OK now before anyone starts telling me how to drive a clutch. I started driving when I was 9 with my Dad's 63 panel van (3 one the column). That was 40 years ago. Had at least 2 dozen cars (not to mention 18 years in the towing business) driving clutches. Then add in another 16~18 'automatics' along the way.

Noticed a couple of months ago that I was smelling the clutch from time to time. (Both with VDC on and ESPECIALLY with it off.) But then again, why not drive with it off sometimes when you're wanting to have some fun.

Anyhow... I digress.

Today I went to meet my daughter at college to take her and her friend out for Shushi. Had to make a quick turn around in a bad part of town in a 4-way intersection. Whipped it to the left, backed up to my right, dropped it in 1st and nailed it a bit to get outta' there. Now this was not revving to 6000 and dropping the clutch, more like mid 2800~3000 or so (VDC off) and wanting to not waste any time. Only me in the car (they were behind me and needing to turn around too). DARN FREAKING CAR revved to probably 5400~5600 AT LEAST and there was clutch in the air for 10 minutes. This got me to thinking about how many times I've smelt it over the last few months. (And yes I have plenty of tread on the rears.)

Now my "G" isn't quite a year old and only has 7600 miles on it. In fact, I've only let the car get wet, (once in the rain and twice with water while washing it) since I've had it. I keep this car mega clean. Hell, even take the wheels off, put it on jack stands and crawl around under it twice or more a year wiping down the underside. I'll even cover it in the garage if I'm not going to be driving it for more than a week. This is serious BS for a car that was meant to be a true 2+2 sports coupe to have a clutch slipping like this.

Anyone had any dealings with their local dealership with such a problem? How receptive was the dealer with such a problem?

Thanks for the input guys.

 

Common problem with this 6MT. Many, many threads discussing it.

 

https://g35driver.com/forums/showthr...=clutch+sticks

 

you should talk to your dealership about it ASAP. They will prob cover the clutch if you are under 12k miles & 1 year, but after that you'll be on your own.

I had my clutch replaced at 30k miles, but not due to wear. They were replacing the pres plate because it was squeeking and just charged me $100 part cost to replace the clutch since the labor was being done under warranty.

 

Maybe you shouldnt be dumping into first at 3 grand? Ever cross your mind? I've had my clutch stick once (and it stuck to the floor). Not a pleasnat experience but if you know your having a clutch problem, why aggrivate it like that?

 

A clutch should be able to handle this, especially on a rare occasion.

Would you make the same comment if he said that he had to do so to save his life? Would that qualify for him to drop the clutch at 3 grand?


Sheeesh.

Even with all of your up front disclaimers, 06copuedaddy, you still get a know-it-all!

 

I has similar problem when i first had my coupe driving gmt for thr first time. happened a few times but not anymore, check clutch spring or just get a new one.
good luck either way

 

A) It wasn't to save his life
B) Sure it can take it but if theres a known problem whats the point of risking it?

Sure you can bake the rear tires on our car all day long, but would you do that with metal showing on the tires? Not trying to be a know it all... but ffs common sense.

 

I never SAID I dumped the clutch at three grand. Try releasing the clutch at 1000 rpm and the car dies outright. You’ve gotta’ get it up to AT LEAST 1400 to get it moving, but better off at 1600~1800 even on level ground to get it moving as it should, then even driving easy you’re gonna’ do 3000+ (three grand) before you shift. I’ve got my rev light set at 4400 just to make sure the car doesn’t get driven hard. (Err like when the wife drives it and it starts flashing she’d instantly let off.) Remember peak power doesn't happen to well over 6000.

Actually, my wife is very good driving the car. She’s been driving clutches almost as long as I have. (I’m only a day older than her.) We met as teenagers in high school and used to drag race in the 70’s and 80’s. Nothing like rubber and nitro in the morning to get the ol’ blood going.

I’m all too familiar with the clutch falling to the floor. I’ve had it happen in several hydraulic clutch cars, and even a few with cable linkages and one that I’d put a car in that had z-bar linkage. (That clutch had 2800lbs at the top and 3300 at the bottom, and would launch like a rocket. No chance of an easy start with that clutch, it was stop, or GO! Even with a Ford 302 in 72 it would pull the wheels off the ground on a street car.) That car was .040 over, with 12.7:1 Speed Pro pistons and the heads were shaved another .030. The cam had a .612 lift and that puppy wouldn’t even considering idling below 1500 because it loped so wickedly. Switched to a single 850 double pumper from a 650 spread bore, then dual 4 bbls, but the 850 (over jetted and with large float bowls) worked better than what we’d tried before. The rear end was a 4:11 actually from under a 429 shaker hood Torino and it stuck out about a 1¼” on each end longer than the stock rear did. (The car was a Mercury Comet GT, had two of them, one slightly modded, the other never lost, even with that diamond rolled and tucked naugahyde. Had to kill a lot of little nauga’s to get those seats and door panels. Ahhh those were the days. NOT!

Back to my car.
Actually the G35 had the clutch fall to the floor back in the fall, before my neck surgery but only once. I’d been to the car was to blast the underside and give her a quick rinse before coming home to put it on jack stands, pull the wheels, and wipe it down from driveshaft to the roof. Coming out of the car wash the pedal went to the floor and STAYED there. YIKES! Didn’t seem to slip like it did the other day though, just felt like it lost hydraulic pressure.

Bottom line, is please don’t tell me I’m abusing my car by expecting it to take even a 1500~1800 granny style launch. Even if it was dumped at 2 grand or better that’s not where the real grunt in these motors are. These things should be able to withstand three grand launches every day, maybe not every time you launch, but on a daily basis it shouldn't be a problem.

I could expect it if I was doing drag starts at 4500 or better and hitting the rev limiter with every shift, but Jesus Christ… this is ridiculous when it can’t stand a little more than walking speed when dropping into 1st. I was sitting still in the middle of a 4-way stop, in a part of town that WAS NOT where you wanna' sit for long and expected the car to get the freak outta' there. Instead the clutch disc was the only thing spinning. And YES it should be capable of spinning the tires on demand.

To expound on that, 1st is by FAR the easiest on the tranny and clutch. Imagine pulling off in granny mode then getting to 2nd and hitting the revs for peak power to grab a 2nd, even a 3rd perhaps. That would keep these clutches smoking all the way down the street, from sun-up to sun-down. I can see it now, engine speed 97 MPH, ground speed, 31.

The intent here is Infiniti/Nissan builds a great car with this platform and engine package. Look at the racing world and all the aftermarket products just to see how big of a hit they’ve got on their hands. It doesn’t take anything more expensive from their end to put a REAL clutch in these cars. When you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of units, the lightest duty racing style clutchs and even perhaps a medium duty unit, wouldn’t cost them 10¢ / 20¢ over what they have in there now, plus keep the shops cleared out of thousands of premature clutch jobs which would save them millions in warranty clutch repairs, not to mention US, the customers that buy the product expecting it to hold up to what it was built to do.

If I have to put an aftermarket clutch in this car I will. (That’ll be another thread for sure.) But you can expect that I’ll pay cash for it, just like I did the car. I don’t do many impulse buys these days. I do my homework, round it down to usually 2 perhaps 3 that would fall in with what I want to do with the product, and then get the best cash deal I can manage. (Did my wifes Denali and my daughters G6 GTP the same way in the last year, and even splurged when we bought the house and picked up a 73"TV for the family room.) FWIW, my other two cars in the running when I bought the "G" was another Corvette (04 Z06 Lemans Edition because they only made 1900 of them), and ashamed as I am to admit it, I really considered either a clean late model 911S (or better) or a tricked out Boxter S (but don’t like ragtops), but do like the Cayman S and with some goodies it’d be a sweet ride I bet. Thing is… I’ve ALWAYS hated the snobbery that went with Porsche.

Could always do the new Audi A4 which is a verifiable SCREAMER, not to mention the A6 if you’ve got an extra house to mortgage to pay for it.

Hell, my wife is now giving the green light to the Vette, who-da-thunk-it! <LOL> But Ahhh the new units are 405hp (04Z06 did that) and the new Z06’s at over 500hp will surely cost me my Caddy and a LOT of friends to be made at the tire store.

 

Thanks good news to know dude. Even if they charge me the $100 bucks I'd be happy. Especially as my dealer gives G35 sedans at least as loaners.

Later,

T

 

Hey, just thought of something... maybe the ES250 has some sort of Superman clutch and we just need to borrow it for these G's.

End of the day... I've been driving clutches for 40 years. I think I know what one should take. Seriously though, with the torque and HP figures this engine makes NONE of us should have clutch problems... EVER!!! These things are not some sort of one of a kind, hand made, luxo-european mega dollar units. There are PLENTY of off the shelf clutch parts (flywheel, pressure plate, clutch disc and throwout bearing) that can withstand abuse after abuse after abuse.

Do we get into these things from time to time? SURE!!! But that's the reason for buying them. I can tell you one thing, if the dealer tells me that it's my driving style that caused this, then you can bet that I'll probably end up in something else. Just glad as H-E-doublescribble that I didn't do the headers, cats, and Stillen cat back system, along with the Motordyne plenum and spacer for Christmas. (That's what my daughter was trying to get my wife to buy me.) Did I mention that I like REALLY love my daughter... she's a "car girl" for sure, even as a college freshman. Can't wait till she gets that law degree and can afford her Jag and getting ol' Dad a paddle shift hot rod.

 

Well... as a followup...

Took the car in yesterday and they had it diagnosed as the clutch master cylinder before I could even get back home. By the time I did get my running around done and had JUST walked in the door the dealership called and said it was ready.

Decided to head back over there (about an hour's drive) and pick it up as we were expecting sleet/freezing rain last night in Atlanta. Did a couple of tests on the street outside the dealership. Yeahhhhhh that beans a hard launch with the VDC on and a couple ones with it off, (which resulted in a bit of smoke and major laying down of rubber).

Then my daughter and I fought traffic to get back home, in the middle of rush hour, which meant that it'd take 2 hours or more to get home. About half way home I realized I'd left my garage door opener and my handicapped pass in the G35 loaner. SHI!%, turn around and hustle back before they leave. When pulling in this time I noticed I was smelling just a slight hint of clutch, but nothing like before, not even close. Couldn't smell it at all till I opened the door.

We'll keep a close eye er. nose, er, foot on it and post if it gets worse. DARN IT, I was prepared for a JWT or a CompetitionClutch setup.

 

Will you be my father? you or darth vader... trying to decide who would be cooler.

 

Listen to the foooorce Luke...

What can I say... I'm a car junkie! Well, actually audio/video is my first choice. Gotta' have surround sound, and the biggest freaking TV you can fit in the house! I had surround sound before it was called that. It used to be called "quad". When Dolby Surround first came out I was tickled pink. Then finally 5.1 (and up to 7.1 & 9.1 with some processors) and the age of the killer sub was born. Right now I have three subs in my main room, two with 1200 watt amps, (peak 4500), one with a 250 watt amp. Then another 2000 watts for the other 5 speakers. Designed and installed more home theaters than I can remember.

These days though it's more of a stay at home thing. Don't mind being a kept man.

 

A friend of mine started having sex at 14 and he never had a complaint. Then he finally slept with a woman that had been with another man and he found he was doing it wrong all those years.

Moral of the story is it doesn't matter how long you've been doing something, for all you know you've been doing it wrong all along.

Before you say it, the guy wasn't me. Also I've got almost 50k on my stock clutch and the last year it's been handling close to 500hp.