2003 6spd warranty questions

[Slow Old Man]

Long time listener, first time caller here:

I have a 2003 coupe 6 speed and of course it is grinding going in to 2nd and sometimes 3rd. The car has 53K miles on it. I went to the dealer, and told them I would bring the car back another day, as it was starting to snow. The Service advisor, said it could be the clutch and I would be responsible for that part. I am not an ASE Cert. Tech. but I have been wrenchin on cars and other machinery for years. I am almost sure, grinding in select gears would be synchros and not a clutch that would tend to act the same through out. So, it already sounds like they are trying get out of this. Why I don't know, I think they get paid for warranty work by Nissan/Infiniti.

Do any of you guys/gals have any first hand experience with getting the updated transmission?I don't think there is not a recall on it, BUT is there a "Service Bullenten" number or something similare?Should I call Infiniti and start a claim number before I take it to the dealer?

My buddy had his 350z warrantied, and the dealearship was putting in a rebuilt, until he called Nissan, and let them know he was aware of a updated version.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated. I tried to searchs pages, but could not come back with G35 info. I am sure this has been covered, I just cannot find it.

[33infinity33]

My '03 6mt had the same synchro problems in 3rd and 5th gear. I had it replaced under warrentee twice - once at 10k mi and again at 22k mi. Both times the clutch was replaced under warentee, but the second time it was replaced with a 2006 gearbox which solved the problem.

I think you car is out of warentee, in which case you are out of luck.

[Slow Old Man]

I believe the power-train warranty is 60 or 70k.The Service advisor told me that the transmission, IF BAD, is under warranty, BUT the clutch is not, as it is a wear item.

[infinititech1]

i replaced quite a few trannys for that prob....

[toysRus]

I've been hearing a lot of comments regarding the 6speed trannies on the 03 and 04's but I don't understand the real known problems are with these trannies. My 04 is acting a little weird also and the dealer had told me that i may need a new clutch which they will not cover under warranty.

Here's what's wrong with mine.. i picked up mine second hand with only 23K miles. Here is what i noticed with the car...

1) intermittently, the car would not start... it seems that the clutch switch is not working properly. of course when i took it down they were able to start the car everytime they cranked it. the tech adjusted the switch pin and i guess we'll find out if that works... i just picked up the car today so can't say if it does or not..

2) Shifting between gears certain gears, i can feel a slight resistants going into gears.. it feels as if you weren't depressing the clutch all the way and you get a little bit of that grinding feel. i'm guessing that this is a bad synchro that everyone is talking about??

3) the tech at the dealer said that my clutch pedal is a little stiffer than normal. he suggested a possible worn clutch.

not sure how to deal with the dealer becuase i don't really understand how all this can be pointed to a warrantied issue? would bad syncros wear the clutch out? what is it about these early trannies that makes them fail so easily?

sorry for the 101 questions but my warranty is almost up and if i can get them to fix this problem before that it would be awesome. if not, what do i need to do or change which will make this transmission one less worry? what is this update that they do to the earlier trans??

any help would be great! i loved these cars from the day it was released and i finally got one of my own and this transmission problem and all the rattles and squeaks in the car is beginning to change my mind about owning one!!

[Slow Old Man]

I have read of numerous failures, and I have a budy with a 350z that went through the same stuff. There is a revised gearbox, and supposedly they have to put a new clutch in. Buddy is not very mechanical, so I am not sure if the old clutch has different splines, spacing, or there was more of problem with the clutch than transmission. I am not assuming the latter, as they would try to get out of the waranty costs because the clutch is not warranty, as you already said.

The new numbers my buddy recieved were:Transmission- 32010-CD009Clutch- 30100-CD019

No, I do not THINK that bad syncros could wear a clutch out. I am not sure what is different about the new transmission, it sounds like the syncros are different.

Sorry I can't help more.'InfinitiTech', do you have anymore insite on this, other than the quantities you replaced? Any help would be great.

[Tampa G35 Sedan 6MT]

The syncros went bad in mine too. I had to have it replaced. I don't know what they put in it but it works good now. I still need them to fix the shift gates..(problem going into reverse)

Do you have a problem going into reverse with a new transmission? Is this something i need to question the dealership.

I can feel that it has a new clutch. I have an 06

DJ

[Jacko3]

It seems like some 03 - 04 G-35s had transmission problems and some 05 - 07 had oil consumption problems. I can't wrap my mind around such anomalies for the VQ engine.

I really don't think the problem is the clutch or the transmission itself in the 03 - 04 engines. There is something about the way the VQ engine in a G-35 transfers power to its gearbox, and the corresponding interaction of the gearbox with the engine, that is causing this problem.

I can say this with confidence because I had a new revised VQ engine installed in my car due to oil consumption. My car is a 2007 G-35 Coupe. The new engine has more torque and more power, and it does not leak any oil at all, except for a quarter of a quart during break in.

In my old engine, I could feel that my transmission was not totally connected to the car. I was always apprehensive about my transmission at 5500 RPMS or more. It seemed that the transmission was way more powerful than what the engine could put out. Engine could not produce enough power due to whatever was causing its oil consumption. Can you beleive that on many occassions i had actually floored the pedal to the floor and yet the car seemed like it was struggling to make power? So, I knew that at some point, if nothing was done, the transmission would start having problems as a result of the way the engine responded to the transmission.

So, here I am today with a new revised VQ engine. After it was installed, and I drove off the dealership, the engine felt perfect and well adjusted to the transmission. In fact, the new revised VQ engine replacement for those with oil consupmtion issues is so torqy that now I worry that I would use up my clutch much faster than anticipated. I am saving for a clutch now because the torque of the new engine is a lot like a V-8, especially when you hit 3,000RPM while giving the car some gas. It pins you to the seat. I also can't seem to drive in the rain or with my VDC on anymore, even with the superb Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tires. The engine causes the tires to spin more often than I want. Again, a result of the the torque issue. Old engine never did this. As for the transmission, it feels very happy and friendly with the new engine. It is now more well behaved. Even my mechanic noticed this difference and he commented on it.

Because of the amount of torque, the Pennzoil blend they used in the car was adding to the torque, and made the engine feel like the pressure in the cylinders was very high. In fact, with Pennzoil blend, I get all the low end torque at about 2,500 RPM, but then, I get a lot less high end power. So, I switched oil brands to Catrol Synblend, which has freed up the engine a little bit and has raised the torque bar to 3,000RPM, while allowing me more high end power. Castrol Synblend even after 1,000 miles, looks clean and unused. Again, i am on the fence with full synthetic given the impressive performance of Castrol Syn blend. I suspect Castrol is working extra hard and putting out excellent oil in order to steal market share from its biggest synthetic and belnd competitor---Mobil

All I am saying here is that I have now come to appreciate why an engine must match its transmission perfectly. I may be wrong but it seems an engine with insuffficient power matched against its transmission can destroy a transmission over time just as an engine with excessive power over what the transmission can handle. I am a witness to this. It is for this reason that i have always had second thoughts about superchargers and twin turbos--their negative effect on my transmission, given my experiences so far, even without these modifcations. To thie end, I thin the rotuine modifications for our cars, such as cat-back exhaust, intakes, headers, spacers, plenums and the likes, are sufficient and okay for our transmission and engines. if you want to do more with a VQ engine, I suggest you change some engine internals and perhaps order a more fortified transmission if you intend to keep the car for a long time.

The 03-04 Coupes with 280 Horses may have been slightly less powered than the capacity of their transmission. Whatever changes infinity made to their transmission, must have been designed to account for the less horsepower. And I am sure it was a small change or design flaw, nothing significant. For the 05-07 engines with oil consumption issues, major changes may have been undertaken in the internal engine componentrs. I heard valve guides, springs, pistons, etc where replaced inside the engine. I am not sure. Whatever they did, it worked.

[g35cuhlean]

i have an 03 six speed also. It have about 43k on it. I used to get that grindin when i shift into 5th gear. But It stop. So i hope it dont come back.

[Slow Old Man]

Hopefully it stops snowing before my warranty expires I will just have to take my car to the dealer and see what they say. I wish I could take the car to a Nissan dealer for warranty. Two local Nissan dealers, admit to the problem and say they see this often, however the service advisor I spoke to at the Infiniti dealer seems to know nothing of any transmission issues. I will have to drive across town to another dealer or give this guy a chance to make it right.

[toysRus]

thanks for everyone's input... i dug around some more last night on other forums and pretty much read up on this. guess the most common problems are the syncros. mine get's caught from time to time but it's not as bad as some of you have reported. I've been driving the car more to see if it gets worse.. if it does fail i hope it does it before march!

as for my 04 the car starts up all the time (for now). i guess adjusting the clutch switch worked. i'll keep monitoring that and will report that with you all in case someone runs into the same problem.

there is one question that i need an answer for and if any of you have any input on this that would be awesome.... is it true that a stiff clutch pedal can be a sign of a clutch and flywheel going bad? I have never heard this before so i just want to make sure if the tech at infiniti is blowing smoke up my @ss or not. I wish i knew someone else with a g35 so i can tell how much stiffer mine feels.

[Slow Old Man]

I have not heard that a stiffer clutch pedal is a sign of a clutch going out. I thought a stiffer clutch pedal was usually stiffer springs on the pressure plate, to keep the clutch from slipping under heavy acceleration. My car's pedal is kind of hard to push, but I have only owned it for a few months. Also I have a severaly injured left foot from a motorcycle crash, and I have not driven any other MT in a while, so consider that when I say the clutch pedal is a little hard to push.

On my car: Of course I went to take the car to the dealer yesterday(30degress), and I drove around an extra 20 minutes trying to get the 2nd gear to grind. Since I could not get it to grind, I did not bother taking it to the dealer. It seems they keep a record, and I don't want to keep bringing it in and them not being able to duplicate the problem. I was told to wait until it is warmer, as the fluid becomes a little more thin, and the MTs with bad syncros become more likley to grind. After being told that, I thought about it, and the last time it was acting up, it was warmer out.

[toysRus]

that's what i thought... i had my truck clutch replaced with a higher performance clutch and flywheel and the pedal was a little stiffer than normal.