MT Help: Trouble changing gears, stiff shifter

[CheeseHelmet]

a self-lubricating material that has oil particals suspended in the metal

That's pretty cool

The image is from http://corksport.com if the OP is interested.

 

[MattHHelm]

Price is higher in Houston

Part number is B001-46-062, cost me $3.85 each from a Mazda dealer near Montreal.

EDIT: I forgot to include the part number for the bolt, it's B001-46-134 (the one under the shifter). The other bolt (near the transaxle) is GA2A-46-133.

This is what you'd have to order:

• 1x B001-46-134 - Bolt, under shifter
• 1x GA2A-46-133 - Bolt, near transaxle
• 4x B001-46-062 - Bushing

WHat a difference it makes. I had to order these from Mazda dealer because my Ford dealer couldn't even find the part number in his archive. The Festiva circa 91-93 had the Mazda 1.3 engine and transaxle. The parts you list worked perfectly and the car now shifts good as new! Only thing is the total on those parts was $34.00 US.

 

[zrednaz]

Just wanted to add my two cents here: We had the exact same symptoms with a 2008 Mazda 3, and there is very little on Google about Mazda 3's with this issue. Our local mechanic was unable to find and solve the problem .. twice! Well, this being the US, chances are that our local shop has never seen a manual transmission before, so we went and found a transmission specialist instead.

Now, I know little about cars, but I'll describe what they said as best I can recall it. Before examining the car, they figured it might be a bushing. Turns out, however, that the real problem was that the transmission cables were in direct contact with (resting on) the catalytic converter. The mechanic replaced the transmission cables and made sure to suspend them away from the converter, and now all is good. He showed us the old cable - it had holes and was black from heat contact. No wonder the stick was such a pain before.

Edit: After a long drive it turns out that all is NOT well. The shifter is better than before but not exactly great. It is generally easier to upshift (e.g. 2nd to 3rd was really difficult before). However, getting it out of 5th and then over to the 1st position can still take quite a bit of effort.

 

[MrGiggles]

Just wanted to add my two cents here: We had the exact same symptoms with a 2008 Mazda 3, and there is very little on Google about Mazda 3's with this issue. Our local mechanic was unable to find and solve the problem .. twice! Well, this being the US, chances are that our local shop has never seen a manual transmission before, so we went and found a transmission specialist instead.

Now, I know little about cars, but I'll describe what they said as best I can recall it. Before examining the car, they figured it might be a bushing. Turns out, however, that the real problem was that the transmission cables were in direct contact with (resting on) the catalytic converter. The mechanic replaced the transmission cables and made sure to suspend them away from the converter, and now all is good. He showed us the old cable - it had holes and was black from heat contact. No wonder the stick was such a pain before.

Not directly relevant since the P5 uses a shifter rod and not cables. It's good info to post in the Mazda 3 forum though.

 

[The_big_dill]

I had an issue where if I sit in traffic it becomes nearly impossible to put it in gear... really frustrating. This isn't an issue when I just start to drive.

I changed the oil in the transmission and it was all good after that.

The reason this makes sense is because oil behaves different at different temperatures.