I tried this mod today and it took about 20mins. Most of the time was spent figuring out which way to turn that stupid bolt. Its imperative that you remove that foot rest though, to give yourself more room to work.

I turned my rod one (1.0) full clockwise turn. This is PERFECT. The clutch engages much lower now, and take-offs are MUCH MUCH smoother. A friend of mine has a VW R32 with a low engaging clutch and I was envious on how easy his car was to drive. Now my G is just as smooth and I'm not cramping my left leg.

Awesome mod!

 

Ive had this mod for over 2 years and have had 0 problems with the clutch.

1 turn is not enough. Try 2-3 turns, you will like it much better. Also, if you turn it 3 turns, make sure you adjust the cruise control sensor.

Just follow the steps provided on the original post.

 

OK. I think I will try 2 turns. I like it with 1 turn, but its just teasing me!

 

Any advice on getting the nut out? It's so hard to get a wrench in their and when I do I have about 1/8 of an inch to move the wrench. I feel like Im gonna break something when I try and loosen the nut....Will I? Or should I spray some WD40 and then try and loosen it? What a pain...

Also which way do you turn the ***? Left or right?

 

I just did this on mine and did a quick test spin... wow. this mod feels amazing!!!
its a definite night and day different and its awesome.

I turned it about 1.25 turns so it is still a bit above my brake pedal. I love difference and I would rather be on the safer side.

^I didnt take the nut off. You just wedge your open ended 12mm wrench around the nut and loosen it a bit. It is a bit of a pain getting the wrench on because of the small space but just keep trying. I also pushed the clutch in a tiny bit while tightening the rod, it made it a lot easier.

nice mod!

 

wow, someone shoulda told me it was hard for 6'2" 197lbs guy to get in there. My shoulders are so broad that it was a very tight squeeze.

 

will this mod help me?

my clutch is fully engaged when the pedal is pressed in 2 inches. is super stiff and hard to drive in stop and go traffic.

 

Wow. I just did this and my clutch feels so much better and very enjoyable to drive. 1.25 turns for me. Could go slightly more

Do you mean disengaged? Clutch pedal pushed in disengages the clutch. This adjustment will decrease the distance the pedal moves.

 

just did this tonight. I did 1.25 turn and noticed a little difference. Idk though its hard to tell, it may just be in my head:/. I could afford to go a little more i guess.

 

I did this mod and and I noticed when I took my foot off the gas my g slows down much faster, like more resistance. Also feels harder to gas up. It's def not as smooth as before. I tried to return it to the factory setting but seems like I lost count of the reverlutions bc I actually hit the limit.

Could it be something else? Does anyone know how to return it to factory setting?

 

Just did this to my G. Did somewhere around two turns, honestly just adjusted it a few times and kept taking it down the road to test until I got it where I wanted it. Car is just so much better now.

 

Just completed this mod, super simple maybe 10 mins overall. I went a turn and a half and do feel the night and day difference without any compromise in performance or use. I do how like some some have stated in this post have the lag in the pedal where if I let it out slow it hangs a little then pops up after a few seconds. If I dump the clutch or am shifting through gears it pops all the way up fine. I have read through this thread a few times but did anyone ever find a cause or fix for that? Someone talked about lubing the spring, but not sure if that was for the same issue. Thanks

 

If you're on this post, its probably because you're annoyed by the G35/G37 clutch action, specifically the high engagement point and rocky shifting especially from 1-3 gears. I've tried both of the popular methods for dealing with this and wanted to share my results.

Background: I bought an '08 G37 S 6MT, coming off a Boxster with a new clutch which obviously is already going to leave me with some grumblings over the shifting. I test drove the G37 and loved the power and handling, and assumed that the jerky shifting was just me being unfamiliar with it.

After a few days, I wasn't much better at the shifting, and started digging thru the forums looking for info.

There are basically two mods which people have performed: lowering (effectively) the engagement point by adjusting a rod which lowers the pedal, or adding a block below the clutch which raises the 'floor' of the clutch action, thereby decreasing the engagement length. I've tried both the approaches with pros and cons.

First I lowered the engagement point on the clutch using the directions here:

https://g35driver.com/forums/engine-...ent-point.html

This mod is built into the design of the pedal - its an adjustable rod, meant to be adjusted, and doesn't cause any issues with clutch wear unless you are able to turn it down so low that the clutch doesn't completely disengage. I don't believe its possible with the newer G37s to get it down that far - the rod wouldn't thread lower than about 3 rotations, which left it still above the engagement point. I found that 2 complete rotations of the rod was about right for me, but its such a quick adjustment (<5 minutes once you've done it a couple times), that its worth trying a few different spots to see what you like. Don't forget to mark the rod with a marker before you start so that you can keep track of the revolutions.

This adjustment improved the shifting greatly, and had the advantage of lowering the pedal to a similar height as the brake pedal (though still slightly higher), which felt more intuitive. At two rotations, I did not need to adjust the cruise control, it still worked fine.

I was also interested in trying out the nickel penny trick, or the DIY version of the D-wolf kit, as described here:

http://my350z.com/forum/engine-drive...lutch-kit.html

Basically what this mod does is a) puts a stopper below the pedal so that it doesn't go down as far, and b) adds a similar shorter stopper which presses the clutch interlock switch (which is what allows your car to start).

After reversing the changes to the adjustment rod back to factory setting, I tried this first using the materials shown in the post, but then switched to nickels because it allowed me to vary the length of the stopper. I found that about 4 nickels felt pretty good - anything longer than that was just too short a travel for my tastes.

I drove it like this for about a week, and it does make driving the car very easy, however I ended up going back to the first mod for a couple of reasons:

a) the clutch action was too binary - it was either on or off, and I felt like I was missing some of the fun of driving a stick - I wanted more play in the action
b) the tactical response of the stopper never felt quite right - possibly due to the tape - it just felt a bit 'off' to me, even after a week
c) I was worried that at some point, the stack that was engaging the interlock switch would fall off, meaning the car wouldn't be able to start. That would be ok if it happened to me, but I didn't want to have that phone call with the wife if she was driving it ("uh yeah, look for a stack of nickels taped to a plate behind the clutch pedal…)
d) associated jankiness in general of taped solution just bothered me

So I went back to two turns of the adjustment rod, and felt pretty good about it. The only part of the clutch action that I didn't quite like was how far you have to go down when you're in first gear - the base seems very far away. moving between other gears doesn't matter as much - you can shift when the pedal is only halfway down, which is why the second mod works (its just moving the base up closer to the engagement point, which you can mimic by shifting with the pedal not depressed all the way).

So I took an Australian dollar coin (which is slightly thicker than a nickel and about as wide as a quarter), and taped it in place on the clutch stop. The distance of the coin plus the tape is just enough to increase the base to where it feels comfortable to me, and the advantage of this approach with my car anyway was that I didn't have to adjust anything with the interlock switch - the change wasn't enough to require a separate stack to engage the switch. That means if the coin every does fall off the clutch stop, there's no particular repercussions.

I've been driving it this way for a couple weeks now (essentially a hybrid of the two mods), and love the clutch now. It feels perfect to me.

Some other related thoughts:
a) the hardest shift seems to be between 1st and 2nd. I've found (after reading somewhere in the forums) that it doesn't seem to really like shifting between 2000 and 3000 rpms. So I generally will perform a quick shift at around 2k rpms, and that misses the jerky lurch. If I'm in more of a hurry, I'll wait to over 3000 rpms. Anything in between makes it a challenge to feather the accelerator & clutch to avoid a lurch - possible, but you really have to concentrate.
b) as mentioned earlier, no need to depress the clutch all the way to the bottom for shifting between gears - halfway is fine, you'll figure it out after driving it for a while
c) rev-matching is crucial on this car, it wasn't something I had to think a lot about in the boxster but down-shifting in this car requires a ton of rev matching practice, at least in my experience.

Sorry for the novel, but hopefully this information is helpful for other new G37 owners trying to decide how to deal with the cranky clutch...

 

I called my local dealership and asked him about adjusting the clutch pedal. He simply told me since it was a hydraulic system, the pedal cannot be adjusted. He said my clutch was probably worn out. My clutch still feels strong and doesn't slip. It just engages VERY high...
I don't know if I should believe him.
I've tried to adjust the pedal myself. The rod on the master cylinder doesn't seem to want to turn even with the nut loosened. any ideas/feedback?

 

I just did this and im very confused. while i was doing i completely lost count of how many times i rotated it then i tried bring it back to stock and now i have no idea at what point the clutch is. I just got a brand new clutch and im worried i might wear it out, how do i figure this out or how do i put it back to stock. Or should i just bring it to the dealer?? PLz help