Troubling news...sort of.

I heard nothing from the dealer yesterday - so this morning I called from work and left a message. I was out of the office for a bit so checked my voice mail:


"Darin, this is Brian from Milam Mazda - We found something in your clutch disc basically exploded - we've got some replacement parts on the way, and if they come in today, we'll have the car back and done this evening."

I called down to the dealership right away.

"Yeah" Brian said, "we found parts broken in your clutch - we've got replacement parts en route, and should be able to get the car done today."

'Wow. Brian - that is awesome; can I ask you guys to slow down a little bit? Figuring you guys would have to drop the transmission anyway, I ordered a Mazdaspeed flywheel hoping you could install that for me.'

Brian went on to say He'll check with mazda - as Mazda is paying for everything, he wants to make sure they have no issue with doing the flywheel whilst the clutch is out - he'll call me back.


NO question....No hassle...Miliam Mazda in Puyallup, WA handled things with my car.

Why am I troubled? Car problems that go THIS smoothly worry me...I mean...heard the phrase 'too good to be true'?? ;)

- darin

Gomez,
Forgive me for asking, but what is the "indicated" VIN range?? Is there a TSB out on this? I do not remember seeing one. Thanks.

Spoke again w/ my service guy - he said 'This is the last clutch we can fix; Mazda would typically only cover it if the car had fewer than 12,000 miles."

My reply: "So if the disc breaks apart again, at 26,000 miles, or even next week, I'm out of luck eh?"

'Yup' Was his reply, 'You'll be on your own.'

:(

Then you should go ahead & put in the MS Clutch along with the flywheel.

If I want the MS Clutch, I have to pay for the whole thing; so says their 'Mazda' people. :(

:-/

I just had a clutch replaced under warranty do to the pressure plate bolts thing. Dealer was really cool with me and didn't give me any hassles whatsoever. I don't ever abuse my car though and I always baby it. My car was an 05/2003 build.

My dealer would not do the MS flywheel install however.

Post #5 in this thread.

Going to Mazda events is bad luck. My p/s-dsc module failed on the way to revitup last year and last month my battery died, stone cold flat dead on the way to a local rotary meet.

Sorry to hear this. Hope they do your flywheel too.

I was pretty much told the same thing. The parts are in and they said it will take them a few days to finish the job. I want them to take as much time as they need to do this job PERFECTLY, as I am a bit spooked that this clutch may fail again due to a mazda DEFECT and it will cost me out of my pocket. For the meanwhile...I got a Dodge Dakota v8 as the rental. Talk about a totally differnt driving experience...i miss my rx8, but its fun to be up high on the road.

Well, it's happened to me. One minute the clutch was fine and, literally, the next minute it was gone. Pushed the pedal in but couldn't shift into any gear. No strange sounds or anything. And it wasn't slipping either. She's at the dealer right now. They want to replace the whole clutch assembly, flywheel and all to the tune of $1300!!! It's not the pressure plate bolt torque, I had them check that first. The car has 31k on it and probably 2/3 are highway miles. I've been driving sticks for over 20 years so I know it's not me. Anyway, I'm hoping it's something in the hydraulics. The car has a Feb '04 build date and I've only had it for 26 months. :mad:

Good luck! I've since sold my RX-8, but there is no doubt in my mind that the RX-8 clutch is defective. I have also driven manual vehicles all my life and NEVER had to replace a clutch that simply exploded...until the RX-8.

I had mine replaced partially under warranty. Mazda covered the labor and I bought upgraded parts...

Anyway, I feel your pain.
:spank:

Thanks. I'm still waiting for another call back as I want to see EVERYTHING before I authorize any additional work. I could see if I had 75k on her and the thing started slipping. But to just suddenly stop working, tells me that something FAILED.

Got the word. One disc spring broke (pics #1 and 2). The small broken piece actually fell out of the pressure plate when the tech was handling it. He said, and I agree, that the broken piece probably got stuck somewhere and that prevented the clutch from fully engaging. The pressure plate and flywheel look really good to me (the machined groves are still visible!) There is no blueing or any other sign of abuse. Now, the service advisor is still saying that it's a wear piece and that I do have 31k on it. Bullsh_t! Now if 3 or 4 springs were broken, then I'd say he has a point. It's now going up the chain, supposedly to the Regional Rep or whatever Mazda calls them. To sum it up, I have a FAILED piece that happens to be on a wear item. I doubt I'd have any issues at all if the broken spring was on a non-wear item! Advice please.

At 56K on my 04 MT I had to have the engine replaced; while in for this work (see my story here under my Blown Engine post about a year ago) was informed that I had a couple of busted pressure plate springs so had the plate/clutch/bearing replaced at the same time. New throwout bearing I got was a "squealer" for about 1K miles and then quieted down and I was good for a while.

Car is back in again for tranny work now as I type this, synchros on 4th gone and 3rd & 5th are right behind it. Still waiting to hear the final damages. I've been driving sticks for over 25 years and this is the first vehicle I've ever had this kind of trouble with. Car never tracked or beaten.

Sometimes I find my self wishing I didn't enjoy this car as much as I do... :dunno:

Conedodger. The friction surface on your clutch is still within spec limits so your clutch is not worn out. The springs broke. That sounds like a part defect. If the friction surface was bad than okay you wore it out but you didn't so you shouldn't have to pay for it.

U are 100 percent correct. I have a broken piece that happens to be fairly high $$ on a "wear item". The service manager wants a number from me on how much I'd be willing to pay, given that, according to him, the federal life expectancy of a new car is 10 years or 100k miles. BS. So he's telling me that Mazda's are only good for 100k? The next thing he'll say is that I used 1/3 of the clutch's life. He wants the number before he calls the zone rep because they are offing to work w/ me. "Good will" is the industry term. Anyway, I have less than 4 months left on the lease so we'll see what he says to my minimal offer.

:crazy: HAD THE SAME CRAZY THING HAPPEN IN RUSH HOUR!!! coming to a red light and pushed the pedal in and the car was still trying to move so i puled it out of gear to find the clutch would not engage or disingage.speed matched the gears untill i got to a safe place to be towed from out of traffic.long story short the dealer said the throw out bearing blew apart taking the clutch and pressure plate with it!!!!!!33,000 miles and wro paid for it and said they know i did not abuse it hell it was rush hour and the flow was 15 mph!!so far so good at 37,000 hope your car turns out ok i think there are a few more out there to explode yet a few of you guys and girls do not have that many miles on you car yet. :icon_tup:

oh i forgot 2004 6sp g.t t.grey drop in k&n with ms exhausts thats it !!

So what does the life expectancy of the car have to do with the tea in China? It's broke. It needs to be fixed under warranty for approximately $0.00.

Well, this is starting to worry me, although I have an 06. I hope my "problem" doesn't come back and have something like this happen. :eek:

I'm waiting for a return call from the service manager so we'll see what transpires today. It's my feeling that U are always going to have an uphill battle w/ the dealer whenever U have an issue with a "wear item".

Well, Mazda did the right thing (at least IMO) and gave me a new clutch. All I had to pay for was the rental. Took two very stressful days and several trips/phone calls. I was persistant, documented the problem w/ pics, and had my facts together. Their act restored most of my faith in the company and dealer, although I still have somewhat of a bad taste in my mouth from the whole affair.

Congrats! You are now offically "The artful conedodger!" Once again data and common sense win over laziness!

Pretty much the same exact thing happened to me over the weekend. The guy from the dealer just called me and quoted $1500 to fix it. I said I only got this car 2 months ago, and don't think I should pay anything, he talked with his manager and said "wel'' give you 10% off"...

dmp, ExcelonGT, Rotary_Brother, XRX8X, conedodger ... mind sharing any tips on how to get them to step up and fix it? This is not an issue of wear.. one second it was working, the next it was toast... Got any case numbers / whatever with Mazda NA to help my case?

At least I wasn't left out on the Wayside.