Hi, new g37s 6MT owner - 2013 sedan. Love the car so far, but been reading up on the clutch issues.

I probably should do a fluid swap (lightly browned), since I have no idea when it was done by the previous owner (40k miles); never needed to do it on my own on my old honda (never had issues); but want to prevent CSC issues on my g. Only swapped clutch fluid myself on a bike before, and its pretty simple, since you can reach the clutch for pump-bleeding.

I saw some people on the "change your fluid!" thread mention vacuum bleeders, but then I saw this bulletin from Infiniti (http://www.infinitig37.com/TSB/ITB13-005a.pdf) saying not to use a vacuum bleeder.

I don't have the FSM. What's the word? Is it safe - or do i need to pump or gravity bleed?


Thanks!

 

I would follow the instructions on the TSB. I changed my clutch fluid in July and it didn't take long, but you do need a second person to push in the clutch.

 

i would gravity bleed its dummy proof. pedal push doesnt seem to work on these cars. and no vacuum bleeder needed

 

Is there a trick to gravity bleeding, I've never done it, just seen a few youtubes.

Steps seem to be:
1, jack up whatever corner has the bleed valve of car.
2. open, siphon, clean clutch reservoir
3. attach drain hose and open valve
4. refill reservoir as it empties

doesn't seem too hard; if I've got that right.

 

siphon old fluid, fill with new fluid, open valve, give pedal few pumps to get oil flowing, ull see bubbles once u see a steady drip that means the air is out. let it drip until old fluid is all out and watch the reservoir once it hits half fill it with fluid dont let it go empty. thats the general idea. thats wat i did. wasted my time and energy doing the pedal way to get the air out.

 

Finally got some time to get the fluid changed. Gravity bleed worked great. Easy enough that I shouldn't have trouble doing it a few times a year. Fluid turned out to be much darker than i had thought; I'm really shocked the owners manual doesn't suggest changing it more regularly.

Pedal feel is so much better now. 1->2 is still a bit noisy, but i guess that's normal for this car?

Thanks for the help.

 

Do you need jack stands to do this? Or do you really just have to lift it where the bleeder is? Also, I am assuming the bleeder is on the driver front side.

 

The bleeder is driver/front, but it is also close to the center (left/right) line of the car (i creeped in from just behind the driver's wheel). The PDF I linked in the first post has a picture that will make more sense once you are under the car.

I used ramps to lift the car up. Even then, with a creeper, it was a tight fit to get to the valve. You could try just lifting one side, but I'm not sure if you would have enough room for good access; also, there's the safety concerns of working under a car not on stable stands.

I splurged on some pricey ramps (race ramps), and bought a creeper on sale from sears (summer-time sale, great price ... comfortable enough, but not low-profile, so it lifts my body a little too far off the ground) Maybe i should have switched my priorities and bought an expensive creeper and cheap ramps. Works well enough.

I've done two changes so far, gravity bleed method is very effective.

 

Gravity bleeding works fine to bleed most of the line. However, I'd still do several cycles the traditional way to bleed whatever fluid is in the slave itself.