300zx .... Good? Bad ?

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

hey my gf is considering buying a 89 300zx TT auto .... just wondering any one had much to do with them ? ... cheap to run ? look after ? parts .. insurence blah blah ...

and is 85000 - 100000k's the norm for the ODO of the 300zx ? any info or insight and opinions will be much appreciated dont want her getting cought up in somthing that will send her broke oh .... and its her 1st car aswell

[eMsta]

i heard they have lots of problems - money pit

[_Ryan_]

if she has to get one make it NA, they are labor intensive to work on from what i have been told by a mate who has one, a celica would probably be cheaper to run, maintain etc.

[bnr#@]

Tight engine bay makes them very hard to work on, part availability is fine as the na ones were Aus delivered, part prices are same as skylines more or less. Maintenance is same as other performance cars as well (every 5K and synthetic oils), very nice to cruise in but not to special on petrol... small turbo’s mean they come on very easily and start eating fuel...

[Munkyb0y]

theyre quite heavy and thirsty. if she runs into any mechanical issues, its gonna cost more than you think, mostly coz they are impossible to work on. every second thing is almost a motor-out type of job.

and theyre definately not cheap to get power out of. but if you do get a reliable one, and mod it with decent $$$, they go very well. although another thing to watch out for is the autos. problematic, and expensive.

and another thing. the 89 model isnt the one you'd want. there were some issues addressed in the later models. ideally 94, but at least a 91-92.

Edited March 10, 2008 by Munkyb0y

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

I have owned a 280ZX in the past. Was a killer cuz I got it tuned by Z-Shop. High flow intake / rebuilt engine with racing cams / exhaust manifold, full racing exhaust, 3 speed auto to a 5 speed maunal conversion and King Springs 1" lowered. SO FUN but just drank a lot of fuel.

Is she getting a Z31 or Z32?

From what I have been told Z32's have brake hosing problems, they leak brake fluid.

The engine bay is very tight to work with, like installing pods and intercoolers, getting air flow, I found everything to be quite compact, the car is quite heavy and can drink a bit of fuel

But see how you go. If you want speak to David Linsay at Z-Shop in Glen Iris. He's the king of Z's... Tuning / maintance / information.

Edited March 10, 2008 by (00)SKYLINE(00)

[Union76]

Z31 Tough Cars - injectors tend to leak......... fire.........

[R33GTST4Door]

don't the z32 have a problem with overheating??because of the design of the front end they tend to overheat on long drives, more so in summer

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

^^ I think cuz the fact that the Z32 engine bay is so compact, its hard to get air flow / allow the air to circulate...

Thats a nice pic of the Z31! Looks nice as. Its got a hint of old school Porsche / RX 7 in it.

[Do-Luck]

Go have a look at a 300ZX engine bay...

[DNGRUS]

If she wants one, then i rekon she should get one. If she isnt happy with it, then she can sell it

[ctjet]

once again...

bad

very very very bad

[Curmi]

my mate had one ran pretty good didnt have no problem at all i want one they look awsome but i heard from jeaps of ppl that they give heaps of problems and as ppl said the engine bay is hard to work on,, but would u gf do anything to the car as in engine mods if not let her buy one gl

[candy33]

If its the Z32 v6 tt then its not a wise car to get especially for a first car.

They are easy to extract power from but are rather fragile and are prone to water leaking problems, and most problems they do have requires engine removal.

And from my experience they tend to suffer alot of detonation once thrashed due to poor engine/intercooling. just my 2 cents

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

thanks guys for input ... she read the first 4 replies and said f.ck that ! thank u guys

[R-SPEC]

if its been taken care of then it should be fine...

people get problems with em coz they dont look after em as they should (they do require extra attention) or they just buy a rooted 1 to begin with

[fuzzy_scuz]

There are nice car when they are running, as most work requires the engine or half of it removed to work on it correctly.

Your GF has made a good choice, now tell her to by a Purple Skyline

[Sandeep]

hey my gf is considering buying a 89 300zx TT auto .... just wondering any one had much to do with them ? ... cheap to run ? look after ? parts .. insurence blah blah ...

and is 85000 - 100000k's the norm for the ODO of the 300zx ? any info or insight and opinions will be much appreciated dont want her getting cought up in somthing that will send her broke oh .... and its her 1st car aswell

ok. the best advice i could give you is to check out www.aus300zx.com , you'll get info from people who actually own 300zx's. I have had my zed for about a year and a half and I love it, i don't see myself driving anything else. I do like skylines also but the zed is a different beast, it's a GT car, kinda more like a fast cruiser. These things sold for 80k back in '89 which is a huge amount. you get all the nice features that are just coming out in aussie cars, power windows, power mirrors, climate control, targas, electric seats, abs, hicas (twin turbo only) etc.

Cheap to run? depends how good your car is to begin with. generally the first things you should do when buying a zed is to do the 100,000km service (full kit is about $700 parts plus a days labour), flush and rod radiator and replace radiator hoses. This is just preventative maintenance, you want to make sure your car will be reliable.

parts are good for the zed, since Nissan Australia actually sold the zed here we can get parts from dealers as well as other specialist dealers such as www.cazracing.com.au , www.ttzed.com , www.conceptzperformance.com (US but great service) , www.amecautocare.com.au , www.nismo.com.au (JP runs this place, he drives the slotcar, you might have seen it) , www.perthzperformance.com etc... plenty of parts available on nengun, perfectrun etc.

insurance depends on the age, experience etc. I can get full comp on my NA with just cars flexi premium for 1500 ish.

85000-100000km would not be accurate. think about it, the car is 19 years old with 100,000km on the clock... it just doesn't make sense. it's very difficult to get a genuine km zed from japan, almost always the odometer is wound back and they usually throw out the log books. for instance mine has 145,000km on the clock... its closer to 250,000km. you need to look at things like the gear knob, steering wheel, condition of dash/plastic trim etc and also the drivers seat bolster for wear. these can give you a better indication of the km on the car.

honestly though, a twin turbo for a first car would be abit risky. probably get an NA Australian delivered model. Generally the aussie delivered models are less likely to have had the odo wound back, you can usually get service history also.

i heard they have lots of problems - money pit

any car can be a money pit. if you get a well cared for example, good compression and good service history then chances are you're not going to have to pour money into it (unless you want to mod it). you gotta be prepared to pay for a good car though, no point in buying a 8k TT and finding that the turbos are gone and it's got low compression... that would be a money pit.

if she has to get one make it NA, they are labor intensive to work on from what i have been told by a mate who has one, a celica would probably be cheaper to run, maintain etc.

true they are labour intensive. removing turbos is engine out job. engine bay is cramped but if you can do the main servicing yourself then you'll save money. celica would be cheaper to run, but completely different car.

From what I have been told Z32's have brake hosing problems, they leak brake fluid.

The engine bay is very tight to work with, like installing pods and intercoolers, getting air flow, I found everything to be quite compact, the car is quite heavy and can drink a bit of fuel

But see how you go. If you want speak to David Linsay at Z-Shop in Glen Iris. He's the king of Z's... Tuning / maintance / information.

never heard of that brake fluid leak problem... could be caused by people running the wrong type of brake fluid. installing pod filter is easy, the pod isn't even in the engine bay, it's under the nose panel. 2x10mm bolts to take off the nose panel. intercoolers require removal of front bar, i think that's the same on most cars.

if you need a good, honest zed specialist mechanic i'd recomend Joe of Dontex (vermont) or Andrew (works in Hallam i think). Joe used to work at Z shop and Nissport but has since moved on and works at Dontex, he by far the best zed mechanic in melbourne. Andrew was his apprentice at Nissport and did most of the work on my car when it was at nissport. The thing that they have in common is that you can trust them 100% and they have a passion for the 300zx. I have both their numbers if you need them for pre-purchase inspections etc.

don't the z32 have a problem with overheating??because of the design of the front end they tend to overheat on long drives, more so in summer

I really don't know where all these rumours come from. a properly maintained zed, even with stock front bar and radiator etc, will not overheat on long drives. when i got my car the first thing i did was do the 100k service (includes waterpump and thermostat), flushed and rodded radiator and replaced my upper hose with a new Nissan one and put an alloy lower hose in. I still have to do an under plenum bypass and cleanup but my zed has never overheated and i've done DECA on a nice hot day. yes the engine bay is cramped, under bonnet temps are abit higher than most are used to but a cooling system that is upto spec will not cause an overheat. it's only the cars that haven't been looked after that overheat.. that's how the zed gets it's bad rep but it's not fair to say that all zeds have cooling problems because it's not true.

^^ I think cuz the fact that the Z32 engine bay is so compact, its hard to get air flow / allow the air to circulate...

sort of... the only zeds that have issues are the ones that run fmic's without the proper shroud. zeds run stock smic's, when people choose to run fmic and don't create a shroud to force air into the fmic and through the radiator they'll find that their temps start to get towards the 90's. abit high but not dangerous. it may contribute to an overheat but will not cause the car to overheat unless there are other faults in the cooling system (thermostat, coolant leaks etc.)

once again...

bad

very very very bad

please elaborate. serious question, have you ever owned a zed? how can they be "very very very bad" when the z32 was named in the top 10 cars list for every year it was sold? how can they be bad when they are still included in the 20 greatest cars of the last 20 years? how can they be bad when they're still considered the best used sports car under $15,000 by drive? maybe you just had a bad experience with a lemon but i can assure you, they're not "very very very bad".

if its been taken care of then it should be fine...

people get problems with em coz they dont look after em as they should (they do require extra attention) or they just buy a rooted 1 to begin with

agree. alot of negative comments about the zed in this thread and i'm sorry about the long reply but i just don't like when people who have heard things about a car start to bad mouth it without even having owned one. but i'm not going to try converting everyone into zed lovers, believe what you want to believe but i'm just going to tell you the facts.

admittedly, i'm highly biased towards the zed. i love my zed and if someone gave me 15k i'd go out and buy another one. it's only cars like the r34 gtr that i would consider buying, but until i can afford one, I'll take my 300zx over anything else.

[abu]

BAD

[funkymonkey]

owned a Z for all of 3 weeks. sold it in a heartbeat and was lucky I made a profit. It wins all the awards cos the yanks were given the Z and not a skyline. so they think its top shit. Its nissan's global car, and as such received a lot of global awards.

It literally handles like a boat... if you want proof, get one out sideways and see if you can catch it and hold it out there like a skyline, silvia or any other well balanced car. Unless you're prepared to throw money at it, there are far more economically sound and stylishly similar cars available. Most of the cheap ones are shitty old 1989 and 1990 bashers.... and you'd expect to pay top dollar for a well looked after aussie spec or SEVS import.

The only thing its got going for it is a progressive styling, and a low centre of gravity.

That said, I have a weak spot for 2 seater 240Z's and 200ZR's.

If you're serious about buying one, have a chat to blipman on the forums, he runs aus300zx, lives in melbourne and can be found at some SAU events... very knowledgeable on 300ZX's.