Hey guys..

i have an 08 350z and lately ive been having trouble getting into gear on a cold start. it feels like the clutch is not fully disengaging.

with the clutch fully depressed going into first, i have to jam the gear in, no grinding noise or anything but the car jerks forward when i do this. same goes for reverse. its tough to get in gear but I CAN still get it into gear.

again this only happens on cold starts and this issue clears up after driving for about 5-10 mins. is this a sign of any issues coming up? slave cylinder? or something with the throwout bearing? has anyone experienced this?

background: as far as i know, i have an oem clutch installed. bought the car how it is about 3k miles ago. ***also, important to say, I have done the DIY clutch pedal adjustment to lower the engagement point. i didnt go to extreme, i lowered it by about 2 turns.. ive been driving like this for a couple months and am just experienced the stated problem. i have not tried adjusting it back a bit yet to see if that works..


thanks for any input guys..

 

I believe this is a common issue when cold no worries

 

It hasn't gotten that cold in SoCal the past few weeks. Change out the tranny fluid, the previous owner may have used a heavier oil.

 

I'm from Canada and dd my z thru the winter.
I don't even move my car without warming to operating temp for this and a few other reasons. Even once engine is warm it takes a little driving for the transmission to warm up and finally loosen up a bit.

Completely normal imo I think it's just thick fluid flowing and cold synchros. As long as there is no grinding.

I notice this most when trying to get into first say when coming to a stop sign and your still rolling slightly. I will have to rev match even if it's only a few hundred rpm to get it to fall in gear without any persuasion.

+1 on the oil swap too. Never know how old it is or what the previous owner used. I would do this just to check it off on the maintenance list.

 

I live in Huntington Beach, it's slightly cooler here than Anaheim, close to where the OP lives. It hasn't gotten that cold lately and my tranny works great in the morning when I leave at 6:30AM. When it did dip down into the 40s in December my car didn't have the same issues as the OP.

 

yeah it hasnt been too cold in anaheim, but i refer to a cold start as in i havent driven the z for a couple days haha i know thats a completely different story for you guys up in canada lol

i was planning to swap out all the fluids in the car soon anyway so ill give that a shot and see what happens.

thanks for the input!

 

Ahh yes that is a bit different. I assumed u meant temp but I see where u are now I hope it doesn't get this cold down there lol.

GL OP hopefully new fluids solve the issue.

 

It will do the same thing, the trans just does not like to be cold.

 

Just an update. i havent changed the trans oil or adjusted the clutch pedal back but i started the car today after 2 days of no driving and it really didnt want to go into gear AT ALL. after about 10 mins i was able to jam it into reverse and managed to get it into first after that.

the car is rolling forward more now when in first. its getting worse now. next time i try to drive the car, i definitely wont be able to go into gear.

so should i just rule out changing the fluid? what else could be causing this issue. have had the car for about 6 months and it never did this until recently.