2008 Miata - slipping out of 4th gear?

janinelc · 2008-07-29T04:33:35+00:00

I have a brand spanking new 2008 Miata (only 90 miles on it when I gotit last week!) with a 6 speed transmission. I have 600 miles on itnow and noticed something strange and I don't know if it's me or thecar. I generally shift around 2500-3000 rpm for faster accelerationand don't rev the engine more than 3100 - 3200. The last time I drovea manual was a '85 Isuzu Trooper with only 4 speeds so I'm relearningmy shifting techniques.What happens is I'll be in 4th gear and all of a sudden the stickshift pops out into neutral. The first time it happened I was verysurprised as this had never happened to me in a manual car before. Ijust put the clutch in and popped it back into 4th.The 2nd time it happened, I noticed that I was around 3K rpm. I triedrevving higher in 4th thinking that maybe these newer manualtransmissions were telling me I needed to get into the next gear, butI couldn't force it to pop out into neutral anywhere between 2000 -3500 rpm in fourth gear.The 3rd time it happened, I noticed again that I was around 3000 rpmwhen it popped into neutral. Again tried revving higher but Icouldn't duplicate it.Is this normal? Or do I have a defective 4th gear? It doesn't happenall the time, but the fact that it has happened 3 times in less than aweek concerns me.I made sure my hand wasn't anywhere near it the last two times (so Iknow my hand isn't hitting the knob), the clutch was out (no foot onthe clutch) in all 3 times, it's always happened when it's been afairly straight road, not really accelerating to shift into 5th butjust cruising along. It only has happened in the 4th gear, it hasn'toccurred in any other gears.I guess my next step is to check with the dealer, as I'm sure it'scovered under warranty. I would appreciate any ideas.