Shifter Stuck [Archive] - MX-5 Miata Forum (2024)

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tmagi

6th June 2011, 17:26

I've searched and couldn't find any info on this happening on the NC. I have a 2006 MX-5 Sport with the 6speed and LSD. The car has 45,xxx miles and the engine has around 10,000.

This morning my parents came to town and we had breakfast and all that jazz. I had to go to work and my dad asked if he could drive my car around with mom since its 85 out today. Well about a hour after I let him loose I get a call from him saying the shifters stuck and he is on the side of the road. After that phone call my boss got to see how wide my vocabulary really is. So I borrow his truck and tow rope and drag it to the Ford dealership (the closest Mazda dealership is a hour drive and I've had most my work done there anyway). They call me a hour after dropping it off simply saying they can't do anything and the guy recomened a transmission place down the road. So I take it down there and have yet to hear back from them. After my father told him what happened and him taking a look at the car he thinks it might be a cable or just something with the gearbox. The car turns on perfect and the engine purs like never before. Also the clutch seems to be good because you can release it and it will kill the car.

The shifter looks like its stuck halfway between 4th and 5th and its seriously just stuck. I tugged and pulled and it wouldn't move. Transmission guy said it might be in 5th while its in 4th. I'm hoping its a simple cable or something with the gearbox and a couple hundres dollar fix and not a couple thousand dollar transmisson.

Just thought I'd share with you guys and get your input. I'll be sure to post whats wrong with it and what happened as soon as I find out.

PTR

6th June 2011, 17:59

I guess 3/4 or 5/6 shifter fork is broken... :(

tranny should be removed and opened...

(the MX-5 does not have any cables there)

hope you will be back on the road soon!

sprorchid

6th June 2011, 22:38

just some threads that might help ya:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=377412&highlight=fork+broken

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=270273&highlight=fork+broken&page=2
(post #30)

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=237737
(tranny adjust)

+1 PTR... sad but most likely true.

bazmx5

7th June 2011, 03:13

Shame that it happened to you. Did you feel any notchiness in shifting prior to this happening? Not trying to blame your Dad, perhaps he put too much pressure on the stick, not really sure. If it is the fork, I am not sure whether it gives out any warning or just snaps!

Good luck, I hope this turns out to be a reasonable repair bill!

GearPoet

7th June 2011, 11:55

Well-known problem for the '06 MY NC - shifter forks were upgraded for the '07 MY and can be used for '06 replacement.

Jim Boemler

7th June 2011, 12:49

Well-known problem for the '06 MY NC - shifter forks were upgraded for the '07 MY and can be used for '06 replacement.

Presumably that's only on the 6-speed?

PTR

7th June 2011, 13:15

Well-known problem for the '06 MY NC - shifter forks were upgraded for the '07 MY and can be used for '06 replacement.

from where do you have this info?

as far as I know only the NC2 has the updated shift fork.

Cyberbug

7th June 2011, 16:02

no all the updates went into the 08 and they used the old parts for the NC2s :)

best of luck on your repair.

tmagi

7th June 2011, 16:51

thanks for all the help so far guys. are you saying that because the fork broke the whole tranny needs to be replaced?

and the shifting was all good and smooth besides the problem of it slipping out of 3rd maybe once a month. after searching i found that it isnt a big issue, just a little adjustment that needs to be done. was gonna ask mazda about it when i went to go get my fluids changed in about 5k miles or so.

humfrz

8th June 2011, 01:05

Well-known problem for the '06 MY NC ...........
Hmmm........guess I should get out more.....??

humfrz

GearPoet

8th June 2011, 12:23

A little more beta-carotene, perhaps?

You can see a photo illustrating the shifter fork issue in Jason Saini's thread on 6MT gear adjustments. If memory serves me right and my own beta-carotene levels are in-sync, Equiraptor had problems with the shifter fork and discussed it here, as did several others. When my 6MT was out and partly torn down in early 2009, it was determined (and verified by Mazda tech) to contain an upgraded fork which was used beginning some time in the '07 production run. In any event, mine does not look like the stock fork in Saini's photo.

Apparently small changes were made both in the transmission and the engine in '07 - not just in '08 - although the exact nature of those changes were is clear. (Rod part numbers are different from '06, for example.)

Apologies for using the phrase "well known". I guess it's not - although some people asking questions on this thread were commenting on the relevant threads from several years ago.... ;)

tmagi

8th June 2011, 16:47

Update for today is, well noting. I gave the go-ahead to pull it and break her open to find out whats wrong. Knowing life, I'm preparing for the worse. At the transmission shop the told me it'd be $2700 for a new tranny and $300 for r&r. Called the Mazda shop down in Rapid and they said it'd be $4300 for the tranny and $600 for r&r. Plus I know the people at the shop and all the troubles I've had with the car I don't trust Mazda.

kipandkiya

9th June 2011, 12:27

Just curious, you're on a second/rebuilt engine after 35,xxx miles. What happened? Now the tranny is stuck. Yikes!

tmagi

10th June 2011, 04:09

Long strory short, timing got off somehow, piston met with the spark plug, and goodbye engine. Actually my car has had 3 engines because the dealership replaced the busted one, forgot to clean all the shrapnal out of the intake, and when they started it up, it got a nice big gulp of metal. Lucky for me it was still under warrenty so the worse part was the 3 month wait. Now I'll have a car with 45k on the body, 10k on the engine, and a new tranny (if needed). I'm either slapping on a turbo or trading it in for a brand new speed3.

redshift

10th June 2011, 10:56

^ Man, that's gotta be the worst feeling for the tech who initially started the new engine. That's quite the project to finish, then realize you have to start all over again.

MDavis

10th June 2011, 11:57

Long strory short, timing got off somehow, piston met with the spark plug, and goodbye engine.

:confused: I could see how a VVT malfunction or broken timing chain could cause a piston met with valve, but other than a broken connecting rod or crankshaft, I cant imagine anything that would let the piston reach the top of the cylinder.:dunno:

RealtorBob

10th June 2011, 12:05

One must remember that at SOME Dealerships the "Tech" that works on your car is a high school kid working part-time who was hired to change tires. YES,,,, I have seen this happen, at one time I WAS that kid, They gave me many jobs that I did not know how to do. I learned on the customer's time and money. I must add that this was NOT at a Mazda Dealership.

ASK the service Manager about the training and work history of the person who will be working on your car, if he won't tell you then take your car elsewhere.

RubyDoo

12th June 2011, 07:50

Wodering if the engine mishaps sent a shock down the driveline to the tranny, helping that design flaw in the fork go south?

OZMDD

17th June 2011, 17:32

my 5/6 shifter fork broke, and MER was able to simply replace that fork and that fixed it. Unless the fork fell into the gears and tore them up, it should only be a $300-ish repair. MER charged $200 to drop and install the tranny, and the shift fork was around $50.

OZMDD

17th June 2011, 17:34

Slipping out of 3rd is an adjustment issue on the 3/4 shift fork. There is an external adjustment for that. You really need to read Saini's thread; it tells all.

snowallergy

17th June 2011, 22:33

ASK the service Manager about the training and work history of the person who will be working on your car, if he won't tell you then take your car elsewhere.

Maybe 50 years ago. But with liability insurance as high as it is and lawsuits as common as they are I doubt you'll see someone who isn't ASE certified in say... brakes working on brakes. That's been the case for the last 30 years at least.

A tire changer swapping out an engine? :rofl:

tmagi

18th June 2011, 21:22

Rubydoo - I don't think that is the case because I've had two years of flawless shifts since then. You never know though.

OZMDD - Been there, printed that, and showed the techs at the shop. They said they are amazed (and disappointed) in Mazda and their lack of attention to detail. But thats neither here nor there.

Got the car back and havnt really had time to post because I had to be in the hospital soon after this ordeal happened. There is good news and bad news.

Good news is that all that happened was a ring or washer fell off and the thing jammed up. They broke the tranny open and said she looks flawless. No sign of damage to anything. Cost was r&r to take the tranny off and on and then only an additional hour of labour.

Bad news is no one knows what happened. They spent some time calling around and no one knew what the cause of this was, not even Mazda. Also since I got the car back, its harder to shift. It's also a bit "knotchy" and sometimes I have to really pull it to get it into gear.

Any advice? Only drove it for a day and a half before we had to hop in my roomates cummins and tackle the 16 hour drive to Chicago. Right now my medical situation is my main focus, but as soon as I get back I'm heading back to the shop and having them pour in syn tranny fluid (Ford Motorcraft Synthetic right?) and telling them about the difficulty shifting. From what I've read on here, switching to syn tranny fluid makes a world of difference. When I picked the car back up they said the switched the fluids and I'm assuming they used the cheapest crap.

RubyDoo

19th June 2011, 07:07

I'm wondering if they just snugged stuff up while working on it and it will work itself back to where it belongs. But do go ahead with the good juice, too. Dunno that the "cheap crap" would have an immediate effect, and realize that the Motorcraft can take time to produce improvement. Something about stuff being deposited on the synchros.

bazmx5

20th June 2011, 03:23

I assume they put new tranny oil in there, did they use the proper grade?

arejohn

20th June 2011, 11:16

This is my understand also. Tech/service adviser probably misspoke.

Piston valve contact is often caused by shifting into a lower gear when the intent was to shift up.

Oldmanfunk

22nd June 2011, 20:15

piston met with the spark plug,.

Impossible. did you mean VALVE?

tmagi

23rd June 2011, 02:16

^ That's what I told the tech and thats what all of my friends told me. But thats what he said word for word. I'm going to go down to the dealership to get a new key next week and I'm going to find out if I got the '09 internals before I turbo my car. I'll be sure to let you guys know as soon as I find out for sure.

As for the rough shift, I think problem solved. I just got home after the 16 hour drive and I get in my car to back it out of the garage and the baby switches gears like a hot knife through butter. It's been sitting in the garage since Saturday and hasn't moved an inch (I even wrote down the odo number). I'm still going to the tranny shop to get the syn fluid but I can't fall asleep because who knows what unexplainable phenomenom is going to happen next.