Ok had my car now for about 30 hours and am thoroughly pissed:

1) Intercooler piping was blowing off intercooler, easy fix, tightin the hose clamp.

2) Battery seems to be dying.

3) Seems the ABS unit is leaking brake fluid.

4) Clutch may be shot now.



we'll focus on number 4.



I was driving on 17, I had just been racing with my friends rx8, not banging gears just driving fast, but my intercooler piping pops off and i dont have the right tool to fix it (or any tool for that matter). so i pop it back in and use a dime tot ighten it a bit more and decide to lay off boost till i get home and get my tools.



So im staying out of boost down 17 and im in 3rd gear, decide to shift to 4th, clutch in, shifter going towards 4th and all you here is "grrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnddddddddd " so im like "oh ****" let out clutch and leave it in neutral then push in clutch and try again....but i notice now that the clutch pedal isn't disengaging the clutch, so im stuck in neutral roling, luckily i was able to sneak it into 5th, i have no idea how, and limped to the shop with my tools and ****.



So basically no clutch disengagment is my problem.



Automatically you think fluid loss, blown line, bad cylinder, etc Well i depress the clutch and can watch the slave cylinder push in the release fork for the clutch, so that shows that the hydraulic system is working.



Now one person said perhaps a spring fell out and got wedged between the pressure plate and clutch.



Another theory is perhaps a bent release fork or bad release bearing.



I really dont have the funds to buy a new clutch so im hoping its just a bent release fork or bad release bearing.



THe clutch was a Centerforce Dual Friction which instantly got bad looks and comments from my friends.



ANY insight to the likelihood of what the problem is, how much of a chance is it that im about to go and buy a new clutch once we puill the trans?



a very pissed off kevin.

Also. when we start the car, we start it in gear its the only way to move it, it drives fine, doesnt feel like the clutch is slipping or anything, we just cant get it to disengage, in case that bit of info helps.



kevin.

how many miles were on that clutch originally? i would just go out and spend the money for another clutch. thats my opinion.

not sure how many were on it.



any tried the mazdatrix.com street/race clutch seems too cheap to be true.



kevin.

are you sure its not hydraulics related? like bad salve cylinder?



cheaper than a new clucth

well i watch the slave cylinder push the release fork, unless its supposed to make the release fork go farther back then it does.



kevin.

mike = teh man

similar thing happened to me, it turned out it was the pilot bearing fell apart and littered the clutch with needle rollers... they were stuck between the clutch disc and flywheel keeping everything engaged even with the clutch pedal to the floor.

what did you have to replace in that situation? and was there any weird sound or anything?



kevin.