MS3 won't go into gear

[Lasereth]

I bought my 2008 brand new a few months ago. It has 2,200 miles on it now. I love the car!! Something weird happened today though and I was wondering if anyone had seen this.

I drove it about 40 miles while shopping with my wife. I got home and forgot to buy something at the grocery store so I went back out. When I parked at the grocery store I tried to put it into first gear before turning it off like I always do. The weird thing is that it wouldn't go back into neutral! I was in 3rd gear before parking and then when I came to a stop I put the clutch in and tried to take it out of gear. It won't. It goes physically down to neutral but it's not loose and won't shift to the left or right like you're going for another gear. I tried to put it back in 1st or 3rd and it wouldn't go. I tried reverse and it wouldn't go also. I went inside and bought an item and came back out.

Then when I cranked it this time I managed to get it into reverse but it felt really sticky and weird. I took off and drove it home successfully but when I parked it in my driveway I couldn't get it to shift into any gear again. It's like it's getting stuck on something in the gearbox??

Has anyone ever seen this happen?

I do have fun with the car but I don't do burnouts or stupid s*** with the tranny. The worst I ever do with it is fast launches, but I always bog the launch anyway so it's not like I'm eating up the clutch. Any help is appreciated!!!!

BTW I bought the most expensive warranty the dealership had, bumper to bumper 100k miles. Would this be covered under that if there is something wrong?

 

[paylew]

I wasn't in the car when it happened, but my shift linkage popped out. This kinda sounds like how my boyfriend explained what happened to me. It should be covered though, I would have let the dealership fix mine but I didn't want to wait 1.5hr for the tow truck. Maybe someone else will have a better idea...

 

[desperado-c]

I bought my 2008 brand new a few months ago. It has 2,200 miles on it now. I love the car!! Something weird happened today though and I was wondering if anyone had seen this.

I drove it about 40 miles while shopping with my wife. I got home and forgot to buy something at the grocery store so I went back out. When I parked at the grocery store I tried to put it into first gear before turning it off like I always do. The weird thing is that it wouldn't go back into neutral! I was in 3rd gear before parking and then when I came to a stop I put the clutch in and tried to take it out of gear. It won't. It goes physically down to neutral but it's not loose and won't shift to the left or right like you're going for another gear. ....

FWIW, sounds like it might be a problem with the cables. If you pull up the cover on the console, you can check the connections to the shifter. Weird thing is that it comes and goes.

 

[Lasereth]

How do I pull up the cover? I don't want to screw it up and I've never pulled one up before. Does it come right out without tools?

 

[oldnotdead]

How do I pull up the cover? I don't want to screw it up and I've never pulled one up before. Does it come right out without tools?

Go to the TWM performance web site and check out their installation manual in pdf format for shifter bushings for the Mazdaspeed3. It gives all the particulars on how to get into this area in the center console. Should be all you need.

 

[Lasereth]

Alright I took out the console around the shifter and looked inside. It looks fine to me, nothing disconnected, etc. but I don't really know what I'm looking at. Anything I should be looking for in particular?

BTW thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Speed3Rookie]

If you are not modded take it to the dealer and let them figure it out.
If you are modded, remove them and take it in.

 

[spdjnke]

Sounds like a booster problem with your clutch, I would suggest that you take it in and get it checked ASAP before you get stranded!

 

[Lasereth]

I'm gonna call the dealership this morning. I bought the expensive 100,000 mile warranty for the car that covers everything in the tranny except the clutch disc so I hope it's covered.

 

[Huligan]

sounds maybe like a stock bushing popped out of the shifter base.... thats my theory

 

[Lasereth]

FWIW, sounds like it might be a problem with the cables. If you pull up the cover on the console, you can check the connections to the shifter. Weird thing is that it comes and goes.

Ok I think you were right. I took it to the dealership last Monday and they kept it till Wednesday night and never found anything wrong with it. The problem totally disappeared. The shifter has been fine for a week now.

It's weird how it was all borked up Sunday night and then Monday morning I couldn't replicate the problem at all.

 

[GeoBoost]

Ok I think you were right. I took it to the dealership last Monday and they kept it till Wednesday night and never found anything wrong with it. The problem totally disappeared. The shifter has been fine for a week now.

It's weird how it was all borked up Sunday night and then Monday morning I couldn't replicate the problem at all.

I agree with the previous post about it being the clutch booster. That's what it sounds like to me. The intermittent nature of it may have to do with it needing to be hot. If it happens again, take it to the dealer immediately. You are likely to get stranded at some point if it is not resolved. (confused)

 

[abikepeddler]

This happened to me 08.5 MS3 as well! I took it to dealership after the car simply refused to go into reverse. (Ended up have to physically PUSH my new car out of my driveway with all the neighbors watching...(hand)) Once at dealership, car simply returned to normal. For what its worth, the dealership claimed they had never heard of the issue. Upon doing some reading however I come to find that the linkage for the tranny can get caught up on the intake box (or something like that... forgive my newbness) and it can cause all sorts of odd shifting issues. Someone on one of the MS3 forums had it bad enough that they had to have the car towed and the simple acts of dragging the car onto the flat bed tow truck seemed to release the hung up linkage. So I don't think you are alone in this one. May not be real common but it has happened. Never had another issue of it since and I am now at 6k.

 

[stockms3]

dealership have a issues REPEATING noises even if you tell em every fkin detail. They simply are fkin retarded.

 

[Jdizzle659]

I have an 07 mazdaspeed 3 and mine gets stuck in random gears sometimes whille i'm at red lights just going through gears like i always do. I've never noticed any problems while i was actually moving, but it does sometimes annoy me being stuck in 2nd when the light turns green. Sometimes I jus start it in whatever gear i'm in. Does yours ever do it while your moving? If it doesn't do it while your driving I wouldn't worry about it too much