My main issue for the first few months was the fact that the tranny would not allow me to shift into second gear quickly, i.e. a street race type situation. The shifter would stop moving back (as if in second) and I'd release the clutch pedal and found it wasn't in gear. Never had that problem on any manual transmission vehicle that I've owned or driven in 16 years that I've been driving. I tried Redline tranny fluid, a weighted shift knob, shifter bushings, TRZ RMM, and nothing mattered until I put that Ford Synthetic fluid in, that "fixed" it. The problem now, and that I've taken it to the dealer with is a grinding noise when shifting into second, as if the synchros were not right. It's worse when it's cold out, but unless the tranny is fully warmed up (20-30 mins of driving) it grinds more than what I'd expect out of a tranny with 13,000 miles on it. The dealer said that I still had (at the time) 50,000 miles or 3.5 years left on the warranty and that it probably just needs to break in...well, they first said that they couldn't duplicate the sound, but whatever I'm hearing probably just needs to break in.
I've learned to live with that, since it's been over 2 years with that issue. The other problem is this recurring debris (leaves, acorns, seed pods, etc.) that have clogged (somehow) my HVAC system- resulting in an unpredictably timed "baseball card in the spokes" sound that is way too loud and obnoxious to be ignored. The other message board had a link that showed how to remove the cabin air filter and vacuum the plenum out, but it still keeps happening every 400 miles or 3 weeks or so. You go insane when you're on a trip a few hundred miles from home and you get this sound from the air or heat (depending on the season) that makes you have to just completely turn the HVAC off and either freeze or sweat because the sound is so terrible. Too loud for the radio to cover up. I just can't imagine that Mazda designed a car that allows THAT much tree debris (and it was a lot) to get into the cowl vent. None of the other 6 cars that have been parked in the driveway have had this problem, so it isn't like we have an abundance of tree debris, and my wife's Accord has over 100K on the odometer without any such problem. This started with mine around 9,000 miles. I have a thread in the audio/electronics section about that noise.
Thanks for listening and letting me vent.
