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SON240sx Automotive
1

[story]

Ch. I

It began when I was driving home after school from UTSC.

I exited on Whites Rd., took Whites to Kingston (Hwy 7), and took Kingston to Valley Farm Rd. Little did I know, that I was in for something big.

As I’m making the lane change into the left-turning lane, I begin downshifting from 4th to 3rd. Clutch in and:

BRUUCKKKKKSH!
(sound altered to protect those harmed)

It sounds and feels like the clutch pedal arm/mounting point has broken. I take the car out of gear with a bit of force, basically taking it out of gear without clutching in. 4-way flashers are pushed on and I pull over to the middle of kingston, in the left turning lane, in front of a median.

Looking down at the clutch pedal, I notice that it’s off to a an angle resembling this: \ With the other pedals still straight: | |

I exclaim, “OMGWTFBBQCOPTER?!”

I pop the hood, open the door and look at the pedal from a closer point of view, I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sence. The pedal still has a pressure, but not like regular clutch pressure. It feels like the movement has been restricted to the first half of clutching in, before the clutch plate actually seperates.

I look in from the hood and nothing seems amiss.

Now my cellphone sucks. I can’t make outgoing calls, but I can take incoming calls, and I can text message. Quick text message to the girlfriend, who calls my dad, who calls a friend’s shop, who calls a towtruck, who calls me and says we’ll be there in a bit.

I’m towed to the shop, Mr. Transmission, and Ken (the owner) comes out and has a look. He sits down, notices the same thing about the clutch pressure, starts it in first and obviously stalls it. Trys again, stalls it again. Obviously, this was gonna happen since the clutch isn’t working.

“Tranny’s gotta come out, she’ll be sleeping here tonight.”

Now, I thought it had something to do with the pedal, but I believe I was wrong.

I get home and weep for a bit. I hate being away from my car.

Ch. II

Today, no word from Ken the mechanic at all…Not until about 4:50 when my dad calls.

He says you’re moving with your aunty and uncle from Bel-Air.

Well no, he didn’t say that. He says, “I talked to the shop, and they say it’s the clutch. They also say it’ll cost $800 to fix.”

I say, “Umm…I dunno if that’s right. Did you tell them not to work on it yet? Did you tell them about the engine?”

He says, “no, you tell them.”

I call the shop.

Me: “Hey umm this is Original Nutta (name altered), you have my 240 in the shop.”

Him: “yeah I talked to your dad a little while ago.”

Me: “Yeah he told me…umm so tell me, what exactly is wrong with it, and what’s the proceedure, and how much does it cost.”

Him: “It’s the clutch, so we gotta replace the clutch and we’re gonna machine the flywheel…blah blah blah $818.55, and you know, you can’t be beating on your car like that, clutches shouldn’t look like how yours looked” (lecturing me?? I baby my clutch, it was like that when I got it, but whatever.)

Me: “Umm…okay…See…It’s like this…the car is a 1990 Nissan 240sx, but the engine and tranny isn’t stock. It’s from a 96 Nissan Silvia/180SX. The engine and tranny was shipped in from Japan and then installed in the car. It is not available stock in any Nissan vehicle in Canada. It is not legal. It is not DOT Approved. Any clutch you get from your supplier will not work. If it needs a new clutch, I can order it in and give it to you.”

Him: “umm…wow…okay…well we have a clutch here…but I can see if we can get a clutch specific to your engine…I’ll call you back.”

Me: “alright thanks. bye.”

[/endstory]

So Ch. III is where I stand right now.

Any thoughts?

2

how far is your house from the shop? i suggest you have it towed to your house and do it yourself. nice clutch for about $450 and have someone over to help you. or have the shop do it all for a g. your call

3

My thought is maybe don’t have a shop do it. Since they think SR20 is an STD or something.

4

Kindly walk over there, throw the tranny in the trunk and have the car towed home.

Have a look at the clutch yourself. Post a pic and have us judge. If it is infact gone, no big worries.

Half the work is done for you. Order a new clutch. I recommend a custom one from Eurodrive. Copper ceramic pucks in place of organic material with a sprung hub. I’ve had one on my KA since april and it feels great. The disk will probably run you around $200 or so.

Order a new TO bearing from Nissan. Also post pics of your flywheel, it may or may not require resurfacing. Finally, you may want to have your pressure plate rebuilt by Eurodrive if you want to hand over an extra $100 or so.

Basically, the shop wants to charge you $400 for labour that can be easily done by yourself. I’ve available to help, I’ve swapped clutches many a time. With the tranny already removed, you’re only looking at about 3 hours work on your garage floor.

5

I agree with Titan, tow the car home.

Since the clutch pedal is fcuked, you probably won’t be able to “clutch” in and out of gear. Could be pedal or clutch problem. The clutch just might still be good.

I’d go over there and have a look at clutch and see what the real problem is.

6

lol check the clutch pedal.

my vishnu twin plate was so stiff that i broke the welds on the pedal mount.

check it for sure

GT

7

give them the clutch and let them do the labour for like 300…cuz they allready billed u a 150 for takin it out i bet !!!
or, u can spend 100 on towing, 150 on labour to remove the tranny, 400 on a new clutch and lots of time for the clutch labour on ure driveway…i say give the guy a clutch and 300 bucks and tel him to install it and have a nice day.

8

Ouch man that really sucks.

I would tend to agree about getting your car either home, for you to do the work, or taken to another shop that is’nt gona rape you for doing the job.

Good luck man and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

Easy 8)

9

Ur story is wrong, HWY 7 = “HIGHWAY 7” / Winchester

KINGSTON = HWY 2

10

dude i dunno this sounds fishy shit. Have you used this shop before?

More importantly why isn’t this post on SG?

Was the clutch slipping before? is it a stock clutch if so i dunno why it would just blow which is what it sounds like. It sounds like somethin GAVE OUT, not like something slowly wore out you know what i mean breggin?

Definatly go to the shop check it out take pics post them up since im on house arrest i can answer in like 0.2349283 milliseconds and there are always other ginos on here, we’ll tell you whats up.

Have they even take the tranny apart yet? didnt you tell them NOT to touch it? bah iadm;alksdf

11

$800+? Hrm, exactly the reason why I didn’t let a shop do my clutch.
Cost me $160 for clutch, $30 for release bearing, $70 for resurfacing.
Then again, I could afford to keep the car off the road that long. :hsugh:

Also another reason why I don’t let my dad handle my car’s business.

With big powerful motors, come big responsibilities. :hsugh:

If you can afford to keep the car off the road a while and you can attempt
to do some of the work yourself, bring it home and not let the shop do
anything. And yea, post pics of the aftermath.

Did the mechanic get proper approval before starting on the work?

12

Highway number was altered to protect those involved. 8)

Greg: I will check the pedal as soon as I see the car, cause honestly, it felt like the pedal gave out, not the clutch. But then again, i’ve never broken anything in the tranny before so I dunno.

Gonad: As far as I know, the mechanic told me he’d call me back when he figured out if he could get an SR clutch or not. I assume that they won’t touch the car until they call me. If they do touch it, i will be upset.

Sasha: the shop is pretty legit, I’ve been exceptionally good friends with the family who owns it for like years. But it does seem a bit fishy. Like they’re trying to tell me what to do with an engine and tranny they’ve never seen, smelled or touched before.

Varun: I’m gonna agree with you on this, I don’t have the money to tow it back to my house, and I assume they’ve already got it up on the lift and have unbolted the tranny (he told me the clutch was in bad shape). I might as well provide the clutch, and have them throw it in and then give me the car back whole.

Bruce: thanks for the offer, If I do wind up working on it myself, I’ll give you a call, and the numerous others who offered to help. Thanks guys.

I actually have no idea whether the clutch is a stock model or not. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow when I go in and see it. I don’t have a digital camera, so if anyone wants to buy me one, i’ll take some pictures. :wink:

Thanks everyone.

13

samething happened to me… check it

14

If you need a clutch, let me know.

I can get you a Dual Friction CenterForce for $455 with TOB.

Only thing is, I am leaving for BC on Sat. I have some friends in the area here who I am sure would help us out with contacting and meeting up if you need it ASAP.

PM me or email at tkoudys at sympatico.ca

I hope we can help you out here.

Anyways, good luck.
Theo

15

ya that doesn’t sound like a clutch. i mean if the clutch was toast, the car wouldn’t be stalling when you try and start it, it would just slip. unless its fcuked in some super way that minded the disc to the flywheel. which i doubt.

either way, dont get local shops to work on japanese engines. they like to throw money at problems since its not their money instead of actually figuring out the real problem and finding the cheapest solution

16

Ch. III

After much advice was given to me by the community of fellow 240sx owners, I have decided to have the shop do the labour. This is because:
a) They already have the car on a lift and the transmission out.
b) They already sent the flywheel out to be machined.
c) My driveway is cold and snow covered. My garage is car filled.

I talked to the mechanic and he says:

“Yeah, it doesn’t work. What’s that engine called?”

Me: “It’s an SR20DET from japan.”

Him: “GSR20GET?”

Me: “SR 20 DET.”

Him: “MR?”

Me: “SR”

Him: “BET?”

Me: “S-R-2-0-D-E-T”

Him: “And what car is it from?”

Me: “It’s from a 96 180SX/Silvia, in Japan”

Him: “yeah so if the vehicle was never manufacted for sale in North America, then we definately don’t have it in our catalogue. Why’d you swap the engines?”

Me: “Umm…well…it’s more powerful.”

Him: “Yeah…well…I think next time you should keep it stock.”

We continue our conversation and I tell him that I’m gonna need to order a clutch and how much is labour to put it in. He says $300 plus $50 for machining the flywheel. Whatever, that’s fair, he already took the tranny out and sent the flywheel out.

So here I am now.

I need a clutch.

The Problem: Both me and my dad are completely cash-less. We made a deal with Mr. Transmission that would allow a hold on the payments for 3 months. If I can source a clutch, I believe Mr. Transmission will pay for it now, and we’d pay them in 3 months.

Cars suck.

17

You don’t have a credit card?

18

a lot of people dont.

i dont… but thats cus i like to hide.

GT

19

are you looking for a stock or modded clutch?

I have a spec stage 2 in my S14 that I’m gonna pull out but I wasn’t planning on doing it any time soon, im sure we can find you a stock SR20DET clutch somewhere for cheap

20

I pity you.

WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE SO STUPID, STUBBORN AND FRUSTRATING!

And he’s playing it out as though you’re the idiot. I love it.

Good luck with everything dude, hope it ends up working out. :thumleft: