Anyone Know Mazdas? Advice Requested.

[CJFusco]

So, my wife's car -- a 2008 Mazda 3 2.3 with 105K miles -- has developed a transmission issue that's apparently fairly common on these cars once they reach 100K+ miles: you'll be driving along and you'll feel a hard shift and then suddenly the "AT" and "Check Engine" lights come on, and the automatic transmission won't shift any higher than 3rd gear. It will downshift when you come to a stoplight, but won't upshift past third.

If you put it in "Manual" mode (the transmission is like a crappier version of Tiptronic), the problem doesn't arise as frequently, but it will happen if you drive long/far enough.

If you pull over and turn the engine off, the problem "resets" (although the CEL stays on) and the car will drive normally for a little while until it happens again. Sometimes this takes 15 minutes, sometimes it happens right away.

Common experiences suggest the culprit is either (in order of severity): 1) dirty transmission fluid; 2) a malfunctioning transmission solenoid that's stuck open; or 3) the transmission control module.

After bringing it to the local Mazda dealership, the service department determined that the problem is almost definitely the control module unit. With parts and labor, this would be a $1700+ repair. I was less than thrilled to hear this.

The kicker is that my wife and I have recently discussed selling/trading-in her car to get something a little larger (we have a four-month-old). So: we're not thrilled with the prospect of possibly spending upwards of nearly $2K to repair a car that we'd be lucky to get $4K on in a trade-in. If this was an old Porsche, I would just buy the parts and do the repair myself, but apparently, based on what I've read online and what a friend who runs an independent shop has told me, the dealership needs to program the control module for it to work correctly (???).

Anyhow, just wondering what sort of insight the Pelican BrainTrust might have about this. Should we just bite the bullet and shell out to the dealership? Sell the car as as-is? Drive it off a cliff and claim it was stolen? (<--- joke); something else?

Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[VincentVega]

I looked into this a while ago but didnt do the work. There are a few youtube videos with the procedure and according to the video no programming is needed. Also, I found this from my previous search, Mazda 3 2008 Transmission control module

I didnt end up doing the job just prepped. Good luck.

[CJFusco]

Thank you for the response. Yes, I've dug a bit and the repair looks pretty straightforward: pull out the old module, which is bolted in underneath the airbox, look at the part numbers, try to find a TCM with corresponding part numbers, and install. From what I can tell, doesn't take more than an hour or two. Considering this and the fact that the new modules seem to be around $300, I'm at a loss as to what would cost $1700... any thoughts about that? Seems to me that the cost should be closer to $700.

[fastfredracing]

Wonder if BBA remanufacturing could repair your module ? Just a thought . They turn stuff around pretty quick

[Rick Lee]

Why would you even think about having non-warranty work done at a dealership? Take it to an indep. shop and it will be half the dealership's quote, if not lower.

[CJFusco]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Why would you even think about having non-warranty work done at a dealership? Take it to an indep. shop and it will be half the dealership's quote, if not lower.

We actually had an independent shop look at it; he tested the solenoids and determined that it was the TCM that was faulty, and said that he wouldn't do that repair because "it needs to be reprogrammed" at the dealership. It appears (after more digging) that that's only the case IF you're re-using the same module; if you replace, it appears they come pre-programmed.