Thank you oh mighty gear heads!! the clutch on my 8 was feeling extremely wonky...and getting wonkier. I looked up the symptoms here and voila! it's the evil Clutch bracket issue!!!

Went in with a flashlight, and yep, there's the break.

Called my dealership "Oh...I've never heard of that happening"

Called Mazda "oh...we've never heard of that happening"

looked here? everybody seems to know about it.

the new assembly is on order, and I think i'm going to spring for one of those spiffy reinforcement brackets.

thank you all for your collective wisdom, when the bracket gets here I'll be following the handy DIY that was posted.

 

The spiffy reinforcement brackets.
Just sprung for one myself as my clutch pedal has started the dreaded squeak supposedly the first sign of a future break. Should be hear this week, I'll let you know how the whole install thing goes.

 

You could have just had yours welded, the bracket is not needed.

 

Right
A brand new pedal with the proper reinforcement welds will hold just fine. The only downside is that welding it is not an easy task, it's a very thin sheet metal

 

I got an extra pedal assembly on ebay for $30.00 shipped. Although my car has 110,000 miles and my original clutch pedal squeaks a lil' but it's holding in there

 

My transmission gave up in 18000km because of a flexing clutch pedal. Had to replace the clutch and the flywheel as well... I'm not a lucky guy!

 

Yeah that brace/bracket is a waste of $$. So is the associated "Synchro Saver" Please... just drive and shift like you should and you won't have to worry about it.

Anyway...
I took my bracket out and had it welded in about... five minutes. It is a little tricky because that metal is thin, but I had a friend help me out who is a much better welder than I. I put the bracket back in and had a free fix.

My advice? Weld it yourself; have a friend do it; or take it to a body work shop and slip a guy 10 bucks to waste five minutes of his time to help you out. If you calmly explain the situation and the importance of it, slip him a good story and make him chuckle I can't see anyone stiffing you for more than 10 on the side.

 

YEAH OK.

the bracket is amazing. click the link in my sig for details. it completely changed driving this car for me. the change was amazing.

 

Amazing? Big word brother. Meh, I know a couple locals guys that have it, they never mentioned any better "feel". But then again stock feel great for me, guess I'm light on the pedals

 

^I think kersh and I had this discussion before a long time ago. I drive hard, and beat on the car (the engine) and shift hard and fast but I've never hurt my synchros or kicked out my pedal. I don't think it has anything to do with skill but style of drive. If you're finesse you can get by perfectly fine with stock items. If you drive the thing ***** to the walls like its a Mack... you might want to get the additional brackets in the pedal and on the shifter. Just depends if you like to smack your girl around or caress her. Haha... <-- Joke.

 

I know I am totally jinxing myself but my stock tranny has 110,000 miles of hard street/canyon/track driving on it and so does my pedal. My pedal is squeaking a bit but I have an extra assembly that I am working on right now

I think the clutch issue is due to driving style as well.

 

^Meh. Don't get me wrong. I think style has a lot to do with it. But I welded my bracket. It was immediately and noticeably better.

After examining the construction, I came to the conclusion that eventually every stock pedal bracket will fail with normal driving.

People should weld it. Or get the brace if they are karate kickers.

 

Yes, that is true, the stock piece is not the best design and it doesn't take much to make it work right.

 

Hopefully this was a sarcastic remark...

If not, how could the bracket be amazing? At BEST, the bracket just acts like a stock car. Push in peddle, release peddle. Should not be any fuss.

I had the Mazsport bracket, you can still make the clutch sway, so it's not like it's on a rail and can't wander anywhere.

 

Yeah, some say it does, but I don't feel much difference with my bracket. But I certainly felt the need to do something. Seems like they break weekly around here.