Just out of curiosity, folks with manual tranny please vote.

 

You change it when the current one fails......

 

There is not rear time interval for the clutch you pretty much change it when it goes bad. It can vary by driver.

 

Yea, you guys misunderstood me; I know that it has to be changed only when I fails. I am just trying to figure out the time when it might fail. Since school is starting and I have to quit my job, I need to know whether I will have to invest any more money in the car before next summer starts.

 

well a better indication is mileage not time. My stock clutch was replaced after 6 years and was still good when i did it (probally another 10k left on it). i replaced it at 126k.
How many miles on your car?

 

as of now it's 75k. Before I bought it, the car was driven in Connecticut in a suburban area, one owner. Staten Islnad(where I live) is a part of New York City

 

You should be good to go with that clutch for some time. Don't worry about it. However, it would be a good idea to change the clutch fluid - either bleed the clutch by way of the slave cylinder or use the turkey baster approach a few times over a period of time to get that old clutch fluid out. Use Dot 3 brake fluid to replace it with.

Also, I think Valvoline has a synthetic product in a silver bottle. Check that out.

Clutch fluid is brake fluid. It is hygroscopic and retains moisture. Consequently, it should be changed periodically.

 

Is there any way to check if it needs to be changed?

 

slipping, lack of grip signs that your clutch is old and time to change.

my clutch feels old and tired and needs to be replaced. Everytime I've had to change my clutch its been due to a bad tranny, this will be the 3rd clutch going in the car.

 

I need help...I have an '04 SE 6 speed and now I have no clutch. About 8 weeks ago it went to the floor while I was in 6th gear and I pulled it up with my toes and made it home...had to pull it up each time I threw it. Dealer charged me to diagnose and said it needed to be bled. A sponginess has been apparent whenever at higher speed with A/C on. This weekend same thing happened, but when I bring clutch back up with my foot, it no longer engages so I can't put tranny in gear. Anyone else have similar experience? Manual says the only thing not covered under warranty is pad. I would appreciate any diagnostic opinions/guesses before dealer re-opens on Tuesday

 

It could be a clutch fluid leak. What did the dealership do to fix the problem in the first place?

 

the stock clutch is designed to slip a little, its hard to tell at times.

 

It sounds to me like you need a new slave cylinder or perhaps a master cylinder or both.

It does not seem possible that these parts would go so soon on a 2004 Maxima and if they do, they should be covered under warranty.

 

I bought a 1998 Maxima and i need to know how do you know when you need to change the clutch?How do you know?

 

When it starts slipping.

 

haha yeah, that sounds about right to me

 

I had to replace my ACT Street disk at 19k when it completely wore out.

 

The best advice I can give you is be prepared. Always keep a 'cushion' (of money) for when stuff like this comes up. You can either wait for it to start slipping (and you'll know) or you can just replace it as preventitve maintenance and take the chance that there is still over 40% of it's life left.

The payoff to preventitive maintenance is you choose when your car goes down, not the car choosing when it wants to go down. The other bad thing is sometimes clutches fail in a way where they just completely stop grabbing and you wont even be able to limp it home or to a shop. Could just save you a potentially large headache and towing bill if you don't have AAA or something similiar.

This isn't really a good poll as it is hard to compare driving styles. Some people on here slip the clutch more than they need to. City driving also wears more than highway. Start on hills alot? etc.

I'm not 100% sure on 5th gens, but 3rd gens you can pull the starter and get a clear shot of the clutch disc and you can get a rough idea of how much material you have left.

Our old 5th gen we had to get the clutch replaced at 97,000 but I wouldn't be surprised if the previous owner had beaten on it abit. I've seen Maxima's with over 200k on their stock clutch, others sub 100k. Average seems to be 125 to 150k

Also be sure to listen to Bobo in post #7, that is something a lot of people overlook.

what is your driving style? Also you know that you don't have to change the clutch when you switch transmissions right?

Learn how to drive

 

105k / 5yrs with daily Los Angeles grind. When I changed it out, it still had 2-3mm of meat left.

right now, I'm 55k / 3yr on ACT setup. I don't expect anything to happen any time soon, but like others have said, keep a cushion of $ for life's unplanned events.

Jae

 

I was told by an ACT rep that the pp was too powerful for my wimpy Nissan.

 

But if you're going through the hassle of dropping a transaxle why not change the clutch while you're there? Unless the clutch is new you're just saving yourself future work.

 

"then why did you twatwaffles make it so strong? :confusedtard:"
if you only have 5-10k on the clutch why not reuse it?

If it is your 3rd+ time dropping the transmission you should be able to do a clutch in about 2 hours. The most annoying part is filling dealing with gear oil lol.

 

Good point. Everytime I've dropped a manual tranny the clutch had 50k plus on it so it just seemed smart to change it.

 

my freinds dad has an old nissan pickup with 250k miles on the original clutch, on the other hand his son(my friend) goes through clutches every 10k miles. It just depends on whether or not you know how to drive and how you drive.

 

My Ebay clutch has about 15k on it and it now slips in 3rd after the engine swap.

Hopefully my next clutch will last me alot longer.

 

I think MrGone is right. It depends mostly on the driver and the type of driving you do. Some clutches last for a decade or more (and 100k+ miles) if the driver is easy on the clutch and doesn't have a messy commute all of the time.

Lots of traffic, stop-and-go, hills, riding the clutch = wears out faster.

Lots of freeway driving, driving out in the country = longer life.

When I drove a lot on the freeway (my first 3rd gen VE 5-speed) the clutch was great and I traded it in with 160k miles on it. I have a feeling the ACT I have in my current Max probably won't make it to 30k, since I have abused it pretty badly. Actually, I am probably more worried about the tranny at this point

 

That's why this board is so great, I never knew this, and I thought I had all the easy maintenance stuff covered. Thanks Bobo