After 20 years driving a 87 NA with 265K miles, I at long last have located the only snafu that Mr. Nissan put into his cars. That being the short cooling hose located, on top of block between T belt cover and injector plumbing. Shop said they would change it for $1,000 labor and $12 for the hose.
Has anyone else run into this problem and how did you R&R this $12 hose?

 

Not sure if I follow...

So you're saying there's a problem with the hose at 265k miles, so this is a design flaw? Or the indie shop charging $1k is the design flaw?

Pics of the hose in question?

 

The flaw is in the owner who expects hoses to last 256K and lacks the skills to replace it or get a more reasonable estimate to repair it.

 

It must be imposable to be humble when you are perfect.

 

I change the hose when I replace the timing belt.

 

take the tin off the front of the engine. while you are there replace your timing belt, water pump, chts and fpr, crank seals and front engine seal. of course this requires a modicum of mechanical ability and a set of tools. why they tell you to do that stuff when they replace the timing belt.

 

This is probably the real reason the shop wanted to charge $1k.

Like Roger said, it's a relatively simple job because there's a lot of room at the front of the engine. Download and study the FSM, and you can do it yourself.

And if you think this is a design flaw, don't ever look under any other car's hood, because the Z31 is a quite simple design. Try working on a Z32... There are just some things in any car's engine bay that will be difficult to access or work on.

 

Not a design flaw ,maybe a pain in the a** . the T belt is to be changed every 90K and you need to change the hose when you do water pump too.

You (the customer for the 300ZX ) wanted a similar supercar (150K )looking ,driving ride for 25K to 30K

ever work on 70-mid 80's Rolls Royce, or Jag that belt is nothing compaired to their hap hazard engineering . it's almost like they all of a sudden realized "oh we forgot the water pump"

the 02-05 Mitsu Evolution III : to change the L head lamp bulb because it is HVac and is crammed up against the ABS unit, requires you to pull the bumper cover,.frames and 1/2 of the inner fender plastic . good luck getting it to look like it did.

 

Timing belt change is every 60K on the VG30

 

You are referring to the thermostat bypass hose and anyone who is charging you $1,000 in labor is basically telling you they don't want to work on your car.

Find a better mechanic who can do this simple change in about an hour.