Personally, I would normally think it was driver error had I not owned two standards before with none of these issues, and if the problems didnt happen on like hundreds or thousands of other Zs, and if it wasnt 5th and 6th gear... I mean, how hard are 5th and 6th gear to miss!? I have NEVER missed anything above 2nd. And heck, no way have i ever shifted into 5th or 6th WOT...

 

My Z has grinded from day one when you shift faster then the clutch can catch. Get a JWT clutch and flywheel. Problem solved

 

BTW, if, and there is a good chance when, your transmission starts to grind in 2nd 3rd or whatever... how will you feel when people point to this post and blame you for the problem, as is often the case here...

Its easy to put the blame on drivers if your car hasnt had this issue...

but its realllly starting to surface now adays, and I can live with tire feathering, but I cannot keep this car with a grinding transmission...

I mean seriously, I bought NISSAN because it was supposed to be reliable, else I could have gotten a 330 or used M3 or Z3 or Boxter...

Turns out though I should have gotten the S2000... check out that forum and see how many problems they had... no where are there 30 page trransmission threads or 100+ page tire feathering threads...

 

My understanding is that its the synchros... what I dont understand is why Nissan hasnt come out with a solid tranny to end the constant replacements... its gotta be costing them, and it will be costing them more when I use the lemon law, or sue them, or ANOTHER class action suit hits them...

 

Just heard back from the dealer... my THIRD tranny will be here on Thursday and they are replacing the axles... no word on the tire feathering... I at least want a free rotation so they last more than 17k miles...

Anyhow, I am going to do a carfax on my car to see if anything shows up. I wonder how badly it will affect the resale value of my car when down the road a potential buyer finds that it has had THREE or more transmissions?

 

its not driver error, its a defective transmission. I only have 400 mi on my new tranny, im still breaking it in. The grind happened at about 2500 rpm with the clutch out all the way and me shifting at a normal speed.

 

i also get a grind going into 2nd on my 2005 G35 coupe

 

I am on my 3rd transmission. I had the 2nd gear grind on both of them.

This third one has been grind free so far........*knock on wood*

 

Well I didn't mean to sound insensitive so I apologize about that. As far as the tire feathering I already had that fixed ... the problem was simply that the tow was off. Get it alligned early to avoid the problem alltogether. Bad tow = very loud roar esp when braking. Not rotating the tires only amplifies the problem so that makes it even more important.

 

I apologize too... I am a bit on the edge about my transmission...

I have never had so many problems with a car before...

 

The Z car has always had tranny problems, i owned 2 300zx's back in the early 90's and man did the tranny grind, had them replaced a few times. Guess nissan never learns, i'd hate to think about the tranny problems when the car is out of warranty, pretty expensive maintenance.

 

I've got the '05 and I have no grinding but 2nd is annoyingly clunky. It's not smooth shifting at any RPM and slows the whole process down as it goes ca-klunk into gear. You don't hear, you feel it.

 

Just out of curiosity, has anyone noticed this problem on the AT models?

 

Got my new tranny last week (first swop). Is there a optimal break in proceedure on these?

 

I believe this is an operator induced ID-10-T error. I have a 2004.5 Base Z, and I do not encounter any of these problems with my car. I do find that going from 1st to 2nd seems to be different than between other gears, shifting 1st to 2nd it seems like you have to wait a bit longer for the rpms to match then shifting from say 2-3, 3-4, etc. I don't slam the car into gear, powershit, etc., I shift precisely and take my time.

Anyway, I'm not convinced the problem is a design defect in the transmission... I think it is folks outdriving the capabilities of the transmission/synchros. I don't mean this as a slam against those with the problem who truly believe its a design problem, but I'm saying I haven't seen any data to prove that it is.

Has anyone gathered any actual data that proves it is a design defect in the transmission and not operator error / misuse / abuse?

 

Problem with the AT models? Your are joking...right.

 

No, as I don't know very much about cars in general or this particular defect in particular. However, thank you very much for your polite, insightful, gramatically correct response.

 

I checked the ID-10-T and it looks more like it's a URA-DM-AZ issue.

 

I just got my used 03 Z a few days ago and Ive experience some grinding from 1-2, and 2-3 I thought it was me, but I'm now pretty convinced its the tranny... i also noticed that it happens more commonly when im pushing the car to redline.

I have an 02 se-r spec v 6mt as well and that one never grinds... its notchy as all hell but no grind.

Im a bit worried about the tranny issue because my factory warranty is almost up. Some times it seems like I have to put the clutch to the floor to get it into gear, other times it seems like its harder to push the shifter into gear, and other times it almost seems like the gears are just slightly off and I have to used a somewhat sideways force to push it into gear... now im sure that all sounds much more serious than it feels to me considering ive only put a few hundred miles on this car at most....

but should I try to get a new tranny? is it even worth it? What did everyone else's tranny's feel like before they crapped out?

 

of course it's worth it. I am taking it in on Monday to have mine check out. not only it has grind problem (but not all the time), it also has this swooshing sound when upshifting from 2nd to 3rd.

I just hope they don't blame it on worn out clutch.. I have 47k miles..