Well, I have mentioned before that the car has a bit of gear whine, but now I have a worse transmission related problem. Under light load as I shift into 3rd and 4th, there is a very noticeable grinding sound. It's not extremely loud, but you can definitely hear it. It goes on for about 3-4 seconds and then disappears. If I drive just slightly more aggressive, I don't seem to notice. My wife had no trouble hearing it as well. I wonder what the hell it is???

The synchros in general are loud on this car. If I downshift without blipping the throttle you can hear their distinctive whine as they speed up the tranny.

Anyone else with the 6mt care to comment? I am taking my car into the dealer tomorrow. I will have the service writer ride along with me to show him what I am talking about. I am so worried now because with this being a new car, if it does need something, it might take forever to get the damn parts!! ARRRGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

raceboy,

I have a 6MT, but slightly different problem. From the time I drove the car home, I got some intermittent background metal rattling noise in the back of the car. When I upshift from 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th and the rpm drop to around 2000, the rattling noise get louder as the vibration frequency change. Haven't detect the same when I upshift from 4th to 5th or 5th to 6th. All these rattling noise occured intermittently.

 

Damn....well the only thing I have noticed is that when I shift into Third from Second at a low RPM like 2.5K or lower it doesn't slide in to easily, and it feels like I don't depress the clutch enough. But when I press down on the gas, and rev is hard, the shifting is simple, talk about the car wanting to race!!!! Well, don't take this the wrong way, but I hope that it's an isolated problem.

 

Preface: Im not trying to be snide, distrustful, accusing, etc. I really mean this sincerely and seriously:

Did you follow the break-in guidelines? Be honest!
If you did and this problem is common for others as well, we could have a serious defect on our hands. As a former NSX owner I remember well the infamous snap-ring failure that caused many of the first 2 years models to need new transmission cases.

 

This is a tranny problem, not an engine problem. I have a break in procedure that I have described in detail in other threads. I have used that procedure in every other car I have had and I have never had a major problem. Hopefully this is nothing more than low tranny fluid.

I am pretty sure this is an all new gearbox from Nissan, not used in any other current application. Can anyone confirm if that is true or not?

 

don think there was ANY 6spd.

 

Raceboy -

This is a dumb question, but is this your first RWD car? I only ask is because you can hear more layshaft speed up/down because the transmission is almost right beside you in the car. In my Z32, when you shift into a gear that is over 1500 RPM difference to what you are currently in, you can hear the syncros speed up the layshaft.

If the sound is worse than this, then yeah, I'd be worried about my new Z having problems. I couldn't imagine Nissan screwing up this early in the game though.

 

No, not my first RWD car, but besides my 97 5 speed Nissan Truck, it is my first front engined RWD car.

Also, this grinding noise just started today. I am pretty mechanically sensitive and if had been doing this before, I would have noticed.

 

The tranny needs to break in as well. It could be that the tolerances on the tranny gears need to loosen up. It could be that the fine metal shavings are working themselves loose as the tranny begins to break in. If you drop your tranny oil you will notice metal shavings on the magnetic plug. That is what I am talking about.

You can try switching to synthetic tranny fluid such as NEO RHD 75W-90. Great stuff, but pretty expensive @ $80/gallon. This oil makes gear engagement smoother than ever. I use it on my street car and like it a lot. On my race car I use Redline HD shockproof gear oil.

Or this could be one of those first year bugs that most cars have. You bought a first year car and these bugs should be expected. nissan will work them out when the 2004s come out. That is just the nature of buying a first year car model. Hopefully that is not it.

 

Man! You guys are driving me crazy. I'm still waiting on my Z and growing more impatient everyday. But I have to say...after reading about all of the possible defects with the car, I'm starting to worry. I've heard negative things about the Bose System, orange peel, limited rear visibility, shifter vibration, defective fuel lid, headlight housing fogging up, bad switch location for heated seats, nav lid, whining sound from mt, I think someone mentioned something about their visor rattling?, etc, etc. I really want this car, I've wanted a Z when they were close to 50K. But, back then it was out of reach. Now that I'm older and wiser and make a pretty good salary, I can now have one. I just hope I'm making the right choice. I initially was going to buy an S2000. That was until I found out about the 2003 Z. I'm really starting to have second thoughts. Should I wait? Should I get something else? I really don't want to but were talking about a $36K. It may not be much to some, but Its a big investment for me. Just my 2 cents. I hope you don't mind.

 

I've noticed the 3-4 shift is a bit rough too. The solution: rev matching.

I noticed that most times when I was shifting to 4th, it was after I had used the first 3 gears to get up to speed. So I am no longer accelerating in 4th, I'm just using it for cruising. As a result sometimes I would let the revs drop too much and the shift would be rough. Keep the revs matched exactly (it's hard because of the low engine speed sometimes, but you can use the feel of the gear shift to know when you're close) and the shift will be a lot smoother.

If you are having trouble matching the revs, shift a little slower or rev it a little higher than you need to. That seems to result in a smooth shift on this transmission.

I think it would also help if the exhaust were louder and then you could more easily match the revs by ear, instead of having to rely on throttle position.

 

Granted I'm not perfrect at rev matching when going up the gears,

my question is: is it normal to hear a "click" when droppping releasing the clutch without completely rev matching in going from 1 to 2 or 3 to 4 for example?

It sounds like a simple metal on metal contact and nothing bad (I should rev match ALL the time I know). But the thing is, when I do the same thing on my friends 6 cyl Eclipse (ex: going from 2 to 3rd without blipping the rpm enough) , I hear no such click when release the clutch completely.

RaymanZ


Also, when is good , or is it good, to chenge the transmission fluid after 1000 miles?

 

A grinding noise in relation to a transmission function is never good. Good idea to do the ride along, but you should actually take the technician with you and make sure you get one of the guys who has been there for awhile, some of those younger guys may not serve you as well as you need. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

I'll keep you guys posted. The grinding noise starts as you push the gear lever into 3rd or 4th and then continues even after the clutch is fully engaged for 3-4 seconds.

 

I don't have that problem... However, I have noticed that my clutch seems to be going out already.. And no, i haven't worn it out at all, my starts are nearly perfect (I can get the car going at its friction point without going above idle within a 1/2 second) but for some reason it feels like the clutch friction point that used to be about several inches long is now only about 1/2 inch long, like the clutch has almost turned into an on/off switch. The gearbox whine is kind of loud, but I sort of like it, sounds like a Ferrari's engine.

 

This is troubling. Especially since this will be my primary car, I need some level of reliability. Do you think that the problem you are expriencing is due to heavy wear on the transmission (like racing)? For all our sakes, I hope the problem/noise goes away...

 

DaChoZn1
Dont worry....the car is great....we are being picky. and anything new is gonna have buggs on some cars.

Day 1 delievery and no whine or grinding...everythings OK ...knock on wood.

got 300 miles on it in one day....HEE HEE

bose fine for factory system....there is some issues, nav lid alittle flimsey but fine.... blah blah blah.....fine fine fine.

But like I said before, Raceboy has had his car alot longer....so i hope its just the short brakin period that is causing the prob.

*If not, they dont say bumper to bumper warrenty for nothing

 

Yes, it is a new unit. Details about the synchro design are described in the Lust then Love book. Double cone synchros are used on 1st & 2nd, single cone on the other gears. Keep us posted.

 

Yes, it is an all-new gearbox.

However, did it not debut in the Nissan Stagea (based on the same platform) before being installed in the Z? Or was the Stagea only available with an auto transmission until now?

Anyways, this gearbox will be going into the upcoming GTR, so it should be able to take a crapload of torque.

Too bad about the problems.