First week of ownership of first Z
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First week of ownership of first Z
Last Sunday I took delivery of a 2003 Coupe touring, Red, with a slushbox 124K miles.
the only external "damage" is clear coat peeling, someone tried to break into it year ago and chipped a piece of plastic(<nickel sized-ish), and a couple < dime size rust bulbs.
There are a few issues to work though but nothing a DIYer can't tackle. So for a17 year old car in very good shape. Well the front bumper was off following the previous owner replacing the headlights and loosing the screws and a tear at the bottom in the lower corners of the air inlet grill area. I got the bumper before the car epoxy and a little bit of enginuity then I had the screws on standby and on receipt of the car had the bumper on in 10min. but he lost the front wheel well liners..meh those are cheap.
Initially I would have preferred to have had a manual, but haven't been too worried about it, actually makes it kinds of more relaxing. the only "worry" is it started with a misfire in cylinder 2 for which I replaced the coil pack and had her purring away right after. on 3-4 occasions there was some acceleration bogging down randomly but I believe that since the previous owner had just purchased a new K&N filter and had oiled it very well that oil is pissing off the MAF sensor. I cleaned the MAF again and it went away but came back after a hard acceleration, cleaned again haven't had a hard acceleration opportunity but haven't had a reoccurrence either. The only thing which is wierd is that when it is "bogging down" (for lack of a better term) I can hear a ticking sound. Like an electrical spark tick. I had my hands all over the place in the engine compartment and figure had that been a stay voltage jump i would have noticed pretty fast. Ehh. Still working on that.
Since receiving the car it has been a long week working through and tearing interior apart. But I have had fun in doing so teaching my daughters that cars aren't scary machines.
Had to gut the entire radio system. there were old Bose system pieces with wires cut and not capped in the dash and in the trunk area on the amp, which the amp was being bypassed for audio purposes anyways, but still had power applied to the amp. So pulled ALL of the plastic panels and seats were out of the car and gutted all the old aftermarket stereo wiring. disconnected and threw away the bose amp and LPF(? behind the driver seat). Shrink wrapped all the cut wires then spider wrapped everything loose in electrical tape. Then re-ran 16 gauge wire to all the speaker. the rear speakers were easy enough. the door speakers weren't as fun. I read a write up on this forum( of many different posts I have read in the last week) talking about removing the door harness connector and drilling it out. I was able to get the door harness connector out but didn't feel comfortable enough to tear into it and avoided a potential mistake, especially after I found the rubber grommet just below that which I cut a little hole in and ran the speaker wire through there and then a puncture hole into the door rubber wire gasket(tons of room for extra wires through that). removed the factory junker speakers in all of the corners and slipped some Kenwoods with a 1" spacer (thanks to another write up on the forum giving details on depth requirements to avoid window hitting speaker). new double din head unit and modest 5 channel JL audio amp and also installed a back-up camera with forum and AnthonyJ350 video guidance/assistance.
Now onto mechanical. I got all the parts to change the brake pads and rotors, replace the remaining spark plugs, oil change coolant changeout and full brake system bleed out. Then I will paint the wheels black and most importantly get rid of the fart can exhaust. Previous owner was proud of his nvidia exhaust, its got to go. Nismo exhaust of OEM maybe a borla. not rushing to make a change, this is a toy for now and my kid's first car when that time gets here. Trying to find OEM intake and change out the K&N setup. might have found the part at a junk yard but haven't had a chance to head on over there and scope it out. once everything is good to go its going to be wrapped lime green with black hood, top, and trimming(door handles etc) and the addition of a factory limp spoiler, as in black.
Well i don't have any particular shoutouts but this forum has been a wealth of valuable resources. thanks to all who have contributed an made my progress that much easier. From the rear hatch spring "mod" to the airbag reset and may others. Thank-you
the only external "damage" is clear coat peeling, someone tried to break into it year ago and chipped a piece of plastic(<nickel sized-ish), and a couple < dime size rust bulbs.
There are a few issues to work though but nothing a DIYer can't tackle. So for a17 year old car in very good shape. Well the front bumper was off following the previous owner replacing the headlights and loosing the screws and a tear at the bottom in the lower corners of the air inlet grill area. I got the bumper before the car epoxy and a little bit of enginuity then I had the screws on standby and on receipt of the car had the bumper on in 10min. but he lost the front wheel well liners..meh those are cheap.
Initially I would have preferred to have had a manual, but haven't been too worried about it, actually makes it kinds of more relaxing. the only "worry" is it started with a misfire in cylinder 2 for which I replaced the coil pack and had her purring away right after. on 3-4 occasions there was some acceleration bogging down randomly but I believe that since the previous owner had just purchased a new K&N filter and had oiled it very well that oil is pissing off the MAF sensor. I cleaned the MAF again and it went away but came back after a hard acceleration, cleaned again haven't had a hard acceleration opportunity but haven't had a reoccurrence either. The only thing which is wierd is that when it is "bogging down" (for lack of a better term) I can hear a ticking sound. Like an electrical spark tick. I had my hands all over the place in the engine compartment and figure had that been a stay voltage jump i would have noticed pretty fast. Ehh. Still working on that.
Since receiving the car it has been a long week working through and tearing interior apart. But I have had fun in doing so teaching my daughters that cars aren't scary machines.
Had to gut the entire radio system. there were old Bose system pieces with wires cut and not capped in the dash and in the trunk area on the amp, which the amp was being bypassed for audio purposes anyways, but still had power applied to the amp. So pulled ALL of the plastic panels and seats were out of the car and gutted all the old aftermarket stereo wiring. disconnected and threw away the bose amp and LPF(? behind the driver seat). Shrink wrapped all the cut wires then spider wrapped everything loose in electrical tape. Then re-ran 16 gauge wire to all the speaker. the rear speakers were easy enough. the door speakers weren't as fun. I read a write up on this forum( of many different posts I have read in the last week) talking about removing the door harness connector and drilling it out. I was able to get the door harness connector out but didn't feel comfortable enough to tear into it and avoided a potential mistake, especially after I found the rubber grommet just below that which I cut a little hole in and ran the speaker wire through there and then a puncture hole into the door rubber wire gasket(tons of room for extra wires through that). removed the factory junker speakers in all of the corners and slipped some Kenwoods with a 1" spacer (thanks to another write up on the forum giving details on depth requirements to avoid window hitting speaker). new double din head unit and modest 5 channel JL audio amp and also installed a back-up camera with forum and AnthonyJ350 video guidance/assistance.
Now onto mechanical. I got all the parts to change the brake pads and rotors, replace the remaining spark plugs, oil change coolant changeout and full brake system bleed out. Then I will paint the wheels black and most importantly get rid of the fart can exhaust. Previous owner was proud of his nvidia exhaust, its got to go. Nismo exhaust of OEM maybe a borla. not rushing to make a change, this is a toy for now and my kid's first car when that time gets here. Trying to find OEM intake and change out the K&N setup. might have found the part at a junk yard but haven't had a chance to head on over there and scope it out. once everything is good to go its going to be wrapped lime green with black hood, top, and trimming(door handles etc) and the addition of a factory limp spoiler, as in black.
Well i don't have any particular shoutouts but this forum has been a wealth of valuable resources. thanks to all who have contributed an made my progress that much easier. From the rear hatch spring "mod" to the airbag reset and may others. Thank-you
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