Clutch/Flywheel Prob

Hey everyone, I'll try to keep a long story fairly short...but I need some opinions on an issue which has been bothering me. I bought my 97 Maxima SE in July, and 4 days later had to have the clutch replaced (no big deal...the car had 68,000 miles on it then, so it could have been the original, plus it was done under warranty so I'm not complaining). However, roughly 600 miles after the replacement I noticed that the clutch was feeling "different" and "funny". So I took the car back in to Nissan when it was time for my oil change (about 650 miles were on the new clutch)...one of the guys drove it, and they claimed the car was fine. So at this time I was thinking, "ok, whatever...I'll wait and see if I start noticing any other problems." I reach 1000 miles on the clutch...it feels totally dead, so I bring it back in and Nissan agrees to take out the transmission and such (this time when they drove it I guess they noticed it....damn I don't know why they couldn't pick it up the first time). It turns out it wasn't my clutch...but my flywheel which was totally fried (but of course they told me I needed a new clutch as well...and me being the dumb teenager I am had them replace that as well). I was smart though, I had them give me my old parts...and what do I do? I take them to MY mechanic. Guess what he says? He tells me my clutch had absolutely NO wear on it and that it should have gone right back into my car!!! And...while Nissan was trying to blame the fried flywheel on me...saying I must have been racing the car too hard or something...my mechanic looked at it and right away told me that the hot spots were caused because they never resurfaced the f**kin thing when they replaced the clutch the first time around. Of course Nissan charged me 1200 dollars for the clutch and flywheel as well...but I disputed the charge...got a nice note from my mechanic...and I won, so there...no more problems...I got a new clutch and flywheel in my car, and I have a spare clutch and flywheel in my garage when I need them. But now the clutch is feeling different again! It's not exactly the same way as it was before, but it still feels weird...almost like I have to let it out SLIGHTLY more than usual before it begins to catch. It may not be a big deal, but I would just like to know if this is normal....like if clutches have a certain "break in" period or anything like that. I've never driven a stick for this length of time before, because I drove a Toyota Avalon before this car and the only time I drove a stick was when I took my dad's '72 Stingray out for a spin once in a while. Sorry I made such a short question so long, but I felt it was important to give the background info on what has gone wrong...because if my situation is not normal...maybe someone here will know what is wrong with the car. Thanks so much for all your time!

Hey. sorry to hear about your experiences. but this is what went down with me.

i had a series of "Hoonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggg" noises coming from the tranny when the car was pretty much stock.

when i had the supercharger installed, it was time to swap out the stock clutch and flywheel for racing versions.

to my amazement, my flywheel was spotted as well

i removed it from the encasing and examined it more..
infact those spots were heat soaked patches that i had inflicted onto my flywheel from a few too many "spirited" driving sessions and of course, learning to drive stick on the car.

i asked my mechic if he could just resurface the flywheel. his reply was no. it was so heat soaked that i would have to machine down too much of the flywheel to get the spots off. and man, if you saw these spots you would laugh just as hard as i did.

dont worry about it. resurfacing the flywheel is a bit dangerous. i dont recommend it unless the heat spot is minute. but becareful going with an aftermarket flywheel like i did. revs a lot faster, but i have trouble starting the car, which i though was the starter, but its not.

good luck

--Cheston.

Thanks for the reply...geez 1 out of 26 people so far...I guess I'm too long winded. Sorry. Anyways, glad to hear I'm not the only one. The only difference between how my flywheel looked and how yours looked though was that mine was resurfacable. The hot spots weren't as bad as you describe...and I have a GREAT personal mechanic who said that it could have been resurfaced with no problems. Plus he was the one who said my clutch was absolutely fine, when Nissan told me I needed both the new clutch and flywheel (they said the flywheel had no meat left on it to machine off...geezes my mechanic said there was PLENTY). I don't abuse my car what so ever.....only once the other day when I decided to teach a civic driver a lesson who was riding my ass at 40 mph and I basically burned him and got the car up to 80 before he was even at 50 or so. Then he starts riding me at 70 mph, which really pissed me off because I already blew him away (I swear it was 10 seconds before he caught up again). Anyways that's getting off topic. My main point is that if I'm not abusing the car in any way and not riding the clutch (my dad wouldn't trust me with his corvette if I couldn't drive the thing)...then how come everything still seems to be burning out on me? Since Nissan seems to try to rip me off...I'm curious to know if they maybe have been intentionally installing the parts incorrectly so they would get premature wear...but at the same time I'm still curious to know if it's possibly just something else wrong with the car that has not been discovered yet. Any ideas? Thanks, all is appreciated