Mazda 3 Early ATF cooked or cracked?
 

Hello, Could someone tell me the reason my 3 seems to need frequent ATF changes.

Is it due to heat or from the shearing action of the gears themselves?

I am wondering if running synthetic or adding a cooler would be the best thing to extend my fluid change intervals.

thanks

I've heard that Mazdas tend to cook their ATF faster than other cars because they are harder on their transmissions. Also if you mob on your car more its probably putting more heat on the fluid

Heat?
 

thanks, mine is a stock grocery getter.

My car has 20,000 Km on it since the last fill and flush including the 75 dollar mazda overpriced filter (no aftermarket yet so they can charge any random amount for a piece of paper it seems).

I would probably not have bought this car knowing that it needs a 200 dollar transmission service every 4 oil changes.

So, transmission cooler it is $$$$$

how do you figure that you need a flush??? ive had the same fluid in my trans and it has 95k mi on it

Fluid
 

THE FLUID IS NO LONGER RED AND HAS VISIBLE MATTER IN IT? (SORRY FOR YELLING). Mazda said it was normal. I had to check with several dealerships before accepting that even slightly.

Do you have the 5 speed sport transmission with manual mode?

thanks

Well if you read the manual and look on forums it says you don't really have to do it until every 30,000 miles. You've been spending unnecessary bunches of money by flushing your tranny so much.
And that is for an automatic.

even if the trans fluid is not red and has some particales in it does not means its time for a flush, that is very common and no cause for concern, now if the fluid was black then your up sh**s creek

fluid..
 

Perhaps I should have also mentioned. We checked the fluid because the transmission was behaving poorly. Changing it was necessary to get it to shift properly. It shifts up slowly and fails to shift down when on a hill and loads the engine.

Perhaps I do have a dud and was fooled past my warranty by three different service managers. I thought warrant issues were covered by mother Mazda and dealerships would have opted for any required work. So much for that idea if I have to drop a 4000 dollar transmission on my LOC.

Fortunately my dated Montana refuses to die despite my wife's scorn toward it.

cheers

i can guess that your cvi (clutch volume index) is out of spec, which still would mean a trans replacement unless you send it to a trans rebuild shop which your dealership may actually do and say its a new trans but its not. either way your trans is fked and it sounds like your stealership is trying their best to bend you over fast, i have my fingers and toes crossed for you hoping that it all works out

I'm thinking that next car you should opt for one with a manual transmission. :)