I'm going to make an impassioned plea to everyone who has noticed the problem with the height of the clutch pedal... PLEASE contact Mazda. The service dept. tech at my dealer called Mazda about my complaint, then called me at work. Mazda has had NO complaints about the clutch pedal. He said that they would be much more likely to attend to this if they hear it from others.

-I went to Mazda's website (MazdaUSA.com) and clicked on the link to talk to them. It gave me the ability to e-mail, call, or write a letter. I chose to e-mail, and now they have one customer report on this. I really hope that others will join in and let Mazda know that they could make a great car even better by correcting this one flaw.
-By the way- I took a 2-hour drive in the 8 this past weekend, and ended up in some real pain in my right leg/hip. No kidding. -And it lasted for almost 2 days.

 

WHat is the email to send feedback?

Also can anyone compare the 8's height to other clutches? I agree it's too low, but it's been a long time since I had a manual trans to compare it to.

 

Below is the link to how to contact Mazda. This is at the Mazda.com website. It will take you to the page that tells you every possible way to communicate with them.

-OH, by the way... if you're going to e-mail, call, or write them, be sure to have your VIN # handy. They want you to type it in to one of the blank spaces in order to send the e-mail. I guess they want to make sure you are a genuine owner.

-Dave

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/contactMazda.action

 

E-mail Mazda off their web site yesterday. Received a response today thanking me for bringing it to their attention. If enough current owners contact them, maybe they will issue a service bulletin for the dealerships to address when a car is brought in for this issue. Other wise they will just 'fix' the next model year. Speak up to Mazda with this issue if it bothers you!!!!

Use link in Renesis2004 reply above.

 

Done. Hope they do something about it.

 

Got the response today from MNAO:

 

i love this...i am going to do this after work...it is one of my biggest complaints about the car...thanks man.

 

You betcha. :D

 

I'm curious, how sturdy is this? I found that when I took the car to the track, if I didn't move the seat up so that my knees were almost hitting the dash, I'd miss second gear because I couldn't press the pedal all the way down. When shifting this fast, I tend to slam the pedal down will just about all of my force. I have a feeling this bracket might not hold up, and instead of sheet metal I might have to get some plate steel. Any thoughts?

 

Hey, everyone-

Thanks for the support on this issue. I just recently read an Internet article review on MSN (go look for it... it's really good!) about the RX-8. The automotive writer's name escapes me right now, but he's well respected. Anyhow- he loved the 8, but he also complained about the "long-throw clutch."
-I think it would be good if Mazda fixed this for the next model year, but I think we need to stay on them until they rectify this in OUR cars.

 

Omicron.....Thanks for submitting this because i just bought my car this week and all week i thought i was going nuts because i couldnt find a comfortable driving position. So I built one of these extenders pretty much like your plan and it works great! Like everyone else says its like night and day. Now I can finally put my seat where i want it and feel comfortable driving. Thanks!

 

It is very sturdy. You could probably drive the car over it and not bend it. The only part that wasn't sturdy enough in the initial design was the part that the OEM clutch pedal attaches to, and I solved that with some thicker steel.

 

Happy to help. :D

 

Y'all please note. The clutch pedal is adjustable for height. I too had an issue with the pedal placement, so I got to looking in my shop manual and found what I needed to adjust mine. I'll try to go thru it here as it is relatively simple procedure, just requires being something of a pretzel since you are working under the dash. This whole procedure took me about 45 minutes.
1. Put seat as far back as it will go for working room.
2. Measure the distance from the bottom back of the clutch pedal pad to some reference point. I measured to the firewall at the top of the floor mat. Just find a reference point that you can return to since it becomes important later.
3. Locate the pedal stop bolt. This is a bolt with a 13mm head about 1" long which is in the framing. The clutch arm hits this bolt to stop its return travel. There is a 12mm lock nut on the bolt.
4. Loosen the lock nut and turn the bolt further into the frame. As you do this, you will see the clutch pedal start to rise. The lever relationship is about 3 to 1, so for each 1/4" you screw the bolt in the pedal will rise about 3/4". The maximum pedal height adjustment is between 1" and 1-1/2" due to the length of the master cylinder rod adjustments in the next steps.
5. Tighten the stop bolt lock nut.
6. Now you need to reset clutch pedal free-play. There is a rod about 1/4" diameter connected to a bracket on the front of the clutch arm on the opposite side from the stop bolt. This rod goes to the clutch master cylinder and is threaded on the bracket end with a lock nut on it.
7. Depress the clutch pedal with your hand while observing this rod's movement into the master cylinder and you will see that the pedal and rod actually move some distance before you see the spool in the master cylinder start to move away from the C-clip which holds the spool in. This movement is "free-play" and it needs to be adjusted to be 1/2" of pedal travel.
8. Loosen the lock nut on the rod and turn to rod clockwise to until when you depress the clutch pedal by hand that it moves about 1/2" before the spool moves. Pay attention to how much thread is left in the bracket while you do this and do not screw the rod out beyond where there is full thread engagement in the bracket (this is the limiting factor I was talking about above in step 4).
9. Now measure again from the bottom of the clutch pedal pad to your reference point and compare with the original measurement you made in step 2. The difference in the two is how far you have moved the pedal.
10. Since you have moved the pedal out, the overall stroke length of the clutch master cylinder will be greater and must now be adjusted so as not to overstroke either the master cylinder and/or the clutch slave cylinder at the clutch itself. To do this you need to return actual cylinder stroke length what it was before you started, and you do it by making a "stop block" which you attach to the firewall so the pedal arm will hit it instead of going all the way to the firewall as originally done. This block can be wood, plastic, or metal. I made mine from a piece of scrap plastic bar I had on hand. Dimensions about 3/4" wide x 1-1/2" long and thickness the same as the distance you move the pedal out. Drill a hole for a sheet metal screw off towards one end of the block.
11. Now locate the place where the pedal arm touched the firewall and place the block so the pedal arm hits it. Mark the hole location and drill a small hole for the screw and mount the block.
12. You are almost done. You get in and adjust your seat and hit the ignition switch. But the car wont even turn over!!!!! This is because there is a plunger switch activated by the green button on the clutch arm to prevent you from starting the car if the clutch pedal is not fully depressed, and now the pedal doesn't activate it. I made a dime-sized spacer out of some 3/16" thick rubber and attached it to the green button with double-sided tape, and it solved the problem.

Hope this helps. It worked on mine, and the car is much easier to drive now, especially in traffic, since I don't have to sit with my leg stretched all the way out to hold the clutch in. I adjusted mine out about 3/4" and it makes a world of difference.

I just realized that it took longer to write this than it did to do it. Advise if questions.
Regards to all,
DaveT

 

A very nice contribution, DaveT, Thanks!!!

 

Since I'm already halfway through making my extension, and I understood about 12 words in DaveT's post, I decided to just continue with the original plan. I've made some modifications to the original design, and I have some questions. First off, rather than using foam tape and hose clamps to mount the "block" to the pedal arm, I've decided to use aluminum window locks. Picture a sliding window. These clamp onto the rails right behind the pane to prevent people from jimmying your window and getting in. These suckers clamp down TIGHT and have to be removed with pliers. I've turned the block sideways and am going to attach them onto either side of the block and pedal arm. I'll let you all know how they hold up. My question is to Omicron, you never really described in detail how to attach your sheet metal plate to your block. Could you elaborate? I found that when I looked at the underside of the rubber flange, there really wasn't too much room for play there, let alone a bolt. So, I took it upon myself to use a rounded head bolt, and went a little crazy with the dremel into the rubber under the factory pedal. I rounded myself out a nice little hole for the bolt head to fit, and as soon as I stop by my local fabricator to get the sheet metal, I'll be bolting this sucker on. I want to thank you and everyone who contributed to this post, because until I read it, I had no idea how uncomfortable I actually was while driving, especially in traffic. I can't wait until I have this all together. Happy driving!

Eric

 

Hi Eric -

I basically drilled 4 holes and put 4 small flat headed machine screws through them, then used nuts to bolt them to the block from the underside. So when attached, the screw heads stuck up about 1/8 inch from the pedal mounting plate, which didn't prevent me from attaching the pedal. Sounds like you've resolved it in a similar manner though.

 

Ok, last stupid question. Where'd you get the sheet metal? I'm just using the box on the pedal now, and would like to complete this job. I've called every sheet/scrap metal place in the phone book and I've got nothing. Any ideas?

 

Home Depot, in the "hardware" section. Look for the things that are designed to do framing work with 2x4 lumber, and you'll find a variety of pieces and shapes of metal.

 

you've got to be kidding me

has anyone told you that the clutch pedal is adustable via a retaining nut and a stud?

 

hmm...well i guess you should post pictures to try and solve the problem...i have tried, and the retaining nut, didn't do what i needed it to do.

 

Maybe it just gives people who aren't car experts a little satisfaction to fabricate something useful with their own two hands. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but I don't go messing under my hood on a daily basis. It felt good to spend a few hours making everything fit and look good. If people weren't supposed to be creative and adjust things in their cars to make them happy, there wouldn't be a Speed channel, spike tv wouldn't be showing Trucks and Horsepower TV, and the discovery channel would still be showing four monkeys trying to hump a football instead of American Chopper.

 

Did you just come on this board to troll? If so, bad idea. Or maybe you're just off to a bad start.

In case you have not read the thread, please take the time to do so. This has been a popular mod because adjusting the nut and stud is not that easy in
the RX-8. Initially it didn't even look like it was possible without spacers and a factory manual.

 

yes the spacer on the pedal seems to be the easyest way to fix it..
\

Go Omicron

 

nope

I thought adjustable pedals was a feature on any sports car...I guess mazda feels otherwise