2008 Miata - slipping out of 4th gear?

Defective Transmission. At 600 miles, the dealer should replace the transmission (or the whole car) You should actually shift at a little higher RPM than 3000 or so. That's about when the engine starts to develop decent power. Miata engines are designed for higher RPM use than most american engines.

Not normal at all. I suggest a trip to the dealer. The only problem I've heard with the 6 speed (2006-2008), is, a few have gotten stuck in 3rd gear caused by a defective casting of the 3rd gear shifting fork and the fork breaking.

Jim

Thank you both. I have an appointment with the dealer to look at it next week. I hope they can verify the problem and fix it. Good thing it was caught early and still under warranty.

When you get it back don't forget what Chuck said. You're not getting 1/10th of the fun / performance out of your car shifting at 3000. Put your foot into it and run it up to 5000 as a regular thing and keep it planted up to / near redline for the real fun! You won't be able to get the smile off your face.

Chris

99BBB

With an even bigger smile on the face of the guy behind you as he switches on the lights and siren and flexes his ticket writing fingers.....

I did this TWICE on the way to work this morning - the lid was down and I was the only car in sight. MAN does this car move. It was SO MUCH FUN!! Now I need to install a bunch of stuff to tighten up the whole body and take it to Austin for Lime Creek Road. Where DID I leave that check book... :-)

If you think it moves now, wait until you have the chance to drive a supercharged or turbocharged Miata. My 99 (on a good day) will develop around 220 HP at the rear wheels. Stock was about 110HP. (And, there are those that have really gone to the "dark side" with around

300HP out of an NB engine.)

I'm waiting to see if and when a similar mod is available for the NC versions.

Mixed feelings about all that additional power as well.

I rapped my last Miata to redline constantly and it was fun, but it never really got that fast since it probably had about 140hp and weighed maybe 300 pounds more than my current one.

If I apply the same type of behavior to my turbo miata that is set up similarly to your's, my license to drive will be gone soon, but there are places to open it up. :-)

That "funner to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow", but I have to admit, the power is a rush. Over 200 HP for a car that is just over 2000 pounds is pretty quick, especially for one that still handles so well.

Pat

My stock 1.6 has all the power I want or need. If I wanted to go fast I would have got a Corvette or a Viper. Balance is much more important than speed.

Well, each to their own-- One thing I noticed as a big improvement was the way the cruise control works in the mountains. Helps reduce downshifting to go up grades. (At least I told my insurance company that the car was "modified for high altitude use in the mountains".) There is no change in top speed, since the Miatas (1.8s anyway) are RPM limited to about 128 MPH. In theory my 99 will go (with enough road) just a bit faster than that, due to a small change in the 5th gear ratio. The change was made to reduce the "buzzing" at 70 MPH or so. Just reducing the engine RPM by a few hundred at

70-75 MPH gets it just low enough to make a noticeable improvement. (And, the turbocharged gas mileage on the road is virtually the same or very slightly better than stock mileage.) If I remember correctly, the 1/4 mile time is about 3 seconds faster than stock. With me in it, 1/2 tank of gas, and additional sound proofing, as well as the turbo stuff, the 99LE weighs in at 2600lbs.

Corvettes and Vipers are just too big, heavy, and expensive!

Well, come on now, I didn't say how many gears you could run thru ;-) I much prefer being able to run the Miata thru the gears than dogging around a supercar that does 60 something in first and over 100 if you run second up. Where / how often can you use that?

Ya, I'd take one but, I'd be in my Miata allot!

Chris

99BBB

Carol, you are my kind of girl / woman! There are some decent roads closer, you know. LCR is getting pretty built up and I'm getting where I feel pretty guilty tearing up and down major parts of it (rich folks building houses all along there). Oh well, we make the best of it, eh?

Chris

99BBB

Chuck, what did you do to change the 5th gear ratio? I'd LOVE to drop my top gear cruising rpm's by 1000!

Help!

Chris

99BBB(no FI here)

Hey Chris - The last time I was on LCR it was in my sport suspension '04. This was about ... 6 months ago? Even then it was getting so full of rich people houses that I was a little worried about taking the blind 90 degree turns without really braking at all... didn't want to get creamed by a cement truck. That would have been ugly.

That's by far been my favorite "close to home" road for a long time. My next favorite Texas road is down on the border ... Basically you airlift your mx-5 to the Rio Grande... no really... either Marfa on 67 down to Presidio and go left on 170 or from Alpine 118 down to Study Butte and take a right on 170. All that matters is that you get to 170. They say "nobody gets on

170 by mistake".

It takes about 10 hours to get out there (without stopping to pee) but you want to leave about a week to be out there - because you'll be driving all the way back and forth on this road all day every day. This is the road they BUILT the MX-5 for. It's one of those that has signs on it that say "If your vehicle weighs more that 3,000 lbs, turn around now or pray and bring an extra set of brake pads". It makes LCR look like a bumper car track for toddlers. Just thinking about it makes my clutch foot itch.

You say there are decent roads closer -- what's on your list -- even though I will name my first child FM170 -- it's too far for a day trip. -Carol

I had an ongoing problem with a rattle in my 2004 Miata. Three times at the dealer. They couldn't replicate. Finally I made an appt and got the service guy to ride with me. I kept him out about 30 minutes before he figured out where the sound was coming from but when he heard it he knew - he was excited! He was saying "that's it isn't it! That's the rattle!! I had been right all along. Turned out that there is now a service bulletin out about this rattle problem.

I my case I think he heard it because I was driving and his style or whatever of driving it was different than mine so he wouldn't go over the bumps at the speed I would, or whatever. Maybe you can get your service guy to ride around with you for a while with you driving and you can replicate the problem? Couldn't hurt. -Carol

They called Mazda to see if any other Miata's reported a similar problem and there was no other reference to this issue. He said if it happens again, document what was happening and call him.

Of course, it happened to me twice this morning driving in to work. It happened about 7 minutes after starting out so the engine was warm (about halfway between C and H), going about 40 mph on a flat at around 3200 rpm. I have been very deliberate about making sure the gears are in solid. It happened again in a couple of minutes. I have a stretch of road about 5 miles that I go about 40 mph on the way to work and this is where it has often happened (of course because I drive it so often at this speed in this gear). It has also happened to me on acceleration (at around 4000) but mostly while just cruising.

I'm not much of an engine head so I don't understand a lot of the lingo, but they said the transmission is all internal and without being able to duplicate the problem themselves, they can't open the transmission to check inside because it would take too much labor and Mazda wouldn't reimburse them for it without justification for doing the work. I'm not sure how all that works internally, but I would think if a customer says there's a problem, they should make some effort to do a serious check into why it's happening. To me, this is a serious driving hazard.

I searched the web and I could only find one other similar occurrence in a 2000 Protege - nothing on Miata's. My next step is to setup a camera in the car while I'm driving to give them visual proof that it's happening showing the dash and shifting.

Any other ideas? Are they right about the transmission being "internal" and that they can't open and check it/replace it without experiencing the problem first hand?

P.S. I took the advice here and opened my baby up a lot more and you all are right! I'm having so much more fun with it - love the power!!!! :-)

In order to prove to the service guys that it happens, I video taped it this morning - watch at 2:26.

(about40 mb)

Link to video of 4th gear popping out - it happens around 2:26

Yep, you have a problem...that should convince the techs.

OzOne of the three twins

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