2007 RX-8 6 Speed GT Stock

My problem started happening at the 2000k mark of a cross country road trip. Car filled with trans fluid fumes and the heat in the cabin was extremely high. Also my clutch pedal lost hydraulics.I am assuming from the heat changing its consistency. Cat sensor read 1800 F. It was so freaking hot that it melted my carpet and chair rail plastic on the passenger side.

Got it to Mazda and they rebuilt the motor under warranty. Said it was misfiring and dumping fuel into the intake and down to the cat. All new plugs, wires, coils, and new clutch.

Drove it for 1500 miles with no issues and now its back again. When I push it to redline once the cars warmed up I smell trans fluid strong in the cabin and heats flowing up from the console and i start loosing hydraulics in the clutch. Still shifts fine, just the pedal almost drops to the floor.

Any help will be appreciated .

 

Have you checked inside the cat to see if it wasn't clogged? Thats usually the problem if you're getting excess heat enough to melt the interior.

 

Well that was the first thing I said when i brought it back to Mazda. They said Cat was fine for the second time. They may be basing that on the fact it was replaced under warranty less than 2 years ago. I beleive its the Cat myself but they disagree. Told me I need to spend 600 to replace coils and wire that was my issue. Well I did that work mysself and now the motor has more power and gets hotter.

 

Besides the extreme heat I am really worried about the clutch. After about 30 minutes of casual driving it is so hot that the clutch starts to lose pressure. Mostly happens at highway speed. Push the pedal and it nearly drop to the floor. Pump it a bunch of times and it come back a bit. Once car cools the pressure comes back and clutch is normal again. Can cause me to worry at times. I would assume its a cause of the extreme heat.

 

The clutch pedal drop is a hydraulic failure you're getting in either the clutch slave cylinder or master cylinder. It might be related to the heat but I can't really see how as the slave cylinder is on the opposite side of the transmission from the catalytic converter. But the cat is known to get hot when it's clogged. Like glowing red hot so I wouldn't rule that out. I'd recommend you try to get the cat off yourself or have a mechanic do it for you and have a look for yourself. Take some pics as well, this sounds like it's the cat.

 

The clutch failure is fairly common also. Check the cat visualy. Mazda is just chexking it with teh computer and probably won't replace it until the computer tells them to.

As for the clutch try bleeding it. they might have a little air in it and the heat causes it to expand and fail. If bleeding makes it better for a while then it does it again it's a bad cylinder. you can replace master slave and hose for about 100 bucks if you shop around.

 

i just started the car up drove it about 3 miles the car has about 100,000 on the motor and while i came to a stop and proceeded to go i lost all acceleration in the pedal the car stayed in a good idle but when i looked under ther cat was glowing any ideas?