Yellowing CMC fluid
 

After reading on here about all of the trouble guys are having with the CSC among other things, I have been keeping an eye on things So with only 1400 miles I notice that the CMC fluid is beginning to change color. Turning yellow unlike the brake fluid. Should I flush it out or let the dealer do it (will they)?

Its a normal thing i have the same coloring after a change, as long as u dont have metal particles in the reservar ur good and dont forget to change fluid when its blackish color.

Hi Quickboat,

I would change it (google Ranger protocol) when I saw it changing color, or at the very least when you saw particles in it. Don't wait until is black for goodness sake!
I think the dealer will laugh in your face if you ask him to change it because it's changing color, and then, later, he'll laugh behind your back when Nissan or you pay him 1200.00 to redo your clutch hydraulics (maybe....) under warranty.

It just seems counter intuitive to change something that should NOT be occurring. This car is babied with 1400 miles on her! Heck I have yet to change the engine oil! I know this is a well documented issue, Nissan should step up to the plate here.:shakes head:

i wouldnt start changing it out until about 10k miles. average life span for the first factory CSC is about 30k miles.

I guess maybe I should fork over the first 1000 bucks toward the extended 60k Gold warrantee instead of a new exhaust eh? :eek:

I thought the CSC was fixed on ALL 13's and 14's, there is even a brand new part number for it?

I could have sworn I read it on here somewhere, nissan went to a metal unit after all the fails on the 09-12

nope, still the same part number 09+ 306A1-JK40D

Hey my neighbors new Stingray has a CSC and he's already having clutch dropping to the floor problems, his fluid is chunky….

Honestly the only real fix for this is replacing the plastic factory CSC with an Aluminum one I personally prefer the SZ clutch flywheel and CSC unit because everything in the kit is rebuild-able and the drive-ability feels better than factory. i know there are cheaper options out there but having driven everything I believe SZ has the best fix in the market at the moment.

There are two options: in addition to the ZSpeed Heavy Duty CSC, there is a Z1 CSC Elimination Kit that uses an external slave cylinder in lieu of the internal concentric slave cylinder.

Would I want to start changing out warranted parts so soon in the vehicles life? What good is a warrantee if I just replace all of the weak points with aftermarket upgrades? I guess if the stealership wont flush this and keep it going full warrantee period than I have a choice between high maintenance(changing CMC fluid every 1kmi or upgrading). Don't want to get stranded that for sure. :ugh2:

if you hit 60k and the CSC goes out insurance wont cover it. they only cover it if the clutch it self doesnt look abused or worn out. at 60k+ miles your clutch will not look good. they will call the CSC a "wear and tear" part like the clutch.

ive been there trust me!

Unless you are within the 36K miles bumper-to-bumper warranty period, none of that stuff will be covered under warranty.

I drive my Z all over Texas (sometimes upwards of 900 miles in a single day). I don't want to get stranded, so I went ahead and replaced my CSC with the Z1 CSCEK recently at 51K miles. Nissan will not cover either the CSC or the MC under the 60K Powertrain warranty. The only way they will do it is if you are still under the bumper-to-bumper warranty or as a "good will service", which basically means you have a have spent a lot of money at the dealership and had all or most of your service done there.

At 1400 miles with the fluid changing color I don't think this CSC will make 60k or 20k for that matter. I just have to decide it I want to use the factory warrantee for the first failure or head it off with an aftermarket upgrade. Part of the reason I bought new was reliability. :shakes head:

mine broke at 24k. they replaced it under warranty. now im at 66k, i cross my fingers every drive..... :icon14:

My clutch looks fine (and would still look fine in another 10K miles), but they still wouldn't cover it. The Nissan dealer explained that they will not fix it outside of the 36K/3yr warranty unless they can get corporate to authorize the claim. The service manager was very honest with me and said corporate only authorizes those types of claims as "good will" to deserving customers. Since I have virtually no service history (just the car purchase and a single warranty claim for my headliner), it was pretty much a guaranteed rejection. Easy for them to just call it a "wearable" part. Which is ridiculous IMO. Plastic doesn't belong anywhere in the clutch system :shakes head:

Well I've examined a slightly used CSC ten ways from Sunday, and don't find anything significant but an ORing and a polished sleeve. Anything else is comparable to any other CSC I've seen other places. Sure, some have a metal body but all the metal in the world won't make a diff to that ORing and it's polished metal sleeve. If that ORing gets enough dirt in it it will leak/fail. I don't think plastic has anything to do with it failing unless you're crazy shifting at 7500, and everything gets so hot from the thrust bearing that the ORing deforms, or gets large bits of trash in its path.

My CSC is at 22K and it's a 2009 model.

It had 51K miles on it, so maybe more than slightly used. I certainly never had any problems with it. My understanding was it cannot stand up repeated hard launches. Since I don't do that, I wasn't expecting any problems. However, driving to remote areas of Texas with no cell service, I didn't want to risk failure, however it might happen. I would be interested in how many failed CSCs were due to o-ring failure vs plastic failure.

Did you post up pics somewhere? Let me know when you do and where they are :tiphat:

Mine went out at 1200 miles. No wear at all on it since I was still in the brake in period. Took it for one test drive after brake in, ran thru third getting on the freeway (no launch, no crazy shifting) and it was dead when I exited the freeway and got to the stop light.

Infiniti replaced it under warranty and it worked perfectly fine until I upgraded it as part of the turbo install at 44k.

I will probably post in Engine/Drivetrain this weekend. I've enjoyed it! It's all cleaned up and actually I saw no major wear, any scuffies or scratches to the ORing or the CSC body are due to my disassembly, getting the Circlip off and then getting the flared business end of the ORing back into the CSC barrel proved the most difficult.

I'd be interested in knowing whether anyone has experienced clutch problems due to the failure of the Z Speed Heavy Duty CSC. The HD CSC has been out for some time, and I gather that a number of folks have had it installed. I'd be especially interested in knowing whether anyone has experienced problems after swapping out the OEM CSC with the HD version, and who also installed a new CMC at the same time (as recommended by Joe at Z Speed). The information could be useful to the OP and others.

I am fully aware of both of those kits, OS Giken is also currently developing a CSC delete kit too.

reason behind the Specialty Z getting my preference is because both the Flywheel is fully rebuild-able along with the clutch disk. so in the future when your clutch is done you don't have to make another 1200+ dollar expense replacing it. you can send your original units back to them for new friction plates, along with getting the pressure plate and disk for a refresh. The segmented design is also extremely useful for us who like to track or beat on our cars.

the CSC is made by Tilton which is a very reputable manufacture for racing CSC's for many super cars so it's made for abuse and can handle daily driving without any issues, keeps you from rigging any funny looking odd brackets and other stuff outside of the transmission and works well with all your other factory components. The RPS/SZ kit is just a clean solution that handles every flaw in the OEM system without any compromise. I'm in the middle of

I have really high hopes for the OS Giken CSC delete kit, I hope it is clean and functional like their Evo 9 and GTR push type conversion kit.

I guess I'll nurse the factory one until it is out of warrantee. Wont the 60k Gold extended warrantee cover it too?
Is DOT 4 475deg fluid a better choice than stock?

:tiphat:

Any links to details on the SZ kit you speak of and/or the development of the OSG kit?

Bob’s NISMO 370Z TT |

if you have any questions i can do my best to answer them, and for anyone looking into this options i can give you guys a deal on it ;)

-Juan

Do you know when it'll be released and price point?

What about OSG kit? any info on that?

OS Giken is keeping everything under wraps until it's finished so i can't give you any information on that, the Specialty Z kit I've been selling for almost 2 years now.

-Juan

Thanks Juan, found Specialty Z kit information on their website after I replied to this thread :tiphat:

I mean no offense to their product. Out of curiosity, Is there a reason why their CSC/clutch kit is not as "popular" on this forum? most threads I read about south bend with occasional other brands like JWT, Exedy and OS Giken but never SZ. could just be me :rolleyes:

I Honestly don't know, SZ has always put phenomenal products out in the market it is really weird to me that they are not popular in this forum. They've been around for years. Very reputable guys among the 300ZX community. I sell their products because of the quality, craftsmanship and peace of mind knowing it will always perform without disappointment.