Sticky: (Official) 370Z Clutch Pressure (CSC) Failures

ephan

Morning Folks, I am having the same problems for over a year and a half! Car was towed to the dealership @ 22k with the pedal to the floor. They changed the CMC and sent me on my way. Car was towed to the dealership again @ 24k with pedal to the floor. They changed the CSC and sent me on my way. Then last week @ 33k I had the same feeling the pedal was going to fail babied the car to the dealership again, arrived with the pedal to the floor again! They called me yesterday and said the CMC and CSC is fine. The reason for this incident was because they used Nissan standard brake fluid. They said the flush the system and replaced it gtr special brake fluid and that should solve the problem.

ephan

with 3k miles left under warranty, I feel the TSB for Nissan NTB13-026 is just a BS answer. I called Nissan customer relations in Franklin, TN and they said if this happens again, it might not be covered since my car will be out of warranty. If it happens again, they will review my case at that time and make a determination. Any comments on fix to use gtr fluid? supposedly they said Nissan engineers got together to determine the fluid was the cause of the clutch failure.

Jsolo

I'd buy the fix as a bandaid at best. If the master and slave are both intact, and pedal still goes to the floor, then there is air in the system. If the system was properly bled to begin with, the air is a function of moisture absorbed by the fluid over time. The gtr fluid is a more highly refined brake fluid with higher wet/dry boiling points. Because of the proximity of the clutch line to the exhaust, it's susceptible to heat. If there is any moisture in the line, it will boil and partial/full loss of the pedal can occur.

Proper fix would be to run the line further away from the exhaust or better insulate it.

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ephan

within 10k miles I don't think that much moisture could be introduce into the system, could be as simple as the dealership didn't properly bleed the system. I am suppose to pick up my car this afternoon, with this situation dragging out over this long, my love for the z is becoming bipolar. thinking about just trading in the car rather than picking up the Z today.

chknhawk

Just found this thread. My synopsis is the clutch cylinder is probably ok. I would change it to a higher quality one though. The master might also need changing.

I just got mine done and not 2 weeks later the pedal started going again. First they were bitching because I had some bolt on stuff and they said they saw me AUTOX the car... I told them to fix the **** or go get the regional manager so we can take care of it... .along with some other choice words. There was air in the line this time due to me "boiling" the fluid. HORSESHIT! anyway. I would change the CSC (which I will do very soon) and might as well upgrade the clutch in the process. I have test pipes and catback so I can imagine it gets hot under there... no heat shield anymore. Maybe insulate the lines and change them out for steel lines. Upgrade the fluid for sure. I wish they would just recall this part and upgrade everyone but I guess everyone doesn't RACE their Z on the weekends... lmao. AUTOX is not racing... just like skateboarding is not a crime.... neither is autox. lol :-)

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jstevenson

well. 8 1/2 months after my CSC failed the first time on my 09... I felt my first loss of pressure in the pedal. It went about 1/3 of the way down with no pressure before engaging. So I can tell the replacement CSC/MC are beginning to have the same issue again.

At about 33,000 miles now on my 09. It's a little over 4.5 years into service.

N8GTOL

Could have been trapped air. After my second CSC replacement I noticed when driving home from the dealer that the engagement point was extremely low and did not feel right. I called the dealer immediately so that I could bring it in the following morning (I would have turned around right then and taken it back but needed to be somewhere and it was drivable). The next day the clutch felt back to normal and the symptom has not come back to this day (>1.5 years, 10k miles, and a track day). I chaulked it up to trapped air that worked itself out with a little modulation. Also keep in mind that if improperly adjusted by the dealer the CSC or CMC could be over extending causing a failure or sucking in air.

Hang in there and don't give up yet...I was pretty frusterated when I went through 2 CSC's in 6 months and the car was <1year old but (knock on wood) since then all has been good.

Denny McLain

A little more feedback..........At about 18K miles on a trip from Dallas to Houston I pulled in to get gas and joined the "clutch hit the floor and stuck" club. Anyway it was fixed by the dealer but had to return it a couple of times as they did a poor job bleeding the slave unit.

Move ahead to 43K miles.... Started acting up again. Not a complete failure, but the only way it would work was to pump the hell out of it. Thinking all it needed was to be bleed, went to a local shop near my house and they bleed the unit. Worked fine for about a day and had to return the car for the same issue. After reading a service bulletin from Nissan, they replaced the fluid with GTR fluid and it felt great.......for about another day. They thought the fluid might be boiling off so I took a rubber fuel line, split it in half and covered the hydraulic line with it to insulate it from the exhaust heat. Same deal, worked fine for a couple of days and then went back it's old ways.

Being the car is basically babied with a total 3 trips down a 1/4th mile track (btw...13.08 @ 109.78) and the stock clutch stunk after the third pass. That combined with the design issues, decided to replace everything with aftermarket parts! I called Joe @ Zspeed and he felt the issue was the master cylinder. Not interested in more issues, I went for a stage II South Bend disk and pressure plate, Zspeed slave and new master cylinder. He tried to talk me into a single piece flywheel, but I have zero interest in listening to the trans rattle in neutral so I stayed with the stock unit.

After about 200 miles of break-in this is a much better unit than stock. Smoother, slightly more pedal pressure and better holding power. Turn the traction control off and it puts down some serious rubber at the 1-2 shift and 2-3 shift. Still a bit fickle regarding progressive feel, but an improvement. We'll see how long it lasts. Went from a Corvette with an aggressive ceramic disc to a 370z and the 370 definitely is harder to get a feel for. Better, but still not as smooth as it should be.

Denny

Joe@ZSpeed

The feel you are "not feeling" is due to the stock flywheel and is why I tried to talk you into the 1 piece It makes the car MUCH easier to take off smooth in and just makes it "feel" right.

With the stock dual mass flywheel, which is sprung, and a clutch that is sprung it makes to much slop in the drive train and makes the car bounce back and forth or sorta surge while taking off.. which makes your foot move on the clutch pedal which makes it bounce even more.. All of this goes away when you rid the stock dual mass

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Jsolo

^^Joe, any thoughts on why nissan might of designed it this way?

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1slow370

Oldest question ever. Simple shitty dual mass, or clutch chatter take your pick

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk now Free

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hunterinc

I had the sticky clutch issue a couple of times but it went back to normal so it was all good until two days ago when i was just driving and noticed it sticky again. After 3 gear changes it just stuck to the floor and wouldnt allow me to get back into gear. I towed it to the dealer and now theyre trying to charge me $1800 to replace the clutch.

From what I've been reading, the CSC and/or CMC needs to be changed, but the dealer insists that the whole clutch needs to be changed. Any advice?

chknhawk

The fluid boils/gets too hot and causes air bubbles in the system. The only reason the clutch pedal will go to the floor is because of poorly bled clutch or faulty clutch cylinder. The clutch cylinder lines go out of the bell housing along the side in between the transmission and the cats. A lot of heat gets trapped right there causing quick fluid breakdown. I don't personally think the clutch needs to be changed unless your pedal is working fine but the car just won't go into gear. It's not rocket science but I think this is a serious problem that Nissan should address on a global scale. There is an aftermarket CSC as well as steel lines and high temp fluid. I think when I finally get the parts that I am going to try to isolate those lines and wrap them or something in order to block some of the heat. I don't race but my car will get hot and I can't afford to have my pedal on the floor and the car stuck on some highway.

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Jsolo

If you're going to do a clutch, go after market and get rid of that dual mass crap flywheel.

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DarylP

VIN: 553000
Purchase Date: June 2011
Occurrence Date: Aug 2013- final "STF" (Stick To Floor) 10/16/13
Occurrence Mileage: 32,000
Clutch Type: OEM


My clutch pedal started experiencing the symptoms reported in this thread around 31,000 and progressively got worse. I don't do any track or drag. Took it to a Houston dealer who reported everything is fine. A month later I am having to use my foot to help the clutch return. Returned to same dealer and this time told them about this thread and ongoing issues. They then agreed to conduct the service bulletin by changing to GTR brake fluid. However, that dealer does not service GTR's and would have to order the fluid and I was to return in 3 days for work which I did not make it that long. Clutch did not make it 75 or so miles before there was almost no pressure and I was having to pump the pedal to get any sort of pressure. I went ahead and drove to nearest dealer to avoid watching some a-hole tow truck driver tear up my nismo bumper trying to get it off the side of Houston freeway.

This time (great service so far!) the master mechanic drove the car with me so I could explain. Basically, he agreed its an issue as he has replaced several CMC but that Nissan is going to require that it actually fail before they cover it under warranty. Therefore, all they will do now is replace the fluid with GTR fluid per the bulletin as Nissan America don't give a **** that it will eventually fail and leave you stranded. I have 4,000 mi left on warranty and feel they are simply putting a band aid on it to avoid warranty claim. I will eventually wrap the lines as suggested above. I did successfully talk my sons girlfriend out of buying a new Nissan since they dont stand behind their quality based solely on this thread and my experience so far...so I feel a little better!