Yesterday I found that I could not get my car in reverse while it was sitting in my driveway. Bummer! While I was sitting there I noticed that the other gears were also difficult to engage. Now this is going to sound bizarre but after some experimentation I found that the car shifts fine if it is rolling.

IMO it feels like the clutch is not fully disengaging. I've looked at the obvious things like: checking the hydraulic fluid reservoir, looking for leaks, and making sure nothing is wedged under the clutch pedal (i.e. floor mat) but everything seems OK. I thought about bleeding the clutch but I don't want the dealership accusing me of screwing it up. So it is going into the shop tomorrow morning.

Has anyone else seen this problem?

 

I think two other people have posted a similar problem, a few weeks back. Search around a bit and you should be able to find it. I don't recall how their problem was resolved.

 

I found some similar threads but it is really not the same thing. They can at least get their cars in gear and rolling under its own power. Where as I have to get out and push the car so that I can get it to slip into gear. Anyways, I hope that the dealership will be able to fix it tomorrow and I can get back to enjoying my 8.

 

try this.. put a little pressure on the shift lever and then slowly release the clutch so that it just slips a TINY bit. This will cause the gears inside the tranny so start moving to the shift dogs and match up with the output gears. Most manual transmissions will occasionally do this when sitting at a stop. Nothing is moving and the pegs aren't line up with the holes, so nothing happens! Just slips that clutch a little and it should slide right into place.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but I've already tried that and it just causes the gears to grind.

 

Take it to the shop. It's not right.

 

Sounds like the clutch is misadjusted to me, which means that you've got a problem because this is a self adjusting clutch.

In My opinion, the slave or master cylinder on the clutch is bad. It's a common enough problem on Japanese hydraulic clutches. Take it to the dealer. They should be able to replace it easily. All the best.

 

Try shifting the lever into first before attempting reverse.
If you're having problems shifting into first, try 2nd first.

I've had similiar problems w/ my Integra, dont recall why it was so but it appeared to pretty common.

 

The dealership looked at my car and diagnosed the problem as a clutch failure and have placed the parts on order. In the mean time they want me to drive the car until the parts come in. I find that kind of odd, you would think, if the clutch is dead, that they would want to keep the car parked until it could be fixed to prevent any more damage.

After the work is done I want to see the damaged parts so I at least know what really happened to the car. The only thing that I can think of, that is clutch related, that would cause this problem would be a bent throw out arm.

As I know more I'll keep you posted.

 

Did they say if it was the pressure plate bolts? At least two people with similar symptoms had loose pressure plate bolts as reported in the tech garage.

 

No, they wouldn't tell me anything more than it was a "clutch failure". I plan on asking for the old parts when the work is done just so that I can see what really went wrong.

 

Off to the dealer for you....

 

I got my car back from the dealer today and was a little surprised by what they showed me. Before you ask, let me say that the bolts on the pressure plate had not backed out. Instead the clutch had over heated and completely cooked the springs to the point that they were just rattling around. Also the metal had turned a purplish blue color.

They did replace the clutch under warranty and it is also worth noting that the rattle that I had around 5k RPMs is now gone. I hate saying this but I think that a bunch of people are going to see premature clutch failures. The reason that I say this, is because there are already several threads that are discussing similar problems (i.e. metalic rattle and difficult shifting) to what I had right before the clutch failed.

I now have 7,500 miles on my car and hopefully the new clutch will last considerably longer.

 

woah, what could have caused that to happen?
________
Extreme Vaporizer Review

 

I'm a little perplexed myself because I have normally gotten 60,000+ miles out of a clutch in my previous cars and my driving/shifting habits have been the same with my RX-8. So what's up with that?

 

Update:
The new clutch just doesn't feel right at the pedal. When I'm easing the clutch out, the first half of its travel is dead. The clutch doesn't do anything until it is past the halfway point, the friction point is 2/3 of the way through its travel and it is not fully engaged until the pedal is completely released. It feels like the clutch is not adjusted properly but the dealer claims that there is no way to adjust it because it is hydraulic.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Is there an easy way to adjust the friction point or do I need to harass the dealer and get them to look at it again?

 

A couple of things.

My clutch does nothing until the pedal has travelled to about half the travel up the throw. This I believe is the correct point to engage the clutch plate so it could be that you learnt your clutch wrong because it was never right, and it is now working correctly which is freaking you out.

Second, a hydraulic clutch may be self-adjusting, but it is adjustable. I do not have a manual for this car yet so I cannot tell you how to adjust it, but on other hydraulic clutches that I have owned adjustment could be forced by pumping the pedal about a fifty times with the engine off.

Last, if you don't feel the clutch slipping, I would guess that it is fully engaged fully released and that all is working well. Let's hope that you are just being sensitive because it has shown itself to be weak, and all will be smooth sailing from here out.

All the best -

H

 

Well, if that's right, then mine is broken too, and so was the only other Mazda I've driven (my neighbour's MX-6). It has a light action, and the friction point is close to the floor.

My old Prelude was the opposite - took more effort to press, and did nothing until I let it up at least halfway.

 

If the clutch doesn't feel right, I would keep after the dealer on it.

I know it's not an RX-8, but one time I had the clutch replaced in my Integra, and the new clutch felt weird just like yours does. I took it back to the shop, and they told me that there was no adjustment because it was a hydraulic clutch, and that it just "is how it is".

But it kept bothering me, and finally I took it back again. This time, when I picked up the car, the clutch was magically "fixed" and behaved totally normal again. The guy at the shop wouldn't say what was wrong and how he fixed it, but I got the impression that it was some sort of little "dumbass" thing he didn't do right when he installed the clutch.

So if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Keep after them. Good luck!

 

The engagement point on mine is close to the floor - well before half-travel.

I think they didn't adjust something right when they installed it... Keep climbing your way up through the service managers until you get someone who is willing to diagnose it without just waving it off.

Simon.

 

The only thing that I can think of that is adjustable is the linkage between the pedal and the master cylinder. I'll take a peek at it tomorrow and make sure that there is a small amount of play between the pedal and linkage when the pedal is up just to make sure that the clutch is fully engaged. If that doesn't help I'll give the dealer another call.

 

earlier I also posted a problem shifting.. but it hasn't happened since.

first somebody said that the bolt backed out on their pressure plate or something like that..

now you show that yours was because something happened that overcooked the clutch causing the metal to turn purple (yikes! that looked pretty wild).

I'm wondering how many other owners are having clutch/shifting problems?

I think I'll post a poll on it...

 

My 626 has 135,000 miles and it's still on the original clutch. It needs a new one though, inconsistent engagement. That or just an adjustment.

 

let me rephrase myself...

"I'm wondering how many other RX-8 owners are having clutch/shifting problems?

 

does this quote freak anyone else out?