That was a while ago. It's an odd size, seems like 26mm and I was able to use a more common 1-1/16" instead. Best tool is a crows foot with a ratchet and a short extension. You can't use a regular socket since it has wires extending out the back. It would need to have a slot cutout in the side like an O2 sensor tool. If you dropped the back of the trans down you might be able to swap it with more common tools. You can cut the wires on the old sensor to remove it with a socket, but you'd need an open or closed end hand wrench to install the new one. The trans would need to be dropped down to have enough room for the hand wrench swing.

I'd like to know how you melted the wiring insulation off of it since the sensor is located on the other side of the trans away from the exhaust

.

 

The wrench size is 27mm for the neutral switch and you are correct, it is on the drivers side of the transmission. There is a reverse switch on the side where the catalytic converter is.

 

I'm aware of both of the switches and I've got pictures to show the melted insulation. There is a tsb somewhere out there (I already called the dealer to ask about it, they of course said no) for the neutral safety switch going bad after 'being exposed to prolonged periods of heat'... whatever the case, 92,XXX miles has done mine in. I'll try to find the pics.

 

get 27mm crows foot

 

What's the best place to find a 27mm crow foot, extension & rachet? I'd like to try fixing this without dropping the transmission, but I haven't been able to find a crow foot + extension that is small enough to be used vertically. It doesn't look like there's enough room to move hands if I were to try it horizontally.

 

i couldnt get the damn thing off in my garage at home. so i took the car up to aamco like a mile away and it was done by the time the kids and i got back from lunch. simple , efficient and actually fairly cheap.

 

I ordered a crow foot 27mm from google shopping, the cheapest instance I could find.

 

I bought a 1-1/16" socket (fits better than the 27mm) with 1/2" drive and took it to my mechanic. He cut a small slit near the bottom for the wires to go through. After than, the replacement was fairly simple. Took 15-20 minutes to lift the car, remove the old neutral swith and replace with the new one: P/N Y612-17-640B.

The old switch was cracked at the base of the threaded portion and had a leak where the wires come out. This was causing some fluid loss (very minor) in my transmission, so I essentially fixed two problems at once.

I still have my special socket with the slit for replacing the switch next time. I should make these and sell them to Mazda as SSTs

 

What color are the connectors on the switch? black or white? and does it matter if you reverse the connectors?

 

Reverse switch is 2 black connectors, neutral switch is 2 white connectors. They both sit in the same harness, so there are 4 male ends and 4 female ends. As long as you have white to white and black to black, they are entirely switchable/reversable without issue. I think it's just a redundancy system.

Do not match white to black or black to white though. At best you will have idle hunt and a CEL from one or both not working. At worst you instantly blow the 15amp Ign Key fuse as soon as the key turns to on.


It was 1am and cold as I was finishing up my clutch replacement, and made both of the above mistakes and it took me a while to figure out.

 

I am just back tracking my engine install as I have an idle issue. I can't really figure out what it is but maybe by chance the neutral switch went out, or I broke the wires off the switch by raising the tranny? Im going to use Jon's neutral switch test that I just found.

 

hmmm changing the neutral safety switch looks rather involved. just have a mechanic do it?

 

its actually not that bad. you need to have the right tools for it but you can save a lot by doing it yourself

 

REVIVE!!!

so im having this same problem
car idles erraticaly and sometimes stalls when i press the clutch.
i narrowed it down to it being either a bad air pump or faulty neutral switch. air pump is going bad and i will replace anyway but im leaning more towards the N switch being the cause of my problem. mostly because of it dying when i press the clutch.
but when idling, the rpm's arent really that erratic. theyre either too low (around 400-500) or too high (1200-1300) when the engine is already warm. could the N switch be causing this? have i missed something?

fyi, i just replaced the coils and reverse switch a few days ago. also, its an 04 with ~90k miles

 

My neutral safety switch is leaking out the back end of the sensor?!
Time to find a replacement ><

 

so my 8 threw 2 codes
P0850 - Neutral switch input circuit problem
P2259 - AIR solenoid valve control circuit low

i will be ordering a new neutral switch soon. hopefully my idling problems will go away.

 

FYI, those two are completely unrelated.

The air pump can not affect idling at all. It only operates when the cat is too cold to inject air into the exhaust post-engine but pre-cat to heat up the cat faster. The only way possible, in theory, that the air pump can affect idle is if it's running when the ECU is in closed loop control, causing the O2 to read insanely lean condition on the engine and the ECU dumps as much fuel as possible into the engine trying to richen it up.

However, since the air pump only runs just after first starting the car from cold, and only to heat up the cat, and the ECU won't go into closed loop if the cat / O2 sensors aren't up to temp, this can't happen unless you have a serious ECU fault or an O2 sensor malfunction. I have never once heard of this happening.

Control Circuit low means low voltage, which pretty much would only happen from something breaking inside the air pump, so the air pump likely isn't even running at all.

 

yea, the search button taught me that
i was leaning more towards a fualty nuetral switch anyway. and seing as i threw a p0850, the verdict was in.
the air pump actually works fine. i took it out and opened it up. no corrosion on the lower bearing. evrything looks brand new. no major issues. i also remember the previous owner telling me he had recently replaced the air pump (i got the car earlyl this year).
so further research on the p2259 code has come up with an acutal faulty solenoid or broken/frayed wiring. either way, ill continue to look into it.
thanks for your input tho, it is much appreciated.

 

i know this is 3 years old but this helped me understand a lot and the 1.5k rps going up and down is happening to me now I thought it was my spark plugs/cables/coils. I replaced them and still having idle problems but I am going to take a look at my "Neutral Switch" for the first time every. I guess time to do some more research.

 

I did mine with the car in my garage and with minimal Tools. easy Fix if you are careful.

 

9KRPMRX8 had to replace his just recently and started a thread about it which mentions how it was replaced. I'll see if I could find it.

 

Here is the link: Is This The Reverse Neutral Switch?

 

Instead of buying a socket and cutting out the side wall, you can buy/use a deep socket, and tuck the wires and connectors into it. Can't use an extender if do it this way. And it was a tight fit for the socket wrench but it worked.

 

I have read through several threads, and looked at the FSM, and napa sites

2004 manual rx8
symptoms
cold start, idle surges up and down, if I press in the clutch pedal it idles normal,
if I press in the clutch pedal about an inch it goes away.

after the car has warmed up when coming to a stop and pressing in the clutch the car dies, I can restart it just fine. I might be crazy but if I rapidly press and depress the clutch, and really put my foot down, it won't die.


so looking at the pedal there are two(2) switches, I have read through many threads and there is reference to the "neutral safety/start switch" this is the bottom one. I can find this part. but then there is the upper one. I can't find this part at napa, or autozone.
the FSM calls it a "Clutch Pedal Position sensor". but the FSM doesn't have the "neutral safety/start switch".

I think the upper one is at fault but then there is the neutral saftey switch on the transmission, and I have seen threads about those causing similar issues.

I just wanna know for sure about the 2 clutch pedal sensors/switches.

 

Clutch pedal switches as far as I have been able to discern are one the bottom one is to tell pedal position in order to engage the starter, the other is to disable cruise control. No idea why they need two switches but thats how most cars are.

The switch that is causing your issues is the one located on the trans not inside the car.