Automatic transmission decides to take a break

[Mayoo]

(Fixed~ish) Automatic transmission decides to take a break

As I was driving to get on the highway, I noticed the transmission was not changing gear. So I decided to go into manual mode to see at what gear I was. Turns out I was at "nothing" gear. No numbers were shown at all. The car lost all power. It was like if I was at neutral gear. No warning lights went off. It just stopped working.

I had to pull over and restart the car. Then I got back home for safety ... missing out on new year's eve events.

Anyone got the same thing? It's kinda dangerous ... I was about 5 minutes from getting into a tunnel with no pull-over lane.

 

[mazdadude]

Sounds like the transmission had an error. I would bring it to the dealer for them to acknowledge the problem in your documentation, and further test or check it out.

 

[halfast3]

The gearbox full of neutrals condition is most disturbing. Glad you made it home safely.​

+1 Get it to the dealer ASAP. In the mean time, note as many symptoms as you can plus temp, distance driven from cold, etc. Did you get a MIL (check engine light)?

 

[Lbear]

What year vehicle??

Check your battery cables to make sure they are tight.

 

[Unobtanium]

Dealership, OBD port, answers...hopefully

 

[Mayoo]

Hi all,

I will call the dealer today.
I did not have a check engine, or any warning light for that matter.
It's a 2014.
Conditions were normal. Light snow on ground, No precipitations, -5C, was entering a highway on a flat entry (negligible rise).

 

[Mayoo]

Went to the dealer yesterday. They weren't able to reproduce the problem but they had a service bulletin for the exact same problem. The guy said it was to "relearn" the transmission program or whatever.

I'm glad they "fixed" it but I am amazed that such a dangerous behavior was only fixed in an optional service bulletin. What are they waiting to apply this simple reset to all cars? Injuries, deaths?

 

[joloriquelme]

It happened to me too, more than a year a half ago, with only 4-5 months with the car and around 9.000 Kms.

It was on HEAVY traffic (really heavy traffic, i-stop working x 1000 times). Sudenly on a red light, it was like the pedal stopped working. Changed to M and no gear number were show on the litle screen.

With everyone behind complaining with the claxon, I came out of my suprise, stopped the car, restarted and it worked again without any trouble.

On 10.000 Kms., with the first oil-change on the dealer, I mentioned it. They 're-programmed' the transmission to fix the issue.

Now I have nearly 40.000 Kms., and it never happened again.

Strange.

 

[c7scayman]

This is also happening on the new Mazda 3. My coworker has a 2015 Mazda 3 Sport and it just happened to him two days ago. Exact same symptoms. He also tried switching to manual mode and restarting the car fixed it.