2002 Mazda MPV: transmission slipping

5 of the 124 complaints about the 2002 Mazda MPV describe transmission slipping.

owner complaints: 5
of this car's complaints: 4%
typical mileage: 91,000
recalls: 0

Is there a fix? 8 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below

Transmission slipping by model year

2004
1
2003
9
2002
5
1998
1
1991
3

What owners say

Filed Apr 4, 2011 · Transmission · 100,000 miles · WI

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 mazda mpv. The contact stated that the transmission had been slipping on and off for the past two years. The vehicle was taken to a mechanic who stated that the transmission needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was contacted and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 100,000 and the current mileage was 136,000.

Filed Aug 12, 2010 · Transmission · 91,000 miles · NC

2002 mazda mpv transmission kept slipping out of gear .

Filed Apr 15, 2007 · Transmission · 74,000 miles · WI

2002 mpv at about 7000 miles the transmission started to drop out suddenly. We drive a loton country roads and there is no shoulder to pull over on. We were very lucky not to get into an accident. This happend twice, then we took the van into the dealership. They could not find the problem, but changed the fluid. Driving home from the dealer, within 10 miles, the transmission started to slip again. At a stop light it failed completely, and we were unable to move. My wife was in the car with our two kids, stranded. Fortunately, I was about a mile ahead of her, and came back for her and the kids. The vechile ended up being towed back to the delership, and they are now replacing the transmission.

Filed Apr 5, 2007 · Transmission · 94,000 miles · NY

Transmission failure after 5 documented trips to dealer about transmission problems: - car bought 2/2002. - 8/6/02-10,816 - hesitation from start. Wife complaining of poor driving characteristics. Dealer couldn't verify anything, even that the cel was on. - 2/21/03 - 21,065 - rough downshifting. Wife thought tranny was slipping and kicking in. Dealer flashed tranny per tsb on the 3-2 downshift known problem. - 8/27/03 - 26,235 - poor shifting. Dealer said shift solenoid sticking. Flashed TCM again. (not sure what they did to correct solenoid) - 11/19/04 - 41,979 - tranny & torque converter flushed after complaining of poor driving again. Note: - contacted mazda corporate about the lack of transmission maintenance in owners manual. Mazda said there's no maintenance required! - 4/4/07 - 94,xxx - without warning, no accelerating, car simply stopped moving on the highway. Tranny was slipping bad and my wife was nearly killed pulling off the highway! Fluid level was ok, color was ok, but it smelled burnt. Car required towing. It was diagnosed with total transmission failure. I called mazda USA, who said the car is out of warranty and no assistance will be offered. I called the dealership where it was always serviced, and they said that they've never seen mazda support a car out of warranty like this. I complained to both about how this was a documented problem from new. If I was smart, I would have filed a lemon law complaint and gotten a full refund back then, but they just kept insisting it was a TCM program. I never imagined that the TCM would be able to cause the tranny to physically fail. Also, the fact that these trannies have internal, non-serviceable filters is just poor design. Lastly, honda has the same issue with their odessy, but they are covering the repairs in full! My friend had his tranny replaced at 88k miles! I'm exploring legal avenues of recourse.

Filed Feb 19, 2007 · Transmission · 83,000 miles · IN

At just over 80,000 miles the transmission on my mpv stopped shifting into higher gears. There was absolutely no warning except for a few times when the transmission seemed to feel like it was slipping, certainly no warning lights or messages showing it needed to be serviced.