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Mazda Tribute Transmission Problems
I'll give you a little history on my Tribute experience. In March 2005 I purchased my brand new Mazda Tribute. Like many others I felt like I got a lot of car for the $, now I know why. I drove my Tribute off the showroom floor with 4 miles on the odometer. Two days later I had to return the vehicle to the dealer because the transmission was junk. After experiencing the worst experience possible with the dealership, I contacted Mazda Corporate. The Consumer Compliance Specialist that was assigned to my account was wonderful and supplied me with a vehicle buy back. I had my NEW Tribute delivered within a few days and said good riddens to my other one. My NEW Tribute now has 45,000 miles on it, and once again the transmission is starting to go out. I took it to the dealership and they advised the vehicle has some serious issues, but they couldn't pinpoint the problem. They had requested that I leave it with them so they could run a diagnostic online with Mazda Corp. technical service. I just got the call today from a differenct Consumer Compliant Specialist and he advised this is a characteristic of the Tribute. Keep in mind, my car is almost out of warranty. After disputing with the dealership, they advised their hands are tied by Mazda Corp., meaning they won't fix it under warranty. To say it like it is, Mazda is waiting for my warranty to run out so they won't have to fix it. When I replied back to the Consumer Compliant Specialist that the dealership advised this was abnormal and a serious defect he replied back that it doesn't matter they call the shots, and this is what he decided. He also noted that he has to do everything in his power to lower the cost of warrant repairs for Mazda. On top of this, he advised the dealer would make a note on the ticket stating, "if the transmission fails while the car is out of warranty they would possibly fix the problem". After talking to a lawyer friend of mine, this statement would not hold up in court. After confronting the Specialist on his comment he laughed and said too bad. I will never buy a Mazda ever!!! I soon will be paying approx. $3000 for a new transmission.
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I found out that Mazda does not sell replacement parts to rebuild a transmission, in order to rebuild existing one they have to use aftermarket parts, which I am hopping are better than Mazda’s so I don't have to worry about this happening again before I am ready to buy a new car.
I was very pleased with my purchase until it crossed over the warranty miles and suddenly it seemed like everything started to fall apart, it is almost as if them SOBs made them with a 5 year life expectancy. :lemon:
Thanks
About 6 months later the fuel sensor light went on. Faulty, got replaced.
A few other minor items replaced through warranty in the next few months, sensors, four wheel drive stuff, free, but a pain in the butt. I did always have a free rental, though.
Then right around 25K miles when I accelerated going 60mph or more, the engine would just rev and no gear would catch. Well, we got a new transmission, which they say was rebuilt, because they couldn't get new(??whatever - man-talk). I had it in for this four times until the service guy finally went on the highway with me and then he saw.
I still have the ole girl, she's topping 120K. She is still cute and since the design hasn't really changed too much, doesn't look old and dated.
She will have her belts, hoses and fluids changed in the next couple of weeks.
I have been using synthetic blend oil since 50K miles.
I retrieved my Tribute this weekend when some family borrowed it to go on a road trip. I've only got 60,000 miles on the car, so it seemed like a reliable car for the trip. While they were driving on the freeway, the engine revved a little. The driver turned off the cruise control and the car started slowing down. When he hit the gas to get the car going again, the car had no power. With the car in drive, the engine revs, but doesn't move. Tried the same thing in reverse.
When the tow-truck pulled the Tribute into the out of town dealer, the dealer looked at it and said that there was some metallic noise in the transmission and they'd need to take the transmission out to diagnose the problem ($600 to pull it out and put it back in). They also noted that the transmission fluid was very high - looked like it had been overfilled. Instead of having the out of town dealer do the work, I hauled the Tribute home on a trailer.
When I took it to a local transmission shop, they said that most likely the "pump shaft" was broken in the transmission. The high transmission fluid level was one of indicators they used to diagnose the problem because when the engine turned on, the transmission fluid wasn't getting pulled down into the transmission. The guys at the shop were also surprised by the transmission used in the Tribute. I think they said it was the same transmission as the one in the Explorer?
At the end of the day, the transmission shop said they needed to rebuild or replace the transmission. The bill was $2300 minimum to rebuild the transmission. If they put a new transmission in, the bill is closer to $5000 or $6000. Depending on what's broken when they pull the transmission apart, I'll need to pay for additional parts in the transmission.
For a car that I bought new and had all the regular service done, 60,000 miles is an absurdly low number to lose the transmission. The transmission work is starting today. I'm way out of warranty and haven't been impressed with the dealer service here locally. Any other options? Anybody else have a similar problem? I saw one post that almost looked similar, but there weren't enough details to know if the problem was the same.
Is it just me, or should a 2004 vehicle with only 87,000 NOT be brought into a shop to get a new transmission?!
Soooooooo just out of curiosity..... can we sue?? Does it not seem like there should have been a recall?? Can we do ANYTHING? Can we contact head office?? Anything?? This just seems like it's WAY too common to go unmentioned!
My Tribute has 58 K on it and I had the same thing happen to me on New Year's Eve. Here's the kicker.....Out of warranty and 3 months left on my lease. The repair guy said the Ford transmission is at fault....
Thank you :confuse:
Thanks,
Single female in Ohio looking for honest answers.
I have been reading a lot of stuff on transmission problems with the Tributes for various years, but I havn't found anything for the 2008 Tribute. I noticed that maybe 3 months after I bought mine brand new there was a little bit of jerking of the vehicle when I would stop and then contine driving for about a minute, then it would go back to normal. Of course by the time I made the appointments with the dealership, this jerking would stop and they couldn't detect the problem! Problem is, it has happened 3 more times this past year and I was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem?
After reading numberous posts about having trouble shortly having tranny service done, and reading the above post, it seems painfully obvious to me that many "expert transmission" places that employ minimum wage employees and demand fast work are contributing to the demise of Tribute trannys. I'm going to have my newly bought 100K mile Tribute serviced soon, and plan to pass on the above quoted advice to my servicer. Am I overlooking something obvious, or being too dismissive in mazda's treatment of tranny problem?
p.s.- has anyone else noticed how wrong the estimated labor cost is for changing plugs on a V6 Tribute engine? the estimate I looked at on edmunds said $30 labor.
This third transmission (rebuilt) cost me $3,200.00 to have it installed. I shopped around to get the best price. I called Kennedy transmission and they wanted between $2,800.00 and $3,500.00 to have the transmission tore apart and fixed with second party parts. I figured they would've charged me the max, $3,500.00.
I decided to have Polar do the work, because I had a $300.00 coupon from Mazda. We got the coupon because of the problems we were having with my wife's 2004 Mazda 6 which was about to go off warranty with only 16,000 miles on it. Yes we were stupid enough to buy two Mazda's! I believed the good reviews at the time we bought the vehicles. The total price of their transmission (rebuilt) was $3,500.00 - $300.00 = $3,200.00. They also told me (over the phone) their warranty was 3 years or 100,000 miles, which sold me on having Polar do the work. Kennedy's warranty was two years.
When I picked up the Tribute I asked the manager about the warranty. He said it was a one year warranty. Another manager agreed with him about the one year warranty. I told them they lied to me and I was going to call Mazda about the situation. When I got home the manager from Polar called me and said the parts dept. got a bulletin and the warranty was a three year warranty. God manager huh! You would think he would get all the bulletins and read them.
I would never buy another Mazda again. We have had many problems with both our vehicles, too many to mention. One day when we were at the dealership a girl brought her Mazda 6 in and the transmission was going out. I suppose it's the same trany as the Tribute with the V6. It's a Ford engine and transmission.
My advice to everyone who reads this, stay away from Mazda. The next vehicle I buy will be a Toyota.