Nissan 370Z - My 'Attainable Dream Car'
Discussion
Paul S4 said:
Great write up and a stunning car !
I have never really been 'into' Japanese cars, but I have always liked the 350/370Zs.
My car history has involved a couple of Alfa 156s and 2 BMW E36s, and a classic Lotus Elan, some of which were used on track days at Croft in North Yorkshire.
I would quite like a 370Z but running costs would deter me...although the ZEDs are 'proper cars' ie big engine up front and RWD..!
And it may be a bit of a crush to get my golf gear in the back I reckon though !
Just curious about the road tax, how much is it currently?
I like the job you did on the calipers, very professional.
How are those discs holding up ?
I shall have to renew mine on the C30 Volvo this year, and , like you, I hate rusty 'top hats' on discs.
All in all, your modifications have been subtle but enhancing, particularly the black vinyl roof which looks great !
The running costs are really decent overall; it's in the awful £50/month tax band, but parts and servicing are genuinely half the cost of a Z4/Cayman/Boxster and insurance is very reasonable. So on average the running costs are pretty good. I have never really been 'into' Japanese cars, but I have always liked the 350/370Zs.
My car history has involved a couple of Alfa 156s and 2 BMW E36s, and a classic Lotus Elan, some of which were used on track days at Croft in North Yorkshire.
I would quite like a 370Z but running costs would deter me...although the ZEDs are 'proper cars' ie big engine up front and RWD..!
And it may be a bit of a crush to get my golf gear in the back I reckon though !
Just curious about the road tax, how much is it currently?
I like the job you did on the calipers, very professional.
How are those discs holding up ?
I shall have to renew mine on the C30 Volvo this year, and , like you, I hate rusty 'top hats' on discs.
All in all, your modifications have been subtle but enhancing, particularly the black vinyl roof which looks great !
Discs (and brakes in general) feel great, still standing up to track punishment well. The Redstuff pads do need a decent bit of heat in them to work properly though.
Thanks for your kind words on the visual tweaks!
Well the oil cooler is fitted, and boy what a pain that was. Taking the whole front end off a car always takes longer than you think; a million bolts/trim clips, headlight washers and airbag sensors to disconnect, front crash structure, wheel arch lining etc…
Glad I decided to do an oil change at the same time! This was the gunk that came out of the car
Figuring out where and how best to mount the cooler core was worth taking the time over, as was routing the hoses, but still took ages.
Cooler core mounted
Then we discovered, to our dismay, that I’d been sent an incorrect part in the kit. The thread that connects the sandwich plate and oil filter to the sump was too small…
Supposed to be an 18mm thread
Thankfully the company I bought the kit from were good about their error and agreed to send a new one out, however we now couldn’t finish the job in one day which is always a major downer. But we did have the core mounted, the hoses connected up and run through to where they needed to be. So we just cable tied the hoses up so they were safe, put the oil filter back on without the sandwich plate and chucked the old oil back in. And put the front of the car back together.
Then all we would have to do once I had the right thread was fit the sandwich plate and connect the hoses up. And put some lovely new Mobil 1 5W-30 in.
Only took an hour and a half to finish the job once I had the right part, but one thing we did forget to do on day 1 was put oil in the cooler core. Really important to have some oil in there; if it was dry, the first time the oil cooler started working and diverted oil into an empty cooler there’d be a big drop in oil pressure.
We weren’t going to spend hours taking the front of the car apart and putting it back together again, so we just siphoned oil into the cooler via the unconnected ends of the hoses. Was pretty stressful but I managed to avoid a mouthful of oil!
Went out for a test drive and the oil cooler definitely works! It’s designed to switch on once the oil is at 80C; I did some hard acceleration to get the temps up to 90, then I settled into a cruise and it dropped back to 85 within less than a minute. Stopped to check for leaks, found none, and put my hand on the cooler core which was warm so clearly had oil running through it.
So glad it’s worked out, not going to lie I was nervous about installing this! Good to know the car is now much better protected against overheating, especially for Spa and other future trackdays.
Glad I decided to do an oil change at the same time! This was the gunk that came out of the car
Figuring out where and how best to mount the cooler core was worth taking the time over, as was routing the hoses, but still took ages.
Cooler core mounted
Then we discovered, to our dismay, that I’d been sent an incorrect part in the kit. The thread that connects the sandwich plate and oil filter to the sump was too small…
Supposed to be an 18mm thread
Thankfully the company I bought the kit from were good about their error and agreed to send a new one out, however we now couldn’t finish the job in one day which is always a major downer. But we did have the core mounted, the hoses connected up and run through to where they needed to be. So we just cable tied the hoses up so they were safe, put the oil filter back on without the sandwich plate and chucked the old oil back in. And put the front of the car back together.
Then all we would have to do once I had the right thread was fit the sandwich plate and connect the hoses up. And put some lovely new Mobil 1 5W-30 in.
Only took an hour and a half to finish the job once I had the right part, but one thing we did forget to do on day 1 was put oil in the cooler core. Really important to have some oil in there; if it was dry, the first time the oil cooler started working and diverted oil into an empty cooler there’d be a big drop in oil pressure.
We weren’t going to spend hours taking the front of the car apart and putting it back together again, so we just siphoned oil into the cooler via the unconnected ends of the hoses. Was pretty stressful but I managed to avoid a mouthful of oil!
Went out for a test drive and the oil cooler definitely works! It’s designed to switch on once the oil is at 80C; I did some hard acceleration to get the temps up to 90, then I settled into a cruise and it dropped back to 85 within less than a minute. Stopped to check for leaks, found none, and put my hand on the cooler core which was warm so clearly had oil running through it.
So glad it’s worked out, not going to lie I was nervous about installing this! Good to know the car is now much better protected against overheating, especially for Spa and other future trackdays.
Edited by thatguy11 on Friday 18th March 09:54
Nice work. It will be interesting to see how much the cooler reduces the oil temp. As you say they are reputed to run hot on track.
Mine is the facelift so comes with the factory cooler and in 'normal' use I haven't noticed any high running temps, but then again I haven't taken it on track!
Mine is the facelift so comes with the factory cooler and in 'normal' use I haven't noticed any high running temps, but then again I haven't taken it on track!
So…Spa-Francorchamps was an adventure and a half. Lots of planning/work went into the trip; in order to keep 1,200 miles off the cars, save on fuel, and crucially ensure the cars could get home from Belgium should anything happen on track, this was our rather ridiculous travel method…
Worked fine and did the job of getting us there and back, but it did cause a few issues;
- We were pretty much limited to 60mph (not by traffic laws but the laws of physics)
- Uphill sections? Forget about it
- Parking at service stations: if there are no coach/HGV spaces free, it doesn’t happen
- Van was too tall for the tunnel that goes into the Spa paddock. We did not realise this until we had attempted to drive into said tunnel...
Finally in the paddock
The trackday itself however made it all worth it. What an incredible circuit; I knew that already, but driving it for real blew me away. How F1 cars do Pouhon at 190mph I’ll never know, just seems mind-bending!
The car did great, didn’t miss a beat. The new oil cooler did its job beautifully, oil temp didn't go over 95 Celcius all day. So glad I fitted it, as it's turned something I've had to keep a constant eye on into a complete non-issue. The 370Z is definitely more suited to Spa than Knockhill, felt more at home on a faster, flowing circuit with longer, more sweeping corners.
The weather was pretty good considering what the forecast was saying in the week or so leading up to the day; never more than a drizzle and good amount of rain-free running with something of a dry line appearing. There was some mist which red-flagged the circuit but this was mostly over lunch time anyway.
Yes...there was a touch of snow! but only for an hour and it was just a few snowflakes in the air, wouldn't say it was snowing.
All in all an unforgettable experience, bucket list stuff. Didn’t want to leave.
Worked fine and did the job of getting us there and back, but it did cause a few issues;
- We were pretty much limited to 60mph (not by traffic laws but the laws of physics)
- Uphill sections? Forget about it
- Parking at service stations: if there are no coach/HGV spaces free, it doesn’t happen
- Van was too tall for the tunnel that goes into the Spa paddock. We did not realise this until we had attempted to drive into said tunnel...
Finally in the paddock
The trackday itself however made it all worth it. What an incredible circuit; I knew that already, but driving it for real blew me away. How F1 cars do Pouhon at 190mph I’ll never know, just seems mind-bending!
The car did great, didn’t miss a beat. The new oil cooler did its job beautifully, oil temp didn't go over 95 Celcius all day. So glad I fitted it, as it's turned something I've had to keep a constant eye on into a complete non-issue. The 370Z is definitely more suited to Spa than Knockhill, felt more at home on a faster, flowing circuit with longer, more sweeping corners.
The weather was pretty good considering what the forecast was saying in the week or so leading up to the day; never more than a drizzle and good amount of rain-free running with something of a dry line appearing. There was some mist which red-flagged the circuit but this was mostly over lunch time anyway.
Yes...there was a touch of snow! but only for an hour and it was just a few snowflakes in the air, wouldn't say it was snowing.
All in all an unforgettable experience, bucket list stuff. Didn’t want to leave.
Last update on this thread. This ownership story however does not have a happy ending. The car hasn’t been moved on to a new owner, for reasons that will become apparent if you read on. It’s been a stressful, painful, expensive few months and one of those experiences which leave you wondering if the universe is against you in some way, but it’s been cathartic to write it all down.
This will be a bit of a read, but if you’re interested through morbid curiosity, want to treat it as a cautionary tale, or would just like to offer some sympathy to what I think is a fairly extraordinary sequence of unfortunate circumstances, read on.
Below is the timeline of events over the past few months…
10/04/2022
I get into the car, drive off as normal, and after a couple of minutes there’s an odd noise. Then the oil light comes on. I stop as quickly as I can, but not before an ominous rattle makes itself known. Once I stop, turn the engine off and get out, to my horror I notice a pool of oil on the ground from around the front right corner. I look underneath and one of the hoses connecting the oil cooler to the sump has come off at the sump end.
It must have come off right as I’d parked up a couple of hours previously. And significantly, all the oil had emptied out but been caught by the plastic engine undertray and not poured onto the ground, meaning when I got back to the car there was no puddle underneath the car and no way of my knowing the engine was now emptied of its oil.
An hour waiting for the AA, roadside assistance were obviously of no assistance for an issue like this so another hour waiting for a recovery truck, and eventually the car was recovered to Nissan for diagnosis. But I knew the prognosis, whenever it came, wouldn’t be good.
13/04/2022
Nissan insisted on reverting the car back to full factory spec (i.e. they wouldn’t re-attach the oil cooler hose, they wanted to remove the system) before they would assess the damage. I argued with them over the labour costs for this as literally all they would have to do is un-screw the sandwich plate from in-between the filter and the sump, re-screw the filter directly onto the sump and put oil into the car. Five minutes worth of labour and £50 worth of oil would apparently cost me £150. On top of the £99 diagnosis fee.
15/04/2022
News came through; the oil leak had caused crank damage. The cost of stripping the engine to replace the crank, plus stripping and cleaning the entire engine to ensure no bits of metal had gotten anywhere they shouldn’t, meant the most cost-effective route from here was to simply fit an entirely new engine. As a main dealer, Nissan would only quote for a brand new VQ motor. £11,000. Nope. Not happening. Told them I’ll recover the car to another garage and buy a good condition used engine.
2nd half April
This was spent looking for a new engine, and swapping texts with a garage I’m friendly with, know the guys well, the owner is a family friend. They were pretty busy and were looking at mid-May for getting my engine done for me. This was fine by me as it provided time to source an engine. Also, they could recover the car for me without my having to pay for another recovery.
1st half May
I find an engine, full unit plus ancillaries, and get it shipped to the garage.
15/05/2022
Met the recovery vehicle at the Nissan dealership, go to the car which is parked around the back, however something’s amiss. It’s very, very low on the front-nearside corner. It absolutely wasn’t like that when I dropped it off. I ask Nissan about it, and get some bulls
t waffle about cars settling after they come off the ramps. I can’t look at it right now, will just need to see what the garage say.
17/05/2022
Informed that the timeline for fitting the new engine has been pushed back. How long? They can’t say. They’re busy, folk are on holiday, etc, etc. I think the nature of my relationship with the garage was a negative here. Given we’re sort of friends, the typical business/customer relationship is muddied, things are less formal, your work gets pushed into the corner and becomes a lower priority as they feel the need to focus more on satisfying actual clients and maintain those relationships.
24/06/2022
Finally, the engine replacement has gotten underway. The garage look at the front suspension and inform me the front-nearside spring is snapped. I’ll never know if perhaps it was snapped before the car went to Nissan, but still sitting in the right position in the suspension tower assembly and at the right ride height, then only came apart once they got the car up onto the ramps, but I have my suspicions that the spring was snapped under Nissan’s care. I knew they’d never admit to it in a million years without hard evidence, and I had no choice but to buy another one.
22/07/2022
The new engine is in, car’s all back together. However, the car won’t start. Suspected engine timing issue; engine is cranking, fuel is going in but not igniting. I get in touch with the breakers yard. They send me video evidence of the engine running fine in its previous 370Z, including serial number verification. I put the garage in touch with the breakers to discuss. Garage still adamant it’s a timing issue and suspect something may have happened in transit. However, there’s nothing more they can do as they don’t have the tooling for re-timing chain-driven engines. Reluctantly, I realise the best option at this point is for the car to return to Nissan for diagnosis.
I call Nissan, give them the full story to ensure I’ve given them as much of a steer as I can, ask if it’s something they will do, they say yes, I book it in.
26/07/2022
Garage drop the car back off at Nissan for me. I pay them the invoice for fitting the engine.
27/07/2022
I get a call from Nissan. They won’t do the work. Won’t so much as touch my car. Because a third party has fitted the new engine, they can’t be held responsible for blah blah blah.
Why, I ask, barely concealing my anger, was I told you would diagnose the issue?
“You wouldn’t have been told that, sir.”
“I can assure you, I was told you would look at my car. I gave you the full story, and the person on the phone agreed to take the booking.”
“Well I don’t know what to tell you, but it’s not something we can do.”
“So…at this point, what do I do from here? The car won’t start, the other garage can’t fix it, and you won’t.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Well, you’re paying for my car to be recovered somewhere else.”
“…no, why would we pay for that?”
“Because it’s your fault, not yours specifically, but Nissan’s fault, that my car is at your dealership and you’re refusing to work on it.”
“It’s not someone at this dealership you’ll have spoken to, it’s someone in a call centre.”
“Completely irrelevant, it’s wholly Nissan who are responsible for my car being on the premises of someone who is refusing to work on it. Not me. Why would I send my car, which can’t move under its own power, to somewhere I didn’t think would be able to help me?”
“I disagree, sir, but I can get my manager to call you.”
Once I was off this phonecall, I don’t mind admitting I was broken. Didn’t know what to do but felt done with the whole sorry ordeal. Three and a half months of stress, anxiety and expenses I couldn’t afford had ended me.
Manager calls me. He is less of a helmet about the situation but still reluctant to accept blame. He does offer to investigate the misunderstanding further. I give him the date and time of the phonecall I made to book the car in.
02/08/2022
Nissan concede I made my situation entirely clear on the phone when making the booking, and the person on the other end of the phone was wrong to have said they would work on the car. They still won’t fully pay for recovery, but agree to split the cost. Fine. Providing I pay the recovery driver in cash and then get re-imbursed the difference by cheque. You know what…sodding fine, whatever means I don’t have to deal with you people any more.
Mid-August
Turns out very few people have the tooling to do re-timing on VQ engines. I should know; I spoke to many. However I eventually swap emails with the owner of a garage who, after hearing my woes, (firstly is very sympathetic), suspects something else is at play. He and his guys like solving problems. I book the car in.
25/08/2022
Car gets recovered to (they deserve a name-drop) Dickson Automotive. Immediately feel in safe hands. The guys are friendly and seem genuinely keen to solve my problems.
27/08/2022
I get a call. Firstly, I’m again offered sympathies for the situation and a mention that, if it were his car, his money, and his decisions, he’d have done pretty much the same as me every step of the way.
“Now, straight to the point; the engine wants to start, and is close, but won’t. We’ve done a compression test. One bank of cylinders is strong, the other not. We’ve had the top of the engine apart, and one side does not look good. Evidence of heavy deposits of carbon or possibly rust in the cylinder lining, and possible water ingress elsewhere. We suspect that, although the engine may indeed have been running fine at the point of recording that evidential video, and the listing photographs being taken, it’s been sat, possibly outside, possibly not covered from the elements properly, without fluids in it, for a long time. Too long. I’m afraid this isn’t a good condition engine as sold. We don’t think the first garage was wrong though, and it may also be a timing issue. There’s strong evidence of that. From our perspective, these are your options;
1. Buy another used engine and hope it’s in the condition as advertised.
2. We can re-time it, on the basis that it may indeed have been the main issue, and it’ll run. However it also might not, and we don’t want to hit you with a bill for something that potentially still won’t fix it, and even if it does it still won’t be a strong engine.
3. Strip and rebuild the cylinder heads. However, modern engines don’t like sitting without fluids for lengthy spells, and this one has.
4. Cut your losses and sell it as is.
Once again, this is a stty situation and we feel for you. Been in this business a long time and it’s never nice to see someone in a situation like this, and not knowing whether to keep chucking money at the problem or bail out.”
Which brings us to present day. I am currently in the process of selling the car as a non-runner, then will see what money I can get out of the original engine (the first garage still has it), plus potentially something small claims court related with the breakers yard…if I feel I have the energy for it. The last few months have been challenging.
GF60 CWT will likely never run again, and will probably get broken for parts. It’s a sad, premature end to a brilliant car’s life. You can argue at the end of the day it’s only metal, but I’m one of these people who can see the soul and personality in machines, especially cars, and I just feel bad for my 370Z. We had some great adventures.
So some footnotes;
- Main dealers do not care about the customer. They do not care offering genuine service. They only care about their own bottom line. Especially Western Nissan Edinburgh, fk those idiots.
- I will never, so long as I live, modify another car under the bonnet.
- I am very much enjoying my new transport in the shape of a Megane RS Trophy, but I miss my big Z dearly and always will.
This will be a bit of a read, but if you’re interested through morbid curiosity, want to treat it as a cautionary tale, or would just like to offer some sympathy to what I think is a fairly extraordinary sequence of unfortunate circumstances, read on.
Below is the timeline of events over the past few months…
10/04/2022
I get into the car, drive off as normal, and after a couple of minutes there’s an odd noise. Then the oil light comes on. I stop as quickly as I can, but not before an ominous rattle makes itself known. Once I stop, turn the engine off and get out, to my horror I notice a pool of oil on the ground from around the front right corner. I look underneath and one of the hoses connecting the oil cooler to the sump has come off at the sump end.
It must have come off right as I’d parked up a couple of hours previously. And significantly, all the oil had emptied out but been caught by the plastic engine undertray and not poured onto the ground, meaning when I got back to the car there was no puddle underneath the car and no way of my knowing the engine was now emptied of its oil.
An hour waiting for the AA, roadside assistance were obviously of no assistance for an issue like this so another hour waiting for a recovery truck, and eventually the car was recovered to Nissan for diagnosis. But I knew the prognosis, whenever it came, wouldn’t be good.
13/04/2022
Nissan insisted on reverting the car back to full factory spec (i.e. they wouldn’t re-attach the oil cooler hose, they wanted to remove the system) before they would assess the damage. I argued with them over the labour costs for this as literally all they would have to do is un-screw the sandwich plate from in-between the filter and the sump, re-screw the filter directly onto the sump and put oil into the car. Five minutes worth of labour and £50 worth of oil would apparently cost me £150. On top of the £99 diagnosis fee.
15/04/2022
News came through; the oil leak had caused crank damage. The cost of stripping the engine to replace the crank, plus stripping and cleaning the entire engine to ensure no bits of metal had gotten anywhere they shouldn’t, meant the most cost-effective route from here was to simply fit an entirely new engine. As a main dealer, Nissan would only quote for a brand new VQ motor. £11,000. Nope. Not happening. Told them I’ll recover the car to another garage and buy a good condition used engine.
2nd half April
This was spent looking for a new engine, and swapping texts with a garage I’m friendly with, know the guys well, the owner is a family friend. They were pretty busy and were looking at mid-May for getting my engine done for me. This was fine by me as it provided time to source an engine. Also, they could recover the car for me without my having to pay for another recovery.
1st half May
I find an engine, full unit plus ancillaries, and get it shipped to the garage.
15/05/2022
Met the recovery vehicle at the Nissan dealership, go to the car which is parked around the back, however something’s amiss. It’s very, very low on the front-nearside corner. It absolutely wasn’t like that when I dropped it off. I ask Nissan about it, and get some bulls
t waffle about cars settling after they come off the ramps. I can’t look at it right now, will just need to see what the garage say.17/05/2022
Informed that the timeline for fitting the new engine has been pushed back. How long? They can’t say. They’re busy, folk are on holiday, etc, etc. I think the nature of my relationship with the garage was a negative here. Given we’re sort of friends, the typical business/customer relationship is muddied, things are less formal, your work gets pushed into the corner and becomes a lower priority as they feel the need to focus more on satisfying actual clients and maintain those relationships.
24/06/2022
Finally, the engine replacement has gotten underway. The garage look at the front suspension and inform me the front-nearside spring is snapped. I’ll never know if perhaps it was snapped before the car went to Nissan, but still sitting in the right position in the suspension tower assembly and at the right ride height, then only came apart once they got the car up onto the ramps, but I have my suspicions that the spring was snapped under Nissan’s care. I knew they’d never admit to it in a million years without hard evidence, and I had no choice but to buy another one.
22/07/2022
The new engine is in, car’s all back together. However, the car won’t start. Suspected engine timing issue; engine is cranking, fuel is going in but not igniting. I get in touch with the breakers yard. They send me video evidence of the engine running fine in its previous 370Z, including serial number verification. I put the garage in touch with the breakers to discuss. Garage still adamant it’s a timing issue and suspect something may have happened in transit. However, there’s nothing more they can do as they don’t have the tooling for re-timing chain-driven engines. Reluctantly, I realise the best option at this point is for the car to return to Nissan for diagnosis.
I call Nissan, give them the full story to ensure I’ve given them as much of a steer as I can, ask if it’s something they will do, they say yes, I book it in.
26/07/2022
Garage drop the car back off at Nissan for me. I pay them the invoice for fitting the engine.
27/07/2022
I get a call from Nissan. They won’t do the work. Won’t so much as touch my car. Because a third party has fitted the new engine, they can’t be held responsible for blah blah blah.
Why, I ask, barely concealing my anger, was I told you would diagnose the issue?
“You wouldn’t have been told that, sir.”
“I can assure you, I was told you would look at my car. I gave you the full story, and the person on the phone agreed to take the booking.”
“Well I don’t know what to tell you, but it’s not something we can do.”
“So…at this point, what do I do from here? The car won’t start, the other garage can’t fix it, and you won’t.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Well, you’re paying for my car to be recovered somewhere else.”
“…no, why would we pay for that?”
“Because it’s your fault, not yours specifically, but Nissan’s fault, that my car is at your dealership and you’re refusing to work on it.”
“It’s not someone at this dealership you’ll have spoken to, it’s someone in a call centre.”
“Completely irrelevant, it’s wholly Nissan who are responsible for my car being on the premises of someone who is refusing to work on it. Not me. Why would I send my car, which can’t move under its own power, to somewhere I didn’t think would be able to help me?”
“I disagree, sir, but I can get my manager to call you.”
Once I was off this phonecall, I don’t mind admitting I was broken. Didn’t know what to do but felt done with the whole sorry ordeal. Three and a half months of stress, anxiety and expenses I couldn’t afford had ended me.
Manager calls me. He is less of a helmet about the situation but still reluctant to accept blame. He does offer to investigate the misunderstanding further. I give him the date and time of the phonecall I made to book the car in.
02/08/2022
Nissan concede I made my situation entirely clear on the phone when making the booking, and the person on the other end of the phone was wrong to have said they would work on the car. They still won’t fully pay for recovery, but agree to split the cost. Fine. Providing I pay the recovery driver in cash and then get re-imbursed the difference by cheque. You know what…sodding fine, whatever means I don’t have to deal with you people any more.
Mid-August
Turns out very few people have the tooling to do re-timing on VQ engines. I should know; I spoke to many. However I eventually swap emails with the owner of a garage who, after hearing my woes, (firstly is very sympathetic), suspects something else is at play. He and his guys like solving problems. I book the car in.
25/08/2022
Car gets recovered to (they deserve a name-drop) Dickson Automotive. Immediately feel in safe hands. The guys are friendly and seem genuinely keen to solve my problems.
27/08/2022
I get a call. Firstly, I’m again offered sympathies for the situation and a mention that, if it were his car, his money, and his decisions, he’d have done pretty much the same as me every step of the way.
“Now, straight to the point; the engine wants to start, and is close, but won’t. We’ve done a compression test. One bank of cylinders is strong, the other not. We’ve had the top of the engine apart, and one side does not look good. Evidence of heavy deposits of carbon or possibly rust in the cylinder lining, and possible water ingress elsewhere. We suspect that, although the engine may indeed have been running fine at the point of recording that evidential video, and the listing photographs being taken, it’s been sat, possibly outside, possibly not covered from the elements properly, without fluids in it, for a long time. Too long. I’m afraid this isn’t a good condition engine as sold. We don’t think the first garage was wrong though, and it may also be a timing issue. There’s strong evidence of that. From our perspective, these are your options;
1. Buy another used engine and hope it’s in the condition as advertised.
2. We can re-time it, on the basis that it may indeed have been the main issue, and it’ll run. However it also might not, and we don’t want to hit you with a bill for something that potentially still won’t fix it, and even if it does it still won’t be a strong engine.
3. Strip and rebuild the cylinder heads. However, modern engines don’t like sitting without fluids for lengthy spells, and this one has.
4. Cut your losses and sell it as is.
Once again, this is a s
tty situation and we feel for you. Been in this business a long time and it’s never nice to see someone in a situation like this, and not knowing whether to keep chucking money at the problem or bail out.”Which brings us to present day. I am currently in the process of selling the car as a non-runner, then will see what money I can get out of the original engine (the first garage still has it), plus potentially something small claims court related with the breakers yard…if I feel I have the energy for it. The last few months have been challenging.
GF60 CWT will likely never run again, and will probably get broken for parts. It’s a sad, premature end to a brilliant car’s life. You can argue at the end of the day it’s only metal, but I’m one of these people who can see the soul and personality in machines, especially cars, and I just feel bad for my 370Z. We had some great adventures.
So some footnotes;
- Main dealers do not care about the customer. They do not care offering genuine service. They only care about their own bottom line. Especially Western Nissan Edinburgh, f
k those idiots.- I will never, so long as I live, modify another car under the bonnet.
- I am very much enjoying my new transport in the shape of a Megane RS Trophy, but I miss my big Z dearly and always will.
Oh no, really sorry to hear all that. And thanks for sharing, it's a valuable tale to hear.
It's really tough when a car that you love driving, suddenly goes wrong in a big way, and you're left with a load of bad choices - shell out more than the car's worth on repairs with all-new parts, or look for a more cost-effective repair route that may itself have unanticipated pitfalls. And trying to make decisions about who to trust and what to do, when large amounts of money are at stake.
It's my experience too that when a modified car breaks, nine times out of ten it's a modified part that's failed, not an original one. And yet what can you do - no cars are mechanically perfect, running the Z hard on track would overheat the oil, it needs the cooler to be enjoyed to the full. Unfortunately I think the 'typical' standard of care and attention that goes into modified parts and their fitment is somewhat lower than required to achieve reliability, so only the rare best modifiers actually manage to improve performance without introducing reliability weak spots. As an example, the guys who rebuilt my RX-7 engine (the second time) do so in pairs, like a team of surgeons, precisely so that if one person makes a mistake the other can catch it. But very few places are like that, as I know to my cost.
When I got my 350Z it had only had main dealer servicing, so I thought I'd keep that up and booked it in to my nearest Nissan dealer. Long story short their service was terrible. Anyway next year I went elsewhere, and actually got a call from their service centre asking why. I think I had the lady on the phone for ten minutes explaining in precise detail all the many failings of their outfit's terrible customer "service". Most satisfying
The story may have a sad ending, but I'm really impressed both that you got your dream car, and with all the cool things you did with it while you had it. In time, I predict your good memories will outlive the bitter regret of how it ended.
It's really tough when a car that you love driving, suddenly goes wrong in a big way, and you're left with a load of bad choices - shell out more than the car's worth on repairs with all-new parts, or look for a more cost-effective repair route that may itself have unanticipated pitfalls. And trying to make decisions about who to trust and what to do, when large amounts of money are at stake.
It's my experience too that when a modified car breaks, nine times out of ten it's a modified part that's failed, not an original one. And yet what can you do - no cars are mechanically perfect, running the Z hard on track would overheat the oil, it needs the cooler to be enjoyed to the full. Unfortunately I think the 'typical' standard of care and attention that goes into modified parts and their fitment is somewhat lower than required to achieve reliability, so only the rare best modifiers actually manage to improve performance without introducing reliability weak spots. As an example, the guys who rebuilt my RX-7 engine (the second time) do so in pairs, like a team of surgeons, precisely so that if one person makes a mistake the other can catch it. But very few places are like that, as I know to my cost.
When I got my 350Z it had only had main dealer servicing, so I thought I'd keep that up and booked it in to my nearest Nissan dealer. Long story short their service was terrible. Anyway next year I went elsewhere, and actually got a call from their service centre asking why. I think I had the lady on the phone for ten minutes explaining in precise detail all the many failings of their outfit's terrible customer "service". Most satisfying
The story may have a sad ending, but I'm really impressed both that you got your dream car, and with all the cool things you did with it while you had it. In time, I predict your good memories will outlive the bitter regret of how it ended.
Such a shame , I always felt that these cars would have been better served by an oil pressure gauge like the 350 had , plenty of the early cars suffered with low oil pressure and by the time the owners realised it was too late
No doubt someone will buy this and put a LS in it , something I always fancied and a popular mod in the US
No doubt someone will buy this and put a LS in it , something I always fancied and a popular mod in the US
Oh, what a shame 
such rotten luck too.
It’s a fair old haul from Scotland, but potentially you could make one good engine from the two at somewhere like Horsham and sell it on as a runner? Probably wouldn’t be financially sound though.
I think you’ll be back in a Zed one day. Try the 350 next time!
such rotten luck too. It’s a fair old haul from Scotland, but potentially you could make one good engine from the two at somewhere like Horsham and sell it on as a runner? Probably wouldn’t be financially sound though.
I think you’ll be back in a Zed one day. Try the 350 next time!
samoht said:
Oh no, really sorry to hear all that. And thanks for sharing, it's a valuable tale to hear.
The story may have a sad ending, but I'm really impressed both that you got your dream car, and with all the cool things you did with it while you had it. In time, I predict your good memories will outlive the bitter regret of how it ended.
very much this ^^The story may have a sad ending, but I'm really impressed both that you got your dream car, and with all the cool things you did with it while you had it. In time, I predict your good memories will outlive the bitter regret of how it ended.
Sorry to hear about the end to your experience OP.
When I had a 350Z I maintained the main dealer servicing first time around, they repaid me by taking it for a 30 mile joy ride. Initially they said it hadn't left the premises, then I showed them my photo of the mileage when it was dropped off and they said it was taken out for 5 minutes to check it was running smoothly.
Never again do I plan on visiting a Nissan main dealer.
When I had a 350Z I maintained the main dealer servicing first time around, they repaid me by taking it for a 30 mile joy ride. Initially they said it hadn't left the premises, then I showed them my photo of the mileage when it was dropped off and they said it was taken out for 5 minutes to check it was running smoothly.
Never again do I plan on visiting a Nissan main dealer.
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