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

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• Devil34 (Owner)

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Let's sticky a thread that lists owners who experience loss of clutch pressure with the pedal sticking to the floor. Please include the last 6 digits of the VIN, since Nissan support requested this number when calling for support. Hopefully we can gather some failure stats.

• VIN: 406164
• Purchase Date: 04/17/2009
• Occurrence Date: 09/14/2010
• Occurrence Mileage: 16,158
• Clutch Type: OEM

Summary:
Getting ready to leave work, warmed up the car, pulled around the corner of the parking lot, and the pedal sunk to the floor when attempting to engage 3rd. The morning commute was normal, and there has been no real complications other than random shudder when going into 1st. The more I press it, the further it sunk without returning. A twitch of the foot would kill the engine. Clutch is stock. I never dumped it, burned out, etc. Only a few spirited driving once in awhile.

Conclusion:
[09/15] CONFIRMED CSC FAILURE, and a new part will be overnighted. The failed part must be returned to Nissan, but I asked the service advisor if I could examine the CSC and take some photos to benefit the community in regards to what's causing the failure.

[09/16] Car is still at the shop. The tech spent the entire day removing the transmission. Hopefully it'll be ready tomorrow afternoon. On a side note, I requested them to check out the brake switch and re-align it to resolve part of my throttle delay issues.

[09/17] Got the car back. The tech said something about fluid leaking out of the CSC. From looking at it first hand, it looks like it is leaking from the inside indicating o-ring failure. He said the last car he worked on had the same symptoms, but it was the master cylinder that failed. He was surprised about the condition of my clutch (clean) because he wonder if I ever drive the car hard. The car seems to drive a bit better, softer engagement, less play, and so far no signs of judder.

Part Number: 306A1-JK40D

[EDIT] Found a term for the random "shudder." It's called clutch judder:
WikiAnswers - What makes a clutch judder

One of the vendors on another forum that I get on found an issue with the slave cylinder on the 350. It sounds like you may be having the same issue. They were fabricating a better one to overcome Nissan's poor design.
I'll try to dig up the info if you're interested. Might give you some arguing points if nothing else.

Thanks, my dealer says they've encountered only one similar issue. They're going to look at my car and call me back in regards to the problem. I read a few threads about CSC upgrades, but it was mainly to correct the compatibility problem with aftermarket clutches.

I'm kind of lost about owners, like myself, with the stock clutch and [possibly] failed CSC.

In for updates.

Yup... got the call and confirmed that the CSC had failed. When they replace the part I'm going to come in and take pictures and discuss with them about what possibly failed.

sorry to hear DIGI. also in for further updates

it would helpful to have more feed back on the failures like whether it is just the front plastic piece that is failing, or the rear where the seal is, or both. the bearing itself is attached to a plastic piston and then there is the plastic base. All i know is this is a french part not a nissan part (thanks Renault and Valeo).

Got the car back with the new CSC. I forgot to take home the paper work, so hopefully they'll send it to me so I can list the part number for revision tracking. Attached are photos of the failed CSC. It does not appear physically broken, but it appears a seal has gone bad inside. So how do we strengthen this seal? How do we get the plastic piston to support additional load?

My service advisor says if Nissan does not need the part, then he will give it to me. I plan to ship it out to SpecialtyZ for further examination.

[EDIT] After doing some research about CSC and leaks, it CSC and piston seal leaks are nothing new with CSC. So CSC is easy with the effort, but the seals are problematic. Ford and Jeep uses CSC, and owners complain about leaking seals. Goodness why the heck Nissan would use a CSC in a sports car!!?

Anyhow, perhaps we should research various CSC manufacturers to help produce a higher performance CSC that can support higher hydraulic PSI, use an aluminum piston, higher quality o-ring seal (one site lists EPDM rubber), etc.

dealers fied this problem twice for me already.. first time was clutch master cylinder, next they replaced slave cylinder. and ouch on that pic with the flat bed!! my front fender scraped hard when they towed it on one of those

well lets just hope you get a recall or something.

I have been having issues as well, first off a few months ago my clutch was stuck on the floor, and I had to pry it back up with my foot. That has happened to me atleast two times now. After a few times at WOT I get this really nasty smell coming from my engine bay, it smells like some kind of burnt fluid ( i'm thinking it is clutch fluid). Now very recently I am experiencing when I shift my engine revs about 2k higher than normal, then shifts in to gear. Unless I drive really slow I don't really experience anything. It is very strange, I have an obvious loss of power......I will be taking my car back to Nissan very soon...

Some owners suffered burnt clutch disc from the CSC failing, so you should definitely get it checked. Mine never had this issue other than the stuttering. I experience stutters a tiny bit with the new CSC, but nowhere near as bad as the original one.

hrmm...well I have an appointment tomorrow with the dealer,,,I hope this is a warranty issue, and not something with my clutch...I've heard they can be pricey,and would probably be better to upgrade the whole thing...

My Z...1 month old...is at the dealer for a CSC replacement right now. The day after I bought the car I was checking all the fluids and noticed that the clutch fluid was below the MIN line. It was a Sunday so the service dept. was closed but I took it over to the dealer anyway and spoke to the GM who was nice enough to scrounge up a bottle of DOT3 from the back so that I could top it off in the meantime to monitor it. I filled it back to the MAX line and now 1200 miles or so later he fluid in the resivoir has dropped about 1/2 inch below the MAX line...pretty much right between the MAX and MIN lines. Took it to the dealer and they confirmed my suspicion of a CSC failure. I should get the car back tomorrow, time will tell if this one is gonna hold. Also note that the car had 400 miles on it when I bought it new.

At 400mi., your car had that many test driven miles? Hopefully you got a good deal on it. Mine had about 8mi. because it barely got off the truck and was taken to the shop next door to get window tinting and clear shield.

IIRC, the CSC costs about $100 online. Expect at least 1 day of down time.