Originally Posted by Misnomer

It's only been a couple of weeks, but after reading some of the newer posts in this thread I think I'm glad I went for the clutch assembly replacement. Everything feels great (knock on wood), I'm used to the slightly heavier pedal, and most of the new noises have gone away. What's left now is some transmission noise in first and second, but the mechanic thinks that's likely because they upgraded my transmission fluid and it's thinner than what Nissan originally had in there. He said if the noise really bothers me he can put thicker fluid back in and see if it helps. I'll wait another week and see how much it still bothers me (it's a light grinding/scraping sound; right now I'm leaning toward having him swap out the fluid).

I had an '02 Nissan Sentra -- manual, base trimline, all stock -- for four years and I never had a single problem. I even bought it used (in '04), and tracked it once (don't laugh!). The good experience I had with that car was part of why I didn't hesitate to buy my Z in late 2013. It's been a series of disappointments with this car, though: first the known track issues (oil/brake overheating), now the clutch issues.