MX-3.com

I heard its because they overheat alot, any other reasons?
If that was the only reason than why didnt Mazda just do a recall and add free Transmission coolers?

Ford designed the ATX in Mazda's and insufficient cooling of the tranny fluid is part of the cause for running hot. Another reason the tranny gets too hot is also just a poorly designed system of fluid passages throughout the unit. An aux cooler helps cool the fluid down but doesn't really address the other...

Yeah the tranny gets too hot and causes most of the problems. I added a tranny cooler to mine when a bought a used tranny and no problems with heat at all!

I think its a combination of the above mentioned issue and lack of proper maintenance. Most of us buy the MX-3 used and lets face it.. how often do you hear about average people doing the proper routine maintenance on any ATX car? Not talking about the MX-3 in general.. any car. ATX trans are the most commonly overlooked component when it comes to general maintenance. I dont have a owners manual, so I cant really check to see how often the fluid is supposed to be changed or how often the filter should be changed.. but I would be willing to bet that most average owners (not talking about anyone here on MX-3.com) rarely if ever get the trans serviced. I think the fact that we are here on this forum simply shows that we all care more about these cars than your average person and as such are more likely to do the proper maintenance as required. But.. by the time many of us get the cars... the damage is already done. Just my 2 pennies...

Tunes67

I wish I knew that the tranny's on these go easily, mine just went and its too much damn money...damn you ford!...damn you mazda!... i still luv my little mx3 but i would have bought something else if i knew what i know now about mx3 transmissions.

Swap to a manual.. the cost is pretty much the same as getting your ATX rebuilt. But it is a fair amount of work too. The manuals dont seem to have the reliability issues the ATX's do..

Tunes67

tel me bout it had to repace mine 2 times in th lst 2 yrs

Agree with the heat and flow comments earlier. Additional (note, not replacement) cooler will help. There are also supposed to be a few of the valve body passages that can be moddified and added to help, but I lost all of that info in a post on the old ERDT bb. I was in the process of planning a solid rebuild. Then as suggested above, got clued in to the 5spd swap. Actually, I just bought another car with the manual tranny. However, the swap is not difficult. The hardest part is finding a donor car and getting ALL of the needed components at once.
Bill.

because they are cheap fords

Wish it was fast wrote:because they are cheap fords

Hate to break it to you, but this tranny is Mazdas' baby. About the only truely Ford system in this group cars is the 1.9 L engine found in most of the 91-96 Escort/Tracers, and does it suck!
Thing is most 4 cyl cars with automatics tranny have a much shorter lifespan for the tranny. You just can't get around some basic facts. 4 cyl live at a higher rpm than 6 or 8 cyl cars, higher rpm = higher heat = heat kills trannies. 4 cyl cars are small, therefore the trannies are small, small tranny = smaller fluid resivoir = smaller heat sink ability = higher heat, also b/c they're small they have lesser "substance" they have the same 3 or 4 speeds as bigger cars with the same # of internal parts.

Also, something to keep in mind is the numbers of cars were talking about, the Escort was the #1 selling car in the WORLD for 6 years add in to that the numbers of Proteges, MX3s, Capris, Probes, and MX6s. That's a lot of trannies, if 1/3 of them crap out prematurely let's say at 100,000 mi, that seems like a hellava lot, but remember that the car industry still uses 10,000 mi per year as average useage. So, ten years in a car that was intended to be a disposible vehicle ain't so bad is it.

It's no wonder that these trannies fail and seem to be bad, just trying to keep it all in perspective.

Bill.

"Knock on wood" 184,000 miles and still kicking.

In regards to what Billzie just wrote,... I've had a 91 Honda Prelude, 83 Toyota Tercel and even a 98 Mitsubishi Mirage coupe, all with over 160,000 miles and they were all auto tranny 4 bangers and I drove the heck out of all 3 for years and years and not a single problem I had out of those auto trannies. Those guys just engineered their auto trannies right. Now as far as Mazda is concerned, they did a piss poor job because there simply aren't too many MX3 owners that can say they still have their original tranny still doing good.

My ATX has 127,000 on it and its still running well.. I bought the car at 120k.. The trans shifts correctly and the fluid is bright red. I did change the fluid and filter shortly after I bought it but the fluid was still clean at the time I changed it

I have noticed a strange possible coincidence about the ATX failures.. the majority of ATX trans failures seems to occur in Canada. This could be because there were more MX-3's sold up there.. but I also think that the harsh winters have something to do with it as well. Has anyone that has had their ATX fail checked to see if there is any blockages in the fins of their radiator? With all the salt & sand and perhaps even ice blocking the air passages.. it wouldnt be too surprising if that adds to the cooling problem. Just a thought..

Tunes67

I love my Autozam but only 6hours (yes, 6 hours!!!) after I got her the auto tranny failed, had to replace the whole lot!! and was away from her for 2 weeks. Am now thinking of replacing my 1.5L DOHC FI to a 2L V6 Manual

you'd be better off going for a 1.8 bp or bp-t, but only if you ditch the auto tranny!