2017~2025: Disable Manual Shift Mode?

[181962]

The other day, accelerating out of right hand turn, the engine revved up and wouldn't upshift. My reactions, in order, were WTF, glance for an idiot light, hit the hazard flasher, pull over, then notice my wife had bumped the shifter into manual mode. It seems the salesman was right when I posed this very scenario thinking it was an easy thing to do--the manual mirrors whatever gear the auto was in at the time. Mazda should have designed this to require pushing the shift button to move to manual mode, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I don't anticipate ever using the manual shifter. Is there a way to disable it?

My mistake posting this under "General".

 

[Chocolate]

A piece of black/Gorilla duct tape across the sideways manual gate would do the job.

 

[Antoine]

Side note...Inappropriate language was used in this thread and a warning issued. Insulting and or posting negative remarks about others is unacceptable on Mazdas247. Thread cleaned, let's keep all threads on topic, positive and informative, thank you.

*Moved to CX-5 Engine & Transmission

 

[wlong01]

Hey Antoine - did you delete my post yesterday on this topic? You might of deleted it along with the inppropiate language post from another poster.
There seems to be more than one post missing from this thread.

 

[Antoine]

@wlong01 Yes, this thread was going negative in addition to off topic fast and your response included a quote related to the inappropriate language. Other posts have been removed for containing or relating to the inappropriate language.

Once again, let’s keep threads positive and on topic. If anyone has any questions related to the incident, please PM me.

The topic here is…Is there a way to disable manual shift mode.

 

[Chocolate]

@HardRightEdg I don't think there's an electronic means to turn off manual shift mode; however, you may wish to contact Mazda NA to find out for certain.

Regarding my earlier suggestion, you might be able to remove the shift boot and then block the manual gate for a cleaner appearance.

 

[181962]

Regarding my earlier suggestion, you might be able to remove the shift boot and then block the manual gate for a cleaner appearance.

That solution involves disassembling the console with no obvious way to do it, so it's not something I would attempt. I'd consider your tape solution on a temporary basis during road trips except the gate is under the boot.

 

[CX5Nut]

I would say its never going to happen again. All the years we have had our CX5 we have never knocked it into manual mode without knowing it. And if you do, the dash will show what gear you are in instead of the D, so look for that first if it happens again.

 

[sm1ke]

This exact same thing has happened to me before, in my CX-9. I was picking my wife up from the store curbside, so I stopped at the curb and unlocked the door (kept the car in D). She put her bag on the seat, then put the stuff she bought beside her bag, and then slid into the seat, which pushed everything over and knocked the shift lever into manual mode. I noticed before taking off so no harm no foul, but it's definitely something that can happen.

I can't think of any way to prevent the shifter from being bumped without taking the console apart and installing some sort of custom 3d-printed "stopper" in the shift mechanism (at least, nothing that I'd be happy to look at every day). I'm not sure if it can be disabled electronically, but if you could, you may get a CEL as a result.

 

[VQ35DE]

This did happened to my wife a few years ago in our 2016. She was driving alone at night and drove for miles in a lower gear. she did not know why so she finally pulled over and shut it off and restarted it. Problem solved. Have a 2017 CX-5 now but still the same wife.

 

[youri]

I don’t think you can disable the manual mode. That being said, i have had car with similar manual mode transmission since 2010 and this has never really been an issue for me.

Now that you know about it, if it happens again the easy fix is too move the shifter back to the right. It is easy to notice with the RPM reving higher than before and (on the CX-9) the dash displays the gear number instead of D.

In my case, one mitigating feature maybe that i have the automatic door lock and unlock function linked to the shifter being in park or not. When i pick up my wife, i pull in, put the shifter in park to unlock the doors, because the shifter is in park it can’t be bumped to manual, and then i put it back in drive to drive away. That is just how I like the automatic door lock to be set up ( i didn’t do that to prevent the manual gear shifting bump) but i can see how this would prevent incident in my case.