Burning Smell when Downshifting.
 

I have a 09 370z MT with 900 miles. Driving in town, I down shift to help decelerate the car. I started smelling a really strong burning smell coming through my vents. Cant really smell it from outside the car. I owned an 03 350z MT and put 100,000 miles on it, never had clutch problems. Is this a clutch issue? Anyone else noticed this?

Sounds like a little clutch burn. Do you have the sports package? Do you blip the throttle on the downshift?

I have the base package. I just release the clutch when downshifting it to get it into gear. I dont really throttle it much.

Either stop downshifting or learn to heal and toe, you are placing unnecessary wear on the clutch plate. You'll also get better fuel economy if you don't downshift.

But wait .. isn't that what the RevSync is supposed to do ... match the engine speed so that clutch grab isn't so harsh?

Yeah, but he mentioned he has the base model package.

Oh duh .. for some reason I just thought RevSync was in all models!! Hit me with the dummy stick once again...

:shakes head: your clutch is gonna last about 15k without throttle

you cant downshift without rev matching.. basically when you downshift your using the clutch as brakes.

It's really not that hard to rev match. Just practice seeing how much pressure it takes to blip the throttle to the appropriate rpm that you need. Its worth learning how to do it, as opposed to putting unnecessary wear on your clutch.