I heard from one of my friends who has a G35 Coupe that all the 350z and G35's are being recalled soon to change the transmissions because of this "unpleasant noise. while shifting" which one of the major brand magazines posted. Nissan is still working on the prototype transmission, some people say that the new gear ratio will be better and more smoother shifts. I just wanted to know if one of you guys have heard that, or have had trouble with the nissan 350z transmission, let me know. thanx.

 

You know people post grinding between second and third, but mine is just awesome. I race it and never had any grind at all. Maybe because I know exactly when to shift or what, but i have never had any problems, even when shifting whitout the clutch.

 

this might be a case of some partial truths and not. I think that some of the early Zs were harder to shift, experienced more noise and didn't engauge into gear as well. I think these are fixed on a case by case basis. NOT a total recall

 

Mine is acting up again. This time I am gonna wait until I get a lightweight flywheel and new clutch and then get them to change it. Hopefully there is a redesigned unit on the way.

 

transmissins were updated after 10/9 build date.......
In our racecar we have been rebuilding 3/4 syncros after each race.
On our newer style gearbox, we ran at Phoenix and Barber Motorsports Park we only have a grind in second.
There is a lot of wear on the 5/6 shift fork also and third gear itself.

 

My car was built in November of last year and my third gear is fine, but I definitely have a touchy second gear synchro. It shifts very hard (almost grinding) after a cold start and then the shifts are either like butter after the oil is warm or pretty notchy. There seems to be no pattern to the few notchy shifts I get even when the gear oil warms up. Also, its not that easy to downshift into second unless I rev-match.

I also have pretty distinctive rattling/chatter from what I'm pretty sure is the clutch throw-out bearing. There's a pretty loud rattle when engaging the clutch slowly from a start. I assume that's the bearing rattling louder, but I hope its not something worse. I've had cars with loud clutch throw-out bearings before, but who knows...

 

I sure hope they are at least addressing this on a case by case basis. Second gear in my Z is just crap! It grinds for a split second every time I shift no matter how perfect I do it until it gets warmed up. Once it's warmed up, it still grinds, but not quite as often. Not only that, but the whole transmission is really noisy. I've compared it to cars that cost about 15,000 less than my car and they don't make a peep!

R

 

My new replacement trans is being ordered now. The Nissan clevis pin replacement fix; didn't.

I posted this question in early January and I got many replies. It seems that about 10% of the manual trans cars have some sort of problem in hard shift / grind department when the oil is cold. This is the first time I heard of a running production change to the trans, from what Dwnshift reports.

It's interesting that the dealer's service managers, writers and techs are so "in the dark" about these issues. Or is Nissan hiding from their own screw-up?

 

Is there any truth to this "recall"? I have problem with my second gear, it's hard to get in, and it would grind if I speed shift. All other gears are fine.. The tranny is kind of noisy though..

Should I check with my service advisor to see if there's a fix for it? Mine is 165th built...so it's the first batch...

Using Redline now to help it out a little, but not much IMO.

 

hey HWJ, our cars are built pretty close together Yours is 161 and mine is 165... hehe...

 

Apexi350z:

Yeah, that's why I ordered sight unseen and hoped for the best. I felt it was a great chance to get in on the ground floor; order exactly what I wanted instead of what came in on the next ship into port.

I've only seen one person's who's got a lower VIN in one of the forum posts over the past 5 months. Not to say there haven't been others who may not want their VINs out for all to see.

The available cars at the dealer today are numbered like 10250 or so.

I'm kind of hoping that someday these will take off, like old Corvettes, where the VIN numbers match and the car as a whole is worth more than the sum of it's parts, so to speak. Time will tell.

Have fun........


PS: Until the trans is replaced, my 4 qts of RedLine trans lube/gear oil are sitting in the box waiting! Your post confirmed my fear of "wasting" the $ and gear oil in a trans that Nissan will take back and inspect.

 

Which major Brand magazine????

Give us more info!

 

HWJ,

I think I read a while ago that you bought your Z at Concordeville NIssan in PA. I also bought mine at Concordeville. I was in there about a month ago and they said they were ordering a clevis pin for myself and someone else that was having the pin installed. If you got your pin installed, can you give me details? What are your next steps? When did you get yours installed? I am waiting for my pin to come in.

Saccorator

 

Saccorator:

Pin was installed at Concordville about 10 days ago, the Wed. before the Memorial Day weekend. I didn't even get it out of the lot and was able to show the service tech to grind even while sitting still and not moving.

I was going to call them this morning to see what the status is of the new replacement transmission. Since the service writers weren't there, and I only saw the actual guy who did the pin replacement, I suspect that they may be waiting to see / hear from me before moving forward.

This is the Nissan directed way to get this done under warranty, so even though you'll have to tie up the car, for yet another day, the next step is the trans. replacement after the pin.

 

HWJ,
How was your service experience at Concordeville Nissan? So far, so good for me. Any more news on your car?
Thanks,
Saccorator

 

Service as been reasonably/generally good overall. Some lengthy delays about two months ago with personnel issues [shortage of techs] there. I wasn't very pleased at leaving the car for two weeks and getting almost nothing got done.

Sales dept is awesome! See Tom Taddei or Jasen Newell if you've got any problems or future purchases palnned. Our next adventure is the new Quest once it's out this fall. My wife loves the 2000 SE I got her and now it's time to turn it in. That should be a slick van once we see it in the flesh.

Talked to Rob in service this week and Trans. is on order now, just waiting for it to be delivered from NNA.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Henry