Transmission Issues Resolved?
 

A while back a lot of people were talking about how the 370Z's transmission (Manual) had issues, and even was it Edmund's or Motortrend's or someone's? long-term test Z had the transmission go out.

Anyway, I have not heard hide nor hair of that complaint for quite some time.

Did Nissan upgrade the syncro's quietly?

I know GM (Sorry, it's what I own, so what I relate everything else to) was having a few complaints and they changed the synchro's in all their cars out in '11 that had the TR6060 transmission. They made a pretty good deal of it, too. Just wondering it Nissan slipped a quick one in and fixed the problem while everyone was worrying about another shade of gray and the back-up camera?

I just have not seen anyone complaining about their transmission going out who owns an '10 or later. Is fixed?

no idea if nissan made updates but sub'd for possible answer(s).

lemers and fromG2Z both had issues in their 2010s. I think Lemer's is in the early stages, and From's was as well.

As in, late CY2009 production/early YM2010, or as in, early stages of being addressed/fixed, or as in, occurred early in the car's life?

What were the issues? Anything can have issues, but were they the grinding that people with '09's complained about in 5th gear, etc?

early stages, ie, trans hasn't failed. Both cars are 2010's.

To my knowledge, Nissan has not changed the synchros. It is a tad questionable how much of an issue it is though...


http://www.the370z.com/engine-drivet...-into-5th.html

Falls in line with what I was suspicious of. I have yet to see this with an '11, or a late-build '10. I think Nissan did a silent change. Can you point me to a post where a '11 or late '10 build shat the bed?

Ya I would be most concerned about the synchros and oil consumption. This is probably the biggest reason why I'm not keeping my 2010 model year car beyond the powertrain warranty period.

If your car makes it past 60K miles, it's not going to just suddenly start drinking oil and grinding.

Nissan addressed the oil consumption issue, and I think may have silently addressed synchro's.

I have observed far fewer transmission complaints from 2010+ owners. We had a lot of issues back in 2009 with the first model year, with a number of transmissions being replaced (often multiple times), but that seems to have stopped.

Just browsing the forum and antagonizing a few people here and there as it were, my observation mirrors your own as stated. I would be curious to know for fact. I know most auto manufacturers make "silent changes" to problem areas, and I think this was one for Nissan. I drove a couple of '10 370Z's and had nothing ill at all to say about the shifter and what it stirred. Then, my experience with manuals is limited to Tremec models TR3650,TR6060,TKO500, and T56. Notchiness is something I am incapable of noticing anymore.

That's probably true for the oil. However, I'm a slow driver, so it will take longer for the synchros to wear out for me. Mine was a December 2009 build date.

I don't think it's necessarily wear related to slow vs. fast driving (unless by fast you mean a lot of powershifting, etc), but rather a tolerance/defect issue. When tolerances are off, mechanical things wear very fast. In my experience, either it will break ASAP, or it will last until the end of its normal service-life unless something occurs during that timeframe.

Parts in moving assembly seem to have a lot of wear initially, then the wear will taper off after the parts are lapped in, and slowly/steadily continue to wear until tolerances open up beyond spec, and once again the wear accelerates rapidly toward decline/end of service-life. This is of course barring any changes during that service-life, such as a hard launch tweaking a pinion bearing, etc.

Engineers express this as a 'bathtub' curve. Probability of a failure is high when new. If it doesn't fail then the probability for failure throughout its life drops until the end of its normal service life whereupon it rises again. Hence, a bathtub shaped curve.

Yep. It has been my experience with everything I have owned with 2 or more moving parts.

i have a 2009 model, not sure if its an early or late model but everything seems fine to me. the transmission is a lot harsher than most of the newer manual transmissions out there, but its not all that bad. It definitely makes more noticeable clunking noises compared to other cars, but I actually like it....it feels more like a machine lol.

I've put 14.4k miles on my 2011 with nothing out of the ordinary happening with my transmission. If I keep this car long enough for the synchro's to wear out on me (which i hope to do), I was thinking of using dog rings instead (can't recall exactly what it is called but i believe that is right). Maybe get a sequential tranny?? I dunno, it will be a ways off so it depends on cash flow at that point of my life.

I would not even consider streeting a dogbox in a 370

I had an 09 model. Now I have an 11. And I will have to admit the the true soul of the Z is in the 09. The 11 suspension, new resonators (at least they seem new because the Z's tone is quieter) and sound damping have toned the car down for the worse in my opinion. Not saying the 11 Z is bad. Its still an amazing machine. Its just no 09. :) iboth were autos so no clunk. Transmission performance has not changed.