Hello guys/gals. Been lurking on this forum for about a year, and have benefited from the wealth of knowledge. Solved my soft/sticky clutch problem, so I figured I would contribute and help those who may have had the same issue as me.

Got my 05 6mt coupe about a year ago, and started experiencing the sticky clutch pedal a couple months into ownership. While driving, the clutch pedal would gradually cease to return to the top. I noticed that the longer I would drive, the more slack would develop in the pedal. On one particularly long commute, the pedal sunk so much, I couldnt gear it anymore. The next day it returned to normal though..

I thoroughly flushed the clutch line and even though it seemed to me temp wasn't a factor, I switched to DOT 4 anyway. After bleeding, I adjusted the pedal and it worked perfectly. But a week or two later the problem returned again. And randomly when I would first get into the car the pedal would be all the way to the floor. I would have to pump it to get just enough pressure to work my clutch. Not good. Not knowing what the problem was, I bled the line every weekend. Went to the dealership to see what they would say and got the same bad clutch/pressure plate BS answer everyone with this problem seems to get. translation: "We dont know, but we'll charge you two grand to guess" YA RIGHT I had an ACT w/ less than 30,000 on it at the time.

Long story short, two separate but simultaneous problems were causing all of my clutch woes. First there was a leak in my clutch line. I suspect that it was very tiny at first, allowing air to seep into the line but not big enough to cause a noticeable leak. However after continual clutch bleeding and usage, it grew until I began to notice some fluid around the heat shield wrapping (or whatever it is) surrounding the line underneath the car. Eventually it affected the fluid level in the reservoir requiring me to refill every week or so. After replacing the line however, my pedal was still soft at the top, requiring me to pull it up with my foot after every shift. Then I noticed the second, less-obvious problem. The lock nut behind the adjustment rod had wiggled loose, causing the little rod to turn freely and drop my pedal (just like the clutch pedal adjustment mod ppl do to make the engagement point lower). So I adjusted it again by turning the rod the opposite direction and my pedal returned sharply to the top every time. A week later the pedal started getting soft again, so I went to adjust it and found the nut had wiggled loose again. A little blue loctite and my clutch pedal worries are gone for good!

Hope this helps someone. With both problems going on at the same time it really confused me..

 

I had a similar problem with my 07 350z. Clutch peddle kept dropping straight to the floor! Ended up being a bad clutch master cylinder. Dealer replaced it under warranty and I never had that problem again.

 

It happens to me only when it's hot outside

 

Thanks for the info. The last couple inches on the top end of my clutch pedal travel is weak as well. I'll look into this.

 

^
dude I'm almost CERTAIN it will make your pedal crisp

 

Hmm..... you're the second person in the past few days to post something on here about their G having a leak in the clutch line. I hope this doesn't start to become a more prevalent problem with the masses of G35's out there.

How much did a new clutch line cost you?

 

I think like $20
just an OEM one

 

Just curious... how many miles did you have on your car when it first started exhibiting the sticky-clutch behavior?

 

like 66K

if prev owner experienced it, he didnt tell me

 

Interesting. I bought mine with 67,500 on it. The previous owner said the clutch started to feel 'mushy' so he had the dealer replace the fluid and bleed the system to bring it back to feeling normal. I'll get it up on the lift and look for leaks as well.

EDIT: I have about 72,000 on it now.

 

let me know how it goes

 

This happened to my wife, replaced the clutch line with a stainless one back in November. I'm deployed, so I can't do anything about it right now. She says there's no visible leak.

 

This was my recent situation as well. Master cylinder took care of the problem too. Been great since.

 

Ya I hear many have had master cylinder failures as well as other issues

I guess there are many causes of mushy pedal
which is why I posted mine

maybe after swapping the m/c, the problem was really fixed by the subsequent adjustment of the pedal/pushrod

 

Trying to revive this thread, I have a 2004 G35 6MT with 151K miles, yesterday I drove to the store, a couple minutes I noticed the clutch was not coming back all the way, as the temp got warmer(78-80F) I noticed that the clutch was getting more stuck midpoint and had to use my foot to bring it back, the next morning it was early and around 63F I started driving and the clutch was back to normal, I parked and 2 hours later I drove back home, it was 75F, no problems. Just wondering what is going on, I have a 1000 mile drive coming up and my car is due for a check pre-drive tomorrow with a Nissan /Infiniti specialist(non dealer) but don't want to get ripped off. I changed my clutch about a year ago, to my knowledge the master and/or slave have never been replaced, I did see the nut mentioned on a post was a little lose thou. Any advice?