Clutch Shopping for the Mazda 5

The slippage on the wife's Mazda5 is finally to the point where the clutch absolutely has to be done.  Side note:  If you wife asks you if it's just normal for clutches to wear out at 120k miles or if it's the way she drives it that question is a trap.  Even if she does always drag the clutch and rev the engine sky-high when pulling slowly away from a stop sign, the correct answer is "yep, they just do that, baby!".

Anyway, it looks like my clutch choices are a bit limited.  Sachs has a kit, there's some outfit called "Platinum Driveline", or I could source OEM Mazda parts.  Neither include a flywheel and I've always heard that it's best to replace that while you're at it, so I'd need to add one of those as well.

The Sachs kit is out of stock at Rock Auto, but is available from Amazon or eBay for a few bucks cheaper than the Platinum Driveline.  I haven't put together the full list of parts and prices, but I think the OEM Mazda parts might be 25-30% more - in the $850-$900 range as opposed to the $600 range, but I think that's all without sourcing a flywheel, still.

I've used plenty of Sachs clutch kits before, so that's the direction I'm thinking about going.  Any reason to not?  A LuK flywheel is about $75, OEM is around $200-$300, I think.  I can't see a reason to not do the LuK flywheel plus the Sachs clutch kit.  Or is replacing the flywheel not strictly necessary?  Fortunately, we've got enough cars that I can have the Mazda laid up while I make a flywheel decision if the right answer is to pull it off and look at it before replacing.  Or if resurfacing the OEM one is a better choice than putting on an aftermarket one.

Also, any other "while I'm in there" things?  There's nothing else wrong with the car that needs to be addressed, but is it still the case that any time you've got the motor and transmission separated you just automatically replace the rear main seal?  Or have those gotten better to the point that it's best to leave the factory one in place unless it's leaking?  I figured new output shaft seals would be a good idea since I'm pretty good at boogering those up.  But if there's anything that should be replaced on a Mazda5 with 120K on it that I'm either going to have easy access to because it'll all be apart or because I'm taking the part off anyway I might as well.

I used the sachs kit when i did mine at 205k. Did not replace the flywheel. 

Clutch kit for same year/motor Mazda3 should be identical FYI. We put an Exedy in my last one and had the flywheel turned. That was a lot of years ago though. 

Interestingly, I found the Mazda parts for about $400 all-in - pressure plate, friction disc, pilot and release bearings.

I'm not sure what the exact differences are, but the newer 5 uses different part numbers than the 3 does.

After a lengthy wait, the OEM clutch parts are scheduled to arrive on Friday and my new transmission jack is slated for delivery sometime between today and Friday.   They said the jack shipped via FedEx but the tracking number is a couple digits short, so I'm just going to have to sort of trust Amazon on this, I guess.

What I do not have, however, is a clutch alignment tool.  All of the two aftermarket kits that seem to exist include that tool, and my assumption was that I wouldn't have a problem picking one up for a couple bucks from my FLAPS, but there I go again.. putting the "ass" in assume.  There does not appear to be any tool on the market that I can find that is for the Mazda 5.  Summit has one that says it's good for the first gen 5, but not a 2013.  The Mazda Special Tool, 49 SE01 310A appears to be for a wide and sundry range of cars - like, all of them apparently - but it also doesn't appear to have the splines cut in it and is just a cone. 

So I'm going to try the Performance Tool "Metric Clutch Alignment Tool" which is theoretically a universal tool.  I guess the good news is that if I screw it up, it's only a 4.8 hour job.  hahahahahaha

There's something weird to me about wrenching on a "good" car.  Putting the Merc back together eased that a little bit for me, but it still makes me a little nervous tearing in to something that's not already a E36 M3box.

I think I have one for a Mazda3 which should be the same.  I can put it in the mail to you.  Otherwise I have improvised with using a 1/2" drive socket the same size as the disc spline, then a 1/4" drive socket the same size as the pilot bearing, then a 1/4" extension through the big socket onto the small one to keep them in line

I appreciate it but if the universal tool doesn't seem like it's going to work right, I'll have all the bits and pieces to be able to go up to the store and find a tool that will fit(ish).  And it wouldn't surprise me if one of my other clutch tools I have laying around might be right enough to work.

wae said:

Interestingly, I found the Mazda parts for about $400 all-in - pressure plate, friction disc, pilot and release bearings.

I'm not sure what the exact differences are, but the newer 5 uses different part numbers than the 3 does.

I always did the Rear Main Seal as well when doing a clutch job. 

That's what I always thought, but I've heard more recently that if it's not leaking, leave it alone because you're more likely to screw up the installation than the OEM seal is to leak these days.  But I don't know.

Turns out I've got more time to think about that though.  Parts should arrive tomorrow.  The transmission jack was supposed to arrive today.  Amazon showed it as shipped and that FedEx tracking number was actually a good number.  Except it was for a package that was coming to my same city but that was delivered a couple hours before I placed my order.  When I sent the seller a message through Amazon asking for the real tracking number I got an email back saying my order was cancelled because it was out of stock.  So I've ordered another jack - this one is actually sold by Amazon - and they say it'll be here on Wednesday.  So I guess I'm not going to get it done this weekend.

I got the harbor freight transmission jack when I put in the Speed3 trans as that trans is a beast.  The harbor freight jack worked very well, would recommend and probably available locally to you.  
 

The normal Mazda3/5 5 and 6 speeds are fairly light and I was able to do it by hand in the past with a helper pretty easily, or with a normal floor jack.  It probably only weighs about 60 lbs.  Speed3 trans is probably double that if not more. 

In reply to Sonic :

I had one of those for a long time and its only problem was that I used it for too many things it wasn't designed for and I sorta broke it!  The problem - and we're in first-world territory here - is that to use that, I'd have to get down on the ground or build a platform of some sort that would fit under the lift and not get in my way.  The jack I'm looking at has a lift range from around 30-some inches to 70ish inches, so perfect for a mid-rise lift.

Also, I found that the HF tranny jack was really difficult to use with a transverse-mounted trans.  The cradle is designed perfectly for a long and narrow case but FWD transaxles just didn't want to sit in it without a lot of pretty sketchy cribbing.

Having a lift certainly changes the need.  Agreed on the need for some cribbing on the HF jack, I only needed one piece of 2x4 for the one time I used it. 

In case anyone needs to know this, the clutch alignment tool for an FB RX-7 also works for the Mazda5.  Same with the modified AutoZone pilot bearing puller.

...and Mazda uses some unicorn tear 75w80 gear oil for the manual transmission which does not actually exist at any parts store.  Looks like I'll have to visit the Mazda dealer tomorrow.  I was really hoping to have this back together tonight.

I've used Redline MT90 for 200k+ miles in these with great success, in both 5 and 6 speeds.  Just don't use Royal Purple I had that wipe out a trans bearing in one of these in 1k miles.  

And we have success!  The dealer wanted $43/qt - plus tax - for the fluid, so I opted to wait for O'Reilly's to get the Redline to me. 

Also, if you're following the Alldata procedure, I found it impossible to get the left axle to seat in the tranny their way.  I took the steering knuckle completely off which gave me a straight shot and the axle just popped right in with no drama.

I forgot how nice a brandy new clutch feels!