check your states lemon law to see if it will qualify and that will increase your bargaining power b/c it forces the dealer to have to buy the car back at a loss and have to deal with mazda itself for reimbursement...maybe even mention that you are looking into the situation and they will make it a bigger priority

kinda hard to read your writing...maybe a spell/grammar check would help

 

My '03 P5 just rolled over 1,100 miles and no problems *yet*. Just curious...I rest my hand on the shift ****, but only in 4th gear. Might this be bad?

 

I think "TheMAN" Answered this with his But just incase you didnt get that

YES ITS BAD FOR THE TRANNY

 

and this is why its bad

When you rest your hand on the shifter, you are loading a bronze transmission component (called a slider) against steel components, either the blocking ring or the gear stop. This will cause accelerated wear on the softer-metalled blocking ring, which will soon lend itself to popping out of gear. It can also cause an overheated gear from the additional loading. This will not show itself until fatigue breaks it. Unless you are shifting the car...don't touch it.

 

And so does everyone else who broke their tranny...

 

go here to read about lemon laws, very, very hard to use. http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/sho...ight=lemon+law

 

Well, now i have some more bad news. I finally got the car back after a month in the shop. As a past employee of Mazda I am very disappointed with the service that I had received. But that is not the point here. I drove the car for two days then left for a a trip for two weeks. I came back and drove the car to a party and it was making a thumping noise there and back. It was not a loud noise but it was loud enough that you could here it with the windows up. I checked under the hood under the car, nothing. After getting home the next morning I was leaving to have my oil changed and tires rotated when as I was shifting into fourth i heard a sound like a quarter was dropped into a well and then its sounded as if someone filled a plastic bucket full of rocks and was rolling it over and over. I drove straight to my dealership but it stalled as I was turning in. Then as I restarted it the clutch lost all of its pressure I was extremely pissed off so I explained to the service manager he says to me "that sucks for you" that further enraged me and I felt like knocked his teeth out. But I as a proud Protege 5 owner would I let it go and asked when I could hear something and he told me that his "only mazda tech would not be in until the next monday" I checked with them today and no word they told me that they had not looked at it. I was very disappointed but all I can do is sit home and wait. I also noticed that they left my windows down I have a large amout of money in my car in terms of "toys" inside I asked them to plaese roll my windows up but when I went by there again later that night they were still open. Makes me mad but I just want my car back. I am now considering checking into a lawyer to probe the Lemon Laws here in Georgia. "HELP"!!!!

 

I have what will probably amount to a stupid question.

What RPM do you guys usually shift at? I think I tend to shift too low, giving me kind of a notchy ugly shift.

I suppose this is bad for the tranny as well?

 

I shift at 3,500 rpm average or around 4 in first

 

the speed you are at should worry little unless you are shifting it at 1.5k rpm...so long as you don't dump the clutch or not use the clutch at all the trannys should be able to handle such little power...granted i only have 5k on my car but its been to real road race tracks twice and i've done my share of flogging the car

one thing i do notice is the 5-4 downshift isn't intuitive and constantly bumps as if it was trying to get in Reverse...i just take it easy since a 5-4 downshift isn't commonly used espec when you want to really accelerate

 

two days ago i broke my shift plate and fork. i was locked in 2nd gear it was pretty strange. but i guess thats what you get ramming it into 2nd as hard as i do when pushing my car to the limits. however i haven't had the parts problem. i was towed friday evening waited over the weekend (closed) and monday, today the parts arrived and i'll be pickin her up later today.

 

interesting... I didnt know leaning your hand on the shifter would lead to pre-mature tranny wear. what about "knocking" the shifter to the side while your in neutral? I do that **** ALL the time, I have ADD

 

seems to me a reacurring thing with the tranny's breaking, and its the same thing too....

 

my question is, are they replacing these wbroken ones with better parts, or just more of the same crap so I can expect it to keep doing this every 10k miles or so....

 

I think it will be with the same crap
I personally didn't happen to me (auto tranny)
but, I had other stuff replaced and the dealer
had to order it from Japan, so I guess it is
like the orginal stuff
Yikes!