Nissan 350Z / 370Z Tech Forums banner

On going clutch issue

2K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Jinxter 
#1 ·
This issue has been going on for a while now.
Firstly a little bit of my background. My car is a late 2002 Fairlady Z (350Z) Import from Japan, Im the fourth owner. Im an Audi Tech, did an apprenticeship with them for three years and qualified in 2011. Been with them ever since and now have a fair amount of experience under my belt after being on multiple training courses etc.
I recently bought an Xtreme clutch kit. Now, this kit comes with a lightened single mass flywheel, release bearing, uprated clutch and pressure plate and alignment tool. This was purchased from a company called "Cougarstore". Fantastic company that specializes in 350z, 370z and GTR. I received fantastic advise and have used them before. I was in frequent contact with Mitz who advised me on the Xtreme kit and said it was great, he sent me photos of it as it wasn't listed on their site. Going from his advice I purchased the kit for £730 via paypal. When I received the kit, it was well wrapped and there was no visible damage etc. So, due to work being work and family commitments I wasn't able to fit the kit until the 28th of May, probably around a month after Id originally bought the kit. Now, being a technician is extremely handy as I was able to fit the kit myself and had the use of a ramp at the Audi centre. The kit installed perfectly using toque settings Id found online from someone fitting the same/ similar kit. As a matter of precaution I decided to find another link just to be sure on the torque and it gave the same values. I spent the whole day in the workshop as Im a perfectionist with my own car and things have to be right. After putting everything back together the clutch would not engage any gears and with the clutch fully depressed, as soon as you go to select a gear, shifting across to select first and then up to engage, the gear lever would not even go into the slot. And as soon as you put pressure on it to push it into the slot, clutch pedal still depressed, the wheels would spin up straight away. This would happen with every gear, being unable to engage any of them. I switched the car off and checked the system and found the clutch slave was weeping a little. So as a safe bet I had to push the car out of the workshop and managed to get a slave cylinder which I then fitted on the Tuesday morning back in the workshop. I then could not for the life of me get a decent clutch pedal, the system would not bleed. Having had this problem before on a Toyota starlet I then purchased a clutch master cylinder and replaced that the following Saturday and YEY. I had a good clutch pedal. The two parts came to around £150. So with the hydraulic issue out the way I then tried to engage a gear and.......Problem was still there, spun the wheels up the minute I attempted to engage a gear with the clutch depressed. Thinking Id obviously done something wrong, I ripped the box out again and inspected everything thinking Id maybe got the release bearing wrong or something else wasn't correctly fitted. I checked the pressure plate etc all looked okay, everything seemed to be fitted correctly. So hoping that some miracle had occurred I put it all back together again. Tested it and STILL THE SAME. Getting rather annoyed at this point, I scoured forums and a lot of people were saying the systems are awful to bleed out. So I managed to fashion a pressure bleeder that we use for Audi and get it to fit the Z. Then tried bleeding it thoroughly for an hour, but I literally got no air through the system at all. So at that point I was satisfied that there was no air in the system. Getting even more frustrated I came to the realisation that the only way to work out the issue was to go back to square one. So, in the same day, I ripped the gearbox out for the second time and put all the original parts back in minus the release bearing as its press fit and I didn't wanna damage it taking it off. Then refitted all the parts again. Started the car up. Hey presto I can engage gears and the car is back to as it was. So this then tells me its a parts issue. Please bare in mind that at no point were any battery tools or air tools used to tighten or untighten any bolts on the vehicle. Mainly because the exhaust joints were so rusted that I couldn't get the gearbox out without potentially damaging the exhaust and opening up another can of worms, so I just moved it back. Everything was torqued correctly using the values found online. More importantly the pressure plate bolts were done by hand, evenly until the plate was flush with the flywheel and then torqued to 25ftlbs (33nm). So keep all this in mind as you read further. So instantly I assumed it was a parts problem as I was asked if my car was a HR (which its not) and suspected Id been supplied with a HR clutch. After getting back into contact with Cougar Store, Mitz phoned me and apologized saying hes never had an issue with these kits. I had kept him updated each step of the way so he knew what was going on. He asked for a collection address and about a week later a company came and picked up the kit and it was sent back to a test centre the manufacturer uses. Finally after about another week or so I received an email forwarded by Mitz from the manufacturer. It basically stated that they had found a 6mm deviation on the clutch pressure plate. At this point, Im thinking, "awesome that stops the head scratching to know there is a fault". I read further through the email for them to tell me that the cause is the fact that the Pressure plate has not been fitted evenly and/or with excessive force. Now at this point Im getting even more annoyed. I specifically made sure that Id located the correct torque settings and done it as I would if it was any other vehicle. I used the same procedure each time the box was removed and as stated I DID NOT use any air or battery tools to removed or install components. It was all done by hand. So for them to tell me Im the cause was a massive insult. Even more conveniently, I has just come back from a 4 day gearbox course the week prior to first fitment. I have experience and I know the importance of torqueing. They want £220 + VAT for a new pressure plate and are stating its not warranty. Iv been given a number of the test centre to phone and I thought Id come here first and get more opinions on what to do. There have been nothing but good ratings for Cougarstore so Im confident that they are trustworthy.


Many thanks, Josh
 
See less See more
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top