This site was a great source of information when I was looking for a new car and ended up picking up a 2002 SE 6-speed. Unfortunately, what’s brought me out of lurking is a problem that I am hoping someone here can help me with.

I’ve only had the car a couple of months, and it has been driving great. My wife was driving it last night and said that it became difficult to get into gear. When we came back to the car later and attempted to drive it, the transmission was inoperable. The clutch will depress to the floor (with strangely little resistance) but the shifter feels blocked from any gear but reverse. If you try to select reverse, the gears grind.

I have checked the fluid level (reservoir in front of driver firewall, right?) and has enough fluid. I’m not sure what else to check.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide,

-Aaron

 

It could be the clutch master cyclinder or clutch slave cylinder. but since the car is an 02 do you still have a bit of the remainder warranty left on it? if so definatly swing by the dealership. Also check and see if the gear problem is gone when the car is cold, or driven first time in the morning.

 

Warranty wise, I bought it at 35K, and it's now at 37K, and I'm not sure it's covered under the 6 year/60K. I'll be calling the dealer that inspected it for me tomorrow.

The problem manifests anytime the engine is running. I can freely move through the gears with the engine off, but once it's running, it's a no go.

Thanks for the response.

 

The clutch is def. shot. Be it the slave or the master cyl. you are def. in a tough spot. You should have your wife get in and pump the clutch and watch under the hood. If you dont have the stock airbox you should be able to watch the clutch engaging on the tranny. You should see it moving back and forth. Take a look at the pic below:

 

sounds like you blew a throw out bearing. Same thing happened to me. Just get a nice new clutch kit which will come with everything you will need and you shouldn't have to worry about it for a very long time. Kinda interesting though how this is all happening at only 37K. Should be a waranty item unless it's a clutch then it's normal ware and tare and not covered. Never hurts to get it checked out though. +

 

All internal lubricated parts are coverd in the 60k warranty that should also cover the tranny.
Oh yeah, I highly recommend making buddies with the service tech. because sometimes, just SOMETIMES they let things pass onto the nissan warranty and some dont... mostly cus the service guys also get paid on comission. they usualy dont get much for warranty work.

 

I had this problem once. The next day i went out and forced it in to gear, ever since then i haven't had a problem

 

Car is now at the dealer, hopefully the warranty will cover. Thanks again for the help and sugestions.

I'll post what they find.

 

Dealer is quoting 1300+ for new Plate, pad, throw-out bearing and 9 hours labor. He says he cannot tell me any more about how this happened until they open it up. And, these are wear items so they are not covered by warranty.

Does this sound right? I'm in disbelief that the car was inspected by a Nissan tech at 35K (just after purchase time) and said the clutch was good, with plenty of wear left. Then at 37K the car drives great all day, then suddenly degrades from difficult to shift to undriveable in about 20 minutes, and that's normal clutch wear?

Did I just pick a bad one, or does something stink here?

 

It sounds like they dont even know what it is and are just giving you the grab bag price. Take it to a different dealer. Talk to someone else. Don't be afraid to talk trash on the other dealer too. They love the chance to get your business.

If the price still stands, I would look into aftermarket stuff before going back to Nissan. You can get a transmission shop to do the work, pick-up a JWT clutch and flywheel and still come in at the same costs. You can throw in LSD while you are at it.

If you get stuck with having to get all that done, I would go to aftermarket stuff.

 

Go to another dealer - clutch being a "wear item" at 37k is ridiculous. Did they do the inspection at 35k?

Regardless, go to another dealer, and if they give you the same reply call Nissan customer service. BE NICE, no matter how frustrated you are, explain the problem, let them know you're a Nissan fan, are surprised at how this freak problem happened on such a quality car, one reason you bought was the powertrain warranty, love your car etc. Good chance they'll work with you (that's how I got my hood and bumper repainted at no charge).

Good luck!

 

it sounds like the price they quoted you for was to do a standard clutch replacement. This is a normal standard wear item and replacement, however what you describe is not a worn clutch. When you have a worn clutch, your clutch pads will wear down to the point where you wont have the necessary friction to connect the power from your engine to your tranny. When this happens you will feel the car slip, meaning your RPM's will go up but your car will not go. It has nothing to do with being able to put your car into gear.

What is essentially happening in your car is your cluch is not dis-engaging. Why? Well, it can be several things, however the most likely is your clutch master or slave cylinder. Make sure you have plenty of fluid in your clutch master cylinder, and see if you cannot bleed the lines. Technically it could be a problem with your throwout bearing somehow, but this is highly unlikely. IT also might be a slow leak in your clutch fluid. Do you notice any fluid leaking onto your garage floor? If the previous owner knew of the problem they could have filled the fluid and sold it to you. A slow leak might take 2 months to completely drain out. Either way, it SHOULD NOT be a wear item and SHOULD be replaced under warranty. Follow maximax2's advice carefully and hopefully they will fix it under warranty. Do not believe them when they say that you just need your clutch replaced, because that is pure BS. Those bastards will tell you anything and get you to pay for it too.

I have not seen this problem before. Usually Maxima's hold up better than that. Let us know what happens.

 

After speaking with three different dealers and the Nissan 1-800 number, and getting nothing other than a sympathetic ear, I took the car to an independant mechanic who specialized in imports.

After he took the clutch apart, it seems that the clutch is indeed worn out. In fact, there are scorch marks all over the plate and flywheel. The wear is so bad that he is recommending replacing the flywheel (too worn to machine). What makes it strange is that he thinks that it may not be the original clutch, other than the wear it is in excellent condition.

Now I'm still a beginner at driving a manual, but I don't see how that much damage could have been done in such a short time. Perhaps the prior owner drove the hell out of it, then sold it. But it never really seemed to show signs of wear. I had several people (auto engineer types, and other experienced manual people) drive it since I had no basis of comparison. The only thing that one person noted as unusual was that it was extremely light and smooth, which I took to be a compliment to the engineering.

So, it looks like the dealer was honest, they were only guilty of charging dealer prices. The lesson that I'm taking away from this is that if you choose to buy a manual transmission with above average performance, caveat emptor. The prior owner may have bought it for a purpose, and sell it for a reason.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my questions.

 

Aaron, I am sorry to hear that. I am extremely perplexed almost to the point of being bothered as to how that problem could cause what you described. What you described was EXACTLY what would happen if your clutch master or slave cylinder were not working correctly, and NOT a worn clutch. The only thing that I can think of that happened, is that the excessive heat and wear on the clutch and pressure plate somehow fused the entire thing together???? I don't know, but I've replaced many clutches, and I've seen some that were catapulted all to hell by some freaking idiot who drove like a maniac and I have never seen or heard this before. Usually as the clutch wears, it will slip quite a bit, and if you keep driving it, you will lose all friction between the engine and tranny. Anyway, be certain of your driving techniques, and make sure you dont ride the clutch. Be nice to your new clutch and you wont have to replace it for a long long time. Best of luck to you.

 

i've seen cars go through a new clutch really quickly when you are new at driving manual trans. my friend brought a new 2001 protege 5sp and wore out the clutch at 20,000 miles because he didn't know how to drive stick well.

 

If it were just that I'm that bad, I'd feel like at least I know how this happened. Problem is that while I could use improvement, I'm not _that_ bad. Also, I've only had it for about ~2,000 miles. I would think that I would have to actively try to break it to wear it down that quickly.

MaxOctane, I believe that my poor description of the symptoms may have you confused. The mechanic told me that he was able to start it in gear and go from there (a trick I'll have to remember). He said it wasn't easy to drive, but it could be done. So the hydraulics were still working. And while the parts were scorched, I don't think they were fused together, just lots of heat marks.

But the only time that I can recall smelling a burnt clutch was the night it failed, and it had only been acting/smelling strange for ~5-10 minutes. My theory is that whoever I bought it from drove it hard and wore down the clutch. That night, something (pressure plate maybe) finally failed/stressed and then the clutch would not apply sufficient pressure so it began slipping and burning. Because it was driven for a bit longer, the whole assembly heated up and caused damage to all components, including the flywheel.

Does that sound plausible?