ChristInBen

Hey guys,

I pray that this is the last time this year that I have to keep going back to Mazda to get something repaired, but yesterday, when I was driving city speeds (approx. 50km/h), I heard a "snap" as I pressed my clutch to change gears and then my pedal was stuck to the floor and sort of angled to the right!

I could bring the pedal back up with the tip of my foot but the clutch was hard to press. Thank God my clutch plate is good because the clutch was still grabbing, however, after I slowed down and stopped at a stop light, I couldn't put my car into gear anymore.

I then had it towed to Oakville Mazda where I met the owner of the dealership and he looked at it. He was a very nice guy and offered to help out and even gave me a ride home.

Today, I got a call from them that they my clutch pedal had broken off at the top and the master cylinder was broken, so I needed that. With parts, labour and my 15% RX-8 club member discount, it came to approx. $615 with taxes!

I asked the owner to help me out and I'm waiting on a response from him but yeah *sigh*, I'm kinda disappointed, however on the good side - at least it's a new pedal and master cylinder and thank God there was no further damage.

They also were really nice enough to pay for my rental car as well. I'll keep you guys posted on the progress.

prospectjtaz

iTrader: (1)

Ouch, same thing happened to me while driving, the pedal snapped off. But I'm surprised your master cylinder is broken. If I were you, I would take a picture of the pedal and post it here if you can. Seems leery that the cylinder broke also.

If its just the pedal, you can fix it yourself, requires a lot of bending and twisting, but less that 615. And no labor cost.

Neo

Clutch pedal breaking?!?! Mazda really skimped out on these pedals, huh? Kinda worried about the Miata pedal now.

prospectjtaz

iTrader: (1)

The pedal in the 8 is one of the many cheesy parts that Mazda designed. Terrible engineering, and if you do replace it Ben, I suggest you get one from BHR, or one of the bracket kits from Race Roots.

Redshift

iTrader: (2)

I ordered the Race Roots bracket kit for mine to proactively prevent this.
Honestly, other than being bit cramped, removing and re-installing the clutch pedal really isn't all that hard. Really a pretty basic DIY, with the exception of re-setting the clutch/starter interlock switch was a bit of a trick.

But, as above, I'm curious how it damaged the master cylinder as well. They do sit back to back, but they are separate pieces with separate stampings.

Scoot RX-8

This must have been the why the clutch pedal bent over toward the right. Could have been that the pedal was close to breaking ... but the MC broke first ... causing too much pressure for the "about to fail" pedal.

ckrx8

Glad you're safe and nothing else crazy happened to your 8. But now... I'm paranoid about it lol

Race Roots

iTrader: (64)

Sucks to hear glad nothing else major happened.

ckrx8 that is the first step, better safe than sorry then you are dishing out some serious cash because you are in a bind and have to pay top dollar to get it fixed. Better to be proactive instead of reactive.

ChristInBen

Well, approximately $632 later, I've got a new clutch pedal, two new switches (clutch and brake switch) and a new clutch master cylinder installed. I went to pick it up today and guess what....the clutch pedal is now angled to the left....I went back to the dealership and one of the technicians there who owns an RX-8 confirmed that it probably was a faulty pedal installed. Now I have to take it back again on Tuesday to get it fixed, but the technician was nice to spot it right way and order another new clutch pedal. The dealership said they would pay for the replacement new clutch and labour. *sigh* I just want everything back to normal.

Saying that, the technician even said that the clutch pedal and master cylinder breaking is out of the ordinary because it is not supposed to break! So, I have the broken parts with me, I'm going to post the pictures in the post below, and then send an e-mail to Mazda Corporate (including the pictures) to ask for a refund for this entire clutch job because this appears to be a problem. Thanks to God alone that I wasn't on the highway when this happened, otherwise it would have been dangerous to myself and others....Mazda should really safety their clutch system in the RX-8 (since some of you have said you have had this problem and my buddy said it happened to his 2005 Mazda 3 a couple of years ago as well)....I'm now wondering what else is not safe in our cars!....Anyway, do any of you have a contact at Mazda Canada Corporate....a name with an e-mail and phone that I can e-mail my pictures and details of the case to, so they are aware that this could be a problem for the rest of us RX-8 owners and also to get a refund for the money I paid for their defect!

Thanks very much guys and God bless.

Ben.

ChristInBen

Pictures of faulty new clutch pedal waiting to be replaced again:





Notice how the clutch is not aligned with the brake and gas pedal. The clutch is leaning to the left!

Pictures of broken (defective) clutch pedal:





















Pictures of broken (defective) clutch master cylinder:

Scoot RX-8

Nice photos ... thanks for sharing Ben. Nice to see what a failed clutch assembly looks like! I could not see anything viewable that shows a problem with the master cylinder. Maybe I am missing something.

As soon as I get my 8 back, I'm going to take a good look at the assembly and see how it looks!

ChristInBen

Hey Scoot RX-8, no problem. The failure is most likely internal as it's a defective part.

Do any of you guys have an e-mail address, or a contact for Mazda Canada to report this?

Scoot RX-8

I PM'd you.

RXeckless

iTrader: (5)

Nice Pics, how much time did you spend getting it out and in again. I recently bought Brice's (RaceRoots) clutch pedal reinforcement bracket and was wonder how long the whole process was going to take. My pedal has recently started squeaking so I'm try to be proactive with the fix.