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Old 09-30-2012, 12:53 AM   #1 (permalink)
Lunar-Eclipse
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Florida
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Default Damn clutch, I'm out of ideas...

About a month after I bought the car I started having issues getting into and out of first and reverse. I took it to Nissan and they said they couldn't reproduce the issue. I think they just didn't want to touch the car because I have the Stillen supercharger installed. I've never tracked my car but I figured Nissan wouldn't be too keen on helping me out because of the supercharger. After reading up here and having S&R look at it we agreed it might be the infamous CSC issue or possibly the clutch. I figured if we were going to have to crack open the bell housing I might as well do some upgrading. After a new CSC, flywheel, clutch and pressure plate made no difference at all in the shifting, I bled the clutch line. The bleeding helped a little but the problem was still there so I took it back to Nissan. I explained (in detail) what I had done to troubleshoot the issue. This time they were able to reproduce it and recommended a new transmission. Nissan replaced the transmission, flywheel, clutch and pressure plate under warranty. I also convinced them to leave the upgraded CSC in there.

Now about a month into the new trans I am having the same issues I was having before. The transmission is giving me a hard time when trying to get into first gear. I have definitely narrowed the issue down to the fact that the clutch is not fully disengaging. The problem is at it's worst when the car is hot (driving 40+ minutes in stop&go traffic). In the last few weeks I have had two instances where the car would not roll while the clutch was all the way to the floor and the trans was in gear. If I took it out of gear then the car rolled freely. A few days ago I was sitting on level ground and released my parking brake and the car started rolling forward until I took it out of first gear. This confirms that the clutch is not fully disengaging.

Since all this seems to be clutch related I had Nissan replace the clutch master cylinder and bleed the system (for about the 4th time). It didn't make any difference at all. I also had them adjust the clutch pedal but all it did was make the engagement more harsh. The problem was still there. At this point Nissan recommended a new pressure plate again and wanted me to pay for it. I laughed because two stock and one after market pressure plates can't all be bad. I took the car to another dealer and they recommended the same thing. A new pressure plate.

I spoke to Bobby at S&R Performance this week and he suggested replacing the master cylinder again. He said that he has seen new ones bad out of the box.

At this point I have replaced everything but one or two pieces of clutch line. I'm out of ideas and open to ANY suggestions.

I'm hoping there's some Z guru out there that can help me fix this thing because I'm losing my mind over this and am seriously considering getting rid of the car...

Thanks in advance.
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