Limewax

I will keep my story brief:

Purchased used manual 2004 base model in 2005 with 8,000 miles. Purchased Nissan Preferred Preowned Plan at time of the sale. 0 issues with transmission before this. On Oct 31st coming home from dinner, a drunk driver pulled out in front of me forcing me to slam on my brakes and clutch to avoid the accident... after avoiding the accident, tried to get back in gear and could not. Luckily I broke down right in front of a Nissan dealership/repair center (for the sake of keeping things organized, lets call this ND#2). I live less than a quarter of a mile away from a Nissan dealership/repair center (ND#1). Per my road side assistance plan, I had the car towed from ND#2 to ND#1.

ND#1's evaluation is that the entire transmission needed to be replaced which is covered under the 60,000 mile powertrain warranty. Also needed to be replaced are the clutch and flywheel in ordinance with the new transmission. ND#1 at this point in time claims that the only out of pocket expense will be for the clutch and flywheel (since they are wear items) and they will be replaced with Nismo product line. This work was approved and performed.

All is fine and well, I arrive to pick up my car... on the drive home at low RPMs you can hear a distinct metal on metal type sound that rivals a semi truck engine. Its a loud drone that vibrates the car its so intense.

THE STEALERSHIP CLAIMS THAT THIS CAR IS, AT THIS POINT, READY TO GO. (what a ****ing joke)

Immediately I had my roommate (who has over 10 years of tuning experience and currently is working on a BMW M3) take a look underneath the sideskirt to see if I could generate the rattle again in an idle stance... the noise appears to be coming from underneath the passenger's seat. Rattle does not take place if the clutch is not engaged, so I could not simulate it with him outside of the car. We go for a test drive, and that is when I determine that between 1.5k and 3k RPMs is when I can make this drone happen at any gear higher than 1st. While underneath the car, my roommate noticed that the gaskets that were connected to the pipe that connects the manifold to the exhaust were removed and then replaced back with the old, used gaskets... that being said, they no longer have their seal (aka: the point of the gasket)

We immediately drove back up to the stealership ND#1 to inform them of the noise. Two technicians drove the car off of the lot for their own test drive. At this point they said that there is no noise and they do not understand what I am hearing. I offered to drive, myself, a technician in my car to simulate the problem again. The concurred and provided me with a technician #3.

Before entering the car, my roommate asks technician #3 why the gaskets were not replaced after they had been removed from the pipe that connects the exhaust to the manifolds... technician #3 states that "you dont need to replace those gaskets every time"...

Technician #3 gets in to my car, who I learn was the technician that actually installed the transmission, and he begins to harass me about if I was racing my car or not. Specifically he stated to me "cmon man, you can tell me, were you racing it? I took that flywheel off of there and it was so chewed up, it was red hot man, were you racing it?? you can tell me its okay!" With technician #3 in the car, I was able to generate the noise again to which technician #3 claims it was a "normal sound." During this same test drive, the check engine light comes on (which had never been on before).

Car was left at the stealership ND#1 overnight for further evaluation the following morning. I am notified to come pick the car up as it is "ready" once again.

Test driving car again, this time with my roommate in the car, the problem presents itself again but this time its louder and still generates in the same fashion (shifting in to a rev @ 1.5-3k RPM).

Stealership ND#1 provides me with a 4th test drive technician to listen to this problem (this is a different technician than the 1st time I did a test drive with technician #3, so 4th technician to -knowingly- test drive my car). I was able to properly simulate the rattle again... immediately technician #4 was shocked and stated that something was definitely wrong and that it "didn't sound right".

ND#1 goes for a further evaluation at which point they tell me that the rear cross member (which is part of the unibody) was bent most likely due to an accident before hand where I would have ran over something and that this is generating the rattle from when the exhaust pipe is clanging up against the bent metal in the back. ND#1 goes on to say that the only thing that can be done at this point is to take the car in to a body shop and have the rear cross member bent back in to the proper position.

Seriously. What. The. Hell. are they thinking at this point??

So I needed to go for a second opinion... I went back to the original stealership at ND#2 right where my car broke down. I had to pay $50 out of pocket to have them examine why my car is making the rattling noise.

Their first instinct is that they do not recognize the part number that was sold to me from ND#1 for the flywheel assembly kit (the actual flywheel). ND#1 claimed to have placed in "the best Nismo clutch and flywheel, from Nismo" (word of mouth from the assistant service manager). ND#2 is stating that the part number that was provided to them was something that they had never seen, and ND#2 states that the clutch that is currently in my transmission is a 'single disc clutch when it needs to have a dual disc'. ND#2 also states that the so-called bend in the unibody on the rear cross member is nothing more than a cosmetic scratch and that there is no way possible that a noise is being generated from the rear. ND#2 confirms that a noise is coming from the transmission. ND#2 said that I need to go back to ND#1, speak to the service manager and have them reevaluate the car with ND#2's evaluation in hand.

Back to ND#1. On the drive back, I am starting to notice that my throws to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear are getting progressively harder to get in to.

Speaking with the service manager, he states that they only order Nismo parts through a vendor catalog that they have ordered parts from on numerous occasions beforehand. He even showed me the catalog and the part numbers to prove that it is the same one that is shown on my receipt. At this point, the service manager @ ND#1 believes that the flywheel is possibly defective but he will not know until he calls the hotline Nissan tech repair. They will give me a call after they hear from the tech repair hotline.

So this is where we stand.... ND#1 states that the car is drivable and that I should only put the miles on my car that are absolutely necessary to this point.



Heres the video of the noise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGvj4ZvqS3E

chrisjersey06

iTrader: (35)

Call Nissan USA and tell them your situation. They will do almost ANYTHING to make you happy. Sorry to hear about your misfortune, I hope it gets fixed soon.

ZSpeedPerformance

iTrader: (71)

If they put a Nismo flywheel in it it is normal for them to rattle in the trans as they do in any 350Z with a lightweight flywheel. I cannot hear anything in the video.

freedonutss

iTrader: (14)

I may be mistaken but... that sounds like flywheel chatter to me. When you install a lighter flywheel it causes your transmission to chatter. Search it up. You'll find plenty of threads about it

SuperBlack350z

iTrader: (59)

that is normal for a lighten flywheel.

i have a jwt flywheel and does the same thing but yours seem to vibrate harder at a higher rpm. mine usually only does that below 2rpm besides the first gear. first gear never has any vibrations.

djamps

iTrader: (1)

The chatter/rattle is normal for a lightened flywheel. Since going with a single mass flywheel mine sounds like a mack truck under 2.5krpm.

Limewax

I understand that I may get some rattle with the new flywheel, being lighter... but is there any way a dealer install mishap could have made this sound even louder than it needs to be?

I have personally never had a different flywheel in there other than the stock flywheel, and I just feel like this is a little bit much in terms of the noise thats being generated.

Limewax

Update:

This morning the dealership #1 called and they want me to bring the car back in so that they can hook up some chassis ears to determine where this noise is coming from.

Nissan of America just called me back (that was fast... less than 1 hr) and after hearing my story, the adviser over the phone said that it sounds like I have a double-wheel clutch kit installed for a single-wheel flywheel. He also said that I should just leave my car in my driveway for now and not to bring it in to the dealership until they (Nissan of America) call me back on Friday with further information.

NOA is most likely going to reimburse me the $50 for the 2nd evaluation I had to get from ND#2, and they are investigating the parts from ND#1 to see if the flywheel was actually defective in which case the replacement would be reimbursed as well.

What. A. Nightmare...


The parts on my receipt that ND#1 claims to have installed are:
30210-RSZ30US
30100-RS252US
12310-RSZ30US

Listed here on page 4: http://www.nissanusa.com/pdf/microsi...ar_catalog.pdf