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Thread: What annoys you about your car?

  1. #81

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    The engine mount will improve the shift - synthetic oil will improve the shift - solid shifter mounts and a short shifter will improve the shift. But nothing will completely fix it. The problem with the shift is a function of its design. It includes triple syncros and each one slows the shift. Three is just too many in a high performance car. A racing gearbox typically has no synchromesh because they don't mind the crunching sound that accompanies each gear change and they want nothing getting in the way of a fast gear change. Another design issue for the MPS is the sheathed cable operated linkage. This is a seriously compromised approach which introduces a whole range of operating flaws and its the reason why no two MPS's feel the same on the gear stick. Simply moving the shifter cable aside temporarily during a service activity can change the feel of your shifter forever such their fickle nature. Put these two design issues together and you will never achieve a reliable and satisfying high-quality shift.

    Unfortunately the only way those of us with a horrible shifter can fix it is to install a dog box with a rose-jointed rod linkage. But they don't exist in the MPS world.
    Last edited by kmh001; 18-07-2010 at 12:30 PM.

    Gone to Volvo


  2. #82

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    KMH001, Reckon you must've got a crook one. I've never had a complaint with mine, love it in fact, and have even jiggled the linkages around a bit while tinkering in that area with no adverse effects. I don't normally reef it fast through the gears anyway, except circuit days might be a bit more urgent, and even then I still haven't found it wanting. But the car picks up so fast that I never stress over trying for fast gear shifts; most of the time when I've blasted past someone in a passing manoeuver, I'm often trying to wash speed off pretty soon anyway, before I run out of road or passing lane, not try for more velocity in a higher gear, unless I've started my run in 2nd, perhaps. I find it similar to my old Ghibli actually. That had a monstrous truck-like gearbox (nice and authoritative but bloody heavy and slow), but such was the blast in each gear (from the 4.7 quad cam V8 and 4 twin-choke Webers) that it was like being on the end of a huge bungee cord and I used to enjoy the slow shifts, as did the passengers, when they felt the temporary hesitation in the shift before being rammed back in their seats again. I don't think the MPS were ever intended to be DSG-like in their shift speed, and I'm sure the triple synchro is protecting the boxes against any attempts by racers to make it so. Way back when I came on this forum, I said I didn't think the MPS (3 or 6) were drag light cars but more GT types, as in high-performance 4-door touring. I'd say almost every car I have driven has not had such a pleasant shift as this car, with perhaps a few exceptions which pretty much elude me right now - but I think maybe the Alfa 1570 Berlina, my Renault 25 GT and the lovely ZF box in my old Quattroporte, though it had to be warm before it would accept 2nd gear happily. Once warm it was like a switch. But the rest of the manual cars I've had aren't a patch on the MPS shift-wise. As for Holden and Ford boxes........
    CP_e Standback & PNP; CP_e 3" SS Downpipe; Corksport FMIC with Top-mount K&N filter & OEM Ram CAI; Turbosmart BOV; Dashhawk; Prosport Boost Guage; JBR solid shift bushes; DBA 4000 Wiper-Slot front rotors; Hawk Ferro-Carbon HPS Street front brake pads (@ 69,000km); Sumitomo HTRZIII's in 225/45 x 18

  3. Default

    Im with you Doug

  4. #84
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    I also agree with Doug. Through my job I've been lucky enough to drive literally 100s of different cars, and the mps gearboxes I don't believe deserve any major criticism. Unless there is an issue with it, or you are trying to do something it's not designed to do.
    I have to say that the 3 box is better than the 6. Dad even made that comment to me last week after he borrowed my car.


    1 other thing I don't like about my car I forgot to mention before is the clunky front end that I can't work out what's causing it.
    Don't want to go throwing money at theoretical solutions

  5. #85

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    Not just mine Doug, all of the MPS's I've driven are the same and every one I haven't driven is going to be the same. It's a design issue. Triple syncros and a cable means a crap shift, in any car.

    It's good for you that you don't mind the painfully slow shift, but anyone who likes a slick gear shift, and that includes me and a few others here, is gonna hate the MPS. And I have to disagree about the Holden and Ford gearboxes. I've driven and raced with Muncies, Toploaders, M21s, Super T10's and never disliked the shift as much as I dislike the MPS, primarily because none of those boxes used a cable to translate my intentions to the selector.

    Gone to Volvo


  6. #86

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    Hi KMH, Problem is, most front-mounted and FWD transverse engines are going to have cable shifts, ever since the Austin 1800, which, BTW, were quite nice shifts, or multi-link rod shifts. Inevitably, there will some loss of direct "feel". Ditto the old rear-engined RWD VW Beetle, where despite the fact that engine couldn't be further from the shift lever if it tried, and by cable and rod, the shift nonetheless was always regarded as having a good feel to it. Looking at the MPS setup, I'm amazed it feels as good as it does, especially retaining such lightness for a short lever. Bad boxes and shifts are often disguised by having a longer shift lever so you can heave them into place with least felt effort.

    With inline engines, and especially those with RWD, then the gearbox, including those you refer to, is directly under the driver's hand, so a direct link between hand and selector is far more readily achieved, viz Mazda MX5 and my Quattroporte's ZF. Soooo, whimsically speaking, I guess it's a bit unfair to blame the Mazda gearbox, but rather to blame your choice of car if the type of "feel" you are after is not one that is capable of being engineered into that engine and transmission configuration ;-)

    But "painfully slow" is certainly not how I would describe the Mazda's shift. I can pull mine through as fast as anyone would ever want under duress, but 90% of the time I choose to let the shift feel itself through; consequently, I don't find myself killing my synchro early, nor ever, in fact, but I know folks who go through gear-box synchro rings like Weeties, regardless of what they drive. I think that is saying something. And I still maintain that the heavy synchro is a defensive design move to protect the transmission from folks trying to feed what has until recently been an almost unprecedented amount of power in the lower gears through what is otherwise a pretty stock passenger car design - else why would MPS3's have been fitted with e-torque management?

    And indeed, why did we all buy MPS's, but for that ~400nm torque? Cheers :-)
    Last edited by Doug_MPS6; 19-07-2010 at 11:47 AM.
    CP_e Standback & PNP; CP_e 3" SS Downpipe; Corksport FMIC with Top-mount K&N filter & OEM Ram CAI; Turbosmart BOV; Dashhawk; Prosport Boost Guage; JBR solid shift bushes; DBA 4000 Wiper-Slot front rotors; Hawk Ferro-Carbon HPS Street front brake pads (@ 69,000km); Sumitomo HTRZIII's in 225/45 x 18

  7. #87

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    I thought the gearbox in a fairly new car would be fantastic.It is sometimes hard to get it into 1st and2nd gear crunches a bit if dont hold the clutch in for longer even at nanna acceleration .my 92 Astina SP doesnt miss a beat as far as the Gearbox is concerned. Is there anything that can be done about the box or do just have to put up with it

  8. #88
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    Quote Originally Posted by gensei View Post
    I thought the gearbox in a fairly new car would be fantastic.It is sometimes hard to get it into 1st and2nd gear crunches a bit if dont hold the clutch in for longer even at nanna acceleration .my 92 Astina SP doesnt miss a beat as far as the Gearbox is concerned. Is there anything that can be done about the box or do just have to put up with it
    rear engine mount and/or short shifter...
    that's about all i've seen... apparently a new engine mount will make a huge difference...
    Newbie FAQ My Build Thread
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  9. #89

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    Crunching sounds to me like there is an adjustment needed in either shift linkage or clutch throw-out. I doubt very much that it's in the box itself. Did you check with Mazda? If it's doing this straight out of the show-room, then I'd be back to them pronto.

  10. #90
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    Wasn't that long ago that putting 400nm of torque through a FWD or AWD gearbox was just asking for problems.

    It seems that on a whole MPS gearboxes are quite reliable.
    I guess having I slightly slow and notchy gearbox is the sacrifice we have to make

  11. #91

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    Wasn't that long ago that 400nm was only the domain of cars like my old Maserati which had a quad cam V8 pulling it along. But peering into the 8 downdraft Webers, at idle, reminded one of watching 8 little boys peeing into the engine, and the fuel guage was a de facto speedometer. The MPS6 is turning out more Kw and more torque than that car was, from half the capacity, and with half the fuel burn. That was a wonderful car for its time but yep, they don't make cars like they used to.....they make 'em better.
    CP_e Standback & PNP; CP_e 3" SS Downpipe; Corksport FMIC with Top-mount K&N filter & OEM Ram CAI; Turbosmart BOV; Dashhawk; Prosport Boost Guage; JBR solid shift bushes; DBA 4000 Wiper-Slot front rotors; Hawk Ferro-Carbon HPS Street front brake pads (@ 69,000km); Sumitomo HTRZIII's in 225/45 x 18

  12. #92

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    I guess we'll have to agree to disagree Doug. This thread is about what annoys you about your, so I commented on the crap gear shift because it annoys me. But my criticism is not confined to the MPS; every car that has triple synchros annoys me because it's two too many. And every car that uses a cable shift annoys me in the same way that every aircraft I fly that uses a sheathed cable to operate the flight controls annoys me. I'm a driving enthusiast and I'm very attuned to a car when I'm driving it. I feel what's happening around me mechanically and I'll notice and be disappointed when a manufacturer uses cheap engineering which detracts from the driving (or flying) experience. Subaru guys are fortunate that there are aftermarket solutions to both these design issues. We're not so fortunate. But I do wish Mazda had chosen to engineer a better gear shift. It's entirely feasible for them to have do so.

    Gone to Volvo


  13. #93

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    I gotta agree with the crap gearbox the MPS 3 has. It's a bucket of bolts, clunky, and takes a lot of effort to shift the gears smoothly.

    I get that hesitation mentioned in this thread in 2nd and 3rd gears as well. It occurs during medium acceleration, not noticeable with soft or hard acceleration.

  14. #94

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    Hi KMH, sure, I can live with that. I doubt I am any less of an enthusiast, in both aviation and automotive pursuits, and pretty anal about imperfections too, even perceived ones. I've been driving serious performance cars since I was 15 (NZ licencing age). But perception is often reality. I accept that there is a lot of travel in the shift linkage, more across the gate than forward and back, but I was pondering about this today as I was driving back from a meeting, so I started measuring my shift times, as in normal un-pressed driving. Even what I consider quite unhurried shifts are completed in 1 second, clutch out to clutch out, both up and down shifting. 1st - 2nd maybe 1.25s but the rest are quicker. I haven't tried timing fast shifts but figure I could reduce that time by 30% at least, to 0.7 seconds with little effort. It's not a GTR shifting in 0.2 seconds in "R" mode with its DSG gearbox (Nissan brochure figure), but no manual shift ever will be. As I implied earlier, I reckon its pretty good considering what we are working with. I also conclude that the limitation in fact tends not to be the shift but the clutch, not because there is a problem with it but because a certain time is taken to operate it smoothly. If you don't care about smoothness, then you can change faster. But I detest clutch jerk and view it as ineptitude or mechanical bastardry. In fact I find the MPS short sharp clutch and short ratio spacings ideal for fast smooth changes. Oh well, horses for courses, I suppose. Chs :-)
    Last edited by Doug_MPS6; 20-07-2010 at 05:43 PM.
    CP_e Standback & PNP; CP_e 3" SS Downpipe; Corksport FMIC with Top-mount K&N filter & OEM Ram CAI; Turbosmart BOV; Dashhawk; Prosport Boost Guage; JBR solid shift bushes; DBA 4000 Wiper-Slot front rotors; Hawk Ferro-Carbon HPS Street front brake pads (@ 69,000km); Sumitomo HTRZIII's in 225/45 x 18

  15. #95

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    1) 3rd gear crunches. damn frustrating when doin fast shifts. extremely embarrasing too.

    2) Floor Mats now have 3 holes in them. Unacceptable for a car that is less than 1 year old!

    3) Temperamental AUTO lights, esp if your parked ur car in a dark place and ur driving out in daylight.

    4) Dash clunks

    5) Off smell from Vents after u turn off air con.
    Last edited by SlowMPS; 20-07-2010 at 07:05 PM.

  16. #96

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    ummm...the clutch on the MPS 6...

  17. #97

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    What about it? Mine's stock 2005 and it's fine. Great actually - I love it. I've always liked short sharp clutches. But maybe I'm strange....

    I figure too many people have been "softened" by current trends, usually designed to suit the inept who, let's face it, are in the majority. That's why we see so many automatics on the road now. Many are excellent, technically, but the trend, along with urbanization generally, has resulted in a genre of largely lazy drivers who lack any driving and throttle finesse.

  18. #98
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    Totally agree with you Doug.
    People have it too easy these days. Some should drive a few older cars and see how far cars have come.
    The legendary (and over rated) phase 3 GTHO was once one of the fastest cars you could buy, and most desirable. Today, they would get blown away by a basic falcon, gtr xu1 torana, also once a frightningly quick car, today a Mazda 2 would out run one.


    All this talk about bad gearboxes has made me pay more attention to mine. Still, 1 degree in the morning and I can change gears with 2 fingers.
    Curious to drive one with a so called bad gearbox.
    Maybe I don't have a problem with mine because I have a bit more mechanical sympathy and don't try changing gears super fast.
    Last edited by bd581; 21-07-2010 at 04:07 PM. Reason: Double post

  19. #99
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    It annoys me because shes sooo damn sexy i can never concentrate when shes around......she is always looking at me with those flirty eyes.....i just cant ignore her, im always looking out of my works window just to make sure she isnt cheating on me, it would be the end of me if she ever found someone else...I get annoyed at work because all i ever want to do is be inside her, driving her all day and all night............


    Take that as you will....

  20. #100

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    I'll take it. Love it, in fact!

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