No Manual Mode

[Pitter]

Yesterday morning I took my Signature in for the 85,000 kilometer maintenance. It's about twenty kilometers to the dealership and I found I couldn't engage manual mode. I like to downshift to second on some downhill stretches to keep off the brakes a bit. I tried several times but the car just continued in automatic. When I moved the shift lever left just a small "M" appeared on the dash but no gear number. Near the end of the trip I tried once more and that time it engaged. Mazda ran a scan and said everything was fine. Why would I lose manual mode tempoarily?.

 

[N7turbo]

The only thing I can find is:

• If the automatic transaxle fluid (ATF) temperature becomes too high, there is the possibility that the transaxle will switch to automatic shift mode, canceling manual shift mode and turning off the gear position indication illumination. This is a normal function to protect the AT. After the ATF temperature has decreased, the gear position indication illumination turns back on and driving in manual shift mode is restored.

https://www.mazdausa.com/static/manuals/2023/cx-5/contents/05300400.html

 

[Lazy2.5]

Interesting! I've never seen that before.

How were you driving when/ before it denied M mode?

 

[Pitter]

Actually it was without manual mode when I started the car in the morning. Temp about fifty five or sixty degrees and humidity eighty or eighty five percent so certainly not overheated fluid. I think I recall it happening once before a long time back.