spit

First Post. Not much luck finding a forum that will allow a post. Hope this works.

2005 rx8 belongs to son. rubber line to slave cylinder cracked; master cylinder leaking. replaced both and slave. Can not get air out of line. Tried traditional pump and dump... tube from slave bleed screw to jam jar. Tried speed bleeder. Tried mighty vac. Air bubbles keep on coming. With bleed screw closed, the system holds a vacuum, so no air leaks.

Ideas?? Thank you. john

spit

Hello RX8 folks. Well, 153 views and no replys. That's ok. I finally got it sorted today. My kid will be happy to get his car back. Here is how I repaired it; maybe it will help someone sort out their hydraulics.

-replaced cracked rubber hose.
-replaced slave cyl
-replaced master cyl, twice. Made sure this last one was brand new.
-after days of bleeding and quarts of fluid, I had success with Phoenix Systems reverse brake bleeder. I used it as a vacuum hand pump and pulled fluid thru the bleed nipple into a jam jar.
- The bleed was not successful until i WRAPPED THE BLEED NIPPLE THREADS WITH TEFLON TAPE to keep air from entering the system. In other words, all of my prvious methods would have probably worked if I had thought to use the "tape".

Then, most important- Shifting into 1st and reverse was not smooth. Found a service bulletin on Clutch pedal replacement. It told how to take the slop out of the pedal. Pedal slop should be approx 1mm. My son's car had approx 3/8inch of slop (which is a whole bunch of millimeters!)

Car now shifts great in all gears. Hope this helps someone else. After spending some time with the rx8 I appreciate it's engineering. It is a solid car. I also appreciate my '73 Triumph Spitfire, which has lots more room to work, plus driving topless is way more fun. john

Mab43

Thank you for the post. You talked about play in the Pedal how do you measures this?

spit

Good Morning, I just eye-balled it. Probably a good thing to check yearly or more often if the car is driven around town with lots of clutch use.

-First, get a flashlight and push the seat rearwards.
-Then wedge your head and arms up into the footwell.
- point the flashlight into the rear of the master cylinder and push the clutch pedal; watch to see how much you move the pedal before it pushes the master cylinder into the bore.
- in my sons car I pushed the pedal so that the push rod moved approx 3/8 inch before moving the master cylinder.
- loosen the nut on the pedal push rod, the nut closest to the pedal. When this is loose you can turn the nut which is closest to the master to take out the slop. After you have turned it a little, try the pedal and if the play is 1/16 inch or so, tighten the locknut.

There is a pdf on this site which describes how to do this. It also talks about a clutch pedal recall. Can't remember where on the site. Check your pedal while in there for side to side slop. If you find some, your pedal bracket is probably broke. If so, pull the pedal, take it to a muffler shop, and for $20 someone will be happy to spend 30 seconds or so welding it for you.

Hope this helps. john