somebody please help my brother in law mazda3 stays in second gear only, the transmission is tiptronic. it just happen out of no where he was driving and bam second gear only when he is in D and im thinking its in limp home mode but he took it to the shop and they said its a "bad cylinder" i thought all mazda3 is electronical controlled??? any suggestion???

 

Everything is electronically controlled but it could still have a bad cylinder. Electronics were created by man so there's bound to be mistakes somewhere. Take railroad crossings for example. They're all electronically controlled but don't always work properly. Take it to the dealer and let them look at it. If they say something is wrong then let them fix it. If it doesn't solve the problem then there's always other options.

 

Electronically controlled doesn't mean that there are no parts that can fail...

I've been driving vehicles for YEARS that are 'electronically controlled' and they still have quite a few "non-electronic" controls and valves and parts and pieces...

Chrysler had many years of bad press from the late 80s and early 90s on what they called the "Ultra-drive" transaxle. It was a 4 speed auto trans with electronic controls - but had a limp home mode of 2nd and reverse gears. And those limp home gears were completely mechanical...

What the electronics control are some of the functions and parts and pieces of the transmission - from valves to sensors to bands and more - and smooth out the shifts...

And just take a look at some other piece of electronic equipment you've got around - say a radio or a camera or a TV or a ------ They still break and fail...