Sifter problems:(
 

Ok so I go to the drag strip today and on top of running stupid bad runs missing third gear all but two of the times I run, the reverse lock out on my shifter stops working. It is extremely hard to press down and it wont spring back up once it is pressed down, you have to pull up on it.

Any thoughts? I took it apart and the spring doesn't apear to be broken and I can't really tell that anything is wrong just by looking at it.

Also, on a side note, today was the first time I have ever missed third gear since I've owned the car...

hmmmmmm r u telling the truth? i've missed 3rd like a million times before i had a STS.

Yeah. Never missed 3rd before. Even took it to the drag strip a couple weeks ago and had absolutely no problems. The only thing that has changed is I put a corksport racepipe and motor mount inserts on since the last time I was on the drag strip.

stock shifter?

Yes it is the stock shifter.

And it didn't fix itself over night like I had hoped:(

^^^ Took care of that...

Taking my car to dallas on friday since it is covered under warranty.

You probably took something apart and put it back together with something flipped the wrong way. That's usually the explanation for parts with springs involved where everything looks ok, but doesn't work ok.

I've never taken the shifter apart. The first time I've ever taken the center console apart was sunday when I noticed something wrong with the shifter and even then I didn't take the shifter assembly apart, just looked at it.

stop ffs'ing. my 3rd gear synchro is toast because of ffs. Also I had this problem after running some back roads with a group of guys. Still havent fixed it since I cant duplicate it on the stock slow shifter.

open palm shifting will help you from missing 3rd too.

you can try tuning the shifter, its possible i suppose that you moved the shifter hard enough to through it out of position.

check the linkage to the transmission and make sure it did not pop off the black plastic guide

Re: Sifter problems:(
 

So what's the problem with your sifter, is it not fine enough? Is it clumping? Does the flour not come out the other side when you sift?

Never flat foot shifted before...

The problem is:
When you push down on the shifter to get past the reverse lock out in order to put the car in reverse, the shifter will not go down. It takes a lot of force to get it to drop down low enough for the little guide to get past the reverse lock out. When done reversing, I have to pull it out of reverse then pull up on the shifter to put it in first. If I don't pull up on it it will just go back into reverse instead of first.

Other than that, it shifts fine minus a little roughness and some scraping sounds that I haven't noticed before.

I have checked the linkage and everything appears to be fine.

I drove the 2 hrs. last friday to the nearest Mazdaspeed dealer to have them take 10min to tell me it was broke and to come back next week when the parts come in. It is covered under warranty