bprinz08

I bought a 2001 Nissan Maxima SE today with a manual transmission and 181,000 miles. I am new to manual transmissions so i was not perfect at first. I rode the clutch some and stalled out a few times. I smelled the awful burning smell 2 separate times during the same ride, however, at this point I beat the learning curve and no longer stall out and have no problems on hills for the most part. Have not burnt the clutch at all since. I took the car out 5 times today and only had problems the first time. I am paranoid that I may have severely shortened the life of my clutch. Currently the car runs fine except for a slight back and forth jerking that happened once on my 3rd ride but I think that happened because I was in 3rd gear only going 20mph and it only happened then. Please help!

Derrick2k2SE

iTrader: (3)

Don't worry about it. A clutch can handle a little abuse without wearing out.
If it was good when you got it it's most likely fine now.

Either way, there's nothing you can do about it. It's a wear item. There's no maintenance, repair or even inspection you can do now to help it so nothing to worry about. Drive it till it starts to slip then replace it.

AEKnight

I think you can do an easy test of the clutch by driving at a low speed, like under 30 mph in 5th gear and floor the gas pedal. If the your car accelerates clutch is fine. If it slips, well then you know your clutch is on borrowed time.

MadMax SE

When I got my 00 se it jerked badly despite my manual driving knowledge. It turns out just about every bushing from the motor to the subframe was shot. With all my bushings now being either poly or deleted by washers I no longer rock back and fourth. I would shift as sloppy as I could and it still will not rock.