Clutch "burned out".. I dont believe it.. is the dealer trying to screw me?
 

Hey guys, this is my first post, just have a quick question.
I was driving my car on the highway, I heard a *clunk*, and suddenly, my clutch pedal is now an inch or two from the floor. The car was in gear, so i was able to get it off the road, I pulled the car out of gear, but then was unable to get it to go back into gear. Let me preface this by saying that the car had no issues with slippage, rough shifts, or anything that typically occurs with a bad clutch... and also my clutch pedal had developed the infamous 'squeak' a couple of weeks before this happened.

I get the car towed to Mazda, they call the next day assuming the clutch is bad, I asked him how he knew, he says "This is what happens when the clutch goes out", he told me they hadn't opened it up yet and looked. I asked him if it was possible that this could just be the pedal, which would be covered under the warranty and he said it was possible. So far, so good.

I get a call today and he tells me something odd...
He says that a weld in the clutch pedal broke... and I said, "Oh thats great! So the clutch was fine then?"
He says, "Oh it was burnt up."

...I don't know too much about the whole mechanical aspect, but it seems odd to me that the car was shifting just fine, I had no issues with drivablility at all, no slipping, no rough shifts... and the clutch pedal breaks... but my clutch is also burnt up? Even though it was shifting perfectly 2 minutes before?? Should I question him? Or is this common?

Thanks in advance guys, and let me know if you need more info.

I would question the clutch burnt out. But search on here theres a couple threads on the Clutch pedal assembly breaking off or something. I don't pay attention to those problems since I"m autotragic. But your info is on here!

I would question him. Ask him how he came to that conclusion.
How did the pedal breaking cause the clutch disc to burn up?

congrats, your clutch pedal broke

contact CRH

He's flat out lying to you. Your clutch is fine, your bracket is toast. They cant charge any money for a clutch bracket though, so they're fucking you for the clutch. Get your car towed to another dealership, or get a new bracket from BHR and install it yourself.

How the fuck can they even know the clutch is bad if they can't even engage it? They could tell if they dropped the transmission and visually inspected it, but I doubt they'd do that since they have ray ray the psychic mechanic who can diagnose problems without even looking at the car.

If you don't take it to another dealer, insist that they only replace the bracket and then let you test drive it.

hahaha I had a few spot welds put on my clutch petal after hearing abotu the shitty construction... few verndors sell new assemblies... welcome to the club ahha

Ahh damn, I just called them, and they've already changed out the clutch, he says they won't throw the old one out, but now that he knows im looking for it, I'm afraid that they might just find any old clutch and say thats the one they took out of my car.... I don't suppose theres a serial number or anything on it that can ID it to my car is there? (Thanks for the quick replays guys!)

Did you authorize them to replace the clutch? or did they do that by themselves? I would throw a fit if you didnt authorize them to do that. I might even throw one of them through a wall to be honest.

Dealership SCAM!

I did authorize that, and I have no issue with that if it is indeed the problem... In retrospect the conclusion he drew was weird, that's why I'm curious at all. I also had assumed that there would be some way to ID that clutch having been in my car.... Which if there is, I'm covered.. if not.. we'll I guess I'll never know if I got screwed or not :(

seems that more and more i hear how the dealer cannot explain the problem so it becomes your fault.fact of the matter is simple prove to me the owner of the car that i did make a mistake somewhere down the line of driving my car and caused the problem to occur otherwise fix the damm thing under defective parts and let me drive me damm car!!i work for a dealer and this seems to be a global problem stste to state .some people on this forum have had some issues and i personally had my clutch kinda blow apart because of defective parts.in short all cars are not the same ad have certain problems that are not really normal and need to be looked at one by one this is how recalls are formed and takin care of so hang in there and let them prove you can't drive a six speed!!

Using strict logic...it is unlikely that 2 things failed at exactly the same time.

If you had a broken bracket....that's likely the cause of the problem.

If you have high mileage car 100K or so...a new clutch is probably due in not too long and then I would only be a little pissed

They should have replaced the bracket FIRST...and if it didn't fix the problem...then replace the clutch

I would go in and raise hell...and get the labour dropped at least

I have a 2004 rx8 and my car doesn't turn on when in gear and when it is on neutral it turns on but doesn't go into gear the clutch feels very light and it shakes and stays to floor i don't know what is wrong can someone please help!!

It doesn't turn on in gear because of the clutch safety switch, it's a safety feature.
Is your clutch pedal broken? If not, it sounds like a master or slave cylinder issue.

Well I turn the car on and when I try to put it into gear it won't let me it feels like if something is in the way of gears Im thinking it's the clutch plate and pressure plate but I want to kinda get help from people on here instead of getting ripped off at a dealership

Easy things first ;)
Is the pedal broken at the spot welds? This is a common issue (in fact a recall)
Is either the master or slave cylinder leaking? Check tge pedals push rod for hydraulic fluid in particular.
If you bleed the master or slave, does it get better?
If none of the above, then start looking at the clutch itself. Clutches die fairly slowly, did this issue just show up one day or come on gradually?