Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

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

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 75
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

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...

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3708973
Share on other sites

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 by Munkyb0y
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3708984
Share on other sites

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 by (00)SKYLINE(00)
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3708993
Share on other sites

^^ 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.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3710746
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3710963
Share on other sites

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 :D

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3710965
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3711942
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/209818-300zx-good-bad/#findComment-3712021
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • See if you can thermal epoxy a heatsink or two onto it?
    • The other problem was one of those "oh shit we are going to die moments". Basically the high spec Q50s have a full electric steering rack, and the povo ones had a regular hydraulic rack with an electric pump.  So couple of laps into session 5 as I came into turn 2 (big run off now, happily), the dash turned into a christmas tree and the steering became super heavy and I went well off. I assumed it was a tyre failure so limped to the pits, but everything was OK. But....the master warning light was still on so I checked the DTCs and saw – C13E6 “Heat Protection”. Yes, that bloody steering rack computer sitting where the oil cooler should be has its own sensors and error logic, and decided I was using the steering wheel too much. I really appreciated the helpful information in the manual (my bold) POSSIBLE CAUSE • Continuing the overloading steering (Sports driving in the circuit etc,) “DATA MONITOR” >> “C/M TEMPERATURE”. The rise of steering force motor internal temperature caused the protection function to operate. This is not a system malfunction. INSPECTION END So, basically the electric motor in the steering rack got to 150c, and it decided to shut down without warning for my safety. Didn't feel safe. Short term I'll see if I can duct some air to that motor (the engine bay is sealed pretty tight). Long term, depending on how often this happens, I'll look into swapping the povo spec electric/hydraulic rack in. While the rack should be fine the power supply to the pump will be a pain and might be best to deal with it when I add a PDM.
    • And finally, 2 problems I really need to sort.  Firstly as Matt said the auto trans is not happy as it gets hot - I couldn't log the temps but the gauge showed 90o. On the first day I took it out back in Feb, because the coolant was getting hot I never got to any auto trans issues; but on this day by late session 3 and then really clearly in 4 and 5 as it got hotter it just would not shift up. You can hear the issue really clearly at 12:55 and 16:20 on the vid. So the good news is, literally this week Ecutek finally released tuning for the jatco 7 speed. I'll have a chat to Racebox and see what they can do electrically to keep it cooler and to get the gears, if anything. That will likely take some R&D and can only really happen on track as it never gets even warm with road use. I've also picked up some eye wateringly expensive Redline D6 ATF to try, it had the highest viscosity I could find at 100o so we will see if that helps (just waiting for some oil pan gaskets so I can change it properly). If neither of those work I need to remove the coolant/trans interwarmer and the radiator cooler and go to an external cooler....somewhere.....(goodbye washer reservoir?), and if that fails give up on this mad idea and wait for Nissan to release the manual 400R
    • So, what else.... Power. I don't know what it is making because I haven't done a post tune dyno run yet; I will when I get a chance. It was 240rwkw dead stock. Conclusion from the day....it does not need a single kw more until I sort some other stuff. It comes on so hard that I could hear the twin N1 turbos on the R32 crying, and I just can't use what it has around a tight track with the current setup. Brakes. They are perfect. Hit them hard all day and they never felt like having an issue; you can see in the video we were making ground on much lighter cars on better tyres under brakes. They are standard (red sport) calipers, standard size discs in DBA5000 2 piece, Winmax pads and Motul RBF600 fluid, all from Matty at Racebrakes Sydney. Keeping in mind the car is more powerful than my R32 and weighs 1780, he clearly knows his shit. Suspension. This is one of the first areas I need to change. It has electronically controlled dampers from factory, but everything is just way too soft for track work even on the hardest setting (it is nice when hustling on country roads though). In particular it rolls into oversteer mid corner and pitches too much under hard braking so it becomes unstable eg in the turn 1 kink I need to brake early, turn through the kink then brake again so I don't pirouette like an AE86. I need to get some decent shocks with matched springs and sway bars ASAP, even if it is just a v1 setup until I work out a proper race/rally setup later. Tyres. I am running Yoko A052 in 235/45/18 all round, because that was what I could get in approximately the right height on wheels I had in the shed (Rays/Nismo 18x8 off the old Leaf actually!). As track tyres they are pretty poor; I note GTSBoy recently posted a porker comparo video including them where they were about the same as AD09.....that is nothing like a top line track tyre. I'll start getting that sorted but realistically I should get proper sized wheels first (likely 9.5 +38 front and 11 +55 at the rear, so a custom order, and I can't rotate them like the R32), then work out what the best tyre option is. BTW on that, Targa Tas had gone to road tyres instead of semi slicks now so that is a whole other world of choices to sort. Diff. This is the other thing that urgently needs to be addressed. It left massive 1s out of the fish hook all day, even when I was trying not too (you can also hear it reving on the video, and see the RPM rising too fast compared to speed in the data). It has an open diff that Infiniti optimistically called a B-LSD for "Brake Limited Slip Diff". It does good straight line standing start 11s but it is woeful on the track. Nismo seem to make a 2 way for it.
    • Also, I logged some data from the ECU for each session (mostly oil pressures and various temps, but also speed, revs etc, can't believe I forgot accelerator position). The Ecutek data loads nicely to datazap, I got good data from sessions 2, 3 and 4: https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-2?log=0&data=7 https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-3?log=0&data=6 https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-4?log=0&data=6 Each session is cut into 3 files but loaded together, you can change between them in the top left. As the test sessions are mostly about the car, not me, I basically start by checking the oil pressure (good, or at least consistent all day). These have an electrically controlled oil pump which targets 25psi(!) at low load and 50 at high. I'm running a much thicker oil than recommended by nissan (they said 0w20, I'm running 10w40) so its a little higher. The main thing is that it doesn't drop too far, eg in the long left hand fish hook, or under brakes so I know I'm not getting oil surge. Good start. Then Oil and Coolant temp, plus intercooler and intake temps, like this: Keeping in mind ambient was about 5o at session 2, I'd say the oil temp is good. The coolant temp as OK but a big worry for hot days (it was getting to 110 back in Feb when it was 35o) so I need to keep addressing that. The water to air intercooler is working totally backwards where we get 5o air in the intake, squish/warm it in the turbos (unknown temp) then run it through the intercoolers which are say 65o max in this case, then the result is 20o air into the engine......the day was too atypical to draw a conclusion on that I think, in the united states of freedom they do a lot of upsizing the intercooler and heat exchanger cores to get those temps down but they were OK this time. The other interesting (but not concerning) part for me was the turbo speed vs boost graph: I circled an example from the main straight. With the tune boost peaks at around 18psi but it deliberately drops to about 14psi at redline because the turbos are tiny - they choke at high revs and just create more heat than power if you run them hard all the way. But you can also see the turbo speed at the same time; it raises from about 180,000rpm to 210,000rpm which the boost falls....imagine the turbine speed if they held 18psi to redline. The wastegates are electrically controlled so there is a heap of logic about boost target, actual boost, delta etc etc but it all seems to work well
×
×
  • Create New...