2003 PR5 w/ Sportshift needs tranny, any protege FN4A-EL works?

Jarnutt

Member
I never post here, because I'm a ninja with the search button, and I'm a mechanic/tuner by trade, except this time I'm stumped, and everyone I ask had no actual experience with swapping non sportshift autos into 2002.5 and up cars equipped with it.

My problem started with a noise under deceleration only, a buzzing/knocking that went only with the speed of the wheel, not the engine, and even when I put the car into neutral at any speed. I put the car off the lift and ran it in drive, and the knocking could be heard clearly in the case just above the diff, but was quiet under cruise or acceleration. No clues as to what was causing it, maybe a bearing was out, maybe a spider gear or the carrier was busted, all I know is that there are some small metal flakes and some fingernail clipping sized pieces of metal in the pan. So I'm calling this trans busted, even if I fix it, that s*** in probably floating around the valve body, pump, everywhere in there.

Searching on this forum, I have yet to get a clear answer as to whether or not ANY FN4A-EL trans will do, some say yes, some say no, there's nobody I can find that had ACTUALLY tried it. I talked to a friend at Mazda and he have me some insight but it still isn't an actual yes or no.

According to Mazda, the part numbers are close, but one digit off from each other, between a transmission with sport mode, and the one without, but this is where it gets tricky. Both complete transmissions are the same exact price. All the internal parts, from the valve body to the wiring harness, and to an extent, the ENGINE HARNESS, are the same part numbers between a 2003 protege5 and a 2001 protege sedan, the only place they differ is the shifterlinkage in the car, but the CABLE going to the linkage is even the same on both. So he looked up a transmission for a 2002 sedan, and sure enough, the part number for a SPORTSHIFT transmission pops up, in fact, it's the 2003 transmission that pops up for ALL protege models, it superseded the older NON sport shift transmissions. So the question is, if a sport shift transmission can go in a non sport shift car, one would think they should be backward compatible. But whatIu would really like, is for someone with some automatic experience to step up with some insight. I'm not a dummy, I'm just not wanting to waste money, this is my wife's daily, if it was MINE, I'd do a V6 swap, but she's not interested hahahaha.
 
That's what I figured. Since the parts are identical down to the wire harness and valve body, which are the only parts that would make it different if it were.
 
Just to put this debate to rest, I swapped a normal auto from a 2001 Protege sedan into my car, which had a sportshift, and everything works as should. Paid $600 with a year warranty on a recently rebuilt donor, remanufactured tag is on the case from the previous vehicle. Bought from Riteway in Phoenix.

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Also opened the case to see where metal and noise came from, bearing on one of the output sides came apart, carrier was shredded, transmission guy at my old shop suggested replacing the whole transmission, as all those pieces are now floating around inside the trans case and will eventually cause other failures, possibly destroy teeth on the planetaries and such, which makes sense. He's replaced many of these in Fords, said the third member is the weakest link in them.
 
Should probably pin this info, as I searched and searched and found just as many people that said it wouldn't work. Here's your proof it does. No need to swap a manual, just find a working auto from any 99-03 protege. The part number for the sport shift model is only different because it superseded the other models, this was directly from Mazda themselves.
 
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Update* Put 50 miles on the new transmission yesterday, absolutely can't believe how much better it drives than the old one, being rebuilt, it shifts firmer and downshift is quicker and with less throttle hammering than the last one, I never realised the old one was worn out, until I drove on a rebuilt one, it's insane.
 
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