Bizarre and unsettling thing happened last Friday. My G37S had been having a weird problem since Wednesday night--the clutch pedal was sticking in the down position on occasion for no apparent reason. It was intermittent, I was able to flip it up using my toe, and I drove it a little on Thursday without any other strange issues thinking it might just need to work itself out. Shifting felt ok.

Friday morning rolls around and I'm on my way to work. The clutch is acting up again, sticking down in traffic and being a nuisance. I call my dealer and the service guy says he's heard of this. I schedule an appointment for Tuesday.

Not even 10 minutes later, the clutch gives out entirely. Totally limp feel for the whole travel of the pedal and I can't shift into any gear. The pedal won't pop back into the up position either.

So now the car's in the shop... not even 6400 miles on this baby and it's already dead in the water! I've driven stick all my life and never replaced a clutch on ANY of my cars. I bought my last car new--it was a 96 Eclipse--and put over 140k miles on the factory clutch. I like to drive fast on occasion but I don't race my car, and I don't do anything unusual beyond regular city driving. I can't imagine this is anything but a defect in the car.

Anyone else had this problem? What could have happened? Can you give me any idea what to expect when the service guys call today? I've got my fingers crossed for a warranty repair. Can't afford a new clutch right now

Thanks!

 

It's probably not the clutch. Sounds like a common problem a lot of people had to deal with on the G35 coupe. Something about the master cylinder. If so, this should be covered under warranty b/c it's not normal wear and tear. Or just could be you need your line flushed.

 

doesn't sound like a clutch problem... maybe tranny problem?

 

Actually it's the slave cylinder for the clutch, the master cylinder is in the brake system but close. That is what it sounds like. It sounds like it's not an issue of excessive wear on the friction surfaces because you don't have enough miles for that and you said you don't abuse it. Possibly bad slave cylinder, lines, or something related to that which is not allowing you to maintain hydraulic pressure in the system, hence the soft dead feel in the pedal. You should have checked that the fluid reservoir on the slave cylinder was full. not leaking, and had the cap on tightly. It will be covered by warranty as this is not a wear item, only the friction surfaces of the clutch assembly are wear items and even these would likely be covered by your dealer as the car is so new.

 

im going through the exact same problem right now. im at 10k miles. it all started with the clutching dropping to the floor after a steady 5th gear cruise.

 

I've had this same issue happen to me before. For me it happened when I was accelerating hard in 2nd gear and when I let the clutch out it dropped to the floor and was stuck. It eventually came back up when I let the engine rpm's drop back to 1k and only happens rarely. Still a very lame thing to have happen on a supposed performance car. I've also driven stick my whole life, and I've yet to replace a clutch.

 

Reminds me of high school. Had a '70 Nova SS 350 4 speed. Pulling out of a gas station, I hit the gas, an engine mount broke. One side of engine lifted keep it full throttle and the clutch pedal linkage fell apart so the pedal went to the floor. I was redline in 1st, shut off ignition, but then steering locked. I then turned key back on and helpd both feet on brake pedal to grind the car to a halt. Exciting to say the least.

 

when did you purchase your g37?

 

This sounds like something different. You said you were in second, but supposedly there is a safety feature on older Gs that held the clutch if you tried something that might damage the car like trying to launch from first at 6k rpm. But then again, like I stated before, you said you were in second.

 

Just an FYI but I had some fun in an empty parking lot this winter and after sliding around for a while trying to get up a hill my clutch did the same thing. First, if I remeber correctly, it wouldn't rev and the clutch was stuck down. I let it sit for a minute, turned it off and back on, and it was all fine again. Haven't had this happen since.

 

Just heard from the tech. It was the slave cylinder. He didn't say why it failed or what might have caused it, but it looks like they're replacing it under warranty.

Someone asked when I bought my G... it was mid-December.

 

yep, slave cylinder. Happened in my eclipse way back when. it was about a $400 fix then. Thankfully you're under warranty, right?

Jon

__________________________________________________ _______________

08 G37S 6MT Black/Black | Premium | Navi

Shirts with 'tude

http://www.sheepholetees.com

 

I knew it. Do you know who's the manufacturer of that slave cylinder?

 

That could be. If I remember the situation correctly, I was at 7.5k in first and went to switch into second and the rpm's were still at 7k when I let the clutch out. It basically refused to do that and dropped down to the floor and was stiff.

 

Not sure. I'll see if I can grab the tech who worked on it and find out when I take it back in later this week... now the passenger side window rolls down all the way when someone opens the door and won't roll up again unless the car is on!

It's always something. :/