MSP Blows Tranny On Freeway?

AcolyteMSP

Member
:
2003 MSP Spicy Orange
Hello all, I'm a newcomer here so firstly I'll introduce myself.
I'm Kevin from Mesa, AZ last week I became the owner of a 2003 Spicy Orange MSP and am excited to be a part of the community!

Ok now on to the horror story. Just barley got my MSP 5 days ago and I had all my fluids serviced at Brakemasters (I know bad idea) but it was necessary to keep all mantinace records for my warranty (through a used dealership) I was going to have them place Penzoil synchromesh in the tranny after reading several good opinions of the product. While the vehicle was in the shop they called me to let me know they could not get any of it. They aparently called the mazda dealership here locally and found that it takes 75-90w gear oil and proceeded to place Mobil one synthetic gear oil into the vehicle. I was coming home Saturday on the freeway and I was in 4th gear acelerating around 5k rpms and I shifted into 5th and this point I hear a loud bang and a clank and it felt as though something fell from the bottom of the car. I look into the rearview mirror and see TONS of white smoke barreling from the back of the vehicle. The red light on the steering column came on and the engine just cut off all dash lights coming on. I clutched (extremely firm feeling at this time) shifted to neutral and turned my hazards on and coasted into the emergency lane. I checked all the fluids and everything was full; crank oil, brake/clutch fluid, pwr steering, radiator, everything was OK. I'm now assuming that this was the tranny. Now I've heard the 3rd and 5th gears are weak in our cars but my MSP is bone stock 53k execelent condition. Now my question is if this was in fact 5th gear blowing or a seal going and the fluid draining out how much damage could have happened? Could just the tranny have gotten shelled? Or is the engine in danger from this as well? Everything looked perfectly fine aside from the MASSIVE gear oil pile (I'm assuming gear oil because of the other fluids being full) I'm sorry for writing such a long story, and I would greatly appreciate any ideals or input on damage possibilities.

Thanks again!
Kevin N.
 
HMMM sounds more like you blew the motor. You sure it's not NEW motor oil you are seeing on the ground? Check under the car to see if you have a hole in the block in the back. Sounds more like you snapped a rod and considering it's new oil it MAY look like tranny fluid. If not the only other likely possibility is that the Diff went. If the block blew I would look into faulty oil change. Read up about our cars they are very temperamental.
 
You normally wouldn't see a large amount of smoke if the tranny blew. The smoke comes from oil hitting the hot exhuast under the motor and if the tranny messed up most of the oil would miss the exhaust. The reason the oil probably appears full is because the oil pan wasn't damaged and most of the engine oil drained back there. I'm voting you blew up the motor. Were you on the gas in 5th when it blew or were you still in between gears with your foot off the gas?
 
yeah sounds like you blew your motor. been there done that. join the club. seriously tho, its good you've been keeping track of everything for warranty b/c you're gonna need it now more than ever.
 
I was shifting into 5th and put it in and was gasing normaly I was not in WOT when it poped. Why would the clutch get stiff if the motor blew though? I noticed that when I would start the car with the clutch in it was dead quiet nice normal engine sound and when i would let the clutch out it would make a faint rattling or if I would be in gear and turning with my foot off the gas it would have a little rattle sound very light sound though. Synchros felt good as did the clutch. My last vehicle was a 94 MX6 and the clutch and synchros went in that I fixed the clutch and didnt want to waste the time money on the synchros just shifted real slow until the gears would fall in. When the clutch went in that it felt extremely stiff also. The tranny in the MX6 lost all the fluid one time due to a bad seal/bolt and when it did it kinda felt the same. Under the car it looks like its comming from where the tranny mates to the motor.
 
wow you didnt put the sychros back in your mx6 tranny...

Dude you definately blew your motor, the tranny doesnt cause tons of smoke to barrel out of your exhaust.
 
crashkelly said:
wow you didnt put the sychros back in your mx6 tranny...

Dude you definately blew your motor, the tranny doesnt cause tons of smoke to barrel out of your exhaust.



Is this even heard of on a stock MSP at 53K? my MX6 had an FS 2.0 in it as well and i beat the thing into the ground for 3 years and put 100K on it taking it to 200k and still ran fine? are these motors no suit to boost? could the wastegate on the turbo have been bad and caused the boost to spike insanely high? Hopefully i will get a new engine for free but if not do you think its a good idea to order a forged block off of street unit?, then would it be smart to replace the wastegate? just to be safe? Also a boost guage isnt something that would void the warranty is it?
 
yeah, its happened before on stock msps. the rods in the FSDE are like toothpicks and will snap under the smallest amoutn of preasure. i think there have even been NA proteges that have blown the motor
 
Does this usualy cause the eniter motor to get destroyed i mean would the heads/ intake mani be ok? if a rod did snap would i be lucky enough to just be able to replace them?
 
He says he checked the engine oil level and it was fine ... blown motor and you would have no oil left. Based on my experience, you have no oil, no coolant, but the tranny / clutch still operates as though nothing happened.
 
Chances are you snapped a rod and your block is toast. Heads and intake manifold should be ok though.
 
AcolyteMSP said:
Why would the clutch get stiff if the motor blew though? I noticed that when I would start the car with the clutch in it was dead quiet nice normal engine sound and when i would let the clutch out it would make a faint rattling
Does the car Start....If its the Tranny....the car will start and run normally...just wont drive and will usually makea ton of racket if you try to put it in gear and drive it..but the motor will run...
If it wont start..then you likely Blew the motor.
 
what you described is exactly what happened when my motor popped. all my lights came on, puff of white smoke, engine died, the noise of somethig falling thru... everything.

if the oil you saw on the ground is indeed gear oil, it'll smell absolutely awful and should be a tad hint of red shade if its the mobile fluid.
 
Thanks for all the help everyone! I gotta get to bed for work tomorrow, but im having a family member tow it to the mazda dealership to get checked I hope thats not too expensive. Other than that if i order a forged block from SUnt its gonna be like 4400 without water/oil pump and cylinder head I hope thats not bad. Kinda sucks man I havent even made my first payment and now im 13K in the hole without interest :( Thank god I have awesome credit looks like im in debt now though.... I could prolly make it if i squeeze that forged engine onto a credit card though. How much do you guys think it would cost to install if i ordered it prebuilt?
 
AcolyteMSP said:
Thanks for all the help everyone! I gotta get to bed for work tomorrow, but im having a family member tow it to the mazda dealership to get checked I hope thats not too expensive. Other than that if i order a forged block from SUnt its gonna be like 4400 without water/oil pump and cylinder head I hope thats not bad. Kinda sucks man I havent even made my first payment and now im 13K in the hole without interest :( Thank god I have awesome credit looks like im in debt now though.... I could prolly make it if i squeeze that forged engine onto a credit card though. How much do you guys think it would cost to install if i ordered it prebuilt?

it would cost quite a bit...be 100% sure its what you want. Really sorry to hear that you motor blew after only 5 days of ownership. Damn stock fsde rods....makes me so angry. Good luck and keep us posted, oh yea and welcome to the forum..
 
installing a motor at the dealer will cost you a fortune. i did mine at a dealership b/c i didn't have any reputable shops around here. i really hope you're covered under the warranty.

i supplied my own fully built shortblock, and i still spent over $4500 on parts and labor.

if you're head and upper oil pan is okay, you can deduct $1000 from the figure.
 
Zoom-Zoom-Boom

Motor is gone :*( blew the rod right through the back of the block. Now this warranty s*** is gonna be fun! Freak accadent, no abuse nothing this sucks.... Im soo agrivated, im in AZ so if any locals could let me know a good shop to install a new motor that dosent charge retarded amounts of money lemme know please!
 
that sucks i blew the tranny the second i had the car lol, and the dealer tried to make me pay for it to. They since it was my first stick that i was reving it up to high a dumping the clutch when i would drive witch was bs. but i got them to fix it for free and put in a new clutch to lol.
 
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