Airbag Reset Procedure

Another post for future reference. These new fangled cars have all these complex sensors and warning lights just waiting to make one's life safer, but potentially more of a hassle.

If you ever unplug the airbag harness on the 350Z seats while the car is on, the airbag light on the dashboard will start flashing. Once you have plugged the harness (or a 2.2 ohm 0.25W resistor) back in, a procedure must be performed to reset the airbag (SRS) system and make the airbag light stop flashing. I found instructions on the 350Z-tech forum and have modified them according to what worked for me.

The procedure consists of two parts:

1. Change the SRS system to Self-Diagnosis Mode.
2. Change the SRS system back to User Mode.

How to change to Self-Diagnosis Mode:

1. Turn the ignition switch from OFF to ON.
2. Within 1 second of the airbag warning lamp starting to flash, turn OFF the ignition switch.
3. Wait for more than 3 seconds.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 twice. (Perform 3 times in total)
5. Turn the ignition switch ON again and the dash should be in Self-Diagnosis Mode, signified by the airbag warning lamp flashing at a slower rate than it did in User Mode.
6. Turn the ignition switch OFF.

How to change to User Mode:

1. Turn the ignition switch from OFF to ON.
2. Within 1 second of the airbag warning lamp starting to flash, turn OFF the ignition switch.
3. Wait for more than 3 seconds.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 twice. (Perform 3 times in total)
5. Turn the ignition switch ON again and the dash should be in User Mode. After the initial checks, the airbag warning lamp should turn off and no longer flash.

Source: 350z-tech.com

Defi Oil Temperature Gauge Wiring

This is for future reference. The wiring is for a 2006 Nissan 350Z and the gauge has been connected to the unified meter and air conditioner amplifier (UM AC amp) located underneath the stereo head unit.

The gauge has 4 wires to be connected:

Orange - To 12V wire when ignition on
Red - To 12V battery wire
White - To 12V wire when small lamp (parkers) on
Black - To ground or negative battery terminal

The UM AC amp has 3 harnesses on the back. The following image shows the pin layout and the wires the gauge is connected to.

Orange gauge wire >>> Wire 46 (Blue/White)
Red gauge wire >>> Wire 21 (Red/White)
Black gauge wire >>> Wire 29 (Black)
The white gauge wire is not currently connected.

Further Oil Cooler Testing

To get some oil temperature readings without the aid of the oil cooler, I covered the cooler core with a piece of cardboard. This is not as accurate as getting readings without the cooler installed at all, but it provides a general idea of before and after temperatures.

Looks like the cooler is doing its job.

Defi Oil Temperature Gauge Installation

With the help of Kam80, this was installed. I cannot stress enough how immensely grateful I am for his help. The installation was stressful for a noob like me as the uncertainty of whether it would work got to me, but Kam's stoic resolve pulled me through.

The temperature sensor is fixed to the oil cooler sandwich plate. Wiring for the gauge is attached to the aircon control harness. Today, I tidied up the wiring inside the cabin - got a couple of 3M Command wire holders and matte blacked them.

See here for the wiring instructions:
http://zkthlz.blogspot.com/2009/12/defi-oil-temperature-gauge-wiring.html

Results so far with oil cooler
Air temperature: 25º C or below
Stop/start on roads 80kph or less: 79-82º C
Freeway: ~75º C

Air temperature: 25-30º C
Stop/start on roads 80kph or less: ~85º C
Freeway: ~80º C

The next step is to test with the oil cooler core covered on the street and then some on-track temperature readings.

Trust/Greddy Oil Cooler Installation

With the impending hot weather and upcoming December track day, I thought I would get an oil cooler. So last week, this arrived:

The sandwich plate contains a thermostat which I believe opens between 71 and 85 degrees Celsius +/- 2 degrees.

With the help of Kam80 and c2888, installation was fairly simple:

1. Take the front bumper off.
2. Mount the cooler core in place.
3. Fit the oil filter sandwich plate.
4. Connect and tighten hoses.

One small hiccup - As my Japanese literacy is non-existent, I didn't see that I was required to use an oil filter for a 1JZ/2JZ. As a result, my OEM filter did not screw on as the sandwich plate thread pattern was different. Luckily, c2888 had a spare Corolla filter that fit - that will do for now.

Big thanks must go to Kam providing a heap of help and taking photos during this stinking hot installation, and Dan for his technical know-how.

Skidpan Training

This was my second time on a skidpan but my first with formal training from an instructor. It was another great opportunity to test out the behaviour of the car at its limit of traction. The time with the instructor was very valuable as it helped to further solidify the concepts required to be understood in order to hold the car in a slide.

What I learnt:

1. After initiating the slide, maintaining it consists of counter steering and throttle application, and these two concepts work in tandem.
2. Applying throttle further breaks traction at the rear tyres and swings the rear of the car out.
3. Lifting off throttle allows the tyres to regain traction.
4. After counter steering, it is a matter of holding the steering in that direction and modulating throttle between grip and wheel spin. Steering should be minimal as the direction of the car should be controlled through the rear swinging out and being pull back in.

Here are some highlights from my time on the skid pan thanks to Shaun.

Board breaking 14 Oct 2009

Bride Holding Monster strikes again

I picked up one of these today - Bride Stradia with low cushion.

Installation:
1. Unplug seat belt buckle sensor plug from factory seat.
2. Unplug air bag plug from factory seat.
3. Unplug third plug (I can't be bothered looking up what it's for) from factory seat.
4. Remove factory seat.
5. Plug in 2.2 ohm resistor into air bag plug connector in car.
6. Remove seat belt buckle from factory seat.
7. Attach seat belt buckle to Bride seat.
8. Bolt in Bride seat to car.
9. Reconnect seat belt buckle sensor plug.

No DIY is a success without the obligatory fail, quite the paradox. In my haste and glee that I had completed step 5 and that it worked, I had forgotten steps 6 and 7 and proceeded straight to 8. As all good fails would have it, I did not realise I had failed until I had completed step 8. But alas, patience is a virtue and I reversed step 8 and did not attempt to rush it by completing step 7 with the seat bolted in.

A big thanks to Dan (c2888) for his electronics expertise and Kam80 for the online assist when I was picking these seats up.

MGCC Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit - Further analysis

Here's a comparison of Kam's speed graph and mine. Kam also drives a 350Z and I can see where I can improve.

- Turn 1 - I'm slowing down too much
- Turn 1 - I'm not getting on gas early enough
- Turn 4 - As above
- Kam carries almost 10 kph more through the sweeper/chicane
- Turn 8 - I'm not getting on gas early enough
- Turn 11 (coming on the front straight) - I get on gas earlier than Kam, but Kam has some crazy (almost vertical) acceleration. I'm thinking my gear change from 2nd to 3rd was a bit slow there.

MG Car Club Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

This day comprised of a drag and sprint component. Each competitor had two drag runs, one on each straight of the circuit.

Drag
Best run (according to RaceChrono):
60 feet - 2.43 s
1/4 mile - 14.49 s @ 157.1 kph
0-100 kph - 7.19 s

Sprints
Tyre pressures that worked for me: Front - 34 PSI hot, Rear - 33 PSI hot.
Tyres: Dunlop D03G/D02G
Brakes:
- First time trying Ferodo DS2500 at the front, they held up very nicely.
- Also got some titanium shims for the front, brake pedal still felt spongy after each session though.

Session 1
1:34.2000
1:33.2000
1:33.8900
1:35.1700

Session 2
1:50.9500
1:33.8100
1:32.3100
1:33.1700 <- VMax 197 kph Session 3
1:38.8700
1:34.7300
1:32.4200
1:32.5300

Session 4
1:33.4500
1:32.1400
1:32.2000
1:31.6100 NEW PB
1:31.7800

Full results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?11/10/2009.SAND.Q1.I

Comparison of my previous PB to the new one:

High/low speeds for PB lap:

Thank you:
- Kam for technique consultation
- Dave for chasing me and applying the pressure for PB
- Shaun for the lunch run and support
- Drew, Anja, Jason and Ray for taking photos and support
- Dan and Ying for the Porta-Gazebo
- The rest of the crew who competed or came to support

Taekwondo (WTF) Poomsae

This post is intended more so as a point of reference for myself, but hopefully having all these videos in the one place helps others.

Taeguk 1

Taeguk 2

Taeguk 3

Taeguk 4

Taeguk 5

Taeguk 6

Taeguk 7

Taeguk 8

Koryo

Kumgeung

Taebaek

Pyongwon

Sipjin

Jitae

Chonkwon

Hansu

Ilyeo

Oz Mazda Track Day - Wakefield Park

First of all, a big thank you to Darrin, Mick and Dan of Oz Mazda for putting on a great day. The organization and flow of the day was top notch and we got our fill of track time. This year's pilgrimage to Wakefield surely did not disappoint - the weather was practically perfect and the variety of cars and drivers provided much entertainment.

My goal for the day was to sort out my sway bar setup and as always improve on my PB. At the previous track day, I had the front bar set to soft and rear also to soft, a setup I found too tail-happy for my liking. So for Wakefield, I had set the front to hard and left the rear on soft. If there was too much understeer, I would then set the rear to medium. What I found was that I didn't have the change the settings throughout the day, the front hard/rear soft combo worked for me. The car still had a hint of oversteer (more than stock) and yet was easily manageable by an amateur like me.

With that sorted, I then set out to get my Wakefield technique back and attempted to beat my PB. I managed to improve on my previous PB by 0.05 seconds in the morning and then another 0.03 seconds early in the afternoon, ending on a new PB of 1:12.49. This was such a marginal improvement but I was happy that I can still match my PB.

My timed laps (not including passenger sessions):
1:19.5150
1:14.8730

1:17.0000
1:14.4940
1:28.8860

1:14.3630
1:14.1970
1:14.5290
1:13.7750
1:13.5870
1:35.9890
1:14.3190
1:22.2620
1:13.7160
1:12.5210

1:13.5040
1:15.5020
1:12.4970 *NEW PB*
1:18.1070
1:23.9710
1:15.7050

Full results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?15/08/2009.WAKE

Thinking back over my sessions, these are the main things I can improve upon at Wakefield:

- There is time to be gained at the first corner after the kink as I'm not using the full width of the track on exit.
- I might be braking too much at the top of the hill.
- On the back straight, I am topping out in 3rd and riding the limiter for some time before the 100m marker where I generally start braking. Short shifting to 4th earlier in the straight might help.

Photo credits:
- Kam80/Anja
- sktiz (Oz Mazda)
- silver6 (Oz Mazda)

Video from CelicaJim's car as he was chasing me, couldn't shake him:

Nismo 350Z Accelerator Pedal

Just a minor update: I installed an accelerator pedal from the 2007 Nismo 350Z.

This is the pedal that should have come standard in the 350Z since the model was introduced. The shape is nothing new, this pedal came standard in at least the R34 GT-R V-Spec albeit in rubber.

Comparison:

Fujitsubo Legalis-R Exhaust Installation

First and foremost, let me thank the following people who were instrumental in the success of this DIY effort (in no particular order):

- SenK9
- Mugsee
- c2888
- HSVNME

Without the help of your lateral thinking, logic, knowledge and strength, this would have taken much longer than it already did. Also thanks to Jally for being the delivery driver, wokstar for taking some photos, and KRNAGE, Eiji, Kathy, Kam80 and Anja for the company.

Now, on to the business. I picked up the exhaust yesterday morning and was pleased to see that it is a nicely manufactured product. The welds are clean and careful and the fitment is essentially a 100% match to OEM, except for only a tiny hitch (which I'll explain further down). You can tell that attention to detail is high when it comes to the construction of this exhaust, which is not surprising considering that Fujitsubo manufacture exhausts for Nismo and their exhausts are also offered as a factory option in Japan.

Specs: http://www.fujitsubo.co.jp/product01.php?no=790-15462

Installation was fairly straight forward, it was a bolt-off bolt-on affair. There was a lot of time spent in the bolt-off part when we almost rounded off a nut. Mugsee and I spent almost 2 hours trying to loosen a nut between the front and mid pipes that had seemingly fused itself to the flange. SenK9 finally loosened the nut with some Selley's RP-7 and a strong arm.

After the new exhaust was attached, I noticed that there was a small gap between the bottom of the flanges on the front and mid pipes. The supplied gasket was not thick enough to fill that gap. c2888 confirmed that there was a leak there after I started the car and water (from condensation) started dripping out the gap, this was the tiny hitch I mentioned before. Being the pedantic person that I am, I asked HSVNME to drive me to Repco and he kindly obliged. There, we bought some Loctite Copper Maxx gasket goo. After returning and applying the goo around the flange, the gap seemed filled and I tightened all the nuts.

Before:

During:

After:

Odd spot:
Here is some Nissan engineering fail. In the last 2.5 years that I've had this car, the foam between the rear bumper and reinforcement bar had melted from the heat of the muffler. The two tabs at the bottom of the bumper that are normally attached to the reinforcement bar have also been snapped for a long time. After the OEM muffler was removed, I took the opportunity to remove those two tabs, which were just attached to the reinforcement bar and connected to nothing. Also note that the heat from the muffler has melted and fused one of the plastic clips holding the tab to another plastic bracket.

Initial impressions are that the Fujitsubo is not much louder than stock, only providing a deeper growl at low to mid RPMs, elevating to a slight rasp at high RPMs. This is ideal for me as the subtle difference is not intrusive at all. All I hope for is that the car's power and acceleration is improved.