Hey guys, been a member here since 2005 and have owned every gen Maxima except 2nd and 8th gens. I admit that I've been gone from the org for a VERY long time but I'm coming back to my starting place in hopes that someone has more knowledge than me and can share it in order to get my 2014 back on the road.

The background: 6spd Swapped my 2014 SV Sport Package Maxima in June 2021, used a stage 1 clutch and a JWT light weight flywheel, everything else was OEM Nissan from my local dealership. The car drove fine for 26 months/38,000 miles before the factory Altima slave cylinder took a dump and took the clutch with it. I feel this is too premature of a life span for both components. So I decided to upgrade the hydraulics and went with a metal Clutch Master Cylinder, Slave, SS lines. I dont race the car, I dont beat on the car, and for reference all of my former manual trans Maximas I have gotten between 100k to 150k life out of my Exedy stage 1 clutches. That does not mean I dont drive spiritedly but I know how to take care of my clutches.

The issue: Installed a new stage 1 clutch, new JWT friction plate on the flywheel, and used the upgrade metal kit instead of OEM plastic hydraulics. Got everything bled, car drove alright for 3 days and then I noticed brake fluid under the trans, confirmed slave had blown after 3 days. Warrantied for another, and the same thing happened. I literally swapped the slave cylinder 3 times total before coming to the thought that perhaps the master cylinder was defective and causing the slave to blow so that was warrantied as well. On the 4th attempt, with the new master cylinder, the slave also popped.

After much brainstorming with the person who sold me the upgraded kit, we got into measuring the clutch pressure plates and realized that the clutch I was using was taller than one of his spare pressure plates. Through some further research, it appeared that the pressure plate that I was sold looked more like a 2002-2006 Altima 3.5 pressure plate than a 2007-2012 Altima 3.5 which is what my manual trans came out from. For the sake of ruling things out, I went to O'reilly's and ordered a 2004 Altima 3.5 clutch and a 2011 Altima 3.5 clutch and measured them with my digital caliper, also confirming that my pressure plate matched that of the 3rd gen Altima both in appearance as well as height and instead it should have matched the 4th gen Altima one. My pressure plate is a whole 2.7 millimeters taller than what it should have been, like the factory so I decided to purchase the clutch from O'reilly's convinced that the clutch height would make a difference and not blow up my new (5th) slave cylinder.

I want to believe that 5 slave cylinders and 2 master cylinders later, it is not as a result of the parts being defective but there being a deeper issue that is causing these slave cylinders to blow. I have a set of brand new Nissan clutch slave cylinder and clutch master cylinder to toss on and get it over with but I am afraid that they'll also just blow and these two parts are not cheap by any means.

As a Maxima enthusiast since 1999 and having owned nothing BUT Maximas since 2005 (not counting my moms 1st gen Maxima when I was a kid) I bought this 7th gen when it was almost new and only had 28k miles with the full intention of swapping a manual trans as soon as the warranty expired. I wanted reliability but right now I am stressed and frustrated that I am having issues figuring out what is causing these slaves to blow. I wish Nissan would've continued with external slave cylinders like the ones on my 2002 6spd and my 1995 5spd.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

Not sure if you have Facebook, if you do message Josh Go Hard Neal, he recently manual swapped his 7th Gen, and he is very knowledgeable.

 

Hey thanks for responding. I figured out the issue and the vehicle is now running perfectly since last Tuesday. I used to have Facebook but deleted my account almost 2 years ago.

I do think I've seen his name when I was in the 7th GM group on Facebook.

Here's a little link to an incomplete YouTube project that I was trying to finish 2 years ago but life kicked in and I was unable to edit through all 300+ GB of video.

This is my 6spd Max