I posted this earlier but was advised to change the title......I have an 08 350 Nismo that I bought brand new which now has about 16,000 miles on and has been through a pretty bad accident less than 4 months ago. When I was driving home on SAT my clutch pedal kept sticking about halfway and after getting home I wasn't able to put it into any gear. The next day my car was able to shift just fine but shortly after leaving my place the clutch went out completely. I don't know if this matters at all but my car was able to shift into every gear just fine, it just wasn't moving at all and when I tried releasing the clutch (while in gear) it wouldn't kill my car and just stayed idling. Of course the dealer blamed it on user error and said it's not covered under the warranty. The problem is I've been driving stick for about 10 years now and have never needed a new clutch so I've never experienced this even though I ran my last 2 cars way harder than this one. Unless I can prove it's accident related or somehow a manufacturer defect I'll be stuck with a pretty nice bill because they said flywheel may need to be replaced. Any advice would help and greatly appreciated. Read more at https://my350z.com/forum/engine-and-...ml#post8686699

 

Sounds exactly like what my clutch did with the faulty slave cylinder. If you are outside of the recall vin's, your car should still be under the 3yr/30k bumper to bumper warranty (unless the accident nullifies that). A clutch going out will generally mean the clutch no longer bites but the pedal acts normal. The slave cylinder will cause you pedal to lose pressure.

I'd go to a different dealer if I were you. There are two dealerships within 20 minutes of my house, one is a PITA while the other bends over backwards to help.

 

"User error" means you wore the friction material off the clutch disc and overheated/scored/ruined the flywheel in the process.

Even if that was the case, the clutch pedal should still work just fine. All it needs is for the diaphragm spring in the pressure plate to push the throwout bearing against the slave cylinder piston, which pushes the fluid up to the master cylinder to push the pedal up. Wearing all the friction material off the disc won't keep that part from working.

I suppose it's remotely possible that you could ride the clutch so much in one session that it cooks the temper out of the diaphragm spring. If that happened, it would be terminal. The clutch wouldn't magically start working (even briefly) after it cooled off.

The poor design of the CSC lets the piston get cocked in the cylinder, and that's where it stops. Cooling off eases the interference, and it works again. It gets easier and easier for the piston to get out of position once it starts doing it.


Man, I love that automatic. I was in a 2007 350Z the other day, and the owner insisted that I run it through the gears near full throttle. Nobody on the planet can shift quicker than that AT. I don't know why you guys put up with all that MT and clutch crap.

 

Because the only automatic I've ever owned was terrible and constantly had problems. I'm sure that isn't the case with all auto's, but it turned me off of automatics for good.

 

M/t ftw!!

 

Your sort of right about that automatics shift faster than a manual, but look at Alberto on this forum. He shifts really fast and knows how to do it right. Just my observation.

 

yup, scanned the email, stopped reading past halfway... thats a slave and master cyl issue, not the pad etc. usually.

 

80 percent certain this is the problem.

 

99,000 miles on my '03 and clutch is still fine - I know some with 130,000+ in the same situation.

 

I had 85k on my 2003 before I changed the clutch and flywheel myself earlier this year.

 

Cuz if you drive an automatic you're automatically not balling. (lol saw it on a youtube vid)

 

It probably shouldn't but it does amaze me that a dealer would be so quick to mis-diagnose a problem like this. To even the most shade tree of mechanics it is quickly obvious that it is a problem with the clutch hydraulic system and not the clutch unit itself or the flywheel.

 

sounds like the CSC to me. time to upgrade

 

Adam95090, was your problem happening at high rpm?