Finally found the M I wanted...few issues...any y34 nuts?

[paranoidjack]

Hi guys!

Sadly, just decided after many years and 265k to retire my Q. She runs but is very tired.

Got a great deal on a 2003 M45. 110k, Few dents and dings but paid $4700 and only problem I see is slight exhaust leak (which sounds amazing for now, lol!). Here's a few pics:







Some of these are out, including the clock light:







Her first day at the range, nice trunk! More space than my Q45. Any other shooters/reloaders in here?




Anyway, I have a list of a few things I was wondering if you guys could provide feedback on. I have been a resident in the Q45 forum for nearly 10 years and done everything from every oil change to motor swaps. That being said, I have somewhat of a comfort level with the y34 from the 33 but some things are different. I look forward to being a contributing member in this forum for some time so hopefully there's love for y34's in here and not just the new M's. While I love the new M's, and will probably grab one next, the y34 is so damned sexy.

1) Squeaky a** dash...I found pressing on the center of the dash stops this horrible tick. I read it is common.
2) Many of the console bulbs are out, well probably 5. All in center cluster, mostly right side of it. Need to pry out the center console and replace them. Sound easy.
3) Car was a city car and could use a coat of paint in the future. Looks damned good but up close you can see all kinds of stuff. Very few dings of any kind, but a ton of paint damage.
4) Front grille is loose. Haven't looked into it yet.
5) seat position memory doesn't work? Or they do and I'm not too smart? I remember it being...hold SET until it lights up...hold the position #...done...no?
6) Exhaust leak as stated. Under center console. Hoping not too expensive.
7) P0445 and p1448. Points to gas cap, which I checked, maybe will try my '00 Q one...or evap solenoid control valve. Could this be a byproduct of exhaust leak? Common issue with these cars? NEED TO RESOLVE THIS...NO MORE DAMNED CODES very sick of them after the last 8 months in my Q.
8) Trunk strut issue, sounds like an acknowledged easy fix.
9) Probably needs calipers as they are rough. Stops well but you "feel" how hard the brakes are working.
10) She'll need struts or at least strut mounts soon, i can slightly hear a hit on hard bumps. Hardly audible, I am just looking for it.

I will keep this thread alive with changes and fixes as I do them. Thanks for you input in advance. I am selling or parting my Q to anyone interested, despite her age she is in very, very good condition aside from a few obvious blemishes. I took good care of her until she stopped taking care of me last year.

jack

[Ilya]

Nice pick up! I never owned a Y34, so can't help there, but we do have a few members here with them who I'm sure will chime in soon.

[paranoidjack]

Hoping my slightly loud exhaust isnt the manifold k keep reading about!!!!!

[myother45isalesbaer]

CONGRADULATIONS!!!! You will love the M45. I have a 2004 which I can't think of enough good things to say about it. As you can see from my sign on I also like to spend some time at the range. I don't have all the problems you have but I am interested in a few. The seat memory is one and just a general painting of small scratches. Its the pricing and person or business I am looking for. My M has 34K on it and I have babied it big time. The interior and outside is as close to new as it can be for a 2004. The book value of these cars in my OP is disgustingly low. Given the # of units and what the car is I think its value should be up there with some of the higher priced classics, both American and Foreign made. I am thinking in the range of $40K+ and should be climbing.

When it comes to performance it is pure awesome. Its not the fastest thing on the road but on the highway doing 60 to 70mph and wanting to go faster for whatever reason this takes off like a bandit. Just the other day I did a full throttle roll out starting at 20mph and my brother-in-law passenger jokingly said its time to rotate the jet. I asked him why he made that comment and his response was he felt like he was being pushed back in his seat like when a jet plane does not do an easy start but rather when it holds its brakes and winds up to full power before it starts its take off. He has flown in enough speed monster jets to know what it feels like when a jet winds its motors up before it starts its roll.

Anyway, since my M is getting old I started to look at other high end cars like Mercedes, BMW, Jag, etc. None have anything really going for them except a few gizmos I don't have. Leather quality is better, they have 3 memory settings for the seats, rear view camera's, some warning systems, but not much else for me to justify buying one. Besides, I thought I was paying the big bucks for the car and the gizmo's are secondary nice to haves. My old M has most of the important gizmo's and in many cases from a performance perspective beats the SNOT out of a lot of the HIGHER end luxury sports sedans. I have decided my M is staying around a little longer. The ONLY CAR I WOULD CONSIDER BUYING IS THE Q with the V8. As a non-working semi-retired person under 65YO I just don't want to spend the bucks right now.

ENJOY the crap out of that M and good luck on the fixes. I can't help much on the do it yourself stuff, but on a few of your problems I would be thinking dealer, dealer. As depressing that is.

[Snomotion]

New to forum and don't know anything about the y34 but always happy to see a fellow gun nut.

One of my many firearms


The shop I spend my off days at.


A day's work...


But sorry for going off topic.

[Double E]

I figured you may have been calling me out as well. Congrats on the purchase.
It appears we're fortunate to have you here. Welcome on! You've recognized the things that we all feel about the Y34.

You may have seen my 100K write up and the story of how I totaled my gray Y34, then got another blue Y34 to replace it along with a 2nd gen CTS-V.
Be sure to read them.
You have good info on the fixes you need to do...I've not seen the memory seat issue though.

[myother45isalesbaer]

Snomotion,

That looks like empty, unprimed brass in the pics. That has to be in the thousands. You have to reload all that? Being a one at a time reloader I would never get those all done until about next year. No wonder all that equipment is there. Bet you have fun, I would. Is that once fired brass? As a target and varmint shooter how accurate are your powder charges and do you size the brass? I am assuming this is a commercial operation, duh, I'm dumb, what single reloader would need all those presses?

I like the AR. Not a 100% fan of the .223 as I reload my .222 and .243 to shoot as best as they can. So many combinations it can take days to get the right load, bullet weight for the tightest groups. The .223 is an excellent round, don't get me wrong. But it was kind of stolen from the .222 and .222 mag, but I'd varmint hunt with it but I would not expect the range or accuracy from the AR that I can get with a heavy barreled or target gun. But then I am not going for fire power either which is where the AR excels. I am thinking its a .223 because it looks like one and not the .308 M60 version. If I was still poping varmints like I did when I was on the farm I would have to choose between the .22-250 and the .220 Swift. I think I'd try the .220 Swift just for the fun or reloading it although the .22-250 is so close in performance its barely measurable.

I keep thinking on going to Africa or some Safari so I am dying to get a .270 and a .454 H&H or the .416 Rigby. Who needs a powder measure with them? Don't you just fill the case up from a bucket? LOL.

Not a one sport guy the clay pidgeons are a ton of fun. Just bought a Browning Citori and can't wait to shoot that. Although I have to admit that my Remington 1100 when I can load 5 in it is a blast to do doubles with. Practice, practice and go through hundreds and hundreds of rounds makes for mucho fun and a big fat smile on my face.

Buy some more guns, shoot like a wild man and f the gun control people. Regards from a fellow shooter and reloader.

[paranoidjack]

Just bought a Browning Citori and can't wait to shoot that. Although I have to admit that my Remington 1100 when I can load 5 in it is a blast to do doubles with. Practice, practice and go through hundreds and hundreds of rounds makes for mucho fun and a big fat smile on my face.

Buy some more guns, shoot like a wild man and f the gun control people. Regards from a fellow shooter and reloader.

Nothing is more cathartic for me than shooting, except maybe surfcast fishing on Nauset Beach. I feel great after leaving the range shooting your own reloads.

Have a Citori in the safe also. Snomotion, those look to be loaded rounds not unprimed brass. But MAN oh MAN is that a beautiful thing, that shop!!! Looks long for .44 but rimless, what are they? Mmmmmm!

To think, I slightly regret my Hornady LnL vs a Blue 650 or even 1050, but I got the press and several dies for only a couple hundred bucks. There is excessive flex in the unit in my opinion and frequent pawl adjustment. They customer service is INCREDIBLE and Hornady should be commended and server as a model to other companies in my experience.

I particularly enjoy my .243 (Ruger M77) but my FAL (.308 pictured in trunk) is the most fun to shoot. I am not much of a shotgun guy and prefer pistols. I would love to own a Les 1911!!!
----------------------BACK to cars...
I need to figure out the p1448 and 0455 code or whatever it is, the EVAP solenoid valve. The exhaust leak for the moment sounds incredible and just what the car needed. I'm sure shortly things will change and I'll explore repairing or replacing manifolds. What options are there for manifolds? I don't see anything but OEM online. Yes, I know Joe from IoS and have ordered thousands in parts from them since I had my j30 in 2003. Anyone had luck having custom headers made up? Sometimes more labor and cheaper parts can be the same price as OEM and higher quality. Also need to do plugs. Stick with Service manual plugs like vh41?

Today, on her first work day, I made the mistake of going down a clients gravel driveway today, which was at a fairly steep incline. Even with VDC off, she didn't want to move. Customer came out and gently backed up as I pushed her and broke her free with some rocking.

That was an embarassing first work day with her, but better than an accident as so often happens immediately to people after buying a car! Even with VDC off, the traction control was still on and SLIP indicator flashed? Is there no way to turn it off truly on this car, as you can in the y33 Q45? That really stinks if so. Bull. Fortunately we're having a freak winter with no snow yet.

I sat in my '00 Q today just for a moment. After 9 years it's really sad. I will say, the interior of that car was far more solid and comfortable. I realy debated finding another y33 Q45. The M is surely sportier but the Q is a different creature. Of course the y34 is a 6 cylinder platform originally so we expect a lighter, sportier *cough*worse*cough* ride than the v8 platform.

But this car sure is fun....! I don't think it's quite fair to compare the two totally until the M's issues are addressed.

Thanks for the warm welcome and I will surely read any and all threads that are recommended, and save them for those dark days I need them.

jack

[szh]

Hoping my slightly loud exhaust isnt the manifold k keep reading about!!!!!

I have had a loud exhaust noise happen twice in my car and had it repaired (only once so far though). Both times, it was not a manifold crack as I recall, but a gasket failure where the exhaust pipes meet the engine ... the car does seem to be prone to this issue, I suppose. Has only happened on one side (driver's) for some reason ... not sure why.

In my case, it is not an expensive repair from a parts perspective, but the labor cost (at the dealer in my case - I ain't enough of a DYI'er and don't have a lift either) is higher than I would like! Wish I had a lift at home like Ilya!

This last time, I decided to wait on it a bit since the noise is only slightly louder than without the leak. It has not affected my mileage at all yet (which it might, since there is lowered back-pressure from the muffler in theory), so when that gets to be an issue, I will get it taken care of.

So, not a perfectly reliable car unfortunately, but still very nice! I now have about 160,700 miles on mine - all originally mine or my wife driving - and I still love the unique, albeit slightly dated, look of the car.

Z

[szh]

By the way, your car color is the same as mine, and my interior is the dark-charcoal/black too. But my wood trim is gray, not maple!

Z

[Double E]

For manifolds from the block back, there's little one can do. There are cats immediately following the manifold, dumping into another cat shared, then to the resonator.
There's no room to fab up a custom set, keep the car legal and then run dual pipes to the back. As stock, it's pretty good though.

I'm sure you've seen the electric cutout thread and open exhaust sound clips on the Y34. Sounds great.
Keep us posted on clearing your codes.

[Snomotion]

Sorry for jumping back off topic. But yea the AR is just one of my fun guns. Don't do much with it than tactical training and range days. It gets it far share of abuse.

As for the other pictures. Yes this is a commercial operation. Kind of an older picture now. Have a few more loaders. Each is set up for a different caliber. We do a lot of once fired ammo but certain calibers we use brand new brass. Everything still goes through a sizing die. Everything is hand checked and measured. Each new run is tested and tuned. The ammo we make is sold nationwide and, as bias as I am, its the best ammunition I've shot.

The buckets pictured is of 45 colts. Approximately 40,000 of them.

[myother45isalesbaer]

The .45 Colt is not a round every tom, d!ck and harry are too familiar with. I would not have guessed it. Never shot one and have been wanting to. Got into the .454 Casual and .50 S&W mag but got tired of getting my arms ripped off. If I was in bear country, including the big Alaska brown one the only handgun I would take is the .50 for back-up. My Les is as awesome as my M. The only .45 auto I like better was a custom built one a friend of mine had. The date on the slide was his birthday and the rest pretty much all Wilson. Wilson is #2 on my list of .45's I want. They are hard to find unless you have a dealer order for you. I can't believe what Les and Wilson's cost today.

I actually like my .40. Almost the HP of a 45 and way more than those silly souped up 9's. The only difference to me between a 380 and a 9 to me is about 2 more grains of powder. But being the anus I am, I need a permit to carry conceled and I carry a baby glock 9. Nice with hollow points. Light and small, but not a 40 or 45 and not close to the 45 colt. Makes my 50 seem like artillary, just like the M45 enjoys eating 6 bangers of german stuff for breakfast.

I better get off the guns and back to the cars before I get punished!

[Snomotion]

This site needs an other topics sub forum...I'm new so maybe I missed it. But the only thing I can talk about more than cars is guns lol.

[myother45isalesbaer]

I know what you mean. Just wondering to be fair to all, how many different sites would it take? I can think of 20 without trying. As much as I love the guns I love a ton of other things. Thats one of my major problems.......too many hobbies and interests and not enough time to spend on all of them. Guns and cars are two of my big ones but if I start listing my others I'd be up for a week. LOL. Off to the grocery store and I am sure the politics of gas prices, cars, texting, Patriots, latest shooting and gun control, the NRA, ice fishing, bills, weather, lousy roads and town taxes and on and on in a 15 minute ride. No wonder I go up the wrong way on one ways, here we go again. LOL. Crap, NEWS is on, there is 5 more.

[paranoidjack]

For the record, on any of my threads, tangential (or not) firearms discussion is always legal!

The code went away today...on its own. Waiting for it to come back, or maybe not. For all I know this car's been sitting for a while. Getting all fluids changed next week. She feels great. Love this car....I just try not to sit in my Q or it makes me cry.

Wondering about the option of investigating y33/y34 compatibility seeing as that I have both in driveway...there's got to be some shared parts.

As for the handgun argument, my regrettable pick as I don't like plastic guns is a glock 20. Reloaded 10mm rounds carry a 1200-1600 velocity and nearly 800 ft/lbs energy. That's pretty solid with a capacity of 17 in one magazine.

When I hit bear country, the glock 20 comes with me. For everyday carry, I carry my Sig 1911. I like it, don't love it, but it is a good gun. Most comfortable with my 92FS which yes is a puny 9mm but I have fired nearly 10,000 rds out of it, and the most effective bullet is the one that hits your target. She's retired from carry as it is so old who knows when the trigger spring will break again, I barely shoot it anymore.

And...can anyone answer my question on traction control? Is there really no way short of "crashing the computer" or pulling fuses to totally shut it off? Total s*** and poor design in my opinion. Again, this is originally a v6 car in which traction control is far less important.

[myother45isalesbaer]

I too am frustrated with the traction control. I have tried all functional ways to turn it completely off. I want total control of the car and hate any function that will not allow me to turn it completely off. I have been afraid to monkey around with fuses, computer settings, etc. because I don't want to get into the mode of messing up other things. I don't even want a high class computer tech who knows these cars messing with anything. I'll live with it, but I don't like it one single bit.

On the guns......No arguments, just friendly discussions was my OP. The Sig is an excellent gun regardless of the caliber. The 45 is too heavy and big for me to carry, that's why I am using the baby Glock. I once had the same attitude about plastic guns. I now own 2 and have come to appreciate their accuracy and reliability. Never had a mis-fire or smoke stack jam or anything that would cause grief in a self-defense situation.

In CT the passed some real stupid gun laws. One is no more than 10 rounds in the mag. All mags that could hold over 10 had to be registered with the State Police. So my over 10 round mags better just have 10 rounds in them if a police officer would have a reason and care to check.

Sorry, I don't agree about your choice of woods carry in bear country. I want the fire power of the 50 for my own peace of mind. I want reliability too and the revolver has that.

I could not agree more with your attitude that if you can't hit what you are aiming at blowing off rounds is a total waste. As for the 10 *FBI" round I have always been interested in it. I like the basic specs on such things that are inherit to the round. I have stayed away from it strictly due to the fact when in some backwoods location the general store probably doesn't have any for sale. I have found this many times with rifle ammo. They carry the popular stuff, 9s, 45, 357, 44, etc. If it wasn't for that I'd be all over the 10mm.

As for the traction control you got me thinking. I am going on a mission to get a shop manual for the M and study the crap out of it. I am much more comfortable monkeying around with my own car with the knowledge to understand what I am actually playing with. Thanks for the idea.........I am on the case ASAP. There are a few other things I'd like to investigate too.

[Double E]

I wonder if it's a 2003 to 2004 thing then. I've turned mine off and laid down twin stripes on the street...and taken a turn too fast and had the back end come completely around on me. it never even THOUGHT about taking back over or assisting.

Other differences I'm aware of have to do with turning off the ICC system with cruise and letting manual shift bang the rev limiter instead of taking over & shifting up at the rev limiter.

[myother45isalesbaer]

Its strange. I can get mine to waste some expensive rubber. When I do a full power standing start I let the auto shift and bang the rev limiter all the time. If I am in a playful mood and manual shift I still bang the rev limiter, but the auto can shift faster and better than me. I rarely use the manual mode. That is one of the things I want to look into.....can I change the limit a little and what do I gain or loose? The other is tweaking the gas a little and/or adding a little nitro. Need to do mucho research before playing around in those areas.

There is not a car or a gun I can't find a reason to love. Just love some differently than others. Dang, wish I had Leno's or Reggie's money. Then I could be like those two, collect what I want and hire full time employees to take care of my babies. Obviously picked the wrong parents when I was hatched. LOL!!!!

[Double E]

True...the auto will shift up for me exactly at the moment it needs to and before it hits the limiter on mine. If I use it these days it is to hold a gear in spirited driving when I know I'm going to need to be in that gear to come out of a curve ...or an uphill section is coming and I don't want to wait for the downshift. Another is on 2 lane roads when I'm about to pass and want to pre-select the gear that I'll need to make the pass safely ....as opposed to pull out to pass and then requst the downshift.

I'm pretty sure the limits are unable to be raised in the environment we have. No one has cracked the engine management system and uprev does not apply to the Y34. Nitro might be an option...maybe something simple like a sneaky pete. I'd be worried about an overlean condition tht could not be compensated for though. 1 or 2 shots shouldn't hurt it ...but then it is worth it?

[myother45isalesbaer]

I understand about the manual shifting. If I use it, it's for something like you say or general playing around to get the thrill. One of the things I do like is the deceleration it allows using the engine instead of brakes on long, step back roads.

I never completed understood just what the uprev does. I didn't know you can't do it to the 45. I have read about it on this forum and thought they were talking about the M45. No one has cracked the code? That's strange with all the geeks out there that will crack anything for the fun of it. Being a low level small geek myself I wonder why the code has not been cracked. Even I can do a half-a** read of most code.

I don't see where adding a few hundred rpm's to the limiter would hurt anything. But I might be wrong. Those limiters are there so you don't over spin something, but if its like yesterday, the redline was advisetory and not an absolute. You could exceed the redline a little with no damage. But, those motors were much simplier. There is usually a safety factor built in on the limiters and redlines. If the limiter is set at the absolute max before damage occurs and there is no gain in any measurements regarding power then forget that idea. I'm with you on the nitro. I was thinking just a shot or two when absolutely needed to blow some jerk off away whose car is an almost equal.

I am still interested in adding something nice to the fuel that will add a few hp without doing damage and letting all limiters still function to factory specs. Not sure what old "childs" chemistry set I have to find to get the right stuff. Need to do some chem reading first. If it were a gun I would know exactly how and what to use to add some more zip without getting close to an explosive situation. I actually had a friend that did not pay attention a used a slow burning powder load in grains and loaded a faster burning powder load. No explosion or damage, but lots of blow back and case split. Thank god it was a Ruger bolt action. As the shooter I can close to tearing his stupid head off. That was the last time I shot someone else's reloads regardless of what they told me it was. Not LOL at the last incident!!!

[Double E]

As I understand it...The uprev also adjusts timing to allow strictly running higher octane. As is, the timing is set to allow for lower octane to be used and the engine pulls timing automatically. The benefit is you get a bit more timing = power...but the restriction is more severe to high octane use. It can still be done after the uprev if the engine is not hammered on. The uprev may apply to the M45...just not the Y34 M45.

[myother45isalesbaer]

Well, hells-bells, when the freaking first cars and motorcycles you could do that manually. In fact you had to or you could break an arm if you had the timing set wrong when you tried to manually start the car with a crank. There weren't any electric starters back then. If that is all an uprev does who needs it?

I am finding this more and more often that technology is just replacing and doing what we used to have to do manually. Where is the big gain? To give us less to do and more free time to be on the phone, texting, eating, picking our nose, etc. instead of paying attention to our cars and driving? LOL!!

I am trying to think of any truly new idea that we have automated that we did not do manually yesterday? I am having a hard time thinking of any, in fact I can't think of one we do today that we didn't somehow do it yesterday!!

As I understand it during 2003 and 2004 there was produced an M45 and an M35. You refer to them as Y's. Why? I am only refering to the US designation, not Japan's or other countries. Not to be flip but I honestly do not understand why posters refer to these cars as anything except how they were badged in the US. Using "fuga" and the rest of the names used by posters for versions of these cars that were sold outside the US makes no sense to me. ???????

[paranoidjack]

No m35 in 2003-2004. Only m45.

The reason that most that perform their own work use the japanese designation is because it IS the name of the vehicle - even moreso than the US rebadge. It illustrates a myriad of items of relativity. For instance, a 2000 Q45 is an fgy33. A 2003-2004 m45 is the y34 chassis. This tells you then are close and share a great deal. Similarly, the 2002- Q45 and the 2005- M use the F50 and Y50 designation, and share motors.

The 2003 and 2004 m45 are TOTALLY different cars than the following generation. Just as in the 2001q45 and up.

Also, using a platform name is helpful is discussing generations without having to say 2003-2006. You can say the Y50...etc...the Nissan Gloria served a long and illustrius history in japan across generations...it only made it over the pond in 2003 and 2004 as the Infiniti M45, and those were its global last 2 years of production! How cool is that? It shared the y34 chassis that the Gloria was in Japan. Using platform identifiers help bridge across years and models when discussing anything vehicle related!

[paranoidjack]

No m35 in 2003-2004. Only m45.

The reason that most that perform their own work use the japanese designation is because it IS the name of the vehicle - even moreso than the US rebadge. It illustrates a myriad of items of relativity. For instance, a 2000 Q45 is an fgy33. A 2003-2004 m45 is the y34 chassis. This tells you then are close and share a great deal. Similarly, the 2002- Q45 and the 2005- M use the F50 and Y50 designation, and share motors.

The 2003 and 2004 m45 are TOTALLY different cars than the following generation. Just as in the 2001q45 and up.

Also, using a platform name is helpful is discussing generations without having to say 2003-2006. You can say the Y50...etc...the Nissan Gloria served a long and illustrius history in japan across generations...it only made it over the pond in 2003 and 2004 as the Infiniti M45. It shared the y34 chassis that the Gloria was in Japan. Using platform identifiers help bridge across years and models when discussing anything vehicle related!

No different than 70 series or 80 series in regard to the 1911 .45ACP....verus saying "1975 Colt 1911."

[myother45isalesbaer]

Thanks,

Now I get it. Never used nor know the difference between 70 and 80 series 1911's. Just knew it was a .45acp. What is the difference. I will have to do some more research on the Infiniti designations. Differences in platforms and motors or similarities is very interesting and something else I did not know. Oh well, have to go panic now over big snow storm as no two snow flakes are the same. LOL. As for those that are wondering let me answer the questions first, yes.....I am a bit of a nut! Still LOL.

[Double E]

Similar designations are used for US auto manufacturers... Example: Grand Cherokee made from 99-04 is the "WJ". The generation before that is the "ZJ".
True, some modern things are just doing what manual operations did before but with those manual operations came variation and mistakes that were not predictable.

"any truly new idea that we have automated that we did not do manually yesterday?" Here ya go:

Anti-Lock brakes - What's automated is the safety, before it was just technique and experience if you were lucky.
(Before - stomp on the brakes in a panic and then try to steer your car in a desired direction)
(After - stomp as hard as you want and steer clear)

Engine management - Before - High performance engines run hard on low octane would burn a piston or valve due to detonation.
Now - Engine management pulls timing to prevent this problem. Previously, you might have done it manually if you had the skill but not everyone had the skill and even that skill had variation.

Maintenance reminders – Folks just don’t understand what it takes to maintain vehicles anymore. They became complicated and thus maintenance was ignored by the mass public. Reminders automatically set to alert the driver help to maintain the vehicle.

Air/fuel ratios – Previously it was something that you adjusted at the carb. It was imprecise and to keep the engine running right, it needed to be done on a monthly basis or sooner and also when large changes in elevation occurred. Now it’s done automatically in a seamless way (and continuously monitored) that is MUCH more efficient than before.

Cooling fans at shutdown – previously if you wanted to take care of your turbo, you had to let the engine run at idle before shutdown to cool the turbo down. Now the engine will leave the fan on after shut down to do just that. It doesn’t even need to be a turbo these days either. Lots of cars automate this self-preservation feature that we would not think to do ourselves.

I could go on about stability control, interior lights and load-adjusting active suspensions but you get the point. Stuff is often automated for the better and yep...you lose some control over the given system. What you do with that time and effort saved is your call.

[myother45isalesbaer]

Double E,

You kind of supported what I said. I wholeheartly agree that atomation has taken manual functions and do them "better, faster, cheaper". No argument there. Please go on. I am looking for one or two things that never could have been done manually regardless of time or effort. I cannot think of one. Even those you listed but did not mention could be done manually with substantial time and effort and were. There was a lot of backyard rumored mechanics going on. One of the funniest I heard and actually saw the receipt for was the "removal of old carbon deposits and replacement with new carbon deposits". Obviously a scam but fully paid for by the ignorant auto owner. I still get a small laugh internally today to that one.

As much as I like technology and what it has done to the benefit of car owners I adamitly oppose anything that is installed that can not be 100% completely turned off by the driver. If that requires extra effort and/or expense by the automaker to make such things like ignition timing able to be manually controlled so be it. If the car can do it I should be able to. There was a time when we could add money and make change without assistance. After all, we invented the stupid binary functioning machine and wrote all the code that makes it do what it does. And I do mean stupid in the true meaning of the word, not as an insult.

[Double E]

Right...gotcha. What we could not ever do manually with great effort, I don't know either.

[kbconv]

Nice find. I didn't even know what an M45 (or any Nissan V-8's) until my sister moved to Hong Kong a couple of years ago and I was sorta given her car, which she couldn't get to pass emissions due to 2 or 3 easy to fix issues, one or two of them being recalls that the dealer performed free.

The mid-pipe cracking issue is well know on these cars, I saw a good used one on Ebay for about $150 last week. I "fixed" mine with a couple of U bolts and a piece of angle iron I had laying around. I'm putting an X-pipe, dual resonators and a Borla rear exhaust on it as soon as I get the pipe bends ordered. Based on this, http://mandrelbend.com/mandrelbend.com/ ... tentId=165 , they have a clip of the sound on Youtube. Going to try 2 1/2" up to the exhaust manifold eventually if I can find a couple of exhaust flanges, it uses a rather wide, non-standard pattern. They used 2 1/2" with a 2 1/4" muffler and PipeMax calculates around a 2 1/2" collector and also.

I may try to build a short header one day if I ever find the time, one guy somewhere used a Titan shorty (VK56DE I think) on his Gen. II M45 sucessfully, but he had to grind out the weld on the header to make it fit the VK45DE exhaust port pattern. There's also a chance the computer will throw a code if the exhaust flows too freely, and since no ECU tunes on these cars, well...

I ordered a product called Nissan Datascan II a couple of years ago but haven't logged with it yet, I need to get a wideband. It reads codes, datalogs and more, but doesn't tune, and that's the big problem with the 03/04's VK45DE's is lack of ECU tuning capability due to the CAN system the cars use (as I recall, haven't read much in the past year or so). Anyway, using that I found that the firmware in my cars TCM was a couple of levels old so I paid the dealer for an hour of time to update the firmware in my car's processors. Can't say I noticed anything amazing, but I like being at current level when firmware is concerned. I thought there was a TSB or service bulliten for this but I looked and didn't see it. http://x.infinitihelp.com/forum/local_l ... NRKrSvF-So

The "strut" noise you hear in the front end may be stabilizer link for the front swaybar. It was on mine and some other's car. 54618AR00B and 54668AR00B for around $45 each online. I think that's the right part, it's the 8 inch long part up front that's aluminum and has an X cross-section. I ordered some aftermarket ones off of Amazon but they were just a steel rod so I returned them and went OEM on mine.

Front grill is loose on mine too, they're just held on by 4 or 6 push pins so it may be necessary to use some from a different model to really tighten it up or drill oversized and used a better fitted pin.. Seems like I tried one from my wife's Odessy and it fit a little tighter.

I replaced my trunk strut with whatever was recommended on the forums, easy fix, just have to remove part of the rear seat.

I have an LSD from a Z car laying around to add, supposedly it's a bolt in fit, I forget which years. Mine's around 3.3 or so, stock M45 is the single track with like 3.10. The 3.6 or 3.7 Z car LSD may cause problems, at least with cruise control. I think once the readings from the wheel sensors exceed 10% or so from stock the computer starts complaining.

Since the Eibach springs are basically unobtainable, I may sometime try to get Coil Spring Specialties to make a custom set if I could find a good front and rear spring free or cheap to use for them to take their measurements from. Not gonna disassemble my car for patterns and let it sit. They run around $300 or so. And the rear swaybar on these things is just tiny. Would like to ask a Z car tuner if a bigger bar may help without upsetting anything balance-wise since again, no aftermarket performance options available in shocks/struts. The mid-section is flatten just for production clearance issues it appears to me.

My sister says she's see's Glorias (and Cedrics?) on the street in Hong Kong sometimes, if I could ever learn how junkyards work over there I'd like to visit one on my next visit and see if there's anything interesting there or available for import from Japan to HK much cheaper than Japan to U.S. Haven't seen many "low end" tuner cars in HK but have seen several ultra-expensive exotics and dealers.

That's about all I can think of right now, I was just searching tonight to see if anyone ever found a tuning solution for these cars. Still no luck probably.

Enjoy!