New flywheel installed... Throwout bearing is 1000x louder... WTF?
 

I just got my car back from a local shop who supposedly knows what they are doing when it comes to Nissans and here are a couple of serious issues i'm having.

I had a JWT flywheel installed and now my throwout bearing is un-godly loud and makes a ton of noise.. Even when revving in neutral. When i blip the throttle in neutral it rattles like crazy. When idling... it's WAYYYYYYY louder than it used to be.


Also, the clutch pedal is SUPER soft now. Is that because of the lighter flywheel or does it have something to do with the fluid and the incorrect removal and re-installation of transmission?

They've had my car for 4 days to complete 12 hours of labor and so far.. i'm really not too happy with anything.

I hope someone can shed some light on this...

Okay, I'm not sure what I was staring at in that video, but it did sound like ****. Not sure whats going on there.

Rear diff is fried. They ****** up the install apparently. Just dropped it back off. Burning smell really bad and started whinig loud as ****. I'm so pissed. I don't know if I should put the shop on blast or not.

Throwout bearing is loud as hell, clutch is soft, brand new rear diff is fried.... $1,500 in labor and $2000 in parts later I have a completely ****** up car.

To top it off.... Today is my ******* birthday

Umm... Nothing should sound like that on a car lol. Maybe a tractor, not a car. Take it back and demand a fix.

Sorry to hear about this but you did the right thing.

HAPPY B-DAY :hello:

Sorry to hear this bud, dont blast them yet give them a chance to correct this but if they cant or wont then please do. Good luck man.

They can't look at it until Monday, but honestly I've lost all confidence in their abilities to do things right. Also, I'm pretty sure the gears are shot and a new install kit is needed which is $800 right off the bat. I'm sure they are just going to want to reuse everything and do the bare minimum.

Any advice on how i should approach them, what i should say and if i should even let them touch the car would be awesome.

Do it right or it's lawyerin time.

The flywheel will make a lot chatter .. I have the same one and it's loud .

So I listened to your you tube video and that is normal for jwt .

My clutch was soft after my install as well.. Its your clutch master cylinder going out. It's not holding pressure . I had mine replaced under warranty and it fixed the problem..
For the gears that sucks . I had 4.08 gears and a new LSD installed in mine and the shop I went to did everything right. That whine is from a bad bearing or they did not set your backlash correctly ...

Man it's insanely loud though. Even during low rpm acceleration I can hear the chatter and when idling with the A/C on... It sounds like a John Deere tractor. If that's normal.... That's crazy!

As for the clutch pressure, it was fine prior to install. Wouldn't I have noticed it before? I'm just hoping the mechanic didn't bleed the system correctly or something. He mentioned he had to add fluid and bleed the system. When I checked fluid level, it looked over-filled.

Thanks for the feedback man. Makes me feel a little better.

Also, the whine is way loud. It sounds like the rear diff is going to come apart. I drove the car about 10 miles before it started making the god awful noise, but prior to the noise it had a horrible burning smell like I've never smelled before.

Just found this...

"just thought i'd throw in that "that other 370z site" did an install and review on the jwt clutch and flywheel and they loved everything about it. It didn't effect the synchrorevmatch other than improving rev times, and it gave the the car 6 more horsepower throughout the range because it takes that much power to spin the diesel derived boat-anchor of a flywheel that nissan gave us in order to reduce NVH. They did say that there was noticeably more clutch/input shaft chatter in first gear and neutral or with the clutch disengaged because of the removal of the dual mass dampener in the stock flywheel so if you're picky..."

Yep ... That chatter is normal... I really hope you upgraded your slave. If you did not it will also fail . Maybe you will get 5000 to 10000 miles on it ....

I kept stock clutch... I haven't read anything about having to upgrade anything with just lightened flywheel.

you are ok

Wow! If that's what my car will sound like after replacing the flywheel, I'll pass.

I hope everything works out for you the way you want it to. Keep us posted.

Seems normal from all the JWT I have heard. But the other benefits are great. People always said they sound like a cement mixer. I plan to go with a OS Giken when mine goes.

:iagree: On all three counts.

Chris, I'd be sick too if, after spending all that money and having my car out of commission for so long, that it results in my car sounding like a tractor.

So what's the benefit of the lighter flywheel? Can it really be worth the sound which is claimed to be normal? NFW in my book.

Do we all get too wrapped-up in making mods sometimes? I've yet to do something as simple as wiring my EVO R fog light only because I'm leery of taking the rear deck trim off and tapping into the factory wiring harness. I'm probably going to end up taking it to a stereo shop that has experience taking apart interiors and tapping into existing wiring.

It's been my experience that something unexpected always seems to happen, and I would have been better off leaving things alone. For example, when I had my Nav by-pass harness installed, the nav screen got scratched. The shop has been upfront and ordered a new screen and will be installing it next weekend. Still, it's a pain, and who knows what will get scratched/left unhooked/etc when they replace the screen? Am I going to find a bunch of dash rattles, who knows?

I'm not saying this is the case here, and I hope things get fixed to your satisfaction. Keep us posted and good luck!

that sounds bad....sounds like an old diesel engine

The benefits of lightweight flywheel allows the engine to more rapidly transfer power to the drive train and to have quicker throttle response. The motor will rev faster under acceleration with less rotational mass in the powertrain. There's just always a trade off with parts of this nature.

I have an aftermarket flywheel that came with the South Bend kit. In neutral it makes a bit of noise, but slightly louder than OEM. In the low gears and low speed, it definitely chatters. I was worried it was the exhaust rattle. It is not that bothersome compared to inconsistent effort to get in and out of gear.

Exactly accurate.

The thing makes noise. That's the tradeoff.

So just to quadruple clarify... I know it is supposed to be louder...

But is "holy **** my car is falling apart!" loud explainable for someone who's never heard a Z with lightened flywheel?

I just want to make sure I'm good because it's crazy, ridiculous loud. Sounds like a diesel tractor.

Thanks for all the feedback.... Now back to my fried rear diff. They don't have a clue to swap final drive gears in a 370z which makes me wonder of i should even let them fix their f-up. Also, I'm nervous they will try and use all existing parts to half *** it even if something got damaged.

I would feel much better with a brand new gear and install kit from Z1 and have someone who knows exactly how to install them work on it.

Problem is i don't know who in the Austin area can do this. The only recommendation i got is the shop that ****** it up.

Somewhere I have a video with the cam mounted right in the front grill. You want to hear a tractor? lol

I'll post it up when I get a chance. I personally love the sound but I had to lol when I played it back with the speakers turned up...

Hey sorry to hear about your situation with the chatter and rear diff. I to had a Lw F1 flywheel installed along with a Exedy clutch on my 350 nismo and it was noisy as hell. Petal felt light. I was really upset at first. Also I noticed the car lost its balls on the lower revs and didn't pull hard on acceleration. Yea, It reved up faster no doubt but it felt like it lost its tq. I asked myself over and over again.. Was this upgrade worth it? I just learned to live with my decision and adapt to the cars feel. If i had to do it all over again ima stay with the OEM fywheel.
As far as the rear diff Id wait and see what the shops manager had to offer you B4 you put them on blast. Give us a follow up on the outcome. Btw bday. I'm sure your gonna be satisfied when its all over with. Your patience is a virtue in this case. Gl

Your ring and gear should be fine . I would buy all new bearings , seals and the crush sleeve .. It's not that hard . What kinda shop is this ?

It's a performance shop. If I said who it was I think you'd be surprised. They are pretty well known in the Nissan world.

I hope they foot the bill for all new bearings and seals and also pay for someone who actually knows what they are doing to do the reinstall

I had a feeling from day 1 they weren't sure how to install the gears... Should've went with my gut on that one, but at the same te they shouldn't have accepted the job. Being who they are and the name they represent, I had confidence in them.

I agree. They should foot the bill for the parts and someone else to do the swap. Are they a shop on this forum ?

No. I'll PM you who it is.

Sounds normal, sounds just like my 350z, the sound is worth the performance personally. The 370 z/g feel.extremely lazy with their revs on the stock setup.

Hopefully they own up and get you fixed. That's all that matters.

you can try switching to a heavier weight transmission fluid, and also over filling a bit. it won't hurt as the gear case is not pressurized. As the transmission fluid warms up the oil thins out and the output shaft gets noisier, that fidanza/jwt flywheel will get louder.

this is most likely an issue with the soutbend clutch, I removed mine after it became extremely difficult to get into 1st gear, the clutch is basically dragging/not releasing all the way. I spoke to the creator of the zspeed CSC who helps put together these southbend kits and he seems to think I got the wrong clutch disc (too thick) so I'll be returning it for the correct one hopefully. Where did you get your clutch from? RCZ and myself got them from concept Z and we both had the same issues.

I have a Competition Clutch flywheel and the upgraded csc in now and it shifts like stock again.

Sorry to hear about your luck. I've had great luck with my 4.08 gears from Baker Tuning. I have a feeling I know the shop your talking about as I asked them about doing my gears and they straight up told me that they had never done a set and would just follow all data during the install. There's a lot more to installing gears than reading some directions.

I got it from ZSpeed. PM'd.

You drove all the way up to Houston to have them installed? How long did it take them?

I hope everything goes well tomorrow. I'm nervous they are going to not want to help as much as I expect them to.