Hot Damn! Mazda issues a TSB on the Clutch chatter!

[Turbo Matty P]

I let my car (03 P5) sit out over night and in the mornings it always vibrates like I'm driving over gravel. This usually stops about 2 miles from my house. I've experienced clutch chatter before, but this feels different. It feels almost like the tires are horribly out of balance. Once the car warms up though everything is fine. Is the same thing you notice? I don't get a "bucking sensation", just a harsh vibration.

 

[DooMer_MP3]

Its because you're leaving your car outside in the cold. The tires are getting flat spots where they sit on the ground. Once the rubber warms up, they take their original shape, and bam, back to normal.

Chris

 

[Turbo Matty P]

oh gosh....it takes so long to create flat spots in tires that sitting over night will not do it. I've owned over 19 cars and only one of them ever flat-spotted. It was my taurus SHO and it sat for 14 months between drives. It takes a long time for the rubber to form a different shape. I think it's clutch related or "swirl-effect" related.

 

[Turbo Matty P]

p.s. I live in Alabama, so when I say it's cold outside, I mean it's like 60-65 degrees.

 

[wscottl]

I get the same vibration, or slight wheel shake, during a cold morning. It goes away about after 5 minutes, or driving 1-2 miles. It's not clutch chatter, but there is a sound/vibration coming from somewhere.

-Scott

 

[waynebike]

the chatter i get is when its cold outside and before the engine is really warmed up completely the car feels like its got some bad hydrolics lol and its trying to bounce up and down! i mean the whole front end feels like its actually bouncing, so i put the clutch in and usually throw it up a gear and it goes away. Usually only happens at very low speeds and only when engine is not very warm at all (like after a day at work/school). i am almost positive that this is the same issue being discussed here but to a much greater extent ( or maybe i just exaderate a bit too much) .

 

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

i took mine in today for this and they said that they'll glady change out my clutch and etc. but i get to pay for it because they say at 37,000 miles my warranty does not cover my clutch, they said clutch was only covered up to 12k miles, whats going on?

 

[Volley2six]

I need that fixed but they're going to make me pay I'm sure. How much will it run ya?

 

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

i dont know but if i end up paying for it an act and a fidanza are going in it instead of the stock bs.

 

[glyph]

i just had clutch chatter again. The mazda website says that my mazda does not have any TSBs showing! when I first started driving it cold weather here in SC, I noticed it and took it in. They said they only thing they can do is replace the whole thing at my expense. That was a couple years ago... now I have 70k. We'll see about the TSB...

 

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

im not sure how i should feel on the subject, it might be partly because my service department has made me jump through hoops to get anything done ( i had to scream at the service manager to get my tranny fixed) they have never wanted to help me at all. Oh well rant over...for now.

 

[waynebike]

i took mine in today for this and they said that they'll glady change out my clutch and etc. but i get to pay for it because they say at 37,000 miles my warranty does not cover my clutch, they said clutch was only covered up to 12k miles, whats going on?

yea dude, i was in today to have this issue and the bushings replaced and they told me the same bulls***. Apparently the warrenty only covers clutches for 1 year / 12000 miles. They said they would replace it but at my expense. Do any of you think that it makes that big of a deal, the chatter that is. Do you think that it will eventually damage my car if it happens a few times every month? I usually dont drive my car if its cold and if i have to drive it, i usually always let it warm up for about 10 minutes before i start to drive.

 

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

im not sure, mazda sure didn't seem very in telling me anything besides that they would charge me to fix ti and they would not give me a price qoute unless they wrote up a work order. I doubt very seriously i will be going back to reynolds mazda in norman, ok.

 

[OPTIMO]

Many thanks to Edwin Man aka theMAN for posting Mazda Tech Service Bulletins on his website:

http://web2.airmail.net/emann/protegefaq/tsb/

Mazda North America has bulletins on a number of the problems we have "discovered" as owners. (They even mention the @#$% rust on the rotor hubs!)

Check out TSB MT000003848 "Clutch Chatter During Cold Takeoff" for Gen3 Proteges!

Does anyone have an active link for this TSB?

It would be much appreciated.

 

[charles]

http://web2.airmail.net/theman/protegefaq/tsb/

It'd be under 3rd generation