So for those of you that came on the Santa Cruz run 4/21 know by now that on the trip home I was keeping up with Shane and John on Hwy 1 and my clutch system failed.

We were making a pass and as I went to upshift from 4th to 5th at about 5-6kRPM I suddenly noticed I couldn't get into gear. I glanced down an realised my clutch pedal was no where to be found. It was stuck to the floor.

Fluid level appeared normal but after attempting to acuate the pedal a few times the fluid level dropped to about the 25% level in the res. There was no evidence anywhere of leaking clutch fluid or puddles etc.

Infiniti's roadside assistance called out a tow truck which took about 1.5 hours to get to me. They declined to get me a loaner or retal saying that I did not qualify for Trip Inturuption (under the 100miles away from home criteria). However after getting home I mapquested the break down point to my house and it was about 95miles. So I was really unhappy with that. Luckily I was able to get home because of Shane's selflishness and he stayed with us and waited for the tow truck, and drove me all the way home.

Infiniti instructed the tow company that the Santa Cruz dealership was closed (it was about 4pm) and to have them hold the car in their tow yard (who knows how the car was treated there) Infiniti also told me that they couldn't tow the car until Monday to a dealership. Worse yet, the furtherst north they could bring the car was Redwood City, which is still about an hour away from me.

So current update is I spoke with the tow company multiple times this morning. They sound professional, and the tow driver that picked me up Saturday is handeling the car today and supposedly going to drive it up to Redwood City Infiniti (Pennisula Infiniti)
I spoke with PI today and let a service advisor (Brian) know that my car is coming today with a clutch problem. He said is is going to call me when it arrvies. I suspect it won't show up to some point late today.

I have no idea what failed yet, I have some ideas from the way the pedal got stuck, but the car is under warranty and I will not pay a dime for this. I will keep you all posted as to what happens through out the week with this.

 

Whelp, Penninsula Infiniti just called and said my car has just arrived, they are going to try to have a tech look at it today. They offered me a loaner car, but I don't need to get one. Brian said from their once over that the car looks like it's in great shape, so hopefully the tow truck company took care of it.

 

dam, sorry to hear about that, at least everything is okay.

That's very odd the clutch went out like that.

 

if it's brian reidy at peninsula infiniti, then you're in good hands. that guy is a class act.

 

Sorry to hear about your car. I bought my 05 6MT about a month ago and I have noticed that twice the clutch has stuck to the ground. One time it popped up pretty quick but another time, it was down for a while. My car is currentrly at Serramonte and they told me that there was really no way that could happen. I have also been hearing a clicking sound once in a while when I release the clutch. We will see what they say.

 

Glad to see you're in good hands.
I pm'd you this morning about this exact thing.
It's nice to see things are rolling. ...sort of

 

In for the update. Goodluck with the fix. Sounds like the master or slave cylinder could be bad.

 

Good to hear at least your G is at a competent Dealer from the sound of it.
Still sucks it so far away from your neck of the woods (home).
Maybe your local dealer could give you a loner to drive to Serramonte when yours is done and let Infiniti and Dealers figure out how to get loaner back to your local Dealer.
You've been inconvenienced enough with all this.
I don't think much of Infiniti's road-side service at this point, especially making it your problem to get home from SC on your own.
Thank goodness for Shane, huh? That would've been a big taxi bill otherwise

G/L and let us know what it ended up being with the clutch system.

 

heh brian sold me my car!

 

^^^i think you're referring to brian fortune who is a sales rep. he also sold me my car.


brian reidy is the service rep.

 

Keep posting Armand ! Good thread for us 6MT guys . I've already burned my clutch once, but it came back once things cooled off. Now I have more talent and a much smarter left leg.

 

Wow, what a way to end the day. Sorry to hear about your car troubles and do keep us updated on what the problems was with your clutch.

 

Armand,

Sorry to hear and read about the unfortunate incident with your clutch. Hopefully, PI will have you back on the roads in short time. Good luck!

 

i can't believe they didn't offer you a loaner or any means home... that's so ridiculous. could you have at least tagged along with the tow truck driver if shane didn't help you out?

 

absoultg: yes the tow driver was going to take us back to town, and sounded like he'd taxi us to anywhere we'd wanna go back there (ie rental shop)

Ok so I spoke with the service advisor a little while ago. Before I even came to a stop on Hwy1 in my head I knew what broke but couldn't believe it. There is a $7 "pivot bolt" that the fork rests and pivots on inside the bellhousing of the transmission. Normally this is not a wear item, is never touched (except lubed once in a while) and usualy lasts the life of a car. However my experience with 1990-1996 300ZX twin turbos was to replace this bolt during a clutch service after the car reached 150-200K miles. It's a cheap part and will make your pedal so much smoother to operate. The tall tale sign that you need to replace this bolt was when your pedal started to get unusaly stiff especially with a stock clutch and plate.
The day I picked up my G i thought to myself "this clutch feels like it needs a new pivot bolt" But I figured no way at all since the car had less than 30k on it. Well looks like I was right, or at least something else was wrong that forced that bolt to break.
So far they have not dropped the tranny, but the tech did determin that the pivot bolt broke and they are going to replace that and the fork. I advised Brian the service manager to look for other stress causing factors IE plate and flywheel that may have led to that bolt's premature failure.

At this point I really regret not climbing in someone's G to check the stiffness of the clutch pedal. I'm curious what they are going to find once they drop the tranny tomorrow and also how my clutch pedal will feel once everything is done.