I took my Maxima in for a brake job and its 48,000 km service (30,000 miles) today and I asked the dealer to investigate the clutch chatter and jerky clutch engagement that I occasionally feel when the car is cold. (from doing a search I realize that this is a fairly common problem with our 5-speeds) After investigating, the dealer said that they think the clutch might be on the way out; they think they smell it burning but admit that there is no slippage at all.

After discussing it further when picking the car up, another individual said it could be bright spots on the flywheel (?) which could have been caused by leaving the clutch engaged when sitting at stoplights (which I tend not to do).

I bought this car with only 24,000 kms (15K miles) on it a year and a half ago and I consider myself to be fairly easy on the clutch. Is this possible that the clutch is failing this early? Who else out there experiences intermittent chatter and has anyone else tried to get it diagnosed by a mechanic?

Thanks

 

Clutch chatter is definitely normal for our stock units. Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often. I wouldn't investigate any further unless you experience it often. The stock unit should easily go 100k without abuse. I'm at 80k miles right now and everything seems fine.

 

My 97 SE's clutch chatters when the transmission is still cold, and the gears are a bit more difficult to engage than when it's warmed up. Changing the gear oil to Red Line MT-90 will ameliorate this, although I haven't done it myself. I'm at 67K and my clutch doesn't slip at all.

 

I have clutch chatter aLSO. Does it cause tranny failure if left alone.???

 

I could be wrong, but I think chatter (that goes away) is likely due to a slighly warn/warped flywheel (or something on the surface of it) and I don't think it in itself will cause any major problems, just an annoyance. The second tech that I spoke to said that if indeed it is the flywheel causing the chatter (and the clutch is fine) than I won't have to worry about replacing anything until the clutch actually wears out, which could be in good shape.

The thing that worried me is that when they first called me to tell me the diagnosis over the phone they said that two mechanics had driven the car and thought the clutch could be going, and smelt what they thought was a burning clutch. Now that I think about it, I took the car in because I had a rear brake caliper that was partly seized and rubbing the disc - that could have been the burning smell.

While it doesn't happen all the time, the clutch chatter is annoying when it does occur. I wonder why Nissan decided to stick a cheap manual trany on an otherwise very nice car?