I have seen several posts now on trannies going bad, and after the initial surge in reports on this (back in the winter), seems like there is another wave (2nd generation) of trannies going bad. Sure enough, like others on this forum, I have had mine replaced in Feb. because of the infamous third gear grinding problem. Now its back and I'm probably going to need another new one.

SO, my question for any of you who have replaced your trannies multiple times: Is there any indication that Nissan has fixed the issue on new trannies now? Or are they still installing the same flawed design. I can't imagine they still are, because that would mean that even new ones sold today can have this problem; and my understanding was that this was mainly a problem on the preorders and 2002 Z's like mine. But then again, I have seen heard of crazier things. Personally, even if its a free warrenty job, I dont like the idea of having to go into the dealer every 6 months for a new tranny.

Any info on this matter would be greatly appreciated. I always like to be informed before going into the dealer.

RaymanZ

 

In my opinion I don't believe they have fixed the tranny problem. I had three different trannies installed before I bought another Z. Every time they replaced the tranny not once did they change the throw out bearing, clutch, or pressure plate. In my opinion the cause of the problem is the throw out bearing.

First, I believe this is true because the clutch pedal disengage and engage point always changed. Sometimes it seemed like the clutch was not fully disengaging the flywheel even though the clutch pedal was to the floor.

Second, the first transmission lasted a couple of thousand miles without any problems. Once the first one failed the other two trannies seemed to go bad a couple of days after being installed. That to me seems like what ever was causing the problem was still present even though they changed the tranny.

And finally once the tranny had the grind it would grind all the time if I tried to shift with the clutch. But if I did a clutchless shift by RPM matching it wouldn't grind. To me that indicates it may not be an internal problem with the tranny. Now it may also indicate the syncros are going bad but I somehow don't believe that.

 

That's really interesting, stx. Considering that a lot of clutches seem to make rattling noises (like bad throw-out bearings), I bet you might be onto something here...