I have an 04 with 05/03 build date. 88K miles. I bought it couple of weeks ago, I'm having problems with clutch. The pedal refused to come back once, but that problem was discussed before, but the pedal itself is very hard to press. The transmission was changed not a long time ago, I can tell it y the new stickers on the transmission and it's clean, not dirty. I guess clutch was changed too.

Is there a way to adjust stiffness of a clutch pedal??? If I'll be driving this car for a while - my left leg will be 2X bigger than right. I drove my friends audi a4 an when I press his pedal its like a knife going trough warm butter, I drove a bmw 540i yesterday and it's like day/night with mine and most bmws I drove had pretty stiff pedals, but not even close to what I have.

Anyone had the same problem?

 

If they replaced the the clutch and pressure plate it will be stiff for a while give it a month of regular driving it will soften up.

 

I drove 600+ miles already and no signs of improvement. Can someone install something wrong?

Is our clutch adjustable?

 

My build date is 05/03 and my clutch was never stiff. I have had the droped pedal/no return to the top deal happen twice.

 

I bought my 04 in May of 03. I've had no problem with the clutch with 62 K miles on the car.

It sounds like the throw-out bearing may be binding. That could be caused by improperly installing the new trannie/clutch. Take the car back to where you bought it and complain.

Our clutch is hydraulic with a master cylinder connected to the clutch pedal and a slave to the actual clutch. And it's my understanding that they can be adjusted.

 

The question is: Can I adjust the pedal somehow??

 

My friend has an 05 Altima SER and his clutch had been doing the same thing for a while. Every time he went to Nissan the clutch would go back to normal. This occured like 3 times. One day he had been driving within a few minutes from the nissan dealership and it happened again, so he went right in a this time he was able to prove something was wrong. Nissan ended up replacing the master and slave cylinders, no problems since.

 

I would check the slave cylinder first pull back the rubber boot and if there is fluid coming out it is leaking and needs to be replaced.You can also look at the fluid resevoir and check to see if your low on brake fluid.

 

I have an '04 6spd as well, and I agree...after a day of driving your leg and back ache! I don't know why they designed it so stiff and so difficult to depress. I don't have many positive things to say about my black 04 SE when it comes to its transmission....I guess that is why it stays garaged and I drive the 96.

 

This may be a very subjective question. I would definitely describe my clutch pressure as heavier than average, but still very livable. I would not describe it as very hard. I occasionally drive other cars (06 Civic, 07 Sonata) both of which have 4-cylinder engines, 5-speed manual transmissions and much lighter clutches. When I get back into my car, the difference is very pronounced. But within a few minutes, I don’t notice it. My guess is that Nissan uses stiffer springs in the pressure plate. If that guess is correct, there is no adjustment.

 

I completely disagree with the above. I don't think my clutch is "so stiff .... difficut to depress." After a day of driving (the inter-states) I've never had a leg ache. If my back aches, it is because of my age and not the clutch in my Max. I love my 6-speed trannie (and also the clutch). I've never had a problem with either in over 61 K miles of driving in just over 4 years.

But then I also have a Dodge truck with a manual trannie. The clutch in the Dodge is "stiffer" than the clutch in my Max. But that is understandable given the extra torque from the V-10 engine in the truck -- that the clutch must handle.

However, the hardest clutch I've ever had to push was in my 1965 Corvette (long sold) that had an option of a "fast" clutch or a "normal" clutch. I chose to go for the "fast" setting, which increased the pressure needed to push this clutch -- which was not hydraulic.

Bottom line: "hard to depress" is all in the mind of the person pushing the clutch. What may seem hard to you seems like a piece of cake to me. We can agree to disagree.

 

Anyone who test drives my car says it's hard, not only me.

 

I just bought an 04 6spd max with 68000 miles, and I am having the same problem with the clutch. I have driven several 02 and 03 6spd maximas and the clutches were very easy to press in comparison. I have also had several other people drive my car and everyone agrees that the clutch is excessively hard to press. Other than that, it seems to shift fine, and I have no other problems.

Does anyone know what this might be indicative of?

The dealer gave me a 3k warranty, so I need to get to the bottom of this asap.

Thanks!

 

I can't seem to get a straight answer on clutch adjustment? Is our clutch adjustable at all? Stiffness, or engagement depth? If so, I can't seem to find a "how to" thread. Anybody help?

 

About 16 months ago (before my 04 Max went out of Power Train Warranty), I talked to my dealer about adjusting the clutch. I wanted to have the engagement depth adjusted. Because it was not covered under warranty, I did not have it done. But the service rep implied that it was possible to adjust the clutch. Sorry I can't give you any details. If you find the steps needed for adjustment, please share them with the rest of us.

I suspect that there is no adjustment on "clutch stiffness" -- it is based on the return springs in the clutch.

 

Same problem here. I was told by my dealer that's normal. Also said that all 350Z's have the same stiff clutch pedal.

Maybe some aftermarket clutch set would help. Who knows

 

A stiff clutch pedel is all relative. I invite all of you 6-speed owners to come push the clutch on my 1999 Dodge Ram pickup truck (5-speed manual) -- it is much stiffer.

Also, I had my 1965 Corvette (4-speed manual) set up with the "fast clutch" adjustment and that made the clutch on that car very hard to push.

I actually think that the clutch on my 04 is quite easy to push. Also, my wife has no complaints about the clutch -- but she has problems getting the trannie in reverse (her only complaint about the 6-speed).

 

Regarding engagement depth: this made me think of something. I would suggest that you look into something called a clutch stop. I "installed" this (really, I just screwed it into the floor behind the path of the clutch pedal) in my old 92 bmw 325 and loved it.

It doesn't actually change at which point the clutch engages..... But it's convenient because you can set it up so that the clutch pedal will stop right at the beginning of the engagement range.

I haven't looked yet to see if there's a similarly drilled hole in the max ... I assume there's not. But it prob wouldn't be too hard to rig something up.

 

its the throwout bearing that pushes the forks in on the pressure plate not having enough lubrication, that makes it fele stiff. or it could be from a broken spring in the clutch disc like i had in this old beater neon that i blew the clutch up in. the spring breaks and the pedal gets really stiff or wont engage/disengage

 

Are there ary aftermarket master cylinders for our clutches? i mean a smaller master cylinder because my engineering tells me that pressure=force/area and pressure has to stay constant in order for the slave cylinder to deliver the same force to the pressure plate. So by having a master cylinder that is 1/2 the size of stock, you would cut the force you would have to push by half, but then the throw would be longer in order to keep the same volume of fluid moving into the slave cylinder the same. Also, if you have a larger diameter master cylinder, you would have to push harder, but you could shorten the throw.... now if you could replace both the master and slave cylinders, you could come up with many combinations in order to get your pedal to do exactly what you want it to do. Just something to think about, but if they dont make the parts, there isnt much we can do

 

You can always adjust your pedal.....is that going to fix your problem though: i dont know. i would deff take it back, since you recently got it it may still be under warrenty. From my knowledge(may not be completly correct) i would assume that the stiffness is coming from the slave cylinder because that is directly linked to the clutch plate and transmission.

If the pedal is hard to push you may just be breaking in the new plate and usually they reccomend that you hit the road once its installed. My buddy bought a stage 2 and they told him to drive from des moines to omaha on the interstate and come back on side roads to work the fingers.

You could also check your lines to see if you have a crimp or have buildup? in them. Lots of ideas

 

I had an issue with my 06 last year when the clutch pedal was extrmely stiff. I replaced the pedal and it was fine for about 2 weeks, when one of the spot welds on the new pedal broke, making the clutch immediately stiff again. It also would grind sometimes when shifting fast between 1st and 2nd gear and sometimes the clutch pedal would not come all the way back up at the completion of a shift.
The car had just gone past 60000 miles so the waranty had elapsed. I took the car to a delearship where they replaced the disk, throw-out bearing and the transmission as good-will even though the waranty had just lapsed. This is after replacing the cats and engine under waranty 3 months earlier.
12000 miles later, and no issues.

 

Sounds like they dis something right lol

 

Wait... They replaced your ENTIRE transmission!?

My '05 6-speed also has a stiff clutch pedal. Silver_Max is somewhat right in stating that clutch pedals are realtive, but after driving an '02 6-speed for more than a year, and a few hours seat-time in a friend's '97 5-speed, I can definitively say that the clutch in my '05 is too hard. I worked at Penske Truck Leasing for 18 months and got used to pushing clutch pedals rigged to massive 13L engines cranking out anywhere from 1000->2400 lb*ft of torque and, no joke, the clutch in the '05 is more difficult to push in then on the medium-sized box trucks with 6-speed manuals and ~9 L engines. But, fortunately!, not as difficult to press as the non-hydraulic clutches on the full-blown Semis.

I've also had the issue with the pedal not returning all the way, but it seemed to only occur after I had "bound up" the transmission, so to speak, by parking on inclines when my parking brake was (I later learned) not functioning. Since I replaced the rear brakes and adjusted the parking brake, the pedal has yet to misbehave in that manner.

I really don't want to replace the master and slave cylinder on a car that only has 98K miles AND had the transmission replaced at 45K already. =/

 

Since they replaced the transmission and clutch, 10,000 miles ago, the clutch pedal is very easy to engage. I believe that the only reason the clutch was hard to engage was because something was binding.

 

My wife has no problem pushing the clutch in our 04 w 6-speed. Suspect you are correct that someting is binding. The clutch on my Dodge 3/4 ton pickup is (expectedly) harder to push than the Max clutch. Neither are a chore.

 

wats up i have a 2005 six speed max had plenty of clutch and tranny probs with it first i have the stiff pedal and occational stuck pedal to the floor i had a exeddy clutch put in and new slave cylinder ( the one that connects to the pedal) this fixed my pedal getting stuck but not the hard or stiff pedal feeling. afte blowing a tranny and gettin it rebuild the pedal wasnt stiff nemore but the clutch blew up iam trying to get the car looked at cause it might be a throwout bearing . . . .

 

YES your answer is yes. take it back to the shop and tell them to loosen up your pedal. it is possible for them to instal it too tight.

 

The cylinder that connects to the pedal is the Master cylinder - it controls the brakes. The cylinders on each wheel are the slave cylinders - they act according to "instructions" from the master.