Burning through clutch (dot4) fluid

strojny

Right before Christmas, my clutch pedal fell to the floor. The fluid level was very low, so I babied down the street and after looking for "clutch" fluid for a while, I grabbed some prestone brake fluid and topped the it off. The reservoir was empty. I drove straight to the deal ship and they did a pressure check, said it was fine then charged me a few bucks and I left. The car is an 09 Sport MT with just under 37k miles today. I bought it in August 2012 from a private sale. The dealership told me to bring it back if it happened again. It did about a month later. Same pressure check and everything was fine, but they didn't charge me. Today, the pedal travel was a bit off, about 1/2 way down before the clutch would disengage, so I brought it back to the dealership and they are going to take a look at it on Monday. They told me it would be under waranty, so that's a score for me. Both times the dealership did their checks, the car felt great afterwards. I have been topping off the fluid every week since Christmas, but in January they told me to come back when the reservoir was empty.

I have noticed that great burning clutch smell in the past, especially after long drives. I have now noticed that when the fluid gets low, the car shakes a bit when taking off in first, and the vdc light will come on. It's rougher in the morning and I let it warm up a at least 5 minutes before taking off. The car is my daily driver and I put about 110 miles on it a day. It's still stock and I get it serviced when the orange light tells to too. I see there are some clutch issues with this car and the oem parts. Does this sound like a CSC issue and if so which aftermarket clutch parts are not going to burn up my fluids?

N8GTOL

I don't think you are burning fluid. Similar thing happened to me...reservoir was very low. I took it to the dealer and they found the CSC was faulty. They replaced it under warranty and all was good...for a while. Took it back when the reservoir started to drop again. It was another bad CSC. Again, they replaced it with no fuss. So far this CSC has been doing well @10k miles.

The CSC is crappy with a plastic housing. It can be over extended and cause it to leak.

I think your dealer is just missing the obvious. Perhaps go to another dealer in the area and take your old paper work with you. Not all dealerships are equal. Also, if this is causing your clutch to burn by not fully disengaging between shifts, then they could owe you a new clutch disk under warranty also.

Good luck getting it fixed! I strongly suspect a CSC leak and if not that then the Master Cylinders are known to leak on occasion too (although this is less common).

DIGItonium

If you replaced the CSC several times, then you should also get a new master cylinder. It happened to my friend's G37. They replaced the CSC three times before realizing the master cylinder was the culprit.

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strojny

I'm dropping it off tomorrow morning. The service rep told me they would pull the trans to get to the bottom of it. I'll post an update, but I'm sure it will be a common theme on here with the csc. I guess I'll upgrade at the 50k mile mark.

strojny

After a week at the dealer, I just picked up my Z. It was a leaking CSC. The dealer also replaced the clutch plate because it was contaminated along with a few more parts. I really think its Nissans way of attempting to sell more sweet Versa's.

DEpointfive0

God I hope you're clowning with us

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strojny

It was the loner. I felt like I was in a glass bubble.

juld0zer

If the master cyl was leaking, wouldn't there be a dribble all the way down the firewall? Brake fluid.. paint... not a good mix :|