My Z is dead 60 miles after a clutch replacement
 

Apologies in advance... Posting from my iPhone while I wait for a tow-truck.


So there was a small oil leak in my Z which at first the dealer was saying was my oil cooler leaking but later said was the rear main seal. Since they were gonna have to drop the tranny they said they would also replace the clutch for free labor.

I bought a southbend heavy duty clutch + flywheel + concentric space cylinder. They installed but I was having problems with the clutch due to tue master cylinder. Anyway they replaced that and e drugging seemed good until while I was driving (and accelerating) at about 60 mph I notice in my rear view mirror a huge trail of smoke behind me. I immediately pull over. When I do I see the oil pan light on the dash while I am trying to slow down/stop (breaks were barely working).

After I am stopped and the engine is off tons of smoke is still coming from the engine compartment. I get out to see my nightmare... Oil is ALL over the place (right side of the car) and all over the right wheel. There is also a trail of oil from the street to where I stopped. I am very sad right now =(.

I took a vid but need to get an actual Internet connection before I can put it on YouTube. I guess for now my Z is RIP. I have a feeling this engine is ****** now.

It's all Nissans fault: Steering lock fuse, CSC failure. Come On!

Sounds like a line on your oil cooler busted. What oil cooler do you have??

As long as you shut the car off quickly you should be ok if a line went. Its just a hell of a mess to clean up.

Helllllllllllof a mess to clean. Hang tight brother. I feel your pain! Holy hell thats upsetting.

Dang, that suks. Sorry.

Do they have to disconnect the lines to the oil cooler to drop the tranny? I am back home now and they could not get someone to look at the car today so I gotta wait until tomorrow =(. If it is my oil cooler which I admit where I was seeing the most oil makes me think this too it seems extremely odd to me for it to come off after working for over a year and 20k+ miles and die 60 miles after I just had the dealer do a ton of work on the car.

As promised here are the videos:

I am using the Nissan/NISMO oil cooler that this dealer installed a long time ago (over 20k miles ago).

Damn this sucks !:(
I live like 5 minutes from Ontario !
Ive seen your YouTube vids before too lol .
Hope this gets resolved /: good luck.

Heh, your in eastvale? Where at? I am actually at my dad's house right now as that is where my spare car is which is in Eastvale and where I have lived for most of the last 10 years of my life (well back then it was considered Corona still officially). My dad is a Z guy too. I got into Zs as my first car was his old 1978 280Z and he has a 350Z now.

Orchard park . Summer/ limonite .
I think I've seen your car twice, once coming back from the 71 .
Nice :D . Which dealer did your car go too ?

I hope it turns out to be the oil cooler. Good luck bro...

Ah cool. My dad is just off Schleisman/Archibald. It went to Raceway Nissan in Riverside. Not a real fan of Corona Nissan and that happens to be where I bought the car so I was trying to keep it all at one dealer.

sorry to see this houkouonchi. :(

GL with the repairs. hope you're back on the road soon!!

Nice :p
I agree with you. I'm not a fan of Corona Nissan after last Visit.
They were trying to hussle me !
I might try Ontario Nissan next to BMW and Honda next time.
Well man let's us know what happens . Hopefully its all fixed and I can spot your z around

:(

OP, what brand oil cooler do you have? I'm wondering if one of your lines blew, or if something else is going on.

*nvm, I re-read some previous posts. Another reason to get a oil pressure gauge if you have an oil cooler. I need to get one installed asap!

Sorry to hear about this. With the various mods and a probable faulty install, it would be easy for the dealership who installed to blame everything else but the install (trust issues I know). In the end, it would cost you anyway so might as well bring it to a more renowned and proven dealership if you so choose. Try Fontana Nissan. Quite a tow trip but might be well worth it. Good luck and keep the rest of us posted so we can all learn.

Anyone know if you would need to remove the lines from the oil cooler to fix a leak in the rear main seal (which requires dropping the tranny)? Not sure if they had to drop the engine too (which I assume would require it).

The oil lines connect to where the oil filter is

Looks like brake fluid, thats gonna mess up the surface/paint on anything it touches.

Good luck man and keep us updated.

So the dealer says my oil pan cracked.. wtf? They seem to think maybe the oil cooler was stressing it or some ****. The timing seems awfully suspicious to me. They want me to go down to look at it but the dealer is 20 miles away and I am working today so I can't do it today. Man its like one thing after another.

wow...that sucks man, hope the dealership steps up and helps make things right.

Op,

Sorry to hear about what happened :(

Just out of curiosity, Do you remember if by any chance ran something over like a piece of metal or something?

If you did then thats what more than likely cause the crack.

If you see no damage near the crack? It maybe a defective oil pan with a hairline crack that gave way? Good Luck either way

I don't really like how they are making it out to be completely coincidental and **** and nothing to do from when I had all the work done and dropped the tranny. I assume its possible for them to do something wrong that could cause the oil pan to crack like that?

It seems way to coincidental to me to be unrelated to the work I had done. Also talking to them it seemed like they thought even if they replace it its gonna have the same problem in another year or two (wtf?) like its fault from the oil cooler.

Oh man that sucks. Really sorry to hear about this. I agree 100% it is way too coincidental - it's almost unbelievable that it was fine for 20K miles and 60 miles after they worked on it, you get this. Good luck, really hope this works out as best as possible for you. Oh and BTW I'm from Ontario too ;)

An oil pan crack doesn't shoot oil onto your wheel like that. You busted an oil cooler line.

That is what I thought too but they said the actual oil pan was cracked... I wish I could go take a look at it but I can't until tomorrow. I guess I will try to take some pics too.

Take a crap load of pictures when you go look at the oil pan.

How the hell could the oil cooler cause the pan to crack? Wouldn't a gasket or seal fail way before that unless the pan was damaged already? Smells like more dealer bs

Look for the smoking gun or cause and effect, most likely the dealer put stress on the oil pan or used it as a jacking point during your clutch work.

When you go to the dealer bring your own roll of paper towels and Fantasic Spray Cleaner and wipe down and look for obvious signs of damage or stress or distortion from service jacks or stands etc.

More than likely the service tech screwed something up.

Bleh saw this too late.. So anyway verizon cancelled my order so I was able to make it down there today and I took pics..

The guy did not describe it very well over the phone. I basically did lose the line to my oil cooler... except that it didnt break where you would have thought it did. Basically where the oil cooler attachment threaded in it took a chunk out of the oil cooler pan (breaking it off) which caused the oil leak. They are being iffy on warranty though because they are still acting like its fault of the oil cooler saying the weight and what not from the oil cooler/lines caused stress and ****... Sigh...

Anyway they do say that they think the engine is ok but they will do a compression test later to know for sure. Here are pics:

http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4717-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4718-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4719-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4720-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4721-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4722-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4723-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4724-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4725-small.JPG
http://box.houkouonchi.jp/oil_leak/DSC_4726-small.JPG

I'd say the dealer can justifiably claim that one as non-warranty. It looks like the adapter was over-tightened. That may not be the problem but it sure looks that way.

At least damage was (or should be) minimal.

I agree. Looking at how it broke (such a weird spot) I was thinking that maybe they over-tightened it as well. This oil cooler was bought from and installed by this same Dealership too but it was a while ago (over a year).

Next question is, how do you repair that? That is part of the block that broke off.

Did they use an impact gun to install that? Yikes! :eek:

I hope you kept your receipt. Good luck with the repair.

I agree, how the hell do you repair it now???

New short block?

It looks that way to me, too, but I'm not very familiar with how the engine is put together. Not much sense in doing a compression test if the block needs to be replaced, so I'm assuming the dealer thinks it's repairable.