Possible Nissan OEM clutch system issue - Everyone Read
 

I'm sorry if this has been gone over in the past, but I have a suspicion there is something wrong with our cars. I'd say most of us havent noticed this, but I'm very sure a lot of you have similar issues.

I recently drove a completely stock drivetrain Nismo with less than 20K miles on it to compare how the shifter feels with mine. If anyone recalls a while back I was having some clutch disengagement problems that sometimes didnt even allow me to go into first gear. It was really annoying so I changed my clutch to a less aggressive, completely different setup. Well, I still feel it, although its nowhere near as noticeable and the car drives perfectly smoothly, the car still moves forward a little every now and then when going into first. Anyway, back to my friend's Nismo... I drove it around a few blocks coming to a complete stop some 10 times at least and 10 out of 10 times, his car lurched forward as I engaged first with the clutch pushed to the floor.

I got a message 10 minutes ago from someone asking me about my clutch issues, because they are experiencing the same thing. They have difficulty going into first gear and when it does, the car lurches forward a bit.

Other symptoms include notchy shifting and even some extra whining noise coming from the shifter area only while pressing the accelerator. It is clear that the clutch isn't completely disengaging for some reason and this could cause problems further down the line.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem?? Try it next time you're in your car at a stop. Get your feet off the clutch pedal completely, then press it and go into first. Pay attention to whether the car moves forward as you are doing it.
I've heard of other modded Z's having the same problem locally, to the point where people couldn't even go into first gear.

Please chime in! I don't think its the clutch itself, I think it is something in the system!

I use to have this problem until I burnt in the clutch and readjusted the master clutch stroke rod. Smooth as butter and no first gear creep anymore.

I've noticed it on several z's. Never on mine though.

Nope, never happened with mine. Car is over two years old; clutch works perfectly.

mine might not want to go in on the first try, but never does it lurch. sounds like some adjustments need to be made to yalls clutch.

Wanna tell us what you mean exactly by readjusting it?

Nothing yet even though I only have 5K mikes on her. Little notchy when shifting but nothing that I consider odd. About to switch to Redline.

Best decision you can make!

I had redline, doesnt make a single bit of difference...

Back on topic.

^ who pissed you off today? Nissan?

Is this possibly due to the failing CSC? Or does that exhibit a different symptom?

Could it be air in clutch line maybe?

No one did. I'm sorry if I didnt answer politely enough.

Its not a failing csc, nor is it a failing master.

My car does this... it sucks. I took it into nissan and they told me it was "normal". go figure. I HATE the clutch/tranny in this car. Complete horse sh*t.

I agree, its complete garbage.

I've noticed the first gear lockout but I am pretty sure that is normal... keeps you from misshifting until you are at a lower speed/rpm.

Even though the MT in these cars is a bit notchy and noisy, it can still reliably hold a lot of power without any problems so far so I wouldn't go so far as to say it is horse sh!t. I have no problems with mine either, will be switching to Redline soon to reduce some of the noise and notchiness.

Just hit 10K with absolutely no clutch issues.

If these are not the issue then it would have to lead you to the springs in the pressure plate or the release fork which can flex under load if the unit Nissan provides is not up to the task. Especially with after market clutches. I mostly heard of this with the Z32 models. Maybe it's making a come back.

/\ x2. 13,2xx on ours and zero issues.

Sp strange how the Z has problems that only certain Z's suffer from. My shifter is a tad notchy but so was the 6spd on my SpecV and my Altima. Other then that 13k with no probs. In for updates.

I'm at almost 19K with mine and no problems so far nothing of this nature has happened to me (knock on wood).

I have a stage 4 southbend clutch with a competition clutch flywheel and the ZSP CSC. Initially I had NO problems but over time it became harder and harder to get the car into gear. It's been about 3 weeks and it's really bad now. You can tell the clutch is not fully disengaging as the car moves forward when trying to get it into first, but the pedal is engaging pretty high.

I'm going to try re-bleeding the slave and adjusting the pedal rod a bit by adding some pre-load to see if this helps.

Mine does this when it is cold. It is very slight but noticeable. I don't notice it once it has warmed up.

Foot off the brake and fully depress the clutch. Then put it in first and it will slightly jump forward. I have chalked it up to the crappy CSC that we have. I am no engineer but I feel it is a bad design. It should have been all metal from the factory.

I have not noticed my 09 NISMO lurch forward, but I definitely have the chatter and notchiness. Like someone said earlier, my 04 SpecV was very similar in notchy feel. I normally drive w/ VDC OFF and the notchiness seems to considerably less present. Perhaps electroncs in the tranny?

Sorry no issue with mine...knock on wood

Thanks for all the input guys. As expected, not everyone has it, but the fact that some people have it on completely stock cars is a bit concerning. People with aftermarket clutches will definitely notice it more since the friction plates are a lot less forgiving and will cause the lurch/creep to be way more noticeable.

I dont think it was the csc or the master because my car did it after having a brand new metal csc and brand new oem master. Its not the clutch either...so its something else...anyone?

I'm thinking it may be the release fork. Even though i dont know much about it. It was a problem on the Z32 models same as you describe. Z1 sold upgrades for this.

Thanks man, I will call Z1 tuesday and see if they can shed some light on the issue.

we don't have a release fork.

Well that solves that

lol

I just switched to Red line and I didn't notice a difference until a few days after it became smoother but notchy sometimes specially when it's cold.

Another problem I'm having is a whine in first gear my friend said he doesn't have this in his Nismo, any thoughts?

Air in the clutch line would prevent the CSC from being fully engaged, otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that something is out of adjustment preventing the clutch master from having the correct range of travel.

Nearly 3 years of racing on my car on the stock clutch and I don't have anything like this issue.

My clutch and transmission work just fine - 3K.

Whine in first, only in first? does it sound like its spinning up? All the time in first or only when you accelerate?

Which is why I'm starting to think its something stupid, some adjustment is off somewhere...

Over 25k miles and I do not have this issue.

Is there anyone who does have this issue that hasn't had their transmission removed?

My car had the trans replaced under warranty so it's possible that the dealer didnt bleed the clutch properly.

In high RPM doesn't go until a shift or slow down I wanted to take it to the dealer but didn't have time. And I feel like there is air in the clutch it has like few inches until it starts disengaging

After getting the DXD Stage 4 and ZSpeed CSC, all of my gears are notchy and take more effort to get into gear. Sometimes it's smooth like stock. There are times I couldn't get out of 1st gear after parking the car. Is it true that realigning the shift gates can alleviate this issue?

Ever since I bought my Z I've had a whine when accelerating in all gears. In fact, when my car was stock, on the freeway it was so audible cruising at higher rpm that I had to put my music up high. I don't have the "lurch" into first, but it definitely does not like going into first gear on a downshift (15mph and below).

I also have noticed that my car has a problem with shifting into second from first gear when redlining. NewYorkJon34 lives near me in Naples, and he has the same problem too. We have concluded that we have to give the car a second to settle itself, with the clutch engaged, to get it to shift into second. I have also noticed that trying to shift too fast makes the gear grind, it's not that I am shifting improperly but sometimes I have to almost granny shift it. This problem seems to get better, not fixed, with SyncroRev off. At first, I thought maybe I was just bad at shifting in general, but my father recently bought a Z06 which I can shift perfectly at redline in all gears (don't tell him that =p). So the only thing it must be is the tranny in our car.