I have a 2005 RX8. In the mornings it’s hard to get into first gear and 5th grinds pretty bad. There is also play in the pedal. However, after a few miles everything straightens out and usually but not always resistance comes back in the pedal. This only happens first thing in the morning. After it sits through my day at work it drives fine. We’ve changed the master and slave cylinders. I was lucky enough to get on a title for title trade but don’t know much about it and am still learning.

 

I'm not an expert on transmissions, but I drove mine with a bad clutch for a while out of necessity and ended up having to replace it.

It cost me $2000, and I declined the $800 price tag on a recommended new flywheel.

If it were me, because I admit I'm not good at transmissions, I'd bring it to a trusted mechanic or transmission shop.

If it's a budget issue, or beyond you or your friends abilities, perhaps a local member could assist you.
Many would be happy to for a pizza and a 6 pack.

Good luck!

 

Is there a difference in incline between where you park at work and where you park overnight? Seriously long shot, but minor temperature differences between night and day shouldn't have any effect, so I'm wondering if there's a bubble in the hydraulics that migrates while you're parked overnight but not during day. Any bubble is bad obviously, you would feel it at all times, but who knows.

In any case, deffo sounds like hydraulics. How much play is in the pedal? Are you getting ful disengagement in the morning? (Car in 1st, clutch depressed, stationary, do rpms drop or car attempt to crawls forward?)

 

Sounds like what Loki stated - air in hydraulic lines. I had good luck with a low cost vacuum bleeder from Princess Auto. Try pulling a couple reservoir refills of fluid out the slave cylinder bleeder valve.

 

No difference in incline. I haven’t had anyone to help me bleed it yet but I did try to drive it this morning and I would not go into any gears at all. When I got home and it was blazing hot outside (I live in Florida) I started it and it went into every single gear. It really seems like when it’s really hot out I have no issues. There’s about 1/4-1/2 pedal of play in it depending on the day. The last time I drove it I had to pull the pedal back up once
but after about 10 mins of driving it drove fine. As far as it disengaging - I don’t really know what that means. It doesn’t try to go forward except if I’m out a little bit on the clutch - then it tries to go. But I haven’t noticed the RPMs dropping.

I really appreciate the advise.

 

Yeah that all still sounds like air in the clutch line. It can be tricky to bleed, but there's no real way around it.

Clutch ​​​​​​disenganging = when you press the pedal the clutch should disengage from the flywheel, and engage again when you release the pedal. If there's air in the line, the full action of the pedal is not transferred to the clutch and it doesn't fully let go of the flywheel, maybe just gently rubs on it preventing proper gear selection.