2004 Mazda RX-8: grinding or squealing brakes

Filed Jan 23, 2012 · Transmission · 120,000 miles · SC

My husband drove me to the grocery store and we heard a loud pop. The car barely went into first gear and started grinding when it went into second. We barely made it home!! It stalled in the middle of us turning into our road and we almost got hit. When we looked at it after we( luckily) made it home. The entire clutch pedal moved and angled to the right when depressed and went back to regular position when we let go of it.

Filed Oct 21, 2011 · Transmission · 97,000 miles · CA

The clutch pedal is starting to squeak a lot and will eventually fail. Hopefully it doesn't fail while I am driving.

Filed Nov 10, 2010 · Transmission · 69,850 miles · MD

The clutch pedal on my 2004 mazda rx8 started making a noticeable squeaking noise constantly for about 3 weeks. At one point while driving the vehicle at around 50 MPH, it made a loud cracking sound and I noticed the clutch pedal became immediately loose which made it difficult to control the gears. It caused the clutch pedal to stop working and thus impeding my ability to drive the vehicle and control its speed. The consequence of this failure could of caused an accident if the vehicle was traveling at a higher speed and/or on the highway.

Filed Oct 11, 2010 · Transmission · 60,000 miles · OH

My 2004 mazda, has 60k miles on it. Already have had engine failure, leaving me stranded on a busy highway. Experienced issues with the heat shield and sensors. Now my clutch pedal bracket is apparently broken, it started off squeaking loudly and embarrassingly. Sounded like it needed some wd40 or something, also leaning inward toward the brake, causing me to sometimes inadvertently depress the brake along with the clutch. It soon after completely broke, depressing nearly to the floor and leaving me stranded once again on the expressway. I know I'm not driving a bmw/audi/mercedes etc. But I'm also not driving a kia, yet my roommates kia has far less problems and isn't left without a car nearly as often as I am.

Filed Jul 27, 2010 · Transmission · 112,000 miles · 00

For a week or so prior to failure, I heard a squeak coming from the clutch. Had car in to change tires, mechanic noted clutch pedal was soft and advised I have it looked at the next day. On the way home clutch pedal kicked over to the right and I wasn't able to engage clutch & shift,stuck in 2nd gear. Lucky for me I didn't get in a collision, was rolling through a busy intersection, was able to get to a parking lot and stalled and stopped the car. Reset clutch pedal red greened it and limped it home till I had it fixed a couple of days later.

Filed May 21, 2010 · Transmission · 57,503 miles · CA

The clutch pedal of the vehicle had started squeaking while being used and started moving laterally left and right. While driving home on the freeway the vehicle was locked into 2nd gear and would not allow me to change gears. I was forced to drive home in 2nd gear. The vehicle was taken to romero mazda and they determined that the clutch pedal assembly had snapped. This is why the vehicle would not change gears and was locked into 2nd gear. After speaking with the service rep he told me that my warranty had expired and that I would have to pay for it out of pocket.

Filed Apr 29, 2010 · Body, Transmission · 52,425 miles · MD

For the past 3 years, the clutch pedal on my car has squeaked and groaned when depressed. This would not be consistent, and very hard to diagnose. Today, while driving a short distance towards work (I live and work on a military base), a metallic "pop" came from my clutch pedal while being depressed and no longer disengaged the clutch. This almost caused an accident as it was "rush hour." I quickly noticed while driving that my clutch pedal was almost touching my brake as I attempted to slow down! Also, if I had stopped moving at any point, I and my car would have been stranded as I would not have been able to get my car back into gear. Upon inspection at home, it appears a weld on the right side that holds the clutch pedal mount to the frame of the car has come completely loose making the pedal lean left. There also appears to possibly be another issue with the clutch pedal spring as it no longer returns the pedal to the fully depressed position, and instead defaults to 3 inches depressed or full upright depressed. This failure has not been corrected.

Filed Apr 6, 2010 · Transmission · 79,540 miles · WA

Clutch pedal broke when shifting to 4th gear and disengaging clutch. Traveling at approximately 40 MPH, there was a loud snap when I released the clutch. When I attempted to re-engage the clutch, there was significant lateral movement and little to no pressure. Had to pull over and coast to a grinding halt in gear. If this had happened at freeway speeds, coming to a stop while in gear on the side of the freeway would have been dangerous.

Filed Feb 12, 2010 · Transmission · 93,050 miles · FL

Under normal driving conditions during a light shift my clutch pedal bracket snapped. The pedal is now loose and moves easily from side to side only working if pushed on the correct way. It has been squeaking for a few months and suddenly on an easy drive it just snapped. The pedal and assembly have never been abused or modified in any way nor has the car been driven particularly hard.

Filed Feb 8, 2010 · 65,768 miles · CA

The clutch began to squeak and I took it to the dealer for inspection. They found that the clutch bracket had cracked at one of the welded location. This happened under normal daily driving to work and back. It cost me $369.00 to replace the clutch pedal assembly with a new one. I don't think that this should happen under normal driving circumstances. This should be a recall item because if I did not take it into the dealer right away, the crack would have LED to a catastrophic failure.

Filed Dec 14, 2009 · Transmission · 37,000 miles · CT

I feel grinding when I shift from 1 gear to 2. Sometimes is difficult to shift to the 2 and 3 gear. I bleed the clutch line, changed transmission oil. It is weird because the car has low mileage.

Filed Oct 21, 2009 · Transmission · 54,000 miles · AZ

The bracket for the clutch pedal on my 2004 mazda rx-8 broke while I was driving the vehicle. Over the past few weeks, the clutch would squeak a little bit while I was driving it. I noticed that the bracket was loose once, so I tightened the bolt on it, but that didn't change the squeaking. Little did I know that the whole bracket was about to fail! I took a close look at the broken bracket, and it appears that a weld broke. It occurred one morning on my way to work. As I downshifted from third to second gear, I heard a 'crack' and then my clutch wouldn't work properly. I looked down, and the clutch pedal was next to (and touching) the brake pedal (it should not be that close). I was able to pull off to the side of the road without the ability to shift. Now, I cannot drive the vehicle, as the clutch will not engage with the broken bracket. I believe this is a safety issue, especially in cases like mine when it happened while driving the vehicle.