I have a problem that I would like to know if anyone else has experienced this. Whenever I drive up a hill for any EXTENDED period of time, where the transmission is using 4th gear to pull me up the hill, after the crest of the hill, my car will stick in 4th gear. My manumatic mode disables itself and wont allow me to change the gear manually. Even going downhill after getting stuck in 4th will not make 5th gear come back. The only fix I've found is to either pull off the road and turn the car completely off then back on, or to break the 100 mph barrier and sharply let off the gas, which still does not restore the tiptronic mode, which stopping the car will do. Has anyone else experienced this? Please Help. I've taken my car to the dealer, after testing they told me that if i'ts not throwing any sort of code or no warning lights are going off then they can't find the problem. I know that in the manual, it says that if the transmission gets too hot then manual mode will become unavailable, but what worries me is even after driving on flat roads after the hill, the transmission will not go back to normal.

 

have a shop flush your trans fluid and change the filter, the burned trans fluid may be causing the solenoid to stick. IO beat the crap outta my trans one night and i eventually lost manual mode, i let it coast for 5min or so and it worked fine again, checked the fluid and it need some, added and no problems since

 

I'm assuming a sticky solenoid would be present even in everyday driving though. This only happens on LONG, STEEP hills.

 

if the solenoid does not get hot enough it wont stick, it gets hot and sticks because of burnt trans fluid under high load, slowing down or waiting would fix this issue but since it does not then it may be a shorted harness, a bad clutch pack, bad pump. Either way its not something you can fix on your own.

 

that makes sense. Also know that if I break 100 mph after getting stuck that I can regain 5th. any thoughts on this? I have taken my car to the dealer (under warranty) but since they can't get it to act up without driving up the mountains they can't really diagnose it.

 

i would hurry and find a shop that will try and fix it, the dealer is trying to wait it out until your warranty is up. As for going over 100mph allowing you too regain control, the only thing i can think of is that there is a strategy in the pcm that when u go over its limit (in this case) let you do whatever instead of disabling gears or however mazda has it setup, thats just a guess

 

well to further convolute the situation, even when I go over 100 mph and regain 5th gear, I don't regain manumatic ability. I can't control the shifting but at least my 5th gear is back. I only have 15,000 miles on the car so could this be a break in type situation? I haven't really driven it hard up hills until just recently this summer.

 

no, this is a bring it back under warranty thing, no car would exhibit that behavior and be normal

 

Mine lost 5th in the desert with 114 temps outside and the A/C on and pulling up a steep hill. Manu lost too. I pulled over stopped to drain my fluids and it was fine after that. I took it to have an oil change and to be checked out and my trans fluid was brown. That I think was around 24k miles on the car. So I had it flushed. I haven't had the issue come back. I wonder if the trans fluid just breaks down and then causes problems like this with the autos.

 

aubrey, your case sounds exactly like what i've been experiencing. Have you driven in the same condition again and seen different results after the flush. I'm wondering if maybe the fluid gets abused during break in and goes bad sooner during break in. My fluid isn't dark brown, but it isn't near pink at all anymore. How much do transmission flushes normally cost?