Hi guys, I just traded my 5at G35 for a 6mt 350Z!! I love the car, but am having the same "tranny and clutch" rattling that I have read about in these forums. It seems that a lot of guys with the 03 manual tranny cars have had the tranny replaced......does anybody know a dealership in the Orange County area that would be likely to fix this problem without giving me a whole lot of hassle.

By the way, my Z is Le Mans Sunset with the bright orange guts in it, and I already LOVE IT!!

 

Try 2 ....whats up with this server.....Original message should have read

Hi guys, I just traded my 5at G35 for a 6mt 350Z!! I love the car, but am having the same "tranny and clutch" rattling that I have read about in these forums. It seems that a lot of guys with the 03 manual tranny cars have had the tranny replaced......does anybody know a dealership in the Orange County area that would be likely to fix this problem without giving me a whole lot of hassle.

By the way, my Z is Le Mans Sunset with the bright orange guts in it, and I already LOVE IT!!

 

Welcome aboard Risk. Those tranny noises are normal and won't go away with a new one. You should only be worried if you start grinding gears

 

Really!! Hmmm....let me try to elaborate, I know that a lot of guys have a input shaft type of grind while the car is stationary with the clutch fully out. I have that too, but my real concern is that it sounds like Im dragging a box of rocks behind me in the first couple of gears (I get a good sound reflection going into my complex which has garage buildings on either side). Other than that, the car shifts well and feels solid. Is this normal, or is it something I should have a dealer check out?? Do you know of any dealers who are more likely to work with me?? Sorry for picking your brain, I really do appreciate the help. Thanks

 

Hey all, welcome risk, my bowling partner on Sunday nights! He traded his G35 in on a Lemans tourning, good choise I might add, and is a hell of a bowler!

 

I was talking to the parts guy at tustin and he said that they are pretty easy going about doing service work.

 

Thanks Jung, Im glad to hear that. I work in Santa Ana and was thinking about taking it to Tustin first to see if they would work with me on it. I figured if that fell through then I would make the drive to the guys at Performance Nissan.

Hey Zman, thanks for the intro, see ya next week!!

 

Risk, you gotta come out to the next Z bowling meet. We need someone to balance out Jon's scores! We can compare tranny sounds too.

 

Yeah, that sounds like fun....Im sure Jon will let me know when itll be. Im probably going to take my car to Tustin Nissan tomorrow, Ill let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for the info.

 

No problem Risk, just let me know how it goes becuase when the winter comes i might get mine replaced.

 

Ok.....so im still haggling over the deal for the Z so I havnt taken it to Tustin yet. The good thing is that the car is getting cheaper for me!! It looks like the deal is going to be for $27,300 and its a Touring model with only 8k miles on it. Not bad compared to what Ive seen. Anyway, there is one more thing I have to do with Connell Nissan (who Im begining not to like) before I take it to Tustin for the Clutch/tranny thing. Ill keep you guys posted.

 

Am I understanding correcting that you traded your car in for a used 03? If that is the case, then I would suspect the prior owner put in a lightweight flywheel and thats why you have gravel sound. Does it sounds like a cement mixer, typically from 800-1,500 rpm and goes away beyond those rpms? Is the sound predominantly noticable at idle? If you depress the clutch, does the rattling sound go away? If your answer is yes to these questions, then you have an after market lightweight flywheel in your car. That is not a bad thing.

 

The answer is yes to a couple of those questions.....it does sound like a cement mixer, but the sound continues well past the rpm range that you specified. The sound is the most prominent in the first two gears and extends to nearly 4000 rpms. I agree that its a good thing to have a lightweight flywheel, but not if it makes my car sound like a gardener truck..lol

 

I would ask for the maintenance logs and confirm whether a lightweight flywheel was installed or if the transmission was ever replaced. If so, you can use that to negotiate the price further. Additionally, if a flywheel was installed and you don't like the sound, insist that they return the Z to stock flywheel before sale.

Whatever the case, that sound is not normal for a stock Z. Good luck.

 

I just picked up my car from Connell Nissan and just as I expected they said "we had three guys drive the car and didnt hear anything." I even took one of them for a ride in it down an alley and said "see, that noise, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW"?? And he said "well, it has a lot of warranty left (true) so if it starts getting worse, then bring it back.......grrrrr....I wanted to choke him out. Oh well (sigh) Im going to bring it to Tustin tomorrow and tell them the whole story.