OK.. I've got an '06 Z, a shade under 10k.... and I was at a red light on a two lane parkway, no cars around at all... and I figured I'd launch out of the light, took it to about 6500, 2nd gear to the same, switched to 3rd and then shut it down and continued at a 60mph cruise in 5th until the next light which wasn't very far away at all. No problems.

As the next light turned yellow, I depressed the clutch, put the gear in 1stn from neutral, and as it quickly changed to green I floored the gas and released the clutch status quo.... But the clutch stayed completely depressed and even though I let up on the gas, the rpm's continued to escalate, I let go of the gas altogether, the clutch was still down and the rpms continued upwards til about 7000k before coming back down. I brought the clutch up with the side of my foot and then the same sequence of events happened in 2nd gear.

I got the thing into 3rd and the clutch pedal finally started functioning and the rpms stabilized.... the car reeked though of I guess a burnt clutch. By this morning the smell had gone away and the car drove fine to work.



Any idea what the problem is?

I certainly DRIVE my Z but I care for it and I don't beat it. I have an oil change coming up so I figure I'll bring it in to nissan for them to take a look but I have never had a new car under warranty before and am not looking forward to them trying to find ways to charge me or not denying a problem exists.

 

Anybody?

 

Am I to understand you LAUNCHED at 6500RPM!!??? That is putting some SERIOUS strain on the clutch!!. The clutch got overheated and started glazing. I doubt any damage, but..........I wouldn't do that if I were you!!!

 

What RPM did you launch at? When you shifted, did you keep the gas depressed?
so the clutch is sticking? it could be your throw out bearing getting stuck....

 

No I didn't launch at 6500... I didn't rev the engine to any rpms for the "launch", as I wasn't racing or anything... I just hit the gas and let go of the clutch in the standard manner, but floored it so as to accelerate as quickly as possible... and then attempted my shift to 2nd at 6500, which from what I've read repeatedly on here should not strain the rev-up engine.

However, at the 2nd light, I immediately noticed that the clutch was "stuck" to the floor and despite releasing the gas, the acceleration continued til nearly redline, until I was able to lift the clutch, but the damn process repeated in 2nd and finally the clutch was responsive again in 3rd, the only lignering sign the smell of a burning clutch.

I'm by no means a car expert.. but for a car with 10k and no other problems with the clutch, this seems extremely odd.

 

Were your floormats possibly holding the thing down? That's happened to people.

 

I've had the same thing happen after launching from about 2500 RPM's. The consenus on this site was that the rubber clutch hose was flexing and not allowing fluid transfer...

I'm not sure if this is correct or not. Needless to say, with 5000 miles on the ODO and a sticking clutch pedal I was a bit disappointed. I haven't dropped the clutch since, so I don't know if it would continue to occur.

If you search you may find the posts that discuss this in more detail. Others have purchased a steel braided clutch line, you may want to contact someone who has installed and see if they run into the problem any longer. From what I know, this was a common occurence not specific to you and me.

 

That sux... It used to happen a lot on an '89 240sx I had w/ a 100k and eventually the calipers went and then 10k later the clutch... but that is to be expected. This was rare, and disappointing considering that it can be harmful to the car, dangerous for an inexperienced driver, this is the 4th model year of the vehicle and beyond that makes u look like a real idiot on the road or track LOL

 

I`ve had the same episode... kinda spooked the crap outta me when the clutch didn`t come back up. This happened about 5 weeks ago and I still have a smell of burnt toast. Won`t be doing that anymore