That's not what it says, their recommendations "suitable for..." which carries no legal or certification weight. Long story short, there is no such a thing as a universal ATF and the stuff in your car will most likely shorten the life of your transmission.

Long story short, either buy the Mazda branded ATF or find one which is "Certified" to meet the Mazda spec.

 

little over 100k and my mazda 5 runs and shifts great. Been using Valvoline Maxlife ATF since 53k. Many people use maxlife atf in there mazda's. Just look at the reviews on Walmart.com for the maxlife ATF product. The original fluid was filthy at the 50k mark. The pan was nasty. I removed it and clean it and the magnet inside. Last drain and refill I did the magnetic drain plug was nice n clean.

 

Use MaxLife ATF in your Mazda at your peril; it is not, repeat, NOT an approved ATF for Mazda automatic transmissions.

 

What about Mobil 1, Amsoil and Castrol multi-import? Lots of people claim to use those brands with great results. The maxlife made my 1st nissan xterra shift like new again and nearly 100k on the maxlife and no problems. Maxlife is MV rated. What issues should I be having by running maxlife in the mazda? 50k with maxlife and it's still works great. I may completely drain the maxlife and install the low quality original fluid and see how it performs.

 

Read the label of all of the ATFs you listed, if I am not mistaken, they all use deceptive language like "Recommended for...", however, not one of them say they are "Certified to compatible with...". The only way to be sure an ATF is correct for your car is to either buy a directly compatible ATF or buy the ATF branded by the maker of your car.

 

For sure change your fluid! They don't care b/c after 50/60k it's out of warranty. I have a mazda 5 which I believe is the same as the mazda 3. It has the M5 tranny I believe. @53k I drained pan, removed it n replace strainer. fluid was very dark, inside pan was pretty nasty. Cleaned it all up, put new screen in and refilled it. did 2 or 3 drain n refills within the next couple weeks. I used Valvoline Maxlife ATF. I seemed to work fine. BUT, after nearly 50k on valvoline maxlife, I finally removed it after doing research n now realize that the mazda trans needs the EXACT fluid type. maxlife probably didn't hurt it but I noticed sometime it didn't seem to downshift quite as soon as it should. anyway not enough space to type forever, SO Make sure to Use IDEMITSU TYPE M for the M5 n M3 trans. IT is made for this vehicle and works great. Since draining out the maxlife (about 3 drain n refills), the trans now is working better. No long drawn out response of why, It JUST WORKS BETTER. So buy it or the factory fluid. IDEMITSU makes fluid for a lot of the ASIAN manufactures. I got 10 qts on ebay for 59$shipped and I am SO glad i did. My mazda just feels tighter n shifts are crisp and it never has that moment where it seems like its hesitating to downshift. lot of times i would come to a stop light n it would turn green b4 i completely stopped n there was this lag or something. i would hesitate a minute for it to slow down enough for it to downshift. hard to explain but it was there. NOW with the Idemitsu type M for mazda fluid it is Perfect. Get it an be happy, forget Maxlife, Castrol and all the other brands. IDEMITSU or FACTORY Fluid is The BEST way to go!

 

I know this thread is old af and y'all are probably going to hate on me for reviving it, but it came up in my Google search so I guess Google feels it's still relevant. That said...

No offense bro, but your cred. is worthless after you just posted like 4 or 5 posts telling the OP & people in general to use the Valvoline stuff, practically swearing by it, even after the other guy begged you not to and tried telling you what's good. And then you come back & denounce everything you said (hopefully people read every response and not just your first 3) and say to use some other kind of tranny fluid. Not only that, but you didn't even give the other guy any credit for clueing you in to what's what, instead you just said "after doing some research" and "no long drawn out response to as why". LMFAO.

Or am I missing a page 3 on this thread?
frfr, the mods should just delete this whole thread altogether.

 

Um ok then... well your first response as a new member...
Welcome to the forum

 

lol, my apologies. It is what it is & sometimes its not so nice. I really dont mean any offense, but I was just stupefied to read that last post from him after all the others he previously posted. Life is a learning game, i get that, and by no means am i perfect or some expert at ANYTHING, but what i am is humble enough to admit when im wrong and to give credit where credit is due; which has absolutely nothing to do with anything related to Mazda and you're right, that was my first post, so maybe my cred about his post etiquette is as worthless as his post etiquette. Touché.

 

Ok but in this case you did see he posed that 07-10-2018, 03:23 PM. LOL
It is difficult to make a point correcting someone on a forum that far back on a thread that has been dead as long as this one. I might add that member has not returned and that was his last posting here under that username Shindaiwa Last Activity: 08-09-2018 08:17 AM
Now usually the PANDORA"S box may be opened. This subject about what and when to and if to change transmission fluid comes up as a new topic on many forums often. No need to find Dinasaur threads. LOL
I didn't take offense I just thought wow , you have a itch that needs to be scratched. bad. LOL
Most forums require that the first few responses get approved. On here its not the case. I am sure that may have been held back only because of how old the thread you responded to was and that you are a new members.
It is a fairly good group here, LOTS OF PERSONALITIES and we WELCOME NEW members and their input.
So again

WELCOME TO THE FORUM