Brand New '09 Transmission Problems
 

I've searched the forums and have been unsuccessful with the results, so if there is a thread about this that you all can point me to, or if you know the answer, please help me out.

I have a brand new '09 RX-8. It had that problem where it couldn't go into first while coasting to a stop without grinding. I got that fixed under warranty, but now it randomly pops out of 4th gear while driving. Is this common?

I went for a test drive with the service folk, and of course, it wouldn't do it. But sure enough on the drive home, it popped out of 4th again. What say you?

Pin down when it fails and make another apt. Please give us the history on your car, miles(miles when you got it), when was it first purchased(were you first one?). What type of driving does it get? Service its had....just anything you can add.

The car had 700 miles when it it was purchased (first owner). We got that 1st gear grind problem fixed at 1700. It now has about 2000 (have had the car total for about a month).

Its driving is calm, no racing -no racing intended. It's a light daily driver.

The popping out of 4th seems random. It can occur on the highway or city driving. I need to double check what was repaired, but I know the transmission was not replaced. I'm gonna go track down what specifically was done... BRB

Back to the dealer's service dept.

Mine pops out of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th every so often, dealership & Mazda insist it's "Normal" and I got tired of arguing with them so w/e

I'm slightly confused here... it pops out... into neutral? So if you are driving along, and it pops out, you technically lose power? How the hell is that ever normal?

I was worried it might have had a HARD life before you got it. With "700" dealer miles on your car it was taken out for many quick hard thrashings.

Yea, I'll be accelerating or cruising, no matter the RPM, and suddenly the RPM will race upwards and I'll look down and it's sitting in Neutral.

I always shift fully, but can never reproduce it with the dealership, so they say it's just me not knowing how to drive since I'm under 21. The usual b/s.

Good luck getting them to fix it. They gave me hell about gears grinding when it had 10 miles (yes, 10, as in, ten) on the odo and took 3 months to get em to fix it, but it popping into neutral they just flat-out refuse to do anything for me.

Did you speak to MNAO? Try to bring up the Toyota random acceleration defect, as this possibly as serious. Is it a predictable thing?

Not sure about OP, but I know mine is totally random.

Well generally levers popping out of gear is a wear issue. often times from resting your hand on the lever while driving. it puts pressure on the busing at the end of the lever and the cup it sits in which causes extra friction wear. Makes everything loose and leads to things like dropping out of gear.

It could also simply be something in the under the boot keeping the lever from engaging all the away. I just read about an issue on a different where the second shift boot under the pretty leather one was loose and getting caught by the lever.

so get those things checked. A car with 700 miles from the dealer that is only a few months old has seen some abuse more than likely and i'd bet there is some bushing wear. or it could be that something wasn't put together correctly when they had it in for the other problem. They should take it in and check it out since this could be dangerous.

If they dont want to do it because "we haven't replicated the problem" then call MNAO and tell them your concern and request that they ask the dealer to check it out because you are afraid the car is unsafe.

dark- get a AFE SS :) i bet that solves your problems :)

FYI - Mine also did the 4th gear pop out a couple of times. I bought mine new in October 2009 with ~50 dealer miles on it. It popped out of 4th about 3-4 times total over the first 1200 miles, with the majority happening in the first 400-500 miles. I'm keeping my eye on it as well, but I may not see it again for awhile as my 8 is now in the garage for the winter.

It might also be good to identify the build date of your 2009, in case this is an actual issue. Mine was manufactured in May 2008, so it is probably one of the first built.

AFE doesn't make a short-shifter for the 09 transmission.

Mine was also built in May 2008 and never once has popped out of gear over 4500miles.:fingersx:

I am waiting patiently for it..



I'll check the shift boot, though the second shift boot is rubber, so not too sure why it'd be problematic

Did you ever say it was auto or manual? I have never had my manual pop out of gear ever.

"it couldn't go into first while coasting to a stop without grinding" would indicate it's manual..

It's NOT normal. Something is defective. You need to yell a little to get their attention. I had a Nissan 5 spd that did this in 2nd, and they immediately replaced the gearbox, no questions asked. Do not accept that nonsense from the dealer.

Dude the same thing happens to me haha. Idk, randomly it just pops out of 4th and the revs fly up. Everytime it happens I'm not expecting it, so I'm thinking maybe I just didn't fully engage it or something, but I'm never paying enough attention to actually notice. After it happens tho I can never replicate it.

Bought my car new, it has about 3,050 miles on it. Hasn't popped out of gear for a while tho.

my ppf wasnt aligned properly at one point and it caused gears to pop out.

Ok how weird. My problem actually is that my '09 sport has been grinding bad going into 5th and 6th gear at high (well, anything above 1500 actually) RPMs. So I took it to dealership service department to get it fixed, they tinkered with it and replaced some synchros, and when they put it back together they said it was now popping out of fourth (which has never happened before). Today is the 13th day it's been at the shop and they still haven't made a decision on what they're gonna do. Hopefully give me a new transmission, because I have completely lost confidence in their ability to repair any parts of a tranny. I'm sad I won't have my baby for Christmas :(

They gave me a new tranny.. didn't help much.. :p:


It worked fine for the first 3 months with new tranny, then it started popping out again.

is it just me, or are the fragile, weak, sucky 04-08 trannys better than the 09s?

we had such high hopes...

I haven't had any problems with my 6AT :wavey:

oh crap. YAY something to possibly look forward to in the new year! :yelrotflm