Well, I've put a few days of driving on my new trans and I have mixed feelings. It's much better than my old one in that the level of effort to get it into second is lower and more consistent. But it still seems rougher engaging second that I would expect. At this point it feels like the kind of thing that could be resolved with some high quality synthetic fluid. It also could be that Infiniti just has a harsher manual than I'm used to in my previous cars... It still rattles in first but it's more subdued and happens only under larger than normal take off loads. I'll put a few hundred break in miles on the car and see if things improve or deteriorate from here.

 

Hi:
LouXer, thanks for all of the follow up on your tranny problems. Sorry that you experienced them ;( The noise that you were talking about was definitely a serious mechanical problem. Let's just all hope that it is not a design problem that we will all encounter some where down the road.

I have been driving stick shifts for many years and have never noticed a louder noise when the car is in neutral. I recently tested this out on two older supra’s by pulling them into the garage. One has 230K mi on it, the other 70K mi. They are only perceptibly louder in neutral and that's in a garage where you get a lot of noise echo. The 6 MT with 3 K mi is significantly louder than either of the two. Maybe Infiniti cut back on some of the noise insulation to reduce car weight and cost? If they did, they should not have!

<font color=green>6 MT ~ (DP w/ WL)</font color=green>

 

6800 on '03 with 06/03 manufacture date.
just had car at dealer. they acknowledged the spinning, grinding noise when the clutch is let out. taking car in when i get back from vacation (12/26). i don't want it at the dealer for a whole week.
it sucks when i'm in a parking lot, garage, stop light, etc. while everyone is checking out my awesome g, i have to keep clutch in to keep it from sounding like a rattling $36k POS.
we'll see....

 

Sorry to hear about the problems 4100 miles here on my 04 and no noises or problems yet

 

I'm getting in on this thread rather late, but I have the first gear clutch rattle, and my service tech indicated that it was normal. Fortunately, I have no other issues with the transmission, certainly no grinding. This appears to be a characteristic of Nissan clutches. My 1998 Maxima SE 5 Spd had a strange warbling, rattle when taking off in first gear, but I drove 130,000 miles on that tranny, with no problems. I admit, it is a little embarassing to let out the clutch on my G in a parking garage, and have people looking over for the wrong reason --- a rattling clutch! Oh well, I jsut drown out the sound with that terrific exhaust note...

 

Has this problem been fixed yet?

My 2004 G35 Coupe 6MT has exhibited some drivetrain roughness from day two, and most recently in cold weather has a scraping sound (which could be considered rattling but I think is more like scraping).

I've got a lousy I35 loaner now (no heated seats, and it was in the single digits all day), and the dealer did hear the problem, but thinks it may be brakes (I'm not impressed so far), even though I explained the sound stops pretty quickly while rolling when you press the clutch in. They're keeping the car overnight, but I have a bad feeling they may return the car in worse rather than better shape if they go around replacing perfectly functioning pieces of the car like brakes

Good luck with your 6 MT sedan!

...Bruce

 

Here's some more info about my issue that might help you guys get your trannies fixed. The sound that I had in my tranny which is very similiar to the one you all have described was caused by a defective INPUT SHAFT BEARING.

This caused a very loud and annoying metallic rattling sound especially after the car was hot for a while. I had complained about it several times to two differant dealers. After like the 4th complaint (it was really loud), they looked at it again.

Mind you got the reply from several techs that "Oh these trannies are just loud" and "That clattering noise is common, nothing to worry about." When they looked at it again magically all of the sudden there WAS something wrong and the tranny needs to be replaced.

My point is that you guys need to work on these bastards cuz' obviously saving money comes before service at least in my experience with Infiniti Dealers. I told them over and over again that I have driven manuals for years and when my INPUT SHAFT BEARING (Throw-out bearing it's sometimes called) went bad on my toyota truck, (after 150K no 10k) I took it to toyota and they said exactly what I am saying now and didn't try to tell me that my transmission is supposed to sound like a rattle trap naturally.

Yeah maybe if I had a race clutch in I would expect that. Anyways sorry to vent but I hate to see Infiniti dealers running other peope around the same as the did to me. Also as mentioned above become good friends with Infiniti Consumer Relations as they can sometimes crack the whip to get the ball rolling. Good luck to you guys and if you need more info PM me. Thanks.

-Jason
Laser Red '03 6MT

 

2500 miles...smooth shifting so far and 0 trans or clutch noise.

04 Blk.Coupe/6mt/nav/aero/sat.

 

Yep... Its this metal rattle coming from the tranny in Neutral and when u engage the clutch (foot on the clutch) the noise is minimized... and the first gear pull.. its annoying.. my car sounds like a 4 banger !! I get the occasional grinding in 3rd gear... almost feels like your foot wa snot on the clutch when you threw it in third ! Man.. Im taking it in on Thursday.. I have the Injen CAI in.. I dont think they will give me a problem about it.. But that noise is AGHHH !

 

Well I dunno if this helps any but im on my 3rd tranny on my car with 14k on the odo.....Soon to be my 4th since im having all the problems i had with my 1st tranny now on the third...but I had a different set of problems on my 2nd tranny....I dunno what nissan is doing over there in JDM land but they need to fix there ish. and i know theres a lot of haters on this forum that are gonna say learn to drive manual but this is my 2nd manual car, the previous one being a M3 which i had no problems with mechanically..just a few electronic glitches for over 70k miles.

"Dont start none, won't be none"

 

ReDRoK8.... what was the outcome from your tranny replacement? Did it fix the problem? My car is in the shop this week for the same rattle noise. They replaced the tranny yesterday and I got a call late yesterday that the noise is still there. I printed out this post and gave it to them yesterday and told them to replace the whole clutch as well. They said they haven't got approval to change the clutch only the transmission. If anyone else had this problem, can you please tell me what the outcome was. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance.

 

This is interesting to me as well. Im at 750miles on my 2005 and it makes the same type of noise. Rattling at lower RPMs 1st and 2nd gear. I thought it was normal though?

 

Mine has it but I decided a while back to just live with it because while the symptoms seem common across all model years, transmissions are not dropping left and right. If the clatter was actually a sign of impending MT failure, we'd see lots of posts about trannys dying and a TSBs. That does not seem to be the case.

 

My '03 6MT is under the knife right now as I write this, getting its tranny replaced at 19k miles. The dealer volunteered to replace the clutch while they had the tranny out under warranty as well, however they wanted to charge me $300 for a new pressure plate as a recommended, but not required, replacement item. I said no thanks to the pressure plate.

I didn't have any symptoms of the tranny going bad, other than clutch chatter which it did since new, and a very odd metallic rattle from underneath the car when releasing the clutch from a stop, and releasing the clutch after a shift. Never had any shifting or grinding problems though - just chatter and odd noises. It was the metallic rattle and "gurgling" sounds that had the dealer concerned and made them decide to replace the whole tranny, to my surprise.

I'm surprised because as the previous poster said, I haven't heard of many catastrophic failures of the manual trannies in this car, even the ones with similar noise issues like mine. The noise wasn't even bothering me that much, especially since I couldn't hear it with the windows up. I expected them to come back telling me they found a loose heat shield or something - I was shocked when they told me they had to replace the whole tranny. So I'm just wondering if they're being overly cautious by replacing the transmission, or if they know that that rattling sound and chatter is a sign of impending doom and are replacing it now before it completely fails. The impression I get is this is not the first time the dealer has seen this issue. The diagnosis and decision to replace was very swift.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

59,000 miles, original tranny, original clutch