New clutch, now pops out of 5th

[Neil A]

Hi all

Thought I’d pop this up on both the Navara and Pathfinder sections, as the gearbox is the same (as far as I know).

2007 Pathfinder diesel manual (so 6 gears). Mid-40ks in miles. Needed a new clutch recently. New one was fitted last week by an independent 4x4 specialist, which has a good reputation and I trust the guy who owns and runs it (as much as I trust anyone!).

No trouble with the gearbox at all before the new clutch. Clutch was quite well worn – was starting to slip uphill in high gear & garage agreed it needed replacing.

Since picking the car up again, it pops out of 5th gear on the overrun, unless you’re over the top when selecting 5th (push it well home & wiggle the lever, then hold it in while releasing the clutch). If I change into 5th exactly like I did before, it holds under drive, but as soon as you lift off the throttle, it pops out of gear into neutral. Only from 5th – no other gears.

The garage have had it back and checked it out and say there is nothing they can find and that they don’t believe it is anything they have done.

I’ve seen a couple of posts on other forums (US & Australia, I think) with exactly the same thing (new clutch, then pops out of 5th) but I can’t find any that had a solution.

I want to be reasonable about it. Maybe there was an existing wear problem in the gearbox or shift mechanism and the new clutch means that the issue now has more effect. In other words, it’s not a coincidence (there’s almost no way it could be), but it’s also not the garage’s fault – they did the job exactly right, but it affected things through no fault of theirs.

On the other hand, maybe someone did something not quite right and won’t own up to it.

The garage probably wonder if I’m blaming an existing problem on them in the hope they’ll fix it. I wouldn’t blame them – they probably trust me less than I trust them. I can ask other people about their work, but they can’t check me out in the same way.

Anyone got any good ideas?

Cheers

Neil

 

[firebobby]

Hi, 40,000 from a clutch is not very good, I get 80/100,000 out of most clutches As for the 5th gear jumping out, if it wasn't doing before, it must be something that has happened when the clutch was changed.
Maybe, they have bent a selector slightly or something has not been put back as was, is the gear lever hitting the tunnel :nenau
You either take it somewhere else to see if they can find the problem, but I would say to the original garage, they have done something and it needs to be rectified.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Looking on the web, it looks like a gearbox alignment issue... Several sites say something along these lines, but not exactly what is out of alignment..... Well that's helpful..:augie

If transmission is out of alignment with the engine block, the direct gear (the 5th in NAV) will jump out under load or overrun conditions.
Other reasons:
Excessive main/input shafts free play, a worn bearing or worn synchromesh assembly.

If you had a clutch job and have no noises from the transmission, the first reason is the right one.

Other sites talk about Engine and gearbox mounts, which I have to say, would be my first port of call...

Something I did find on my T2, when I did the body lift, was there is a thick(ish) rubber gasket/boot around the gear lever, under the matting and console gaiter, which was able to pop mine out of 1st, when I first put it all back into place, as it had settled too high up the gear stick, it might be as simple as that.

Good luck.

 

[Neil A]

it must be something that has happened when the clutch was changed.

You either take it somewhere else to see if they can find the problem, but I would say to the original garage, they have done something and it needs to be rectified.

Thanks - food for thought....

 

[Neil A]

http://www.nissan-navara.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6119

Other sites talk about Engine and gearbox mounts, which I have to say, would be my first port of call...

there is a thick(ish) rubber gasket/boot around the gear lever, under the matting and console gaiter, which was able to pop mine out of 1st, when I first put it all back into place

Thanks - that one was one of the threads I found, but as you say, not exactly offering a solution!

Would the gearbox have come out to replace the clutch? I am pretty sure the engine didn't!

My mechanical knowledge is focused on bikes, which are a different kettle of fish. I leave most things on the car to someone else

The guy at the garage's first suggestion was that the insulation/sound suppression material around the lower end of the gear lever had gone back in a bit wrong like you say, but when I picked it up again after they'd been over it, he said it wasn't that, but he wished it had been, as it would have been an easy fix...

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Thats a shame as, you say, an easy fix.

Yes, the gear box would need to be dropped, but not the engine.

Lets hope someone comes up with another idea.

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk

 

[macabethiel]

New clutch and now jumping out of gear.

If it was not jumping out of gear before the clutch change then it must be connected with the new clutch installation - they should investigate the cause and fix it.

I wonder if when they took out the gearbox they had to jack the engine up slightly to remove the box. They might have broken an engine mounting or if there is one the rear gearbox mount might not be where it was.

Others here will tell you more about what they might have upset when replacing the clutch. Damage to a selector seems unlikely as its inside the gearbox so hard to see how they could manage to do that. Could be as simple as gearlever hard against bodywork and engine torque knocking it out of gear.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

I was looking into it on the web, and the consensus seems to be that Nissan have an issue with the 5th gear on the 6 speed boxes, but it is masked when the clutch is starting to fail, as backing off the throttle causes the clutch to slip, rather than putting the shock through the gearbox. Then once the clutch is changed buy a Non-Nissan mechanic, the new clutch makes the problem show up.

The fix from Nissan in other countries, seemed to be to change the clutch out for a Non-dual Mass one, and change the ECU programming to make the car less responsive.

Generally, it seems the biggest complaint is the fact that the clutch fails a very low mileage, and often goes again within a few thousand.

The one thing that does crop up a few times is there are some location dowels between the bell housing and the face plate, which seem to have a feature of dropping out, and it is even mentioned to double check them in the workshop manual in the downloads.

The other thing seems to be, that a couple of people who had the clutch fitted by a non-nissan garage, after a lot of work and expense ended up at the main Nissan Stealer, and once they looked into it, said the wrong pressure plate had been fitted, and that was what caused the issue, something about it putting pressure on the main shaft, and taking it out of alignment., as 5th is the straight through gear, and 6th is an overdrive.

 

[Neil A]

I was looking into it on the web, and the consensus seems to be that Nissan have an issue with the 5th gear on the 6 speed boxes, but it is masked when the clutch is starting to fail, as backing off the throttle causes the clutch to slip, rather than putting the shock through the gearbox. Then once the clutch is changed buy a Non-Nissan mechanic, the new clutch makes the problem show up.

The fix from Nissan in other countries, seemed to be to change the clutch out for a Non-dual Mass one, and change the ECU programming to make the car less responsive.

Generally, it seems the biggest complaint is the fact that the clutch fails a very low mileage, and often goes again within a few thousand.

The one thing that does crop up a few times is there are some location dowels between the bell housing and the face plate, which seem to have a feature of dropping out, and it is even mentioned to double check them in the workshop manual in the downloads.

The other thing seems to be, that a couple of people who had the clutch fitted by a non-nissan garage, after a lot of work and expense ended up at the main Nissan Stealer, and once they looked into it, said the wrong pressure plate had been fitted, and that was what caused the issue, something about it putting pressure on the main shaft, and taking it out of alignment., as 5th is the straight through gear, and 6th is an overdrive.

Blimey - thanks for that. You seem like a very hard working ferret to me. I'll go back to the garage with that for ammunition and questions...

 

[AlexD333]

Dual mass strikes again! Hate the design

Hope you get the answer your looking for :thumb2