I have a 1987 NA and I think my transmission bearings have gone bad. My symptoms match these(Take from Mazdatrix Trans/Diff trouble shooting page.):

Bearing or gear noise in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th but gone or very less in 4th.
It says this is the solution is:
Bearings are worn out. Rebuild or replace transmission.

I plan on doing a tranny rebuild, or just swaping it for another tranny I have laying around when I get back... (This will be the third tranny drop I've had to do on this car! ARGH!)

So... my questions is, how long do you think the car will operate with this problem? I am currently about 200 mostly freeway miles from home, and want to know if you think the car will make it...
-Ryan

 

Sounds like you need to look at your tranny lube levels and tha type of gear oil you are using if you keep burning through them.

And as far as it lasting, I guess it will just get louder and louder or shear a shifter fork when they fail... could be a year, could be a couple of days. Only you know how loud it is

 

I had this exact same problem just recently on my new 'vert. The previous owners didn't pay attention to the transmission fluid. I put about 500 miles on it so far with the last 50 miles of it where the bearing got very loud in neutral without me pressing on the clutch pedal.

I went out and bought some Redline MT90 and this stuff is like magic! I drained the transmission and found out there was less than a quart of oil and it was brownish black. With the new MT90 gear oil, there is still a slight whirring when the transmission is still cold but its more quiet. After 15-20 minutes of driving, the whirring sound almost goes away.

Not that the Redline MT90 will completely save your transmission but it will certainly allow a temporary fix and somewhat extend the life of the transmission until you get another one or have it rebuilt. I've read anywhere from 5K-20K miles before the transmission just locks up.

 

I bought my car in SoCal, and had the same problem. I too used Redline heavy gear lube, and drove the car 1400 miles back to Washington perfectly fine. Mind you I was real easy on first thru third gears, and cruised alot in 4th gear which sounded almost 100% perfect at that time.

 

Thanks a ton guys,
Sounds like it will be OK for the trip. I hope so anyway. I'll try to stay in 4th as much as possible since there is no noise there yet.
I haven't burned through 3 trannys... just dropped the tranny twice before to replace clutch components. First time was just the first clutch switch... second time was because the tranny went bad, probably due to previous owners abuse.. (had 100something miles on it.) :-P
I use royal purple synchromest in my trannys, haven't noticed any gear oil dripping, but I havent checked it in a while.
Thanks again!