2002 Mazda MPV: stuck in gear or won't shift

Filed Aug 23, 2012 · Transmission · 87,600 miles · NH

Driving on highway with my family when my mpv wouldn't shift so I could pass a truck. Then it started to lose speed. Would depress gas pedal and the engine would rev but no speed. Had to pull over to breakdown lane which became a very dangerous situation. We are lucky we didn't cause an accident. Mpv would not work in drive, reverse, 3 or 2 gears. We were stranded on the highway and had to be towed back home. Diagnosis: transmission gone. This is a common problem with the mpv and should be addressed. Have had shift problems in the past where dealer just resets the codes. I won't have it fixed. I have lost confidence in this manufacturer.

Filed Oct 22, 2010 · Transmission · 91,650 miles · CA

I was driving my 2002 mazda mpv minivan with 91,000 miles on it on the freeway and when I tried to accelerate, it would not shift into higher gear. It seemed to go into neutral and I began loosing speed. I have done all maintenance as was suggested in the handbook by mazda. In fact, mazda has done all of the maintenance. This was incredibly dangerous as there were no warning signs. I was told by mazda that it needed a new transmission and mazda refused to accept any responsibility for this even though it is a known issue with this model and year.

Filed May 15, 2010 · Transmission · 67,000 miles · CO

Complete transmission failure at 67,000 miles in our 2002 mazda mpv2. All routine maintenance had been performed. I was driving on the highway (thankfully close to home) at the start of rush hour and was unable to maintain 40mph - the car would not shift down, the revs increased, but I had no acceleration. I was able to get most of the way home before the transmission started audibly whining and came to a complete stop. My 10 year old and I pushed it into the side of the road. We had the car towed to the local transmission shop who said we would need the transmission replaced. Mazda would not consider any out-of-warranty help unless we had the vehicle towed to a mazda dealership (at a cost of $100 for us) and diagnosed there (another $100). Having done this, they said no help would be made available. They said this was at the discretion of the area service manager, but refused to give his contact details so we could not discuss this with him. We have researched this problem on this website, looking at problems listed under automatic transmission. The numbers of complete transmission failures needing replacement are as follows for the specific years: 2000 = 1 probable failure; 2001 = 1 probable failure; 2002 = 40 complete failures; 2003 = 1 failure; 2004 = 2 failures; 2005 = 0 failures; 2006 = 0 failures. It seems clear to us that there is a problem with the 2002 mazda mpv transmission. People should realize that mazda are not standing behind their product when there is an obvious problem like this. What will it take to get mazda to accept some responsibility? It looks like this will cost nearly $4000 to fix. I don't think we'll be buying another mazda ..ever.

Filed Oct 13, 2007 · Transmission · 60,000 miles · GA

I was driving my 2002 mpv es with 60,000 miles on it when it suddenly would not go into drive(auto trans). I tried putting it in 2 and 3 with the same results. I paid $780 a week ago at the dealership to replace coils 1, 2 ,3 and now this!

Filed Aug 24, 2007 · Transmission · 46,109 miles · WA

The transmission was shifting rough so we had the car in to the dealership. The dealership flushed the transmission fluid and reprogrammed it. After the service the transmission started flaring and less than 100 miles later wouldn't shift to overdrive. I was on the freeway, so exited and at the second stop-light the car would not shift into gear at all. I had to push it off a 4-lane road and have it towed back to the dealership. The dealership reported the transmission had failed completely and required replacement.