Hi guys,

Over the past 6 months or so, we have had some intermittent problems where driving down the road in 5th gear.. we go to downshift into 4th.. and you cant. Try 3rd and that too feels like it is locked out. but can shift into 2nd and 1st. After a bit of time, the problem seems to correct itself. I had it looked at by my usual mechanic, and he doesnt see any problems. Of course it works fine for him. A few weeks ago, I went to back out of my driveway and put the car in reverse and it stalled. So I put in neutral and the car kinda jumped ahead like it was stuck in gear and stalled.. Took a while of fiddling with the shifter before I could finally get the car to move. Again, mechanic did not find anything. Wife got stuck at gas station, she said she could not get the car in any gear, towed it to garage.. but when mechanic got in, it drove around fine. But still have problems every once in a while where car will not let us shift into 3rd and 4th. Only thing I have found is the couple of times we could not get car to move it was extremely cold (-20 degrees F). Any ideas on what the problem could be?

2008 Mazda 6 5 speed manual transmision

Any feedback would be appreciated. Owned this car for 2.5 years and love it.

Thanks

 

When did you last change the gearbox oil?
Cheapest idea would be to change the oil with something suited to low temperatures.

 

car has 72k miles and i have never changed the gear box oil. the not being able to shift problem started happening 6 months ago, so i dont believe that is temperature related.. however the not being able to shift at all problem has only happened when the car was just started and in cold temperatures. i have another appointment for inspection and will change the oil.

any other ideas? need this problem gone!

thanks

 

How about the same idea by another guy? Check the manual, it may actually say that the oil should be changed every 30K miles. That's what it says for our Protege with 5 speed manual.
Does the shifter feel sloppy when it works? In that case shift linkage bushings may be worn out.
Is the clutch alright? Did you change the brake fluid in the clutch hydraulic just as often as the gear oil? You should change the brake fluid and together with that the fluid in the clutch hydraulic every 2 to 3 years.

That is all I can think of short of taking the trans axle apart for internal issues.