I am new to this site so not sure if this is the right place to pose this question. Over the weekend the 2000 Mazda MPV DX started to act funny. I turned on the engine and it seemed to run fine the first 30 seconds. My friend plugged in a phone car charger and we both noticed that the stereo suddenly went dead and I noticed that the car started driving as if I was in second gear. I looked at my dashboard and noticed there was no indication of what gear I was in. I turned off the car, turned it back on and realized I could not shift into drive unless I used the shift unlock button! Even after I placed it into drive with the button, I suddenly had no pick up; the engine revs up but I am not getting much speed; as if the transmission has dropped. The spedometor stays at zero when I attempt to accelerate and stays at zero. I feel like some short of computer short has somehow affected the way the gear indicator, spedometer, and the stereo work together. Any thoughts?? Has this happened to anyone of you guys? Any advise would greatly be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Check the 15 Amp 'CIGAR' fuse in the under dash fuse box. The charger probably blew that fuse. It supplies power not only to the cig lighter but to transmission control system, instrument cluster, audio, power outside mirrors, and glove box light.

 

A curious list of components to attach to the same circuit, eh?