I did a search on this issue and found that several people have this problem, including me. One fellow thinks it could be the starter pinion gear not disengaging soon enough after startup. This sounds logical to me.

My question is has anyone ever had the dealer find and fix this problem or are you just living with it?

 

Suscribing to this thread as the grinding noise is bugging me and the 3yr is almost up. Need to decide if it's a problem or not.

 

I called the service advisor at my local dealer. They said all they could do was to have me bring in the car, leave it, and see if it makes the grinding noise. I'm going to do this in a few days. I'll let the forum know what the results are.

 

Did you have a chance to bring it to the dealer for this problem ?
I dropped off mine today and mentioned this as well. I'll find out tonight and see if they were able to replicate it. I basically needs to be cold, so maybe at the end of the day it will do it.

 

 

This Z my second VQ35DE powered car. The cold start rattle is the timing chain not being lubricated at start up. It sounds horrible, but it's completely normal. If you go to Maxima.org you can look up the detailed explanation as to the noise, but that's what it is.

 

interesting, ive had the same problem on mine since i bought it, just never got around to bringing it in... seems to get better with time though...

 

So this isnt a problem that will cause any damage correct? I've had this cold start issue since i bought the car, its definitely not a good sound to hear.

 

yeah i have the same problem it sucks,... usually when i shift into 3rd gear it will make the nasty noice its horrible. thou after a few seconds it stops... so hmmm anyone know what may cause this problem??

 

Bringing this back from the dead but.... I just recently read this and I have the exact same problem. The sound only occurs with the clutch depressed on cold start ups...after 2 minutes with the engine warm, the noise disappears. Have any of you found out what was wrong??? Please let me know.

 

BUMP

 

man i have same problem!!!
anybody got how to fix??

 

hey minewas doing the grinding noise two in the morning ... i took it to glendale nissan in c.a they told me some bull shyt that i knew couldn't even been true they said its grinding because it s an tranversal motor meaning front drive .. i starting laughing like hell in the dealer ship and told then they dont know their own car number the 350z is rear wheel drive number 2 they said if i drve any longer being that is an transversal motor it the flywheel going to ripp through the tranny i said bull shyt .. but get this .. they charge me 110 to look at it at the dealer i took it to an local shop this is when i wanted to do the clutch upgrade to see if the grinding noise will stop then it did for a good three month but came back and this tim i kinda know what it is the throwout bearing isnt relasting when demand and it still grabbing cuzing the rrrrrgrind noise.. and dued that did my clutch for me he did the job right but replaced it back with my old throw out bearing and took my new one so .. so he lubed the bearing up during the stage 2 clutch swapp and kept the new and reused the old .. i found all this out about my bearing because we have many z specailist out here and the guy that didt my cluch said my master and clutch master cylinder have an external leak and thats why it grinds .. the speacailsit didnt even charge me to look into this grinding noise he said who ever did the cluch swapp reused the old bearing lucky msa was kind enought to give me another throw out bearing so i could move on from this matter but now it seems like the tranny wann start grinding in to 3rd and 4th im thinkig the syncros may be off but its an we site /forums im on and they said 2003 and im not sure but i think2003 -04.5 has transsmission recalled on they 100,000 mile ow why didnt nissan do this when i took it in for the tranny to be looked at ???? i dont know but i have the reciept for it and i know they have it in their computers so this means that im going to get that recall done .. that was before i even reached 100,000 miles so i was like at 80 something thousand then and i think that recalled was like 2 or 3 month after i dont took it to nissan.... but check ur throwout bearing

 

ok....seems like it could be a number of things...i did go to a dealership i use to sell nissans at... i went to my good friend whos a service advisor and i had to talk to him about it....i have 03 z 6sp MT with 45k on it...he says when the clutch is bein pushed in lets say goin into 3rd gear thats the problem gear i have....its the clutch slipping..although they can never really tell unless they take it apart....cold starts not cleanly into gear not goin n reverse cleanly all points to the clutch but its possible the tranny might have somthn to do with it...save some money just in case there parts not under the warranty (clutch) so migth as well do it at once so when u get it back greater chance of bein 100%

 

the grind goin into the 3rd brief noise then in gear...alllll points to the clutch