Phantom

"First, the Red Top Optimas that were made prior to the buyout (owed by the Swedish) in 2002 were the bomb! Very high quality, but once they were purchased by JCI, they found them to be "over engineered" and gutted them to reduce cost, hence the quality dropped and the failure rate increased dramatically. A friend was a regional manager at one of the major national auto parts chains at in the late 90's-early 2000s, they averaged about 1 return/warranty a month, move forward a few years and that number increased to about a dozen a month. Likely, you got one of the last of the early generation Red Tops and those would go a good 10 years. Unfortunately, people think they are buying the same thing today as they had and that is not the case." This information posted by Savage42 finally got me curious so i went back and checked my records on my Optima battery. I purchased it on Dec, 7, 2002 so it was probably produced prior to the buyout by JCI. That would further make sense as the battery is still surviving after nearly 13 years. Then again, I have a 96 month warranted lead-acid battery that has now lasted 98 months in my Suburban, The Optima back in 2002 only cost me $101.50 which seemed like a fortune at the time but has turned out to be well worth it. When it does die I don't think I;ll get another Optima, though, based on the information from Savage42 and a couple posts by Miles in another thread, The Clock and Engine Idle Speed.

Contact JCI and ask them who they use. They used to use Chips by Al but I don't think he's around anymore. He re flashed my Ecu from a '98 automatic set up to a 2002 T56 setup and it's been great for 12 years.

I've found that it pays to have battery tenders for the winter months and also a really good battery charger that can "recondition" a battery. My Suburban battery almost went dead three months ago. It was a 95 month old 96 month battery. I ran the "recondition" mode on it with the charger and then ran the regular charge mode. It has been doing great since then. It won't work on anything but a lead-acid battery because the "recondition" mode causes the lead oxide build-up on the plates to slough off. 3 of 4 of my cars have lead-acid b batteries in them so I'm thinking I might want to recondition those batteries once a year and see if it will significantly extend their life. Won't work on Gel batteries like the Optima Red Top and I don't think it will work on Lithium batteries either.

Good information. Thank you.

Interesting, I have had this battery over 10 years now and my car has a 500 watt sound system I play all the time, mostly with the engine running but occasionally for 30-60 minutes without the engine running. This is the first time it's gone down on me. It was in the shop several months ago, before the clock, and they managed to kill it. It charged back up and seemed OK but maybe not. 10+ years may have it at its life expectancy.

Interesting, I have had this battery over 10 years now and my car has a 500 watt sound system I play all the time, mostly with the engine running but occasionally for 30-60 minutes without the engine running. This is the first time it's gone down on me. It was in the shop several months ago, before the clock, and they managed to kill it. It charged back up and seemed OK but maybe not. 10+ years may have it at its life expectancy.

Sent my clock off to get it rebuilt a few months ago. Got a new movement in it, got it reinstalled, and it appears to be working great. I haven't had a working clock in about 15 years so I didn't realize that the clock would nearly drain my Red Top battery in about 3 weeks. I went out to the car and it, to quote a Princess Bride line, was "mostly dead". Mad Max was able to give it just enough energy to get the car to start on the second try. Then it got interesting. Once the car started the idle went up to between 2,500 & 3,000 RPM. After a minute or so I could get it down to around 2,000 - 2,500 RPM. I'm running things through my mind and I'm just not figuring out how this could be happening. The car has an LS1 with a mechanical throttle cable. It is NOT drive by wire so why the high idle? I got out, popped the hood and checked the throttle position on the engine and it was at the normal idle stop -but idling over 2,000 RPM. I drove the car about 4 miles until it was up to temperature and it still had the high idle - so I shut it down. About 15 minutes later I restarted it and it was fine - everything normal. Idle back down to around 800 RPM and normal throttle response. I figure the extremely low voltage start somehow messed with the ECU but how did it get the idle up so high on an engine with a mechanical throttle?

1" MC, front/rear seat bars and strut tower braces, 4-pt roll bar, TTT suspension & brakes for starters.

Guess that depends how you build the car. My V8 runs dual exhausts straight thru to muffler in the rear which gives it a healthy growl. However, I installed dynomat and a heavy carpet in the car so it's plenty quiet enough for my sound system. But then, I like 60's & 70's rock music and that just plain needs to be played loudly.

Not me. I have a 500 watt, 7 speaker Alpine sound system in my car. Good tunes make the drive even more enjoyable.

Looking good. What are you running for an amplifier? Do you have crossovers or a capacitor in the system?

The problem is that beside being beautifully done there is nothing about the car that adds to it's value. It has a high VIN number and the ZX transmission and differential take it out of the "original" category but not far enough to actually add value. The interior looks nice but appears to be vinyl rather than leather and the stereo system is not spectacular. I'm sure it's VERY nice and fun to drive but I have less than that in my 280Z28 over the past 23 years, including all the repairs and maintenance I've done to it. I agree with rturbo 930, it's at most a $30k car.

You'll probably have yours up and running before I do. I still haven't resolved the issue with the passenger side high beam but that's primarily because we're in a 2 week 100+ heat wave and I don't have AC in my garage - yet. Oh yeah - and I have about a dozen honey-dos to knock out first. Then there's my son's wedding on 7/11 so I'm a bit distracted.

At 6.3 lbs/gallon the fuel in a 15 gallon tank would weigh 94.5 lbs and then you have the weight of the tank and anything else attached to the tank. And then you have to add a safety factor to account for "G" forces when hitting bumps, etc. There will also be "leverage" factor based on the center of mass of the tank and the distance to the retaining bolts. The more the merrier. When I used to design structures and equipment the general philosophy was to "Kill flies with planets".

Well, turns out it wasn't the hi/low switch after all with the passenger side hi beam not working. When hi beam is selected there is a "click" on the drivers side but not on the passenger side. Basically that means that the power to actuate the hi beam solenoid is not getting there. Now it's time to remove the wheel, remove the fender liner, remove all the electrical tape that is on the wiring and check each connection and check voltage at each connection. Some partially good news is that I need to pull a wheel anyway to get the model/serial number off the Willwood calipers so that I can order new pads when I get new rotors. I'm trying to determine if I can use a Spec 37 rotor in place of the Ultralight rotor. It is more expensive but also is much more durable and comes machined true where the Ultralights don't. Last time I put the Ultralights on I had to have both of them turned on the car to true them up and eliminate a lot of vibration whenever I used them. I think while I'm in there I'll also extend the wiring for the DRL's so that they can be easily hooked up in the future. Found out on the front turn signals that it has white LED's and Amber LED's. The white LED's are basically the parking light function and the amber LED's are the sequential turn signal part. That also would allow someone to use a clear turn signal sense if they were so inclined. Samuel has been really good about the one non-working LED. I was able to confirm that it worked in his Youtube video of the lights but then it wasn't when it got to me. He is actually bugging me to get them back to him ASAP so he can fix it. It's driving season, though, so he's going to have to wait a bit.

Well, the diodes didn't fix the issue. I've been referred to Ben and he is in Israel right now. I'm supposed to call them back tomorrow to see if they've been able to contact him and, if so, what he has to say. The problem is I let someone else put this system together rather than just doing it myself. I'd know all the nuts, ballasts & diodes of it if I had. I foresee the passenger side front end of my car coming apart in the near future.

OK - the answer here is a 2-prong electronic flasher WITH a grounding wire. I got an EF-32RL off Amazon and it works great. Evidently the key is the grounding wire. Without it the electronic flasher won't work on our cars.

Yup - the EF-32RL 2-prong flasher with a grounding wire did the job. Turn signals work great.

Hmmm - thinking about a line from "The Wedding Singer" right about now. Anyway, the EF-32RL 2-prong electronic flasher with a ground wire did the job. Turn signals are working great.

Well, reversing the diode caused me to lose both low and high beams on the passenger side. Removing it I have low beam and no high beam, like when the diode was in the original position. Dapper is sending me some more diodes to try. If that doesn't work I was told Ben would probably talk with me about it since he's the in-house Z expert.

My biggest concern about the LED conversion was that it be brighter than the stock lights. I was having visibility issues with them during the day. Actually had a state trooper pull me over because he didn't see the turn signal working. That is definitely fixed. The other issue was visibility at night. The headlights were also week and the dash lights were so dim I could barely see the speedo and tach. The white faced gages and higher wattage bulbs fixed the dash and it looks like the HID's are the answer for the headlights. Still have a lot of work to dot get the car back to it's 2005 glory. Don't even want to think about how much that is going to cost me. Anyone need any plastic manufacturing equipment? I need some more commissions!

Pretty good day today. Disassembled the front turn signals and flipped the LED panels. They now sequence flash from inside out. Learning curve for Samuel at ZLEDslights. The EF-32RL electronic flasher with ground wire arrived via UPS today. Once installed the turn signals now work fine AND sequence from inside out. Tried reversing the diode on the passenger side and then had neither high nor low beam. Removed the diode and had low beam but no high beam. Contacted Dapper Lighting and they are sending me several diodes to confirm if that is the problem or not. In the meantime the low beams are great for around town and general highway driving. Attached are several photos and a couple videos of the lights. HID Headlights LED Taillights RearLED side marker light Front LED side marker light White faced gauges with new, higher wattage, dash bulbs - and a working clock. LED turn signals in action http://vid321.photobucket.com/albums/nn390/BuckskinRanch/280Z28/IMG_4993.mp4 http://vid321.photobucket.com/albums/nn390/BuckskinRanch/280Z28/IMG_4992.mp4

Got a couple things resolved today. First got all the leftover parts out of the car and somewhat properly stored. Reversed all the side marker lights so they are properly set now. Checked the front turn signals and the one marked L is on the drivers side and the one marked R is on the passenger side. Since I verified they were installed correctly I emailed Samuel at ZLEDslights and asked for suggestions as to how to reverse the direction of the sequencing. Also contacted Dapper Lighting about the passenger side high beam issue. They think it's the diode. I'll check it out tomorrow. At this point still waiting to hear back fromSamuel and also APT about the voltmeter.

That's the system I have on my car right now. The low beams are definitely nice but I have an issue right now with the passenger side going dark when I select high beam, Fortunately the driver side goes to high beam so I wouldn't go totally blind. I'm exchanging emails with Nick at Dapper and also PM'd Ben about it. Nick seems to think it's a diode issue - either in backwards or not working. I'm going to check it out tomorrow. I'm trying to get the car ready for the Canby swap meet this weekend.

So, I brought the car home yesterday and almost freaked on the way home. Voltmeter was jumping all over the place, oil pressure was almost 0, temp gauge was a bit high, and the tach quit working. Then, on top of the fact that I knew I had an issue with my turn signal flasher the passenger side HID light doesn't work on high beam, the front sequential turn signals flasher from outboard to inboard instead of inside to outside, and all my side markers were on backwards. Calmed down a bit this morning as the oil pressure gauge was back to normal operating and the tach was work working fine. The car had been left out in the sun on a 105 degree day with the windows rolled up so I think my electronics were just plain too hot. The turn signal sequential direction and the side marker lights are easy fixes and a turn signal flasher is supposed to be here Thursday that should have them operating. Still have the issue with the voltmeter jumping around and the high beams. I noticed the voltmeter like to jump each time I hit a bump (other times to) so I may have a connector contact issue which would be an easy fix. Otherwise, I've contacted APT to see if it is something they can repair. Here are a couple short preliminary videos of the lights. IMG_4982.MOV IMG_4981.MOV