How can I check if they are going bad? Would they be leaking?

Its been very difficult for me to shift on my fd and was wondering if that could be the case.
Maybe it needs to be bled.

I was wondering where the two are so I can bleed them both as someone suggested that air may be trapped or that i need to replace either cyclinder depending on what is leaking.

Can air really get trapped when it was working fine not to long ago? No work has been done and while I was driving, the clutch just wouldnt disengage all the way. Makes it really difficult to shift.

I am really hoping that it is indeed the cyclinder.

 

One is behind the clutch pedal and the other is on the drivers side of the tranny.

 

the master is right behind the clutch pedal (its hooked to the fire wall)

the slave is right behind/above the starter. check the line as well cuz it is prone to breaking (the soft and hard lines can both easily brake/leak, a very common problem for a 11+ year old car). as far as testing it, you can remove them and bring them to someone which knows what they are doing. and yes, one day it can be working and the next it can be dead. also note that a bent clutch fork will show the same symptoms. you can check it out if you take the starter off (double check manual how to take it off, one is a simple bolt adn the other is a bolt with a nut, it confused the fk out of me for like 30 mins cuz i though i stripped the bolt or something the first time i took it off. oh yeah dont ground the starter when your taking it off, becareful so you dont shock yourself. also, make sure rear of car is jacked up or make sure your out of gear cuz if you jump the starter when your car is in gear and up on jack stands, it will jump foward and run your *** over! you dont want 2800lbs on your chest! dont laught, it almost happened to me 2 days ago)

 

Triple check that manual...and then disconnect the battery.

 

good idea on the disconnect battery thing. i keep forgeting to do so.

 

had the same issue in my first gen years ago. At first it was just really hard to shift and then finaly I could not shift at all. I replace the clucth cynlinder and the problem was solved.

 

Also, if one is bad and one is good...it's a good thing to change both, they usually go out around the same time. Then you can keep one as a spare. That's what I did.

By the way, I had a speed bleeder on my clutch slave cylinder, for some reason the one Mazda sent me has a different size bleeder thread, so I wasn't able to use it again, anyone know why?