I have surfaced between many forums on the G35 and found alot of people having to replace there clutch between 3-12 thousand miles. I did notice the thread about the clutch not making the G beautiful but I was just curious to see how many people here have actaully had to replace it numbers wise. I have also talked to a local infiniti dealership techy and he said they have replace over 15 clutchs for G owners and the majority were between 4,000-12,000 miles and most replacements had been at the owners expense. I really like the G35 but I can not bring myself to purchase one if I have to spend between 1500 and 2000 dollars every 4k-12k miles I mean thats crazyness to think people will put up with that. ALSO if anyone has gotten over 20,000 miles with out replacing the clutch I would love to hear about it as I have only found one person who has and they replace the clutch at 22,000 miles. Any input would be great guys thanks
I have a 6MT with 8,000 km on it (~ 5,000 miles). I made one attempt (at my first oil change) to get the dealership to fix the noisy and skittish clutch, but nothing was done about it.
I'm about to take the car back in for more service. This time I'm hoping they'll correct whatever is causing the clutch to make a grinding noise when engaging in first gear. The car is becoming more and more difficult to drive, especially when backing up in reverse. I've actually stalled the car a few times! (I'm a very experienced manual-transmission driver and it is an absolute rarity for me to stall a car).
Hey thanks to you guys who have posted so far I appreciate it. Like I said I am curious if this is a problem all MT G35 coupe owners are having and Its becoming more and more clear that it is. Thanks for your time
I cant belive that with these issues no one has built an aftermarket setup or even a stage 2. I guess when I got in to get my car ill have to make sure that i get something in writing on that.
I am looking at an '04 G35 Coupe right now, and forums have been the only place i've seen the clutch problem mentioned...The dealer in town claims they have had only one clutch problem in their shop and that it was most definately driver error; but I am worried aobut this problem and dont want to spend $35k on a car with a bad clutch...
The dealer, of course, absolutely insists there is no such problem, but that would be expected... He also denied ever hearing of a problem with the steering which was also mentioned on this forum...Any suggestions? I was thinking of just putting a totaly new clutch in as soon as I got it, but I am assuming I would still have to resurface the flywheel..being a new car, could i forgoe the labor costs of doing all that work and install it myself without resurfacing the flywheel, or is this a no-no even for brand new cars?
I'm sitting here reading this thread in horror... I can't imagine having to drop over a grand to fix anything on my car when it is still low mileage. Has anyone tried to get a lemon law attorney? If there are this many people having this problem, it can't be driver error-- and the lemon law should cover us fairly easily...
Infiniti says they have heard nothing of the issue for '03s and (obviously) nothing of the '04s... They also said that they wanted to hear if a dealer didn't replace it under the 60kmile/4 year warranty and that "there is no excuse not to replace the clutch under the full warranty". So maybe try calling Infiniti's consumer affairs number (800.662.6200) and report your problem.
Im am in the process of buying this car and this has been a major set back for me. I am about to go talk to this one auto mechanic shop that I use to work at because they know all the ins and outs of dealers. They are probably the best place to take you car to because they wont let you get screwed over by dealers. I will ask them about this and see what she can find out for me. I will keep you all posted on the news I find out. And Uberg33k if you are talking about installing the clutch yourself, I would think twice. For experienced mechanics that job takes about 6 hours. There is just so much you have to do when replacing a clutch, so just leave that to the experts.
2003 G35C / 6mt / DG & Willow Leather / Nav / Premium / Aero / ETA December
Fwabs: Yeah, you're right. Does anyone ahve any idea where the problem is in the clutch-do you think putting in a new clutch kit do the trick? If I start having problems with it I think I'm going to just get a new clutch put in at a local transmission repair place that does good work, they quoted me about $450 labor to install a new clutch kit, and they said I could bring my own or could choose from theirs which range from $80-$400... and the labor cost there seems significantly lower than the $1000 most people seemed to have had to pay.
Could someone recomend a good clutch for this car that's not the stock clutch (as if that is the problem I don't want to put another bad one in!)
I'd be willing to purchase this vehicle if I could be sure I could get the problem fixed right off the bat and not have to deal with it again, even if it means spending another grand.
This thread topic is peculiarly interesting. I'm not sure if you guys are aware but the Nissan 350Z is experiencing a very similar problem with premature clutch wear.
I own a 2003 Performance model and the clutch went out after a little more than 11k miles. Unfortunately, Nissan USA classifies it as a "wear item" and as such, they will not pay for it under warranty. So, for way more money than I should have needed to spend on a car that less than a year old (someone tell the kids there will be no Santa Claus this year) I had to foot the bill.
I have been in contact with several other Nissan customers who have related to me the exact story. None of us have any real reason for the clutch to fail this soon (none of us were particularly hard on the car and there was even one guy who has driven nothing but MT's for the past 15 years). I feel we all have reasonable cases but, especially in my situation, Nissan USA is of no help. We seem to be pointing out an actual design flaw in the vehicle but, unfortunately, there aren't enough of us yet for Nissan to care (anyone seen Fight Club?... the notorious lawsuit/recall formula).
Anyway, I'm flooding the forum to say: this looks very interesting. I will work to find out the similarites between the Nissan and the Infiniti transmissions. It looks like we could be chasing the same bug. If anyone has any information or even some experiences they would like to relate, I would be more than interested to hear them. I can be contacted at wesley_mason@yahoo.com. We are working to assemble a group consumers to push back on Nissan USA (and Infiniti too, if it is indeed related). The product we purchased and the treatment we have received is completely unacceptable.
Thanks in advance,
Wesley Mason
wesley_mason at yahoo dot com
WAMason, I am almost definite that the G35 and 350Z do have have the same transmission. If you drop me a line at my email (follow the email icon above this post) I can give you more information on my own story, however, I don't want to say too much on a public forum. Although I won't be able to tell you much more via email, at least it will be personal and won't discourage people from a truly wonderful car.
In all seriousness, the G35 Coupe IS, and I mean ABSOLUTELY IS the best car you could buy for the money, but a certain amount of people have had their problems. However, if you asked any one of them, they would still agree that they love the car even with the problems. It is just discouraging that such problems exist. I am sure that they will all be fixed with due time as long as people like you and I speak up though.
uberg33k,
I recently installed a Spec Stage 2 clutch in my coupe. The stock clutch had not gone bad, it simply would not hold when I would spray the nitrous. The car drives much better (moves from a standstill at low rpms; no high revving or jerking) and the shifts are crisp. I don't know if you need the torque/hp-handling capacity of the Stage 2, but you may consider the Stage 1.
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Tally of Members Who have Replaced Clutch
