I just blew my third tranny in my 90 LX Prot launching it in the parking lot of the McDonalds I work at. The first was with the factory auto (I didn't actually blow this tranny myself, the guy I bought it from blew it right before I took it). Then I swapped in a 323 5-speed. That lasted for a little over 7 months until it went while launching from a stop light. After that I put in a DX Prot 5-speed tranny that only had 30,000 miles on it; it only lasted about 3 months.

Now I'm rethinking my rebuild plans for a 92 LX Prot, If the trannies can't handle the factory engine how the hell can it handle a 400+ hp engine? Is their any way to get new gears made for our trannies that can actually handle a performance engine, or even the factory engine for that matter?

 

Sorry to hear about your tranny troubles. I don't know if I am just lucky or not, but my '91 DX 1.8 5 Speed is getting ready to roll over 220,000 miles, and everything is origional. The clutch has never even been pulled out. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Good luck.

WJM

 

Dude, i feel you on the protege tranny issues, i have had my tranny rebuilt only ofter 22000 miles and i know couple of people with other mazdas that had to have theirs rebuilt also. I guess our cars were built on mondays... for those who dont know what that means is that workers who come in to work after a weekend usually are hungover or still drunk from sunday night so the cars that are built on mondays usually dont meet expectations and are generally fucked....

 

Mazda auto's DO suck....how hard are you launching at these stoplights ?? Most trannies aren't going to take multiple full throttle launches,regardless of brand...Want a tough tranny ?? buy a quaife differential...mazda 5 speeds tend to grenade at the diff...

 

I usually launch between 3,000 and 4,000 rpm. When the tranny blew it took a chunk of the bell housing with it, their's no rebuilding this one. This was also the last 5-speed tranny the local junk and salvage yards had for my car.

I've been looking on the net for companies that do custom automotive gears and shafts, came up with a bunch in India but none in the U.S.

 

Stop driving like an idiot and put the PROPER G-series tranny in your car instead of the F series ****.

 

LOL Ryan's right. You keep putting crap trannies in your car, and they're the wrong tranny for your engine. If you have a DOHC, put the proper G25 tranny in there. They're probably all used transmissions, which you have no idea about how well they were taken care of.

My tranny has taken some serious abuse. Crazy burnouts, hundreds of 1/4 mile run with aggressive launches, power shifting, clutchless shifting, heel-toe downshift....all with no problems.....

 

You have no idea how badly I wanted an LX tranny. None of the local junk yards have any (there's plenty of autos but no 5-speeds) and their national searches turn up trannies that cost over $500. I only paid $100 for the damn car, I didn't think it was worth it.

I'm getting a second job soon so I can start my complete rebuild on a '93 or '94 prot. Since I've had such bad luck with these trannies and I'm planning on pushing 400+ hp, I've decided to put more money into the tranny then originally planned. I've found a few companies that do custom fabricating of tranny shafts and gears and plan to do a complete rebuild on the tranny instead of just getting a new diff.

Since I can't find any more 5-speeds locally, I've decided to junk my baby and fix up an '89 "Mazda" Probe my dad has (it's a five speed ). Hopefully it'll last until I get my project car up and running.

 

Sorry this didn't come sooner, but I just joined this site... I'm in Memphis, TN and have a 5 speed that came out of a 92 323 with under 100k miles on it...It was pulled when we swapped the car to a v6 after the stock 4cylinder blew a head gasket, and I had a spare, freshly wrecked MX-3 to use for the parts supply... soo, If you are still needing a transmission and are interested, email me privately at georgechicken@yahoo.com.

Other than that, I've found the stock MX-3 GS (v-6) transmission to be a tough cookie... I know that you're running an I-4, but if you were to swap to the v-6, then you'd have this transmission option (I have everything needed for a 4-to-6 swap, see the classifieds...)... Many mx-3, mx-6, and probe GT owners are putting close to 300whp through these transmissions without any serious problem... I have seen a few get destroyed though... in a 94 MX-3, I saw where the throwout bearing exploded and penetrated the gearbox, allowing for a fluid leak (thank God I flushed the trans before installing motor and tranny in the car...) and many many dents and dings in the motor, clutch pressure plate, and inside of the tranny bellhousing... Just a couple of weeks ago, I rebuilt a 5 speed for a 94 MX-6 V-6. The original trans (I rebuilt the spare he had) had developed so much movement to the secondary shaft that it broke the gearbox casing where the shaft goes through after the 4th gear, before 5th and reverse. When I removed the cap over the 5th/reverse set and pulled the outer gears, the secondary shaft had close to 3/8" (.375") movement (tolerance is somewhere around .0005".... that's five ten-thousandths of an inch...)... our main symptom (aside from the horrible whining noise in 1st-3rd gears) was that when you are coasting in reverse and press the clutch in, the car would come to a grinding halt... good times. I'm convinced that all Mazda automatics suck, and all future ones will as well... anyways, I'll shut up.. there's another option. good luck!

Daniel