Hey, all. My '02.5 with a sport automatic transmission is having some issues when trying to move the shifter between positions.

It's a little difficult to describe, and it's fairly inconsistent in its behavior, but the best way to describe it is:

Let's say I have no problems getting the car into reverse from my driveway, I back out and get the car into drive, no problem. Everything's fine. Now, after having driven to work with no problems, when I park the car and come back for lunch, I now will have difficulty getting the shifter to move out of park and down into reverse. It'll hit the wall directly to the right of the "Park" position that is more restrictive than normal, and not be able to easily move into reverse. What I've had to do in this situation is force the shifter down through the resistance and into reverse.

After reversing, I'll then have resistance moving the shifter into Drive, but it'll go. After driving, I'll have difficulty getting the car back into park, but if I force i hard enough, it'll go.

Now, there have been other times when I have not been physically able to get the car out of the drive/neutral area and into reverse or park. I have literally had to put the car into neutral in order to be able to shut it off while my wife runs into the grocery store. I can't accompany her because I can't get the keys out of the ignition in this state. I can start the car in neutral. Sometimes after waiting 10-15 minutes, upon starting the car from neutral, the shifter will move back and forth within shifter position with ease, like whatever gates or walls keeping the shifter along its path has moved into the correct alignment, allowing the shifter to travel willingly.

The weirdest behavior is this: sometimes when I come out to my car after having parked it, it will not start, but the shifter is able to slide along its track easily (something I don't think it should be able to do if the car's been parked and isn't started). If I move the shifter into the neutral position, I can start the car, put it in reverse, etc. I've removed the plastic cover with the P, R, N, D etc on it so that I can clearly see what's going on. With the plastic cover on, I've started to see that when I force the shifter into Park, the cover will get lifted literally out of its sockets from how the shifter has to sit in order to be in park.

Throughout all of this, when I'm driving, if I put the shifter in the manual +/- position to use the sport auto transmission, I simply cannot get it to down-shift. It will sometimes up-shift, but the resting position between the two will not allow the shifter forward enough to tell the transmission to down-shift.

Sorry for the long post, but what do you all think? Is it a serious transmission problem? The car shifts fine while driving. I'm mostly hoping something keeping the shifter in its path need replacement. Has anyone seen or experienced anything similar?

 

Hmm that's interesting, I'd like to find out what comes of this cuz I have a tiptronic tranny as well in my 03 P5 so it wouldn't be bad to know what might be coming up. One question tho.

When you start the car in park and hit the brake pedal, do you hear the little "click" that disengages the lock of the Park mode?

 

I havent had trouble physically shifting it, unless my foot slips off the brake.
but once last semester I could not get the car to start, tried to jump it with a friend, and even tow truck couldnt do it, so last thought the driver suggested to "jiggle" the shifter and it started right up. I didnt take it to mazda though since I'm way out of warranty and its only done it the one time, the sport shifter I am also having problems with except it is with upshifting rather than downshifting, I usually use it when Im punching the gas and end up topping out the transmission and hear the wonderful engine sounds that go with it.
I would assume some sensors arent meeting, but I havent taken the cover off of the shifter to see. maybe a can of compressed air to blow out some dust?

sorry its not really any help, but atleast your not alone

edit: also 02.5 p5