I have a standard transmission. My concern is a thump noise from, I believe, the transmission. It happens after the car is driven 5 minutes (not so much when I first start out) when:

I come to a stop. Go from neutral into first. As I go into first, I feel a small resistance on the shift stick and the muted thump. There is no grinding noise.

Going from first to second the same thing happens. Going into other gears there is no resistance and no thump, just the usual mechanical sound of the linkage.

Sometimes the shifts are normal without the resistance and thump, it is inconsistent.

The Mazda dealer bleed the clutch slave cylinder hydraulic line. It did not change anything. They let me drive a new RX 8. I noticed a similar situation, but my car seems more severe. At times, the resistance on the stick is more than others. It is as if the clutch was not fully engaged. I tried this just to see. I did not engage the clutch and slightly moved the stick into second there was resistance but it let go when the clutch moved along. This seemed normal.

I would appreciate it if anyone has any ideas on this. Is what I am experiencing normal? I never driven a stick with this happening. It just doesn't seem right.

Thank you.

John

Your clutch pedal could be starting to show signs of breaking down. This is a problem that I'm sure Mazda will never acknowledge. The only way they do is to release a new car that contains the fix, a-la third oil injector on 2009 RX8s.

The only person I am aware of that has some reinforced pedals in stock in Charles R. Hill of BHR. I was experiencing what I thought was bad synchros in the tranny, which included grinding/hesitation during the 3-4 shift. Turns out it was "just" the stock clutch pedal degrading over time.