Sorry if this has been previously covered:

I was at my local Nissan dealership yesterday explaining to the parts manager how low the dyno numbers have been with CAI's added and aftermarket exhausts. Being these numbers are considerably lower than that of what Nissan claims for the stock Z's hp.
I asked about the ECU's compensating for the mods (he was pretty in the dark on the subject of ECU's) and he had not heard that, but was fairly knowledgable on other subjects. He was pretty high on the Stillen dual exhaust and he wondered why I would consider the American made Borla and place that on an import?? --but anyway, he said that Nissan sets the Z to run at a fail safe mode for the first 5k miles, then another 20-25 hp kicks in. Being that I don't have 5k miles on my Z yet, nor do I know anyone locally who does, I cannot confirm this. Anyone notice any increase in power after they hit 5k on their Z's, or is this guy way off base?

 

ya know, that ALMOST sounds feasible. I got in my car one day and it most def. felt faster than before, not sure what the mileage was but i have 6500 on it now. Not sure i believe it, but it sortve makes sense

 

My mpg went up significantly once I hit 10,000 miles. I cant tell if it was due to the milage, the warmer weather, or the fact that I was being more aggressive of a driver, keeping it between 3k and 4k rpms all the time instead of 2k to 3k.

it went from 18 mpg to 23ish.

 

I'm not believing this 5000K theory. I hope its true cuz I baselined @ 248HP and could always use another 20-25hp. This was with 1800 miles back in June.

 

About 90% of the time, if a dealer tells you something, it's BS.
they're salesmen, they can't help but make stuff up.
Plus, how the hell would he know?

 

It is hard to believe, but nice to hope for I guess. I mean, how are Nissan's numbers so far off, other than soley for inflation purposes? That's lame.

The guy was a parts manager, and I do know how much bs floats around the delearships, but he had nothing to gain by telling me this. He wasn't trying to sell me anything, infact it's kinda of the opposite.

A good friend of mine said that he knows for a fact that BMW is the only car manufacturer who places a safe mode on their cars--a certain model and I can't remember which one he said. Anyway, just food for though.

 

There is another factor besides sales that makes people BS, they don't want to look stupid. Afterall how many times have you gone in and spoken with technician about Nismo Parts, Twin Turbos and even TSB's and got that, deer in headlights, blank look staring back at you.

Comming from the service industry I can tell you that many people in the industry would rather make something up then to appear not to know. I personaly don't mind if someone tells me "I don't know, but I'll find out and let you know". Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Nissan technicians either, I'm just saying most haven't worked on many 350's and very few love the car, and keep up to date on info, as much as we enthusiasts do.

 

I SERIOUSLY doubt this is true. At 4000 miles I dynoed over 250hp (see my sig)

HOWEVER, I do notice that the car runs much smoother, revs faster, and generally FEELS better after I broke 5K miles. Maybe it's just that the car is more "broken in"

 

That is a good point you brought up! And so true!