CSC failure

34k miles
6/19/13 DOA (at dealer)
21 days past warranty
daily driven spiritedly

Driving from Arlington to Ft. Meade, the clutch started with about half pressure from the floor and slowly lost it completely. I parked at work and when I went to take it to the dealer during lunch, I couldn't even get it in gear. I had to keep pulling the pedal from the floor then pushing it back in to finally get it into gear before starting the car. It stalled at a couple lights and I barely rolled into the dealer which was ~4 miles away.

The service tech said it would've cost $2300 but was on the phone with Nissan all day and got me a "deal" for $850 for the whole assembly. Intake and tune down the drain :( If this ever becomes a recall like the steering lock, will I be refunded the cost?

$2300 for what? Replacing the entire clutch, or just the CSC?


$850 doesn't sound like much of a deal if it's just the CSC.

If it were to become a full-blown recall you would be refunded, however that seems unlikely since Nissan can instead call it a service bulletin which is not retroactive and only applies to warranty work. The only way to force a recall is to flood the NHTSA (part of DOT) with complaints.

$2300 for the whole clutch assembly.

this is exactly what happened to me but the dealer was able to recreate the problem via test drive and they covered everything under drivetrain warranty

i also have a 2011 nismo

I'm surprised no one stickied this thread yet since this problem is so common, and that we've been seeing at least one new thread each week about it.

Class action lawsuit time!! My transmission is grinding again like last time before loosing pressure on csc

I drove to Florida for my grandfathers funeral from texas last week. No issues until I got back to town. Clutch pedal is getting stuck closer and closer to the floor. 09 with 60K miles on it. No issues until after my trip. My only vehicle so going to have to call the dealer. Should this be covered under drivetrain warranty? I've only had the vehicle for ~7 months. Definetly able to recreate the problem so thats not an issue.

Car wouldn't shift into 1st unless I turned the car off, put it into first, restarted the car. While driving it was very difficult to shift into any other gear and so I took back roads to make sure I didn't cause a wreck.

Stopped at a stop sign right next to work and sure enough it wouldn't shift into first from neutral until I turned the car off and put it into gear that way. Hopefully I can get home today. Going to call the nissan dealership I bought it at and see if my warranty covers it. I bought it used but have only put about 8K miles on it since I bought it 6 months ago.

Not many people have been successful getting it replaced under the powertrain warranty but it has been done. Hopefully your dealership will work with you.

FYI the powertrain warranty is 5 years / 60000 miles.

Yea, called the dealership this morning and the service advisor said the CSC should be covered under the extended warranty. He also said that the first step is to change out the fluid which I have to pay out of pocket for.

Unfortunately for me I can't get down to the dealership till saturday so my car is going to be sitting at home while I ride my bike to work everyday. Time to get my workout on!

Loss of pedal pressure
 

I recently noticed that after driving on the interstate for an extended period of time, my clutch pedal would get soft and id have very minimal pressure at the bottom. It would pump back up after a couple uses. So last night I go to leave the house and I cant get it to go in gear because there isnt enough pedal pressure. I check the reservior and its good. I sat there and pumped it and finally got it in gear. I drove to work, came back out to leave and now i cant get it to pump up enough to get it on gear. My Z is a 2010 with just under 50k on it. I have an extended warranty to Hendrick " the dealership I bought it used from". Id like to see if Nissan will cover it under factory warranty, but the nearest dealership is 2 hours away. This is more than likely my CSC correct? Id do the work myself and upgrade everything, but I dont really have the cash to spend on that stuff right now, nor the time and the space to fix it. Ive got a baby due at the end of sept and my wife would flip if I went and spent the money to replace clutch, flywheel, CSC.

Hi Gaston,

I'm thinking that if the CSC were failing there would be a system leak and loss of pressure, that would result in fluid loss each time you pressurized the system with the MC. However since you aren't losing fluid it may be the Master Cylinder instead of the Slave cylinder?
Or since you say "extended period" then maybe a heat issue and the fluid is boiling? Just a quick thought, the MC is MUCH easier to replace, haha.

Congratulations on the Baby, by the way!

Sure enough
 

This happened to me (2010 370z NISMO) spring of 2012 in New Orleans. Clutch gave out and dropped to the floor. I was going from 1st into 2nd, as I recall.

I tried pumping the pedal hoping to improve pressure, but no go.

Long story short: A day or two later I had it towed to a dealership who, oddly enough, hadn't heard of such issues. I had done my homework however via this and other forums online, so I knew of it happening. Anyway, I suggested to the maintenance folk that it has been noted previously by others and that they may want to contact the regional office for some feedback.

They did, in fact, reach out for input and found that while the regional office didn't have a specific "fault" to suggest, their fix was to swap out the master cylinder slave and one other part. I can't recall now exactly what the second part was and I'm in the middle of a move, so I would have to dig through some paperwork, but it wasn't a very difficult fix. If there's a Master Cylinder AND Slave Cylinder, it may be that combo they swapped out. And it was covered by the warranty.

The good news is I haven't had an issue with it since the swap out.

Not sure if that helps, but if the local dealers/garages aren't familiar with the issue they need to call the regional NISSAN office.

No, sounds like wrong answer from dealer/garage
 

I suggest ensuring these folks call the regional NISSAN office(s) for confirmation of the fix. This issue has been around long enough and, as of last Spring when it happened to me, the fix was much simpler -- assuming swapping out the Master Cylinder AND slave is simple in comparison.

I am not a pro-mechanic, so my terminology may be off a bit; yet I'm quite certain the regional office told the folks down here in New Orleans to pop out both parts and replace.

No issues since.

Sounds like overkill on their part if they're talking about replacing the entire clutch assembly. Again, I'm not a mechanic so take what I'm offering with a grain of salt (so to speak). I'm assuming the "entire clutch assembly" means a bit more than what I mentioned above. Good luck!

370z clutch pressure/CSC failures
 

The same thing happened to my 2010 370z last spring and it's having the same issues currently -- so I'm up on what the problem is. Mine started on this long trip once I had the opportunity to open it up and slip into fifth and sixth gears. The clutch pedal began going limp and I had to reset manually, i.e. lifting it up with my foot. Not a good feeling.

I guess my question is why hasn't there been a "complete fix" to the issue. I'm surely among enough with this same issue that a final fix should have been sent to dealers.

Given how few MT's are sold, probably cheaper to just fix them as they come in rather than issue a proper fix. Some mba crunched the numbers no doubt.

Wellmy csc failed on the highway about 20miles from home. i got to the top of the exit ramp of my exit before it stalled. managed to get it started in 2nd gear by using ignition and then flooring the pedal to keep it going. got to a parking lot 2 miles from my house and called AAA. I took off the transmission today and im going to upgrade to the zspeed HD CSC and use this time as well to upgrade the clutch and flywheel with a competition stage 1 clutch and 17 lb flywheel.

So Zensation,

Your CSC failed by losing pressure to move the clutch spring in, correct? So that would mean you were losing fluid pressure right? So then you would have clutch fluid leaking from the CSC (every pedal press), otherwise the closed system would work, unless the master wasn't pressurizing the fluid to move the CSC diaphragm/bellows out right?
That's my understanding of the hydraulic clutch operation, it's a closed system and the primary failure mode is an open in the system.
If however, the clutch must be "pumped" up to work then that would suggest failure of the master cylinder.

I realize I'm beating a dead horse but I'm trying to rationalize the reported CSC failures that apparently have no fluid leaks associated with the failure (I know I'm assuming a lot here). I just don't understand how the CSC fail mode can be anything other than a leak, but guys report no fluid loss when their CSC is totally inoperative, can't put the two together.

So please let me know what the failure mode ends up being, a leak? If so did you lose fluid, etc.?

Clutch failures with no visible fluid leaks usually involve failure of the master cylinder. Rather than pressuring the fluid in the MC/hydraulic line, the MC piston is simply moving back and forth with fluid leaking past the seals in the MC bore. You can call this an internal leak. Level in the reservoir would not change.

So technically it's not a CSC failure and a hell of alot cheaper to replace. However the symptoms are the same --- no clutch pedal [pressure].

Right, my point is that guys report CSC failure but with no fluid loss, take to the dealer, dealer "changes CSC", and sometimes CSC and MC, then clutch works, but I'm wondering if they only change the MC and that's the issue and charge for CSC work? Either way it's a PIA.

^^Good point. I know some dealers can be shady, but if it's warranty, there's little a customer can do.

If non warranty, I'd be demanding to see all the old parts before I pay a cent. I suppose same can be requested for warranty repairs too. For the latter, I doubt nissan would approve a CSC labor line without an associated parts line. Not sure if they require return of the original part or not, but that would keep dealers from defrauding the warranty claims depts.

Yeah so i pulled my transmission and the inside of the bell housing was soaked with brake fluid so it must have failed in a big way. I noticed no issues prior to the one time i just touched the clutch and it just fell to the floor. The master is fine though cuz it pressurizes fine when i pulled the line off the bell housing.

What is probably happening here is that somehow their line may have gotten air in it or maybe over heats bad quality fluid. They may change the master and the slave but then the next thing they will do is bleed the system with new fluid. My guess is all they really needed was to bleed the system in the first place cu if either cylinder fails there with be wet spots somewhere and a notice of fluid loss.

Ah, definitive proof. I plan on changing mine myself also when/if it fails. Problem is no one knows when! I am debating just going and buying MC and CSC and fluid and storing them in my garage just-in-case.

May I ask how you got your car up in the air? Lift or Jack Stands or what? Your method? I know it's been discussed several times before but everyone has valid input as to how they solved the problem i.e., lifting the car, methods, etc.

Thanks!

My suggestion, if you're going to start this whole mess, do the MC too. One less thing to bleed and deal with in the future - especially if your car is higher years/mileage and/or is driven aggressively. My 2¢ worth.

If you're reusing the clutch assembly, make sure the surfaces are cleaned real well to prevent other engagement issues.

Yes I put the car on jack stands I am going to write a comprehensive diy when i finish the project (when the new competition clutch and flywheel come in with the hd csc) but basically where im at now:

1. jack the car up front and rear on jack stands.
2. I have the hks exhaust and the resonators on the mid pipe have a cross member welding them together. I had to remove those mid pipes but not the h pipe or the muffler section so that was nice.
3. undo the 4 bolts connecting the drive shaft to the rear diff. it just pulls out of the transmission.
4. Remove shifter assembly from inside the car. (i did this as step one before i jacked up the car). Use one of the many diy's to do this. its pretty easy.
5. remove all the mounts for the main wiring harness at various points along the transmission. remove all the plugs from their sockets as well.
6. at this point the transmission is in a somewhat free state. the next step is to remove the bottom plate under the engine to gain access to the back of the bell housing as the bottom tranny bolts thread in from the engine side.
7. remove all bell housing bolts. they are all pretty easy to get to excpt the top 2. I couldnt even see the top 2 i however managed to use a frankentool as follows(17 mm socket a 6 inch extension then a universal joint connected to a 18" extension into the socke wrench) you can reach up and feel the 2 bolts at the top of the bell housing so just fish the tool up and onto the bolt. this sounds way more complex than it was the bolts arent torqued down super tight as their purpose is mainly to keep the tranny from walking along the spline.
8. Once this is done get some sort of jack positioned somewhere on the tranny and apply a slight bit of pressure up not too much remember it aint going anywhere. Undo the 2 bolts at the back of the tranny holding th cross member black tranny mount to the car.
9. slide the tranny back and out. Have 2 people cuz that B*&%# is heavy!
10 the csc is right there in front of your eyes inside the tanny bell housing behind the throw out bearing. remove set on fire and mold the plastic into something that shouldnt be allowed anywhere near the functional part of a hydraulic system. If you got that far i think youll be good....

this is my first time doing anything this 'serious' with a car and im finding it rather easy. If I can do it so can you. Just took me like 4 hours to get it out of the car.*****also do yourself a favor and drain the tranny fluid and dont smell up your garage like i did. its free to come out the drive shaft opening at the back. GL

On my way home yesterday I was starting out from a light and was surprised when my car lunged forward like I didn't know how to work a clutch. Then I noticed the pedal had not returned to the normal position and the clutch was engaging right off the floor. within a mile I had to clutch pedal at all. I nursed her home using manual rev matching to shift and luckily it was all freeway except the last few miles and only one light that I was able to coast through a right turn.
Today the dealer said the repair was to replace the fluid with Dot 4 GTR and this seemed to have fixed the issue. I asked him what his gut feeling was and he said he expected he would see me back at some point.
The car is a 2013 Nismo 370z with 2100 miles on it, only had it for three months and while I have done a few fast launches I am generally very easy on the car. Haven't had trouble with a clutch for 30 years, so this is disturbing.

PLAS-TEKE CSC...it craX...NeeSan cost-cutt'N....U say u'r clutch hi-dralic fluid is contaminated? :D Replace w/metal Z speed CSC and DOT 4 hi-dralic fluid...Fixt!

Dealer replaced the clutch fluid and all is back to normal (for now). I am not going to invest in an aftermarket clutch at 2000 miles, if that's the resolution then Nissan can have this car back. Also asked the service tech to check for the spring spacers and sure enough he handed them to me when I picked the car up. Can't wait to track her again without these!

Clutch failure back brief
 

Just got the back brief from folks at the dealership and they, in conjunction with Nissan regional I suppose, have decided to replace both master and slave cylinders. They said they found air in the system which caused the pedal to go limp at higher speeds/gears and once the air expanded it became an issue in the lower gears as well. That's my take on how they described it. Rather than guess which was the culprit that was allowing air in the system, they're replacing both. And that, my friends, is exactly what I thought they'd do prior to engaging.

Let's hope this is the last go around.

As a side note, I posed my earlier forum query to the mechanics at the dealership as well, I.E. "Why no stable final fix for such clutch failures." And they said the parts involved may have been upgraded along the way to compensate for earlier versions that had issues, but that they weren't always notified of such upgrades. That they would not have access to the older version of, say, the master cylinder and/or slave cylinder and would have to use the upgrade. I hope that makes sense.

We'll see, I get the car back tomorrow and will immediately take it out o' town to see how it responds in fifth and sixth gear.

This has not happened to me yet, but from reading the posts on this thread this seems to be some kind of heat issue more than anything else. I've noticed a lot of failures have been happening after long road trips on the highway, so it does not make sense that a clutch component is failing after periods of non use.

I'm not too familiar how the hydraulic system works for the clutch pedal, so my hypothesis is based on some assumptions. I wonder if driving without engaging the clutch pedal for long periods of time is causing clutch fluid to boil in certain sections since the fluid is stagnant. Perhaps shifting back and forth between 5th and 6th every few miles would alleviate this problem. Or if the fluid does circulate all the time, maybe there is some design flaw where heat is generated and not dissipated properly when cruising for long periods. I've never heard of other transmissions requiring DOT4 clutch fluid for light street use.

I think replacing the master and slave cylinders is just putting a bandaid on the problem. The real problem is what is causing the fluid to get so hot on the highway. Once we figure that out we can find a real solution. I read in other articles that it was easy to boil the brake fluid as well which is why they switched to DOT 4 in the Nismos. This may simply not be enough venting going on in these cars.

^^^You may have a point, the CSC is made of plastic components and known to fail early. zSpeed has aluminum replacements.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the OEM and ZSpeed both have a plastic bellows that travels up and down, and don't they both have O-Ring seals that travel the length of the CSC body/sleeve? So if only the base of the OEM CSC is plastic, and that doesn't fail, but the O-Rings in the sleeve go out, maybe there is something different about the ZSpeed other than not having a plastic base?
I'm not doubting the superiority of the ZSpeed CSC but is there reasonable evidence of the OEM unit failing solely because of the plastic base? All of the failed CSC's I've read about here are due to O-Ring failure and leakage. The photos I've seen of the OEM CSC show metal components (bearing, sleeve, etc.), not plastic.

Same problem as everyone else. The dealer said it will cost $3-4k to replace the csc and clutch.

Sticky: 370Z Clutch Pressure (CSC) Failures
 

Sorry if I missed this but every now and then my clutch is almost empty feeling for the first few inches with zero engagement until it's closer to the floor board but after driving it ANC pumping it a bunch it stiffens up again. Been happening more frequently. I have a 2011 with 35k miles. Think this could have something to do with the master cylinder or the CSC?

Also it normally happens after the car has been sitting for a couple hours. But doesn't do it every time.

You need to replace the fluid and bleed the clutch b/c you have some air in it.

I just had a shop do that though they replaced the fluid in the diff and the trani. U think they messed it up?

No it sounds like there is a little air left in it,or a bad MCS