[sinistriel]

I would take it to Mazda, none of that is normal behavior for the Skyactiv Drive family. Based on the symptoms you are describing you may be having a torque converter that is failing or a valve body issue that is not locking/unlocking the converter when it should. Is the noise a grind or more of a squawk sound?

 

[sinistriel]

Sorry to hear that others are having little success in diagnosing these poor shift behaviors. I like my dealer, but I doubt they would be any better. Unfortunate to think that the transmission is slowly destroying itself, but not fast enough to do so under warranty!

If any Mazda Skyactiv 6AT owners want to chime in, please do so. The more information we have, the better. This weekend hopefully I will remember to look at my AT dipstick.

Keep in mind Mazda FZ fluid discolors quickly and smells bad/slightly burned when brand new due to the specific friction additive package it comes with. If the fluid looks odd it may just be normal and not indicative of a problem.

 

[sinistriel]

Go to the dealer and tell them you are having a "delayed engagement". This is usually indicative of a pressure issue or a combination of solenoids not allowing the Low/Reverse Brake and the one way clutch to actually operate like it is supposed to. It could also be causing the slip felt on take off.

 

[sinistriel]

@sinistriel , I was waiting for you to chime-in again; you seem to have good ideas re A/T's. One of the prbs the OP faces (I believe) is the apparent intermittency of this behaviour. Will it misbehave on command?

There is clearly something wrong with the car this is not normal behavior. I get the frustration the OP is having. Many times a customer will bring us a transmission that just won't act up. We have a very strict policy that we won't recommend a repair until we've duplicated and diagnosed it. From a shops perspective it's frustrating when it doesn't duplicate, it's wasted everyone's time.

The first step in diagnosing the issue is making sure the fluid is at the correct level. Being over/under filled will cause issues like this. The next thing you'll want to watch is solenoid action vs commanded. Often times you'll want to hook up pressure gauges to make sure the correct pressure is going through the appropriate spots in the transmission. I doubt it's a software issue, it might have learned something but is more likely a mechanical issue.

 

[sinistriel]

@sinistriel , can you provide some guidance to Ben re how his SkyActiv-AT can be instrumented? You recently rebuilt one, correct? Are there external on the transaxle case pressure tap ports, or is a special trans pan with through-passing tubing sections necessary to "tap" into the valve body? I think the first thing he ought to do, is of course, a level check...but without any obvious fluid leakage (?), the probability of a factory fill muff-up is low...?

His best bet is to take it to the dealer or a good independent transmission shop that is familiar with the Skyactiv drive family. I've been in multiple Skyactiv units both for repair and R&D purposes. There is one pressure port on the outside that you can measure line pressure with, there are no provisions on the valve body for independent circuit testing, all the air checks are done with the valve body removed. We've seen multiple transmissions from multiple OEMs come in low on fluid from the factory, it's the first thing to verify on any inspection.

 

[sinistriel]

It's definitely not a widespread issue, just my suspicions of knowing how they operate. These units are very good and have a really good track record when put up against many other units from other manufacturers