I recently burned out the clutch in my 2005 350Z at 35,000 miles. Car has never been raced or even thrashed very hard. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed at this early failure and, of course, I was out of warranty. My local Nissan dealer wanted $2600 to replace the clutch which included a new $1150 flywheel. Thieves! After searching this and a couple of other Nissan forums, I found that others have also experienced premature clutch failures and Nissan has not come through.

The friction disc on the dual mass flywheel had been scarred by the rivets on the disk but only about .005”-.006” deep per my rough measurement. I spent a couple of days going around to machine shops only to discover no one could reface the friction plate. Nissan said it couldn’t be done and just wanted to sell me the new flywheel.

I know others have faced this same issue. $2600 for a clutch job and/or $1000+ for a new flywheel.

I am writing to report that I have found a guy in Minnesota who will reface your flywheel. The only reason no one else will do it is because the flywheel has to be disassembled to do the refacing. It is riveted together and nobody hot rivets anymore. Once the flywheel is disassembled, refacing the plate is a completely straightforward job.

I sent my flywheel to Alex Westling at Westling Machine in Milaca, Minnesota (near Minneapolis). He disassembled, refaced and had the flywheel back to me in less than a week. It looked like a new flywheel! I have it back in the car and things seem to be working fine. There is a question as to how long it will last, but my suspicion is that it will last at least as long as the first one. I will update this thread from time to time to report ongoing results.

But, the savings is hundreds of dollars. I’ll leave it to everybody to set their own deal with Alex but I can tell you that I saved about $2000 over taking it to the dealer by doing the job myself and having the flywheel refurbished. I replaced bushing, throw out bearing, clutch disk and pressure plate new from Nissan.

Now, doing a clutch job in your garage is not for the faint at heart. But it requires only basic tools and help from someone to get the trans remounted. Bottom line, it is really just a straight up clutch replacement about like any other car. If you’re so inclined and able, you can save yourself a ton of cash. I thought everyone might appreciate the info as an alternative.

You can reach Alex Westling at 612-390-5601 or alex@westlingmachine.com or check his website at www.westlingmachine.com . I’m pleased to respond to questions at admin@shoptalkforums.com.

Best of luck,

shoptalk

 

save yourself the time and money and buy a stage 2/3 clutch and light flywheel. ur gonna have to eventually when you got BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST.

 

Before and after photos of your flywheel would add interest.