Aidanrm

Hello everyone,

I am creating this thread to help some new members who may run into or are having this issue that I am having with a DIY to follow as I complete. (I also have a noise when pressing the pedal coming from the tranny OUTSIDE the car which I’m confident is the part that actuates between the slave and tranny which I will grease)

Note (I know there are lots of threads involving this but none with a breakdown of what to inspect and do next mostly just comments which I see fall onto deaf ears of the OP who wants the answer to be just “kiss the car and it’s fixed”)

If your clutch pedal has slammed to the floor and won’t come up on its own, follow my short guide (I’m no rx8 master but have fixed all my issues so far)

1. Bracket failure - Check the bracket on the clutch pedal itself, there are 2 spot welds that are near the fire wall looking forward. Often associated with a noise from INSIDE the car (I have replaced this last year as mine has snapped) I will include a picture when I find my old pedal somewhere)

2. Loss of pressure (my issue) - You have lost pressure in your system from a leak/ failure in one or both of your cylinders. The master cylinder is the easiest to replace, slave is much harder. My way of finding this is the issue is I’m able to build up some pressure by pumping the pedal hard, I am able to then press the clutch and get into gear, I than slowly released the pedal and crept forward (normal) pushed pedal back in, I then help the pedal down and waited to see if clutch would reengage and it did and stalled with the pedal still pressed (it started to creep forward and I couldn’t get out of gear without force) this has narrowed down my trouble shoot to the master as from my thinking, the master can still move the slave to release the clutch but then as pressure is lost somewhere in the master, the clutch is engaging as it overpowers the pressure. I may be wrong on my thinking but I believe if my slave was the problem I wouldn’t be able to release the clutch at all no matter how much pressure I build up.

Next steps - I have ordered both a slave and master ($40 each on rock auto) they will be here Tuesday and will tackle this on the weekend as I have my motorcycle to get to work. I will be including photos and steps to help some new people as I have seen a few threads involving steps but do not make sense if you have a smaller understanding of where parts are as they can be hidden behind other parts.

For people using this thread - feel free to ask me to clarify any steps on this thread that are confusing and tools I use for specific spots.

Aidanrm

Hello all.

To start good and bad news

GOOD - master is in and car is back up and running

BAD - slave is at airport in USA and did not make it so I will add it in once it arrives and is installed

https://foxed.ca/rx7manual/2003mazdarx8/ - service manual follow steps, it is located under "CLUTCH" hyper link


To start you will need a 10M wrench, 8M wrench, 12M socket with extensions and ratchet, rags, jack up front end and some calmness

**follow steps with order of photos**

REMOVAL OF OLD MC (10 mins)

Looking at the first 3 photos you can see the master cylinder (MC), the hard line into the top of the MC, and the soft line into the MC and fluid tank PS - ignore the wires I was lazy doing my gauge install and it just looks messy sorry to you ADHD folks)

1. You need to use your 10M wrench (I had a flair wrench on hand, I recommend) to crack the hard line on top as shown fully remove this
2. Remove the soft line clamps with some duck bills or any kind of plyers (I had to give the old line a small twist to break it free)
3. Remove the 2 nuts on the clutch pedal bracket that are on the MC studs (sorry forgot photo of studs but nut looks like ones in photos)

Following next 3 pictures

4. CONGRATS the MC is out
5. Here is mine on the bench, it has seen better days
6. My old soft line is pretty nasty so I will be using new one that came with MC

Time for install (10 mins)
(rock auto p/n is LMC447 for MC I used)


7. Here is a side by side of old and new... You will notice the female end of the new hard line is not same angle as old one
8. Using a 15M wrench crack the bolt that holds the female end to MC and rotate to match yours (I did this before I took picture so I used old one as an example
9. Install the hard line and soft line just as you removed them and the nuts on the studs by the pedal (the soft line was very long so cut to size and **REMEMBER YOU CAN ALWAYS MAKE IT SHORTER NOT LONGER SO CUT A LITTLE BIGGER THAN YOU THINK**)

Bleeding (10mins)

10. If you have an S1 like me it is behind your oil filter neck it will have a black cap on it see next photo, (I have an adapter plate installed for my gauges so ignore the blue plate, if you have one its a 26M socket to remove)
11. Remove the rubber cap, remove oil filter and adapter plate if you have (trust me this will make is so easy to reach)
12. I don't have photos for this as its all hands on but my method for bleeding was to attach a clear hose to the bleed nipple, other end into an old water bottle with brake fluid (make sure hose is in brake fluid so no air goes in)

STEP BY STEP BLEEDING (I followed service manual for this) (20mins)

Have friend/brother/mother/wife or anyone in car (NOTE keep an eye on fluid level and top up as needed but make sure system is closed when topping up fluid)
Open valve with pedal up
Person in car press pedal and hold down (you should see some fluid move as air is moving from MC to SC
Close the nipple and the person in car will lift pedal up
Repeat this until 1. No air bubbles are flowing into your water bottle and 2. Clutch pedal is firm again (this took me about 20mins but that includes some small talk between presses)
Once you have both no air bubbles and clutch is firm I did the cycle 5 more times to ensure
Test drive and feel clutch

I will recheck bleeding in 1-2 weeks to ensure if any missed air it will have moved to slave and will be removed with same steps

AND FOR THOSE WHO FOLLOW WORD FOR WORD
put on rubber cap
install oil filter
lower car

I hope this helps someone...AND feel free to point out any confusing steps or steps I may have missed while writing this I had beers after so hopefully I didn't skip anything

Aidanrm

Reserve 2

spectre6000

Timely! I noticed my clutch engagement point was nearly at the floor the other day until I had driven it a bit, then it was back to normal. One cylinder or another is losing its seal, and it's time to replace them. Watching!

Aidanrm

Hey spectre,

I was noticing that happening to mine about 2 weeks before mine went, the parts are to arrive Saturday and I’ll be posting my steps once they come in. Sorry I started this thread early but wanted to have something set up for this job.

Meat Head

I’m about a month ahead of you in this issue. Clutch pedal was stuck to the floor one morning. Fortunately I had both the master and slave cylinders on hand along with a stainless steel line to replace the rubber line. Not too bad of a job if you have a vacuum bleeder to pull fluid out of the slave cylinder bleeder. At least my pedal was new cause that snapped over a year ago. Watching anyway cause why not?

spectre6000

I also have the clutch, slave, and braided stainless line sitting in a box ready to go. Time has been tighter than tight lately. I've got a baby coming Sunday (if not sooner), and ironically, will have more time to deal with this after he's born. My plate is stacked deep, so you'll probably still beat me to it.