Clutch acting up...slave?

[LowriderS10]

Hi everyone,

Long time member, first time Mazda owner...yesterday I bought a P5 with an MSP engine/transaxle and love it.

However...today (just once) the clutch started acting up. Even when depressed to the floor while in gear, the clutch didn't disengage completely and the car kept rolling (not just the way it would roll in neutral, but you could tell the engine was pushing it around). Also, getting it in/out of gears was becoming nearly impossible and cruising the parking lot at low speeds in gear was extremely jerky. Pumping the clutch a few times solved my problems and they haven't resurfaced. I've put about 200km on it so far, and this issue only manifested itself once (I test drove it for about 40km and then drove it home another 60km or so without any issues)...this happened after navigating a lot of back streets with speed bumps, so I was constantly changing gears, etc.

To me, this feels like a clutch slave that's on the way out...what do you think?

Also..is the clutch slave the same in the MSPs as it is in the P5s?

Thanks and have a great day,
T

 

[MrGiggles]

Hi everyone,

Long time member, first time Mazda owner...yesterday I bought a P5 with an MSP engine/transaxle and love it.

However...today (just once) the clutch started acting up. Even when depressed to the floor while in gear, the clutch didn't disengage completely and the car kept rolling (not just the way it would roll in neutral, but you could tell the engine was pushing it around). Also, getting it in/out of gears was becoming nearly impossible and cruising the parking lot at low speeds in gear was extremely jerky. Pumping the clutch a few times solved my problems and they haven't resurfaced. I've put about 200km on it so far, and this issue only manifested itself once (I test drove it for about 40km and then drove it home another 60km or so without any issues)...this happened after navigating a lot of back streets with speed bumps, so I was constantly changing gears, etc.

To me, this feels like a clutch slave that's on the way out...what do you think?

Also..is the clutch slave the same in the MSPs as it is in the P5s?

Thanks and have a great day,
T

Slaves by design usually leak externally. It's located on the front of the transmission, below and behind the radiator cap. Pull the boot back and have a look inside. It uses DOT 3 brake fluid, and shares the brake fluid reservoir. If you've been losing brake fluid, you may have found out why.

Master cylinders can develop a leak and behave similarly, but the fluid will just bypass the piston and go right back into the reservoir.

 

[LowriderS10]

Slaves by design usually leak externally. It's located on the front of the transmission, below and behind the radiator cap. Pull the boot back and have a look inside. It uses DOT 3 brake fluid, and shares the brake fluid reservoir. If you've been losing brake fluid, you may have found out why.

Master cylinders can develop a leak and behave similarly, but the fluid will just bypass the piston and go right back into the reservoir.

Thanks for the response!

I'll check on that! The brake fluid is nice and high (first thing I checked, since I saw that it was a shared reservoir), but that might not mean anything...the seller could have topped it off just before meeting me to sell it. I'm hoping that it's a slave, as they're usually easier and cheaper than a master, but the master doesn't look too bad either (by the way...the master looked like it had a funky mounting system...does it have one nut on the engine side of the firewall and one nut on the cabin side of the firewall?).

I'll see if I can get under it tomorrow and check it out!