Manumatic question

[Macadonious]

I have the manumatic tranny and I was curious; if you have it in manual and you were to accelerate from 4th gear, it changes to 3 by itself. Same goes for when it is in curise control mode. If you have it in curise and have to slow down a little bit and you push resume, even if you are just 2 or 3 mph slower then what you had it at( ex. 60 to 57 to 60) then the car down shifts to third then in to fourth by itself. In doing this, it sucks the life out of the gas. Why does it do this? Is this a flaw in design or is this a problem area that needs to be checked out by the dealership?(dunno)

 

[tonkabui]

whoa, the old manumatics you have complete control over. it only downshifts for you when you go too slow. if, say, you were in 4th going 25mph, then slow to 20mph, then the computer drops it down to 3rd gear. but for upshifts, you're the only one controlling it. the manumatic of old lets you hit redline without a hitch.

now, does the guage indicator tell you what gear you're in, or does it stay on one number and you can only feel the difference? cause if you can only feel the difference, it's teh car going in and out of overdrive.

 

[eting_pro5]

That is very very different from the Protege5 manumatic. Read the owner's manual. The Protege5 manual listed all of the times it would automatically downshift. 4 > 3 at 22 MPH, 3 > 1 @ 6 MPH along with all of the speeds at which it would not allow you to downshift. I imagine if your manuamatic is working the way it should, all the parameters would be listed in the manual. If that doesn't answer your question you may want to contact your dealer or Mazda.

 

[Macadonious]

I do not know if I explained myself right, but I am not talking about the car dowshifting as I am going slower, I am talking that the car dowshifts if I speed up. Like if i am in manual mode and I am doing 60 mph and want to pass a person in front of me and i accelerate(w/o shifting), the manumatic will down shift into 3rd then when i release the accerator it goes back into 4th.

 

[mspeedpro]

ive always felt it was pretty dumb to drive a manumatic in the "manual" mode all the time, just looks stupid

 

[icecube]

coz there is not enough power in 4th gear to reach a higher speed, it will hurt the engine more if it didn;t kickdown for u, all Tiptronic or manualshifts does this not just the mazda3.

I have have to say Mazda need to learn how to make trans! the auto shifts from a 3 to 1 and it will shift down into 1st gear b4 u come to a complete stop and that makes the car chock like a b****
and this is pretty much pissing me off everyday.

and i don;t think is going to cost u that much gas u know, the Mazda3 is pretty good on gas(nana)

 

[Moeed]

Horray for the manual tranny. Even though the gearing makes it lunge in first and sometimes second.

 

[icecube]

i also find the manualshifts in mazda3, is not as quick as they put it. Maybe is because my car is not borken into yet but who knows, i will ask the sercives guys when i bring it in for a first oilchange.

 

[dolphin]

I drove a MZ3 manumatic the other day and it did not downshift like that. What it would do, is unlock the transmission's torque converter. This caused the engine revs to go up to deliver more power based on you trying to accelerate. Through all this the actual gear ratio is not changed.

Does that make sense?

 

[tonkabui]

coz there is not enough power in 4th gear to reach a higher speed, it will hurt the engine more if it didn;t kickdown for u, all Tiptronic or manualshifts does this not just the mazda3.

that's not true. mine doesn't do that. neither does any one else's manumatic that i know of. this is the first i've heard of it.

 

[sidpro5]

Mine does that whole "kickdown" gig, too. Just thought I'd share.

 

[ChewyChevy]

Yea...always driving around in manual mode is kinda silly.

Kinda takes away from the whole point of driving an automatic...pressing the gas, brake and turning.

I've only gone into manual mode once, and that was to check the limits of the vehicle. Probably won't go into it again unless I want to test the limits of the vehicle.....

 

[sidpro5]

I almost always use the manual mode. "Why not just get a manual?" you ask. The car was originally purchased for my wife (with a little influence from me) and she will not drive stick. When we finally traded in her Z24 for the Windstar, I got the 5 back, but am stuck with the auto. Plus, after a few knee injuries, operating a clutch in traffic can become quite painful. But I'd still take one if I could. I also find the factory shift points to be a little low for my liking. But that's just me.

 

[lj123023]

1 - This is what's in the owner's manual (as a note under manually shifting up):

"When depressing the accelerator fully, the transaxle will shift to a lower gear, depending on vehicle speed."

2 - When you hit the Resume button, the computer probably overrides the Manual mode, downshifts to get back to your cruising speed ASAP, then back to 4th gear.

Have to agree with icecube also. If you start the car in 2nd in Manual mode (say under slippery conditions), the car chokes back to 1st before you come to a complete stop. Kinda defeats the purpose of allowing you to start in 2nd in the first place.

 

[taylor5]

about the cruise downshift

Hey Mac,

When my old P5 automatic would lose a couple of m.p.h while the cruise was set, it would do the exact same thing and suck some major gas and not upshift until it was on a dead level stretch of road.....very odd! But I believe it is a design issue with the combination of a auto trans and cruise control settings. I dont think there is much to be done when it comes to that part of your question.

 

[Macadonious]

Hey Mac,

When my old P5 automatic would lose a couple of m.p.h while the cruise was set, it would do the exact same thing and suck some major gas and not upshift until it was on a dead level stretch of road.....very odd! But I believe it is a design issue with the combination of a auto trans and cruise control settings. I dont think there is much to be done when it comes to that part of your question.

U are probably right. Just thought I would ask to get everyone's opion on it.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this matter.

 

[ChewyChevy]

I almost always use the manual mode. "Why not just get a manual?" you ask. The car was originally purchased for my wife (with a little influence from me) and she will not drive stick. When we finally traded in her Z24 for the Windstar, I got the 5 back, but am stuck with the auto. Plus, after a few knee injuries, operating a clutch in traffic can become quite painful. But I'd still take one if I could. I also find the factory shift points to be a little low for my liking. But that's just me.

Ah I see. Sucks to hear your knee injuries causes pain when you drive a manual.

Anybody with a Mazda EPROM editing program?? I think you can up your shift-points a few hundred rpm there without risking valvetrain and bottom end damage.

 

[eting_pro5]

It's very interesting that Mazda added the automatic downshift during acceleration. I think I'd like it better with total control like i have in my P5. Oh well, hopefully my next Mazda will be a manual.

 

[sidpro5]

Ah I see. Sucks to hear your knee injuries causes pain when you drive a manual.

Yeah, it does. Not too bad if there,s very light to no traffic, but I have to deal with stop and go for a half hour in to work every day, plus I operate equipment at work all night where I'm pretty much using a "clutch". But if I could have I would've gotten the manual anyway.........not all that bright! lol