My engine light this week has come on a couple times, i took it to autozone and they read the computer and he told me that it said i was having a problem with my nuetral switch. what is a nuetral switch and are they expensive to fix? He also said mazdas had a lot of problems with those switches and condensation on them. has anyone else had problems with this?

 

Neutral Safety switch.
If your car is automatic then it keeps you from starting the car unless its in drive or park. Or if your car is stick then it prevents from starting in gear.
I'm not sure how much it would be to fix or replace, it depends really on how much the place charges for labour and what the flat rate manual says about time and the part cost and markups etc......

 

starting the car in gear? to you mean starting the car without the cluch in?

 

yeah what you said.

 

The NSS is located under the dash where the top of the pedal sits for the clutch. It is a simple item to remove and replace. Shouldn't take more than 20 minutes.

 

thanks turboge

 

My switch just went out about a week ago... and its not under the dash. Its ontop of the transmission right under the intake. And thats were the problem is... its open to the weather and rain. It cost me 170 to get mine fixed. When i got the old part from the shop i took it apart and it was rusted on the inside which made the connection go... So if youre washing out your engine dont go near the switch...

 

That sounds like your car is auto then.
The manual version would have it by the clutch pedal like braden said.