5th gear "crunching" with shift
 

Hey guys, I own a manual transmission 2009 370Z Touring with sport package, and I have
about 10,000 miles on it. I'm starting to notice with clean shifts, crunching/grinding when
shifting to 5th gear. Anyone experiencing this? Gotten it fixed?


-Auston

pretty sure most everyone will say thats not normal, and to take it in.

Same thing that's happened to some (myself 4 times) with Z's / G's.. synchros in the transmission. Nissan's fix.. put a new transmission in.

Thanks Josh

I have that issue when down shifting from 6th to 5th. Going from 4th to 5th is fine though. No grind in any other gears up/down shifting.

Thanks for all the good info, could be my shifting. I'm
slowing down the shifts back to the basics to evaluate
it.

That's the way it starts.. quicker shifts.. 5th gear seems troublesome.. slower shifts will avoid the grind for a while, but things get progressively worse, to the point you won't be able to avoid it.

Best bet is get it into the dealer, get a tech in the car and replicate it.. my experience is they have trouble replicating on their own..

Great... just what I didn't want to start happening.

If this is widespread, those of us with short shift kits may have to reverse the install before bringing them in. I'm sure they will blame the problem on that...

5th gear is still crunching. I plan to take it in to Nissan tomorrow morning to see
if they can get the ball rolling

Unfortunately with my constant issues, I didn't install a short shifter because of that exact reason.. 4 trans replacements later.. probably did the right thing.

But funny.. doesn't happen to everyone, and we've sold a ton of short shifters and had zero problems.

It's tough when they don't actually "fix" anything or know the problem, besides just throwing a whole transmission at it.

It sounded like they definitely tried some improvements for the 370's tranny over the 350 - it will be a shame if it didn't solve the problems.

I wouldn't be surprised if the labor is so high on internal transmission fixes that it's not just cheaper to do a swap. And who knows - maybe they take the old ones back in and refurbish them for the next swap...

Took the car in this morning.

The technician rode with me and reproduced the problem two times.

The first time he said he felt it a little bit and thought I could be "shifting
past the gate". The second time, he really felt it grind and said he would
contact Nissan to see how they want to handle the situation. The dealership is
suppose to call me back after they contact Nissan.

The interesting thing was the technician was initially shifting in two motions (the shifter
was first slowly shifted into the middle position, then to the gate). I commented
that I shift in a single motion. It wasn't until after he started shifting in a single
motion that the problem was reproduced.

Sounds like double clutching. Don't know why he would do that, especially on the syncro rev matching.

Double clutch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

^ I dont see how his description sounds like double clutching.

When accelerating at a reasonable pace and upshifting, I always take the car out of of one gear, wait for the RPMs to drop, then put it in the next gear. With this heavy flywheel, the pause is significant.

That's not a double clutch, it's just waiting for the revs to drop. Obviously, if you are at higher RPMs, that drop will happen more quickly, to the point where you can basically quickshift.

You can tell when you're doing it right, because it slides right in ;).

If you keep trying to force it, it will only get mad and just shut you out all together. :icon17:

Wait, are we still talking about cars here?

:icon18:

i had a thread about how my 6th gear did the same thing. major fial on nissan for not being able to design a synchronizer that works. i hear redline fluid helps but come on my 95 plymouth neon worth 8large new shifts better than my 30,000 sports car?

-no update from Nissan yet. Going to give a third follow up call to the dealer Monday.

I had tranny swap from dealership. Tranny failure. For me was not shifting habbit. Even inspecters from nissan co. Agreed that was seriouse problem and they took the tranny for invest

Anyone else have input on the change to a different MT fluid as a possible fix?

I just got word back from the dealership yesterday. They want me
to "monitor" it, and if it gets worse bring it back in to them for investigation.
They said Nissan is not aware of any known issues with the 370 transmission
at this time. I've got 10k miles on the car, so this should be ok.

AndyZ, how did you get Nissan to take care of the situation? Was
the problem just like mine?

BS my dealer fought me for exactly half a second until i asked him how the hell someone screws up sixth gear... u would have to be a total jack@$$ and do it on purpose. took a tech out for a three minute drive brought it back and a week later everything was changed out including the new design slave cylinder and nissan had my tranny shipped to them for examination. but then again i had obvious synchro failure with the standered loud grindy zipper sound shifting into 6th.

Nice to seen an example here of a fix by Nissan.

So far my car has been grinding as I shift into 5th about once
a day with short trips (< 15 miles). It's getting less frequent as the
weather warms up

Well basically i complained when my car was about 3000miles on it and they said it is just normal. After 10,000 miles grinding got worse. Grinds every single time on 5th and 6th. Took a ride with tech. And he agreed with me tuat it is tranny problem. He called a guy from nissan and little bit of conversation. And Then tranny swap

i say keep complain about it. My tech said Z's always had tranny problms

Yellowstonepa reported as spam

Even though MTs in 370s tend to be a bit clunky, actually they're reliable. The sounds you get from them don't affect performance, according to searches I've done. Me? I'm too old; I've got an AT in my Touring Coupe 350.

I had the same thing happen around 10k miles and was given a new transmission.

http://www.the370z.com/engine-drivet...ement-5-a.html

Just took mine in this morning for 6th gear grinding. I'll let you guys know what the dealer says. I should note that I have a base without syncro rev.

How often does it grind?

Double clutching will get you around the problem until you can get the car to the dealer. Its a pain in the butt to do but it works.

The dealer was able to reproduce the issue but asked me to monitor the situation to see if it gets worse by next maintenance. I'll probably push for a new transmission next time. It's just an annoyance for the time being but a new car shouldn't do that.

Auston I would say it does it more than 50% of the time unless I shift real slowly.

Servicing your 370Z
 

Be sure to take your Nissan 370Z to a Certified Nissan Service Center with a good reputation for accurate service. Check online to find one near you.
Detailed Review of Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Myers posted by sunshine0730

I think for our trannies, it "normally happens" and there is a history of this, but is definitely not normal/good.

My 6th gear grinds/crunches if I shift quick. I've found that ever since I switched to Redline Oil, step on the clutch fast&quick, and shift to 6th slowly when it feels like it doesn't want to go in gear.... that it doesn't crunch anymore.

Wow, 50% of the time with fast shifts. This is ridiculous. Our car is under
warranty they _will_ need to fix this

Yeah problem is that my brain is already conditioned to shift slowly in 6th. Maybe I should just start hitting it hard till it fails. I can reproduce the grind over and over again by skipping 5th and going straight to 6th. I believe this is due to the higher RPMs.

Any updates on this from anyone? Mine is still crunching in 5th only about once
a day.

go to the dealership. It isn't normal. I had the same issue with different gears and got a new tranny. I posted the link in here already :tup:

I hear you, I went to the dealership and they replicated the issue. Weeks
later they told me to bring it back if it gets worse.

I figure if I bring it back again they will want to replicate it again. Since it
only happens about once a day, it's highly unlikely that it will act up again
with them driving. So I've been waiting for it to get worse to avoid certain
hassle with the dealership