Hey Y'all. I've got a 2000 626 with, of course, serious transmission issues. I took it to the Mazda dealership mechanics 3 times and they had no idea why there was such a rough idle and why trans was shifting erratically (causing a loud banging noise whenever I come to a stop quickly). They replaced the engine mounts, some spark plugs, etc, each time telling me that they had finally figured out the problem. On the third visit they told me that the trans fluid was overheating and spilling over which covered the sensor/computer between the trans and the engine. As soon as the mechanic cleaned off that sensor the car stopped having problems....for about 2 days. I did some research online and found out that I needed to have an external cooling kit put on. So once I had that done I expected the problem to be solved. Again, they cleaned off the sensor when I took it in to have the kit put on. And after about 2 days out of the shop the erratic shifting started again. So I'm thinking that the answer is for me to just keep cleaning off the sensor every couple of days. I'd really like to be able to do it myself because obviously I can't take the car into a mechanic every few days. But I have no idea where the sensor is located or what it looks like. Does anyone have any pictures or diagrams that would be helpful on this?

Also, the Mazda mechanic people told me that my trans fluid is really dirty but that if they do a complete flush then I'm running a 50% risk of the trans just dying completely because it won't be able to handle the increased thickness of the new fluid since it's used to processing really thin fluid. Is this true? Has anyone done a flush on theirs and had it die right away because of it??

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Jessica