Been driving the 3 all winter and seems whenever i put it into 3rd it made this sound. I was careful with it for several weeks. Last night it made this grinding sound when i put it in third, and went into netrual by itself. The stick just vibarated and grinded then it moved back by itself. Tried playing around with it. No luck 3rd gear is gone. I took it to a transmisson shop. The guy drove it with me and said he needs to take the whole trannsmission apart. To see what the probelm is. Any idea what could of happend. Im hurting 4th gear now just jumping from 2-4. I need to fix this lookin for the cheapest way. I went to several shops and they all said the same thing.

 

There is no cheap way to fix this, what the other shops told you is 100% true and there is no way to get around it, only thing i can say is hope that the synco is blown and not the gear itself.

FYI Mazda manual transmissions are notorious for blown 2nd and 3rd gear

 

Not an automatic huh?

It's gonna have to be pulled and opened. It's gonna cost some bucks no matter what. You need to focus on finding a trustworthy shop with decent prices.

 

I think its better to buy a rebuilt trans, because they're done by someone who only rebuilds trans. A shop mechanic most likely has not cracked open your specific transmission ever or in a long time. With transmissions the devil is in the details