Another clutch thread, I know.

[RickyRozay]

As we all know the 370z oem clutch doesn't seem to be up to par with the rest of the vehicles abilities, or at least the slave cylinder. There are plenty of threads on here about it new and old and I've been looking through them, unfourtionately I haven't been able to find my problem.

I bought my car used in late May with 27k on it and my first problems with the clutch started around 34k give or take a thousand miles. My first problem was the usual slave cylinder I do believe and after I little reserve here I decided to upgrade to a ZSpeed CSC with hopes to avoid anymore problems. That hasn't been the case, I had the Zspeed CSC and stock master switched out in November I believe and did not have any problems at all until late January. I started feeling the dreaded soft clutch pedal again, there was also a black residue in the clutch fluid resivour (I'll add a picture if I can figure it out). Due to a field op I left my car in its state for the entire month of February, and started driving it again the beginning of March. The problem persisted so I decided to bleed my lines hoping it was just a bad bleed job and that only fixed it for a few hours.

Does anybody have any idea what the problem might be? It's my daily and I need it so I have been driving with this soft clutch for a month now, it varies between soft and stiff and I haven't noticed anymore black residue. If anybody has had the same problem and could give some advice that'd be awesome.

Thank you for your time.

[40 to 332]

I'd suggest sending the pic to Joe at ZSpeed and get his opinion.

[40 to 332]

Reading your post and looking at the pic again, I suspect the problem lies with the clutch master cylinder. If the slave cylinder fails, it's usually "unforgiving" … in other words, the clutch pedal drops to the floor, the clutch fluid quickly becomes depleted (and ends up in the transmission bell housing), and you're hooped. If the CMC fails, the pedal goes soft, but you can usually restore it … temporarily. This seems to match your situation. Besides, it's very uncommon for the ZSpeed CSC to fail. Again, Joe at ZSpeed can probably give you a full diagnosis and explanation. Send him the pic, explain the circumstances and ask him for his opinion.

[Spooler]

What kind of fluid did you put in the car? Dot4? If that is the way your fluid looks now you need to do a fluid exchange and don't flush all that old junk through the system that is in the MC reservoir. Suck that out, wipe it clean with a lint free cloth, and fill it back up.
I would inspect the clutch line coming from the CMC and see if it still has the heat wrap on it down at the CSC.

[RickyRozay]

Okay awesome thank you very much, just what I was looking for. I'm not sure the fluid, the shop put the fluid in when installing the CSC and mater. I'll give joe a call and see what he thinks. Thank you again.