I hate to admit it but I was pretty rough on my coupe's clutch. I wasn't overtly abusive (dumping at 8000 etc...) but I did do quite a few sprints and spent most of it's miles in heavy city traffic. That clutch was pretty rock solid, and when I sold the coupe it felt just like it did when I bought it. I'm not saying it's impossible to have a bad clutch, just that if it's worn at 14k I am going to have to err on the side of caution and assume it's driver related, especially since they aren't failing left and right.

JSlodown - I wouldn't sweat it. Drive your 6MT like you drove the maxima and odds are you'll have another long lasting clutch.

 

That's exactly what the dealer will assume, and it will be all on you to pay for a replacement. I did not drive my G any differently than any other car I've had previously and I have never had to replace a clutch. You would probably sing a different tune if you ever find yourself faced with being told you need a new clutch at 14k and you know you've done nothing abusive. I argued my case on principal.... I suspect this problem is more pervasive than most realize because a lot of Infiniti owners just pay to have it replaced since fighting it is an impossible battle. I went all the way to consumer affairs with no luck. They dont pay for it because they don't have to. My car had no other signs of abuse: tire wear was exceptional, brakes and pads, perfect, no other signs of the car being mistreated, but I had a clutch that need to be replaced 80k prematurely......For me, new clutch goes in this week and the car is on its way to BMW to trade in on the car I should have purchased to begin with. My bottom line is: the G is a nice car but Infiniti may have misengineered its MT set up. 15K clutch life is absolutely unacceptable. You might have problems or you might be okay, either way you are on your own... Good luck.

 

That's exactly what the dealer will assume, and it will be all on you to pay for a replacement. I did not drive my G any differently than any other car I've had previously and I have never had to replace a clutch. You would probably sing a different tune if you ever find yourself faced with being told you need a new clutch at 14k and you know you've done nothing abusive. I argued my case on principal.... I suspect this problem is more pervasive than most realize because a lot of Infiniti owners just pay to have it replaced since fighting it is an impossible battle. I went all the way to consumer affairs with no luck. They dont pay for it because they don't have to. My car had no other signs of abuse: tire wear was exceptional, brakes and pads, perfect, no other signs of the car being mistreated, but I had a clutch that needed to be replaced 80k prematurely......For me, new clutch goes in this week and the car is on its way to BMW to trade in on the car I should have purchased to begin with. My bottom line is: the G is a nice car but Infiniti may have misengineered its MT set up. 15K clutch life is absolutely unacceptable. You might have problems or you might be okay, either way you are on your own... Good luck.

 

Maybe you need to train that left foot of yours before saying its the cars problem than yours. Because 90% of the people do not have clutch problems going out early.

P.S., I also ran my 04 G35 6mt at the drag strip many times with high rpm launches and all the driving was mainly in the city. Never had one single clutch problem.

 

You talk about reliability and BMW in the same paragraph. That's funny.

 

Cincinnatiguy, did you every get this problem fixed. I've been going through the same thing and wondered how you dealt with it...

 

I find this thread amusing, I see customers with 6MT's all the time, not to RIP anyone here, but alot of these customers DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE THIS CAR. I seen SOOOO MANY people riding the clutch as they park their cars or drive away down the street. AND you can smell it burn very heavily. I have one customer who will be on his second clutch soon less than 30000KM. Unfortunately the customers get ROYALLY pissed when we tell them that, sir/madam you are burning your clutch out. They take great offence and comeback with retorts such as "I have driven manual trans for over 30 years, don't you tell me how to drive." Point is, it is extremely easy to score or burn a clutch no matter how good a driver you are. BTW clutches are considered a "Wear and Tear Item so these are not a warrantable defect." Its very easy to see that it is burnt by removing the clutch assembly and examining it. I had a Type R with a Stage 2 Race ACT clutch, it was being moved around my shop and a few of the lot guys did not know how to drive it...well thats was the last time I got them to move the car.. when I removed the clutch assembly it was burnt to hell. $1000 later..... and a new clutch.. However its really too bad that you guys were handled rudely that is not right there are ways to properly explain a situation and rudeness is not an answer. Anyways for those who are wearing out their clutches get someone who drives a MT and let them watch you drive.....you'd be surprised.

 

Be careful. BMW is the same way. Go over to m5board.com. The defective-clutch threads are many and bitter.