A few Concerns about my P5

[pr5toAZ]

My first question is of my Tranny. I have the Automatic and under heavy acceleration weather I am in Drive or Manual the car will not shift from first to second unless i lift or lift and shift again. For example today I was getting on the expressway in Drive mode, didn't have the peddle all the way to the floor but it was close. I look at my Tach and the needle was at 6500 RPMs!. I lifted and the car finally shifted. Sometimes I have to shift Twice in Manual just to get it to shift and its not the delay that im waiting for either. Whats going on?

Second is oil change. My car has 900 miles on it right now. The dealer said to get the first oil change a 3,000 miles because there is a breakin additive in the oil. In about 4 weeks I will be drive from Rochester, NY to Prescott, AZ and its about 2,400 miles. Should I get my oil changed before the long haul? or Wait till after?

 

[Trapshooter]

That's obviously not godd..that has got to be brought into service ASAP

 

[bazooka joe]

back to the dealer! is yours the sport shift style? joe

 

[CruzinAltitude]

Id say change your oil after the trip. If you think about it, even though the trip is a LONG a$$ one, highway driving is much gentler on the motor than city stop and go. You should be fine.

 

[andy_guerriero]

There's nothing wrong with your car. I've driven several automatic transmission Mazdas and they all do that. It's the way Mazda ratios the overdrive gear.

If you want more control over the transmission, get a manual transmission.

I agree with CruzinAltitude about the oil. UNLESS your dealership put a high weight oil in the car. Since it's hotter than Hades down here, you might want to get an oil change and make sure they use 5W oil.

 

[1sty]

I think this goes with what andy is saying, several of my firends have made the same complaint about the mazda 6 automatic shifter.

 

[BSN_mt]

that is what my Auto does if I shift to late. I have to let off on the gas to get it to shift, so I shift between 4500 and 5000. No need to redline it when you are getting close to the same speeds. It would be one thing if you were racing it at the track and needed to hold off on losing time on shifts as much as possible, but for normal driving, the best shift point that I have found is around 4500 rpm. Just my 2 cents

 

[chuyler1]

I shift at 2700-3000 unless I'm the first one off the line. When you're stuck behind grandma in her Park Avenue, there is no reason to go above 3500. I usually downshift when I I drop below 1800 and I know I'll be speeding up or going uphill.

(I get about 31-32mpg)

 

[Micah]

try this, just floor it - there is a rev limiter at 7500rpm. I know because I have hit it when Perfworks partner Nick and I were still reading voltages using the stock ecu for testing the piggyback on my car. If you stomp on it in "Drive Mode", it should shift either dead on - or just after the red line.

I changed my oil to full synthetic at 500 miles (Mobil 1 5w-30), then again at 1500 miles, and since then every 3000. While some people will argue that you can go longer without an oil change - I look at maintanence on my car the same as I would look at a parachute and harness when skydiving.

Oil Changes are a stupid place to skimp just to save some money. Not flooring it all the time is a good way to save money.

I know when I normally drive around town, my automatic shifts between 2000-3000rpm. - and mainly it's first that shifts up around 2800-3000, the rest shift much lower. Pulling out of a toll booth ( I live in NJ, it's the toll happy state - thank god for ez-pass ) I usually just stomp on it and see the shift points right around redline, or a little under - directly in proportion to how far my foot is from the floor.

If your tranny doesn't shift right, or it doesn't feel right, hell - if anything doesn't feel right : BRING IT BACK TO THE DEALER.

 

[andy_guerriero]

I have to disagree with the attitude that you should bring your car back to the dealer for every thing you suspect is wrong.

Why?

Call me a cynic, but I believe that every time you have your car in for service, that's another chance that they will screw something up. Do you really want some mechanic messing around with your transmission when there might not have been anything wrong? As soon as they get in there, they tweak things, they break things, and then they deny they did anything.

If you have a trusted mechanic, fine. If you can do it yourself, even better.

But other than that, I say stay the hell away from the dealership from the moment you drive off the lot.

 

[keyserscott]

I have the sport shift auto and it does similar things. It'll let you do wht you want...to a point. It's still very much an automatic, BTW I'm originally from the Rochester area, good to see someone posting from my home town, home of Genny Cream Ale!

 

[spazspike]

I'd abuse the fact that the vehicle is still an automatic. Nor do I abuse the fact that the "manu-matic" mode is still a very flawed designed outside of BMW's variant. It's not to be abused and it's certainly not designed to be functionally identical to a manual transmission. It's a "fun" little feature for us automatic guys who want to get the most out of each gear, or lack their of...

However, from reading other people's experiences and dealer's recommendation I've never seen anyone give the green light to use the sport mode continually. Perhaps though in your case there is something wrong with the solenoids that control the gears which if that is the case... cynic or not... it will need to be taken to a dealership.

 

[Micah]

I wouldn't call it flawed at all. What's the big deal, it's just using the shift function on command, all it's doing is letting you decide when the tranny should kick down.

The automatic sport mode tranny can handle more than twice the torque than the stock engine can produce. My car has the same transmission and I'll be running Perfworks Piggyback setup with a t3. We are shooting for 200WHP. I can't wait.

Seriously, I constantly have it on my mind.

 

[Micah]

Interesting bit of trivia, the first tiptronic automatic was made by Porsche.

http://www.porsche968uk.co.uk/

 

[spazspike]

Ya, I believe Porsche also experimented with the step-tronic system. Micah... in no way am I trying to down play this feature on the Protege or any car for that matter, I'm hoping to hit 6 figures with my car before I finish paying it off.

But I do believe that the entire concept (however neat it is) is still not 100% and I do not see why I should suffer the lack of 5th gear on my vehicle.