fikren

My clutch started acting up today and trying to troubleshoot what the cause may be before I (or due to my space and tools someone else) tears into it. Was driving the car today arrived at my destination and when I parked the clutch pedel stayed on the floor. Pulled it back up with my foot and pumped it a few times everything seemed fine. Picked up a friend for lunch and twice on the way to the place we ate at the pedel stuck to the floor so I had to pull it back up in neutral and put it back in gear. After eating and started back to friends work the car would take off when appling gas with barely releasing the clutch maybe 1/4" or less from the in position and it would engage and the car would take off. Upon getting to friends work it was like the clutch was trying to engage with the pedel pushed to the floor eventually killing the engine similar to popping the clutch just without the jerk forward. Sitting and working the clutch and shifter into neutral and 1st gear maybe 2 out of 5 times it would go into gear no pedel stick no additional noise that I noticed, the other 3 times or so it would make like a thump noise when going into first gear and pedel would then usually stick or the car would die like popping the clutch without giving it gas and at this point with the pedel in if you gave it gas the car would try to take off. Now due to my work area right now and lack of a lift other than a couple of jackstands more than likely it will end up at a shop in town to fix the problem. I'm just wanting to get opinions on what it could be so that I can get parts prior to taking it in. Could this be the clutch itself going/gone bad or is this something going/gone bad with the master cylinder. The person I bought the car from had mentioned that it seemed like there was a leak with the brake fluid but he or his mechanic one could not find out where the leak was and from his talk it sounds like the only place they checked was the brakes themselves and lines. Might this have been an early warning with the clutch cylinder as I'm not sure he knew the clutch ran off the same fluid resevor. I have not noticed any leak change in the resevor fluid level. Since the Mazda shop will probley be the ones to fix the problem since they installed my transmission about a month back if its a problem with the clutch/presureplate etc I would rather order like an act set vs then putting in a factory clutch and charging me double the cost (much like the 600+ they quoted me on replacing the front windshield and I ended up getting it glass plus install for 149 at a local glass shop) Any opinions or things to look for would be greatly appreciated I'm not overly pleased with the mazda dealership here as it took them about a month to get a transmission and installed the last time they had it not to mention thats all they did on a list of about 10 things they were supposed to do so I'd like to be able to go in and tell them check this check this heres parts to replace this heres parts to replace that if you follow what I'm saying. Thanks again for any replies.
-Jon

broken93

Jon, it sounds like you have a problem with the hydraulics, most likely the slave cylinder, but possibly the master. Both are relatively cheap and easy to replace.

Mazdatrix carries both for about $100 ea:

http://www.mazdatrix.com/f-hydral.htm

Go ahead and replace the line with a SS one from Mazdatrix, too.

jd to rescue

iTrader: (3)

Broken93 is right. If your on a budget, you can look for fluid leaks to determine which is the cause. On the clutch master cylinder specifically, you want to look up behind the clutch peddle where the plunger passes through the floor board/firewall. You are looking for small drips, not large quantities of fluid sprayed around.