I think I have a failed clutch master cylinder. There appears to be fluid leaking in the car. The clutch pedal sticks to the floor when I press it down and I have to pull on it for it to return up.

Please see the attached picture. Note that it's wet around the master cylinder and fluid appears to have run down.

Is this a complete no-brainer or is there another possibility? It's kind of an annoying situation because I'm not going to be able to get a new master cylinder immediately which means the car is off the road until then. I want to make sure I diagnose this correctly. If you have sharp eyes you may notice that the clutch bracket has broken as well.

Thanks for your help.

 

Looks like you are on the right track...new master and clutch bracket Bracket should be covered by Mazda...checkk it out

 

I replaced the master clutch cylinder to no avail. I bled it repeatedly, but I can't get it to return up on its own or get the car into gear when running. The broken clutch bracket isn't helping matters, but I still think I should be able to do this. Not good....

 

You will need to use a pressure bleeder on it...it is a bitch to bleed from empty. If you didn't benck bleed it before you installed it you won't be able to do it the regular way

 

That's likely the problem then. Thanks for the info.

 

I ended up taking the car into the local dealer. They replaced the pedal bracket under warranty and threw in a little bleeding for free. Everything works now and the car is finally back on the road.