Sorry for the long post.
Ok, a little backstory before explaining the problem: I purchased my '06 MS6 with around 15,500 miles on it, and fell in love. Having been my first car purchased, and it being somewhat speedy, you might see why. I hadn't driven many manual transmission cars before purchasing my speed6, but shifting the car still seemed a little rough going from 1st to 2nd - almost a sticking/grinding feeling, but without any noise (I didn't notice this immediately, or I'd have raised the question to the dealer then). So I took it to the dealer after hearing about the clutch TSB, thinking that might be my lucky fix; only to drive it down to the dealer to have them tell me that the clutch felt fine to them (they drove it around a bit) and that the TSB had already been accomplished. So, thinking nothing more of it, I continued to drive my car daily, treating the car pretty nicely (except on the corners maybe, she loves to corner). After getting the initial problem checked out, I was noticing it a lot less.
Fast forward to the last 2 weeks: I had been noticing that same silent sticking/grinding from 1st to 2nd once more about a week before going on vacation to see my family. Being concerned about it I had made a mental note to get it looked at asap - if not that week, then when I returned from my trip. Well as you can imagine things were a bit busy the week before my vacation, so it got pushed off a bit.
So, I decided to leave my car with a trusted friend. About halfway through my vacation, said friend decides to drive my car (not having driven a standard vehicle in quite some time) just so it didn't sit dormant the whole time I was away, and ends up killing the clutch. He claims the car wouldn't shift into gear shortly after he smelt a burning smell while driving it around city streets. Shifting the car with the engine turned off worked fine though, imagine that
. He claims he only grinded gears a couple of times, not enough to do much damage for the result.
Now, the vehicle has but 26,600 miles on it and already has a broken clutch. The dealer he had it towed to claims the parts that need replacing is...pretty much the whole thing. The pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bushing, and the clutch disc all need to be replaced. I'm thinking that there's no way I caused any sort of real damage to my car in the 11,000 miles I've owned it, but it's not like anything can be done about that now. Mazda wants to charge me over $2,000 to fix the clutch seeing as how those parts aren't covered under warranty, oh, and the towing fee on top. I'm thinking there has got to be a cheaper way to fix my car correctly, perhaps getting a second opinion and taking it to another shop? I dunno. All I know is there has to be another way than paying $2,000 to fix a clutch, I guess I'm just looking for a bit of advice.
Ok, a little backstory before explaining the problem: I purchased my '06 MS6 with around 15,500 miles on it, and fell in love. Having been my first car purchased, and it being somewhat speedy, you might see why. I hadn't driven many manual transmission cars before purchasing my speed6, but shifting the car still seemed a little rough going from 1st to 2nd - almost a sticking/grinding feeling, but without any noise (I didn't notice this immediately, or I'd have raised the question to the dealer then). So I took it to the dealer after hearing about the clutch TSB, thinking that might be my lucky fix; only to drive it down to the dealer to have them tell me that the clutch felt fine to them (they drove it around a bit) and that the TSB had already been accomplished. So, thinking nothing more of it, I continued to drive my car daily, treating the car pretty nicely (except on the corners maybe, she loves to corner). After getting the initial problem checked out, I was noticing it a lot less.
Fast forward to the last 2 weeks: I had been noticing that same silent sticking/grinding from 1st to 2nd once more about a week before going on vacation to see my family. Being concerned about it I had made a mental note to get it looked at asap - if not that week, then when I returned from my trip. Well as you can imagine things were a bit busy the week before my vacation, so it got pushed off a bit.
So, I decided to leave my car with a trusted friend. About halfway through my vacation, said friend decides to drive my car (not having driven a standard vehicle in quite some time) just so it didn't sit dormant the whole time I was away, and ends up killing the clutch. He claims the car wouldn't shift into gear shortly after he smelt a burning smell while driving it around city streets. Shifting the car with the engine turned off worked fine though, imagine that
. He claims he only grinded gears a couple of times, not enough to do much damage for the result.Now, the vehicle has but 26,600 miles on it and already has a broken clutch. The dealer he had it towed to claims the parts that need replacing is...pretty much the whole thing. The pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bushing, and the clutch disc all need to be replaced. I'm thinking that there's no way I caused any sort of real damage to my car in the 11,000 miles I've owned it, but it's not like anything can be done about that now. Mazda wants to charge me over $2,000 to fix the clutch seeing as how those parts aren't covered under warranty, oh, and the towing fee on top. I'm thinking there has got to be a cheaper way to fix my car correctly, perhaps getting a second opinion and taking it to another shop? I dunno. All I know is there has to be another way than paying $2,000 to fix a clutch, I guess I'm just looking for a bit of advice.
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