DaveB... My previous car was a 1997 5-speed maxima (i.e. perfectmax on maxima.org). I loved that car and it flew for a 4 door. I was in college at the time and used to take it to Rockingham Race Track in NC quite a bit. Not once did I experience any kind of slippage in all of the 130k miles that I had that car AND I was really hard on it.

 

Dave - You are absolutely correct, among a few others on this thread. I have had this happen twice to me. Both times it was with some aggressive driving. I've driven manuals for a very long time now. Ranging from large trucks to sports cars. This is the first time I've experienced this type of behavior from a clutch. I didn't buy a 300hp car to not have some fun with it from time to time. I would've spent the cash on a slower, more luxurious lexus if that were the case. Looks like a design problem. If anyone hears anything from a dealer, please post. Sounds like there are a ton of us '05ers that have experienced this anomaly.

On a lighter note, before I hit 'submit' I'd like to state that after reading GeeWillie's posts, I have come to the conclusion that his occupation must be....male gymnast.

 

How many times do I have to tell you, it's not GeeWillie, it's FreeWillie...

As for the occupation, good guess! You are correct!

Now go sit in the corner and let the adults talk.

 

I knew it!

 

dang clinty, another good observation. When the "problem" occured to me I first thought that I didnt release the clutch all the way. Im not used to having such a high clutch level.

 

Holy sh#t the exact same thing happened to me when I was trying to race my brother's 350Z. We were at a light I turned my VCD off and had my RPM @ around 4K then it happened when I try to take off. I was like WTF, my brother thinks I can't drive now.

 

Near as I can tell, here's the equation:

Weak clutch plus overzealous driver plus speed shifting = $1500 non-warranty clutch job

From reading various 350Z/G35 forums, it's pretty obvious that the clutch in the 2003 to 2005 FM cars is a weak sister. It wears quickly and can fail catastrophically with moderate to severe abuse. Anyone read Road & Track's long-term test of their 350Z? Their clutch went at 12,000 miles. They took it to their Nissan dealer, who reported bluing and refused to replace it under warranty. (R&T verified the heat-glazing/bluing.)

A few of the guys in this thread are being harsh IMO. One of them is an automatic-homer who'll take any opening to stand up on a podium and explain why we're all idiots for buying a sports sedan/coupe with a manual transmission, and the other is just confused in his theory that a shift was missed. Fried clutch, as anyone who's ever smelled it, has an unmistakeable odor that's completely different from burned rubber or anything else automotive for that matter. And while you won't find a single manufacturer who'll give you written approval to launch their manual-transmissioned car at 3500 rpm or above, it's rare that doing so causes immediate failure. Car and Driver reported in a recent long-term test of a Porsche 911 that the clutch in that car made dozens of high-rev, sidestep-the-clutch launches at the drag strip and was still going strong at something like 50K miles. So I don't buy the argument that if you drop your clutch at 3500 rpm you should expect it to break. You shouldn't. I've done it in all kinds of cars over the years dozens of times without a single failure. Not only that, but I've never replaced a clutch in any of my cars except for (coincidence? I think not) my '02 Altima 3.5, which was defective from the factory in its noisiness and swapped under warranty.

That being said, I have to side with the two curmudgeons on the issue of warranty. Perfect, if you take your car in there's guaranteed to be bluing and glazing on the clutch disk, plus damage to the flywheel. Nissan cannot and should hold itself responsible for that type of damage, especially in the case of your doing 180-degree burnouts in parking lots. I feel for you, though. Expensive lesson.

Everyone here is familiar with the following old joke: "Doc, it hurts when I do this," said the patient. "So stop doing that," came the sage advice.

In this case, it seems like the obvious thing to do is take it easy on a weak clutch design. Either that, or have a ball killing your clutch and use it as an excuse to go aftermarket. I would.

 

haha.. this is funny! My brother was in the car when this happened to me too. I decided to blame it on driver error so he wouldn't bust my Ballz about my new car not working properly.

 

BWahahahahahahahahahah, bwahahahaha. Ah ****, almost made water go out my nose, damn

My G insurance rates are very good right now, I hope this doesn't change.

 

I'm not going to argue with anyone here, except if you're telling me I can't ever do a donut in this car. Especially if I'm doing it in my own huge parking lot. If this is true, I'm glad I leased, what a POS! I have a hard time believing this muscular car cant handle it, I dont care how long you've been driving a stick (you must be at least 70 I dont care how old you are).

 

After all of these replies from 05 owners having this same issue I am almost tempted to return this car to the dealer and demand a new clutch. The only problem is that they would put the same POS clutch back into the car.

I also read the article in R&T and I did find it strange to see that professional drivers burnt out a clutch in 12k miles. You can still be hard on a car and have the clutch last a long time providing that the driver is good. I do not think that they had amiture drivers testing the 350z.

Like I said before, I am going to continue to enjoy my car (although, no more 180 burnouts), and yes, Im going to open the car up occationally. It is a sports car and that is why I bought it over the sedan... BUT if this happens again I am going to take it back to the dealer. This never happened with my Maxima, and should never happen in a $40k sports coupe.

 

I had a problem on my 05 6MT clutch too. After break-in, i decided to punch it in 2nd gear then when i shifted into 3rd, the clutch fell right to the floor and my gas pedal got stuck. It was a very wierd experience, but the next day i tried the same things i did the night before but everything is fine. I still have to bring it to the dealership because it is not safe when your clutch gives going 65-85ish on the freeway.

 

JKwright, that's one of the most ridiculous posts I've read thus far.

The car is marketed as a luxury sport coupe. It has a design flaw in its clutch. Nothing more, nothing less. My sister's old chevy cavalier could take more abuse than Nissan's. No one's trying to say that a clutch should take heavy abuse, but the fact is that most do. So would mild abuse readily equate to these issues? The clutch has a problem.

Anyway, I'm tired of reading from super nerds about how an owner should drive his car. Whomever gets to the bottom of the clutch problem first, please post.

Thanks.

 

Let's switch gears (pun intended) and talk about after market clutches - assuming there is a problem with the OEM clutch when driven aggresively. If we want to drive our coupes hard, which after market clutch is well suited for the G? I think I'll do a little research.