Somewhat harsh shift into 5th...

[kampfire]

Small update.

My wife and I were on Vacation in Tenn from Michigan. Well on our way back we had a quick lane change manuver with a 6 to 3 downshift. It was pretty violent. Worst we've had. Well for the rest of the 800 mile drive home we tried to reproduce the same situation and make a 6 tor 3 down shift rough. Well for the past month now its been completely smooth. Great downshifts. We brought the car to the dealer when we got back and they said they sent the transmission mapping to Mazda support to see if anything looked abnormal and they said everything came back normal. The dealer was also unable to reproduce a hard down shift now. So its great that the downshifts are smooth. But what happened in that last violent downshift that "fixed" things. The service manager at the dealer did mention that Mazda support was aware of others having driveability problems. So maybe there will be an update.

 

[CX-SV]

Thanks kampfire for news. Maybe later we can expect tranny software update from Mazda.

 

[CX-5um]

When I'm cruising on the highway or on an empty road and I decide to disengage cruise control I've experienced everything from a very noticeable speed decrease, to smooth transition into 5th gear, and once or twice the "kick". When experiencing the kick my first thoughts were the car just downshifted from 6th to 4th gear. Again only once or twice when disengaging cruise control. I think I was going up a steep hill if that helps.

 

[erhayes]

Mazda seems to be prone to needing AT software updates or even upgrades as my CX7 required two, during the first 15 months I owned it. After the second software update, my AT has been smooth, responsive and just excellent for ~ 60,000 miles now. Mazda does such an excellent job in most all areas except the programing of the AT software. Ed

 

[CX-SV]

^ Good to know about tranny sw, thanks Ed.

I had a similar situation with my last Ford Explorer 6speed, the software updated smoothed the 2-1 shift successfully.

 

[SpinDoctor15]

Yes, I'm sure it's a shift to 5th (not 4th), I can tell by tach, etc. I'm very familiar with 4th gear too. It's not the reving of the engine I'm talking about, it's the smoothness or harshness of the downshift to 5th.

It might be a subtle difference in how aggressively I hit the pedal when the harsher downshift occurs.

Sounds like nobody has experienced this so far. In CA we do tend to drive rather fast on the freeways, 75-80mph is very common with aggressive accelerations from time to time.

I have experienced these same issues and stumbled across this thread via a Google search! I bought my CX-5 in Sept 2012, it's a 2013 model, Touring AWD. I know the thread is a little older, but sounds like ther has not been a software update to fix it yet. I notice that when above 65 mph, and especially with cruise control on, the car experiences firm/jolting shifts when going from 6th to 4th (or a quick 6th, 5th, 4th progression). One time I thought someone hit me from the read it was so jarring! I love nearly everything about this car, it's just disappointing that this one aspect is so obvious. Hope they fix it soon...

 

[CX-SV]

20K miles on my 2013, harsh shift has diminished.

 

[SpinDoctor15]

I'm at almost 14k now, and I would generally say the same thing, though I still notice it...

 

[ReManG]

CX-SV,

I noticed the same thing on a recent road trip of 3000+ miles. It seems that the downshift occurs without mashing the pedal all the way down to "kick" down. This is not a constant, but frequent, and happened on flat roads for me. I wonder if the "learning" transmission algorithm doesn't take into account that you are not on a slope of some kind. I did enjoy the automatic downshifts on steep hills. Even without cruise control on, I could initiate a downshift simply by braking slightly and then the transmission would hold that gear until a manual up shift or a press on the accelerator. I was cruising at or above 65 mph, but when cruising at 80 on west Texas interstates, I had no kick down shock when it did shift for passing. Between 65 and 75 cruising speed is when it occurred fairly regularly for me. I have over 20K miles and did not notice this previously while running at highway speeds...

I had the PCM software updated at the dealership a month or so prior to the long road trip, but they did not do any transmission software update that I know of.