Clutch on my NC 2 bites immediately with hardly any travel .Causes difficulty in gear selection and stalling.Is this typical of this model? Car has done 30k on a 10 plate.Would a new clutch be the only remedy or could it be adjusted somehow?
Hi, not so much typical as common enough. Your first port of call should be adjusting the clutch pedal actuation rod. Many threads here and elsewhere.
hth
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Many thanks for your input.Will have a look at the actuation rod.Not aware that the pedal could be adjusted.Viktor
The rod adjusts by turning in a thread and has a locknut on it. Simply release the locknut, twiddle the rod to effectively lengthen until it stops, then back it off a couple of turns to give some clearance and then retighten the locknut. The rod has flats on it and the spanner size is different (by 1mm?) from the locknut.
Doing this made an enormous difference to my car.
The pushrod is behind the top of the clutch pedal and is awkward to get to. Good luck!
I would suggest you get the clutch fluid bled before you adjust as it may never have been changed.
There are lots of possible causes for a dragging clutch, eg deformed driven plate, damaged cover plate, plate jamming on splines, debris, etc.
Does it work better if you pump it a couple of times before putting in gear and setting off? If so it could be air in the system or a slave cylinder problem.
You might be able to ‘fix’ the bite point with adjustment but shouldn’t the free play determine adjustment, not bite point? Is there a lot of free play at the pedal? If not I’d be looking somewhere else.
Somebody put me right if necessary, it’s about 100 years since I messed about with a clutch and never on an MX-5.
EDITED to add: Richard’s document (see post below) confirms that the pedal position and free play adjustment should be set independent (regardless) of the bite point. Not to say that the bite point won’t improve if you have to take out a lot of free play…
Have a look at the service info, all you need to know (almost) is in this doc clutch.pdf
The trick to adjusting the clutch operating rod length is to push the seat right back, put a bathroom stool next to the driver’s door, rest your hips on this and then lie on your back under the steering wheel with spanners, torch and swear-box.
Don’t forget the reading glasses, it is tight and cramped in there.
Here’s how I did it, with spanner sizes etc
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Many thanks for that, will try to adjust rod.
Just had this on my 2011 NC, clutch changed no improvement. It got worse when hot in standing traffic therefore a hydraulic problem. Got the master and slave cylinder changed at the same time, problem gone. Master cylinder is above the exhaust so seals in it must go hard over time. Didn’t bother changing one cylinder at a time as didn’t want to take car off road twice. Master cylinder hard to get hold of so ended up getting it direct from Mazda.
Will be looking at the clutch adjustment rod and master cylinder. Many thanks for your input. Viktor