Possible diagnosis?

Well ladies and gentlethugs, I come bearing the bad news. I believe my clutch/something transmission related has finally given up on me.

As a preface, my pressure plate has been relatively unpressured for about the last year. As soon as I got bigger tires put on the car, I tried to give it a good romp and it started letting go after about the 13psi mark. So this could possibly be taken into consideration.

What brings me here now, is my clutch started hugging the fire wall like your aunt grabs you at a family reunion. Only in first and reverse though. As time has gone on(maybe a week or 2), it started lurching because there was no longer a far enough spacing before the drivetrain would engage and my car would try to head for the hills with what space it would let off by the firewall.

Bring on my hunting around today. I discovered my clutch was operating normally, car on and off. So I slipped it in first, and as soon as it rolled, there was a loud pop, clutch hugging, then death. So I slipped it out of gear, cranked it, and repeat without the loud popping sound. Same event occurred, so I decided to just park the car back. Unfortunately, there was no ability to get in reverse, even with the engine off, it wasn’t having it. It acted like the lockout was on, despite having pressure on the shifter like normal.

So this is where I’m at folks. The master cylinder is tight in place. I can’t see the slave, but I never felt any pressure drop on the pedal, so I don’t think it’s a hydraulic problem. Brake cylinder is still full of fluid. I’m just at a loss here, hoping that it could be something besides the clutch/throw out bearing/something that requires the transmission to be removed, but I imagine that’s the only thing left. Just hoping to get some advice here before I begin disassembling everything. Thank you for any help!

 

Get a buddy to confirm that the slave cylinder is actually moving when you push the clutch in

Otherwise I think you are pulling the transmission

 

Fair suggestion. I’ll definitely give it a go. The only thing that leads me straight to transmission is that the car will go in all the other gears. But I’ll see if my wife will be willing to give me a hand on it. I appreciate it! Will follow up on an update soon.

 

Checked the slave cylinder out today. Only checked it with the car off because I already removed my battery box, but I’m assuming it shouldn’t have any affect on the results. Aside from a one time clutch catching, the slave still seems to move without any hang ups(including that initial catch), although it’s only moving an 1” or so. Not sure if that has any merit, but considering there aren’t any hang ups or misalignments on the part itself, I don’t think the slave cylinder is the troublemaker here. I may try and give it a go on replacing it, considering I’d be getting a new one if I replaced the clutch assembly anyways.

Any further insight is welcome, although I’m believing this all leads to pulling the transmission.

 

So just a further update:

Got the car in a shop and swapped to a Luk/Fidanza combo. Shop got everything installed, and I’m still in the same spot. Figured it was a throw out bearing, or pressure plate catching in the system, but apparently it wasn’t.

They bench tested the slave and it came out alright. They eyeballed the clutch pedal and said it looked good(possibly changed at a prior point before my owning it). So I’m at a loss. I don’t imagine it’s the master cylinder giving me flack, but I’m completely out of ideas here.

The only thing I noticed prior to the car going in, is if I hand pressed the clutch, I’d watch the return spring over clock and flip, causing the pedal to stick. But that’s the only random thing I can think of still holding it.

I plan on going by the shop tomorrow to help eyeball things and see if I can figure anything else out, so I’m hoping y’all can lend some leads if y’all have any. I appreciate any help.

 

I would pull the clutch pedal bracket out and check for cracks. I didnt have the exact same issues, but some similarities. I also ended up with the Fidanza/Luk combo. I also found that I had to bleed the system to the connection where the flex line meets the hardline below the fuse panel then bleed to the slave.

 

I’ll definitely see about removing the pedal. I’ll double check how they bled the system. I know they tried to hunt down manufacturer spec on how to bleed it once they realized it was causing problems, but not sure if it turned out to be that same process or not.

Before it went in, it wasn’t a feeling of squishy pedal, just that something physically felt like it hung it in place and wouldn’t rebound. But it could be a different situation now. Thank you for your insight! I’ll definitely add it to my list!

 

So the shop eyeballed the master cylinder this morning, and said it had some seeping around it. Possible it could be the cause, but should probably be changed regardless. Hard thing for me is deciding how to go about the replacement part. I see a lot of listings for the cylinder, but with no plunger. So I’m wondering if the plunger is actually part of that assembly, or if you just buy a new cylinder and use the old hardware. Any insight to this? Thank you all again for the advice and help, I appreciate it greatly!

 

I purchased a rebuild kit from mazda. Easy to do. Dont think I actually needed it at the time, but if yours is leaking...its time.