1991 Nissan 300ZX GS-N/A from North America - Comments

There's a distinct fuel smell whenever entering or around the car.

The Bose system head unit and six-CD changer broke 3 days after I bought it. The radio only played.

The Bose system was a difficult challenge to replace. Costly as well, both ways. Either to replace the stock components or to completely replace it.

Spark plugs take about an hour and a half to replace.

Only takes premium gas- very expensive two months ago.

Rear-wheel drive is going to suck in the winter.

Repairs and maintenance for these are a touch expensive though (sixty dollars for spark plugs!?)

The car is awesome, from the interior to the exterior.

The interior puts almost all of the car's controls at the driver's fingertips- Air conditioning and heat, wipers, hazards, almost everything, but it doesn't seem cluttered.

If you want to meet people, buy this car. Everyone who owns one or who has owned one or wants to own one will talk to you. I've met at least fifty people just because of my car. They're a lot more rare than your average mustang, so there's a lot more respect and pride that goes along with it.

I love the response that everything has. Push the gas, instant-response. The brake, immediate response. Amazing.

You won't ever fall out of love for this car.

I have a '92 2+2 manual and I can relate to most of the comments made by Steven (thankfully I haven't had to deal with Bose problems as yet).

The main problem right now is lousy gas mileage, about 12 mpg and getting worse. I replaced the plugs today, (only 20 bucks for platinum tipped Bosch) but the rough idle continues, as I'm sure will the bad gas mileage. All the old plugs looked OK, but I cylinder #3 looked a bit rich.

Tried replacing the air filters about a month ago and the gas consumption seemed to get worse. I noticed that the inside of the air intake plenum was wet, with gas I assume, and it was almost a day since the car was run.

I thought that the problem might be faulty injectors, but how would this get gas up in the plenum, and why would it still be wet?

Does anyone have any ideas???

Fuel has been a problem for me also! I understand it's expensive and all that, but the smell of petrol when it's cold is over the top strong. I found that the fuel regulator was to blame. It's positioned at the top of the actual engine (in fact the hood almost touches it when closed). The regulator is about the size of a marlboro packet. The problem is that it is made in two half's, the join is a crimp (two lips of metal folded over together making a seal) which is not really the best joint in the world. The easiest way to check is to rub your finger all over it, which should cause them to smell strongly of evaporated petrol. Many 300zx cars have this problem, but most people don't know it! the car should be getting around 15 miles to the gallon urban and 19-22 rural, with all relevant parts like plugs filters combustion etc being in order! Hope this comes as a help to some of you guys out there!???

Yours

kib.

Thanks Kib.

I will try to ascertain whether the fuel regulator is to blame. Since posting my comment in December, the car is running a lot better, the idle is smooth as glass at 1,000 RPM, but the gas mileage average is still averaging only about 12 MPG.

I appreciate your suggestion and will hope for the best.

Rick

An idea for to get rid of the fuel smell from your car is to get a #3 philips screw driver and tighten every screw you can find under the hood. It's a really simple suggestion, but it seemed to work for me.

-Justin.

I had similar rough idling and fuel smell problems. Found that a faulty sensor was telling the processor that the engine was always cold and so sending to much fuel (as in a cold starting situation). Cheap fix to change out the sensor.