twang86

Hey everyone.

Last Saturday I bought a used 2008 infiniti G37S 6MT with about 36000 miles on it for a pretty decent price at a dealer in New York. I had to drive about 5 hours to get there so I guess I wasn't as thorough as I could have been when inspecting the car. The car came with a clean carfax so I wasn't worried about it being in an accident.

Now that I drove it around for a while I am noticing a bunch of problems with the car. The main ones are

1. When braking at above 60 MPH, the steering wheel vibrates
2. When pushing the clutch in, I can hear a rattling noise.
3. I didn't notice this when inspecting the car, but front bumper not completely flush with the headlights(will post a picture soon)

My question is, are these problems very serious? This is my first time buying a used car, so I'm not sure where I could go to have these problems fixed. Should I go to a dealer or just any auto repair shop. And is the car still under warranty at this point?

Thanks in advance for all your answers.

GoFightNguyen

iTrader: (14)

Now that I drove it around for a while I am noticing a bunch of problems with the car. The main ones are

1. When braking at above 60 MPH, the steering wheel vibrates
You probably need to get your rotors resurfaced. It's a known issue that happens sometimes. Fixable.
2. When pushing the clutch in, I can hear a rattling noise.
The 6MT has a history of having issues. It's hit or miss, upgrade with the RJM clutch kit and it'll be fixed + better than new.
3. I didn't notice this when inspecting the car, but front bumper not completely flush with the headlights(will post a picture soon)
Post a picture. It might be something you can fix, but if not, you could always upgrade to a new bumper! There are a few bolts and brackets under the hood you should check for tightness (push rivets and 10mm bolts) before doing anything else.


Welcome to the forum, most of those things are fixable and pretty common. It's also possible that the previous owner didn't report a major accident and settled out of insurance. There was a user here recently who was shopping and did a little investigative work and found that this was exactly what happened.

It's a nice car with pretty low mileage for its age. Enjoy!

twang86

Thanks for the quick response!

Would you recommend doing all this in a dealership or just any run of the mill auto shop?

I am very new to the whole car modding thing and I don't know how much I want to mess with the car. I bought the G because I hear that infiniti's make very reliable vehicles and they look cool as hell.

Maybe in the future I can start doing some mods once I get a second car and make this one my weekend fun vehicle or something!

GoFightNguyen

iTrader: (14)

Hmmmmmmm,

The resurfacing you could probably get done at any auto shop, make sure they get good reviews, and it helps if they specialize in brakes/rotors.

The clutch is an aftermarket part, you'll need to order it yourself, there are vendors on the forum that can hook you up. The DIY is possible, but it sounds like you're new to modding, and it's probably best to leave that to the professional. Black Betty did it himself, but he's pretty experienced.

Post pics of the bumper and the forum guys can probably diagnose what the deal is. Take pics of the gap, the push rivets under the hood that hold the bumper to the radiator shroud, the mounting brackets on either side of the radiator shroud, and an overall picture.

hinomura

iTrader: (4)

The clutch noise is probably normal, it's a very noisy clutch. I just recently had my transmission replaced under warranty and I think they adjusted the throw out bearing on the clutch while they were at it because it's a lot less noisy. I don't know if it's related (someone with more car knowledge please correct me if I'm wrong) but the clutch also feels less grabby. Myself personally I like grabby cause it lets me accelerate faster (or feel like it at least) but it def made regular driving more pleasant since the clutch engagement feels smoother.

twang86

Is that the 60000 mile powertrain warranty? I think I still have that. Might look into getting my transmission replaced too. The rattling noise is driving me nuts.

TakmaN

My 6MT has a little noise when the clutch pedal is up. When I push it down, the noise completely goes away. It's not that loud though and just sounds like a bit louder than a normal economy car at idle.

I had my transmission looked at by 2 different dealerships and they both said all is normal. The tranny isn't the most refined but it gets the job done and is overall built very well.

The parts that tend to fail are the master cylinder and slave cylinder. I replaced my entire clutch and both master and slave and couldn't be happier. It was a costly "repair" but should last a long time.

I also replaced my front bumper with an IPL and my front right headlight wasn't sitting flush. I just looked up the headlight removal DIY here and repositioned it and now it looks great. GoFightNguyen pretty much laid it out so I would echo his remarks and enjoy the G!

twang86

OK, these are the images of my front bumper. That part in red circle is the part that is poking out. I can push it back in but it pops back out in 2 seconds.





Does it look like its missing a screw or something?

WillCo1

Possible that the vehicle was involved in a minor fender bender where the front bumper cover was replaced. Not a big deal.

But it might have been involved in a more serious accident. You need to take it to a shop and get it up on a rack and have it inspected. CarFax isn't 100%. A lot of things aren't listed on CarFax.

As far as the brake shudder is concerned, this is a pretty common problem on many vehicles. The surface of the rotors get warped and it causes shuddering during higher speed braking. Either get the rotors resurfaced (temporary fix) or get new, upgraded rotors.

For the manual transmission, there are many complaints of noisy/rattling transmissions. Just do a search. You will find it is a pretty common problem on G37s and 370Zs. Not really sure how to solve the issues, only know that many people complain of the unrefined manual transmissions on these vehicles.

twang86

I took it to a friend who's a mechanic and he put it on a rack. Said the car was fine. So I don't think that is a problem. As far as the bumper is concerned, is there any way t fix it? Its not a big deal but it is bugging the hell outta me to see the car with this weird thing poking out.

WillCo1

Wouldn't hurt to remove the bumper cover completely, inspect everything (screws, brackets etc) and reinstall.

Possible it was installed and the screws were all tightened down when it wasn't sitting completely flush and even all around.

I know with after market bumpers they sometimes require a lot of finagling/adjusting to get them to sit even and flush.

Maybe even remove bumper cover, leave it sitting in sun for a while (if any sun left) or warm with a heat gun and reinstall.

WillCo1

You might even want to remove the bumper cover, heat that part that is sticking out, and push it backward to try and reshape it correctly.

Just be very careful to not over heat and don't damage the paint!!

Supremee

Clutch noise is normal.

As far as the bumper.. not normal lol. Maybe the car has had a minor tap or hit. Doesnt look serious. I think itll stay like that.. or you could remove the whole bumper and put it back together hoping they missed something lol idk

OH and the brake shudder, replace your rotors and DONT get oem rotors. Itll happen again lol. Try R1concepts or stoptech

twang86

is it easy to remove the bumper and reinstall?

I am a complete noob when it comes to car modding. And I don't want to mess anything up. Does anyone have a DIY step by step on how to do this? I am very tempted to just take it to a body shop and see what they can do with it but I feel like it will be very costly.

GoFightNguyen

iTrader: (14)

You absolutely do not need to take it to a shop. There is a DIY in the forum to remove it. Pop your hood. Remove push rivets and bolts holding the bumper. Under the bumper there are ~10 10mm bolts holding the bumper to the splash guard. Pop a push rivet out of the wheel well and get the two bolts on each side that connect the bumper to the side fenders. Start on one side and firmly peel the bumper off the frame of the car.


Use the search function, it will get you a lot of information without having to wait for people to tell you or waste time linking you to it.