So I jsut got my Z back this afternoon after almost a month in the shop. Had a really nasty accident swerving to miss a dog wound up hitting a landscaping rock and catching air at about 35. A ton of frontal damage (Aerosync bumper survived almost unscathed ) front suspension was total wrecked, drivers side suspension completely collapsed but what can I say, I walked away without a scratch.

So I got my Z back this afternoon and it looked great. Front bumper was redone and painted, new wheels and tires on the car, I was pretty excited. Got about two miles away from the body shop and had it up to about 65. I felt a shudder and it was like I lost my accelerator. It was maintaining RPM but would not accelerate. At that point the Service Engine Soon light appeared. So I pulled over, shut off the car, waited a minute and restarted. SES light stayed on and the acceleration was still pretty bad. Pulled over again did the same thing and acceleration was a little bit better. Managed to get home but kept getting an intermittent squeal from the drivers side front, my engine temps kept moving right up to about the second line before the H and it definitily just was not driving right. To top it office my HIDs are out oif alignment.

So long story short I'm glad I didn't turn in the rental car (Sea Foam Green Ford Focus ZX-5 = 5 doors of sex magnet) and now I have to hurt the people at the body shop. Looks like another extended period of time without a car.

 

Oh yeah forgot to mention that the cooling fans seem to stay on at full blast forever when it is sitting in the driveway. Waiting for it to cool down to see if the rocket scientists put coolant in my car.

 

did you chose the shop?

 

I chose it from the list of approved insurance body shops. THey had done work on an older vehicle of mine and did a great job.

 

Just checked my coolant and as I suspected there was almost no coolant in the tank so topped it off with just enough to get me through tommorrow but I am definitly pissed about that. God knows what else is wrong.

 

did you turn around and take it straight back? Sounds to me like you took it home, I would have went right back and ask if they even test drove it. I would for sure get it there ASAP. Good luck.

 

Going back first thing in the morning. Already talked to the service manager who offered to have it towed. I am definitly going to raise serious hell. Having my car in the shop for a month and having these kinds of issues is insane.

 

guess most body shops don't know what they are doing or they just don't give a fock....lol

 

Car overheats and stalls out on the way back to the body shop this morning. I raised holy hell and now the car is on a flat bed going to Nissan. I'm going to tell them to rip the motor apart and replace anything that even looks suspect and to do it on the bodyshops dime. To top it off I get the call this morning that my insurance company has reached it's limit on my rental car so looks like I am going to have to try and stick that bill to the bodyshop.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH going to have to kill someone!

 

Hahaha...that sucks...ever thought about getting a new Z ?

 

i had something similar to you. I got my car back from the shop and it kept over heating. never actually smoked or reached to the H but i found out that the body shop never flushed the cooling system. there were air pockets throughout it. all i had to do was start the car with temps cold, open the radiator cap and as soon as you see the water about to come up, close it and it takes care of the bubbles. as for the other parts, sorry dont know what to do

 

the radiator air bubbles will work themselves out without having to mess with the cap. Until it works out you're temp will keep shooting up really high and then low over and over but for me it didnt' take more than 30 min of driving for that to stop and it was fine.

 

wow your lucky actually, mine was about 3 days and it was still shooting up and down? maybe I had more than you?

 

perhaps yes. They completely replaced my radiator when 18wheeler tire debree on the freeway wreaked havoc on the undercariage of my car ripping things out. Our cars are low and beautiful.. but watch out. Even a damn rock.. yes, just an ordinary rock got dragged under my car for about 10 feet once. Luckily didn't do much damage besides leaving some nasty scratches and mangling the underbody shield a little bit.

 

I had a similar problem w/ air bubbles on a coolant swap out; got about 2 miles from the shop and spiked a HIGH temp. I limped back to the shop and they attached an extractor/vacuum?? to the radiator fill, got the air pockets out, added more coolant, and the problem has not resurfaced.
The suspension problem sounds much more problematic-maybe a good opportunity to upgrade on someone else's nickel??

 

Your fans will come on automatically when your car goes into limp mode. I wonder if your car went into limp mode because of your temp and thats why you couldnt accelerate. If your car over heated you are just scrating the surface of problems to come. I hope everything works out for you. Make sure the stealership takes there time. With a overheated engine your gaskets are shot. Hopefully that will be all.

 

1 2 NV I suspect you may be right about the limp mode. I spoke to the service manager yesterday and told him I wanted the engine opened up by a Nissan tech and to have a full diagnostic done on it. His response was that nothing should be wrong because the car shut itself down. It is supposed to do that when it gets too hot. And while I know it is true, the engine was never designed to run at those temps in the first place. So they had it towed to Nissan and I am waiting to hear back.