I've paired the JWT HD CSC, OEM CMC, and Z1 Street performance Clutch Kit in my g37. Any known problems with this combo?

POST INSTALL
1000 miles - fluid looks cloudy and dirty, vibration in clutch pedal present - shop says it's the parts...

2500 miles post install. Eventually loss of clutch pressure occurred on wide-open throttle (pedal would sink to floor-pressure returns seconds later).

3500 miles post install, grinding noise heard outside when releasing pedal after changing gears+pedal vibration. Also grinding noise from outside trans area occurs and becomes increasingly difficult to switch gear and put into gear when driving above 2500rpm. Clutch Master Cylinder reservoir has loss of fluid.

3500 miles- I went and had the Fluid flushed again with a different shop, had new clutch line put in since they said mine was rusty. GTR Brake fluid. Pedal feels great and strong. Good to go for now.... vibrations still present BUT I can WOT all day no problem.. 500 miles later, more grinding noise heard outside coming from trans area when letting off clutch after gear change. Can't WOT without problems now, can't drive above 2500rpm with issues being intensified. Now can't get into reverse- it's impossible. First is very difficult takes 7-8 tries feels very hard to get it in when it goes. Fluid looks dirty again 700 miles after fluid flush- but no loss of fluid.

Any idea for solution? Has the HD CSC been contaminated? Pressure plate not on right? What's going on...multiple problems here

I've ordered ALL new parts. Clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, OEM CMC, new CSC. I doubt a simple flush again would fix the issue and I don't want to change the CMC just for it to get contaminated and not work, so I'm going to change everything at once. Overkill?
Nearly $5k down the drain so far....before 2nd install here

sounds like pressure issue (CMC/CSC) along with engagement issue. Multiple issues at play? Could it be the piston rod not being adjusted? Idk.

 

There's a couple things. First and simplest - this sounds like the CSC failing. Especially the part about the clutch line being rusty. Second, I know different non-OEM clutches have a different deck height and thus require different CSCs - When I got my stage 2 from ZSpeed the owner walked me through all my choices to make sure it would work together. Granted, I have a lightweight flywheel, but the issue is still there.

You might have a borderline CSC and a low deck height combining to not give adequate relief pressure.

In terms of right-now, try pumping the clutch a few times before starting out to push some fluid through.

 

UPDATE: I bled the fluid and it was so black, and filthy. Fluid was just bled 500 miles ago. This is clear indication of contaminated system. Car goes into reverse again and gears/pedal feel so firm, tight, and strong. Drove 50 miles, vibrations still present above 2500+rpm shifts. Come to a stop after driving 50 miles after clutch bleed, and pedal loses complete pressure....thought i was stranded

managed to pump pressure back just enough to get into 1st, nursed it home

get home, and clutch pedal is dead. Giant black puddle underneath....keep in mind I had replaced csc/cmc 4k miles ago. This tells me that the shop either 1. didnt replace the CMC and left old contaminated one 2. didn't bleed/flush lines properly because now my HD JWT CSC has failed in 4k miles after multiple bleeds....time to drop the trans. Putting in new clutch kit again might as well.. im in $6k deep now...

 

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Have you used this shop before?

 

IMHO I'd check the clutch - if the CSC isn't working right the clutch literally will have hardly any wear on it. Probably fine.

I had mine changed while the shop had it apart - it's sunk cost at that point - but a large reason for that was the lightweight flywheel and new clutch worked together, so it made sense to upgrade while it was apart anyway. The stock clutch for (I think it was at 50k miles) was in pretty darn good shape, actually...

 

I have a fear of having any shop take on the work now. Another bad install would make me consider selling the car. This was my first time using this shop


Yes I dont have an experienced eye for checking clutch condition. I don't really know what to look for, but I will research that. I only suspect potential clutch damage because of the grinding noises after each gear change and vibration on the pedal through every gear shift (even more intense vibration the higher the rpm). I've also seen that the Zspeed CMAK is not really compatible with the Z1 Clutch Kit. People have had bad experiences, so regardless I may have to swap the Z1 kit out. I already have a Zspeed clutch kit on standby. I guess I will resell the Z1 clutch kit should it be perfectly fine, only 4k miles on it.

 

I'm not sure if Joe (owner/founder) is still at ZSpeed after the sale to SOHO, but if so... he's the tech expert to talk to. That's my reference for deck heights of flywheels vs clutch types etc.

Usually the checks are for grooves, thickness, and run-out. Checked with fingernail, calipers, and a runout gauge in that order.

Keeping it all ZSpeed sounds like it will help whatever tolerance issues you're having. Did they swap a flywheel too? Almost sounds like something isn't torqued/balanced.

I ended up taking mine to the local Nissan dealer after talking with the service manager. It wasn't the best experience ever from a customer service perspective, but mechanically they did me right. The local Infiniti dealer won't work on my car (too modified, they say). Nissan guys were like 'we see Zs modded WAY more than this every single day'.

 

Any news?

 

I reached out to Joe and he sent a nice illustration about deck height

Lots of life events have come up these past few weeks, I will be doing the work this Sunday if all goes well. Complete Clutch kit, CMC, and CMAK CSC kit
Can't wait to drive my car...been so long

 

Good luck, be careful with your back LOL.

 

I've owed you guys an update, here it is
over 2 weeks, managed to drop trans

Trans Bell Housing was missing the top 2 bolts, the breather hose, and bracket that holds the breather hose. The previous shop never put these back....How bad is this? I put 4k miles on this, hard pulls too
Lots of contamination inside the trans- grease and sand looking material spread all over. Im guessing this is from the leaking/blown CSC?
95% of the pressure plate bolts were LOOSE. 3/4 of the Flywheel bolts were LOOSE. The shop must've never torqued them/put loctite.

Get this....the center lip of the clutch where the input shaft goes into is grinded to s**t/chewed up. Metal shavings present everywhere- all over the pressure plate. Something was clearly rubbing against it. This is probably why my clutch pedal would grind on hard shifts when releasing the pedal? That explains the metal shavings and shaved center clutch lip?
Im wondering if the top 2 bell housing bolts missing caused a misalignment which led to all this. I will have pictures up soon. I need help on this one guys. I removed the old clutch kit and pilot bearing. I've paused the job here. Is it safe to install new parts or is there deeper issues that will chew up new parts? Pictures coming soon...

 

I need your help guys...
1. where are all these metal shavings from and why are they even a thing
2. the lip/ring that sits on the clutch got bent- it's so tiny that i figured that's not the source of metal shavings. But why is this ring bent?
3. What"s the condition of the clutch/flywheel look like after 4k miles? I'm no expert....

 

Here's the center lip/ring on the clutch that got chewed up....what's it for? pops right off, looks pretty insignificant. And more importantly...what was grinding against it? That's definitely not the source of metal shavings because it's such a tiny piece...so where did all these shavings come from on the pressure plate






Clutch and flywheel- do they look good? I'm no expert....only 4k miles on them

 

you were right, majority of bolts were loose bolts on flywheel and pressure plate.... the WEIRD thing is that everything looked like it was seated properly even WITH loose bolts...how odd. You would think loose bolts would mean the clutch/flywheel/pressure plate would be seated at a weird angle?

 

If it was me, I wouldn't try to reuse any of it. Why take the chance that you'll have to job over yet again? I would definitely go back to the original garage that did the work and get a refund on all of it. If they don't dispute the charge with CC or file in small claims court to recover cost. Name and shame the original garage so no one else is suckered.