Rough Transmission
 

Maybe you guys can help. I have an '03 Protege 5 with about 30k and a 5spd. I'm experiencing rought shifting in and out of 2nd gear even when when the car is warmed up. I've done nothing but baby it.

If nothing is wrong, it may just take a while to get the feel of that 1-2 shift smoothed out, I think it's mostly due to that soft front engine mount. If you've got it really bad though, that mount should be replaced. You never know how the previous owner treated it.

What exactly do you mean by rough shifting?

Well I'm the only owner and have never abused the tranny so I don't think thats it. It just feels "knotchy" when coming in and out of 1st or 2nd. After I've been driving for an hour or so it seems to go away. I'm in Minnesota so I figure that the cold has something to do with it.

The cold will have an effect , what oil are you using?? Is this on upshifts or down shifts??

Tom

You might want to try bleeding the clutch too...seemed to help mine a bit.

As far as oil....5 or 10W-30 (cheap stuff which I need stop using). Both the upshifts and downshits. Its not really a grinding noise it just doesn't feel nearly as smooth or fluid as the rest of the gears. As far as bleeding the clutch idea, I'm new to working on my own car so I hope I can keep it simple.

Put in what Mazda calls out for your climate and then try it.....the wrong oil will cuase this on most cars.Also most syncro boxes require a momentary pause on first and second gears other wise it requires more effort to get it into gear.

Tom

Brother has a 2002 Protege. He had the same problem.. it got worse and it actually started Popping out of third gear.. When he brought it to the dealer to figure out what was going on, the mechanic working on it said the proteges and some miatas have had this problem with the 5spd Manual trannys.
Needless to say tranny and shifter were replaces under warrenty. Just food for thought.

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to go swing by the dealership and see what they say.

This is a VERY common problem with Miatas. You really have to force the stick shift into second gear until the car warms up. The FIX has been to switch to Redline tranny fluid. Either Redline MTL or MT-90.

On my Miata, it took a little while for the fluid to work it's way into the syncro's. But after a few weeks, the hard/stiff shifting went away. Now it's completly gone. Plus you get the added protection of running a really high quality synthetic oil in your transmission. This is one of the first modifications Showroom Stock road racers make to their cars. I've been using Redline in my autocross vehicles for years without EVER having a transmission issue. And they get harder use than most cars.

If this isn't exactly the problem you're having.....sorry for the long post. :)