Yes the OEM pivotball breaks easily. Your transmission will either have a thin/lighter clutch arm (which came on the early g35 transmissions accompanied with a long pivotball) or your car will have the thicker/heavier clutch arm (that came on all later models accompanied by a short pivotball). You will either have one or the other. If I had pictures I would show you but I don't. Do some research and see if anyone downloaded some pics. If you ever drop your transmission for anything I highly suggest buying a steel pivotball and make sure you use high friction grease when assembling it back together.

 

thanks WINTERDEVILG35 for your info. I just got my car back today. I installed an OEM long pivot ball back in and it's working fine. so the computer gave me the wrong part. although my car is an 04, it needs the longer pivot ball. So NOT EVERY 2004 USES THE SHORT PIVOT BALL!!! 04 owner beware. If your car is early 04, then check and make sure you order the right part. Sometimes even you look up the part by your VIN, it still may give you the wrong part.

I didn't have time to order the steel pivot ball as my car was already up on the hoist the tranny was already out, so i needed to get the part as quickly as possible.

Anyways, good luck people!!

 

What's the build date of your 04 (driver's door panel)? Curious to know if this is yet another difference of the 04.5 (OBDII) version. I haven't had to replace the clutch but this is all good information to know.
Thanks.

 

....

 

The prodution date for my car is August, 2003.

 

Glad I helped.

 

Awesome. Today I got the news from the mechanic I had my G towed to that I was a victim of the pin snapping on my G. 2003 Coupe 6mt...

I'm not savvy regarding mechanical work at all... but the local mechanic is estimating around $3000 to remove the tranny, and replace a bunch of stuff so the problem is fixed and less likely to re occur...

I'm the second owner, and knew the original owner of the car. It was NEVER abused. I've got about 87k mileage on the car at this point, and it was serviced routinely at the nearest Infiniti dealer through 55k.

There is absolutely no way that I can possibly afford to fix this issue at my own expense. Has anyone here had any luck convincing Infiniti to assist them with the cost of repair?

I seriously may have to try to just sell my car.

 

mine didn't cost that much to fix but then again i never did change to clutch and go back to OEM. It think it was about $1,300 CAD when to replace the pivot bolt plus a few small things (maybe $150 in parts and the rest in labour). the dealership charged about $100/hr labour. the exhaust system and tranny comes apart, but thats about it.

I kept the NISMO clutch as it only had 20,000 miles on it when it broke but they did tell me it was installed slightly mis-aligned and the pressure i had to put on the clutch pedal to engage it reduced.

I did ask the dealership to use a more robust part, but never did get any confirmation that they used something more sturdy. I'm just hoping infiniti started issuing a robust replacement part, but probably wishfull thinking. so i am expecting it to break again around 100,000 miles.....mine originally broke at 55,000 miles on the car, but 20,000 miles on the new aftermarket clutch.

hope it works out bro...i remember thinking the same thing when they told me $3,300 to repair & replace with OEM clutch, but i decided to take the risk not replacing the clutch since it was still sorta new.

 

I'm pretty bummed. I think I might have to have some back yard mechanic pull it apart to fumble his way through it, cause paying shop rates just isn't an option for me.

Is there any advantage to having it towed to an Infiniti dealer? Is there even a possibility of me sweet-talking someone at Infiniti into covering some of the cost?

I hadn't noticed any type of clutch wear or problem with the car, and its the original equipment as far as I know. I'm thinking that just removing the transmission, replacing the pin and the slave cylinder that is also destroyed, and leaving the flywheel and clutch stuff alone will get it working again.

Then selling in the Springtime. I love my car, but I still have a couple years of payments, and can't get stuck with another major repair like this.
Anyone local (Massachusetts) reading this able to do this repair?

 

Find a shop. Dealer is almost certainly hosing you on parts cost, and running $130/hr for labor, etc. I paid less than half the number you mention, and it would have been less if it I had both problems addressed same time. I bought the clutch from either JWT direct, or from GSpec Performance, or Performance Nissan - I don't know but parts were $800 or so.

I had already replaced my clutch, and I went JWT because I wanted a stronger clutch, and lighter flywheel. When I heard what a dealer wanted for fixing this I bought my own clutch and had a local performance shop who I trust put the clutch in. IIRC that was ~$500 labor and fluids(motul trans fluid). THEN the bolt broke shortly thereafter, they ordered and replaced the bolt and I was out about 4 more hours of labor charges. Total cost:
So $3k is way steep, and if I had done both at the same time (didn't know about this pivot bolt) out of pocket would have been just the $1300 vs. $1700. Not cheap but a hell of lot less than the dealer wanted to just put in another **** underpec'd clutch and charge me $1100 for a new 33 lb dual mass FW. No way I was getting into replacing that 30k-40k intervals.

That was all 40k miles ago now, and I have no issues, the trans and clutch are fine. I attribute a lot of the shorter life of the OEM clutch to insufficient clamping force- it slipped just a little I think under hard acceleration, and was not up to the job.

 

OEM is either Value Line or equivalent, same quality you'd find in a Max or Altima '03 vintage V6 car. It's generously a $250 clutch.

NISMO isn't necessarily going to be a lot better, often it's just slightly better than OEM on wear items (unlike say an LSD).

Dealer has nothing to offer that's better than what my car came with new. They wouldn't stand behind the work if I went with non-OEM parts, even quality stuff like JWT. So I went to a shop that would, saved $40/hr on labor ($90/hr vs. $130/hr), brought my own parts, bought my fluids from them.

I'd already spent many, many thousands buying the car new from the dealer and letting them take one shot at the brakes, before I went to only warranty service. Every time I went in there, it was $500, $1000, whatever. When they wanted $135 with labor to just replace the PCV valve, a <$20 part you can do in 30 minutes, I cut them off the money train. I've had other work quoted there and they're always high by 1.5-2x on OEM parts, and pad their labor out above book, including a $135 diagnosis fee that isn't even applied to the repair cost - no thanks.

I mean c'mon, I bought the damn car there NEW, talk about how to push your customer out the door!

 

On the '03-'04 the clutch slave is external, a $30 part, I replaced it myself easily. It's so easy it's painless.

The major work here is pulling the trans out, and that's required for the pin, plus much easier to do with two people. That's the main reason I had someone else do it, today I'd do it myself.

So you're taking a risk paying the major labor cost anyway, so IF the clutch has been slipping at all, or has more than 30-40k miles, it's a coin toss. I'd also never count on selling a car used and getting my money out of it, that additional labor cost might just be one you have to eat if you sold the car.

Only caution is light FW's do have chatter and depending on who you sell a car to, they may or may not understand that just comes with the territory - there's almost always some chatter at idle with a 11-12 FW. Also the clutch may be stiffer than you're used to, engage lower and more positively, plus revs tend to rise and drop faster w/o the 33 lbs of dual mass FW. You might notice a little more NVH out of the drivetrain w/o that damping effect.

I think all those things are fine, just be aware some people may not. One thing I did notice, the car gained a significant performance and driveability bonus with the JWT.

 

Absolutely true. My '04 was very early (made Aug/Sept 2003) and used the same part as the 2003. Nothing else was available that was better at the time. It pained me to put in a part no better than the one that broke, but that broken pin also has some signs in the grain of the metal that it had some possible defect when made.

 

Well I don't know that the clutch has ever been replaced. I bought it at 55k, and it is currently at 87k. The previous owner did all of the service at the dealer, I believe so I can check their records. No noticeable slippage or clutch issues since I've driven the car.

You're saying it only cost about 400 or so just to do the pin replacement? Thats not so bad, if I don't have other damage in there as a result of the pin breaking. How long does that job take, hour-wise? A local shop has an hour rate of around $70 per hour.

To me, if I can replace the pin without replacing all the clutch stuff, and hopefully the fork isn't bent too, then that seems to be the best way to go in my posiiton.

 

Same problem 03 coupe i have more mileage on it now but when it happen it was @ 74K ... No previous engine problems oem clutch ... It snapped inside had to get the threads machined ... I cant recall but at the end of it ran me almost around 1800 to fix... new clutch, pivot bolt put in, threads machined and labor.