I have a 2008 G35 with Manual transmission. I've been driving the car for over a year but still find the clutch difficult to get used to. I find it difficult to know when it catches and right pedal height to engage it quickly. It gets worse on hills and both heats up and fades.

I'm getting it replaced with a JWT high performance clutch, and flywheel. Hopefully that will be better.

I've been driving manual for over 20years and have never experienced such a terrible clutch. I'm wondering if I'm the only one with this problem.

 

stop wondering and start searching...... its all over in this forum.....

 

Check out the DIY section;
https://g35driver.com/forums/v36-diy...al-travel.html
https://g35driver.com/forums/v36-diy...t-feeling.html

 

Just a heads up from my experience with these two mods, after about 2 weeks with these mods my slave cylinder failed and my clutch stuck to the floor. I don't know whether it was from these mods, but it worked fine before doing them.

 

I've been running the mods since they were posted with no issues.

The only thing the spring does is apply pressure to the pedal.
There is no logical way that it would have anything to do with the slave cylinder.

Slave failures is a known issue.

 

yea and the failure can cause ur clutch to burn aswell causing it to prematurly burn out and having to replace...even tho you told infiniti to change the slave and they claim there was no "recall" on the slave...

the clutch does suck im using the jwt now but honestly its not too much of a difference...

 

It would be great if you would post some feedback as the JWT gets more miles on it.
I'm sure many of us will be looking at aftermarket at some point.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I'll update my posts on impressions of the JWT clutch and flywheel and I'll try to be gentle with it for the next few hundred miles.

 

I think the feel of a high performance clutch with lightened flywheel is much worse than a stock setup. Before you do that, I would try out InTgr8r's 2 DIY mods linked above. I had the same issues you did and after those two mods, I have absolutely no complaints about the clutch at all.

Asnsensation901: have you owned your car since new? did it have the voluntary recall performed where the clutch slave cylinder is replaced?

 

well my feedback on the clucth as ive had it for a couple thousand now... atleast 4 is its a pretty solid clutch...at first was really different from stock but now i dont remember what stock was and it was still kinda difficult to drive.... although i just did cluttch fix #2 todai and it seems much better! the jwt does have quite a bit of noticable chatter...which can get annoying but any noise inside the car such as music being on the phone ect will drown it out.

btw... i have some questions about the clutch fix # 2 it was kinda hard for me to remove the spring mayb i was doing it wrong or whatever but some hints/tips for future reference to help others with this necessary mod would b awesome. Also it feels kind of as if the clutch doesnt come up as far anymore is that normal?

 

Hey mishmosh, i have owned the car since it was new, and no it didn't have the voluntary recall performed on the clutch slave cylinder. I also thought that that was only on 07's and not 08's. I took it to the dealer to have them replace it and they did and up to now no problems. Anyways I like the action with the spring rather than without it, but i still don't like how long the clutch throw is so I might do clutch pedal fix #1 again.

 

Yeah, I thought the problem was fixed for the 08's. They would have sent you a recall notice if your car was affected.

With regard to pedal fix #1, definitely play around with washers to get it to where you want it. When I used just the threaded glide (no washer) I felt the engagement was a little too low. I found a plastic threaded glide with felt on the bottom and just ripped off the felt--perfect for me.

 

It is not you. I too have been driving manuals for about 30 years and this car made me feel like a novice at driving MT. I have been driving my 2008 G35S MT for 1yr8mos and I STILL stall occasionally when leaving from a stand still. This is the only clutch I have to consciously think about every time I use it. In my opinion if you have to think about it that much, there is something wrong with it. Any other manual I drive smoothly by reflex instinctively, no conscious thought required. This car has the worst clutch engagement/feel of any manual I have ever driven. I can honestly say that because I have driven quite a few in the last 30 years and I never even really noticed or gave any thought to the clutch in any of these cars.

Otherwise I really like my G. But if i do sell it, it will be in a large part due to its really bad clutch engagement, take up, inconsistent pedal push back force.

I read the clutch fix#1 thread a long time ago but never tried it. I just didn't think I should have to resort to these types of fixes in an Infiniti So I didn't do it and thought I would get used to it. Well, I didn't! Clutch fix#2 looks easier and quicker to implement. I wonder if Fix#2 will provide improvement without having done Fix#1 first? I guess it should be easy enough to try and find out. Intgr8r, thanks for posting these up btw.

I feel there are a few other factors that aggravate clutch issue in G: low flywheel weight, I definitely would not go lighter. And ECM does not increase RPM when you let clutch out slowly in an effort to maintain idle RPM. On my S10 pickup, i can let clutch out slowly in traffic without touching throttle and not stall it because as if I let it out slowly, as load is placed on engine, ECM automatically opens throttle a bit to maintain 850RPM idle. If G had this feature, it would cut amount of times I stall in half. there are a few other issues I have noticed with ECM on G that really need updating but that is a whole other subject and thread!

 

With over 2.5years and over 50k with the G i will have to say that FOR ME the clutch is not as terrible as it has been described here.

I had some issues getting used to the unique engagement as well but was pretty fluent after a week or so. I never felt like performing fix#1 as i got used to the engagement point pretty quickly and ONLY did the clutch fix#2 thanks to intgr8r, and it helped!

And though it might be hard to believe and most of you might not believe me at all, i have only stalled the car ONCE in my entire ownership which was about a week into after purchase (This is guaranteed information, not a guess or an estimate!). No stalling even on the test drive!

I find it hard for the car to stall that easily(yes i said that ), even if you dont get the engagement right a quick press back down on the clutch again and relaunch does the trick within seconds without stalling.

I am writing my view with no bias but on actual feeling and experience to help future and current owners gain some faith in the clutch and hope this helps some ppl realize that though it might a bit hard initially there are no real demons in the clutch keeping it from being driven smoothly.

Once gain this is just MY review and is not intended to contradict or falsify anyone's else's experience.

 

Kool Yaar,

I am glad to hear of a 6MT case where there is no issue. You have had much better luck than I with stalling.

I noticed you have a FI exhaust system and intake mods listed in your signature. This may help you because you can hear what your engine is doing better as clutch engages, when launching from a complete stop, thus can prevent stall better. I have often thought part of my problem is that I can barely hear the engine at all at idle, unless radio is turned off. With my intake and exhaust stock, I can't drive by ear easily because engine and exh are so quiet. I definitely have better luck at catching potential stall condition by double clutching, as you mention, when I have radio off and can hear engine. I was actually considering some kind of exhaust system that would make a bit more noise so I can drive/clutch by ear to help with this problem. I rarely have radio vol above 4 bars for this reason. I need to be able to hear engine, particularly when leaving from a complete stop. I actually have good hearing so it's not because I can't hear LOL! If I watch tach, I can catch and prevent stall but often times I am looking around while driving, checking crosswalks, intersections etc. I can't spend that much time looking at tach with everything else going on around me while driving.

Anyway, I will try clutch spring mod as soon as I can get to it. I didn't mean to complain too much in my post but, this clutch issue has always been the one item that has annoyed me with an otherwise near perfect car. Even Car magazine reviews of G35S 6MT have mentioned this issue. I know others that have experienced issue with G35S 6MT. I was told by one person who has leased both G35S 6MT and G37S 6MT, that G37 is a bit better in this regard. I should have driven his G37 when I had the chance for comparison purposes.