MX-3.com

Might try this Lubegard gear oil additive and see if it will improve your shifting. Lubegard is pretty good brand for additives and usually improves whichever issue you're trying to fix.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LUBEGARD-GEAR-F ... 27bfd9aef7

MrMazda92 wrote:The shuddering is only when I first engage any gear, like trying to drive with molasses in place of gear oil. My first gear oil change poured out like molasses, to be honest. My subsequent ones have been normal, but that first one took over 20 minutes to drain completely.

Once in gear it is normal, so basically it's rough as hell when shifting cold.

Sounds like gear oil is to thick for your transmission with how cold its getting... Either cut it 50/50 with ATF to thin it out or swap out for ATF and see if that helps.... When you do change it out take the car out for a good rip first get it good and hot... It shouldn't take 20min to drain out that way...

I'm going to check my thermostat when I have a few moments of spare time. Between finals and my other car my hands are full.

I had meant the thermostat for your cooling problem, not the shuddering problem....



Woah wait.


The shuddering, if you squeeze the throttle a bit more does it get much worse?


Try doing a baby slalom in your lane, does it change with steering/go away faster?

The shudder is best compared to dumping your clutch in 2nd at 40 MPH with your foot off the throttle. Almost like braking with your clutch engaged at low speed if that makes any sense. The problem goes away 100% when the car is up to temp.

I'll check the slalom idea tomorrow, although I don't believe it will have an effect.

Am I lucky or something? Winter time warmup, not even about 4 minutes and it's at operating temperature (within a minute hot air through the vents). Transmission shifts smoothly regardless of warm up or not.

New thermostat and coolant (65/35 coolant/water), Castrol Syntec 5W50, GM Synchromesh Friction Modified.

SBR wrote:Am I lucky or something?

Something:

SBR wrote:New thermostat and coolant (65/35 coolant/water), Castrol Syntec 5W50, GM Synchromesh Friction Modified.

...and not real winter.

My car only hits full operating temp after about 15km's.

Oil manufacturers (Esso in particular) recommend the shortest idle time possible in cold start up. As soon as it is safe to drive; i.e. visibility through the windows, drive the car cautiously at 40% of redline or less until the temperature gauge is at roughly 20% of it's display range.

On a cold morning...like Edmonton cold...I start the car, scrape the windows and drive away keeping it between 2500 - 3000 rpm until the needle is a little ways off the peg.

MrMazda92 wrote:

SBR wrote:Am I lucky or something?

Something:

SBR wrote:New thermostat and coolant (65/35 coolant/water), Castrol Syntec 5W50, GM Synchromesh Friction Modified.

why do you use 5w50? 10w30 is recommended for winter 50 is pretty thick for when the car is warmed up and 5 is a bit thin for cold start ups.

....... Why does this misinformation still live.

BOTH are waaaaay too thick at startup.

what do you mean ryan? mazda recommends 5w30 for summer and 10w30 for winter. i was just going off of that and what i know about oil...

Or what you don't know about oil.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-102/

what are you getting at? i know the first rating is the cold viscosity just as the second number is its operating temperature viscosity. i also know that they break down with age and need to be changed on a regular basis.

all i got from that is that no matter what thickness oil you choose it will be too thick for start up in winter as the cold rating is based at 75F. which is more of a slightly warmed up temperature in extreme colds.

actually meant 5w30 not 10w30 i dont know what happened there. according to the online manuals mazda recommends 5w-30 for 0C and below and 10w30 for -25C and above http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... D2-003.gif all i was trying to get at was that 0w-50 is quite thick when fully warmed up compared to the 30 that mazda recommends.

Sorry, I picked on the "5 is too thin for cold" thing. The rest of what you say is legit.

If you're using conventional oils, follow the manual. If you're using a synthetic you can wander a bit.