350Z Track Guru's:

I run my 2003 Track Ed. in Driver Ed. events mainly at Summit Point and Watkins Glen. I am recently experiening a problem where both the "VDC OFF" and the "SLIP" lights are coming on shortly after I drive my Z on the street (within 5 or so minutes) and pressing the "VDC OFF" button once these come on doesn't seem to help. What does this mean? I have not have this problem before.

This Spring I got my Z corner balanced and last week my Hotchkis 3-way adjustable swaybars set to their stiffest setting. I just got my Z aligned this afternoon to the specs below. Is my alignment causing these lights to come on or setting my sways to their stiffest setting?

Note, when I got my Z corner balanced the right rear toe would go way out of wack. I purchased and installed SPC toe bolts in the rear and now that allowed me to get more adjustability. For Driver Ed. track use, what are recommended alignment specs? From my reasearch on here, I thought that these were in the range of what people were runing/recommending?

Thank you for your time and help. I greatly appreciate it.

 

I wouldnt worry too much about it, it looks fine for what you are doing. You shouldn't be using VDC if you are worried about performance anyway, they will kick in and control the car.

 

VDC shouldn't be affected by an alignment unless the alignment was so extreme that unusual tire slippage was possible. TCS/VDC are most commonly thrown off by non-standard stagger (front tire diam vs. rear diam).

 

I'm trying to figure out why they all of a sudden came on. I do drive my Z on the street, it is not a dedicated track car AND I do not want to be driving with those lights constanting on (annoying).

I keep my VDC on at the track so when the SLIP light comes on I know I am not smooth enough and where I need to work.

 

It could be a problem with your ABS sensors. Debris could have gotten on one of the sensors, causing your car to think one of the tires is slipping. *Shrug*

 

Where would I find the sensor once the wheels are off and how would I clean them? Spray them with BrakeClean?

 

The one with the electrical wire on it

 

The one that I'm talking about are the rear ABS sensor rotor. This is the one most susceptible to getting stuff on it. It's on the rear drive shafts right next to the diff.

 

Thanks! As soon as it gets below 100 here (heat index anyway), I'll get my Z up on jackstands and check it out as well as each of the corners.

 

It could also happen due to the steering position sensor being out of whack after the alignment. That happened after JIC did my corner balance. Just had to stop at the nissan dealership and have them wipe the code. It was all good :-)

 

I figured both lights coming on meant that it was shuting itself down completely. Since this started happening I made two changes to my Z's suspension & alignment setup.

1. Was putting the sway bars on their stiffest setting (not likely the cause)
2. Added toe in the rear (0.15).

I took my Z back to STS Tire and told them to set the rear toe as close to zero as they can and then do any fine adjustment to the front toe as needed to get the steering wheel pointing straight, etc. They reset the rear toe to 0.08 for me and that did the trick!

For my year 350Z (2003), appearently the VDC does not like any toe in the rear. Just wanted to provide an update in case anyone stumbles across this problem.

Thanks for all your help.

 

zero toe is also a great way to take stability away from your car and cause you to spin, just ask what happened to all the 91-92 MR2 owners.

 

Technically my rear toe is 0.08 now. According to STS' computer, rear toe spec for my year Z is 0.06 to 0.10. I had 0.15 which caused my problem. Resetting back 0.08 fixed my problem. I just posted so others could benefit.

I do not care about 91-92 MR2's. How is that relevant? Its a totally different chassis?

 

Check your brake fluid level. If it gets near the Min, then those lights will come on.

 

Is your car different because it is on rails? If so, perhaps losing the rear end is not a problem you have to deal with. I really hope your VDC works good, else zero rear toe is going to get you in a a lot of trouble.

If you don't believe me, read about how toe in and toe out works. What works in the front basically applies to the rear of the vehicle. If snap oversteer is something you like, go right ahead and put in negative or zero toe. I am simply trying to correct your zero toe comment, that's the worst thing people can do. The best advice for novices is leave the car alone and learn how to drive it properly, tinkering is not always the best. Driver should be > than the car and setup.

 

There, I am sure your rear brakes will love you when your VDC doesnt have to keep applying the brakes to save your back end

 

Good to know, but my brake fluid level is always at max.

 

tmak26b, my "zero toe" comment was not 100% correct since I am technically not at zero toe, thank you for pointing that out. Are you done slamming me now?...

 

Nothing personal, just pointing out something you said incorrectly