Hi Everyone,
I am reviving an old question/thread with a twist. ASH8 maybe you can shed some light on this for me.

My 4 gear was popping out every time I up shifted or down shifted. While that happened I started notice Trans Fluid Smell, so I took a peek at my Trans. I noticed it was leaking a little from the drain plug. I went to a local shop and had them check my fluid level and tighten the plug.

After that the problem disappeared. I tried to get the issue to reoccur, but nothing happens now. I thought it was going to be a bad syncro... I am just at my 56k mileage, so I was going to take it to the dealership, but now I dont know what to think.

Is possible that the leak was causing some kind of pressure issue and thats why it would kick out of gear??? I dont know...

 

I seriously doubt a slight loss of fluid will cause this "known for some S2's" 4th gear pop out issue.

The only way a leak can occur out of the drain plug is if plug was/went loose and or crush washer was badly worn...I guess plug was just tightened up.

You did not say "if" the trans oil level was low?...I take it it was OK.

Your P66M trans has an adjustment procedure for 3-4th Gear change, which could possibly be in need of resetting/checking.

Same as for NC Miata/MX-5.

I suggest you get it performed at a reputable shop/garage if you believe it is needed.
Disregard where he says it is not the same as RX-8 box, he is talking about Series 1 RX-8 2004-2008, this Miata/MX-5 thread is dated 2007.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=237737

 

Well the problem returned this afternoon....

@ASH -- My fluid wasnt low...

Would the dealership preform this adjustment, if I took it in to them?? If all was needed was that adjustment, would the warranty cover that??

I am thinking I will take it in to the Dealer Monday after I put my Cat back on...

 

Unfortunately many dealers are not aware of this 3/4 check...

I am not saying this will fix your issue ,but it is worth checking...get back and let us know the outcome.

 

Shift Linkage maybe?

 

I will definitely let you know the out come...

Would shift linkage make the gear pop out though??...

Sooo my lasted development is that the problem has disappeared again. Last Friday, it would pop out of gear on queue. Everytime I put it in 4th it would pop out. This past Saturday, it just stopped and hasnt happened since. I keep shifting to 4th and nothing happens. I even play with it in 4th, but I cant get it to re-occur... I dont wanna take it to the dealership and them say "well its working fine" and the dealer charge me for nothing or charge me for all the diagnostics

 

Mine would do it more cold then eventually got worse and worse til it never held. Shift into fourth and don't hold the shifter and then stab and let go of the throttle a bunch of times. Mine got so bad it would pop out every time.

Check the NC miata.net forums as well for experiences there.

Youtube video here:

 

Happened on my Jetta. Third gear would pop out all the damned time and progressively got worse.

One day, it just flat out refused to go in. Friend of mine looked it over and saw the shift linkage was loose and wouldn't put the car into gear fully. Only had about 2000 miles at the time.

What's funny is, I didn't let him fix it, and took it to Koepell Volkswagen in Long Island City, Queens.

Sure enough, Koepell told me I abused the car and needed to take apart the entire transmission for a rebuild.

I called VW Corporate, told them I knew what was wrong with my car, and Koepell was trying to rob me, and I was going to call the media...blah blah blah.

Less than 10 minutes later, I got a call from Koepell to pick up my car, that I was told the wrong diagnosis, and everything would be fixed under warranty.

I don't get how Koepell VW is such ****, while Koepell Mazda, directly across the street, is one of the best dealerships I dealt with. Koepell also scratched my brand new rims (and refused to fix), dinged my trunk and scarred my hood with adhesive. They wrote everything down, and refused to fix it when I showed up later.

 

^^ I am definitely will have my eye on the dealership when I take it in.

@JRX13 You gave me the great idea to video the shifter popping out and I will take it to the dealership. Its a intermittant problem right now, but it may progress into a constant problem, but I dont have time to wait... my mileage is only 3500 away from being over the warranties covergage (565k ).

 

amdhunter, it is best not to say anything and let ppl think youre a dick, than to say something daft so we know you are

 

Yes it will get worse. I speak from experience. Try to get it covered under the powertrain warranty.

 

While I think of it...

The 3/4 Adjustment Procedure link I posted from the Miata Forum, is not known at Mazda Dealerships, it is also not in Mazda Workshop Manuals, so most are not aware of this 3/4 Adjustment Procedure.

Apparently 'Mazda' are aware of it but have still not done anything to notify their Dealers.

I suggest you copy/paste/print the Miata info and talk nicely to your Mazda Dealer guys....it is worth them looking into it as it may prevent some grief at their end.

 

Unfortunately in the P66M Mazda Trans Workshop Manual says the following..

..but Mazda Manual does not tell you or show you the "readjust" method....this is where the Miata Forum information shows one how to.

BTW: Jason Saini (the Miata Forum poster) is a well respected expert on Mazda Transmissions, he re-builds them.
Jason also made this thread in our RX-8 Forum on the 2009 Transmissions in 2008.
https://www.rx8club.com/series-ii-technical-trouble-shooting-160/2009-rx-8-transmission-gear-chart-discussion-135710/

 

I just can't keep my mouth shut.

I love the videotaping idea as well. It can cut down "not able to reproduce" visits by a ton.

 

ASH8 -- Thanks! I will definitely try and talk to the Dealership guys about this adjustment. I hope they actually use the information and dont just dismiss me.

Its a great idea, but its funny bcuz when I try to tape it, the problem doesnt happen. When I turn the cam off, it happens lol

 

Who's your go to dealer in the Bay Area? I can tell you my car was "fixed" at Capitol Mazda. You'll notice I put "fixed" in quotation marks.

 

I actually got my car from there, but I'm going to go to Fremont Mazda.

Do you think Capitol Mazda is worth the trip??

 

I do most of my own work so not too much experience with either dealer. The only time I had to bring my car in was to Capitol to fix the transmission. Don't want to get into it but I had to bring my car in a couple times back for transmission work. It "works" now but I wish the 3rd/4th shifted a little better but not worth the trouble for me to bring it back. But the 4th gear is not popping out so that's definitely fixed.

I would verify if they actually have Mazda technicians at Fremont and not Ford technicians who work on Mazdas or they might not have much experience with the 8. Also be good to find a technician with transmission rebuilding experience which may be hard to find.

 

I do most work myself also and probably could manage to do the 3/4 shifter adjustment myself, but I want the dealership to do it and look over it as much as possible. There should have a lot more tools at their disposal than I and anything should be covered under my warranty.

 

Just a question:
Does anyone know if Jason Saini sales any of those custom trans parts he makes? It would be a good investment I would imagine to strengthen your trans, if your a Track Rat. I would think it would make the trans last longer under Track conditions or just period.

Or maybe this is why they made the Sycro Saver bracket....

 

I too tried to do the initial adjustment myself. Actually a couple times. I don't know if I did it wrong or what but I could make it worse but never better. I even took pics thinking it would fix it and was going to make a write up but I couldn't get it to work right. Always make sure you know how far you adjusted it and which way that way you can put it back in the correct spot.

When I finally brought it in the technician changed some hard parts inside the transmission.

 

/\. Yes to both of you guys ..

It is recommended that you mark (texta, ink marker pen, or scratch) the position of your adjuster "Star Nut" on the side of trans BEFORE you undo it to do the adjustment procedure. That is the procedure that Jason talks about on the Miata forum and I linked above...just in case you need to go back to original factory position of your shifter.

Now, just a couple of things, virtually all of the issues Jason identifies was rectified on the P66M transmissions for the 2009 Series II RX-8, and have also been taken across to the Miata/MX-5 6 Speed P66M transmissions from 1st February, 2008 production.

All of those issue were resolved, all except the 3 small stock square plastic bushes, they remain unchanged, in fact for the Europe racing MX-5's the trans are removed and those square plastic bushes are replaced with locally made square brass bushes...that is all they touch @ Mazda Motors Europe today (well in 2010-2011), so what does that tell us.??

Now as we know, one major issues did crop up for the early Series II RX-8's with the 5/6th Synchro Ring and Gear...resulting in grinding change problems.
In the S2 RX-8 the two 5/6 Synchro's were updated from April 21, 2009 Production, and 6th Gear was updated from Sept 15, 2008...plus a few other smaller updates, but that is all for ALL Series 2 to their production end last week.

Also the latest NC2 Miata/MX-5 from 2009MY uses the Series 2 Transmission internals, all of the better heavier duty components.

These P66M Transmissions like the C66M (used in the FWD Mazda 3 Skyactiv) are all made in house by Mazda at Mazda and are not done by Aisin.

As Eric Meyer said a few years back who raced an RX-8, these Seres 2 Transmissions are bullet proof for racing, the ONLY issue I recall he said that needed renewing were the Synchro's, which for a race car is pretty normal.

BTW: I have PM'ed Jason to see if he can update us on the above...cross fingers.

 

Thanks ASH8 for you help. I am really wondering if my issue is just will adjusting the throw.... We will see....

I am glad through that all the issues Jason wrote about have been pretty much addressed, if I am lucky my Trans is okay and I will jus buy a Syncro-Saver for future security.

 

I have this at 24k on a 2010 S2... Typically it will happen once or twice before the transmission has warmed up. Once warm it rarely happens.

Ekim, did you get it resolved at either Capitol or Fremont? I could go to either of those dealers but am wondering if I should try the adjustment myself first, or just take it in. I'm a little paranoid about someone going in and making this, or some other aspect of the gearbox worse.

 

ASH8, do you have a PDF of the service bulletin that describes this adjustment? The screenshot is helpful, but I'd prefer to have something with the Mazda logo on it when I talk to the desk jockeys at my dealer.