BACK TO MY NISSAN ROOTS

[bertvorgon]

It does not say WHY...which drives me crazy..

It says disconnect actuator OR, battery negative.

I reading on another site , it seems to do with the fluid "trapped" in the ABS actuator...I dunno...that's why I like my 510, freak'in dead simple, stops goes, and you can actually see the engine.

I know a fellow who works for Nissan ( mechanic), I'm going to ask him as soon as I get a chance.

[Octave]

Sadly even if it had redular services at a dealer the techs get lazy. Brake service means spray it down with brake cleaner and blow it off. Sadly myself included. It's not a bad Idea to lube the slider bolts in the caliper during a service. I'll start doing that to keep this from happening from any of my cars I service. Although if a customer complains of noises usually we lube the shims and sliders to see if it helps. Most the time it does.

I haven't disconected the battery to blead any of our brakes at work. I got the phone number for my buddy that worked at Infiniti he works with me now at nissan and I'll ask him if Infiniti's are different (which I doubt they are). Although If you want to pay for a service Nissan is starting to do Brake fluid flushes and it really helps the pedal feel firm up.

[bertvorgon]

thanks for that, I saw you were a Nissan tech, and thought I might drop you a line.

You are right on about the "techs/dealer being lazy. I really explained to the service guy the issue, but I suspect they never even took the wheel off now.

That is so poor, not like it's a burned out light bulb...we are talking BRAKES here. I am sending a letter to the dealer and to Nissan Canada, as constructive criticism..I think they need to hear that occasionally.

I'm starting to suspect that the rears have not been bled in all of this, so I am going to make sure I just do the whole car myself, then I know it is done right.

[Octave]

My buddy said he's never disconnected a battery to bleed brakes on a G35 or any infiniti for that matter. I say bleed away as Normal. I've bled 370z brakes without un doing anything I don't think they are that much different honstly.

[bertvorgon]

Thanks! I appreciate the input from some one who knows. The 350/70 are pretty much the same I believe.

[bertvorgon]

Well, Year 2 has been achieved with the Infinity!
I burned up 2,098 litres of fuel (460 Gallons), over 33 tank fulls. I averaged 27.6 MPG, which is not bad considering the fun factor on occasion.
That is over 20,033 kilometers for the year, fuel cost $2,988.00....
Other than that stupid stuck caliper, I had no other issues. Oil consumption is minimal, so I did luck out on not getting one of the bad motors. Car is still tight, no rattles or anything.
I think it was designed for sunny weather California, not our North West rain. It has trouble some days getting rid of the moisture in the car, and without rain gutters, the angle of the door window lets water fall in every time you open the door.
The VLSD is interesting, as compared to the LSD in the 510. I can see it is better for people who could get themselves in trouble if they got on the throttle and were not ready to catch sudden oversteer. It "hits" a lot softer than a LSD, at least compared to my 510. I find just a bit of lag when I jump on the throttle, say on a corner toss in, so I have been kinda unsure when it actually "hooks" up. That being said, it makes the car in the rain not too bad. Apparently, when these things are toast..they are toast.
One other whine I have is the crappy BOSE radio in this thing ( the CD PLAYER is ok), the station reception is very poor once I am just out of the city. I put this off to the fact that they put the stupid antenna in the back window glass..no aerial. By comparison, in White Rock here, I can't get Vancouver, as I am over the hill, yet the Honda Odyssey can get L.A..
Once the tires get down, which by the way are wearing just fine, I would like to take this to a slalom, really fire it around and see what it is like.
I'm glad I'm not a big person, I think they would be a tight fit in this car. I fit really well, so between the seats ability to adjust, and the steering column being able to move, I have fine tuned the driving position just perfect.
On to year 3.

[butters68]

thats what a shoe horn is for keith, get'n the fatties in the small cars .
i had to use one in my s14.

[bertvorgon]

Another electrical issue has showed up, the fuel door lock....does not.

Seems this is a regular issue with these cars, funky little electric motor and gear drive...brushes get corroded...blammo...no locky...

Nice thread on the G35 site with this guy field stripping his lock, pulling the mechanism apart, taking the actual motor apart, cleaning the armature and brushes, re-assembling...and then if it does not work, redo.

HMMMm...I may just talk to Glen at SouthSide.....

[bertvorgon]

I finally achieved my goal....I got 31.6 MPG ( Imperial )! And, I found where the G thrives, is on a road trip.
I stayed pretty much at the speed limit, even seeing Captain America hiding out almost in the same spot he was on the last trip...huge money maker that section must be. Also, there was NO traffic, we did the whole trip to Winthrop with hardly a car or a bike seen. Weird. I stopped at the same photo ops also, so my wife could see the vistas up there.
I was quite taken with Winthrop, after our 510 run, and I thought my wife would like to see it, so we decided on a quick road trip to Winthrop, stay over night, then head up Highway 20/97 back up to the Okanagan and visit friends in Penticton. What a great Highway from Winthrop over another pass to the main highway that goes to the Border, would have been a blast in the 510's. I think Matt S. went back that way after our lunch in Winthrop.
It was too bad we did not know about the Winthrop museum, what a treasure! We spent some good time there, talking to the hosts, and looking at the displays. It has one of the best mining displays I have seen, and, as I am involved in mining, was really interesting. They have a huge mining history in the region, back up in the mountains we come through on Highway 20. They had brought the original buildings from the homesteaders, and, the original assay lab was there, with all it's equipment. I found that really cool as it has not changed very much over the last 100 years. They also had a complete stamp mill and the static display was complete with the whole ore processing segment.
The car loved the long legged cruising, with passing power to spare on the hills, my only criticism is that it really could use some stiffer springs.

[bertvorgon]

here are some pictures from the assay lab, complete with muffle furnaces, crucibles and scales.

[bertvorgon]

Gold scales.

I have an assay scale in my collection of STUFF, it was the Rolls Royce of scales at the time.

[gooned]

Wow, looks like a great museum Keith...would be great to walk through with you as a tour guide with your knowledge of what all the bits really do!

How does your significant other deal with the road tripping? Mine is very good a quietly holding on over there

[bertvorgon]

Guess what did not get driven today?

Very good snow storm here over the last three days, I have gotten almost a foot of snow here now, CRUD!

[Chickenman]

Delete. Double Post

[Chickenman]

Hey Keith. Talked to you on the phone today. Just stumbled across this thread while browsing last night. Further to what we discussed.

1: Brake Master Cylinder. I hadn't read all of this when we discussed your brake issue. You mentioned that recently the soft pedal issue had returned. Brake pedal was slowly dropping at traffic lights when medium pressure was applied to brake pedal. With no external leaks, this is a sure sign of " Internal Bypassing ", where the seals are starting to fail. Time for a new M/Cylinder as we discussed. Probably due to the lack of Brake Fluid changes by the previous owner. Might be worthwhile checking out M/CYL bores sizes as mentioned earlier. If yours is 1" and a 1-1/16" is available, you may want to use the larger size. Brake Pedal like BRICK = GOOD!!

2: DBW issues. If the battery is disconnected or any of the harnesses to the the Throttle Body are disconnected ( for Testing or Cleaning ) a " Throttle Body Adaptation" or " Throttle Body Alignment " must be done. This is generally true of any DBW throttle system. The ECU loses track of the " zero reference point and WOT" for the electronic stepper motor in the electronic throttle. The TBA process cycles the TB and reestablishes the set points. If a TBA is not done then this will result in Rev hangs between shifts and other throttle issues such as " lazy throttle ". Can be done with a Laptop at the dealer ( if they're smart enough ) or usually by following a set procedure of steps manually. I'll see what I can find for you.

Edit: Well that was fast. Here ya go Keith. Note that there are several procedures, depending on what you want to do. Even though you may not have a CEL, you do have to reset the Accelerator Pedal Closed Position, Throttle Valve closed position and Idle Air Volume Learning after disconnecting the battery:

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/g35-ho ... rning.html



3: Sprint Booster for altering DBW throttle response maps. As we discussed. DBW throttle systems have a program MAP in the ECU which controls throttle response and feel. Input is " Requested Throttle " via throttle pedal and Output is " Actual Throttle ) as Actual Throttle by Stepper motor. In between the ECU runs a Map..that engineers compile for the Average driver.

The good news is that this can be changed. Easiest way is to purchase a " Sprint Booster " which is basically an Interceptor device that modifies the signals from the throttle pedal to the ECU. It is a SEMA award winning product, and the results are supposed to be very good...although I would personally recommend checking some of the 350z/370z/G35/G37 forums to get feedback from users. The new versions have different programs that selected, from Stock to Sport to Race. Typically a " Race program " will give close to a 1-1 electronic ratio, with much less progression than a Stock setting.

The bad news is that these devices are not cheap. $300 USD from Jegs... although I'm sure that you can find them cheaper by searching.

http://www.jegs.com/p/Sprint-Booster/Sp ... PerPage=30

Tuners such as UpRev - Osiris also modify the stock Throttle map to give a more responsive ratio. But I think their tunes are around $700 USD.

One of the interesting things about the G35/G37 DBW system ( and 350Z ) is that the system is " supposedly " limited to less than 100% throttle under certain conditions. I've heard that the Sprint Booster corrects this issue...and gives you some free HP!! Will check and confirm. Apparently there is also a Dealer Flash program that gives 100% throttle. Probably what you heard the Service Adviser discussing with the young gentleman. ( Note: More research needed to confirm this..but is not unheard of by other manufacturers ).

Edit: You may find that after doing the proper Throttle Body, Electronic Pedal and Air Volumes adaptations... that your throttle response is greatly improved. I found this out o\the first week on my Audi. TBA made a huge difference.

To be continued...