I have found a new reason to hate engineers, has anyone tried to remove the upper nut on the inside of the car , that holds on the clutch master cylinder? The assemblers must be tiney people . Wish I could sometime find the designer and make him take one off. the bottom is not bad ,but the top one is bloody imposible. Vent Vent. Bob

 

Cue the Left rear nut when taking a stock nikki off.

 

...and the rear nut that holds the oil filter pillar on the non-beehive cars. those three are the evil trio.

Getting them off is damn near impossible. Getting them on is worse.

 

That one is disappointing to hear... my pillar seal or whatever is in there is leaking pretty bad and i know i'm gonna have fun when i finally find a new seal to put in...

 

Hot tip; get a "shorty" combo wrench set. It takes it from impossible to merely difficult and requiring 1-finger braille skills. Give up on being able to see what you are doing - - it's done by feel. The nut is boxed in on 3 sides plus top and bottom.

The pillar seals are o-rings. Hylomar (aka 'Smurf Snot') will hold them in place while you get the nuts on.

 

That one is a pisser. But it can be done. Knowing Braille definitely helps.

 

Replaced mine in like ten minutes, maybe less. Couple of guys with me couldn't believe it. It was the first time I'd ever tried to do one, and had no trouble at all.

All I can tell you is that the car was up on jackstands for other repairs, way up. I was able to kneel next to the car and reach up under the dash. I guess that's what must have made the difference...

Good luck man

 

The first time I did those nuts they were unpleasant. Now a minor nuisance.

Try working on a new car. ANY new car.

 

on the master....yeah it is a bitch.. I have this 3/8 socket extension....don't know where I got it, but the edges where it inserts the socket are purposefully beveled so that it has the most slight pivot action to it.... No more flop flop of a universal..but just enough angle of the socket...

It worked perfect on the master cylinder swap..

 

its easy if you have a 1/4" ratchet...

 

Keep in mind, the engineers that designed these cars were Japanese men. Very small people. I think I actually laid upside down in the drivers seat when I swapped my clutch master. I don't want to do that job again, but have no doubts that I will one day have to. Maybe someone should design a cable operated clutch system for the first gen.

 

I finally said screw it, and ordered a rebuilt for the RX3 I am too darn big to get that clutch master nut. Bob

 

Yeah, I heard that. Just changing belts and plugs on my 03 Z was an all-day trial of can't-get-to-it's.

And don't get me started on the wife's FWD V6... double-jointed monkeys would be hard-pressed to work on it. Changed a power-steering hose on it a while back... (shudder).

 

Yeah. A waterpump went out on my mom's '98 Stratus. You have to pull the engine to change it. It was still under some sort of warranty so I didn't have to touch it. The sad part, for them, is when we got it back, it still leaked. Turned out to be a defective new part. So they had to pull the engine to change it again. Glad I didn't have to do anything on it.

 

Don't even get me started on the '92 Audi I used to own.

Thermostat and water pump, located behind the timing belt.

Need to change out the steering rack? Ten hour job...

Power windows not working? Need another $640.00 relay.

The only item I was able to work on with any success was new rotors and calipers.

 

Here's why engineers make things hard for the mechanic. The first engineers knew that a mechanic would need to work and replace parts so they spent long hours designing things simple for the mechanic. One night the engineer get home early to find the mechanic in bed with his wife. Now the mechanic spends long hours working while the engineer is home or sleeping with the mechanic's wife

 

heres one for you a thermostat on a 03 beemer 21 hours had to remove the entire front end PITA!!!! I WILL NEVER WORK ON ANOTHER BEEMER!! LOL

 

Yeah the master cylinder is a biatch. I have a somewhat cool solution for the S2 dash. that makes getting at everything much easier with it out. I removed it stripped off all the foam sanded and painted it black. Its still a work in progress, but I'm only running the top part to hold my gauges. I'm taking the mounting points of the bottom and cutting every thing else off. So No glove box witch is a pita at times, but I haven't had one for a long time before this all happened.

Note the dash was cracked and falling apart. the foam was deteriorating. so it actually looks 100 times better. anyways plan is for the dash to be easy to remove. except for that middle bolt up top. I'm also gutting everything behind it. I'm going to stop daily driving the FB during the winter months. I should be getting a T2 soon. But FB will be my summer car. I need to get some work done on her anyway to get her ready for Auto X next year. and pretty her up.

 

rx8 is easier than the FB, mazda really does a good job of making these simple and easy to work on.

the new audi's you need the computer to do the brakes, its electronic

 

'07 Honda Civic, took my co-worker 4+ hours to lift the engine roughly 4 inches to clear a 1/2" piece of the lip on the oilpan from the crossmember when he was replacing it. Needless to say, pain in the *** for an oilpan replacement.

 

easier than the Gen I? i must agree to disagree on this one. everytime i have to touch my car, i curse Mazda for not making it like the FB (or even the FC). even a simple thing like pulling the oil drain plug is an act of contortionism on the bloody Rx-8 whereas on my Rx-7, there were times i didn't even get on the ground! i've had to do MAJOR work to my car in the last few months and for everything i did, i know i could have bloody well stripped an Rx-7 in that amount of time.

 

I ed because it's true

 

you got me there, 12a with headers is the easiest oil change ever...

i dunno about the rest, the ENTIRE interior of the rx8 comes out in less than an hour.

 

This is so full of win and so true I believe it has to be so!

 

...once you master the trick of flipping the oil filter so you don't douse your engine.