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This is why taking cars to be worked on places makes me cringe...

Nonetheless, glad you caught it early and were able to make some good progress.

Jesus that is definitely cringe-worthy to see. Glad you caught that before it became a major safety concern Mike!

Any interest in ever doing the '10-'13 sport front end swap on the car? A lot of the late year G35/early G37 guys are doing it now.

Thanks guys. Yeah fortunately all that was sorted before it got worse.

I haven't really thought about doing a front end swap. It's a possibility if something bad happens to my front bumper but other than that my older style works for me.

I guess I need to check this forum more often! Congrats Mike, it's a lovely car and you sure deserve it! Good call on the new headlights, I restore them all the time and it drives me crazy how quickly the oxidation comes back. And cheeez, that brake job... I echo the sentiments above, people ask me why I don't just give myself a break sometimes and farm things out- this is why. Love the car, especially the pretty black leather I feel like, in a lot of ways, it's a modern replacement for your i30, except without being such a pain to get anything done on! I hope, anyways. There's gotta be more room around that motor than in the 3.5 i30

Thanks Rachel. 100% same boat as you on the headlight resto. I've done it, and watched them yellow too.

Overall the car is miles nicer than the i30 and I'm happy with it. I do miss how raw the i30 is in terms of power though. The feeling that it had 100 more hp than it should, the gearing was a tad too short and the throttle was touchy. That all makes for a very untamed delivery of power. The G is waaay more refined, not as quick and overall smoother. I would like to open the G up a bit more and tune it myself but I'll have to part out the i30 before that happens.

Oh my, you've still got the i30? Must be a full house on that street lol!

So this thing drove me nuts for 2 weeks.

I did the spark plugs on it just because and it was very easy to do. No goofy FWD take the UIM to get to the rear bank business. I saw that the TBs were a little carboned up so I go in there with some brake clean on a shop towel. This is where I ducked up. My confidence with manipulating these comes from converting 3 to cable and doing the same cleaning on a buddys car. But apparently if you sneeze on Hitachi TBs hooked up to Nissans, you are screwed.

I went to start the car and a high idle goes into an idle hunt. FML. Google, get the 3 TPS/pedal/air volume procedures from the FSM and do them about 25 times with no luck.

I called my mechanic buddies and they said, I'm SOL if I touched the TB plate. This makes zero sense to me but since one of the TBs I got with the car was riveted back together. I sprung for a new set. (yes, 2) Throw those guys in, do the re-learn and no luck.

I have another buddy that works at Nissan and he said he would use his Consult to do the relearn. I have an uprev tune with 5 maps and we tried the consult on all the non valet/kill maps. No luck. At this point I said f-it flash the latest ROM over the uprev tune to eliminate that variable. There was also some folks saying that worked for them. But, we found out you can't overwrite an uprev tune without the uprev software/cable..

So I purchased uprev, got the latest ROM (which was newer than my Nissan tech buddy's), burned it in. No good. Do the relearn steps twice and they say it could take up to 20 seconds for it to learn. It took 19 but it worked. Finally, I had a car that idled ok and didn't want to jump at rolling stops.

The bad news is I lost the previous tunes since there was no way to keep them. But the good news is I can mess with the tune myself. I didn't realize the front O2 sensors on this car are widebands. So that's actually awesome.

Oh how I miss cable driven TB world.

Goodness. This is why I'm afraid to try newer cars! But, it's inevitable. Amazing how much there is to be surprised by with just a 10-year difference in technology.

Yeah....the throttle bodies on the V36 and later VQ platforms are a nightmare...I went through the same thing when I cleaned the throttle bodies on mine, but I lucked out and the idle relearn worked on the 2nd try with the pedal dance. I hate how complicated Nissan made these motors, but I do understand it. It's crazy that on at least the G37's the throttle bodies are essentially wide open after startup, and all of the intake air is regulated and managed by the VVEL system. Definitely a whole different world compared to my old G20 and Buick.

Glad to hear you got it up and running, but that does suck with the tune. How do you like your Uprev tunes? I'm still collecting bits for my mod plans (have Fast Intentions RHFC's & Y-back exhaust waiting for an off day in the garage, and am saving up for Admin Intakes/tune) but I am debating going Uprev or Ecutek for the tune.

I haven't really dug into tuning with UPRev just yet. Reviews are lackluster but it looks like it'll be powerful enough for whatever I'm looking to do.

Be warned with HFCs. I've been chasing the hissing noise that comes with those, test pipes, and resonated DPs. Went from FI resonated DPs to test pipes, and I welded brackets to the test pipes to tie in the factory trans bracket and all iterations basically had the same result. I did a boat load of research on it and it seems like it's a very common issue through all model years that most can't escape. HFCs or otherwise.

I'm late to reply, but yep that's the infamous "VQ Hiss". I installed my RHFC's and exhaust, and it's definitely audible but a bit less intense than other's I have heard. I only have a Top Speed y-back, so it isn't the loudest exhaust so that can help. I think having resonated HFC's helps mask the hiss a bit better than non-resonated cats, but it is still there either way. It's definitely annoying, but when you stomp on the loud pedal and hear the beautiful tone of the VQ, that makes it all better.

The good news with this thing is I've finally started to learn how to tune with UpRev software and I've been dialing in my closed loop fueling a bit. I ball parked a blanket MAF table change then used this datalog analysis tool from there. The tool outputs average A/Fs and fuel trims vs. MAF voltage and allows you to filter out things like decel etc. I have a long way to go but it's always cool learning something new.

The bad news is some chitbag cheese bus driver hit and ran my car while parked. Luckily I had a witness and info to file a police report. It needs a fender and headlight at minimum but it's drivable after a little fender pulling. Could be worse. My insurance gave me a quick estimate that I'm not happy with but I'm not at the end of that rope yet. I honestly just hope that person looses their job. If you drive kids around and don't know you hit something or don't care to stop if you did, your ignorance or recklessness could end up killing someone.

Ouch, sorry to see the G got hit Mike. That's nearly the same spot that someone raked down the side of mine in a parking lot. You do have the benefits of having an 07 though, so the headlights are much cheaper than the 10+ design. Hopefully you can work a fair deal with insurance on it. I'm guessing the door will need to be blended in that spot as well? It looks like it took a good amount of paint with it, but it's hard to tell if that is a scuff or paint damage. People's negligence and lack of care for other people's property never ceases to amaze me.

Hit and runs are the worst to deal with, because you're always left sitting there with the situation.

Glad to hear it wasn't any more serious though.

Thanks guys. Yea it sucks but could be way worse. I'm happy I could just pull the fender out and drive it.

Joseph, very true on the headlight. If the fender is replaced with non-matching paint, the door, hood and bumper will have to be blended for sure.

Since the last post I went through 2 color matched fenders from ebay and ended up settling for one that's physically in good shape but not perfect in the paint finish department.

Back in June I ordered a 3" Admin Tuning intake with 3" MAF tubes (+0.7") and they showed up maybe 2-3 months ago. They've been sitting since I've been busy with work trips and among other things.. But, I got a chance to get them on yesterday and get the tune to 100% LTFTs and 12s A/F WOT. The kit requires some clearance-ing for the pipes to pass through the radiator support and also some for the area behind the grill on the bumper. All-in-all, it wasn't too bad and it's more or less reversible.

My first impression is a good one. It definitely rips a bit harder. I know these VQs like to breathe from seeing gains with a 4" intake/MAF on my i30 and I could feel it similarly with this.

I shouldn't really be modding this anymore since I plan to sell it in the spring to help offset buying the M5. I figured at this point it's already paid for. Oh well, might as well.

My coilovers have been getting clunkier as time goes on. I've read that early batches of BCs had issues with piston noise and they've since changed the design. I decided to replace the coilovers to make it easier to sell in the noise department. I also figured I would raise the car a hair, replace the plastic wheel wells and replace under engine plastic too since the low lows wore through them.

Welp. It's for sale.

https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto ... 43729.html

Cool pics. I didn't see the car (which is quite nice) until pic #5.

I see you're as anal as I am...I have a running record of everything I've done to my cars. I have a log book in each car which I transfer to an excel file. With few exceptions, I know the date, mileage, and cost of everything I've done.

Lol. Thanks. Lots of mothballed Navy ships to choose from at my work for a backdrop.

For logs I just email myself to the same chain so the date is covered and all that’s left is to note the mileage and work done. I’ve actually used this in the past to prove to my insurance company I qualify for a low mileage discount.

I still maintain a back pocket memo book for work ship visits though. I can’t bring myself to go digital on that one.