sonicii

Pick any 10+ year old car and you will have stories of people who have never had a problem, and stories from people who keep sinking money into fixing things.. sounds like your friend is a member of the latter group. Most owners fall somewhere in between, fixing minor things from time to time when needed, but generally not spending the large figures you mentioned each time.

I think your 'someone who has a large and detailed knowledge of these cars', doesn't really.. Door locks and window motors can go on the early models.. nowhere near '$1k-3k' to fix unless you want to replace all of them at once. Never heard of common AC problems.. auto is only an issue if you pick the CVT on the early model sedans. compression rod bushes and lower control arm bushes can go, again nowhere near $1-3k to fix.. unless you want to replace every suspension bush at once.. then maybe around the $1k figure. Wheel bearings? I guess once they get old, but they are very easy to replace (The fronts you can do yourself in about 15 minutes), and nothing like $1k. language change on the navi system is 'nice to have' but hardly required.. and common for any import. Aftermarket head unit again is a 'nice to have'.. you can buy 2nd hand factory units fairly cheap. Buttons are stickers.. they should cost you about $2 on ebay! out of all those items you listed.. on my car, which I have owned for 3 years, I have done - compression rod bushes. that's it!

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Great thanks.. I was hoping to get away with leaving the subframe/cradle in place. But I guess it will depend on how stubborn the old bush wants to be.. I have read some posts about the front bushes and to make sure you get them the right way around, so I will pay extra attention to that. I ordered the kit from whiteline today.

Thanks guys.. I am going to order the whiteline bushes. I already have the whiteline front compression rod bushes and they are fine. My only concern is increased NHV, but it seems the whiteline have made an effort to reduce this without making the bushes too soft for the diff bushings. I am also going to borrow my brothers battery powered reciprocating saw. by the look of it, using a wood blade to cut the rubber section out first, then using a metal blade to cut the outer ring works the best.

True.. but we were referring to the bearing replacement for the other front bearing, so as you say, you need the entire hub. I believe for the rear the bearing comes with the mounting bracket, and you just need to press the hub out and into the new one. Or you can buy the entire assy for ease of replacement if you don't have access to a press.

People on carsales often have no idea how much their car is worth. $32k is just silly for a 350GT V36. $14k is quite cheap, I would say with high km, poor condition, or the owner just found out it had the odo would back or had accident history in Japan and just wants to offload it. That said, the 350GT does often go for quite a bit less than the 370GT. You should be able to import a clean example with low genuine km for around $20k or less, depending on you colour and option wishes.

If it is like the V35, you need to buy the whole hub, you can't remove just the bearing and replace it. The hub center is mushroomed at the end to prevent the bearing coming off.. Permanently.

I believe he means he used the bearing they pulled from the right side when they fitted a new bearing (which didn't fix the issue), and put it on the left (which made the noise go away). Personally, I would be ordering another new wheel bearing and fitting it on the left, so you will have 2 new front bearings.

There is a procedure here. http://www.freshalloy.com/archive/index.php/t-149714.html But I would just run the car in short bursts with the cooler line disconnected and then top up the transmission in between, rather than hoping you can 'keep up', while the fluid gets pumped out with a running engine. Also allows you to shift through the gears while the engine is running to ensure the valve body is flushed more thoroughly.

Awesome.. thanks for the info. I assume the outer ring of the bush is steel, so extra care will be needed to ensure I don't cut too far, as the alloy will be a bit like butter compared to the steel bush.

As far as I know.. all Auto transmissions are filled via the dipstick tube. Just dropping the pan and re-filling will only replace about half of the fluid in the transmission, so a 5L container will be close to all you need. The rest of the fluid will be sitting in the torque converter, with some in the valve body and cooler lines. A pan drain/refill is fine if you do regular changes as it keeps the fluid fairly fresh. But if it hasn't had a fluid change for 100,000km or so, you might want to consider doing a full flush To do a full fluid change, you will need 10+L and you will either need to take it to a transmission shop, who will have the equipment to do it. or use one of the 'DYI' methods by removing the cooler return lines.

I think the SPL bushings are solid, so they will transmit more noise than the whiteline bushes. Some have suggested to only use the SPL solid bushes if you do a lot of track work. Obviously I don't have any first hand experience.. just some posts I have come across when looking for options over the last couple of days.

Thanks, I am leaning towards the whiteline product, do you know if you can remove the old bush with the subframe in place in a sedan too? since the spare tyre well sits right behind the diff bush in the Sedan. or can you get enough access to it with the diff removed? There are a few procedures online that suggest to cut out the old rubber and then use a hacksaw to cut through the outer metal ring of the old bush. is that the method you have used? I assume you haven't found any increase in NVH with the whiteline bushes? Do you happen to know if you can even buy the factory bushings? I wasn't able to find them anywhere..

did you see this post? http://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/451371-parts-for-sale/

I suggest you steer clear of that mechanic

If you go custom, find someone who knows what they are doing. Most exhaust shops will just bend up some piping to suit, weld in an 'off the shelf' muffler, charge you a bucket of cash and call it a 'custom' system. IMHO you would be better off buying a system from a company that has taken the time to tune a system to suit the car.

well sort of.. not really in the wheel arch... it is close enough to the front centre of the engine bay that it would sound like it is coming from under the bonnet when you are in the drivers seat. when I had a faulty fuel damper, it sounded like it was coming from the engine bay, even thought it was the rear right side of the engine. The sound of a squealing belt would also be quite a bit different to a rock in the calliper. a belt is a screech.. but a rock is more of a metallic scraping sound which is usually a bit modulated with wheel rotation speed.

yeah.. at this stage I am thinking I might have to go with whiteline bushes..http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/bulletins/Update%20BL-385.pdf they seem to be the softest of the poly bushes. Everyone has stated the solid bushes are the worst for NHV, like the SPL bushes. you can buy the whiteline bushes at several places.. like here - http://gslrallysport.com/au/kdt911-whiteline-rear-diff-mount-350z.html

they should be ok, but these size belts are an 'off the shelf' item, you should be able to buy at just about any auto parts store. Slipping belts often squeal when starting from cold and get loud when you rev the engine, and often go away after the first minute or so of driving. also can get louder when you put them under load, eg. power steering pump load (turning when not moving or moving slow) or AC compressor. Shouldn't really make much difference if you are turning right or left. and would also come from the front of the car, not the right side wheel arch.

Does anyone know if the factory diff mount bushings are available? I know there are several after-market poly options, but everyone says the firmer bushes create an increase in noise. As this is my daily, I am hoping to keep it fairly quite where possible so I would prefer to replace these with factory bushes, or at least a good quality OEM equivalent. By the look of it the factory bushes are filled with a silicone liquid too. I found a post that stated the bushings aren't available for the V36, but not sure if the V35 is in the same boat. Has anyone ever seen factory bushings for sale? or does everyone just go with poly bushes?

Sorry, I don't know anyone in Melbourne. If you have any decent Nissan dealers, they should be able to check it for you.. otherwise, it might need someone with a consult2/3 clone. I don't think the basic OBD2 tools will access the TCM.

V36 comes as a 2dr coupe too. The 350GT V36 was a 4dr sedan only in late 06-07. The 370GT comes as a coupe or a sedan. All V36 sedans are auto though. If you want a 6sp manual, you have to go with a coupe.. Unlike the V35 which had a 6sp manual sedan available. If you were looking at sedans, the 350GT is quite a bit cheaper, as everyone wants the 370 with the bigger engine. Also keep in mind, the 6sp manual coupe will demand a higher price than an auto. If you want to import one, look at the recommended importers for the best chance of receiving a quality car with accurate km. For example, iron chef or prestige Motorsport. If you buy from a small dealer who has already imported and complied the car, you run a very high chance of buying one with wound back km or a repaired write off.

don't know if I would say they are particularly 'unreliable'. the problem comes when something goes wrong.. you struggle to find someone even willing to look at it.. then struggle to pay the repair bill when you do.

Go for a 05-06 if you can, they are the series 2 or 3 and have fixed most of the niggly issues like window motors and they should have the revised 6sp manual transmission (if you are looking for a manual). Although I am guessing you might be after an auto? as the V36 350GT only came in a 4dr sedan, and all V36 sedans are auto. Most info you are after will be found by searching the page.. not sure why you couldn't open any threads though??