Reflecting on the RZ34 Mirror Cam

I recently replaced the rear view mirror in the RZ34 with a WOLFBOX G900 PRO mirror dash cam. It's a 12" screen that takes the place of the mirror and shows a live feed from a camera at the top of the hatch glass, all while recording both front and rear. It replaced the HomeLink mirror I had previously installed, so I'm back to carrying a garage door remote in the center console for now.

The WOLFBOX mount bolts right into the stock windshield tab without modification. I didn't grab any pictures of running the wires to the mirror and rear camera, but there's nothing unique to the Z there. It's the same routing you'll find in instructions for any other vehicle.

For the drive to Z Nationals I simply used the supplied power socket adapter, and it worked fine. The hardwire kit is only needed if you want parking mode, so I installed it afterward. I used fuse taps on the empty towing fuse slot for constant power and on the power socket fuse for ACC/IGN. That seemed fitting since the power socket was what the camera was plugged into before.

One heads up on the hardwire kit: the leads on mine were labeled backwards. Wired as labeled, the camera wouldn't let me turn on parking mode. Swapping them so the red wire (labeled ACC) went to the constant source and the yellow wire (labeled B+) went to the ACC/IGN source did the trick.

After the drive to Z Nationals I found that a screen protector is a must. Without it the screen is so reflective that anything in the hatch area shows up in the mirror with just a little sunlight, and it was distracting. It doesn't come in the box, so I picked up a BoxWave ClearTouch Anti-Glare matte screen protector made for the G900 Pro on Amazon. Driving with a camera instead of a mirror does take some getting used to, but you do get used to it. I also found that a little zoom on the rear camera helped me better sense the distance to the car behind me.

There are a couple of quirks. Even on the lowest sensitivity setting, big bumps will trigger the automatic video lock. It isn't excessive, but expect a few false alarms. The forward facing camera is also blocked by the plastic cover in the upper right portion of the screen, no matter how you position the mirror. You can still see the road on the right side, but judging distance on that side might be impaired.

The payoff is visibility. Cars overtaking me now show up in the mirror at the same time they appear in my side window. This mirror fills the void between my side mirrors and the old rear view mirror. Good enough for me!

Third Time's the Sample

The Z was overdue for an oil change, at least by the calendar. The last fill went in a year ago, and the car has only covered about 1,300 miles since then. I figured a year was long enough regardless of mileage, and it was also time for the third oil analysis sample.

I grabbed a case of Nissan Genuine 0W-20 full synthetic and pulled a sample for SPEEDiagnostix during the drain. The first two samples showed the expected break-in wear, and the second looked much better than the first. This one should tell me whether the VR30 has settled in now that break-in is well behind it.

I decided to leave the filter alone this time. With only 1,338 miles on it, there was plenty of life left in it. The engine took roughly 5.5 quarts to fill back up.

I didn't drain the catch can this time, so I'll be back under there soon. I doubt it's anywhere close to needing it.

4,051 miles on the clock. Now I just wait on the lab. Time will tell!

Seams Like Trouble

While doing the CVT service on the Cube last weekend, I noticed that the radiator had started leaking at the seam where the plastic tank meets the core. Judging by the crust on everything nearby, it had been spraying coolant all over the engine bay, including the alternator. After 15 years and more than 167,000 miles, I'm not surprised the plastic finally gave up.

I ordered a KAX replacement radiator along with a Gates radiator cap. The new radiator came with transmission cooler ports, but the Cube doesn't use them so I left the caps on.

Getting the old radiator out meant removing the upper radiator support brace and lifting it out the top, with the fan and shroud along for the ride as one unit. I figured I'd make things easier by installing the bare radiator first and adding the fan and shroud afterwards. That plan didn't last long; there just isn't enough room. Back out it came so the radiator and shroud could go in together.

For coolant I used up the leftover Valvoline with Zerex from the last coolant change and finished with PEAK Asian Blue. I burped the system with a spill-free funnel until the heater was blowing hot, then rinsed the old coolant off the alternator and the rest of the engine bay.

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On the test drive I watched the coolant temperature with my BlueDriver. It cycled between 183°F and 193°F around town and held steady at 190°F on the interstate. Turning on the A/C got the fans cycling, so those checked out too.

There was one hiccup. Before the next drive I found the new Gates cap loose. Its tangs weren't wide enough to grab the radiator neck, so the system had never held pressure. I put the original cap back on so my son could drive to work, and with a cap that sealed, the overflow bottle rose and fell like it should. The old cap was fine, but I ordered a genuine Nissan cap to be safe. It locked right on.

No more coolant showers for the alternator!

Screen Time

The Cube's CVT has been on my list for a while. At 167,000 miles it had only had one fluid change, a simple drain-and-fill around 80k, so this time I decided to do it right: drop the pan, clean the magnets, and replace both the screen and the cooler filter.

I grabbed a box of Nissan Genuine NS-2 fluid and ordered the filters from Amazon. Unfortunately the first screen kit showed up with the wrong pan gasket. The correct kit, from DCMR, was actually listed as not fitting the Cube, but searching by the transmission model instead of the car confirmed it was the right one. The correct gasket is on the left.

Before dropping the pan I did a quick flush. I drained into an empty oil jug to get a rough idea of how much came out, refilled through the dipstick tube, ran the car, then drained it again.

With the pan off I was pleasantly surprised. Given the mileage, I expected a lot more metal on the magnets and in the screen.

While I was under there, I swapped the cooler filter too.

The filters and the pan all torque to 70 in-lb. In hindsight I wish I'd stopped at 65 on the pan with the nitrile gasket, and next time I'll use an OEM metal gasket instead. The final refill took almost 5 quarts, and I reset the fluid degradation counter with my scan tool.

Good for another 80,000 miles? Time will tell!

Catching Up with the Rogue

The Rogue was due for an oil change, and since it was already in the garage, I decided to knock out a couple of other items while I was at it.

I stuck with Valvoline Restore & Protect Full Synthetic 0W-20, which is what was already in the engine. I paired it with the Nissan OEM filter (15208-65F0E). No reason to get creative when the factory part is sitting right there on the shelf.

With the hood up, I also emptied the oil catch can. It was about 20% full, which is a lot less than I found the first time I checked it. That's still oil that would otherwise be coating the intake, so it continues to earn its spot in the engine bay.

Next up was a brake fluid flush with Prestone DOT 3, the first one this car has had. The fronts were easy. The rears were another story. Not only are the bleeders tucked up where they're hard to reach, but the electric parking brake motors sit right in the way, which makes getting a wrench on the bleeder nut a real exercise in patience. A few choice words later, all four corners had fresh fluid.

The odometer read 50,340 when all was said and done. Fresh oil, fresh brake fluid and an empty catch can. The Rogue is all caught up!

Bracing Myself

Three items had been sitting at the bottom of the Z's list for a while: the Z1 front subframe brace, the aluminum W-brace, and the high-clearance rear brace. A couple of evenings on the lift finally cleared all three.

I started at the front. The RZ34 is plenty stiff from the factory, but the front subframe is a wide span with a lot of leverage working against it, and the Z1 brace ties those mounting points together with a welded triangle. Nothing exotic - just geometry doing what geometry does.

The install itself was easy and went exactly the way the Z1 instructions said it would. The only real effort was dropping the exhaust out of the way, and with as few miles as this car has, every one of those bolts backed right out with no drama. Ask me how that goes on the 280z sometime.

The next evening I moved to the back half, starting with the aluminum W-brace. The bolts that came in the box didn't fit, so I reused four factory bolts in the forward mounting positions and moved on. Not sure why they shipped the larger hardware, but it went in the bin with everything else I'm sure I'll need someday.

Then the high-clearance rear brace went over the diff. The "high-clearance" name is about exhaust routing rather than ground clearance, since the brace is shaped to clear larger piping back there. That's a nice bonus with the Z1 exhaust, but the stiffening is what I was after.

The underside is getting to be a lot of red and titanium at this point. That was never really the plan, but I'm not complaining.

Pending list is empty for the first time since I brought the car home. Time to go find some corners!

Clocking In

The odometer on my Pulsar NX has been a lost cause for years. I repaired it back in 2023, sacrificing the sixth digit and resetting it to 100,000, but it eventually quit counting altogether. I've decided I'm done chasing it. Instead of tracking miles I can't measure, I'm going to track engine hours.

The plan was simple: a basic mechanical hour meter that clocks time whenever it sees 12V. No miles, no fuss, just run-time. That's actually a better number for a car like this anyway, since it sits more than it drives and I care more about how long the engine has been running than how far it's gone.

Of course, a meter like this doesn't come with a mounting solution for a 1988 Pulsar, so I fired up the UltiMaker S5 and designed a bracket to hold it. Nothing exotic, just a clean little L-bracket that lets the meter tuck up under the dash near the console where I can still read it.

For power I kept it easy and tapped a spare, open fuse position that's switched on with the ignition. I thought about triggering it off oil pressure or the alternator so it would only count when the engine is actually running, but the truth is the difference is a handful of minutes here and there if the car ever stalls or I sit with the key on. That's an edge case I can live with.

Bracket printed, meter wired, and now sitting at a nice round zero. From here on out, the Pulsar keeps its own time.

Getting Ahead of the Filter

The Cube crossed 164,106 miles and it was time for an oil change.

This is the second fill of Valvoline Restore & Protect Full Synthetic 5W-30 in the Cube - I switched over on the last oil change. From what I've read, this stuff doesn't clean everything up in one shot; it works on piston and ring groove deposits gradually across the first handful of oil changes rather than all at once. Made sense to me once I thought about it - all that gunk it's loosening off the pistons has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is the filter.

So partway through this interval, about 500 miles back, I swapped in a fresh Mobil 1 filter on its own - no oil change, just the filter. Cheap insurance against the filter loading up faster than expected while the new oil does its scrubbing.

By the time I got around to the actual oil change, I'd grabbed a Nissan Genuine filter out of habit before remembering I'd already freshened the one in there. The Mobil 1 was still plenty fresh, so it stayed put and I just handled the oil.

Four quarts of Valvoline 5W-30 later and the Cube's set for another interval, and the Nissan filter goes back on the shelf for next time.