How do I tell when my clutch is going/bad?
 

I know lately Ive been making a quite few posts about the clutch and everything... but only because this is my first manual car and I want to take good care of it and make it last a long time!
I promise this will be my last clutch question. Lol.

**main questions**

**How do I tell when my clutch is going out or bad, or when it needs to be replaced?**
Ive read about some tests like shifting into 6th while stopped and letting go of the clutch to see what happens... I didnt fully let go of my clutch because I didnt want to stall, but while in 6th from a stop, I let go a little and it was moving slowly with a little bit of shakiness... is that normal?

**Also, does holding down the clutch on 1st and revving to peel out waste or damage the clutch?**

**Also, when in a congested parking lot, I tend to "ride" the clutch in 1st because I dont want to stall and think 2nd is too fast. Same with reverse. Is this a normal practice?**

Thanks in advance for any advice or input.

shift into 4th at 20mph and give considerable throttle. if it doesnt slip chances are your clutch is good.

reving while clutch-in wont wear your clutch. while youre clutching in your throwout bearing is working though...same goes with the csc.

dont ride the clutch.

I agree today with the Doctor KenChan...................

:iagree:

only today? :confused:

Start car, put it in high gear, it stalls you are good, if revs go up not.

So Sorry...And again I'm a big fan of chrome............


:tup:

Holding down the clutch won't burn it off, but the sudden release at high revs to get it to grab and spin the tires can cause damage. Especially if it does not grab properly.

Don't do this:

Limey B...........Were you at one time a pro race car driver............


:tup:

How many miles on car?

Never ride clutch.

And have you priced tires yet?

Bad Boy sure chose the right place to ask questions..................

The 370Z forum..................

:hello:

When you're driving at 40-50 mph, put the car in 5th and floor it. If rpms shoot up without corresponding acceleration, the clutch is toast.

Dumb question here. What does it mean when a clutch "slips"? what does it mean to "slip" how does it feel or sound?

Priced tires? for what? I dont plan on doing a burnout lol.
Also, how do I not ride the clutch when in congested traffic or parking lot? or when reversing from a spot?

Well you were asking about peeling out lol...

Of course your going to "ride" the clutch a little when in traffic or pulling out, that is how they work. Riding the clutch is when you are driving down the road and your foot is on the clutch pedal. That is what people mean by riding the clutch.

ONE MORE QUESTION! Lol.

In automatic cars, normal maintenance requires oil changes, air filter, transmission flush every 30-60K miles (depending), and spark plugs sometimes.

On a manual car, is there any sort of regular maintenance I should know about? does the transmission get serviced in some sort of special way? do I need to flush fluids every once in a while? is there some sort of clutch fluid that I need to fill up every once in a while?

RTFM!

The clutch fluid is DOT4 brake fluid. The reservoir can be found on the driver's side of the engine bay. The transmission also has oil that needs to be changed. I would say do both at 30K (I believe that is the recommended interval for the trans). You should also do the rear diff oil as well. There are posts in the DIY section that can recommend the proper oil and guide you through the process.

Actually, the clutch fluid would be DOT 3 if its never been changed since first bought. DOT 3 is just fine, no need to spend extra money for DOT4.

OP, just drive your car! You sound like your are super paranoid. Do you dream about this stuff too? Lol, seriously though, you are a new manual driver, just keep practicing and you'll be fine. The key points to remember is keep your foot off the clutch pedal until you are ready to use it. I always tell people to shift into N and keep your foot off the clutch while you are stopped, and until you find that sweet spot of when the clutch is disengaged/engaged, put the pedal all the way to the ground when you make your shift. You are going to be fine, just relax!

My bad! I was going back to the time when I changed my flywheel and had to drain all of the fluid. DOT4 was the recommended choice due to a higher boiling temp.

Are those services that I can easily do? or do they require some sort of special tools? Ive done some novice work on cars before, but never changed transmission or gear oil.

its easy to do, check out some of the diys on this site, also diy's at the g35/350z sites. the procedure is the same.

as for clutch, check out the ranger method on youtube. but i recommend you do only 10-15 cycles per instead of 30. i did 30 and the clutch pedal started to squeak... not good. after 5min or so no more squeaking. dont want to overwork the fragile csc.

im going to be doing the ranger method clutch fluid drain/fill every season from now on so that i keep fresher fluid in there at all times.

How bad is it to occasionally "double-clutch" under acceleration at low/mid rpms to get to higher rpm quickly?:stirthepot:

yah, i half-clutch sometimes on my dd since its a little 4banger and it needs higher rpm to get that thing moving in certain conditions.

chances are it wont wear too much since im engaging fully before the plates get real hot. cant smell the clutch. :D but i dont recommend doing this on the z cause the rpm can rev up fairly quickly.

Not sure how double clutching would get you to higher rpm more quickly unless by "double clutch" you mean pop it into neutral, rev it, and dump into the next gear (which would be more of a clutch kick). Double clutching would slow down the shifting. I have to double clutch (or double declutch rather) on my morgan.

I did double clutch on the Z for one day and by the end of the day the pedal was very mushy - I think I boiled the fluid.

You need a fluid transfer pump and a hex bit socket / allen key.

Maybe "clutch kick" is the word I was looking for.:tiphat:

Anywho, I've been known to do it occasionally... only in the higher gears and only below 4-5k though. I'm sure it wears a bit, but people launch by dumping the clutch at 7k and to me that's gotta be 1000x worse.:confused:

I do it on my bike sometimes too, but I'm super careful about that. No wheelies or rear tire drifts so far.:ugh2:

My 2013 sports package with 10.5 k miles is now at the dealer. There are threads on the clutch issue. In my case, I was in heavy traffic and had to ride the clutch as I would put car in 1st, move 10 feet, then go again. The clutch felt different in that initially as you started releasing, it released too quick. Then, it would only come out a quarter of the way and not all the way. Then, I press, shift and the clutch would remain down. I would use my foot to pull the clutch out and then in again to shift, shifting became harder and then, finally, the clutch remained down, the car could not be shifted out of neutral. I was effectively stuck, cars had to go around me, people laughed and jeered at me and my spanking shiny car. Finally, a jogger helped me push the car to the side.
I had to call a flat bed tow truck, have my car towed 115 miles to a dealer. This happened last Sunday. On Monday, the service department confirmed that the Clutch Slave Cylinder had to be replaced and the fluid needed to be the one that is for the GTR.
Today, the CSC arrived but they did not have the GTR fluid which will arrive tomorrow. They have to remove the transmission to replace the Clutch Slave Cylinder. Hope to get the car back on Thursday.
It seems that Nissan is aware of the problem, that lots of 370z's and Infinity G37's have the same issue.
If you warranty is still valid, have the clutch checked out.

If you are out of warranty and your clutch goes bad, folks are recommending the ZSports solution to this issue.

I just love how the dealership brainwashes everybody with this so called "GTR fluid" lmao! Its just an expensive DOT 4, and that isn't going to solve the problem. Sorry to say this, but the csc they are replacing for you is going to fail again at some point. Only cure of this CSC failure BS is going after market with either the Zspeed HD unit or Z1 external slave setup.

First, I am letting the dealer do it because it is under warranty and free for me. Second, check how many 370Z manuals are out there running on the streets and see if everyone now has the Zspeed.

Yes, it is possible that it may happen again. I had the 2010 370Z and it never happened at all in the 4 years before trading it in. Since I do not track or race, I am not going to go after market yet. Once they replace the CSC, I will ask them if it has its own warranty.

Fact is that I have had some 10 new cars and maybe a half dozen used cars in my 44 years of driving cars and I have never had anything major that is after market in any of them except for one stereo in one used car. Mostly, its been filters and oil.

I understand. Might as well make them do their job since its under warranty. Nissan just really pisses me off. The whole "We are going to use GTR fluid in your clutch system" is just a cover up. I guess they want people to think that since the fluid is used on the GT-R its supposed to be magical or something. The csc failure rate is obviously a huge problem.... IMO bigger than the whole steering lock issue. I feel if you have a stock csc, it's inevitable that IT WILL fail.

Actually, the GTR fluid is legit. When my dealership placed an order for a CSC and fluids, the GTR fluid did not come along and so we had to wait till today. It arrived today and they intend to start working on this afternoon. Said they might be able to finish this afternoon.

Not really, just been to a few tracks back in Germany for fun :tiphat:

I just noticed that my clutch doesn't always catch right away between 2nd and 3rd when I'm 'flooring' it up with entrance ramp onto the interstate. It happens only when I'm trying to shift as fast as I can, though. I suppose I should take it easy. . .

No such thing as to many questions or a bad one as well ! That's what forums are for "knowledge" I myself am glad to see you enthusiasm for taking care of your Z ! That being said I agree with Kenchan