2007 350z Clutch Problem
10-13-2007, 10:25 AM
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2007 350z Clutch Problem
Hi All,
When I first purchased my 2007 350z I remember hearing a story on here of one gentleman who was accelerating onto the freeway where his clutch pedal would not come up; the owner was also a 2007 350z owner. He expressed that the clutch pedal felt soft while pressing on it and that it was during acceleration where he has to stick his foot underneath the clutch pedal for it to rise. I wish I could find that message on here (tried searching for it). When I read this months back I was
It turns out, that I'm having the same issue. Despite having treated my car well, it still has resulted in the same stuck clutch pedal problem.
Here's my issue and where I need some feedback or input as to how this should be best approached:
1) ISSUE: If I were at a stop light and wanted to accelerate quickly, I could NOT do it my relatively new 2007 350z. On my old BMW, I could rev the engine and just let out the clutch pedal where the clutch would stick and the tires would spin thrusting the car forward
. In my 350z, if I rev the engine and let out the clutch, the clutch doesn't stick. In fact, it seems that it just heats up, the RPM's continue to rise and the engaged clutch seems to stick less and less, where afterwards you start smelling the clutch (which isn't good) 
; this is with traction control disabled. I just can't, for the life of me, get my car to spin the rear tires (except for only a little bit). It's not the case that I just want to be an idiot and spin the tires, but it bothers me that as a sport car that I can't do it with my car 
. To me, it's a sign that something just doesn't seem normal.
2) Experience before doing something about it: It seems that stop and go traffic helps to heat up the internals of the car. After a bit of stop and go traffic and when I have open freeway, my clutch pedal remains near the floor board, and shifting becomes almost impossible (it's ridiculous)
. A few times I've been stuck in a gear because the clutch won't come out far enough for me to shift into the next gear where then I have to cruise off onto the shoulder of the freeway and sit for awhile. Of course, with a new car, that's where you are completely upset that you should haven't to experience this in a new car. When you are sitting on the shoulder of a freeway with your new car, that's when you find yourself pretty upset! 
3) Service: I took the car into Nissan to have this issue serviced. They replaced the master clutch cylinder (I believe it was called as it was bleeding; so they say). Though, this has fixed the problem, my clutch still feels soft. I still can't accelerate at a stop light worth anything if I wanted to. It just feels completely soft!
My concern is this....
That it's like I have a new car again (soft clutch) where it may lead me down the road to having clutch issues once more; perhaps the same exact issue which just got worse. Also, i'm worried how this has perhaps affected other parts near the clutch? Surly, I will eventually burn out the clutch this way if I smell clutch from time to time. I'm not simply confident the correct parts or even the true issue was addressed?
If I were to take my car to Nissan and say, "hey, I'm dissatisfied with the clutch still". They will probably get in the car, drive it around the block, and say "well, it drives fine"
. And you know, they would be right. The clutch does an "Ok" job for driving to point A to B (without stop and go traffic). How do I express my concern for how the clutch doesn't grab, say at a stop light? How do I express that I can't get the rear tires to spin because the clutch is too soft? Once, I was going to make a left turn, and I reved my engine, and let out the clutch, and the only thing that happened was the rev's started going higher, the car slowly crept forward, and afterwards I smelt clutch. I always have to wait for the clutch to engage, then give it gas.
So here are additional questions......
1) Is it normal for the clutches to be soft on the 2007 350'z?
2) Is it soft by design? If it is soft by design, then I suppose I have to accept the car for what it is. Or?
3) Can I get Nissan to do anything about this issue? I'm just so annoyed by it by now and now sure what to do if anything at all?
4) What things in the car can cause the clutch to be soft (not engaging well)? Could it be something that just needs to be adjusted or tightened?
My hands are up in the air and I'm not sure what to do or how best to approach this problem I'm having.
Otherwise, I truly love the car. If only I can get the power from the engine to my tires!
I look forward to feedback and thanks in advance! I've already spent 2 months dealing with this car problem, trying to address it, getting the car serviced, still not being happy with the results....etc
Jason
When I first purchased my 2007 350z I remember hearing a story on here of one gentleman who was accelerating onto the freeway where his clutch pedal would not come up; the owner was also a 2007 350z owner. He expressed that the clutch pedal felt soft while pressing on it and that it was during acceleration where he has to stick his foot underneath the clutch pedal for it to rise. I wish I could find that message on here (tried searching for it). When I read this months back I was
It turns out, that I'm having the same issue. Despite having treated my car well, it still has resulted in the same stuck clutch pedal problem.
Here's my issue and where I need some feedback or input as to how this should be best approached:
1) ISSUE: If I were at a stop light and wanted to accelerate quickly, I could NOT do it my relatively new 2007 350z. On my old BMW, I could rev the engine and just let out the clutch pedal where the clutch would stick and the tires would spin thrusting the car forward
. In my 350z, if I rev the engine and let out the clutch, the clutch doesn't stick. In fact, it seems that it just heats up, the RPM's continue to rise and the engaged clutch seems to stick less and less, where afterwards you start smelling the clutch (which isn't good) ; this is with traction control disabled. I just can't, for the life of me, get my car to spin the rear tires (except for only a little bit). It's not the case that I just want to be an idiot and spin the tires, but it bothers me that as a sport car that I can't do it with my car . To me, it's a sign that something just doesn't seem normal. 2) Experience before doing something about it: It seems that stop and go traffic helps to heat up the internals of the car. After a bit of stop and go traffic and when I have open freeway, my clutch pedal remains near the floor board, and shifting becomes almost impossible (it's ridiculous)
. A few times I've been stuck in a gear because the clutch won't come out far enough for me to shift into the next gear where then I have to cruise off onto the shoulder of the freeway and sit for awhile. Of course, with a new car, that's where you are completely upset that you should haven't to experience this in a new car. When you are sitting on the shoulder of a freeway with your new car, that's when you find yourself pretty upset! 3) Service: I took the car into Nissan to have this issue serviced. They replaced the master clutch cylinder (I believe it was called as it was bleeding; so they say). Though, this has fixed the problem, my clutch still feels soft. I still can't accelerate at a stop light worth anything if I wanted to. It just feels completely soft!
My concern is this....
That it's like I have a new car again (soft clutch) where it may lead me down the road to having clutch issues once more; perhaps the same exact issue which just got worse. Also, i'm worried how this has perhaps affected other parts near the clutch? Surly, I will eventually burn out the clutch this way if I smell clutch from time to time. I'm not simply confident the correct parts or even the true issue was addressed?
If I were to take my car to Nissan and say, "hey, I'm dissatisfied with the clutch still". They will probably get in the car, drive it around the block, and say "well, it drives fine"
. And you know, they would be right. The clutch does an "Ok" job for driving to point A to B (without stop and go traffic). How do I express my concern for how the clutch doesn't grab, say at a stop light? How do I express that I can't get the rear tires to spin because the clutch is too soft? Once, I was going to make a left turn, and I reved my engine, and let out the clutch, and the only thing that happened was the rev's started going higher, the car slowly crept forward, and afterwards I smelt clutch. I always have to wait for the clutch to engage, then give it gas. So here are additional questions......
1) Is it normal for the clutches to be soft on the 2007 350'z?
2) Is it soft by design? If it is soft by design, then I suppose I have to accept the car for what it is. Or?
3) Can I get Nissan to do anything about this issue? I'm just so annoyed by it by now and now sure what to do if anything at all?
4) What things in the car can cause the clutch to be soft (not engaging well)? Could it be something that just needs to be adjusted or tightened?
My hands are up in the air and I'm not sure what to do or how best to approach this problem I'm having.
Otherwise, I truly love the car. If only I can get the power from the engine to my tires!
I look forward to feedback and thanks in advance! I've already spent 2 months dealing with this car problem, trying to address it, getting the car serviced, still not being happy with the results....etc
Jason
Last edited by JasonCA; 10-13-2007 at 10:32 AM.
10-13-2007, 03:08 PM
#2
Originally Posted by JasonCA
Hi All,
When I first purchased my 2007 350z I remember hearing a story on here of one gentleman who was accelerating onto the freeway where his clutch pedal would not come up; the owner was also a 2007 350z owner. He expressed that the clutch pedal felt soft while pressing on it and that it was during acceleration where he has to stick his foot underneath the clutch pedal for it to rise. I wish I could find that message on here (tried searching for it). When I read this months back I was
It turns out, that I'm having the same issue. Despite having treated my car well, it still has resulted in the same stuck clutch pedal problem.
Here's my issue and where I need some feedback or input as to how this should be best approached:
1) ISSUE: If I were at a stop light and wanted to accelerate quickly, I could NOT do it my relatively new 2007 350z. On my old BMW, I could rev the engine and just let out the clutch pedal where the clutch would stick and the tires would spin thrusting the car forward. In my 350z, if I rev the engine and let out the clutch, the clutch doesn't stick. In fact, it seems that it just heats up, the RPM's continue to rise and the engaged clutch seems to stick less and less, where afterwards you start smelling the clutch (which isn't good) ; this is with traction control disabled. I just can't, for the life of me, get my car to spin the rear tires (except for only a little bit). It's not the case that I just want to be an idiot and spin the tires, but it bothers me that as a sport car that I can't do it with my car . To me, it's a sign that something just doesn't seem normal.
2) Experience before doing something about it: It seems that stop and go traffic helps to heat up the internals of the car. After a bit of stop and go traffic and when I have open freeway, my clutch pedal remains near the floor board, and shifting becomes almost impossible (it's ridiculous) . A few times I've been stuck in a gear because the clutch won't come out far enough for me to shift into the next gear where then I have to cruise off onto the shoulder of the freeway and sit for awhile. Of course, with a new car, that's where you are completely upset that you should haven't to experience this in a new car. When you are sitting on the shoulder of a freeway with your new car, that's when you find yourself pretty upset!
3) Service: I took the car into Nissan to have this issue serviced. They replaced the master clutch cylinder (I believe it was called as it was bleeding; so they say). Though, this has fixed the problem, my clutch still feels soft. I still can't accelerate at a stop light worth anything if I wanted to. It just feels completely soft!
My concern is this....
That it's like I have a new car again (soft clutch) where it may lead me down the road to having clutch issues once more; perhaps the same exact issue which just got worse. Also, i'm worried how this has perhaps affected other parts near the clutch? Surly, I will eventually burn out the clutch this way if I smell clutch from time to time. I'm not simply confident the correct parts or even the true issue was addressed?
If I were to take my car to Nissan and say, "hey, I'm dissatisfied with the clutch still". They will probably get in the car, drive it around the block, and say "well, it drives fine" . And you know, they would be right. The clutch does an "Ok" job for driving to point A to B (without stop and go traffic). How do I express my concern for how the clutch doesn't grab, say at a stop light? How do I express that I can't get the rear tires to spin because the clutch is too soft? Once, I was going to make a left turn, and I reved my engine, and let out the clutch, and the only thing that happened was the rev's started going higher, the car slowly crept forward, and afterwards I smelt clutch. I always have to wait for the clutch to engage, then give it gas.
So here are additional questions......
1) Is it normal for the clutches to be soft on the 2007 350'z?
2) Is it soft by design? If it is soft by design, then I suppose I have to accept the car for what it is. Or?
3) Can I get Nissan to do anything about this issue? I'm just so annoyed by it by now and now sure what to do if anything at all?
4) What things in the car can cause the clutch to be soft (not engaging well)? Could it be something that just needs to be adjusted or tightened?
My hands are up in the air and I'm not sure what to do or how best to approach this problem I'm having.
Otherwise, I truly love the car. If only I can get the power from the engine to my tires!
I look forward to feedback and thanks in advance! I've already spent 2 months dealing with this car problem, trying to address it, getting the car serviced, still not being happy with the results....etc
Jason
When I first purchased my 2007 350z I remember hearing a story on here of one gentleman who was accelerating onto the freeway where his clutch pedal would not come up; the owner was also a 2007 350z owner. He expressed that the clutch pedal felt soft while pressing on it and that it was during acceleration where he has to stick his foot underneath the clutch pedal for it to rise. I wish I could find that message on here (tried searching for it). When I read this months back I was
It turns out, that I'm having the same issue. Despite having treated my car well, it still has resulted in the same stuck clutch pedal problem.
Here's my issue and where I need some feedback or input as to how this should be best approached:
1) ISSUE: If I were at a stop light and wanted to accelerate quickly, I could NOT do it my relatively new 2007 350z. On my old BMW, I could rev the engine and just let out the clutch pedal where the clutch would stick and the tires would spin thrusting the car forward
. In my 350z, if I rev the engine and let out the clutch, the clutch doesn't stick. In fact, it seems that it just heats up, the RPM's continue to rise and the engaged clutch seems to stick less and less, where afterwards you start smelling the clutch (which isn't good) ; this is with traction control disabled. I just can't, for the life of me, get my car to spin the rear tires (except for only a little bit). It's not the case that I just want to be an idiot and spin the tires, but it bothers me that as a sport car that I can't do it with my car . To me, it's a sign that something just doesn't seem normal. 2) Experience before doing something about it: It seems that stop and go traffic helps to heat up the internals of the car. After a bit of stop and go traffic and when I have open freeway, my clutch pedal remains near the floor board, and shifting becomes almost impossible (it's ridiculous)
. A few times I've been stuck in a gear because the clutch won't come out far enough for me to shift into the next gear where then I have to cruise off onto the shoulder of the freeway and sit for awhile. Of course, with a new car, that's where you are completely upset that you should haven't to experience this in a new car. When you are sitting on the shoulder of a freeway with your new car, that's when you find yourself pretty upset! 3) Service: I took the car into Nissan to have this issue serviced. They replaced the master clutch cylinder (I believe it was called as it was bleeding; so they say). Though, this has fixed the problem, my clutch still feels soft. I still can't accelerate at a stop light worth anything if I wanted to. It just feels completely soft!
My concern is this....
That it's like I have a new car again (soft clutch) where it may lead me down the road to having clutch issues once more; perhaps the same exact issue which just got worse. Also, i'm worried how this has perhaps affected other parts near the clutch? Surly, I will eventually burn out the clutch this way if I smell clutch from time to time. I'm not simply confident the correct parts or even the true issue was addressed?
If I were to take my car to Nissan and say, "hey, I'm dissatisfied with the clutch still". They will probably get in the car, drive it around the block, and say "well, it drives fine"
. And you know, they would be right. The clutch does an "Ok" job for driving to point A to B (without stop and go traffic). How do I express my concern for how the clutch doesn't grab, say at a stop light? How do I express that I can't get the rear tires to spin because the clutch is too soft? Once, I was going to make a left turn, and I reved my engine, and let out the clutch, and the only thing that happened was the rev's started going higher, the car slowly crept forward, and afterwards I smelt clutch. I always have to wait for the clutch to engage, then give it gas. So here are additional questions......
1) Is it normal for the clutches to be soft on the 2007 350'z?
2) Is it soft by design? If it is soft by design, then I suppose I have to accept the car for what it is. Or?
3) Can I get Nissan to do anything about this issue? I'm just so annoyed by it by now and now sure what to do if anything at all?
4) What things in the car can cause the clutch to be soft (not engaging well)? Could it be something that just needs to be adjusted or tightened?
My hands are up in the air and I'm not sure what to do or how best to approach this problem I'm having.
Otherwise, I truly love the car. If only I can get the power from the engine to my tires!
I look forward to feedback and thanks in advance! I've already spent 2 months dealing with this car problem, trying to address it, getting the car serviced, still not being happy with the results....etc
Jason
i havent experienced anything like you have but the fact that the trans does weird things....+ the dealers telling us theres nothing wrong with it is disappointing.....hope you can straighten your problem out
10-14-2007, 08:29 AM
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I am approaching 10,000 miles on my 07' and have not had one single problem as of yet... Good luck, I think with every make, model, and year ever made there will be problems with some individual cars. Afterall these are made humans. No matter what you say each car is unique. Sometimes you just get unlucky.
10-14-2007, 11:56 PM
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I still haven't had any problems with mine either. The only time my clutch ever hits the floor is when I'm starting it up. No need to slam it to the floor for shifting, it engages about half way down. As for breaking traction... damn, it's hard for me not to.
10-15-2007, 04:35 AM
#5
Originally Posted by mcurry5
I am approaching 10,000 miles on my 07' and have not had one single problem as of yet... Good luck, I think with every make, model, and year ever made there will be problems with some individual cars. Afterall these are made humans. No matter what you say each car is unique. Sometimes you just get unlucky.
I have close to 2500 miles, and I autox monthly and launch 8 times each autox around 2-3k rpms with no problems. Still going strong. And I get on it here and there on the streets to feel the power of the HR.
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12-30-2015, 09:33 AM
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I have the same car and same issue myself. My friend who always works on cars and has many projects says it's the clutch and I'm at 100,000 miles. I bought the car with 93,000 so I'm assuming they didn't have the clutch replaced at the usual 90,000. I'm probably gunna replace the clutch and let you guys know
12-30-2015, 11:22 AM
#10
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It's going to be the slave and while your there do the clutch too
12-30-2015, 03:30 PM
#11
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I have the same car and same issue myself. My friend who always works on cars and has many projects says it's the clutch and I'm at 100,000 miles. I bought the car with 93,000 so I'm assuming they didn't have the clutch replaced at the usual 90,000. I'm probably gunna replace the clutch and let you guys know
Nissan did go back and "correct" the problem but turns out the new units weren't any better, lasting not much longer than the original.
When replacing the clutch assembly, replace the CSC (or vice versa, when changing the CSC, do the clutch at the same time) NOT with an OEM CSC. Use the acknowledged fix for the problem - the HD CSC made by Z Speed Performance (linked) and replace the clutch master at the same time (OEM or either of the Wilwood or Tilton units).
12-30-2015, 07:51 PM
#13
I have the same car and same issue myself. My friend who always works on cars and has many projects says it's the clutch and I'm at 100,000 miles. I bought the car with 93,000 so I'm assuming they didn't have the clutch replaced at the usual 90,000. I'm probably gunna replace the clutch and let you guys know
01-01-2016, 10:13 PM
#14
This sounds like the CSC TSB issue that plagues the 07-08's. I went with a Z1 Motorsports CSC elimination kit and have had no problems with clutch pedal drop etc. It does require over time some general checking to make sure the kit is within tolerances as the clutch wears it will get out of alignment, but a quick twist of a rod to get back into alignment so not a big deal. I haven't had to align it yet, but generally have it checked every oil change. I did have one problem with a small spring that broke on the kit from metal fatigue of some sort (I run a stage 5 southbend super single heavy duty clutch for FI), but Z1 quickly sent me a replacement part free of cost and I've had no problems with the spring since.
The other is the Zspeed master and slave cylinder upgrade kit (or at a minimum the slave) and I've only heard of a like 1 or 2 issues with those (an upgraded slave that went bad after the upgrade).
So those are at least 2 options. General consensus is if you go with an aftermarket clutch you best off upgrading to a ZSpeed or Z1 kit while your at it. IIRC with the heavier duty clutches cause problems with the OEM setup (IE breaking).
The other is the Zspeed master and slave cylinder upgrade kit (or at a minimum the slave) and I've only heard of a like 1 or 2 issues with those (an upgraded slave that went bad after the upgrade).
So those are at least 2 options. General consensus is if you go with an aftermarket clutch you best off upgrading to a ZSpeed or Z1 kit while your at it. IIRC with the heavier duty clutches cause problems with the OEM setup (IE breaking).
Last edited by Juztin; 01-01-2016 at 10:17 PM.
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