Since I bought this car over 3.5 years ago, my biggest compliant has been the smoothness of the factory clutch. I can rarely start off entirely smooth in 1st and shifting to 2nd is bit "jumpy". No matter how hard I try, I can't get this car to be buttery smooth on the lower gear shifts like I can in other manual equipped cars. I've pin-pointed the problem to the extremely quick clutch "takeup". My clutch doesn't grab until it's halfway off the floor and from the point the clutch grabs to being entirely engaged is a less than 1". The clutch has always been like this since I bought the car with 20K miles (currently has 86K). I love the slightly heavy feel of the factory clutch, but the engagement is awful for around the town smoothness. At the track it's great because ripping thru the gears is incredibly easy and it's never slipped on me once. It's sad when I can drive an ACT equipped 5 speed far smoother than my car. I'm not a manual rookie either. I've been driving them for over 13 years now. I've driven a ton of 5.0s with aftermarket clutches, lots-o-Hondas, 6 speed F-Bodies, Talons, and the Maxima is by far the hardest to drive smoothly. Numerous mags have noted the 95+ Maximas as making the drivers look like manual driving virgins. Does anyone else have the same experience with their factory clutch? Is there anything to do that can remedy the problem?

Dave

 

I don't know if theirs anything we can do, but I know exactly what your talking about. I had my share of experience driving 5-speeds before I got the Max and noticed the Max was rather difficult to get used to when i first got it. Over time I got used to it, but it still wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. Especially when I wanted to take a smooth stroll around town. It is twice as bad having the ACT in. I wonder what the 5th gen is like?

 

try driving one with a sts...

 

I can take off smooth in first gear but the shift to 2nd is always a little harsh. After the 1-2 shift all the other gears have a very smooth transition.

 

Every stock Nissan I have ever driven has been this way. I gave up trying to figure it out, Nissan's tranny engineers must not be true car freaks or something.

 

i can get the start pretty smoothe most of the time, but going it to second is a nighmare, i look like an idiot shifting in to it, but after that its all good. i have driven a few other manuals and all it has taken me is one go throught the gears to figure it out, but with my car its been 5 months and i still dont have a clue

 

I think he has an STS already, black019.

Just to let all of you know, Dave has helped me a lot during my first weeks with a manual. He's very helpful and informative as all of you know.

Anyway Dave, its just a little funny to see that an experienced driver such as yourself is having the same problems that I've had, and still have.

I agree with you that the clutch pickup point is a bit abrupt. On a relaxed street drive, I probably get a completely smooth start 1 out of 9 times.

IMO, the only way to consistenly have a smooth shift is to slow it down. I know its a bit more of a strain on the throwout bearing and the clutch, but when it must be done (for example, if I have family in the car) then it must be done.

 

Yea its annoying as *****. One thing that cut the jerkiness down a little is polyurethane motor mounts, however theres still alot of slack. The ACT clutch helps, but its engagement point is even faster then the stock one, and its right at the floor. O well I've just learned to deal with it.

 

Yep, I've got the STS, but I didn't notice any difference in my lack of smoothness in 1st and 2nd. 3rd, 4th, and 5th are completely fine and seemless, but 1 and 2 aren't. The clutch is GREAT for racing because it grabs quick off the line and doesn't miss a beat on a hard shift, but otherwise it's a bit annoying. I've tried every technique I can think of and nothing really changes. Doing the 1-2 shift almost feels like I'm not rev-matching (even though I am). That's the best way I can describe it. Oh well, at least I'm not alone.

One thing is for sure, EVERYONE knows you're driving a manual. I guess that's


Dave

 

Yeah, I feel really good driving next to an Accord V6 or equivalent class. As each car is both accelerating, mine lags for a second, comes back strong, lags again, and then I'm off. It's really great.

 

I have a similar problem with my 98 SE (70K, OE clutch). The clutch does engage in a very short amount of pedal travel, and it took me a few days to get used to. Here's my problem. In first or second, with the clutch engaged, if I go from acceleration to deceleration, he car bucks. It takes way too much attention to keep moving smoothly in slow traffic. I know there’s a problem because I drove a friend’s 99 GXE last week while on vacation, and it was smooth as butter during the transitions. I have a sneaking hunch it might be a broken motor mount, but I’ve done zero research or investigation at this point. Anyone have any insight?

 

I understand as well. I've had a chatter from 4th to 3rd since under 1000 miles on the car. Dealer said it was normal. I've learned alot with buying a Nissan, because it was my first new car. My next car will probably be equivalent to the A4, and there's no way I'll be such a wimp about being told all these problems are normal. Anyway, I've also had a "whirr" sound when starting on a hill in 1st or R, that's when I'm letting the clutch out. That's been around since about 20k or so. Some people like that really soft clutch and accelerator feel, but I think I prefer the stiff feel of the German cars. Maybe I'll change my mind when stuck in commuter traffic!

 

Dave,

Yeah I've noticed that the clutch takeup on the 5spd is extremely quick as well. I too have a bit of trouble driving it smoothly. The problem is the WORST when the car is cold but after I'm driving for a bit it seems to be a bit better. I just try to rev-match as best I can and that seems to take care of most of it. It's definitely a much bumpier ride than the old 90 Camry 5spd I used to drive, but then again I sorta like that

 

what are you doing up so early it's only 8 at night, shouldn't you be recovering, hehe

 

I definatly find it hard to make the 1-2 shift smoothly, the rest of the shifts are not to bad. I usually can start off smoothly without to much trouble though. It's the worst when I am trying to keep up with fast moving traffic, like pulling out onto a busy street. If I just go at a slow pace I can shift a lot smoother. I find it easier to make the 1-2 shift smoothly if I bring the RPMs up to near 4000 RPM, even when I am not accelerating hard.

My wife lets her head snap forward and back when I make anything other than a perfectly smooth shift , otherwise nobody complains. 90% of the time I am by myself anyway. To me the 5-speed is well worth this minor inconvienence.

 

before i say anything.. i would just like to say from Dave's prior posts.. he is an excellent manual transmission driver..

well the maxima has alot of tq in 1st gear down low .. so its very hard to start off.. i find that you have to feather the clutch alot for smooth transmissions..

then again..i like the neck snapping action so i don't mind it.. and the ACT snaps your neck back even more.. so i love it.. its hard if you go from a car like say a Honda.. or other manual tranny cars that don't really take off like the maxima in 1st Gear..

 

I love it when people get on me about how I can't drive a stick when they're riding in my car...

For me the problems I have are most likely mount-related, plus maybe aging OEM clutch-related. Seems whenever the weather is too cold or too hot, my clutch pedal vibrates/rumbles a lot right around the perfect release point. There's a VERY TINY window from the point where it stops rumbling to the perfect release point. So I spend my efforts trying to baby it around. Sometimes if I'm shifting at low RPMs I'll get some chatter/hesitation. What annoys me though is I'll get chatter randomly like...if I'm accelerating out of a turn or something, a little higher up in RPMs, in the actual meat of the powerband (this is what makes me think things are mount-related...once something gets vibrating down there with the body roll from the turn, it's bouncing back a bit possibly? Maybe I'm talking out of my ****...)

Ugh...it gets me because this car is so d4mn smooth otherwise. I still wouldn't want an AT though, by far. I've never had any problems when I've shifted hard, either.

I wonder if the Spec V, possibly my next car, has nissan-ish clutch/tranny issues...*checks the forums*

 

1st gear is can be pretty smooth if I feather the clutch a lot, but the 1-2 shift is NEVER smooth no matter how much I try.

the only time the car is smooth is when engaging 4th or 5th gear. Even the 3rd gear is not as smooth as other cars.

 

I always blamed my poor shifting skills on myself and not the car, as this is my first MT car. Watching friends shift in their cars made my jealous but then I just assumed that as the driver I felt more of the shift then the passenger. Also when I am cruising at low speeds (like driving through my apt complex) the car shudders in 1st and second... and this is really low speeds... Is this normal? No one can explain it but I usually just put it in nuetral and try to roll through the gate to avoid it I recently had to replace my clutch and it became twice as difficult to drive my car at first. I wish there was a solution. I have a feeling the better I become at driving my car the worse I will be at other cars as I will be used to compensating for mine.

Alec

 

i know you have experience but do u blip the throttle at all?i still blip the throttle even when im upshifting form 1st to second. I think the roughness has more to do with the fact that second gear is so long, ull notice the the tach needle drops like a sack of doorknobs in between the 1st to second shift. so if ur just doing it without matching with a little bit of gas, it grabs very jerky like. Honestly i think from lowering and shocks, there is no nose pickup and no nose dip which helps the jerkyness a lot, people think im as close to making a 5 speed feel like an auto. I duno why but i just seem to be the smoothest at driving a 5 speed on the maxima, then any other car.

 

Maybe it was an adjustment they made going from 3rd gen to 4th Gen? Mine is not the easiest manual in the world to shift, but I don't feel like I'm getting jerked around unless that's what I'm trying to do... heh

Nothing like the smooth Honda 5-speed, but not all that bad.

 

I struggled for about the first 6 months or so to start smoothly. I felt like a retard tryin to drive with friends. I have been able to drive stick fine for 3 years prior to getting the max., Its by far the most difficult to perfect.

 

when i'm a passanger in a 5 speed maxima, i can always feel the 1st-2nd shift jerk hard.

 

Last summer I drove a v10 pick up for work and it was a 4 speed. So clearly that is a fairly hard truck to drive yet when I got my max it was a 100 times harder to drive. I could drive my truck with no problems and you could image in the torque in 1st and 2nd gear. To this day I still cant get the hang of this clutch. Anyone who drives with me thinks I'm a rookie and I'm far from it. Hopefully when I get the ACT, it will be better

 

I've never dealt with a manual maxima so this may not help.
When I first bought my car the clutch would engage to high and it made learning how to drive stick very difficult. After adjusting the clutch pedal, the grab was a lot lower to the ground and to me felt a lot smoother and made driving much easier. I realize this will not affect how the clutch grabs.

Oh and please, please don't complain about notchy tranmissions, you guys how no idea how good you have it.

Ant

 

i have the same problem with 1rst and 2nd transitions. it is a bit harder to drive with an aftermarket clutch. i had an easier time with the OEM clutch but i think as my jwt stage II clutch breaks in, its starting to feel easier or im just used to it.
this is a good post because i was getting really frustrated thinking it was me and not the car. its always fun driving the car fast but regular driving is more of a task.

 

Damn, I thought it was always me and the not the max. The max is my first stick shift vehicle so I just assumed that I sucked at driving stick. But now I know it's not me but it's the max. However, I have been getting better at it. I have some troubles taking off but when I do get in gear, from first to second to third, I have to slowly let out the clutch while giving it gas. From fourth to fifth, I can let out the clutch fairly quickly. This has given me the best results with driving the max. However I don't know if this is a good way to drive it or should I let it jerk when I shift in the lower gears? Am I putting undue stress on the clutch and the throwout bearing by letting out the clutch slowly?

 

I don't regularly drive my Max, so each time I pull it out of the garage it feels like I'm learning how to drive stick all over again. Each time it takes me about a day or two of 100% city driving just to get back the timing/rev matching necessary to make it somewhat smooth. I always get chatter from neutral to first making the whole car feel like it's shaking ESPECIALLY when the car is NOT up to operating temperature and the ECU is temporarily adding RPMs.

The Maxima manual transmission is AWESOME if your driving it fast while pulling through the gears, but it plain SUCKS for slow to medium paced driving. I've just accepted this and chose to drive aggressively by adding a throttle blip while slipping the clutch for the 1-2 and 2-3 gear changes. I dread down shifts, which require a HEAVY throttle blip with DEAD-ON rev matching for a smooth transition.

I've ONLY owned manual transmission vehicles and I've driven plenty more, so I'm not a newbie to stick. I used to valet for the summers before I got my Max, so I used to drive anything and everything that came in stick. I believe my Max is by far the most difficult clutch to smoothly engage out of MOST of the 1000's of cars I parked(read FLOGGED!) besides maybe one early 90's 911 Turbo which felt like it had a dying clutch and my x-Ford Probe GT which was FAR worst than the Max. I never truely figured out how to drive the Probe perfectly smooth in the 1-1/2yrs. I owned it. Anyways, I've drove my friends manual 200SX a lot in college and I thought it's shifting was very easy, so I don't think it's necessarily ALL Nissans.

I do have a STS, which only added to the complexity of driving smoothly as possible in my Max.

 

i cheated this by rev matching or double clutching. but its kinda harsh on the clutch.. i remember driving the ae 5spd, it was real smooth, and my sister was in the car too, she thot it was hecka smooth too, she kept on saying how she couldn't feel the shifts when i was trying to drive normal, but she was also real impressed with how much the car pulled. it's nice hearing something like that outa her mouth cuz she once owned an e36 m3

 

its hella annoying... thank god we have enough power to basically cruise around 2nd gear in parking lots and stuff

when I drive my friends cars I'm like about how it doesnt start jerking in first gear if I'm anything less than perfectly smooth...

and the 1-2 shift? I can get em pretty smooth but still not smooth compared to all the other cars out there

and Randy and Sprintmax... werd - 4th gen GXE 5spd now thats a car

 

Hmmm.... are any of you guys in or near the Charlotte area??? Come take a ride with me. I know exactly what you're talking about. But I have long since figured out how to make the car smooth in every gear. It seems to have alot to do with shift speed. I noticed when I fist got my '98 Max that I coudln't freakin hear the engine spin down between shifts. That messed with me quite a bit since i was used to shifting based on engine sound.

Blu, you're the only one here who has riden with me. Is my normal driving as harsh as they describe?

 

seems to be smooth to me???but autos still rule

 

*WHEW*

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue. And I thought my Supra was difficult at first with the RPS clutch I had in it...and now my STOCK Maxima is even more touchy? Geez. I would PAY to eliminate this...

 

most of it is the old Fuel cut issue, get your cars updated, gets 50%-80% of it gone, a vast improvement but still there . Also the clutches tend to grab even when trying to slip. Personally I had to have my coils replaced (check engine light came on) and that helped more than anything. it is mostly engine that feels like tranny or clutch. As I said most will laugh at this. Search Edmunds for fuel cut and here.

Mark

 

i try to engage 1st gear at less than 1,000rpm. i let it rev to about 2,000-2,500, let off the gas ever so slightly and then shift. don't engauge the clutch too fast. this is my version of the "granny shift." to me, letting off the gas slightly just before depressing the clutch smooths it out a lot. if you do everything abruptly the max will respond in equal fashion. if you ask me, driving a 2.5RS or WRX is way harder to drive smoothly especially the way those gears are spaced out as well as the rear differential lash you feel when driving more aggressively.

 

I have had my car for around 10 months, and have put 20,000 miles on it. Only now do I drive my car almost perfectly. It took the whole time to do it.

Unfortunatly, I am going off to college in 2 weeks, and will probably not be driving my car much at all, and hopefully I will still be able to drive it just as well, but I could get bad at it again if I don't watch out.

I am looking into this fuel cut thing you speak of....

 

Yea I have the exact same problem w/my I30. I also figured that it was just my driving since this happens to be my first stick shift car. While it really isn't THAT bad, I feel that I often have to spend way too much time worrying about shifting smoothly. When I drove my friend's ford ranger the other day, it was amazing what a difference it made in how easy the truck was to drive. I am looking to get the ACT clutch when it times come to replace the stock one. Hopefully it isn't that much more difficult to drive with.

 

Well the shifter may feel tighter in the Maxima, but overall shifting in a Mitsubishi is much easier/better. Unless it was just my eclipse...