Just how many people have had transmission issues?
 

So I noticed that Coding Paradox mentioned in his for sale thread that his '06 was currently at U Mazda having the transmission rebuilt. Most of us are familiar with the issues Baghead had with 2nd gear on his '05. My '04 has had a transmission rebuild due to a bad 2nd gear synchro. Another local B Stock RX-8 had transmission issues at a local event earlier in the summer (transmission would move from gear to gear, but only very reluctantly and with a lot of force).

Just curious who else has had transmission issues and what they were? I've posted this in this section of the forum because I'm primarily concerned with failures that have occurred to cars that are heavily autocrossed or used for track days.

Ironically, I don't know a single person who has gotten a new engine in an RX-8, even with the recall. But I can think of four people off the top of my head who have had major transmission problems.

Zero transmission issues for us with a early build 05'. :dunno: We had the clutch pedal/master replaced a couple of months ago due to a leak, other than that 50K miles with no issues. Still on OE clutch as well, even with four years of ProSolo and two drivers.

Yeah, the Team Bannana Boat (Wagner/Foley) '04 has over 80k miles on the original transmission (and probably the original transmission fluid, knowing Jon ;) ), and that car has always shifted better than mine. However, he did have to replace the clutch pedal assembly.

For the record, my '04 has 42k miles. The transmission was rebuilt earlier this year at 36k miles.

lots of track days on mine + 60000 miles . Still seems to be ok . Was having stiff shifting 3-4 but that has been cured by changing to the same oil baghead uses ...

No issues with my 2006, 30K miles. Two years of Solo2 and ProSolo use, 15+ events each year, towing a tire trailer to most events.

Chris H

On a related note, how often should I be changing my transmission fluid, assuming regular autocross duty? Is any particular type well-suited for autocross?

04, 58K miles.

I did, infact I should be getting my car back today.

2nd gear grinds on fast downshifts and upshifts.

My '06 lost 2nd gear at around 6-7000 miles...Mazda fixed it under warranty, actually replacing the trans as the metal shavings had taken out, materially, the rest of the transmission.

Given the frequency, but randomness, of transmission failures, I'm betting that there was a problem with one of the gear/synchro manufacturers. I have to imagine Mazda sources the hardware from more than one foundry and there probably has been a foundry with subpar production?? That's my best guess...

It depends on the track.

Sebring's shiftpoints raise no issues (having only one 2nd gear turn at the hairpin) as I'm only going from 3rd to 4th and back to 3rd for 16 of the 17 turns.

@ Homestead, with dragrace type front, mid and backstraights, I have issues with quick 2nd-3rd-4th shifts with 3rd or 4th grinding if I am aggressive. Issue goes away if I delicately grannyshift.

For the most part, I simply can't upshishift this tranny quickly and aggressively. I can't bang through the gears like I can in a Tremec T-56 equipped Camaro or GTO. I can't ever do an aggressive 1st to 2nd shift at redline with this car without 2nd gear grinding and not accepting the input shaft.

No streetability issues ever though. Any issues only show up at the track on upshifts.

'06 here.

2004 w/63000 miles. Engine replaced at 59900. Brought it in for a compression check... their comment was, "We're surprised it even started".
Our clutch pedal bracket was found to be tearing/breaking a month or so ago, which made finding 2nd gear more difficult.

Zero problems - 2006 with 35K miles. One year of solo and pro solo use with 20 events completed thus far...

96 k miles. no issues.

i have had two grinds into second. both my fault..

south fl what are you using for trans fluid?

beers :beer:

Mine is an 07 with 28,000 miles. Had transmission rebuilt under warranty a couple months ago. I was grinding when shifting from 1st to 2nd at high rpms.

got my fixed tranny woot, no more grinding. even when at a fast downshift to 2nd, at a high rpm

123,000 miles on my 5/2003 6-speed and it still works fine.

Seems like the transmissions have problems in the first year or so, or not at all...and the problem is not year specific...and occurs often enough to rule out just user error...definitely sounds like a quality control problem isolated to certain batches of internal hardware, not a design issue.

Haven't ever been able to do a solid, fast 1-2 shift at over 8k rpm, either with the OEM fluid when the car was new or with the Motul 75w90 that's in there now.

I have a 50%/50% Redline MT-90 / 75W90 batch in the garage for the next fluid change.

Did you buy your car new? Just curious, as I've autocrossed at least a half dozen RX8's and have been able to shift 1-2 at redline, with very little lift, with no problems, in all of them...except for mine, when the 2nd gear synchro started to go away...

Also, for those that are truly having the "problem" with the transmission, all the fluid changes and combos in the world aren't gonna fix it...maybe mask it, a little and for a little while, but not "fix" it. That's not to say that going to higher quality synthetics isn't a great idea.:)

^
Yes, it was new.

I was able to do a decent 1-2 chirp the tires redline shift in this car once- during the test drive. None since.

FWIW, I just grannyshift at the track now. It's for the best. Smoother is better.

i have an 04 with 68,300 miles and for the past week my tranny has felt kinda notchy. i bought my car used with 43k miles and i dont know if it was the original tranny fluid in there or not

but today i was driving to work and in first gear there is a loud whine coming from the engine bay im pretty damn sure it is the tranny or atleast the old fluid causing the noise. also it popped out of first gear twice as i was taking off from a light. so i changed the fluid with some generic valvoline gear oil and the old oil that came out was pretty dark and the drain plug had a very thick layer of metal shavings on it.

so i drove it afterwards and it felt less notchy but i was having a hard time getting it to go into reverse and first still, it seemed it would go in like half way then it would pop out as you let the clutch out. it felt as if you didnt put the gear in all the way. i have an extended so i made an appointment for wednesday to have them look at it, i think i will be getting a new tranny i really dont see it being anything else.
p.s anyone have an unistalled clutch kit they wanna sell me for cheap?

I have an 04 and I have grinding issues everytime I shift at the top of 3rd into 4th. Now it's starting doing it while going into 2nd. Oh the car has only 25,100 miles.

Foley and I had the exact same issues in my '04 during the '07 season. Over half the time a 1-2 redline upshift would result in a grind and a missed shift. Under 8k rpm we had a lot fewer problems. Mazda replaced the fluid and the slave cylinder on two separate visits to no avail.

It finally became bad enough at a track day this spring that I could make it happen consistently on 1-2 upshifts above 9k rpm, and it would grind during 3-2 downshifts. Took it to the dealer, took the service manager for a test drive, demonstrated the problem, and drove home with a rebuilt transmission four days later.

Transmission problems? Oh we have 23 transmissions. Plus 4 of the '09 transmissions. And we are constantly rebuilding the ones we have.

It's interesting that the majority of you guys have problems with second gear. We always have problems with 4th gear. It starts out as a grind but quickly deteriorates into either getting stuck in fourth, or won't go into 4th.

What we discovered is that for 4th gear, the gear selector can actually slide too far, and that allows the D-temp balls to fall out of place.

On rare occasions we have had other problems.

I have an 04. In 05 I went to ZoomZoom Live and drove a RX8 that had beaten on by all sorts of people. That trans felt smoother than mine ever did. I think there is a lot of variation in the quality of these when they were built.

Stop replacing the trans and replace the drivers---- Just kidding!

Good luck this weekend----