Reliability question for the 04 '3 sport Tranny

[D3monix]

Hey

I'm looking at some mazda 3's that were just coming off lease at a used car dealership.

I was looking at that howstuffworks.com/consumer reports the repair cost for the transmission could be in the neighbourhood of $3100 USD

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/2004-to-2007-mazda-3-2.htm

So Question 1 is... If the tranny goes does it really cost 3k to rebuild/replace/repair it?

Now question 2 is... How reliable are the Sport auto trannies? I'm looking at several around the 90000 km mark will i have to be forking out 3k in the near future?

Thanks!

D3monix

 

[techspeak]

make sure the fluid has been changed, and be sure to change it with high quality stuff

 

[sl0wthe0ry]

there's plenty of people out there with 04 and 05's with over 100,000 miles on their stock transmission with no problems. make sure it's well maintained. and buy an extended warranty.

 

[TRXSandRacer02]

make sure if you flush the tranny use ONLY MERCON V fluid i have seen these transmissions get flushed with dextron and make it about out the service door, something about using non synthetic fluid or whatever, mazda has not said why this happens. I have also seen them run the whole life of the car with dextron but would definitley recomend MERCON V

 

[racerboy777]

I had my tranny replaced after about 11K miles. Mine was a "fluke" the transmission casing itself had a hole in it. So I had to wait 2 weeks while a new one from Japan was shipped over. I have the 06 3i touring, 2.0 with and AT 4SPD. Haven't had problems with the new one, and I do drive it in M mode. It was all under warranty, but when I looked at the invoice it said that the tranny alone, new, was about 2500, and then include labor so 3K sounds about right!

P.S.
I was looking at the link you posted and I think my airbag lights come on intermittently! So i read it and i guess it's my pretensioner... Another dealership visit coming up! (homework)