there's not such question as a dumb question, but there is a lot of pointless questions.. as stated before the 350z is a 14year old car. whatever problem you are going through, someone asked already and posted there story on this site .. people just don't want to waste time to look for it.

 

^^^ True dat.

Or worse, taking advice from forum "speculation" as gospel; resulting in the person "throwing parts at the problem" without going through and doing a full on diagnosis. See that alllll the time and I'm guilty of it as well.... (but at least I'm usually right with the first part. Hahahaha.)

 

So...my cars kinda acting weird. How can I fix this?

 

Well, 1st you need access to a left-handed screwdriver...

 

I have one of those. Y'wanna borrow it to fix yer whutchamadoojiggerthingamabob? I'm sure it'll work, you'll just need to get ahold of some of that Motul headlight fluid to finish it right.

 

As a Newb i might get flames but ill throw my 2cents out there of what ive found.
my 03 as someone posted before has come to point that **** goes bad. lol
after searching youtube and forums i very rarely find the answer that i am looking for. most threads are back from at least 5-7 years ago ( of the topic i was searching for ) and none of them had the answer, only speculations of solutions and then no one ever updated the thread again.
I believe that does lead to a lot of new post from newbs that some ogs probably have already gone thru.

let the flame begin.

 

Google search works better..... add site:my350z.com after whatever you are looking for

 

No flames. Here's the thing, not a lot has changed within last 5-7 years. Same principles apply - as do almost all basic automotive diagnostics techniques with the exception that most issues can now (since 1996 MY) be resolved using OBD-II readers. (Or at least they point in the right direction.)

On that note, keep in mind that while OBD-II is a standard diagnostic tool, the DTCs (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) are, for the most part, interpreted differently from mfgr to mfgr. With that in mind, there are many code interpreters on the web. Choose the one that specifies your specific BRAND of car.

But yes, while the threads are old, there's valuable info in them. The names have changed (brands and vendors that sell particular parts) but the basic diagnostic info is easy to find and then look up...

...using THIS ^^^ to do the search. Absolutely the best way to search any specific site like this one because the Googo results will take you not just to the thread (which can have many pages.....) but to the specific page the answer can be found on.

With Google search, be as specific as possible along with the "site:" operand and you can find dang near everything here and everywhere.

 

It has gotten much worse now that Facebook is the mainstream social media network. Even though those groups have a search feature and works quite well, you still get newbs and lazy *** people posting questions that were literally covered the day before by long list of replies to the previous newb. The only difference now is you get to see their full names and what that person could be into based on the stuff they post to their FB profile. I can kinda 'assess' the person's tech knowledge from that aspect alone. I do miss forums being the 1st and main location to visit/check for anything related to a specific chassis, but it looks like FB stole that thunder and it's only going to get worse

 

On a serious note, everyone should have some sort of obdII reader. They can be had relatively cheap for a plain Jane model. There are several companies now that have Bluetooth models that work with an app on your phone or tablet. The Bluetooth models have a lot more options to take readings from all your sensors and a scan tool that also gives the most common fixes for the codes. I paid $100 for mine and it's been an invaluable tool.

Bluedriver is the one I bought but there are several on the market now.

 

Not about to abandon my Innova scanner but if I were, that Bluedriver unit looks like the way to go.

I also have an iCarsoft reader specific to Mercedes that cost about half of what my Innova did.... and packed with features for MBZ cars. Wished I'd held off to buy this one because not only does it function for MBZ, it also READS all codes from any OBDII car. With that, I can just pop onto the Nissan specific code site and go from there.

But seriously, as rearranged said, the cheaper models are fine (every DIY'rs tool box needs to have ONE at minimum) and waaaay better than nothing but the my350Z forum for diagnostics. Laff....