This seems like an odd problem...at least to me.
2008 Mazda 6; I4; 2.3; 5 spd OD

Put the car in drive and off you go; sometime later the gear indicator on the dash will go out (you can no longer see what gear you are in (1,2,3, etc) or even if you're in D, N, R, etc; all other dash indicators are normal), and the transmission will either fail to shift up or down, or it will just shift down. A slight wiggle on the gear **** sometimes corrects the problem, or I can move the shift lever over to the manual position and back and that fixes the problem.

Using the FORScan software I was able to monitor (using the O'scope function) the "transmission range" PID(?). When I put the car in "R" I can see the O'scope line drop indicating the transition and the car moves backwards; I then put the car in "D"; the O'scope line moves up, another transition, but then the gear select dash indicator goes out and on the O'scope output I see "error"; I can wiggle the gear selector and the dash indicator comes back on; the O'scope line jumps up again to the "D" position.

OK...so...I can replicate the error, I can see the problem happening, now what? What does "transmission range" mean and what do I do about it? I'm researching what "transmission range" means, but I figured I would ask as well since I don't have any knowledge depth.

Thanks

-maxnpj

 

Are you getting any fault codes?