Sounds like the best mod for the 370z may be installing a Cayman S in the garage.

If it's a used Cayman S, you're looking at over 20% failure rate of the motor...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wil...gine-failures/

I think they've fixed it in the new ones, but you can buy a lot of transmissions for the cost delta...

As far as my 350z goes, i started having your identical problems at 6K. At 47K miles im now about to get my 5th transmission. Keep an eye on that for potential future problems.

Im currently arguing a lemon law case with Nissan on this exact issue and was offered a quick settlement (2K + lawyer costs) to keep it out of court within a few weeks of filing against them. Im thinking they know that their transmission department (ie GTR) isn't up to par but dishing out settlements is a more cost effective way to "fix" the problem.

Keep us posted on future similar problems.

I get a sticking sensation between 5-6, but I assumed it was because it wasn't completely locking me out of the "reverse" shift gate.

What I do get, even at 500 miles is grinding on 1-2 shifts if I shift quickly. Once this happened and embarrassed me a few times, I started pushing the clutch to the floor and leaving it there until I made sure I was in 2nd. It goes 1....grind, grind, 2.... then clutch out. Ouch! I started shifting slower, but crap, I shouldn't have to. All of the rest of the gears work fine. (currently at 950 miles on the odometer)

:-(

WEll now Im concerned, I just trade my 4G Eclipse because I was having syncros problems and grinding 2nd and 3rd in high rpms. Now I heard this, great :(

The only thing that dont worry me is that Im good to deal with stealerships BS, with my 4G I learned so much BS from stealerships that I think I have a degree on how to deal with them.

I read here some of u guys having issues with the stealership, becasue they are saying "you are miss treating the car" That is easy to handle, just go to the dealer explain the problem with no details, just say "having problems getting into gears" and when the tech or manager says, we are not gona cover because it seems you are misstreating the car, you just say "PROVE IT" that Im miss treating the car or driving it like a maniac "prove it"

And there's come the lawsuit :D

I talked to a service manager about this issue today, and he said with a straight face that they haven't had a 350 need a transmission replaced like this yet. I know they're liars (I even told him I figured he wouldn't tell me if they did have problems), but it's a data point.

I'm still worried about it, mostly because I want to put in a short shift kit, which might create warranty issues (see my post here http://www.the370z.com/engine-drivet...sterday-3.html).

The service manager did do the usual snotty thing and say that a car that needed five transmission replacements probably had driver error, and went on to talk about people who needed a new clutch at 10-12K. Personally, I don't see how anyone could drive a car poorly enough to go through transmissions at that rate, unless they were trying.

Anyway, this sucks. Does anyone have any numbers on the percentage of 350s or G35/37s that were/are having this problem?

imag:

Road & Track's January 2009 issue had a 350Z owner survey (277 owners responded). Manual transmissions were discussed as a problem area, but is was less than 5% of the respondents. Perhaps if you were to contact the technical editor there they might be able to shed a little more light on the incidence of failures.

Got a kick out of the attitude that it must be the driver, but sometimes it is. Once had an employee that went thru clutches in 3 -4,000 miles and he always said it wasn't his fault. Rode with him once - starting out technique every time was to bring revs to 2,500 - 3,000 rpm and then let the cluch out slooowwwly...

spmcpa

I used to live next to an old man in his 90's, deaf as a doornail, nearly blind. He had an old Datsun that he used to rev to probably at least 5000 rpm before he slowly let the clutch out. I'm sure he didn't know he was doing it, thank goodness he didn't drive much.

:icon18: Sounds like my Dad!

Thanks - 1 in 20 isn't *that* bad. I figure that it can't be much higher, or we'd be hearing about it all the time. G37 owners are supposed to be happier about their cars than anyone:

Study surveys 25,000 owners, reveals most highly recommended vehicles

Those two clutch tales are astonishing. I remember doing that one time while reversing up a hill when I was 15. My dad stopped me and said, "You smell that smell? That's money."

imag:

"that's money" all right...I learned to drive a stick on a 1968 F-350 tow truck. The only warning to me was that if I trashed the clutch I was the one to replace it. After crawling under there once and seeing the size of the trans and PTO ('power take off') AND knowing that truck would not go up on a lift you can be d@#* sure that I treated that clutch like it was made of wifey's fine china!

spm, cpa