Balance Motor Works - not just a GarageBalance Motor Works - not just a Garage

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Brakes
  • Cambelt Change
  • Car Servicing & MOT in Sussex
  • Carbon Cleaning
  • Classic Cars
  • Clutch and Gearbox
  • DPF Problems?
  • Dry Ice Blasting
  • Engine Work & Rebuilds
  • Lanoguard Treatment in Sussex
  • Rust Repair & Chassis Restoration
  • Toyota
  • Vehicle Diagnostics & Electrics
  • Why visit BN5 9XH?
01273 915045

Nissan 350Z – sheared bleed nipples and fit sports catalysts

Julian
Monday, 19 December 2022 / Published in Brakes, Exhausts

Nissan 350Z – sheared bleed nipples and fit sports catalysts

Nissan 350Z
Nissan 350Z 3.5 Litre V6 Coupe

The Nissan 350Z was designed by Diane Allen, the earliest cars were made in Nissan’s Oppama factory in 2002 and then production ran from 2003–2009 at their Kaminokawa plant. The Nissan 350Z saw the debut of their “FM platform”. The name is derived from the “front midships” location of the engine, with its center of mass located behind the front axle centerline, shifting weight to the middle of the car, giving a more desirable weight split front to rear and better handling. The 350Z features the VQ35DE engine, a brawny 3.5 litre V6 with forged steel connecting rods, a microfinished one-piece forged crankshaft, variable valve timing and an output of 287HP, lifted to 300HP in 2006 with the launch of the 300HP/260TQ ‘Rev-up’ engine, which was the same as our customers car.

Onto the job at hand – the first issue was 4 bleed nipples had been sheared off. By welding a nut on (we started with and M8 13mm hex head (did you know Japanese cars do not have 13mm hex head ?). This sheared and perhaps was the cars was of protesting. Switching to an M10 nut with a 17mm hex, and turning the welder up still didn’t get the remants of the bleed nipple out.

BLEED NIPPLE INSTALLED ON 350Z BREMBO caliper
Bleed nipple installed – you can see the scorching of the powder coat from having to weld the nut on, given the heat involved they stoop up remarkably well

In the end we needed 4 or 5 M10 nuts on each bleed nipple and eventually victory was declared and each nipple was replaced with a customer supplied Titanium nipple. We installed these with some brake grease as engineer Craig recalled correctly, that the corrosion rate of aluminium significantly increases in contact with zirconium, titanium, and stainless steel. This is why bleed nipples are usually mild steel with a Zinc coating – there is only a slight chance of a reaction because of the relatively small change in potential between the two metals and the formation of an insulating film on the surface of the aluminum.

We did mention this to the customer who may perhaps change these nipples again as a result.

350Z REAR CALIPER with new bleed nipple installed
350Z REAR CALIPER with new bleed nipple installed

Next up was to fit the customer supplied BERK Sports Catalysts. By reducing back pressure these should liberate more Horsepower but are supposed to still enable the MOT test to be passed. They are also reasonably priced appearing online for around £500. Contrast this with a complete Supersprint exhaust system costing £7500 and they seem like good value.

Removing the originals was a little tricky as expected when undoing near 20 year old nuts. One stud sheared of but this was of no concern as we had new cats to go on.

BERK 350Z HIGH FLOW CAT
BERK 350Z High Flow Sports Catalytic Converter – Nearside
BERK 350Z HIGH FLOW CAT offside
BERK 350Z HIgh Flow Cat – offside – note blanking plug – the Lambda sensor threads were stripped removing from the old catalyst

The exhaust certainly sounded fruitier with these new high flow cats installed. The customer wanted to fit a new genuine Nissan Lambda probe himself so we’ll hopefully be able to post his feedback on the overall result soon.

We’ve also recommened that we perform a Lanoguard treatment as the old girl is starting to look a bit rusty underneath…

350Z getting rusty underneath - time for Lanoguard
350Z getting rusty underneath – time for Lanoguard
  • Tweet

What you can read next

When you hear a grinding noise, your brake pads may be worn out..
Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde – fitting Supersprint exhaust
Brake Fluid Moisture Content

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Alfa Romeo Spider sill repair

    The original Alfa Romeo Spider was made famous ...
  • Honda S2000 – wheel refurbishment, welding and Lanoguard

    I’m not sure why the S2000 isn’t mo...
  • Ford Focus RS Lanoguard

    Like so many cars we see, this one looked great...
  • E36 M3 in for a rocker cover gasket – simple job?

    Surely a simple job? This car had an engine oil...
  • Golf GTI Mk6 solving injector problems and a Walnut Blast

    We had this MK6 Golf GTI in the workshop, which...

Recent Comments

  • Julian on BMW E36 M3 Restoration Works
  • David Woodwards on BMW E36 M3 Restoration Works
  • Julian on Audi TTS Restoration – can a 2010 car really be this rusty?
  • Michael Jardine on Audi TTS Restoration – can a 2010 car really be this rusty?
  • Julian on Audi TTS Restoration – can a 2010 car really be this rusty?

Archives

  • May 2025
  • October 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019

Categories

  • BMW
  • Brakes
  • Cambelts
  • Carbon Clean with Walnuts
  • Classic Cars
  • Clutch and Gearbox
  • Diagnostics & Emissions
  • Engine Work
  • Exhausts
  • Fault Diagnosis
  • Lanoguard
  • Porsche
  • Restomods
  • Restoration
  • Suspension
  • Toyota
  • Wheels & Tyres

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Payment Methods

CONTACT US

Phone

01273 915045

Email

info@balancemotorworks.co.uk

TOP