Truckster (Vic) replied:

Its not uncommon with GU 3.0's. Know of about 8-10.. One went at 50,000 and he was told by Nissan dealer he should be happy with that! I nearly dropped dead!

and yes you can get the flywheels machined.

Member - JohnR replied:

Philip, don't know about clutches in 3.0l Patrols but my Rodeo has had three clutches so far and not yet 60,000 kms on the clock.

Search the forum on Dtronic and find posts like PostID: 3543 to see what is said.Regards

JohnR - Not enough of the right travelling, some here..... some over there.......

maverick replied:

Nissan refers to them as 'Dualmass' flywheel (so does the transmission industry). Very common in marine application to reduce vibration. Also becomming common in alloy high rpm vehicle engines as they tend to vibrate both themselves and everything else to pieces if the all around them is not dampened. These particular ones in the GU Patrol are of 2 metals (or that is what the rumours are) so anything with 2 metals can be machined if you can find the right place - and we are talking heavy machinery places here, not the local vehicle service centre. Try a CAT (or similar) dealer. Also this issue was raised in this forum 06July2003 by Donald. As for GU clutches - the number of 'new' 4WDs (and not just GUs) requiring clutch changes is starting to get up there in sufficient numbers for there to be a bit of look into just what is going on. Surely not all the people driving these vehicles are stuffing them up? rgds

David N. replied:

Yes, I believe lack of cubes has a lot to do with it.
Son's Diesel Gemini has 300,000k's on the original clutch, my Patrol 4.2 Diesel has 200,000 also on the original clutch, both clutches still going strong.
It obviously pays to look after them, eg: when backing my boat or 'van I use low ratio (2 wheel drive as the hubs are not locked in) thus avoiding slipping the clutch much at all.

Eric Experience. replied:

Philip and others.
The eperdemic of clutch and brake rotor fialures is due to the banning of asbestos from both. Some friction material manufactures are trying glass fibres and metal fibres but nothing is as good as asbestos. In the rally cars we have to run ceramic discs riveted on to the clutch drive plate, makes for interesting driving as they don't grip until they are hot and then there is no slip, the flywheels are made from a very hard steel and the pressure plates are faced with a hard sheet. As a matter of interest most engineering shops can make up a flywheel or modify 4.2 to fit the 3L.
Eric.