I wanna start by emphasizing that I don't remember this happening at all in warmer weather when I got the car.. I've never had a standard tranny during the winter, so I'm unsure if it is just how it acts when engines in general are running cold still or if rotaries are just like this.

Basically if I try and drive around before my car is warmed up my engine just revs up high before catching if Im WOT. Not just womping on the pedal but also if I ease into it. I'll be driving slowly and if I try and gas it the rpms just go way up with nothing happening and sometimes they go back down and sometimes I just gave to let off the pedal a bit. My clutch only should have like 16k on it and feels good still, but I'm kinda worried that it is slipping. Once I drive around for a bit or rev high a lot to heat the engine up it doesn't act like that anymore and drives normally like it should.

Any thoughts?

 

No difference in how a standard drives whether hot nor cold. Just in the cold, things are a bit stiffer until they warm up.

It does sound as though the clutch is slipping. But check the clutch hydraulics and linkages first, to make sure they they aren't freezing up or something.

 

Yeah, it is doing the same thing my Mazda6 did last year when I had that with a bad clutch. The 6 acted a little different if I remember, but it was essentially the same thing I guess. I don't understand it because this morning before going to work I slowly revved up my engine a few times and held it there to help get some heat going(my cold start deal doesn't work now that it is cold... what??). I left work and took it easy, but once I started opening it up (after my my temperature gauge went up a little bit) I swear that it completely went away. I kept testing it in 5th gear(probably a terrible idea if the clutch is actually slipping) and it went from over revving to gradually not having an issue at all for the last 6 miles of the way home. It usually acted up a lot longer than it did too when didn't rev my car in the lot, which is why it seems like even more of a temperature thing to me now. It is just totally baffling me..

I'll try checking those though. Time to whip out the Haynes manual I guess.

 

Might check your fluid, last time mine needed to be changed it made the pedal move very slowly when it was really cold out. I guess it had absorbed too much water over the years.

 

My guess is also clutch hydraulics. Sounds like the slave cylinder doesn't fully disengage when you release the clutch.

 

What kind of things should I be looking for in the hydraulics? I know where my slave cyl is, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. I'm sorry, but I'm just not mechanically inclined at all.. Trying to get the hang of things as I go along. Meh

 

If you have a friend available you can bleed it with some fresh brake fluid, it's something most people neglect. It doesn't take long.

 

I like that last idea about bleeding the clutch hydrualics. Quick and cheap test.

Forward thinking idea for the novice mechanic: If you do replace the clutch, take the time and trouble to machine the flywheel. It will add smoothnes to your clutch engagement. Also, as Colin Chapman (Lotus) taught us, it will "add lightness". Just don't go too thin!

Cheers!

 

I would bleed the clutch hydraulic system, and then adjust the clutch pedal according to the FSM. If that doesn't clear up and clutch slipping it might be time for a new clutch. Clutch slipping is basically how you described it, with the car in gear, and giving it throttle the engine rpms climb but you don't really go anywhere or accelerate.

 

does it have a new throw out bearing? bad TOBs can have that intermittent effect if theyre starting to brake down

 

push in the pedal and have a buddy feel to see if the slave is moving. I had a guy come to me to replace his clutch that someone else diagnosed and it turned out to be low on fluid. Saved the guy a few hundred bucks by just bleeding it. clutch was good but his was stuck engaged. If its not engaging it's the clutch...if its not disengaging it's the mechanics.