NB Miata clutch shudder - Paging Keith to the white courtesy phone

So, on the whole, I'm still loving the 03 NB I picked up last month . . . with one exception.  Occasionally, especially when the car isn't warmed up, the clutch will "shudder" when I let it out in first, sometimes second and reverse.  I've done a little reading and, apparently, "NB clutch shudder" is a thing.  I guess it was primarily an 01-02 thing, but I've read of other people having issues with 03's as well.  "Remedies" seem to vary from revving the engine higher, to third gear clutch burns, to replacing the whole clutch/flywheel assembly.  I've found I can improve things slightly by dropping the clutch at slightly higher RPMs, although that bugs me because it makes me look/feel like a total newb, and I've been driving manuals for 30 years.  I've done the "third gear clutch burn" (basically, starting the car in 3rd gear) and that seems to help for a little while, but the "shudder" comes back.  Anyone else got info on this?  Anything else (short of a full replacement) that will help with the issue? 

Paging Mr. Tanner, Mr. Keith Tanner to the white courtesy phone, please.

I've notice on both my 94 and my 01 when letting the clutch out from a stop I'll sometimes get driveline shaking a bit. I wonder if that's the same thing you're talking about. 

In stock form, it looks like the flywheels just weren't machined well in '01. Mazda swapped a bunch of them out when new to deal with the problem. Having the stock flywheel machined will probably sort it out - and of course, who knows what happened to this car over the last decade and a half. It's more likely it's due to the car's history than a Mazda screwup.

I'd start by pulling and checking motor mounts because it's easier than pulling the trans.

As expected Keith pretty much covered it.  Motor mounts or the clutch itself.  Since the 3rd gear burn fixes it temporarily I suspect that it's the clutch.  Oh, both of those problems are old car problems and not necessarily Miata specific.

I had this issue on my used 02 right after I bought it.  I tried the clutch burns (helped for a bit) and just driving around it but I ended up just replacing the clutch/flywheel since I had a spare flywheel laying around and clutches are cheap.

They had a lot of issues with clutch chatter in '01 and issued a TSB. I don't know whether that TSB went all the way to '03. I purchased an '01 with that issue years later, and installed a new OEM clutch & flywheel without knowledge of the TSB. By that time they were on the 3rd or 4th part #/iteration of the clutch disk.

Sometime later I spoke to a dealer service agent, who said my car was still eligible for a warranty clutch - so I wasted both time & money on that one.

My reading indicates Mazda acknowledged (and fixed) this as a problem with earlier NB's, as it was showing up way earlier in the vehicle's life span than "operator induced error" should have.  AFAIK, this was only for earlier models, however.  Realistically, mine was a one owner, low mileage car.  That's the good news.  The bad news is the one owner was somewhat elderly and the car was probably as low mile as it is because it was an urban fair weather car.  I suspect a fair amount of "riding the clutch" occurred under the previous owner given local traffic conditions around where he lived.  I'm planning to have the car up in the air for some other work, so I'll take a look at the mounts just to be sure, but I suspect the clutch as well.  I had hoped for some other solution other than a clutch swap, but "it is what it is".  Unfortunately, a clutch swap is probably a "let the professionals do it" job for me. 

Granted I've been doing this stuff for decades but a Miata clutch swap takes me 1 1/2 hours on a lift.  I would expect a first timer with a floor jack and a buddy to be able to do it in one day on the floor with jack stands.  That assumes that you have four stands of sufficient strength and height to do it safely along with a reasonable selection of tools.

I won't criticize if you opt to farm it out but if you think this is something that you'd like to add to your skill set then I'd encourage you to do it yourself.

In reply to APEowner :

I've already had one back surgery and I need it to last as long as possible, since my issue is degenerative disc disease.  If I can hook up with a friend with a lift, trans jack, etc., I might try it.  Otherwise, it's probably best left to the professionals.