan facelift headlights for a decent price, so naturally these were the first to be fitted.

Before


During (with one of the old headlights photobombing the picture...😄) 


After 😁


It's amazing how simply replacing the headlights has already taken years of age off the front of the car, very happy with the results.

The only issues I ran into when dropping the bumper and swapping the headlight out for the first time was that there were actually three bolts in the liners that had to be undone to release the front bumper, and the headlight washers needed to be removed as part of the process. This can be achieved by simply gently pulling the headlight washer covers forward as they are spring loaded, which gives access to unclip the headlight washer covers.

Funnily enough I was more nervous about breaking the headlight washer covers more than anything else, so big thumbs up up to @davey_83 for the video he made on this below, this was a huge help.
 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by ThreeFiddyZ

[ThreeFiddyZ]

Next on the list...

For the last few weeks, I'd noticed a small leak of washer fluid on my garage floor. After pulling back the drivers side arch liner and inspecting the pumps, I found that the front washer pump itself was leaking, rather than the washer bottle or pump to bottle seal. This also seems to be a common issue but is thankfully easily addressed.



I took the opportunity to replace both the front and rear washer pumps, using the below.

Front Washer Pump (Starline OE equivalent) Part No: OE-48870001S
Rear Washer Pump (Blueprint OE equivalent) Part No: ADN10316

The front and rear washer pumps can be obtained from a few different places using the above part numbers. I bought my front pump from Halfords for £11.99, but had to buy the rear pump from Amazon for £22. Don't be fooled like me and assume the front and rear pump are the same. I assumed they were and ordered two front pumps, but the electrical connectors are different. 

To replace, it's dead simple. Whilst it is probably easier to jack your Zed up and remove the wheel, I opted to turn the steering full lock left, unscrew and peel back the arch liner, and go from there. To disconnect the existing pumps, whack a drain tray underneath and then simply move the pumps downwards slightly whilst you pull them out. Mine were quite stubborn but eventually popped out allowing me to replace them.

Job done and onto the next one.

[ThreeFiddyZ]

Next job...sorting out my Pioneer headunit install.

Back in 2020, I got fed up of burning CD's and installed a Pioneer SPH-DA250DAB headunit to replace my Bose headunit, via the Busters mod method, instead of using the RCA pre-outs. This was a huge much needed improvement and bought the Zed into the modern world with some nice features like Android Auto, DAB, and so on. However, ever since the Pioneer headunit was fitted I found that I ended up with a constant white/static noise emitted from the Bose speakers, even with the ignition on and engine off. The white noise would get even louder when I switched the input source over to Android Auto because for some reason, Pioneer decided that when Android Auto is launched they would configure the SPH-DA250DAB model to further increase the gain/volume when Android Auto launched.

This was a frustrating problem that nobody else seems to have experienced with the 350z. Some research suggested that I should fit a ground loop isolator, but after some testing I established that this was not a grounding problem and this would not fix my issue, as the white noise was constantly there with the engine off and it did not change in pitch/frequency/sound with the engine running and revving. The only way I can describe it (for those that are old enough 😁) is the same type of noise you'd hear if you played a blank cassette at a loud enough volume. In summary, irritating as hell!

As I was convinced this was an issue with excessive gain levels somewhere, I tried a number of different things based upon some information I could find.

- Reconnecting the Bose headunit and turning the volume all the way to maximum, then reconnecting my Pioneer headunit
(to try to have the Bose amp gain match the Pioneer headunits gain level)
- Reconnecting the Bose headunit and turning the volume all the way to the minimum, then reconnecting my Pioneer headunit
(to try to reduce the gain set on the Bose amp)
- Reconnecting the Bose headunit to turn off the speed sensitive volume control, then reconnecting my Pioneer headunit
 (Some information suggested that although the SVC setting is configured on the Bose headunit, the SVC is actually enabled on the Bose amp. I actually found this is enabled by default in the Bose headunit)
- Tweaking various settings in the Pioneer headunit to turn off loudness, equalizers, and so on. Nothing made any difference!

After spending quite a few hours researching the issue, I managed to find that quite a few Mazda MX5 and Corvette owners have experienced similar issues with their Bose systems, and unless you want to use the RCA pre-outs to connect to the Bose system (which results in incredibly poor volume) the solution is to purchase and fit an LOC (line output converter) which allows you to adjust the gain on each speaker channel.

So, that's what I did. I bought a Scosche Oea4 4-Channel Adjustable Factory Amplifer Interface (which Scosche themselves state is intended for exactly this scenario) for £13 from Amazon, and after a quick test fit with some wagos to verify this resolved the problem, I went ahead and cut and soldered the Schosche Oea4 into the loom I'd built when following Buster's mod, connecting the Pioneer headunits speaker output to the input side of the Scosche Oae4, and the output side of the Scosche Oae4 to the speaker cables going to the Bose amp (which are converted from RCA to speaker level inputs when you follow Busters mod).

Problem solved without any noticeable loss in volume and one happy chappy 😄
Excuse the hastily edited photo (courtesy of cs2000) below, but hopefully it makes it clear for anyone who has the same problem and needs the solution.



Next slide please... 😆

[ThreeFiddyZ]

Side quest...repairing my 350z Xanavi sat-nav screen.

Unfortunately, whilst disassembling the centre console in my Zed to remove my Pioneer headunit the loom/harness for the sat-nav buttons ended up rubbing against my 350z sat-nav screen, putting some fine scratches in the bottom half of the screen. Whilst I know the 350z sat-navs are not particularly held in high regard (and many just remove them) I couldn't live with these scratches as I've opted to keep mine in place. So, after some research it appeared that I had two options. 

1) Polish the sat-nav screen to remove the existing anti-glare coating and scratches. Whilst this would probably give a good result, it would take quite a lot of time to achieve

2) Find and purchase a screen protector with an anti-glare coating, and install it over the top of the sat-nav screen

In my case, I opted for the second option. For future reference, the height of the 350z Xanavi sat-nav screen is 87mm and the width is 154.8mm (minus the bezels) as it is a 7 inch screen. With these dimensions, I was able to purchase a Brotect matt screen protector with anti-glare from Amazon, which once fitted has completely hidden the scratches on the sat-nav screen. Result!