My car is a S5. When I'm driving fast I cannot shift from 2nd to third for the life of me. No matter how hard i try it goes right into 5th.

In other words thrid gear is very close to fifth gear and very far away from 1st.

I'm thinking I need new bushings? And if i do do i need both the lower and upper set or just the upper?

 

I had the same problem and changed the shifter bushings. Now my shifter is great. Most people will just tell you to buy the Miata short shifter from Mazdatrix. This will solve your problem and make the car a lot more fun to shift.

Atkins Rotary has a bushing kit which comes with the upper and lower bushing, as well as the gasket that goes between the shifter and tranny. Here is the link:

http://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/pr...cat=437&page=1

 

Shifter bushing will help a crap load if there worn out or well not even there anymore. This happen to my dad and once we put new bushings in shifting was so00o muc better.

 

how do you replace the bushings anyways? Do you have to drop out the tranny?

 

its very easy, there's even a read up on mazdatrix website. it consist of two plastic piece and it sits right under the shifter and no u dont need to drop the tranny Takes about 15 mins at the most.

 

It's basically a plastic guide for the stick/shifter-lever. It's right on top. There are notches so the stick can only go where it's supposed to. Simple. I think you could do the whole job while sitting in the driver's seat.

 

ok i just swapped a shifter/upperbushings from my 1st gen 85 rx7 (parts car) and now it shifts great. problem solved

So 1st gens and 2nd gen shifters are interchangeable, I didn't know that.