Well I picked up my car after it being in the shop for the better part of 3 weeks. They replaced a whole bunch of stuff that apparently needed fixed because my transmission is now silky smooth just like the day that I bought it. The service manager said that they found a minor imperfection with second gear along with some other things.

As of now, I don't even think that they know how or why my transmission was acting up but it's fixed for the time being. Looking over the list of items they replaced, I see they replaced 2nd gear, 2 synchronizer rings, clutch hub and sleeve, synchronizer spring, along with some other minor things.

 

These tranny issues are really starting to get redundant..and who knows how many others are never seen here.

Call the Dealer and ask the tech why second gear went out on your car..

(concerned scowl)

 

I asked that exact same question and they have no idea. They're saying that Mazda is blaming high rpm shifting into second gear, but they don't seem to want to put the blame on that. All I know is it's going to the Lemon Law if it isn't permanently fixed now. This last trip was already the third time for the same thing with well over 30 days of me being without my car.

 

How many miles are on your car..

We need to start compiling this.

 

I have 10800 miles, problem originally started about 2-3k miles ago.

 

I agree. I have 24k on my car now.

I don't race it. I don't drop the clutch. I usually shift @ 4-5k.

I never had the CEL, or flooded, I have the "L" flash.

Starting @ about 15k the car started to feel different. Loose and creaky. I am starting to hear little rattling in the driver door, behind the air vents about the radio, brake noise, hard shifting into 6th (trans feels tight).

I am very concerned that the car is not going to make 70k miles.

 

Ok... is there somebody that has any ideas on how we can start putting everyone together? There are too many people having problems and Mazda is acting way too weird about this! Every time I have had problems with my clutch/transmission they say "We aren't sure what happened. We've never had any problems like this before". Is anybody willing to help me compile all of this stuff? I think this could be big for a pretty high percentage of us.

 

When and where-else has this transmission been used?

 

I had problems with second gear, even had the service department make a note of it on one of my service tickets. They suggested synthetic oil would help. I have since gone to Redline, and it does help, but the most help so far was from installing the Mazdaspeed Stainless Steel Clutch line. It seems that the old rubber line was swelling under pressure and not fully releasing the clutch when shiting out of 1st and into 2nd. Now, the whole operation of the clutch feels and sounds better, but I am still concerned as is everyone else.

 

I can do it but we need a way of organizing the data.

We need information fields like miles and ecu flash and other data fields to trend the data.

 

I have an idea to compile the data but I need help with which fields to compile data on.


I was thinking so far...

build data, current milage, ecu flash level, MT or AT, tires on the car, any aftermarket mods, driving style normal or aggressive, driving cycle - %city % highway, Issues the car has been in for, outstanding issues, Engine oil - dino or synth, Transmission oil - Dino or synth, Diff oil - dino or synth...

Any others?

 

That sounds pretty good to me... We just need some people that are experiencing problems to report their problems. Samsonite, are you going to collect?

 

I am ready but I need a complete list of data to collect. If the ones that I listed above are all that we need then I am ready. If we need to add a couple of fields then no.

 

see here....

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...542#post592542

 

Great... Now if we can just get everyone to contribute

 

They are starting to come in.

I am starting the charting now.

 

My 2005 (built date 7/04) has the 1-2 shift problem too. ITs feels crunchy and like i have to put a litte more effort going into second.

it only has 850 miles

 

Ha! now an '05 with problems? I guess Mazda really is in denial!

 

Hmmm . . . my transmission just works fine. Someone was complaining about downshifting into 1st above 9 MPH. I don't think you should really be able to, 1st is geared very low and you won't be able to downshift into it at anything above a VERY slow crawl in MANY cars. If the car is rolling you should be able to take off just fine in 2nd, there is no need to downshift into 1st and it is hard on the transmission. The 850 mile car is not even broken in yet, the transmission will be a bit stiff naturally. The "more effort" going into 2nd also depends on if the engine/transmission are warmed up and if the car has rolled far enough to fully lubricate the transmission. When the car is cold and hasn't moved very far it will take more effort to shift into second, my RX8 is like that and so is my Audi that has 230,000 KM on it. It's a fact of life, synthetic oil will improve this slightly but I would shift slowly into 2nd when cold, wait for the car to be broken in before beating on it and forget the downshifts into 1st, the car will like you for it. There are obviously some broken transmissions out there but there are also some weird expectations and excessive paranoia . . .

 

but also it seems like there is a small clink sound when i go to 1-2 shift. feels like it grinds a little when i go into two.

 

I would give the car a bit of time to break in . . . It sounds to me like typical synchro lag when the transmission is cold or not fully lubricated, mine will do that too if I shift it too quickly in the first couple hundred yards. If you make a conscious effort to shift very slowly on the first 1-2 shift after you start the car you won't get that grind. i.e. depress the clutch, wait a second, go to neutral, wait, go to second, by then the synchro will have had time to work. After you have gone a mile or so you should be able to shift as fast as you want with no sounds or grinding, if not there may be an issue. I would still wait for things to break in a bit and then try synthetic gear oil if the problem is still there.

 

my trans been acting up two ,when i take off above 6000 rpms my 2 gear will not go in .

 

I haven't had any problems with 2nd gear, but I've temporarily lost 6th gear on two separate occasions. A couple of months ago, I could not shift into 6th gear without grinding, no matter what I did. Last week, I completely lost 6th gear, meaning the tranny simply wouldn't shift into 6th. It was the strangest thing... after 20 minutes of driving, the tranny returned to normal. I did a bit of searching and it seems at least a handful of people have experienced this same problem. I'll be sure to make the service techs aware of this next time I bring my car to the dealer. I want Mazda to have a record of the problem in case of any future warranty disputes.

 

I've had synchro problems on 2nd gear since the car was new. This is most noticeable when the engine is cold and most pronounced on the 1-2 shift. I put this down to the gearbox not being broken in, but after 3,000 miles I decided to do something about it and replaced the gearbox oil with RedLine. This made a slight improvement, but wasn't a complete fix. Now I just take it easy on the 1-2 shift until the engine is warm. Curiously, when the car is completely warmed through all the shifts are smooth and can be done with finger tip presssure (the so-called "snick-snick" gear change that many reviewers have commented positively on in their reviews of the RX-8). So, temperature definitely seems to affect shift quality. When cold I deliberately slow down the 1-2 shift and put up with the metallic clunk you get in the other gears. I think that forcing the shift when the gearbox is cold is probably bad for synchro longevity. My biggest concern is that I'll run into gearbox problems when the car is out of warranty and these will be the consequence of some manufacturing or design fault that's manifesting itself by balky shifting. That's why gathering this data is so important. It's worthy of a poll just to see what percentage of us have had gearbox issues...

 

Do you guys double clutch when you up/down shift? That would relieve a lot of pressure from the synchros when you match revs manually. My brother drives a Protege 5 (that I drive sometimes) and I know what you mean when you say that sometimes the gears "grind". You just have to be very gentle and sensitive when shifting - especially downshifting. Do NOT downshift into 1st. EVER! Your car will make you pay for it. scoop is totally right on what he said above.

He also has the grinding or incomplete shifting into reverse problem that someone mentioned earlier. Try putting the tranny into neutral, letting up the clutch, and then re-disengaging it to get into reverse. That does the trick for me every time.