Hey Org,
Here is the long and short of it: Yesterday i am driving and i smell clutch, so i pull into an empty lot, and it is coming from my car, so i head straight for the dealer, well, i get there and the service manager is like, whoa, that is bad, so then today after he already smelled the burning clutch, he calls me and says there is nothing wrong after his service guy drove it. YEAH RIGHT, so they drive it more and smell it, but the clutch has no slippage or bad pedal feel, so he says that i am going to have to pay for the tear down of the clutch to see what is wrong and possibly pay for the replacement because "clutches are like brake pads" warranties dont cover them........ I was like then why did i buy a $26000 with a warranty only to be told the warranty isnt worth its weight in dog crap, he told me to call nissan usa, of course they are closed today, and he said that maybe they could come to some aggreement that nissan would pay for it, wait am minute arent they supposed to pay for stuff under warranty, i think they are, anyway i need your help in knowing what to say to nissan when i get to talk to them so that they pay for what they are supposed to, because i dont have the money to do anything right now and i am making a 400 mile trip in may to go home from school, i dont want to be stranded in the desert because my clutch goes out.................... any advice is greatly apprieciated
WHEELMAN

 

The clutch is absolutely covered under the powertrain warranty, just like the automatic transmission is for automatic equipped models. If you're under 36K miles as well, then they basically have no choice but to fix it via warranty...

 

Quicksilver, do you have a text copy of the warranty or know where to find one online, i have the nissan 70000 mile powertrain warranty, i tried to tell the service manager that it was covered but they are just di cking me around cause i am a kid.
BULL S---
WHEELMAN

 

Right, all the 2002-2003's had/have 70K powertrain, but the 3yr/36K warranty is bumper to bumper which holds more sway (or is supposed to) with the service department. Do you not have the new car warranty paperwork that came with the owners manual and all the other jazz (inside a vinal black folding case)? I don't have my car at work, or else I could tell you what page it's on and quote the verbage...

 

Yeah duh, come to think of it i do have that stuff in my glove box, thanks for pointing it out that it is in there....... also, i only have 15000 miles on the car, the first transmission went at 6000 because the differential gears were deemed to have been improperly meshed from the factory, so the entire tranny/diff was replaced, and now at 15000 miles i start having clutch problems, this sucks....... imma give it to em though with the warranty in hand
WHEELMAN

 

You meant 60K powertrain, right?

 

When i bought the car new i purchased an additional warranty, i have 70k bumper to bumper, no exceptions no excuses
WHEELMAN

 

you can always claim that the dealer must have miss aligned/adjusted the clutch when they put the new trans in only 9,000 miles ago.

 

Yeah, that's what I meant, but I got a 100K with mine since they were trying to d1ck me over during the purchase phase...

 

I could do that, and it is possible that the clutch problem was caused by them but i dont know if i would be able to, the dealer that replaced the transmission went out of buisness late last year, i dont know how to prove that they might have messed something up.
WHEELMAN

 

UPDATE:
I have been reading the nissan warranty booklet that came with the car and i just found this statement in the "what is not covered" section, it states that the warranty does not include normal maintenence items such as fluids and lubricants, windshield wipers worn brake components and worn clutch disks.......

How can they consider worn out clutch disks to be normal maintenence items, also how can they be sure that it is a worn disk that is producing the smell of burning clutch without taking it apart and looking. The dealer said i could pay for the tear down of the vehicle to see if it was a warranty related item, but i just cant afford that


So am i out of luck? i really dont know what to do now.
WHEELMAN

 

Ask WILLSE...he's had his clutch/tranny replaced wunder warranty either 2 or 3 times for the same crap. His actually failed once and wouldn't do anything at all...

 

I sent WILLSE a PM, hopefully he has some good ideas, thanks for the tip Quicksilver

 

We all know the Maxima has a long clutch throw/travel.....makes it very easy to "ride" the clutch, which is a BAD thing. The travel on my Accord and Inegra (and my wife's 3) were MUCH shorter. The long clutch travel is certainly to blame for people riding the clutch, which in turn will burn out the clutch plate.....

 

I dont think i have been riding the clutch, most of the miles on my car are from driving from school to home, an 800 mile trip each time, cruise control doesnt much ride the clutch i dont think.
WHEELMAN

 

I'm sure that they say the clutch disk is not covered because some people buy the car and don't know how to drive a manual yet. You could easily burn out a clutch in short order if you don't know how to operate one. I'm not directing this at you, just a general statement.

 

Well I had only driven full size pickup trucks woth manuals before the max, and the max is much different, but it only took me about two days to get it down, so i dont think i screwed it up that way.
WHEELMAN

 

Right, all the 2002-2003's had/have 70K powertrain,

0000> I think that is incorrect. Powertrain is covered 5years or 60k

 

Let's know what happens at the dealer. I always enjoy reading about dealer expereices. The dealer can be a real **** sometimes.

 

try another dealer.... you never know... if one dealer wont fix it, i usually take it to another local deal and find luck there...

 

No news as of yet, took the weekend off, WILLSE never responded to my pm. I am going to give it another shot tomarrow afternoon, i have classes all day today
WHEELMAN