Clutch pedal sticking and burning complaints come here
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,002
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From: South Florida
This happened to my 05 coupe as well. It shifted normally and then it would stick halfway down and give me little play on the clutch. I would kick it back up and it would pop into place but still engage halfway down when shifting. Obviously, I would burn the clutch when this would happen until I got used the engagement point. It would randomly happen to where it would engage at its normal point and stick halfway down at random times. Needless to say, I would burn my clutch.
I took this issue up with Palm Beach Infiniti where they gave me the run-around for months. They replaced the clutch pedal itself after about 3 trips there for who knows what reason. Obviously it happened again since they just gave me a new shiny pedal. Made a couple more trips....yelled at a couple people... spoke with the director of the service dept... Finally, I had a tech who knew what he was doing check it out. He bled out the clutch and said if it wasnt that it was my pressure plate for sure. They placed the pressure plate in order and I requested them to check if the clutch was burnt, because if it was, I was going to hold them responsible for taking about 5 months on this issue alone!
I picked up my car to find out they installed a new pressure plate, throw out bearing and flywheel! After 5 months of yelling and persistance, they finally changed what I wanted and more. Keep in mind, I had all 4 service consultants and one tech ignore my calls, ignore me when I arrived, yell at me, judge me due to age, assume I had bad driving habits and blandly call me a liar. By far the worst service ever!
Anyway, the car feels great now. Shifts smooth and have tons of play with the clutch. If your under warranty, be persistant!
I took this issue up with Palm Beach Infiniti where they gave me the run-around for months. They replaced the clutch pedal itself after about 3 trips there for who knows what reason. Obviously it happened again since they just gave me a new shiny pedal. Made a couple more trips....yelled at a couple people... spoke with the director of the service dept... Finally, I had a tech who knew what he was doing check it out. He bled out the clutch and said if it wasnt that it was my pressure plate for sure. They placed the pressure plate in order and I requested them to check if the clutch was burnt, because if it was, I was going to hold them responsible for taking about 5 months on this issue alone!
I picked up my car to find out they installed a new pressure plate, throw out bearing and flywheel! After 5 months of yelling and persistance, they finally changed what I wanted and more. Keep in mind, I had all 4 service consultants and one tech ignore my calls, ignore me when I arrived, yell at me, judge me due to age, assume I had bad driving habits and blandly call me a liar. By far the worst service ever!
Anyway, the car feels great now. Shifts smooth and have tons of play with the clutch. If your under warranty, be persistant!
I had a new clutch put in around march2010 and was STILL getting problems a couple months later.
However since about july the clutch has been working great. I thought I smelt A little clutch burning when I got outta the car a few times, but after sticking my nose under the hood i couldn't smell anything.
I'm gonna check to see how my fluid is looking when i get the time some weekend soon.
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Joined: Feb 2010
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Well my clutch has only stuck on me once but lately I have been noticing taking off and going into second have seemed very "lax" to me. By that I mean its hard to feel the engagement point but it feels very high. Sometimes it shifts fine, others not. Every once in awhile also I smell something burning and I am not sure if its the clutch or not because I have no idea what that would smell like. People have told me it smells like burnt brakes, once again dont know what that smells like haha. Thanks to anyone who can help.
question, i just bought a used 6MT and the pedal was sticking the third time i drove it. i did smell something burning, but i thought it was the brakes. Does the clutch burning smell, smell similar to when you ride the brakes hard? If so, is my clutch toast or if i fix the sticking issue, can i still use the clutch?
Sorry for the ignorance right now as this car is new to me and i am just trying to figure it out
Sorry for the ignorance right now as this car is new to me and i am just trying to figure it out
if your pedal is sticking down you have air in your line it happened to me before i changed my clutch when it would get hot or i was using the clutch often. once i changed the clutch and was bleeding the system the pedal would not return you have to pump the **** out of them to get it to bleed properly i prolly went though half a bottle of dot4. since then i have not had the pedal promblem
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Joined: Jan 2011
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so lets say you just had the fluid bled, and lets assume that there's no air in the system still (just trying to move the problem further down the line). I see several people have replaced clutch cylinders. is there any consensus on which one to replace? master or slave? or do people normally just have both of them replaced? car is a 2004 with 85k miles, and dealership said they replaced clutch before they sold it to me. don't know what that entails, or if it was even more than a lie, but i'm assuming that just means internal clutch parts, not the cylinders, so i would bet that mine are original.
One interesting thing I noticed in comparing the "cl" section of the factory service manuals is that in 2006 there is no longer an "orifice" in the clutch tube. So instead of drilling out, it might be just as easy to get a replacement tube (the hard line) from an 06 G.
feels a lot better after i did this, but my pedal never stuck unless it was HOT weather and while driving which got pretty annoying, i wanted to change out ALL the fluid but it would be too much of a hassle...
GREAT instructions and it seems like a majority of the people who goes through the procedure has had great results
GREAT instructions and it seems like a majority of the people who goes through the procedure has had great results
I had this issue as soon as I bought my car used from a dealer 1.5-2 months ago. During the test drive the clutch was fine but after leaving the dealer once signing the papers the clutch was sticking. Houston heat and heavy shifting in rush hour was causing the pedal to stick upon return.
I changed the fluid at home like 5 times and never again (knock on wood) since then have I had the issues. I will change out the fluid 2 or 3 more times and keep doing it at least once a month. Good cheap and easy preventative maintenance that will keep your master and slave cylinder in good condition.
Along with that the same concept for Power steering applies. Now that is a change i feel everyday and well worth it. Power steering is much more smoother and takes less effort. Plus the fluid has 82k miles on it and was black dark nasty.
http://gshack.org/?p=272
I changed the fluid at home like 5 times and never again (knock on wood) since then have I had the issues. I will change out the fluid 2 or 3 more times and keep doing it at least once a month. Good cheap and easy preventative maintenance that will keep your master and slave cylinder in good condition.
Along with that the same concept for Power steering applies. Now that is a change i feel everyday and well worth it. Power steering is much more smoother and takes less effort. Plus the fluid has 82k miles on it and was black dark nasty.
http://gshack.org/?p=272
My 2006 is doing the same thing as described here. I did the fluid change as described link, even picked up same syringe from Walmart. Pedal still stuck a day later on a hot day. I'm going to try to bleed the clutch fluid next, because I'm not sure the fresh stuff is really cycling through.
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1
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2006 Sedan - 6MT. Love my car but have been frustrated with the clutch problem.
Finally found this forum, and a solution that worked...thanks to all the people who posted. I had the EXACT problem described above - pedal would stick halfway up after 35-40 minutes in stop & go on a hot day (any time the temp was over about 80 degrees). In fact, for a while I could remedy the problem by pumping the clutch hard and fast 3-4 times (while in neutral). Clutch would act fine another 10 minutes and then get soft again.
I replaced the reservoir fluid about 5 times in my garage, pumping the clutch in between each change just as the original post suggested. I noticed however that pumping the clutch didn't "mix" the reservoir fluid with fluid in the lines, necessarily. If you watch carefully, you see the dark fluid from the line below the reservoir rising in the clear fluid in the reservoir as soon as you add it. Anyway, after about 5 changes, it stayed clear, but a few days later it got pretty dark again - obviously there was a lot of bad fluid still in the lines.
I have been replacing the fluid every 2-3 days for the last 2 weeks since the original fluid change. Yesterday was the first hot day (in a while) - about 92 degrees. 60 minute stop and go drive home, no problems for the first time since I bought the car a year and a half ago. I couldn't be happier this problem is finally solved.
Finally found this forum, and a solution that worked...thanks to all the people who posted. I had the EXACT problem described above - pedal would stick halfway up after 35-40 minutes in stop & go on a hot day (any time the temp was over about 80 degrees). In fact, for a while I could remedy the problem by pumping the clutch hard and fast 3-4 times (while in neutral). Clutch would act fine another 10 minutes and then get soft again.
I replaced the reservoir fluid about 5 times in my garage, pumping the clutch in between each change just as the original post suggested. I noticed however that pumping the clutch didn't "mix" the reservoir fluid with fluid in the lines, necessarily. If you watch carefully, you see the dark fluid from the line below the reservoir rising in the clear fluid in the reservoir as soon as you add it. Anyway, after about 5 changes, it stayed clear, but a few days later it got pretty dark again - obviously there was a lot of bad fluid still in the lines.
I have been replacing the fluid every 2-3 days for the last 2 weeks since the original fluid change. Yesterday was the first hot day (in a while) - about 92 degrees. 60 minute stop and go drive home, no problems for the first time since I bought the car a year and a half ago. I couldn't be happier this problem is finally solved.