Had my 1st Z delivered to me today, a 2003 44k miles, 6 speed,DE motor with a clean title. It has that bose system on it, single cd player, which I will be changing the head unit with a touch screen/usb option. I've done my research and figured out the other components I need to get for it to handle the noise with the bose system.

I'm a little confused on how high the clutch needs to be for it to disengage to get into gear. I'll look into it later.
Can't drive it around too far since the DMV is still closed, so I can't get it registered and licensed.
What little driving I've done, I noticed that the rear has a little creaking sound on it. Upon research it might be the end links, looks like an easy fix.

 

Welcome and congratz!

 

Looks good! Welcome and congratulations! Now grab a beer and read, read, read the sticky posts as much as you can stand it.

 

Congrats! Takes awhile to find one that is clean and has not been thrashed or modified to death.

 

Congrats! Nice Z!

 

Waiting to see Memorial Day sales but looking to invest on a JVC KW-V250BT head unit (Crutchfield), along with the extra output converter because I have the Bose speakers. Maybe take some classes, or drive the Z in a clam manner. This is my first RWD/V6, so I want to be careful.
Still waiting on the DMV to send out tags. My Z is still sitting on the condo property waiting to be driven.

This is my second car, my daily is a Toyota Celica 2004 1zz, 5-speed and she only has 120k miles on her.

 

Nice buy! They are fun cars to drive and work on.

 

Looks like it has a bad gas gauge, it's not reading right. Not going all the way to full. From light reading, it might be a bad sensor for the fuel/level. Car still runs, and doesn't seem to be too bad. There is a sound in the rear, where it sounds like the car was driven in sandy conditions and some of the sand got in the rear wheels. going to have to trace that but so far, I'm happy with the overall drive of the Z.

 

ah, looks exactly like mine when i first got it!
I see mass plates, are you from MA or did you just buy from MA and ship to VA?

 

This might be a known problem(gas guage). It's something to do with a filter or air release not sure exactly what is, in the fuel tank. Prevents you from filling the tank all the way. There is a fix and service bulletin for that, the extended warranty for this is 10 years or 150k. You are out of time to get this fixed free of charge, but might want to check with the dealership.
NTB08-082
2003-2008 NISSAN 350Z; HARD TO FILL FUEL TANK
The fuel tank is difficult to fill more than ½

NTB05-048
2003-2005 NISSAN 350Z; FUEL TANK DIFFICULT TO FILL AT TIMES
The fuel tank is intermittently difficult to fill.

 

Good call, Jim! Yes, 2 separate known problems. The sender for fuel level gets stuck, clean or replace. Also fuel evap canister system problems. Work around is turning the gas pump handle upside down.
Glad you provided TSBs.

 

lol, turn the gas pump handle upside down.
Read only about the fixes and how to's last night. But I wanna try the ''turning the gas pump handle''.

Thanks for providing the part numbers, i'll look into.

 

this trick works about 80% of the time. It's mainly about the gas pump's length of the nozzle going into your tank. Like at my local Sunoco, I always have to turn it upside down or it'll cut on every few dollars I pump in. At a Quick Trip I went to today, I couldn't pump it upside down as it kept cutting off. I actually had to pump it normally lol

 

Hopefully just some rusty brakes and some spirited braking will take care of that. Congrats!

 

Had to get the car inspected and an emission test, still waiting for the DMV to provide me tags.

Moved the car to my parent's house which is a 15 minute drive on the highway. So much fun, and so hard to keep the speed below 65mph.

 

Finally got the plates from the DMV, driving the Z only on Fridays and on the weekends. Hella fun to drive.
Still have to baby the shift up to 3rd gear. She likes to grind if I shift too fast, so I usually let the rpm hold steady above 3k and then shift to 3rd or I let it drop safely enough so I can shift her up. Still trying to figure her out and baby her a bit more.
I did read that there were problems with the transmission. But I'm pretty sure it's just my bad shifting and getting used to the transmission.