Shift Problem
 

I have a standard transmission. My concern is a thump noise from, I believe, the transmission. It happens after the car is driven 5 minutes (not so much when I first start out) when:

I come to a stop. Go from neutral into first. As I go into first, I feel a small resistance on the shift stick and the muted thump. There is no grinding noise.

Going from first to second the same thing happens. Going into other gears there is no resistance and no thump, just the usual mechanical sound of the linkage.

Sometimes the shifts are normal without the resistance and thump, it is inconsistent.

The Mazda dealer bleed the clutch slave cylinder hydraulic line. It did not change anything. They let me drive a new RX 8. I noticed a similar situation, but my car seems more severe. At times, the resistance on the stick is more than others. It is as if the clutch was not fully engaged. I tried this just to see. I did not engage the clutch and slightly moved the stick into second there was resistance but it let go when the clutch moved along. This seemed normal.

I would appreciate it if anyone has any ideas on this. Is what I am experiencing normal? I never driven a stick with this happening. It just doesn't seem right.

Thank you.

John

its normal, but it scares me that mazda did all that work on your car not knowing that its normal

Normal

Normal as far as I know mine has done it from day one and had the tranny rebuild once (for a differnet reason) and still did it after that....

very normal because it still does it on my second tranny

Speaking of shift problems and whether it's normal or not, am I the only one that has a hard time getting the thing to fully engage reverse? It's so embarrassing to back out of a parking lot with a grinding sound followed by a thud as I slap the stick down with a curse.

There are no syncros in reverse, next time you put it in reverse, do it twice, it shouldn't scream like that if you do it.. :P It is normal :O just be careful!

Here is what I do, Just slightly keep pushing the shifter down while backing up. As you let go of the clutch, you can push it down a bit more to in gear if you weren't in gear. If you just start moving, then that means you're already in gear.

You are not the only one, I have done it several times. My wife was prompted to state to me "if you can't find, grind them" I found that by pressing firmly on the stick and move it fully into position I can get it to go in to reverse OK. The thud remains.