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Hey, guys. A couple weeks ago, I bought an '04 Touring edition. It's in pretty good shape, and I paid $8300.00 cash. Since I've had to fix things here and there, and have some more to go, I decided to start a thread where I can put everything.
Here is the car when I bought it:
As I drove it home from the car lot, I noticed a few things.
-The instrument cluster lights, and stereo weren't working.
-The oil pressure gauge was pegged, and the digital display next to it wasn't working.
-The SES light was on, and it would flash when I got on the throttle at all. I had to baby it home.
These were all acceptable to me, because the car itself was clean, and I already turn wrenches as a hobby. As long as the wiring isn't a rat's nest, and the interior isn't destroyed, I'm down for whatever.
First thing I needed to do was figure out why it was misfiring so badly. So, I took it to the part's house, and had them put a scanner on it. I was pretty sure what it was going to be, but I was hoping it would be specific. Sure enough - P0300. Why couldn't it be P0301 - 306? Sigh. That basically narrowed it down to about ten things. So, I bought one coil pack, six spark plugs, and stuff for maintenance.
When I got it home, I figured I'd pull each spark plug and see if any of them were different from the other five. While at it, I would meter the coil packs. It was a good starting plan.
I pulled the first coil pack, inspected it for blisters, and metered it. All good. Pulled first spark plug....there was my problem. All six looked the same.
Sorry for blurry second pic. I was trying to get in close.
The plugs were shot! Looked like they'd been bad for the last 30,000 miles. That explained why the car bogged down with increased throttle. The spark gap was far to weak to burn a reasonable amount of fuel.
All the coil packs checked out good, so I put it back together. Then, I changed the oil, and got rid of that stupid K&N air filter.
Next on the agenda was the oil pressure. I knew since it was pegged, that the wire was broken, disconnected, or it was just plain bad. I bought one when I bought everything else. While the car was in the air, I replaced it. Problem solved.
Now for the no radio situation. Quick and dirty, it was the mirror fuse in the kick panel. Problem is, it would blow again every so often. I started tracking down the problem in the trunk, because the car's wiring was so clean, and there was an amp and sub box in the trunk that looked like it had been installed by a blind, drunk, four year old.
Didn't take more that two minutes to see a hot wire on the amp was touching the main ground. Little bit of rearranging, and it was fixed. Sadly, it is a poorly made box containing two 10" Kicker Comps, with a 1000 watt Boss amp. So all that stuff will have to go in the trash. Or maybe I'll sell it to the first Honda Civic owner I can track down.
The next biggest problem was the tires. The problem was three-fold.
1. They were all four different sizes and makes.
2. They were worn out big time.
3. I couldn't get any traction in first or second. (car is an auto). So if I floored it, it would spin and shift to second, and the car would try to swap ends. (with TCS off)
Now since I bought this car primarily for my wife, I can't have her driving around in a car with four bald tires, and the rims of a 1991 Toyota Camry. Something needed to be done....
Enter the Enkei Tuning series. Specifically the Kojin Black model. The rims are 18x9.5, with 15mm offset on all four corners. The rear got wrapped in 275/40, and front got 255/40. BF Goodrich G-force Sport Comp-2 rubber. Here are some before and after shots:
The tires are dead flush on the rear. Looks very good. I'll be rolling the fenders tomorrow, now that I have a heat gun. Huge improvement, and the car hooks up now, unless there's some side load.
After I took the old rims and tires out of my truck, I noticed that on the inner sidewall near the rim, one of them had two huge cracks following the rim. The cracks were 1/4" wide, about three inches long, and looked very deep. Luckily the tire didn't blow.
Next, I added a new antenna, and bought a new rearview mirror. Just waiting to schedule a new windshield for it. I also ordered the "MHP" trunk struts, so the trunk would stay up.
What about stock sound? Well, it sucks. Sounds like an 87 year old man with emphysema. There were a LOT of choices out there. What I wanted was some aggression, but with NO rasp. The rasp IMHO, makes the exhaust sound cheap. That is just my opinion. I listened to a lot of YouTube comparisons, and finally settled on Invidia. It's the obvious choice, since nVidia graphics cards....duh, it must be good, right? Not only did the exhaust sound good on YouTube, but more importantly the name sounded cool...."Invidia Gemini". Yep. And it's dual exhaust to boot. Not concerned with putting this car on a diet, so I can handle duals.
I didn't take any pictures of the install because, well, it's exhaust. But I did put together a before and after video! And here it is:
Next on the list is:
-find out why interior map lights aren't working.
-upgrade the speakers and amp to a "grown up" version. This will include hiding a quality sub downfiring behind the driver's seat. Maybe one in the glove box area too, but not likely. I'll also get a smaller, but better amp, and hide it somewhere.
-find and fix the oil leak.
Sounds like a laundry list of crap, but it's really not been bad. I do need to figure out what to do with the factory navigation system. In-dash nav is pretty antiquated. I'm really thinking about waiting until the Brainiac is released. That thing looks very cool.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the thread so far. I'll keep updating it as I add stuff.
Very nice progress and i love the rims! It's always awesome to see another Z owner taking steps to prevent any "normal" damage from ensuing by doing routine maintenance themselves! I also am in the process of building a custom box for behind drivers seat. But was going to build mine forward firing. I'm subbed for more! Great job and congrats the Z!
With all those problems i'm surprised you let them charge you that much for the car, touring or not. Easy fix or not.
Good on you for rescuing the poor thing though.
They aren't very common here, so it drives the price up. They wanted $10,500 for it, and right down the street was a base model for $10,999.
I think $8,300 wasn't bad. The interior is in very good shape. Basically there was a short caused by the amp not being fastened down, so it caused a blown fuse, and it needed six spark plugs. The subs and amp aren't really that bad. I'm just used to things like that being perfect.
I expect things like bald tires, and an oil leak. It needs to have those, or it wouldn't be authentic.
Valve cover gaskets
Intake gaskets
Oil cooler gasket
Fan assembly (both fans, and shroud)
Cam sensor (bank 2)
Battery
The tires, rims, and exhaust have less than 1k miles on them. Car has 145,xxx on the odometer. I believe everything on it is fixed, and in good working order.
With all that done, how much do you guys think it's worth? We just never drive it. I bought my wife a Raptor, and we have the Viper for two-seater excitement. (which we never drive either. smh)
GPD's 350z
