2008 mazda3i manual trans normal!?!?!?!

[a_jarnold]

I have a MANUAL shift 2008 mazda 3i touring edition with the little bitty 2.0L.....
about every 3rd time that i shift it into reverse it won't go into the gear...is anyone else having this problem?...mazda is telling me it is normal and is just a characteristic of the car but they can't tell me why it is doing it nor can they tell me why it started doing it after I had 7000 miles on the car...if it was a characteristic of the car shouldn't it have been doing it all along????? any advice?....they have already supposedly replaced the gear.?.

 

[flash75]

Reverse gear doesn't use a synchronizer, if the teeth for the gears aren't in alignment when you attempt select reverse it may not shift. It happens in lots of cars. Usually it will go into reverse if you release the clutch and depress it again. Frustrating but not unusual.

Clifton

 

[AllyMazda3]

yeah i usually need to release my clutch in nuetral before i can go into reverse. thats the case in my mazda and my wrx.

 

[bgibb68]

it's the same with pretty much every car for rev....my old s10 was horible...if you went from N to R....you would grind gears....i finally got in the habit of hitting 5th quick and then R....something about that R on the old chevy's doesn't clear or something of that fact.....on my p5 it could take 3 attemps of clutch and then R before getting it

 

[a_jarnold]

i understand that reverse does not have a synchro... But it is doing it soooo often that to me it is not normal...especially for a BRAND NEW car. sometimes i have to try it 10x before it finally goes. I am just worried that over a period of time it could severely damage the gear. they have already replaced the gear once and when I made them show me the old one it had gashes and gouges all over it!

 

[BlackCherry06]

It's all in the design. My 2004 3i did the exact same thing, so it's safe to say that they've remained consistent with their 'design flaw'. When you encounter resistance when going into reverse, slowly release the clutch to apply a small amount of engine power to the drive gear while pressing into reverse, and it'll slip right in.

My Altima did the same thing...it's just a known issue with an un-synchro'd gear and nothing short of adding a synchro to reverse will fix it.

Having said all that...my MS6 doesn't do it. Go figure.

 

[a_jarnold]

..problem is, that doesn't always work!

 

[MightyMouse]

Almost all cars do this. If it doesn't go into reverse, shift into first, then second, then back into reverse.