Pulling into a toll booth I got stuck in reverse again, this is the 4 time it has happen, and its really getting old. The last time it took me 30 minutes to fix, no big deal. This time it took me 2 and a half hours. Laying under the car on the North Dallas Tollway. Let me tell you a lot of our local drivers are complete *** holes.

If you see someone laying under a car don't purposely drive next to them "if you don't have too". The safety guys came out and told me I was going to have to tow it. After another half hour and time wasted dealing with them I got it back in gear, but I need to find a solution for this issue.

Is the only solution to the Stuck In Reverse issue to move up to the Six Speed Trans? I've read the service bulletin data, and it seems Mazda solution was not a fix. Does anyone know of any other solution.

 

Isn't the stuck in reverse issue fixed by getting a new bushing kit for the shifter, and to install a new washer around the reverse switch?

 

Why are you going into reverse when pulling into a toll booth?

 

Thats not the problem.

This issue seems to happen sometimes when you come out of 5th, and roll to a stop with the trans out of gear. The trans then slips into fail safe mode ie Stuck in reverse if your in neutral, and give the car gas it will go move backwards. If you go to 1st or 2nd and get off the clutch the car dies. Third, Forth and fifth gears are locked out, and cannot be engaged. My current stop gap is to make sure I come to a stop in gear, but from time to time I forget. And if I forget I sometimes have this problem.

 

I've read a few reports that the fix Mazda listed does not all ways work. I've also heard that it not just the 90-93 cars, some of the NA8 5 speeds also see this issue.

Thats why I'm wondering if the only real fix for this is to go to a 6 speed.

 

There's a whole list of things to replace to fix this in Lance Schall's write up at the mnet garage section. There is more to do and more to replace than just what Mazda has in SP-11.

Stuck in Reverse

 

The washer removal/new reverse switch was just a band-aid fix. The real fix is to replace the 5-R shift rod with the redesigned one ("rev A").

From the way I read it, the problem happens when the trans is not let out of 5th gear slowly enough. So when it's snapped out of the 5th gear detent, the shifter speeds up the rod to the point where it keeps going right on backwards into the R position. The detent reliefs on your 5-R rod may be worn down to where it is a shallow ramp, faciliating the problem.

I'm assuming that with the revision A rod, swapping to a 6SP won't be necessary (unless of course you're making 250+ HP).

 

That's the 2nd part of the fix Mazda left out of the service bulletin. Lance covers that in his mnet write up I linked to also.

 

Yup, that's where I got it from. I read up on that the first day I bought my '90, and ever since then I've been controlling the shifter from 5th to N instead of letting it snap out of 5th. Haven't had it happen to me yet.

Of course, now that I've said it, it'll probably happen on the way to work today.

 

Why don't you adjust your driving so you aren't coasting to a stop in neutral? That or pick up another tranny for cheap.

 

I do my best to adjust my driving around this know issue, i'm just looking for a solution other than a 6 speed. Thanks for the additional info.

 

This happened to me once in my 90, I replaced the damn transmission, thought something was broken. Found out the issue a few weeks later after the tranny had been trashed, I was kinda pissed considering I was 17 and broke.

 

This is exactly what I was just thinking...

 

Like he said, you don't need to be in reverse for it to happen. Mine happened when pulling off at a light..shifted from first to second, rear wheels locked up car didn't move again (forward) drove ~1 mile in reverse (it was like 2 am) to my work parking lot and had it towed from there. Thought it was the rear diff at first. It's pretty weird when it happens, neutral = reverse 1/2/3 = car stalls out, can't get the shifter into the position for 4/5 at all.

 

The first time it happened it cost me $100 to get my car towed to my house. The guys from FM told me about the Stuck in reverse issue. So luckly I didn't have to pay a shop to not find the issue.

It doesn't seem super common, and as long as I'm careful to not come to a full stop in 5th, or in neutral its been fine. But sometimes we forget.

 

Who the hell does that? and why?

 

Not paying the attention I should when come to up to a toll both.

 

I guess I'm the only one that's never heard of this problem before this thread?

 

What year is your car? This applies to 90-93. Also there was a service bulletin from Mazda that was 1/2 of the fix. If you bought your car used that partial fix was possibly already done. It's doesn't happen to all the cars but enough of them to warrant the service bulletin and new parts to be designed.

 

Mine is a 90, I've owned it for about 7 years and haven't had this problem, but I never roll to a stop on 5th or neutral, so IDK. I just thought it was weird that I've been reading miata forums for like 5 or 6 years and somehow this slipped past me.