You should also service your power steering and brake fluid.

My power steering fluid was checked and topped off not too long ago. I'm waiting to get my brake fluid flushed when I install my z1 slotted rotors w/ new brake pads. The rotors are backordered though and I ordered them late last year.

Designed this for my drift switch today.

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aw man!

Though i think the Nismo has red stitching on a ton of those parts right? that would clash with the rest of my car i think.

I am looking around at options for an OEM base/sport bumper though.... i may need to just buy a new one and get it paint matched

Since I’m still waiting on blower upgrade before going boosted (now this fall), decided to order new wheels to tie me over this summer: 18” Enkei RS05-rr’s in 9.5” (+22) / 11” (+16). Will be mounting 275/40 DW06 in front and Toyo TQ 315/35 out back.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ahyrb1xmw7...3.18.jpg?raw=1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8obgksxsgi...3.28.jpg?raw=1

So doesn't look like these are tips. at least from feeling around under there.

Did the previous owner install a nismo muffler?

I was thinking it sounded better than my last car slightly.

Getting ready for spring
 

Bought my car in Dec (2009 Touring Sport, AT, 56K miles) and drove it home a couple hundred miles, been sitting in the garage ever since. I live on the back roads in upstate NY and they won't be clear of sand and crap for another month or so.

The dealer did an oil change before I bought the car. Over the winter I installed an oil pressure gauge, wired up a plug for a batter tender, did transmission service (drained and filled 3x and cleaned the filter) and drained/refilled the differential. Luckily, non of the fluids looked too bad. Just finished up today and now I am dying to take the Z out, but resisting the temptation until the roads are better. Makes it tempting to move somewhere else.

It does, but I do have grey headliner and carpet. Also have both Nimo seats LOL.

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Yes, that is a Nismo muffler.

Don't forget the PS fluid. I simply use a syringe to suck down the reservoir at every oil change to keep fresh and refill with fluid in lieu of the bs associated with purging the rack. Also grab some coolant test strips and see how the PH is looking. Pull your steering lock fuse too. :tiphat:

The latest logs from the last flash look really good. AFRs are on-target and there's zero timing correction on E75. I imagine we may do a little more fine tuning, but it's close to being wrapped up!

I also have some more OE parts on the way. A new stock front bumper, plate bracket (yeah, yeah, whatever), and some shine auto carbon skirts for the side an rear that were ordered weeks ago. The Stillen front bumper is beat up and too draggy, and I never installed any extra coolers in the side vents.



For the cherry on top, my friend sold me his Top Secret Lip he still has when he had his Z with a "Friends and Family Discount".

Thanks for the heads up on the PS fluid. I think I will do that with both the PS and Brake fluid. Steering lock fuse pull I did the day I bought the car !

Z is up and running. New fuel pumps, return system, ATI superdamper, and Wavetrac diff all functioning well. No fires of any sort.

:rock:

On a more mundane side...I changed brake pads on the G...In the approximately 37k miles, the Nismo front pads wore down from (pad material @ center + backing plate) 161mm brand new to 93mm.

Rear pads wore down to 96mm, but I don't have brand new Nismo rears to compare.

I was expecting the rear to have more life left. Weird. It's not like the nannies kicked in that often...it's a family mobile...wtf...

Pads wore evenly at least, no sticky pistons. And the G is back on Akebono Street Performance pads (slightly sportier than the OEM). Drove for a week, and wheels had less dust than what the Nismo pads would pump out in a day.

Moar Logs! I also dropped off my OEM bumper at a local body shop. I figured I would give them a try. I'm not too concerned about paint matching because the fenders are pitted, and the hood is carbon anyway, so I just gave them the paint code. The supporting hardware and new Nissan badge should be on its way, as well as the new tow trap. I just need to run by Houston and pick up the Top Secret Lip and we're good to go!

Since the weather is still bad here in MI, I just daydreamed about taking out my 370Z from the storage bag and making some small mods.

Z started smoking on the way home from dinner yesterday. Late night tow to the shop. Will see what Kevin has to say next week when he can get to it :ugh2:

Oh no! best case it's a small fluid leak.

It's knocking pretty good. Definitely more than a small fluid leak. I'm hoping it's the PS pump. It could be the timing chain, too, which would piss me off since I was in there replacing the gallery gaskets not too long ago and decided against replacing the chain.

I dropped off a new oil filter yesterday - he's going to remove and cut open the one on there now just to check for any obvious metal particulates. Then he'll remove the belt and check to see if the noise is from the engine or one of the accessories driven by the belt.

Went to look at vehicles and got my financing in order yesterday. Right now I'm staring down an RX350 with 43K miles for $26K.

I guess whoever owned my Z before me really did baby it because at 24k miles when I got it there was no axle click but after 500 miles with me it started. Just got done with the fix, but had to use 4 washers on each side and the torque settings are going to be all screwy. I torqued to 88, but one was a 1/8 turn off and one was about a 1/4 turn off to get the cotter pins in. So 88lbs plus 1 ugga-dugga on one side and 3 ugga-duggas ok the other. Drives perfect, no noise, hopefully this fixes it for a while/forever. Also found an undeveloped section of road off of a nearby highway on ramp and made sure the axles were fine with some donuts.

Picked up the Top Secret lip yesterday! New tow strap arrived today. Just patiently waiting on my bumper to be finished and some parts to cover up the holes next to the fangs. I might throw the Thunder pipe in for the spring/summer. I think Seb is done with my tune so it's time to enjoy the car! I was following my buddy's straight-piped NSX and i'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun to be loud sometimes.

I recommend complete removal of old brake fluid from the entire system and refilling as if you only remove the fluid from the reservoir all of the existing fluid will still be left in the lines and calipers, i.e. the "business end".

I use a digital brake fluid tester to determine the percent of water in the fluid and change when greater than 2%.

New bumper and lip installed! Still waiting on some parts, but it's nice having a bumper that fits properly.




https://i.imgur.com/VxFTsGDh.jpg

Varis lip is sweet.

No diagnosis yet - I told Kevin it's not a priority since I bought another car. So I dropped off CJM RRP kit and billet top hat along with oil pressure and wide-band AFR gauges to get installed on the Z while she is at the shop.

Ahem, Top Secret (adjusts monocle)

I ordered two door cards from the states. They decided for whatever reason to package them with the doors facing out. with a single layer of cardboard. The foam on both doors is punctured and unusable.

Not sure what to do with it. Since I can migrate the parts i wanted onto my doors with intact foam. But definitely no longer worth what I paid for them.

Weekend Z Warrior Project: 99% complete

This is my 2015 black 6mt tech 370z Nismo. I bought her in 2018 with 8k miles, and she currently sits at 51k miles. I used to daily drive my Z through all four seasons, so as you can imagine it had its fair share of bumps and bruises, but I enjoyed every moment. Last year I had the opportunity to turn my Z into a garage queen. It was an idea that I went back and forth on for quite some time as I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do. I figured it would be expensive too. I enjoyed driving it like I stole it every day because that's what I bought it for and that's what it's meant for. On the other hand, this Z is one of my favorite cars...in the world. I was even contemplating on selling my Z (especially with the high resale values within the past two years) in anticipation of the new Z, but I changed my mind. They just don't make cars like these anymore and as life moves on IDK if I'll have another chance of enjoying something like this. Fortunately I was in a position to move forward with my plan of making it into a garage queen and I decided to essentially recondition and modify the car. I spent months researching and figuring out the direction I wanted to go. I wanted to keep it NA for reliability and budget reasons and I wanted to bring it back to show room finish. So, that's exactly what I did. Below is a list of what was completed (apart from general maintenance):

Performance Mods:
Exhaust
FI TDX CBE
Brakes
Z1 Slotted rotors
Centric Posi Quiet sport brake pads
Intake
Z1 MAF intake hose
aFe drop-in filter
ECU
Ecutek HW
License
Custom tune
Transmission
ZSpeed stage 1 clutch and flywheel assembly w/ CMAK
Suspension
Swift Spec-R lowering springs
SPL camber kit ( FUCAs, rear cambers arms, SPC toe bolts)
Z1 eccentric bolt lockout/elimination kit
Z1 poly rear diff bushings

Aesthetic Mods:
Carbon Fiber OEM style steering wheel
Seibon TS Style carbon fiber hood
Momo Anzio (Front 19x9.5, offset +20; Rear 19x11, offset +19)
15mm spacers 2x rear
Refinish front
Painted front bumper
Applied XPEL PPF to entire front end
Applied XPEL ceramic coating to hood

Other than the ZSpeed clutch assembly being installed around May of 2019 due to the OEM assembly failure, the rest of the mods began Nov of 2021.

There are only two things left to be done. I'm waiting for the brakes and rotors to wear out naturally prior to prematurely installing the Z1 slotted rotors and new pads. I have them and they are ready to go. Lastly, my tune is scheduled for next week, so I'm looking forward to that. A potential third item might be Koni Yellows once the OEM shocks/struts fail.

The only other things I wanted to do but did not were porting the lower and upper manifolds and install headers. With regards to porting the upper and lower manifolds, aside from the additional expense, I couldn't find enough concrete evidence proving the gains. Most local shops wouldn't do it, and I didn't want to bother with the whole core swapping process. Next, I already knew going catless was a no-go for me - just didn't want to deal with it. The next best option, IMO, was the Z1 STH paired with the VQ35DE stock cats or some other HFC. Not only would the hardware be expensive, but I have learned swapping headers in these cars is a major PITA which equated to significant shop costs. I guess this turned out well for me because when I called my Z shop to schedule a tune, they asked if I had modified my cats. Apparently more and more shops aren't tuning cars running catless or HFC and cops are cracking down on the shops that are. IDK how true this is, but I believe them because they are a well known and respectable Z shop on the East coast.

Anyways, all that being said, this was a great experience. Other than the two items mentioned earlier, I actually completed my project and am thoroughly enjoying my revamped Z. It was certainly an expensive project, but I learned a lot about the Z and cars in general. So, for that, it was worth it to ME. I probably wouldn't do this again to another car because I already got what I wanted out of the process. And, no, I'm not just saying "I'm done" lol I actually have to be as I have other responsibilities and I know when to draw the line. I must say, though, owning the Z has exposed me to so many different things in life that I otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity to. I don't want to sound materialistic, but it's true and I'm sure many Z owners understand what I'm talking about!

Hope you guys enjoy the pic of my Z :happydance:

carbon fiber dash
 

Finished CF dash today. :pics:

http://www.the370z.com/members/z-run...25dc880fc.jpeg

http://www.the370z.com/members/z-run...130a987ae.jpeg

Today, I ripped out my Kenwood dash cam and replaced it with a Viofo A129 Duo (4K). I was not pleased with the potato quality of the cam, even though it was seamlessly integrated with the head unit.

Reinstalled my modded bellworks diff brace. Had yanked it to loan to Carp so he could start pumping out his own model.

Significant mods are now done for the driving season.

Shaved down the right thigh bolster on my Sparco to get me closer to 90* to steering wheel. Yanking the console out tomorrow to rattle hunt.

Weather is good enough Thursday to bed in the new Yellowstuff pads and get some logs now that fuel return is installed.

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One of the best bang for buck, and actual true 4k quality…unlike many others at the same price range with their false advertising. Congrats!

Ty, I already had a Viofo 1080p in my WRX which has excellent quality. CPL filters for the lenses too.

I'm pretty pleased with the Thinkware U1000 dash cam I put on the Z. Supposed to be 4K front and 2K rear and I believe it. It is very likely I'll get the same setup for my new daily driver.

Did my first hand wash on my new 2018 z yesterday. Spend about 3 hours washing with some new products. Bilt Hamber touchless and a few others.

Continued today with another 3 hours. Decon wash and two stage paint correction on the hood. Used 3D One + meguiars microfibre cutting pad. Then a jeweling step with sonax perfect finish and a rupes yellow foam pad.

Hood has some paint chips in it otherwise i would have ceramic coated it.
Instead I put some Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutiions Ceramic/Graphene wax on the whole car.

As i was just finishing polishing a portion of the hood I looked up to see the new 2023 Z go by. The dark blue one. Only got to see that back of it. Kind of annoyed the driver didn't give me a heads up honk when he saw I was polishing my Z.

Oh well.

^ I'm going to get the Viofo 129 Pro I think this time. I watched a head to head with the thinkware and you can't really tell the difference between the thinkware 1440p rear and the viofo 1080p rear. And the viofo is cheaper and has only the features I care about.

Also ordered a super low profile jack so I can lift from the front and rear service jack points. Need to get under the car soon to remove rust and spray it down with rust inhibitor.

oh and i got a 100usd refund on the doors. I harvested all the darker nismo colour parts out of them to transplant to my car.

EDIT: Actually going to pick up a thinkware u1000. The parking features and the radar sensor make it a better buy over the viofo imo.

Yeah, it depends on what you want to prioritize when shopping for a dash cam. I'm not too worried about parking as my mentality is "oh well, that's what insurance is for", but recording quality for price was my main target. Specifically, getting tailgaters. People here get really offended if you drive the speed limit in a sports car. Even if you are in the right lane.

Thoes tire are gona ware fast with -2 cambor, the ibach kit on mine is around -1.5 and killed my hankooks in 15k miles

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-2.0 degrees camber will only add very minimal additional wear as long as toe is kept in check. Your -1.5 degrees camber is essentially at the edge of factory spec. So, if you experienced premature wear, either your alignment specs or your suspension bushings were the problem. That assumes your driving style isn't so aggressive as to cause the wear.

To add to that, your toe settings are going to be what wears the tires out quickly. I have around -2.4 degrees of camber all around and no real issues.