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Well...from your experience...when did your auto tranny die on you? How many kms. do you think the auto tranny lasts?


Thanks!

mine blew at 186,XXX. I noticed your other thread about the 2 cars for sale. avoid the 1995 atx one at all costs. you will regret it.

Unless you can get the auto with a good powertrain warranty(highly unlikely with a 10 year old car), dont bother with it. And that goes no matter how much the mileage on the car is.

DAMN! You guys are making me really worried about this car. I think I'm not going to buy it afterall. I will still give it a good test-drive. Is there anything in particular that I'm supposed to look for in the tranny for signs of it being on its last leg?

Depends on the background of the car. Who owned it? a Leadfoot kid or an older person? Did it have tranny flushes? Mine has 220,000 km on it and shifts good. What kills them (like any automatic tranny) is driving them hard, and getting them too hot.

Check the tranny fluid, if it smells burnt, walk away!
how long they last really does depend on how they are used/abused.

if the car you're looking at, shifts okay, doesn't smell burnt, and isn't flashing a warning light, it may be okay...., if you choose to buy it, get it serviced straight away, make sure they flush ALL of the old tranny fluid out..., including the lil oil cooler, and if you intend on some spirited driving, install an auxillary oil cooler - better to spend extra now than a whole heap later!

Personally, I would NEVER buy an auto Mazda again, just my 2c

BADMIHAI wrote:Well...from your experience...when did your auto tranny die on you? How many kms. do you think the auto tranny lasts?

My Auto Trans on a 4 cyl MX-6 needed rebuilding @~100K miles/160 km. Sounds pretty typical from what I've read about those Ford trannies in Mazdas. Bought mine at 140km and doubt the owner did much regular maintenance on the ATX. Could potentially last much longer with an aux cooler and proper care like Barry Clark's '95 MX-3 RS ATX has. However, you can't be sure how well maintained a used MX-3 ATX has been cared for so proceed at your own risk. Barry bought his car either new, or with very low miles. If you see good looking ATX fluid, no signs of leaks underneath, an aux. cooler already installed, maybe some regular svc. records, and the ATX seems to function properly... wth, I'd STILL get a manual transmission - but that's just my POV.

Mines @ 187,000 miles and works just fine.

Custommx3 wrote:Mines @ 187,000 miles and works just fine.

... = 300,883 kms for those of us up North. Wow! That's good durability for that mileage. My ATX on my 95 GS is at 122,060 kms (75,848 miles) and hoping it will last long enough to get up to Barry's mark. Proper care and maintenance will go a long way.

Someone else here long ago mentioned that if you're going to get your tranny fluid changed to NOT do a flush - at least, not the powered kind where the shop hooks up a vacuum unit of some sort and sucks it all out. Apparently it wrecks the torque converter or something (someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). So what I do is just drain what's in the pan, reservoir, etc. and for whatever's left in the torque converter, I let it pass through the system a bit and just get the rest out on the next "drain". I intend to have this "drain" and refill done every 6 months or so, or basically when I get my oil change too. I if that procedure is decent maintenance or not, but I'm sure the fluid is being changed more frequently this way than what most people do....

That may be the case for mazda trannies, but I had my wifes accord's tranny flushed with a tranny "Vac" and hers seems to be just fine, actually is better than it was before.

You should do an oil change every 50 000 kilometer but if you buy a car that has more the 100 000 kilo and the oil was never change i wouldn't sugest it. Automatic transmission fluid act has a detergent, with time the clutch in the transmission gets worn and the particule goes in the oil. If you have some seal that are tired and start letting oil pass those particule are going to block those leak, when you change the oil you clean all those particule from the transmission which MAY cause trouble afterward. That's why always check the milage at work before doing an oil change, if it's pass 100 000 will let the client know that it may cause problem. Another thing when a transmission starts going bad there's nothing that can be done to salvage it. They haven't found a way yet the get particule to bound back with the clutch and seal that will repair themself.

and if you intend on some spirited driving, install an auxillary oil cooler - better to spend extra now than a whole heap later!

I'm not very car savvy, but I've been reading on the forums that you should put an after market tranny cooler. This ist he first time I've seen a post on an oil cooler. It doesn't sound like these 2 are the same. Of the 2, wouldn't the tranny cooler be more important, or are they both something that AT owners should install?

sorry, was meaning a tranny cooler! an oil cooler would be overkill for a standard car

No problem. Thanks for clarifying.