Sticky: (Official) 370Z Clutch Pressure (CSC) Failures

slippery4678

CSC failure

34k miles
6/19/13 DOA (at dealer)
21 days past warranty
daily driven spiritedly

Driving from Arlington to Ft. Meade, the clutch started with about half pressure from the floor and slowly lost it completely. I parked at work and when I went to take it to the dealer during lunch, I couldn't even get it in gear. I had to keep pulling the pedal from the floor then pushing it back in to finally get it into gear before starting the car. It stalled at a couple lights and I barely rolled into the dealer which was ~4 miles away.

The service tech said it would've cost $2300 but was on the phone with Nissan all day and got me a "deal" for $850 for the whole assembly. Intake and tune down the drain If this ever becomes a recall like the steering lock, will I be refunded the cost?

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Jsolo

$2300 for what? Replacing the entire clutch, or just the CSC?


$850 doesn't sound like much of a deal if it's just the CSC.

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ChrisSlicks

If it were to become a full-blown recall you would be refunded, however that seems unlikely since Nissan can instead call it a service bulletin which is not retroactive and only applies to warranty work. The only way to force a recall is to flood the NHTSA (part of DOT) with complaints.

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slippery4678

$2300 for the whole clutch assembly.

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Stillen CBE | Berk HFC's | Intake Plenum | AAM UpRev Tune | Swift Spec-R Springs | H&R 15/20 Spacers | 265/285's | Stillen Sways | 20% tint

luigi90210

this is exactly what happened to me but the dealer was able to recreate the problem via test drive and they covered everything under drivetrain warranty

i also have a 2011 nismo

DIGItonium

I'm surprised no one stickied this thread yet since this problem is so common, and that we've been seeing at least one new thread each week about it.

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martin82

Class action lawsuit time!! My transmission is grinding again like last time before loosing pressure on csc

SAmilitaryman

I drove to Florida for my grandfathers funeral from texas last week. No issues until I got back to town. Clutch pedal is getting stuck closer and closer to the floor. 09 with 60K miles on it. No issues until after my trip. My only vehicle so going to have to call the dealer. Should this be covered under drivetrain warranty? I've only had the vehicle for ~7 months. Definetly able to recreate the problem so thats not an issue.

SAmilitaryman

Car wouldn't shift into 1st unless I turned the car off, put it into first, restarted the car. While driving it was very difficult to shift into any other gear and so I took back roads to make sure I didn't cause a wreck.

Stopped at a stop sign right next to work and sure enough it wouldn't shift into first from neutral until I turned the car off and put it into gear that way. Hopefully I can get home today. Going to call the nissan dealership I bought it at and see if my warranty covers it. I bought it used but have only put about 8K miles on it since I bought it 6 months ago.

ChrisSlicks

Not many people have been successful getting it replaced under the powertrain warranty but it has been done. Hopefully your dealership will work with you.

FYI the powertrain warranty is 5 years / 60000 miles.

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SAmilitaryman

Yea, called the dealership this morning and the service advisor said the CSC should be covered under the extended warranty. He also said that the first step is to change out the fluid which I have to pay out of pocket for.

Unfortunately for me I can't get down to the dealership till saturday so my car is going to be sitting at home while I ride my bike to work everyday. Time to get my workout on!

Gaston370Z

I recently noticed that after driving on the interstate for an extended period of time, my clutch pedal would get soft and id have very minimal pressure at the bottom. It would pump back up after a couple uses. So last night I go to leave the house and I cant get it to go in gear because there isnt enough pedal pressure. I check the reservior and its good. I sat there and pumped it and finally got it in gear. I drove to work, came back out to leave and now i cant get it to pump up enough to get it on gear. My Z is a 2010 with just under 50k on it. I have an extended warranty to Hendrick " the dealership I bought it used from". Id like to see if Nissan will cover it under factory warranty, but the nearest dealership is 2 hours away. This is more than likely my CSC correct? Id do the work myself and upgrade everything, but I dont really have the cash to spend on that stuff right now, nor the time and the space to fix it. Ive got a baby due at the end of sept and my wife would flip if I went and spent the money to replace clutch, flywheel, CSC.

Fountainhead

Hi Gaston,

I'm thinking that if the CSC were failing there would be a system leak and loss of pressure, that would result in fluid loss each time you pressurized the system with the MC. However since you aren't losing fluid it may be the Master Cylinder instead of the Slave cylinder?
Or since you say "extended period" then maybe a heat issue and the fluid is boiling? Just a quick thought, the MC is MUCH easier to replace, haha.

Congratulations on the Baby, by the way!

Shutterjock

This happened to me (2010 370z NISMO) spring of 2012 in New Orleans. Clutch gave out and dropped to the floor. I was going from 1st into 2nd, as I recall.

I tried pumping the pedal hoping to improve pressure, but no go.

Long story short: A day or two later I had it towed to a dealership who, oddly enough, hadn't heard of such issues. I had done my homework however via this and other forums online, so I knew of it happening. Anyway, I suggested to the maintenance folk that it has been noted previously by others and that they may want to contact the regional office for some feedback.

They did, in fact, reach out for input and found that while the regional office didn't have a specific "fault" to suggest, their fix was to swap out the master cylinder slave and one other part. I can't recall now exactly what the second part was and I'm in the middle of a move, so I would have to dig through some paperwork, but it wasn't a very difficult fix. If there's a Master Cylinder AND Slave Cylinder, it may be that combo they swapped out. And it was covered by the warranty.

The good news is I haven't had an issue with it since the swap out.

Not sure if that helps, but if the local dealers/garages aren't familiar with the issue they need to call the regional NISSAN office.

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Shutterjock

I suggest ensuring these folks call the regional NISSAN office(s) for confirmation of the fix. This issue has been around long enough and, as of last Spring when it happened to me, the fix was much simpler -- assuming swapping out the Master Cylinder AND slave is simple in comparison.

I am not a pro-mechanic, so my terminology may be off a bit; yet I'm quite certain the regional office told the folks down here in New Orleans to pop out both parts and replace.

No issues since.

Sounds like overkill on their part if they're talking about replacing the entire clutch assembly. Again, I'm not a mechanic so take what I'm offering with a grain of salt (so to speak). I'm assuming the "entire clutch assembly" means a bit more than what I mentioned above. Good luck!

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Shutterjock
Z Photographer
http://www.shutterjock.com
"No Matter Where I Go, There I Am"