Hey all,

As you guys can tell im new to the forums and im looking for a little bit of advice. I will be getting a z come this spring. I have seen a few for around 15k with 50k miles on them. I have been looking for major problems that the z's have but i haven't found any yet. The only BIG thing i have hear is Major transmission failure in the early models... Is this true? What are some red flags i should be watching for besides the typical? Other then that all i have seen is random small things. If all goes well i hope to be joining the z world just in time for the race season

 

Welcome to ZDriver!

There are several 350z'ers around here, but the majority are at www.my350z.com. You will find a lot of info there, but feel free to stick around here too!

 

2003 Z's have the 'bad' transmission. They also have something with the front suspension where even after Nissan tries to fix the alignment some still have tire feathering issues.
Besides that they seem to be good cars. Look for 2004 or 2005 if you can. Usually a rebuilt title car will be less. (still, $15,000 is about as cheap as I have ever seen one) They seem to hold value in the upper teens even at over 100,000 miles

The factory VLSD loses its functionality (becomes an open diff) at higher milage. Some by 50K others by 60K. Any that were abused can go out even earlier than that. The Nismo clutch LSD is a better choice.

 

Aside from the tire feathering issue- and this seems to have been at least partly corrected by the Nismo suspension- my '04 Z has been VERY reliable. No other problems in 37,000 miles....just routine maintenance.

 

thanks for the replies guys i appreciate it

 

i have an 04 with 50k on it im doing find

 

you forgot about the fuel tank choke valve... thats another common problem.. when you fill up at the gas station, the tank wont fill up completly due to a bad choke valve.. there was a recall on it but only when the owners would complain about it... that was pretty much the only thing i had fixed on my 05

 

Also, a lot of little issues were fixing for 2006+

I had one tire pressure sensor go out. Still need to get that fixed...