Z left me stranded
 

All good but my Z left me stranded. I dont post much, just read and take notes . This is my 3rd Z and the muthaf@#$a left me stranded. 25K mi and no issues until last Saturday, I pressed the clutch and guess what, it didn't come back up. Well it came up half way a couple of times but then it stayed down. I was close to a BMW dealer and I literally coasted in the parking lot. Pulled out the phone and to my surprise I read the slave cylinder or hydraulic throw out bearing is the correct name has issues. Needless to say I left it there for a day and got a towed to Nissan. BAD BAD MOVE. So the service rep calls me and says something is wrong. DUH. The tech got the pedal up but its slipping, blah blah blah..... you know the rest. Oh sir you need to let us look further. OK, they look and guess what the fly wheel and pressure plate and crazy burn marks not to mention the springs are all bent up. No leak by the throw out bearing so they cant fail it. They are claiming that the reason the pedal stayed down is because of the clutch slipping. umm isn't the clutch a hydraulic issue, not mechanical but whatever I went to dealer and saw everything so I had to buy all new stuff. Used the search button, called Joe from
zspeed, purchased stage 2 south bend clutch, flywheel with quiet disk, hd csc, master cylinder, steel lines, some fluid 1500 bucks. Dealer charging 700 to install. Damn. Tech seemed cool and spoke about this a little bit. The service rep was ok but I think I got a conflicting story about the pedal coming back up. Whatever, they installing it now. I will update when its done. OH yeah I called Nissan and guess what, they took 3 days to tell me nothing is covered. Thanks Nissan. Last Nissan I buy. Next sports car will be real sports car but for now Im broke so have to drive my 2012 370z with FI exhaust and all this new stuff...... Anyway thats my story, sorry fellas just venting to the community.

CSC failure for sure. There are also people that bought brand new Nismos with less than 100 miles and they were stranded. Hell, there is a guy here that bought a brand new 2016 Nismo with less than 6 (yes, six) miles and he had CSC failure.

Sorry you had problems, but since when is the Z not a "real sports car"?

And it's not going to be your last. Plan for it.

Reply talk man. This is my 3rd. I had two 350z's but this is it. Read about the clutch and flywheel. It's not meant for us to really get on... It's mean for us to drive all soft and shi&. Read about the corvette. Yeah it's 20k, more bit f it. I'll save for two more years than force the z. It should never be giving this problem and the bad thing is. This is not the last. I got the metal slave cylinder now but u know what. It's gonna happen again. Horrible and Nissan just blows it off. Crap..

No comment..... U right, what store

Never heard of anyone having the zspeed csc fail on them so not sure what that is all about. I have heard of the newer stingray corvettes having overheating issues though the same as us, but overall they are good cars. Plenty of people on here track their Z's, but they address the problem areas first the same as you are doing with your Z and i have yet to hear of any of those guys having any major issues. I know you were venting, and yes nissan could have done a better job with their choice of parts on a few places on the car, but that doesnt make it any less of a sports car. Like they say though, whatever your choice ends up being i hope you are happy with it....for me though my Z makes me happy :)

The Z is not without its problems but if you think a vette is bulletproof you are going to be for a more expensive world of hurt.

This is your 3rd Z so something keeps drawing you back. Take a step back, relax, and fix the issue. Anything with wheels or a vagina will give you a major headache sooner or later.

Hahaha yeah man that's true :icon18:

Well I did some research and seems like you guys doing well with the south bend so I went with that. I called stillen but after I spoke to Joe it was obvious he was more helpful. Don't know if I mentioned it but the new flywheel was from Nissan was $1120, the friction discuss and pressure plate was $750 the csc was $170 a few small parts but it added up to $2800 if I went OEM from Nissan including install. Took the z speed route and changing the master also this added up to $2200 with install. I will definitely post how it feels when I get it back.

GL with the fix!

I track my Z and drive it hard as Fvck. No issues. My neighbor has a c6 Vette... Lol. Yeah, he is impressed the only thing I go through is tires...

The 7AT.... So glad I got it... The reliability is so much better the AT and the transmission is tuned to near perfection with DRM.

Thanks! There are a million clutches packages out there but I think it usually a good idea to use that search button and see what the community has to say. Now just have to hope the Nissan tech is good and he seemed cool.

:iagree: Go 7AT, I've always been a manual guy but decided to go with the paddles & glad I did.

yah, dealers usually have at least a few qualified techs there so im sure they can figure it out. if i had the tools to do the work i'd do it myself borrowing a hand from mr. jar. :icon17:

for mine im thinking about taking her into a shop down the road to get the aftermarket external slave cylinder installed. this way i can fix it from there forward as the piston is on the outside of the tranny housing if it ever fails. my 12yr old G's using the old nissan external slave cylinder and no issue.

When the dealer replaced my short block, at 24k miles, they also told me the clutch and flywheel had serious burn marks, and offered to replace it at $0 labor... $1800 for parts.
I told him I have been driving manuals for 30+ years, (and I drive like an old man) and there was no possible way that was the case. He told me I could stop in and see the disc for myself. (I'm positive every dealer has a "shelf disc" and flywheel for such occasions) I told him to re-assemble, and I'd take my chances, knowing that if in fact it does fail, I'd go aftermarket anyway. That was almost 20k miles ago........Clutch is still perfect.

Just make sure they change the master cylinder!

Guys, I hate to say this but we have had multiple places we've sent parts to (new master and slave, clutch etc.) and they are only changing the slave, Shoving the master cylinder in the toolbox or something and not actually changing them! Mark the new master, Check it once you get your car back and ASK FOR YOUR OLD PARTS BACK before the work is done so they know you want them back!!

good idea... should I sharpie it?

and how easy is it to check the master?

:shakes head: sounds like dateline (tv show) investigating jiffy lube and others. :rofl2:

You can see the top of it once installed, Yeah mark it with a sharpie on the top side somewhere!

Right... We had a recent customer that supposedly had everything changed we sent him, Had a sinking clutch pedal once he got it back from the shop, Called out the shop on the master (we told him the only thing that could possibly be causing that would be a bad or weak master) since it was supposed to brand new he checked further and found the original master still in the car.
The shop owner actually called me to verify the difference in the parts, Called out his tech (not sure if he still has a job)
Fortunately it was easy to do as this particular customer has a G37 which the master is slightly different in compared to the 370Z master we send with all the kits. Shop owner refunded customers money....

Sorry to hear about your problems, OP. You're fuckin right about Nissan, that's for sure :shakes head: I consider myself lucky that I got 50K out of my CSC without issue before took a precautionary measure and replaced the OEM slave with an aftermarket solution.

Please take your new clutch system and drive the hell out of it knowing that you won't have issues with the slave and the master is only $100 and easy to change out :tiphat: :driving:

Good call!! Sad that so many shops deserve this much distrust.

You haven't come out with a master, right? Have you made any progress on one in recent years? Simple yes or no answer is fine - I don't want to derail this guy's thread too much ;) :icon17:

No

Dealer called today, said they are working on the car. They called to verify that no bolts came in the package so they have to charge me for new flywheel bolts. About 9 dollars. All old parts will be given back to me. I specifically told them about steel hose too because this wasn't cheap. Joe I'll be reaching out to you soon for a few more parts. Thanks for the over the phone help.

Same thing happened to me, I was stranded in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska, not covered under warrenty and basically told me it was "normal wear and tear" which its not. But I love the car so...

Off topic a little and sorry for the thread jack, but just curious...is the zspeed csc reuseable if at some point you just need to change the clutch out?

We have had people reuse them but it's recommended to rebuild it if you are doing a new clutch, Just like you would change the Throw out bearing with any new clutch, If you have purchased the CSC from us we will rebuild or sell you the rebuild kit at a much much lower cost than a new unit.

I'm still a little dubious about the master cylinder being failure prone, there have been more documented failures of the heavy duty CSC then the master cylinder. If some shops are lying about replacing parts and sending cars back in non-working condition what makes you think they are even replacing the CSC instead of just topping off the fluid and sending the car back. I think there have been only 3 people here that actually know their MC went bad one of which had multiple failures which leads me to believe something else is causing it rather then getting multiple MCs in a row that are defective. I think it's more effective to say make sure the shop actually does the work they say they do rather then say all MCs are weak and need to be replaced.

I can tell you from personal experience that the master is prone to failure. I've replaced the damn thing three times in 75K miles. Myself. It's not anything other than a shitty part.

If you didn't replace it when the slave failed, it will eventually crap out on you, possibly stranding you again :ugh:

I've posted all over this forum on my experiences, but here is a-poor-attempt-to-be-brief synopsis:

I think it's even noted that the manufacturer will not honor any warranty unless the MSC is replaced at the time of the CSC swap... YMMV

People are hard pressed to get any of the clutch system replaced under warranty. I still feel that of all the people here with manuals, a total for 3 people (Jarblue, Alstann, and tibal) with a total of 5 MC failures between them is hardly enough to make it a failure prone part. The vast majority of people replacing the MC isn't because of failure but because it's relatively cheap to replace when your doing a clutch job and a handful that have failed are posted all over that they fail.

A reading from the holy book of manhood according to FalconFixer.

Sorry... I had to quote this comment because of how epic it is. Carry on.

You act like those are the only three people who've ever had a master fail on their 370Z. I'm guessing a lot of people don't post about a failed master because it isn't a big deal. The CSC is a much bigger issue as it costs significantly more to fix.

The CMC may not be as prone to failure as the CSC, but it is still part of a poorly designed system leading to higher failure rates. If the CSC fails, the closed hydraulic clutch system becomes compromised. Dirt gets in the clutch fluid and that dirt can subsequently affect the what may have previously been perfectly good seals in the CMC. But now that dirt has compromised those seals as well, so you are looking as CMC failure in the near future most likely. This is why you should replace both. Not because the shop is trying to make money off you.

Just ask resident expert Joe at ZSpeed whether he thinks the master should be replaced whenever the slave is replaced. Or if you know best, try it out for yourself and let us know how not changing out the master with the slave works out for you.

Call me a little 'OCD', but every car I've ever had with a MT, when I replaced the clutch and associated hardware, I also replaced the slave & master cylinders, along with the rubber hose (if it had one). It's just a good idea... :)