I Just installed the Fluid Motorsports clutch bracket, minor pain in the arse to install, the hardest part was getting the damn pedal assembly back on. Removing the pedal assembly has almost rivaled my most sheet metal related injury's for one operation ever, so wear gloves the fucker is sharp!

The clutch switch no longer engaged so i used a small grommet on top of the grey plunger to space it a little closer and it now works fine.

Initial impressions are a much stronger firmer feeling clutch, my bracket had been squeaking for about 10,000 miles and Mazda ignored me and the problem every time i went in. One of the spot welds was loose and one of the bends in the sheetmetal had cracked and separated, i considered welding it but the bracket took care of the problem.

sounds more a transmission problem most likely bad syncrhos. Mine alleviated when i switched to redline synthetic trans fluid. do a search on 4th gear grind see what pops up.

I had this issue as well.

as silver eight suggested bending the bracket will provide a better long term solution.

I had to bend the clutch bracket with the green plunger and the grey switch bracket as well.

I wouldn't add anything to it unless its permanent and secured... just my $0.2.

I didn't want to bend anything till i had it installed in the car, the grommet will come off and leave me in shit at some point, ill get under the dash this weekend and bend the bracket towards a bit more.

mine broke about a week after i got my 04 about 4 months ago while i was driving. SCARY! was still drivable but dificult. drove it to the dealership on back roads. dealer replaced it but left me without a car for 3 days while waiting for part. the bracket is cheeply made held together with a couple spot welds.

check my sig.

really.

the left side of mine went last night :(
it still kinda works but i dont plan on leaving it for long. doesnt like going into gears very nicley

Bring it into an exhaust shop ASAP you do not want the pedal to completely go. Honestly its about 45 mins of work and $20 don't wait.

i got it all off this afternoon and welded it up nice and strong. Its much stronger then stock now.
its hard to tell just but looking under the dash, but anyone whos seen the clutch pedal bracket outta the car can agree that its a joke. im shocked by how much of a pos the stock bracket is.

ha ha ha... glad you are all fixed up now. Spread the word. :)

the stock bracket is a POS. the metal is just thin and crappy.

thats why you need to click the link in my signature.

lol ya but, i dont really hav the money to waste on something i dont need.
sounds like a walking billboard kinda.

its not a waste of money.

you DO need it.

and yes, i can get passionate about things that impress the hell out of me. i dont know why mazda didnt set up the clutch like this from the factory.

agreed on mazda. not something you NEED but im sure it is great. i just dont have the money right now to justify it, i need rims first too.

^^^^^

x2.

pay me now or PAY ME LATER!

beers :beer:

Wait until yours snap like mine did ... and you are driving on highway doing 60 mph, and you can't pull it out of your gears.

then you talk.

He said he welded it and it is much stronger now. You're saying this is still not good enough?

BTW are the newer models still using the same design?

Deleted I was an idiot and didn't read it all the way through

i was referring to kersh's signature....

OK then, I deleted your quote.
But what about my question anyone? Has Mazda changed the design?

I have asked that question before also and have not seen an answer yet! tap...tap...tap!

If they did, that would be admitting there was a problem and we are right... which we know we are.

In fact they did, it was YEARs ago. but the change didnt help at ALL.

I find it funny that they can design a rotary engine and fix many of the flaws from previous years but they cant seem to figure out how to create a bulletproof clutch bracket.

Hey at least they dont use parts from ford..

OH wait opps. lol

I love my classic mustangs but everything else is garbage.

well the clutch pedal sensor has fords logo on it so close enough right. ahahaa Oh man I love how all these companies have hands in each others wallets.

no worries

ATTENTION : Today, 5/10/2009(yeah, its a sunday, and Mother's day too) The Department of Transportation from the government has contacted me about Pictures of the broken bracket. Im trying to find it and send it him. So I suggest whoever have a picture of the broken bracket should contact me first via pm

This is not an "Isolated" issue and Mazda should really do something about it.

Pm'd.

pm'd back

So whoever had a broken clutch bracket, or soon to be broken. should pm me first, then I will give you the information to send it out.

We really need to get Mazda to do something about this. Just imagine if the clutch breaks in the middle of highway speed and you can't pull your gear out and you need to brake fast ... it might happen to you !

nycgps, thanks for the update. Hope DOT forces a safety recall on this problem. Has not happened to me yet, but I'm afraid :scared: it will.

Well, I already gave the link to this thread to the person responsible for this case. So he should be checking this out real soon.

Anyway in the mean time, if you have any picture of the broken bracket. please post them up.

Sent you a PM nyc.

Got it and replied ! :)

Add one to the failed clutch brackets list. My mileage is under 40k and I had the tell-tale squeaking. I read this thread, pulled my clutch bracket out to have the preventive welding done, and sure enough the weak seam I've seen in the posts had already torn halfway through. The welding cost me $20. And that was for full seam welds at all possible failure points. An ounce of prevention FTW.

I did report it on the NHTSA site. This is super-easy, BTW.

Just make sure you take a picture before your "fix" :)

Its evidence u know :)

Thanks a lot.

Thanks to nycgps, et al, we could be getting a clutch pedal bracket recall. :)

Please hurry. haha... My bracket is starting to squeak... shiittt...

Hopefully mazda will beef it up pretty good if they have to recall it, and not add a couple welds here and there and say there's your recall.

I still remember that service manager's face that day when he said this is a "one time repair" only ... his face was full of "wow you are such a trouble maker."

Again, A clutch bracket should NOT break like this under ANY normal condition. So if u havent do so, go and take your clutch bracket out and check it, the cracks/damages are VERY noticeable, if there is any, take a picture of it, let me know, and fix your bracket ASAP.

^ I will do that. I'm an engineer. I know how things should be designed. It's too easy to design a piece of metal that won't fail in the lifetime of a car. I also know engineering ethics and it's obviously in the car because there was some break of ethics somewhere... either enough stress testing wasn't done, or the engineers consented to the business managers cutting corners to save money and time.

The only RIGHT thing to do on Mazda's end is to fix this problem with a RECALL. END. OF. STORY. It should not be up to us driver's to fix a CLUTCH issue.

Agreed... in the engineering world, safety items are kinda one of those things you just cant afford to f- up.
It almost sounds like, with the weld issue, that it was a mfg problem, but still should've been caught

I still gotta check out my pedal and see what it looks like

So, I thought I should add something here so Mazda doesn't look like the only bad guy. When I took my pedal assembly to be welded, the guy at the shop said he'd seen a lot of this lately. He said he's had Mazdas, Hondas and yes, Toyotas in with clutch-pedal failure issues. In fact, he said he had to weld the firewalls on a few Hondas where the clutch pedal was mounted and had torn through. Not that this makes it okay for Mazda to skimp, but it's not just them.

Attnetion everybody ... Cutting corners is not the solution ...

and I guarantee you the blame is on Mazda's "Gram team" where they cut weight at all costs.

http://www.mazda.co.uk/showroom/mx-5...oss-programme/

Partly, but seam welds would solve the problem without adding weight. Hell, a couple more spot welds might do the trick.

i def wouldn't rely on just spot weld. hell theres not much i would trust a spot weld for

Sorry to say beast, but the metal is to thin also. It broke with the nut on it, then broke the weld also.

right

:squint:

It's pretty evident that Mazda should have done a better job on the clutch pedal bracket construction. At any man-machine interface, where you have varying wear potential (some are harder on their clutch pedals than others), you need to design for the worst case percentile.

But as far as the overall weight reduction discussion (e.g. plastic parts), we need light weight and a little cropping here and there adds up. Heck, we only have a 1.3L rotary to work with, so it's either a light weight vehicle and/or FI to get decent performance.