clutch sticking after aggressive driving

dalanamorse

My clutch pedal had been sticking at random times for over a year. The problem was so sporadic and the dealership was 30 minutes away so the sticking pedal problem would stop sticking by the time I could take it in and show them the problem.

About a month or two ago, I took it to Grubbs Infiniti in Euless, Texas, for the airbag recall and mentioned the sticking clutch pedal to them. Of course, they were unable to replicate the problem so they were not able to fix it and sent me on my way.

On December 9, 2010, I took it in again because I could smell that awful burning clutch smell. The dealer wanted me to pay $1,450.00 for the repairs. I have an extended warranty on the vehicle but normal wear and tear is not covered. That is understandable but it still was not good enough for me. I knew that the sticking clutch pedal was causing wear and tear that was BEYOND normal on my car – especially since it had been doing it for over a year.

By accident, I stumbled across this forum and MULTIPLE other forums of people have the EXACT same issue with their G35’s. I also found MULTIPLE forums of Nissan 350 owners with the EXACT same problem – after all it is essentially the same car. I was shocked and appalled that this has not become a recall issue when it is a matter of consumer safety. I think that this issue is bigger than any of us or Infiniti/Nissan realizes. This is a widespread problem they are avoiding.

Even more shocking and appalling is the lack of concern for my safety that I received from both Grubbs Infiniti and Infiniti Consumer Affairs. Their complete unwillingness to make the needed repairs and cover all or part of the costs and STOP putting my life in jeopardy every time I drive the vehicle is asinine.

Infiniti/Nissan’s defective sticking clutch pedal IS A MAJOR SAFETY CONCERN and does cause premature wear on other clutch parts. Therefore, Infiniti/Nissan should:

• Issue a recall on this sticking pedal IMMEDIATELY. People’s lives are at risk! This is no different than the sticking accelerator problem that Toyota had but they want to sweep it under the rug. DOES SOMEONE HAVE TO DIE BEFORE THEY WILL WAKE UP?
• If they aren’t going to recall the sticking clutch pedal, then they need to cover the repairs to fix the sticking clutch pedal and any repairs from the unnecessary wear that the sticking clutch pedal caused.

If you have tried to work with the dealership or Infiniti/Nissan to get them to do just those very things and your attempts failed, here is what I suggest you do, as suggested to me by a consumer attorney:

• File a complaint, in writing, over the phone or online with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by going to https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm
• File a complaint with the Attorney General – Consumer Protection Division in your area. You can find a list by state by going here: NAAG | Current Attorneys General
• Write your congressman or congress-woman. You can find yours by going to https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml. The last thing Infiniti/Nissan wants is a criminal investigation (much like Toyota’s) into the company's safety problems and lack of concern for their customers.
• Contact a public defender at your local news station. Almost all of us have them now. You may not get a call back or response from this but I am willing to bet that if we all do this, one of them will step up the plate and broadcast this problem. And if you know how the news works, when one reports it, they ALL report it. News broadcasts will bring more people forward with the same problem and will provide us Infiniti/Nissan owners with some strength in numbers.

Having lived this, I hope that my tips and pointers help.

In addition, if any of you are in Texas and would like to become part of a group lawsuit against Infiniti/Nissan to offset some of the attorney fees, please email me at dalanamorse@gmail.com

United we stand… Let’s come together and MAKE Infiniti/Nissan do the right thing since they obviously aren’t going to do it on their own.

1slow370

trouble with the lawsuit idea is that i think you would have to prove not only damages at your expense, but that it would also be a real saftey risk(to my knowledge it hasn't caused a crash yet), and possibly some form of negligence on nissan or infiniti's part. Reasons it doesn't really effect safety are that if your clutch gets stuck in on say the highway and you have to stop, you can still stop perfectly fine, the engine will actually help brake the car, your breaks will work fine, and even if the throttle is jammed open, pushing the brake pedal in on any nissan or infiniti will shut the engine off thanks to the safety interlock feature (which also makes a real brakestand burnout impossible).

Yes it sucks balls on nissans part that it happens but the real percentage of failures is actually fairly normal hell for even one percent of cars to be effected by this +500 07-10 Z's and G's would have to have their csc fail. Recall is something like 2-3% for non safety issues, and they don't count cars that have had modifications that could have resulted in the failure so all the guys that have had their csc's fail thanks to a different clutch don't count.

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dalanamorse

It should actually just be a matter of proving it is a safety issue. And a group of people is goiing to get noticed more than one random person here and there trying to get results. It shouldn't take an injury or loss of life for them to do something.

Stopping, sure no problem there. But what about the need to accelerate and not being able to? You're a sitting duck, changing lanes or trying to accellerate and get someone off your tail.... what if that someone is much larger than you? Say an 18 wheeler and doesn't have the stopping power when your car quickly slows with no brake lights? That happened to me. It was very scary. I managed to dig my foot back and pop the pedal back up to make my car function again fast enough to get out of the way but IT SHOULD NOT BE THAT WAY.

Additionally, this problem is WAY bigger than the Z's and G's. After researching this online it appears to be any Nissan/Infiniti that has a clutch. It's their parts in general. I found it Altimas and Maximas too. This problem is HUGE and they know it. Precisely why they don't want to open that can of worms.

Either way, if enough of complain to the RIGHT sources, instead of just griping on a forum, maybe something will get done. The links I provided are the people have authority over this and if there are this many of us dealing with the same issue and we all take a little time to make a simple complaint about the problem, then Nissan/Inifiniti will have no other choice.

1slow370

did you try pulling the shifter out of gear? see the thing is cars stop and they break, and they do all of that fun stuff any way so long as the brakes work and the car doesn't uncontrollably accelerate (toyota) there isn't a really problem. Remember back in driving school when you learned about following distances? they are spaced out far enough to give the guy behind you sufficient warning to be able to see you stopping or slowing down and for them to either change lanes or slow down themselves. Just because no one follows these stopping distances does not make it the auto manufactures fault, it makes the guy behind you get either a negligence, or following to close citation after he hits you. Is it right eh not going there, but it makes your case harder. I would go in and ask a lawyer if you feel you have been wronged if you even have a case before you start rallying the people into a mass lawsuit. Lawyers were invented for a reason and if you feel wronged they are the ones to ask, if a case starts to build then you open it up to a class action and people join the case to try and properly justify all who have been wronged by it. Just my opinion take it for what its worth, i'm not trying to justify Nissan not fixing the problem, just saying that they have an entire legal department and if you don't approach it properly your screwing yourself. complaining to the various governing body's and watchdog associations as well as nissan's consumer affairs is good though it lets them no your pissed, and documents the problem, unfortunately to file a case with NHTSA something has to happen first so if your clutch failed and it may have caused some form of accident go ahead and file.

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6SPD_FTW

This is the important part of all of this. This is a VERY widespread problem. The Z and G is more of an enthusiast vehicle. I'd wager more Z or G owners are actually members of forums. But this is a problem that is VERY well documented on the Maxima and Altima forums. My 2007 3.5SE 6MT did this twice in the 40,000 miles I owned it and never again - both times were when I was drag racing and slipped the clutch at a very high rpm. I have seen posts from Maxima and Altima owners that had this happen on a daily basis and the dealership ABSOLUTELY GAVE THEM HELL over diagnosing and fixing something that is VERY clearly a design flaw on the part of the manufacturer. You gotta think....of all the Altima and Maxima owners, what percentage of those people actually subscribe to a forum and post these problems? There's lots of people with this problem and the vehicles affected (that I've seen) are the 2002-current Altima, 2000-current Maxima, all years of the 350 and 370Z and the G counterparts.

It's a big problem and is very widespread and there are times that accelerating is necessary to avoid a collision - so safety concern....absolutely I say.

Late,
Trav

dalanamorse

Trav - Thank you! It's nice that someone else sees that this is a massive problem and needs to remedied by the manufacturer rather than JUST complaining about it on a forum. All those things I posted to do, I did. I even wrote the CEO of Nissan/Inifniti and complained to the BBB. Enough complaints directed to the write people will get something done about this safety problem. And it honestly is a matter of a little time and small amount of effort. I basically copied and pasted my letter to everyone that needed to know, changed the "to" address and paid some postage. CEO got a certified letter. Anywho... hopefully people will listen and do the same so maybe, just maybe, they will be forced to recall this. As for the accelarating, you can't do that until you have diverted your attention from driving to getting the clutch pedal to pop back up. Until its up, gas does nothing but rev, rev, rev. This is where the danger lies. I hope they do something before someone gets hurt or dies. Seriously.