Mad Girlfriend

jmeP5

Member
So last night I was driving my girlfriend's Protege5 back from The Improv, and a 'spirited' shift to 3rd went all bad...the car rev'd as though the car was in neutral. Thought I missed 3rd, went for 4th, and it worked. However, from then on 3rd gear and the neutral position operate as 3rd Gear, 4th is perfect, 5th isn't easy to get into but works. 1st, 2nd, Rev don't work. When you leave out the clutch in those gears, it's as if you have the parking brake on. I'm assuming that the shifting forks are misaligned...correct me if that is a bad diagnosis.

Is a total transmission removal necessary, or have any of you bumped into this and have a simpler fix? I'm an average mechanic and am not afraid of pulling the tranny if I have to, but if I can get to the shifting mechanisms without all of that work, I'm all ears.

Also, if she won't trust me to do this repair, any idea of what the dealer would charge? Because I'm sure that is what her initial reaction will be - have it done by Mazda (car is out of warranty).

Thanks in advance...
 
pretty sure you broke the shift fork inside the transmission. search for this on the forum, its fairly common
 
trust is hard to earn. pay to have it done so when/if it fails again, she doesnt blame you. you'll learn this.

-Dean
 
Moeed said:
get a new girl lol.
+1, lol.

Seriously though, I agree with Dean. Even though you may know how to work on a car, some girls only trust a "professional"...if she means enough to you that you plan on being together for a while, pay for it. If she doesn't, tell her what a shift fork is and say peace! lol
 
Protege's with manufacture date before 02/02 have an older revision tranny with weak parts in them. Many blown on fully stock. I replaced my tranny about a year ago. 3rd gear blew granny shifting into 3rd at 3k rpm's. I can't remember exactly but 3rd and 4th I believe are a gearset that have to be replaced together unless it's just the forks. I know beefier shift forks were part of the rebuild that had been revised in later models. I picked up an '03 tranny with 28k on it shipped to me for $509. Put it in and done. Rebuild would have been $1750 with all new bearings and $1000 just for the gearset with me pulling the tranny and putting it back in myself.

Good Luck!
 
if you have to do this, you might as well upgrade things while you're at it... check out the tranny upgrade package from protege garage. it includes the shift forks, etc...
 
TheMAN said:
so "spirited shift" = slam shifter as hard and fast as possible in gear? :rolleyes:

Well, not hard and fast as possible. I'm not that tuff... :)

Thanks everybody for the advice, both mechanically and philosophically. She's not mad, really - she broke one of my cars before, so was pretty cool about it. Since she got it Certified Used, it may be covered under warranty. Cross your fingers...

I've been through this forum before, and there's always a ton of information - but I was surprised at the number of quick responses, though!

Thanks very much again for the advice.
 
Some shops claim they can get into the gearbox with it still in the car, through the black end cap...I know nothing about it other than 5th gear went out of my last car (a Probe GT 5sp) which had a nearly identical transaxle...the mechanic said he wouldn't need to remove it from the car, so it would be cheaper labor wise than he originally quoted...I am sure you can't get to everything through that cap...but maybe you can get to what you need to...

check out probetalk maybe...they have been popping gearboxes for over a decade...they probably know the cheapest way to fix this problem...

also I would pm little beavis (search for the exact spelling) and turfburn on this board...they both have ripped these things apart with success...also check the how-to section for turf's complete teardown guide...there are a lot of pictures and it would definately not hurt to read over before you try it...
 
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