Most likely u'll see the rpm's move up, but the vehicle not speed up, then the rpm goes down and you feel the clutch gripping the gears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r837lj8jtO0&feature=fvw

 

It's harder for me to get the truck moving in 1st gear. Used to ease off the clutch and it pulls before having to apply gas, but now I'm gassing and clutching at the same time.

You can do the 2nd gear test. From a stop, try to drive in 2nd gear and see if you can easily get the truck to move, on a flat surface. If you sleep, it means your clutch is going bad.

I'm kind of worried about moving. I'll be driving a little over 750 miles with a full load in the back, hopefully my clutch doesn't slip on hills.

 

If you floor the gas in a higher gear, like 3rd, while going at a lower speed, like 25, the truck should struggle to accel. If it does that the clutch is holdig good. If you do the same and the RPMs rise but the truck does not accel, then the clutch is slipping and needs replace. The drop problem you are getting is not normaly from the clutch. All cars have a vacuum assist or just a spring on decell, not sure about Xterra, so if you release the gas it does not go down so fast as to kill the engine. These can stick ad the RPMs will come down slow. The only way I can see your problem relates to the clutch is if the through out is not fully disingaging the clutch, which it could be. This could be slave cyl not fully extending. If you get the slow RPM drop when in nutral and you just rev and release gas then it is not the slave cyl. I may be wrong on this, If Xterra has a different system, so others can chime In. Hope this helps.

 

how long do they usually last under normal conditions? (not towing all the time, not a teenage driver, standard conditions etc)

 

Well tha still varies, but it should last ya good amount of time. Although I'm not too familiar with the quality of Nissan's stock clutches on the 2nd. gens..

 

I have 90k on a stock clutch and I tow a heavy sled trailer in the winter. It all depends on how much you let it slip when starting out. Another symptom of a failing clutch is difficulty engaging reverse or first gear at a stop. My last car went 220k on the original clutch, I'm hoping to get 150k out of the X.

 

I used to have a 1992 Sentra and the clutch went bad in the middle of rush hour.
The clutch felt heavy before going out so that might be a symptom

 

I will say that when I'm driving and put the clutch in, the rpms are high, and progressivly get lower as I slow down, even with the clutch in and the shifter in neutral, sitting at around 1,200 until right before I come to a stop when it'll drop town to normal.

My X has always done that, so has my 5-speed VW. I'm 99% sure that it's normal.

Somewhat along the lines of that LINE-OF-FIRE mentioned, you're still rolling so you don't want to stall, and you want enough power for everything to work properly: Power for brakes, electricity for the electronics, have the power steering pump pumping enough so that you can get out of any jam and have full power to everything right to the point where you come to a complete stop. That's my theory behind the reasoning for the high idle when coasting anyways...

Try it going down a long hill in neutral with the clutch pressed in. The RPM's will never drop below 1000RPM's. Once you come to a complete stop, that's when it should drop to normal idle.

And like I said, perfectly normal AFAIK

 

I know it happens, just it's been much more noticable recently. I float the gears half the time, and lately the rpm hasn't been dropping low enough to float into the higher gear like it normally would. It all started after the volant install, but the day before I installed it I did some wheelin and was kinda hard on the clutch. As of now I'm positive it's not the clutch and just related to the codes I've been getting from the volant. Good info though guys for future reference on bad clutches...
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