Clutch stiffness in winter?
 

Hey all, I purchased my RX8 a couple months before the winter here really kicked in, and before the winter my clutch pedal was operating very normally. I know that the bracket was replaced by the dealer recently by the old owner, and I also read that the slave cylinder is a common issue on the 2004, but mine is a 2005. Here's what exactly happens: On really cold days (-10 through 10) when starting up the car in the morning, the clutch pedal is easy to push down until the last inch or so, which is tough. I experience the same issue while driving however I notice that I don't even need to push it down all the way to properly shift. But then, say I find a stretch of road and decide to get a redline out of my system, the clutch becomes nice and easy to push down after the little sprint. Could the cold be doing this? Or could it be the slave cylinder and/or a line or two?

I generally only notice more stiffness in my clutch when the temps are below -10F, and at that point I can feel it in the transmission also. After 5-10 minutes of casual driving everything gets warmed up and works fine. I also don't notice any change in stiffness throughout the stroke of the pedal when it gets that cold.

I notice a difference in my car below 20F. Both the clutch and shifter are a little knotchy and hard. Once warmed up everything works perfectly. I wouldnt worry about it, seems pretty normal.

Oh yeah I feel it in the shifter, but that goes away after a few minutes of driving. The clutch though is sporadic in its stiffness, I guess there's nothing to do but to wait until the weather warms up a bit and then seeing if the problem persists. Damn MI weather lol, just when I thought the cold was over it gets cold all over again.