What makes you so sure you floated a valve?

 

Well, I guess since I cant see inside my engine I can't really say for sure.

Considering what happened and the extreme lack of power that resulted, lets call it an educated guess. What else do you think it could be?

 

You have my sincerest condolences about the loss of your Z. I love my 350 and I would be on the edge of tears if something happened to it. Don't beat yourself up too much, an honest mistake, just dont repeat it.

I have not misshifted in my Z but I have grinded the gears a couple of times... It's picky about having the clutch 100% down (I'm used to toyos soft clutches). A Ferrari style polished shifter cover would be a badass idea though. I'm going to goto my local custom shop and ask if they can do it. If ANYONE gets any info at all on an Ferrari style gated shifter then please PM me or post.

Examples:

 

LOL I guess the jokes on you now... The porsche guy is probably laughing at you now

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=92076

 

Thanks Reavtek, I was seriously on the edge of tears. Then anger. But now after reading some of these jokers comments, I can't help but laugh about it now, theres nothing I can do about it. I really like the idea of that picture. Hopefully something like that could be fabricated for the Z. I'm definitely going to look into it once I get everything straightend out.

LoL @ wicked. along with the s2000... sl500.... two lt1 z28s... and quite a few other cars. Good job on being constructive! I'm surprised you didn't grab one of my posts where I was helping beginners learn how to shift correctly. It would have been a lot funnier....lol oh well. I'd still take my wimpy Z over that POS porsche he was driving.

 

I really hope lame posts don't continue to pop up. I don't understand why people feel the need to be so childish and vexatious. Being schadenfreude speaks volumes about ones character. I think people who like to laugh or joke at others misfortunes are extremely insecure individuals. I'm perfectly aware that I am not perfect, and I am content with that. Let's be adults here, shall we?

 

Kind of reaching here, but are you running R/T cats by any chance?

Sounds like you car is running on a collapsed cat!

 

I downshifted into 2nd from 5th by accident. Luckily it was at about 45 mph, but I hit the rev limiter and the wheels were squealing since the drivertrain speed was slower than the wheels were turning. Never have I done that again...

 

I believe I have the latest transmission - the one where they have to replace the clutch pedal too. I had mine replaced for the infamous 3rd gear grind.

When downshifting to 2nd (while turning a corner for example), my transmission will give significant resistance. A 1-2 shift is smooth but a 3-2 or 4-2 downshift requires much more force. The faster the speed, the higher the resistance. I think this may be a built in safety feature just like it is impossible to shift into 1st at anything beyond crawling speeds.

 

Noooooooo, your Z grinds because a bad trans. I used to think I wasn't pushing the clutch in 100% either. But it got worse. I'm on my 3rd transmission and will not accept a grinding gear. Keep that in mind, it might be the trans

 

eazy: I have a suggestion.......Learn to shift, jacka$$!

JK

Don't worry, the dealership should take care of it. A female racer friend of mine did it to her '01 3 series BMW. BMWs store engine data electronically & can be viewed by their techs. Because of this, they didn't want to cover the damage at first but ended up covering it.

So, I would agree, definitely play dumb & take it to your dealer!

Keep us posted on what happens & good luck!!!

MS

P.S. Hopefully that never happens to me, although I did downshift to 3rd once going just shy of 80mph ( ), which got me pretty damn close to the redline.......

 

don't admit it, even after they come back to you. act like you did nothing and it just happened one day.

 

When I was buying my car the finance guy tried to get me to buy the extended waranty. He said his son broke a gear racing his Sentra at the track and it wasn't covered because he didn't get the gold plus extended warranty crap. He said if his son had gotten the warranty that would have been covered. I still didn't buy it but maybe yours will actually come in handy. Maybe they will cover it with your extended warranty, like cell phone companies that cover you throwing your phone into a wall and then droping it in a pool if you buy there extended warranty. Just a thought.

I don't have any tranny problems, I think. I drove a 240sx which is notorious for having a syncro problem so this car is really smooth to me, just feels very mechanical, but it was designed to be like that. I guess if you all have toyotas or hondas before this car it would seem rough. Now that I think about it all 3 of my nissans haven't had smooth trannys like other manufactureres.

 

I also agree with the people who say don't admit it.... DO NOT ADMIT YOU WERE RACING (or driving hard, whatever). Unless they are extremely forgiving, they wouldn't even think about covering something abuse related... I agree that you should act completely ignorant of it, including ignorant of your knowledge of engines. I'm guessing you're an adult, so just act like you baby this thing to death and you would never drive it like a kid.

Also, as for the telephone pole?? I'm guessing you were joking... but... I wouldn’t go that route... after you subtract the deductible, the amount of depreciation they would subtract, and the possibility that your insurance could go up, I'd just pay for it if you can't get the dealer to do it... but, I would really argue very hard with the dealer, b/c there is no way to prove that you did that... (Did I also mention the inssurance thing would probably also be considered insurance fraud?? )

Of course someone did bring up the idea that the ECU could record the data so the dealer would deny coverage... But from reading about the data logging ECUs do in multiple magazines and on the net, most of them seem to work by recording the last X seconds of data, and usually it only gets written (EEPROM or similar) if the airbag goes off or something like that. Also, I found a site that lists cars that have ECUs that do data logging like this, and the Z is not listed... neither is any Nissan for that mater... but that's not to say it doesn't. I also read, that the data from the ECU alone can't be used to convict someone (as in court), it can only be used to corroborate what investigators, witnesses, etc. have already said (and the article below mentions a warrant is required to get the data). Also, many places I've read (in addition to the article below) says it's in the airbag controller, not the ECU. This article also mentions the airbag controller, and points out a case where someone said they were going 100km/h when they hit a car (in which, two people died), but the airbag controller recorded that 5 seconds before impact, the car was doing 184km/h (114mph). here is the article...

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30802/article.html

 

I've done the same thing man. Once. I went from high rpm 3rd gear to 2nd. The tires chriped and I went for the clutch but it was too late. I haven't done it again (durr i suck da driving!), but I still think about it and wonder if possibly something could be wrong with my engine. I figure I'll just take it easy untill I can build up another engine. What really pisses me off is that I can get locked out of 2nd gear when shifting from 1st, but it goes in smooth from 3rd (at high rpm). Yes, I LOVE my transmission... Oh well, its taken me a while to get used to it, but I dont grind 3rd all that often anymore, and if I just drive it like a granny I don't get locked out of 2nd. I spoke with my dealer about replacing the transmission, but they just gave me the run around and said it was probably just the way I drive. Even after explaining that lots of other people have had their transmissions replaced and Nissan is on its 9384792384 revision they still wouldn't do anything for me. Oh well, nothing I can do I guess.

Good luck with getting your engine fixed, I dont know what i would do if something happened to mine. I'm having a hard enough time just paying for the car. But its worth it ya know.

 

You might as well try playing dumb, but it may not work.

they might start out saying "ok, we'll check it out". But when they open up the engine and find the same failure in multiples cylinders (possible) they will conclude that it was not a defective part.

If a single lifter or valve spring fails, it was a bad part. If a bunch go at the same time they will know the parts weren't the problem.

The warranty is for defects in material and workmanship.

But hey, you can give it a shot.

 

well if your going to lie to them you might as really stack the crap up. tell them you felt a hesitation when throttleing, so you mashed the gas hoping to get past the hesitation, there was a big hesitation surge followed by a large/loud backfire(but sound ignorant & call it a "bang sound" not a backfire). you then imediately noticed the car feeling sluggish & brought it to them immediately........sounds crazy yeah, but your lying to them anyways. whether its a little fib or one large lie, its still a lie, all for the reason to potentially get your car fixed under warrenty. im just saying if your going to lie then really lay into it to show there is/was a problem that happened due to the car running bad......i know its evil but im only trying to help.....best of luck!

-justin

 

Hey eazy, about that comment you made concerning driving the car like it should be driven (and not like a caddy). WATCH OUT! Mitsubishi won't cover any sort of malfunctions if they see you car has been to the track (hopefuly Nissan is better than this).

Their was a BIG deal over at the evolution forums because of this. Some guy's 4th or 5th gear syncro were messed up, and since he went to the drag strip they wouldn't cover (even though he clearly stated he never reached the higher gears at the track).

 

Very sorry to hear about your mishap.

Anyone who says they have never missed a shift has never driven a manual.

Only thing I can suggest is .. a short shifter -- especially the Rogue. It has made for more precise shifting and gear engagement, in my opinion. The slop of the stock shifter has been eliminated.

 

Hah! Funny. It is precisely with rogue shifter that I have miss-shifted from 3rd to 2nd. Never happened to me with stock shifter. Entering gears with Rogue shifter is very hard in my case, I have to push. In fact, it limits me in how fast I can shift. Because I have to push, it is easier to push into wrong (read: too low a) gear.