Long story short, we had to trade cars today because I needed to get her tires balanced. I was in the driveway when she drove back from work, maybe 4 miles away. I thought she must have left the parking brake on, I could smell it.

But none of the brakes were hot. Popped the hood, and a definite "burning disc" smell came from the engine compartment.

Car still drives fine, no SES lights. I put 150 miles on it yesterday and it was perfect. Still seems to drive the same today.

She hasn't driven a manual in about 10 years but was convinced it was like riding a bicycle.

Does that just accelerate the wear on the clutch disc, or is it something more serious? I know she has left the parking brake on before and the brakes have still lasted a normal life span.

Just wonder how concerned I should be...if it wasn't for the smell in my driveway, I would not have guessed anything was wrong.

 

bet she was racing

 

Or maybe just mad at me about something and took it out on my Max

 

thanks for letting me know not to let my wife drive mine...or should i lol. at the end of the day..unless you feel the clutch slipping, you should be fine

 

Trooper, go for a ride with your wife and observe her driving behavior with your car. Try to be stealthy about your intent.

If she drives normal, consider a different theory, and buy her flowers.

If she rides the clutch... divorce.

 

.....all she did was just shorten the life of the clutch (or however much was left on it). nothing to be worried about. how long has your current clutch been on the car for?

 

.

 

EP

PIC!!

 

i made the mistake of letting a girlfriend attempt to drive my 300Z- she insisted she knew how to drive a manual...

Her gloriously perky D cups didn't save her from the many "WTF" blurbs that exited my mouth. She ground the gears so damn bad, killed it numerous times and so many jump starts from a stop(this was even in an empty parking lot).

Long story short- make her rent a car next time. Sleeping on the couch for a night and having to buy a nice dinner and movies date is so much less expensive than a new clutch.

 

The only time you need to worry is if she pulls in the driveway and:

A) The transmission is smoking, and you see shards of clutch material protruding from the motor/hood/transmission.
B) She walks through the door and hands you the entire shift linkage.

Other than that, your clutch should be pretty okay.

 

Bwahahahhahhahaha

 

I drove the car about 65 miles today, and everything seems normal.
Thanks for the (mostly) good advice.

Oh, and if Miss Perky D Cups is ever in San Diego, I'd be happy to give her a driving lesson on a Nissan manual trans.

 

You're welcome.

 

Warning! This may cause wife to smoke you!

 

clutch might be a little glazed but you should be fine. be extra nice to her (the maxima) for a few days and you'll win her back over

 

Probably hard to completely toast the clutch in one day of driving but I wouldn't let her drive it again either. No telling how much clutch material was lost. If it is working fine now, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

LOL- noted!

fyi- She could drive a stick moderately well but could not drive a manual transmission at all.

 

:metalmax:

 

^^ lmfaooooooooooo

 

I've noticed that when my wife drives my Maxima, she tends to rev the engine a lot higher in first than I do and rides the clutch more. It's easy to do in this car as the engine is so quiet and revs so easily (darn smooth VQ's!). That being said, she's never gotten it to the point where I can smell burning clutch. I told her to make sure she looks at the tach. while she's starting out in first. She then complained that I make her nervous when I'm with her in the car etc., but whatever. Clutches aren't cheap.

As Rochester said, the best way is to see how she drives it. Take her out for dinner some night and make sure to claim to have had "one too many" so she has to drive home. She'll never suspect your up to anything and since she'll think your out of it she'll drive it like she normally would without you in the car.

 

Aye. The "divorce" bit was obviously a joke, but the first half was earnest advice.

I can count on one hand the number of times my wife has driven my car. Honestly, she's afraid of it. And while I feel a little bad about that, I don't feel so bad as to do anything about it.