Driving habits - Auto Tr

[Cardinal Fang]

I wasn’t sure this should be in the Engine forum or the General forum. Mods feel free to move this if necessary and make me look stupid…..

yet........

again.....

Although I don’t need your help doing that anyways.

In between insulting Broli’s mother I was reading another Mazda forum last night concerning a guy needing to replace his automatic transmission at around 87000 kms. It’s being covered under the warranty but the poster was still annoyed that it “went� so quickly. I was interested in how he described his driving habits while using the sport mode of the automatic transmission and whether or not it directly resulted in the failure of his transmission.

I don’t want this to degenerate into an Auto vs. Manual transmission thread. Yeah, yeah you people with the Manuals are the real deal and we’re just pretending. I got it! I want to hear from those that drive the car using the sport mode of the automatic transmission. Those that drive manual can throw their two cents in as well. Moving up through the gears is a no brainer but what about coming down? Do you use the down gearing to slow the car down or do you allow the “car� to do that automatically. Many posters on the other board speculated that the reason the guy’s transmission went so soon was because he was down gearing heavily to help stop the car. It saved his brakes but cost him a transmission was one quote.

I know when my wife tried the sport mode going from 2nd to 1st nearly drove my head into the dash board. My wife thinks she’s funny that way. Is the Mazda3 Sport mode transmission durable enough to take the wear and tear of down gearing? Comparing it to other sport mode transmission my feeling tells me no. But that’s just a feeling I get and is not necessarily based in fact. Instead of crisp gear changes it feels more “slushy.� I think Whos ur dadd used the term “slush box� to describe it.

Your thoughts?

[BLKOUT]

I have an automatic with the sport mode. I use it once in a while. I would recommend that you do not downshift from 2nd to 1st....you are not supposed to do this with a manual tranny either, so I would only assume that the same applies to the sport mode....just my $0.02....

[Scooter]

From what I\'ve heard (after the fact), Mazda Automatic transmissions have a history of being kinda\' crappy. Wish I knew that when I bought mine :p

I have an 02, so my tranny doesn\'t have the sport mode, but I just thought it was still relevant to mention that I have heard a LOT of complaints about the durrability of Mazda\'s Auto Trannys.

I have about 120,000 on mine so far and to date haven\'t had any issues. But as soon as I do, I\'m doing a swap to Manual.

[Cardinal Fang]

Originally posted by 2005BLKMAZDA3


I would recommend that you do not downshift from 2nd to 1st....

Those were my exact words to Mrs. Fang as I checked to see if my nose was broken. When driving in the city I will admit to having an insatiable need to go from 5th to 4th to give me an added surge to pass someone not going fast enough.

[majic]

Originally posted by Cardinal Fang

Originally posted by 2005BLKMAZDA3


I would recommend that you do not downshift from 2nd to 1st....

Those were my exact words to Mrs. Fang as I checked to see if my nose was broken.

5MT won\'t LET you downshift into 1st unless you\'re braking HARD and are going roughly 20-30kph or less..

Originally posted by Cardinal Fang
When driving in the city I will admit to having an insatiable need to go from 5th to 4th to give me an added surge to pass someone not going fast enough.

city driving would be what 60-80kph? drop it into 2nd or 3rd you\'ll get more kick in those gears than 4th.. 3rd is my favourite since it covers a large speed range (no shifting needed on onramps or coming out of them till you hit 140kph)

[Fuman]

Originally posted by Scooter


From what I\'ve heard (after the fact), Mazda Automatic transmissions have a history of being kinda\' crappy. Wish I knew that when I bought mine :p

yeah the trannys aren\'t up to par compared to Toyota/Honda. I had to use those \"transmission fix\" liquids in my tranny. Helped the jerky less, but I can feel power loss. The liquid just made the transmission fluid less fluidic? (sorry dunno the term).
My auto is lasting to 220,000km and I downshift with it on the highway (no power on car, I know ur not suppose to).

[TheProfessor]

Automatic tranny......pffft, how ghey is that arc You have to remember that those with Manuals are the real deal and you automagic owners are just pretenders :p

Seriously though, we used to have an older 626 Chronos and the tranny was going when it only had about 80K on it. It didn\'t have any kind of sport mode or anything and was driven by older more conservative drivers. We sold it before it became a bigger problem for us. As Scooter stated above, I don\'t think Mazda is known for building the most reliable and lasting tranny\'s.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by Fuman


yeah the trannys aren\'t up to par compared to Toyota/Honda.

that\'s quite hilarious that you say the Mazda transmissions aren\'t up to par with Honda... do a search on any honda forum for the SEVERAL tranny failures on the V6 old accord (3.0L), CL/CL-S, last gen TL/TL-S and last gen Odyssey.

just because a car company has a reputation for being reliable, it does not make it gospel.

[majic]

Originally posted by Fuman

Originally posted by Scooter


From what I\'ve heard (after the fact), Mazda Automatic transmissions have a history of being kinda\' crappy. Wish I knew that when I bought mine :p

yeah the trannys aren\'t up to par compared to Toyota/Honda. I had to use those \"transmission fix\" liquids in my tranny. Helped the jerky less, but I can feel power loss. The liquid just made the transmission fluid less fluidic? (sorry dunno the term).
My auto is lasting to 220,000km and I downshift with it on the highway (no power on car, I know ur not suppose to).

why are you back? you\'re talking smack again.. seems like more hear-say.. go ahead and speculate on the other forums like you have been doing in the last few moths.. did you come back b/c you needed a hug?

*i wish this board had \'ignore users\' option*

[Fuman]

........
i used the lucas transmission fix. it worked fine.
the jerkyNess stopped. go try it be4 you say Im talking smack.
I put it in 20,000KM ago along with a transmission fluid change so at around 180,000km.

I KNOW there are articles that disproves engine oil addictivies, don\'t post those, not related

[Broli]

well
a chance to contribute!

i had an 04 GS sedan (tit grey) b4 my orange hatch
and the auto tranny went twice
that is why i got rid of it!

first time at
9000km
second time at
26000km

don\'t know how it coulda happend twice, but ah well . . .

still, i did and still do use the tip when i want to pass people, or when i feel like a more spirited drive!

[Fuman]

Originally posted by Broli
i had an 04 GS sedan (tit grey) b4 my orange hatch
and the auto tranny went twice
that is why i got rid of it!
first time at
9000km
second time at
26000km
don\'t know how it coulda happend twice, but ah well . . .

whoa went twice? is this something specific to the 4spd auto? or are ppl with 5spd autos have problems as well?
what do you drive now?

[M34ME]

I do downshift with mine when I need to stop fairly hard, I even downshift into first. Try and downshift to 1st gear when your doing exactly 20km/h it goes in nicely. It\'s all about knowing what rpm\'s to downshift at. I also use mine to pass, but not so much on the highway, the 2.3 has plenty of pick-up if you are already driving 100-120 km/h. I think our cars get there peak or close to peak torque at those speeds since the motor is doing between 3000-3400 rpm. But if your driving 80 then drop it to 3rd.

[vortex-5]

I\'ve been using the manual less after discovering that the auto pretty much does it\'s best to save fuel consumption. I only use manual it seems when I reach a traffic jam that way I can keep the car in first since the fastest I go is 20km/h and for only about 10 sec I don\'t think I damange the tranny when I don\'t shift.

Also since the torque converter doesn\'t lock up on manual it\'s kinda pointless from a fuel economy point of view to use manual on the highway.

I turned my trip computer into a game (got bored one day) I try to beat the fuel economy score which gets hard cause I drive uphill to work, and downhill back. So I generally go faster back than to.

So far my \"best score\" was somewhere around 6.8L/100km average after going to and back been trying to beat this high score ever since. (I travel approx 60Km / day)

My best trip with full manual was somewhere close to 9.0L/100Km so as you can see big difference.

[Broli]

Originally posted by Fuman

Originally posted by Broli
i had an 04 GS sedan (tit grey) b4 my orange hatch
and the auto tranny went twice
that is why i got rid of it!
first time at
9000km
second time at
26000km
don\'t know how it coulda happend twice, but ah well . . .

whoa went twice? is this something specific to the 4spd auto? or are ppl with 5spd autos have problems as well?
what do you drive now?

i drive an 05 4spd auto now,
so far no problems with it, 22K
i think that that was a problem with some of the 04 trannies
but don\'t quote me on that, i remember reading about it on M3F when i was havin the problems

[Fuman]

good luck man, hope you don\'t have to replace another tranny.

during break-in, should I use or not use the manual-shift mode on the auto-trannny?
(Im supposedly picking up my car this thursday, unless they change the deal again.
Sorry TheBiz, I bugged you for like 2 yrs. My parent ends up going to markham mazda when I was at work =(. )

[vortex-5]

Personally I used the manual minimally during breakin my car is a dream now (1200KM) the engine is as quiet as ever..

now if I can just find out what\'s causing that creak sound inside the cabin.

[ds2chan]

Originally posted by vortex-5
now if I can just find out what\'s causing that creak sound inside the cabin.

is the car bouncing up and down when u\'r hearing this creaking sound?? :p:hoho

[vortex-5]

Yes, I\'m starting to think it could be the chair.