So the shop just told me that Nissan told
them they should replace the entire clutch assembly. $1600 instead of $400.
Nothing has been ordered yet, and the mechanic who looked at my car is supposed to call me around lunchtime (he had to take his mom to the ER this morning). The guy at the shop is also going to look around some more and see if he can find anything cheaper this morning. I need to get
something ordered today, because I can't stand driving the rental and don't want to have it for another week.
At first I was like "there's no way a car with 28k miles needs a whole new clutch," but after reading
Joe@ZSpeed's comment -- and noting that the ZSpeed site says, "We highly recommend the CLUTCH MASTER CYLINDER be replaced along with the HD slave cylinder to prevent problems from worn/dirty original units. No warranty is offered if master cylinder is not replaced." -- maybe I should just have them replace the whole damn thing and be done with it.
I am so frustrated/annoyed/soon-to-be-poor...argh.